Duckworth on efforts to pass war powers resolution

Senator Duckworth, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. We have a little bit of time, so I want you to catch my audience up on the status of the war powers resolution that you're going to introduce and if you think there will be any more Republican converts to that this time than there were last time. [INAUDIBLE] but we're getting there. We're having more and more conversations with Republicans who really are becoming very upset with what is happening in the Gulf. From the very beginning, Donald Trump has proved that he never had a plan to get us out of this dangerous and costly quagmire. Gas prices are going through the roof. We now have a new ayatollah who is worse than the previous ayatollah. Now we're blockading the Strait of Hormuz. And so we're just going to keep doing this. There's at least 10 of us Democrats who have filed the same motion, and we're going to bring this up every single week, and we're going to hold them accountable and force them to vote. They can choose whether they're going to vote for America and Americans, or they're going to vote for Donald Trump's really, really horrible choice of a war.

Some Republicans have said they'd rather wait for the full 60 days to elapse before they decide whether or not to sign on to this. How do you evaluate that point of view? Well, that's a misreading of the statute, but we're going to be there and having another vote at the 60-day mark. So I look forward to having them join us at the 60-day mark, if that's the case. But if they grow a conscience before then, if they grow a backbone before then, they can join us tomorrow when my vote comes up. And let's say it passes, just theoretically, and it passes the House. The president vetoes it. So what happens? Well, we come right back at it again. But the key thing here is that we need to hold him accountable, and we're going to gum up the works with every tool we have at our disposal to have some accountability for this war. Listen, I talk to Illinoisans all the time. I talk to people all around this country, and they say the same thing. Gas prices are going through the roof. My life is not better. And why are we launching a war against Iran, and why are we talking about destroying entire civilizations when I can't pay my heating bill and the president has proposed to zero out the LIHEAP, the low-income heating program? So they want him to be the president for America first, which is what he promised to do. And instead, he's launched all of these military actions around the world. That's not making America better. When the president says, as he did today to the New York Post, there may be another round of negotiations sometime later this week in Islamabad between the United States and Iran, does that, in any way, change your point of view? It does not. It does not change my point of view because, again, he's a terrible negotiator. He calls himself the guy with the art of the deal, but, frankly, he's a horrible negotiator. One of the things that I'm concerned with is that we're going to end these negotiations with Iran being able to charge ships going through the Straits of Hormuz $1 million a ship, which was not something they were able to do in the first place. So he launches a war of his choice against Iran, and now we're negotiating with Iran. I mean, this is absolutely ludicrous. I cannot believe we have such an incompetent commander in chief who-- and by the way, we've lost 13 American lives and over 300 Americans are wounded. I think that number is now closer to 400 wounded. And gas prices again going through the roof. This is not making America's lives any better. And he needs to end this war. He needs to be held accountable, and that's what we're doing with these war powers resolutions. Every week, we're going to bring this up for a vote. Illinois Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, appreciate it. Thanks so much.