Next phase of Iran war ‘will be even more punishing’: Rubio, Trump officials brief Congress

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday reiterated comments from President Donald Trump that a more intense offensive in the war with Iran was still to come.

"I'm not going to give away the details of our tactical efforts, but the hardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military. The next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now," Rubio said before entering a briefing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the first of a series of meetings between administration officials and members of Congress this week.

In addition to the Monday briefing with Rubio, on Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine will hold an all-Congress briefing, the White House confirmed on Monday.

Rubio told reporters "there absolutely was an imminent threat" from Iran. He did not give a clear timeline for the conflict, saying the U.S. "will do this as long as it takes to achieve" its objectives.

"The world will be a safer place when we're done with this operation." Rubio said.

Congress has been away from Washington since before the attacks overnight Saturday Eastern time. The Senate returned late Monday, and the House plans to reconvene on Tuesday.

White House spokesperson Dylan Johnson on Monday said relevant congressional staffers had also been briefed.

"Yesterday, the Department of War briefed the bipartisan staffs of several national security committees in both chambers for over 90 minutes on the military action in Iran," Johnson said in an email.

Immediately after the attacks, which killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, bipartisan lawmakers called for briefings on the military action. Democrats, in particular, questioned the legality of the strikes, which were carried out without authorization from Congress.

Democrats in both chambers have vowed to force votes this week on war powers resolutions that could limit President Donald Trump's authority to carry out further attacks on Iran.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was present for the briefing with Rubio on Monday, said he "found their answers completely and totally insufficient."

"In fact, at least to me, that briefing raised many more questions than it answered," Schumer told reporters at the Capitol.

Rubio was set to meet with the Gang of Eight, a group that includes leaders from both parties in the House and Senate, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees. The Gang of Eight was briefed last week ahead of the attack.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters the group was expanded to include top appropriators and other leaders from pertinent committees. He defended the Trump administration's military actions and said the mission was defensive in nature and not about regime change.

"Israel was determined to act in their own defense here. With or without American support. Why? Because Israel faced what they deemed to be an existential threat," he said after the briefing.

"The objective was to take out those missiles, the short and midrange missiles, and their ability to produce them," Johnson said, adding that the second objective was to eliminate Iran's naval capabilities. "The ayatollah is no more. That was not the mission of the U.S. to go in and take out the regime, but that happened, and in my estimation that is a great development for freedom-loving people around the world."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Intelligence, questioned whether Iran truly posed an imminent threat to the U.S.

"Israel is a great ally of America. I stand firmly with Israel. But I believe at the end of the day when we are talking about putting American soldiers in harm's way, when we have American casualties and expectations of more, there needs to be the proof of an imminent threat to American interests," Warner said. "I still don't think that standard has been met."

Democrats have expressed skepticism about the Trump administration's stated goals since news of the attack broke.

In an appearance on CNN's "News Central" on Monday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was asked what his biggest question was going into the briefing.

"The administration has failed to provide any justification for these preemptive strikes. And so we'll continue to look for information that they owe the American people to suggest that there was intelligence indicating that Iran was prepared to strike the United States," Jeffries said. "Nothing has been presented to justify what's taken place up until this point, and the administration has an obligation to be able to prove that."

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement Saturday that based on information received from the administration, "this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame."

"As I expressed to Secretary Rubio when he briefed the Gang of Eight, military action in this region almost never ends well for the United States, and conflict with Iran can easily spiral and escalate in ways we cannot anticipate. It does not appear that Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history," Himes said.