LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Representative Adam Smith of Washington is a top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and he's joining us this morning to discuss the latest round of strikes and counterstrikes between Iran and the U.S. Good morning, Congressman. Welcome back to the program.
ADAM SMITH: Good morning. Thanks for having me on.
FADEL: So President Trump told ABC these latest strikes on Iran were a love tap, and he insists the ceasefire stands. Do you see it that way?
SMITH: Well, it's not a ceasefire, obviously. You know, ceasefire means you stop firing, and we haven't. And there's been flare-ups in a variety of different places. But the larger problem is that the negotiations are still so far apart. Iran basically is saying, pay us to open back up the strait. And that was not the objective on our side at the start of this war. We want, as you just cited the UAE asking for, Iran to stop their nuclear program, stop their ballistic missile program and stop supporting terrorists in the region. And Iran right now is refusing to even discuss that. So, you know, we - we're definitely in a weaker position. So that's the biggest problem right now.
FADEL: But we're hearing the president insist a deal is close with Iran, and they better agree or they'll feel a lot of pain. This is the type of language we're hearing. But that stated goal - that the rationale for starting this war was to eliminate Iran's nuclear capabilities, even though the U.S.'s own intelligence found Iran had not made the decision to pursue nuclear weapons - are there any indications the U.S. is succeeding in eliminating Iran's nuclear ambitions and its enriched uranium?
SMITH: Yeah, clearly not. And I think the biggest problem with that analysis is - like I said, is Iran does not seem to be willing to talk about this. Now, yes, we have heard from Trump over and over and over again. Heck, we've been hearing from Trump for nine years now that Iran is, quote, "begging to make a deal." The biggest thing we know is there's very little evidence of that actually being the case, No. 1. No. 2, we certainly know that President Trump is not above not being honest about that.
The only possibility, the thing that some experts will say, is that the pressure from our blockade will get Iran to change their mind. Right now, there's no clear evidence that that is happening. That's what Trump keeps saying, but I really want to emphasize this point. I mean, it was like three weeks ago that Trump declared that Iran had agreed to all of our demands, and within hours, it became clear that they had agreed to none of them. So one of the problems in this negotiation is President Trump keeps saying things that clearly turn out not to be true. That makes it hard to know where this is going.
FADEL: What about the bigger issue that this war is happening at all, given that the president did not consult Congress, let alone secure congressional approval, and lawmakers have so far been unable to pass any measure or use any tool to limit what is happening here, despite the fact that the polling shows that the majority of Americans are worried about this war and against it?
SMITH: Yeah. No, that's the major issue. The cost of this war has been devastating. In fact, I was just...
FADEL: But is this a new normal, that this is - that Congress can't do anything?
SMITH: Yeah. Let me walk through the most important part of this, which is the cost of this war. The New York Times has a good thing - good article this morning outlining the economic costs. We've seen the price of gasoline go over $4.50 a gallon here. It's had global economic impacts by shutting down, you know, the Middle East economy, and we have not achieved our - any sort of benefit towards that to date. And it's also worth noting that when this war started, Iran was weak and negotiating over that nuclear program. We've made no progress whatsoever. We have not degraded their nuclear program at all during the course of this war.
So yeah. As far as the new normal, I don't know if it's new. Every single president during my time has started some conflict without congressional approval. Well, I guess it is a little bit new normal in the sense that even George W. Bush came to Congress. Yes, I think Trump has taken it to a new level, as he has in all areas. Look, Trump has concentrated power and acted more like an authoritarian than like a democratically elected president of a constitutional republic. Under the Trump administration, yes, I think it is the new normal. And it's up to Congress and the country to work hard to rein him in, but crucially, after Trump, to make sure that this doesn't become the new normal, which I think there's a real risk of.
FADEL: Is Congress doing anything to investigate or document the way that the U.S. is prosecuting this war and concerns around whether the U.S. is committing war crimes? We - you think of the school that was attacked, where all these children were killed, and the many threats of bombing civilian infrastructure in Iran, which would be war crimes.
SMITH: Yeah. I am - as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, been pressing that issue. I pressed Secretary Hegseth on that issue last week when I asked him about the bombing of that girls' school, which we all know was a mistake by the U.S., and yet we will not admit it. That's another new normal that I think President Trump is putting in place. And Secretary Hegseth - we don't seem to care about civilian casualties. So right now, the Republican majority has not done their job. Hopefully, I'll become chairman, and we'll be able to do those investigations.
FADEL: Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. Thank you for your time.
SMITH: Thank you.
FADEL: We've renewed our invitations to officials in the Trump administration to join us for an interview. Those invitations remain open. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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