Democrats in Congress Fume as Iran Strike Briefing Is Abruptly Cancelled

A highly anticipated classified briefing for members of Congress on the United States’ surprise bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities was abruptly rescheduled on Tuesday morning, infuriating Democratic lawmakers and fueling suspicions that the White House is withholding critical information—including early assessments suggesting that the strikes may have only modestly delayed Iran’s nuclear program. The canceled session, originally set for midday, was to provide lawmakers their first detailed intelligence on the scope, results, and strategy behind President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize the use of bunker-buster bombs on three major nuclear sites over the weekend. The delay comes amid reports—first revealed by CNN—that a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment found the strikes did not collapse Iran’s underground facilities and set back the country’s nuclear timeline by only a few months. “What is the Administration so afraid of?” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement Tuesday. “Why won’t they engage with Congress on the critical details: the results of the recent strike, the scope and trajectory of this conflict, the Administration’s long-term strategy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and the potential risks facing American citizens and our service members?” That frustration was amplified by Trump’s own public behavior, including a vulgar diatribe in which he blamed both Iran and Israel for undermining a ceasefire he said he personally brokered. “I’m not happy with Iran, but I’m really not happy with Israel,” Trump told reporters. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f–k they’re doing.” The result was a day of visible disarray in Washington. As Trump vented on social media and to reporters, Democrats expressed alarm at his strategy. By day’s end, many were still seeking basic answers: Was the ceasefire truly in effect? Had the strikes achieved its intended goal? And why, after risking regional war, was the Administration refusing to provide them with answers? “We’re still waiting for a briefing on what the results of the strikes were,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, told TIME. “First I’d want to know whether there is a ceasefire. And second, my priority has always been stopping a nuclear-armed Iran, but we don’t know if the strikes did that.” Read more: Why Democrats Are Divided Over Trump’s Iran Strike Schumer suggested that briefing was rescheduled to Thursday so that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who are currently with Trump at a NATO conference at the Hague, could attend the briefing. “We need facts; we need real information,” Schumer told reporters. The Democratic pushback is also coalescing around efforts in both chambers to reassert congressional war powers. Senators Tim Kaine of Virginia, Adam Schiff of California, and Andy Kim of New Jersey are advancing a War Powers Resolution that would require Trump to seek congressional authorization for any further offensive action against Iran. The measure was narrowed this week to reassure colleagues that it would not inhibit American support for Israel’s defensive operations or intelligence sharing. “This just underscores the importance of Congress having a role—a decisive role—when it comes to issues of war and peace,” Schiff tells TIME. In the House, Representatives Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, are leading a similar resolution. While Khanna said they were “taking a wait-and-see approach” depending on whether the ceasefire holds, Massie was more blunt: “If a ceasefire holds, the resolution becomes a moot point,” he told reporters. But the ceasefire—hastily announced by Trump after Iran launched a largely symbolic barrage of missiles on a U.S. base in Qatar—appeared tenuous from the start. Within hours, Israel accused Iran of violating the truce by launching missiles at its territory, prompting Israeli airstrikes that reportedly killed a senior Iranian nuclear scientist. Iran denied any missile launch after the ceasefire began and condemned Israel’s pre-dawn attacks. Trump initially told reporters that both Israel and Iran had breached the truce and later took to social media to proclaim that “ISRAEL is not going to attack Iran.” “This is exactly why we need to be briefed,” Kaine told reporters. “People are watching the back-and-forth—is there a ceasefire, is this about regime change or a nuclear program? Are they on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon or not? And it’s kind of underlining how important it is to have a deliberative discussion before committing our sons and daughters to war.” Kaine’s War Powers Resolution, now scheduled for a Thursday vote in the Senate, has gained momentum in the wake of the briefing cancellation, though its fate remains uncertain. Kaine said he expects some Republican support but doesn’t yet know how many will break ranks. The larger question looming over Capitol Hill is one of credibility. Trump had declared that the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. But the preliminary classified assessment suggests that while three major sites sustained visible damage, the deeper infrastructure remains largely intact. “If there is truly peace and stability in the region, we’ll wait and see how much is really achieved,” Blumenthal says. “But we can’t just take that on faith.”