White House: We Tried to Notify Democrats Before Iran Strikes

The White House said Monday that it briefed congressional leadership from both parties before President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, denying previous claims that it had kept Democrats out of the loop.

“We did make bipartisan calls,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an appearance on Fox News. “The White House made calls to congressional leadership. They were bipartisan calls.”

Leavitt named Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, as the recipients of those phone calls from White House officials — but said that Jeffries didn’t pick up.

“We tried him before the strike, and he didn’t pick up the phone, but he was briefed after, as well as Chuck Schumer was briefed prior to the strikes,” Leavitt said.

Jeffries didn’t respond directly to Leavitt’s claim during a press conference Monday afternoon, but told reporters that he received a “so-called courtesy call” from the White House about the strikes. He didn’t specify when the call happened.

“We haven’t gotten an initial briefing from the White House,” he said. “All we received from the White House was a so-called courtesy call with no explanation as to the rationale for the decision that was taken that could have serious consequences for the American people.”

Jeffries added that he has requested a “Gang of Eight” briefing — which convenes the White House, congressional leadership and the top leaders on the House and Senate intelligence committees — that has yet to occur. He also accused the White House of not being forthcoming with details about the strikes.

“It’s not clear to me what the administration is hiding from Congress and the American people,” he said.

In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, senior Democrats said they weren’t alerted ahead of time. Initial reports had also inaccurately stated that Jeffries and Schumer were given a heads up shortly before the White House announced the United States had struck Iran, but after the strikes had been carried out.

However, those reports were retracted after Leavitt wrote on X — and it was also confirmed — that the White House made efforts to contact both Jeffries and Schumer beforehand. In Schumer’s case, Leavitt wrote, the White House spoke with him directly.

That didn’t stop Schumer from demanding “the full threat picture, the intelligence behind Iran’s retaliation, and the details, scope, and timeline of any U.S. response,” moments after Iran attacked U.S. bases in Qatar.

“The Trump administration should not make the same mistake it made this weekend by launching strikes without giving any details to Congress,” Schumer wrote on X.

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Tinashe Chingarande is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.