Please follow up with me or our press team, and we will work to get you responses.
Please note that because we are doing this webinar style, you will not be able to record the meeting within the Zoom app.
However, you are welcome to use a third party platform to record.
Otherwise, our office will send a recording via email afterwards to all participants.
Now I'll hand it over to Senator Baldwin to make some remarks. Senator.
Thank you.
I want to start by thanking all of you for joining us this morning.
Whether whenever I'm not working in Washington, D.C., I am usually traveling the state of Wisconsin and visiting with folks from communities big and small, rural and urban.
And no matter where I go, I really hear about the same issues facing Wisconsin families, whether it's the rising cost of housing or childcare or healthcare.
It's really harder for them to make ends meet.
I take my job seriously to address those concerns and be a part of the solution.
Trump promised these families to be a part of that solution too.
He campaigned on bringing down the cost of all goods, cutting down the cost of gas and rent, groceries, you name it, Trump promised it.
He also promised no new wars.
This was welcome news because Wisconsinites have been clear. They do not want another endless foreign war.
But less than two weeks ago, Trump started an illegal war with Iran.
This is yet another broken promise from this president who pledged to end foreign conflicts, not start them.
President Trump may have forgotten the lessons we learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Wisconsinites have it.
They remember the cost of wars started without good reasons and without a plan to get us out.
Already this war has taken the lives of seven American service members and injured over 100 others.
The thoughts are with the families who now have an empty seat at the dinner table and for the families who are up at night praying that they don't find themselves in that same position.
President Trump started this war on a whim with no congressional approval.
Thousands of Americans in uniform who are stationed in the region, including Wisconsinites are at risk because of it.
The war of choice. This is a war of choice, but it shouldn't be the president's choice.
So far, we've gotten no clear answers from this administration on why we're in this war.
Actually, we've gotten about 10 different and sometimes conflicting reasons why we're in this war.
And we certainly haven't seen a clear plan of how it will end.
While Trump was saying the war was very complete, Secretary Hegseth was saying exactly the opposite.
So which one is it?
All signs point to this president getting us into this war haphazardly, and it's deeply concerning because it's Wisconsinites who are going to pay the price.
Wisconsinites need some answers. They should know why this administration is spending billions of dollars on a war with Iran instead of investing in our schools or lowering the cost of groceries, health care, or rent.
Since this administration has refused to do so on their own, I'm using every bit of leverage as a US Senator I have to get those answers.
At my core, I want this war to end. I want to stop wasting billions of dollars abroad, and I want to prevent any more service members from dying.
But to get to that end, we need sunlight and to get some answers so that the American public can see in plain sight what is happening here.
And that's why I'm calling on Leader Thune to hold public hearings, and for Secretary Hegseth and Secretary Rubio and others from this administration to come to Congress to make their case to the American people.
It's high time President Trump answered to the families of the brave soldiers putting their lives on the line for our country and to the Wisconsinites who are paying the price for this war at the gas pump.
I, along with five of my colleagues, have filed war powers resolutions, which we can force the Senate to vote on to end this war with Iran unless Congress authorizes it.
If Leader Thune refuses to hold public hearings and the Trump administration continues to hide in darkness, I'm prepared to force every single senator to go on record and tell the American people whether or not they support another endless foreign war.
I have long advocated against foreign wars.
My whole career, I have believed that the very hard work of diplomacy is the answer, not war.
I believe that when I voted against a war in Iraq, and I believe it today, Wisconsinites do not want more war.
And that is why I'm fighting to end this one.
And with that, I'll allow Ashling to open up the floor to your questions.
Thank you. Just a reminder that questions should be submitted to the chat Q&A function.
We will get to as many on topic questions as we can with Senator Baldwin.
If you have any follow up questions, please direct them to our office via email afterwards.
It looks like we have a question already. Senator, what will hearings actually get you?
Well, that's a great question. And I would posit that they can make a huge difference.
Just ask former secretary, Kristi Noem, the difference that public hearings in Congress can make.
But first and foremost, public hearings on the war in Iran is the bare minimum that we need to do to hold this administration accountable for this war of choice.
And secondly, holding public hearings will be the vehicle through which the American people will get some answers.
They need to know why we're even in this war. What is the goal of this war?
And how are we going to get out of it? And why are we spending billions of dollars on this war instead of lowering health care costs and grocery costs and energy costs.
Thank you. The next question we have is, Senator, what's your reaction to new reporting that indicates us forces were responsible for the deadly strike on an Iranian girls school?
I was absolutely heartbroken when I heard about the bombing in the first place that a girl school with about 175 students and teachers was struck on the first day of airstrikes in this war.
And all signs point to the idea that these innocent children were killed because of Donald Trump's reckless and illegal race to war.
So I want accountability. I want an investigation because the people I work for are not okay with their tax dollars funding this kind of thing.
And again, it all underscores the tragic consequences of a war that no one wants. We have soldiers dying, and we have innocent children who are being bombed.
The administration cannot even muster a coherent rationale for why we're in this war in the first place, or I want to remind what I said, remind you of what I said earlier.
The President has grasped it about a half dozen separate different reasons why we might use military force in Iran and can't land on one.
And that is not acceptable.
Thank you, Senator. The next question we have is, have you gotten a response from Leader Thune? Do you expect to get one?
I have not yet heard back from Leader Thune on our demand for public hearings with Secretary Henseth, Secretary Rubio and other top administration officials to tell the American public why we are at war and why this administration is prioritizing,
spending billions on this war, risking American service members' lives instead of prioritizing on what Trump said he would, which is bringing down the cost of things here at home and ending foreign endless wars.
However, I want to remind folks that because I have filed a war powers resolution, I will be able to use that as leverage to demand these public hearings, and I hope Leader Thune decides that it's a better allocation of Senate time to hold public hearings on Trump's war of choice than it is
to spend time voting on the floor on an issue that the administration should have come to us first on.
Great. Thank you, Senator. And we have time for one more question, so we'll end with this one. Any thoughts on short-term solutions to rising gas prices?
You know, certainly the prices of gas are rising because of this President's war of choice. We were not under imminent threat of attack. We were not under attack when the President decided to go into Iran.
Iran is near the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz, and it is using its leverage to try to bring to a halt the passage of all commerce through the Straits of Hormuz,
including the 20% of all global oil that travels through those Straits. That's going to have a very significant impact on the price of a barrel of oil, and ultimately, and in quick order, the price at the pump.
I believe that we need to be clear-eyed about why the price of gas is going up, but I also think that we should be going forward with ameliorating that as best we can for the people of America.
And I would say two things about the price of energy. One is, I think it's appropriate to be looking at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as is being done, but I also want to say that energy overall and U.S. energy independence has also been seriously impaired by our President's attack on renewables,
which are part of our overall energy portfolio. And I believe this President has been very wrong and wrong-headed about his approach to energy overall.
Great. Thank you so much. And that's all we have time for today. I'll be sending around a recording of this meeting to all participants in the next 30 minutes or so. Please feel free to reach out to me with any follow-up questions. Thanks everyone.
Thank you.