Washington — Some Senate Democrats cast doubt on the Trump administration's characterization of the strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities after top officials briefed senators Thursday.
In recent days, President Trump repeatedly declared "total obliteration" after three nuclear sites were bombed in a secret attack by the U.S. Meanwhile, an initial classified assessment found that the strikes set back Tehran's nuclear program by a matter of months, while Mr. Trump said the nuclear program was set back "basically decades."
Democrats questioned assertions regarding how much Iran's nuclear program has been hindered.
"I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that we have not obliterated the program," Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters. "The president was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was obliterated. It is certain that there is still significant capability, significant equipment that remain."
"You cannot bomb knowledge out of existence — no matter how many scientists you kill," Murphy added. "There are still people in Iran who how to work centrifuges. And if they still have enriched uranium and they still have the ability to use centrifuges, then you're not setting back the program by years. You're setting back the program by months."
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested that administration jumped to a conclusion too soon.
"Listen, I hope that is the final assessment," Warner said. "But if not, does that end up providing a false sense of comfort to the American people?"
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he did not receive adequate answers about whether the nuclear stockpile was obliterated.
"What was clear is that there was no coherent strategy, no end game, no plan, no specific, no detailed plan on how Iran does not attain a nuclear weapon," Schumer said.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said only a final battle damage assessment confirming the assertions "would enable us to be comfortable or complacent about what has been done."
"The point is, we don't know. Anybody who says we know with certainty is making it up because we don't have a final battle damage assessment," he said. "I think 'obliterated' is much too strong of word because it implies that it couldn't be reconstituted or somehow it was completely eliminated."
Still, Blumenthal praised the military action as "one that will go down in the annals of military history."
"Certainly, this mission was successful insofar as it extensively destroyed and perhaps severely damaged and set back the Iranian nuclear arms program. But how long and how much really remains to be determined by the intelligence community itself," he said.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina stood behind the administration's characterization, but acknowledged that Iran's capabilities could eventually be restored.
"The real question is, have we obliterated their desire to have a nuclear weapon," Graham said after the classified briefing. "I don't want people to think that the site wasn't severely damaged or obliterated. It was. But having said that, I don't want people to think the problem is over, because it's not."
Graham said he believed the program had been set back by years. Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said he was confident "it's been set way back — a year, at minimum."
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the strikes "effectively destroyed Iran's nuclear program." Cotton added that the initial assessment had several intelligence gaps and "assumed the worst-case scenario with perfect conditions in Iran."
Top intelligence officials said Wednesday that new intelligence showed the nuclear program had been "severely damaged" and its facilities "destroyed." It would take the Iranians "years" to rebuild the facilities, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said.
Ratcliffe was among those who briefed senators Thursday, along with Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
The briefing had been initially scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed two days, upsetting some Democrats who demanded immediate transparency about the strikes after they were initially left in the dark about the military action.
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