Cory Booker on Iran: I saw ‘no evidence’ from the Trump administration of ‘imminent threat’

Sen. Cory A. Booker of New Jersey on Wednesday evening said he saw “no evidence” of an imminent threat from Iran, after attending a classified briefing on the topic with Trump administration officials.

“They did not show us that they were dealing with an imminent threat. I saw no evidence of that whatsoever,” Mr. Booker, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said on MSNBC.

He said President Trump has been a “foreign policy disaster” in the Middle East.

“Somebody who said he was going to detangle himself from the Middle East, moving more troops there right now, somebody who said he was going to defeat ISIS, and tear them up by the roots, now has put us in a worse position to prevent their resurgence,” the senator said.

Mr. Booker and other senators attended a classified briefing on Capitol Hill to hear from the administration on the recent airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Some Republicans also left the briefing unsatisfied, with Sen. Mike Lee of Utah calling it “probably the worst briefing I’ve seen, at least on a military issue, in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate.”

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said sharing the “most compelling” intelligence showing Soleimani was preparing an imminent attack against American forces could compromise sources and methods.

“Those of us that have seen all the evidence, that saw the evidence in real-time, know that President Trump made the right decision,” Mr. Pence said on NBC’s “Today” program.