White House counselor Kellyanne Conway defended President Trump’s threat to destroy Iranian cultural sites in the aftermath of the strike that killed top Iranian military official Qasem Soleimani while speaking to reporters Monday.
According to a White House pool report Monday, Conway echoed Pompeo in arguing that “we will be within the law” and that she thinks that “Iran has many military, strategic military sites that you may cite are also cultural sites.”
Conway then accused Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) of “chest thumping” in their letter urging Trump to declassify the War Powers Act notification letter, according to the pool report.
“They know that Congress will be briefed,” Conway said. “It could start as recently as this week. But that’s up to the Pentagon.”
After saying that Trump could possibly meet with members of Congress this week since “his door is open, his phone works,” Conway went on to suggest that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “might leave in a fit” if she were invited for a briefing given past meetings at the White House that ended abruptly, according to the pool report.
When asked whether the White House plans to brief Congress this week on their strategy, Conway said that she knows “they’ll be briefed in due course, and probably expeditiously” and that “they know that, too.”
Conway added that Congress should “celebrate, not denigrate” that Soleimani was killed by the strike authorized by the President.
“Yes, they will be briefed, but they also should calm down and celebrate, not denigrate, the fact that the world’s greatest terrorist, who is single-handedly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans… they should celebrate not denigrate,” Conway said, according to the pool report.
Conway’s remarks come a day after Trump doubled down on his threat to destroy Iran’s cultural sites, which could be classified as a war crime.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” Trump said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”
