![\"Senate](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/c-gettyimages-2263552889.jpg?c=original&q=w_1280,c_fill\/f_avif\")
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\n Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expects Trump administration briefers to lay out their legal justification for strikes against Iran, as they meet with top congressional leaders this afternoon.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI suspect they\u2019ll have good legal justification for it,\u201d Thune said, arguing the administration did not need congressional approval for the operation.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhat this administration has done is consistent with what previous administrations have done. And in prior conflicts, you go back to Bush 41, go back to Obama, there have been similar circumstances in which they are responding to what is perceived to be a national security issue that needed to be addressed or a threat that needed to be responded to. And I think that\u2019s what this represented,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The administration, he said, believed \u201cthe ballistic missile threat that the Iranians possess is something that threatened our troops in the region, and obviously our allies in the region as well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The GOP leader did not rule out the possibility of US boots on the ground as the conflict continues. \u201cI don\u2019t see that happening, but \u2026 again, I\u2019m not prepared at this point to say what is and what isn\u2019t out,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n He added that Iranians need to shape their future government.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think it\u2019s gonna largely be in the hands of the Iranian people. But, you know, the entire leadership of the \u2026 Iranian regime has essentially been taken out,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, they\u2019ve got a unique opportunity and moment in history in which they can make a decision about whether or not they want to create a democracy and \u2026 be a partner of the world instead of constantly threatening the world, and more specifically their neighborhood.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s probably our place to go in and figure out what that is,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he expects Trump administration briefers to lay out their legal justification for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-510219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}