Kaine: Trump calling Iran war an 'excursion' is 'deeply disrespectful' to service members [View all]

Source: The Hill

03/09/26 11:06 PM ET


Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) slammed President Trump for referring to the war in Iran as an “excursion” on Monday. “You can’t watch that and feel that that way of characterizing this is [not] deeply disrespectful,” Kaine told host Kaitlan Collins on CNN’s “The Source,” after watching the dignified transfer of Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Pennington, from Glendale, Ky., died on Sunday from injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on a Saudi Arabian military base seven days earlier. He is the seventh U.S. service member to die in the conflict with Iran since it began on Feb. 28, along with Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor of White Bear Lake, Minn.; Capt. Cody Khork of Lakeland, Fla.; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Neb.; Sgt. Declan Coady of Des Moines, Iowa; Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien of Indianola, Iowa; and Chief Warrant Officer Three Robert Marzan of Sacramento, Calif.

Earlier Monday, Trump called the war “a little excursion” during a House Republican retreat at his golf resort in Doral, Florida. “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil,” the president said. “And I think you’ll see it’s [going to] be a short-term excursion.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill have largely criticized the war. Kaine was joined on CNN Monday by Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.), as the quartet called for public hearings from Trump administration officials on the conflict. “This president has been anything but clear from the very outset,” Baldwin said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5776187-kaine-slams-trump-iran-war/