Speaker Johnson Defends U.S. Combat Actions in Iran: ‘We Could Not Wait for Mass Casualties on the American Side’

EXCERPT:

JOHNSON: “But what my understanding was from other briefings that I got, that this was limited in scope to the mission that has been well articulated by the president and the Secretary of War, Secretary of State, that we had to take out the capability of their ballistic missiles. They were producing them at a rapid rate in Iran at a scale and a scope that was too quick for our allies in the region to keep up, and it presented a real and imminent danger. We had information that they might well fire on us and it was imminent and that it would hit our personnel, our citizens, our installations there, our equipment. And we could not wait for mass casualties on the American side before the commander-in-chief decided that he had to strike, and so, that’s what this was. So, take out the capability of the ballistic mission — missiles, their nuclear ambitions, which goes along with that, and then decapitate their navy. And in my estimation, from everything I know, Scott, we’re very close to completing that mission. So I think it will be very short-term, as the president said as recently as, you know, 11 or 18 hours ago here.”