On Friday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Last Word,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) responded to Iran appearing to have the willingness to use the midterm elections to their advantage by saying that the U.S. needs to get out of the war because people care about costs.
Host Jonathan Capehart asked, “Rep. Dean, it seems Iran is very aware and willing to take advantage of the midterms to prolong, even escalate the war that is reportedly worrying our Gulf allies. What’s your take?”
Dean answered, “Well, it’s understandable. And your reporting around the growing confidence for Iran, sadly, they — and I mean their people — have been under this war for more than six months now, as has our military, and we have and, of course, all of our Gulf partners. It’s understandable that Iran is now saying we’re growing in confidence, we’re actually handling this, and we’re controlling things that the United States didn’t understand, at least this administration did not appreciate that they would control. Here we are still talking about the Strait of Hormuz, which was, of course, free-flowing to commerce prior to February 28, when the president went to this reckless, ill-thought out, ill-partnered war. The president is failing at this war, and he knows it. A word you used just now is exactly what I had written down in my notes before we got on together, you saw that JD Vance yesterday, in that strange press conference, when he was asked by — I think it was Kaitlan Collins — whether or not the war would be over by the midterms, he said, and I’m quoting, oh, I wouldn’t call it a war, honest to God. And then the president, of course, calls it a war, and then doubles back and doesn’t call it a war. How childlike to not admit to the gravity of where we are, by the president’s own choice. It is childlike. And, of course, most importantly, it’s very dangerous. We’ve lost 18 servicemembers. This is not a small potatoes matter. We’ve — 18 servicemembers are dead, 700-plus are wounded, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, many military deployed too long, with too little. They deserve much better. I have been close up with our military, Jonathan, this summer, I was out at the RIMPAC exercises in the Pacific with an amazing admiral and all of the Navy and Marine members out there. There’s nothing wrong with our military. Our military could not be stronger. There’s something very — gravely wrong with the civilian lead, the president, JD Vance, failing to call it a war and understand the gravity of it. And then, of course, Mr. Hegseth, getting rid of so many top generals, admirals, brass, because he’s just intimidated, frankly. We’re in a very dangerous spot. The president is actually acting in a very erratic and irrational way.”
She then concluded her answer by stating, “We need to get out of this war, and we need to get out of harm’s way, because what do people care about? The cost of living, gas, diesel, groceries, goods.”
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