Andy Levin — CNN: Rep. Andy Levin Discusses Iran

Speaker 1: And let's go now to Democratic Congressman Andy Levin, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman, I appreciate your time. So from what you have been told, are you clear on what happened here or not

You know, Aaron

Speaker 2: I haven't got a classified briefing on it yet. So some of the details I'm not clear about, especially like what, whose airspace it was in and so

Speaker 3: forth. So we're waiting for those details. So I

Speaker 4: want to play what the president said today about who's responsible. Part of this I played, and I want to add a little bit more

of what the

Speaker 4: the president said, here he is

I think they made

Speaker 5: a mistake. And I'm not just talking about the country made a mistake. I think that somebody under the command of that country

Speaker 6: made

Speaker 7: a big mistake. -Are you saying you think it wasn't intentional to strike

the

Speaker 6: ground? -I don't know. I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth. I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it. We'll

be able

Speaker 6: to report back, and you'll understand exactly what happened

Speaker 8: But it was a very foolish move. That I can tell

you. It's

Speaker 1: interesting, Congressman, you know, there he's-- he's-- sounds like he's trying to

act like

Speaker 1: well, if it was someone, you know, low down or a mistake, maybe I don't need to, uh, gear up about it. Right, right. But it's clear from, you know, what

Speaker 4: how Iran's responding with the coordinates, with the foreign minister, with the head of the Revolutionary Guards, with a video, with a video where they're clearly celebrating and not saying, "Oh, no

Speaker 9: It is clear that this was not a mistake. So... Why do you think he's responding that

way? You

Speaker 2: know, Aaron, I don't know why the president's responding that way. I hope he's trying to, you know, leave room to walk back the steady escalation that the United States has engaged in. But we need to... Look at Iran from first principles Iran talks like this all the time. It's a very proud country I don't think that they're gonna back down easily. We need to stop escalating and We need to have a sober and serious serious foreign policy here and not just go from crisis to crisis So the president does not have authorization from the United States Congress to go to war with Iran I've introduced a bill, the AUMF Clarification Act to make that perfectly clear, but our caucus is united in the observation that if the president wants to start a war with Iran he'd have to come to us, the article one body, and ask for permission for that. So we need to look at what have

we gotten

Speaker 2: out of this president's foreign policy. He withdrew from the nuclear agreement that was working according to the intelligence of our country, the intelligence of Israel, and so forth. What have we gotten for that? Nothing. And this kind of steady ratcheting up that we see from Mr. Bolton and Mr. Pompeo has got to stop. and we need to have a more sober foreign policy here

Speaker 10: So what happens at this point, though

Speaker 11: Because, you know, the news right now is that the U.S. military is responding. And I want to be clear here, right, Iran says that the drone was in Iranian airspace, and the foreign minister

Speaker 4: Javad Zarif, treated his timeline today, right? He said the drone took off from the UAE in stealth mode. violated airspace, and he put out the exact coordinates, OK? As you heard, Fred, those coordinates would be in Iranian territory. He put out a map. But now the Pentagon, just moments ago-- now, they have taken all day to do this, and I sort of have wondered why, because they were quick to give coordinates, and the US did not. But now they have just put them out for the

Speaker 11: first time. And theirs, of course, put it at 17 nautical miles from Iran's shoreline in international waters as opposed to the nine miles in Iranian airspace As as they put our coordinates. So so so here's gonna be the big question

Are we gonna be able

Speaker 12: to prove where it was? How much is this gonna matter when it comes to the United States response

Speaker 13: Well, we cannot have Iran shooting down American drones. That's

Speaker 2: not acceptable

and

Speaker 2: So the question is, how do we respond to this, no matter, as you say, no matter where exactly it was? It was obviously very close to Iranian airspace or in Iranian airspace. I have a lot of confidence in our intelligence services, so when I get briefed properly, you know, then I'll feel like I know that

Speaker 14: But you trust them. When they put out the coordinates, putting it in international airspace, you would trust the Pentagon over the Iranian coordinates

I

Speaker 15: would want to get briefed directly about it

Speaker 2: because the, you know, the civilian leadership in the Pentagon and in the State Department have not always been factual with us, whereas the intelligence briefers have been. So we want to get that clear, but here's the main thing, let's talk about the United States relationship with Iran and how we should handle this. The American people do not want to go to war with Iran. What's the cause and effect here? How have we gotten to this point? We've gotten to this point because the U.S. withdrew from a treaty that all the other countries stayed in, all of our allies. We've been acting unilaterally. We've been... saber-rattling, escalating the rhetoric, and we need to be more responsible. And I hope the president's sort of rhetoric today is an indication that that's the direction he wants to go. All

Speaker 16: right, Congressman, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank

Speaker 2: you so much

Speaker 17: Aaron