Sen. Tim Kaine on Israeli Strikes: ‘Why Torch Diplomacy Before It’s Been Allowed to Succeed?’

BERMAN: “Do you think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have launched this without some kind of green light, tacit or otherwise, from President Trump?”
KAINE: “Yes. Yeah. He — the president and the team, by every indication I have, the administration‘s team was really begging the prime minister not to do this until the diplomatic discussions were done. Again, diplomacy may not work, discussions may not lead to a productive outcome. But why torch diplomacy before it‘s been allowed to succeed? I think we learned at our peril. We had a diplomatic deal with Iran that was controlling their nuclear enrichment and that subjected them to the most searching inspection regime in the world. I think President Trump made a huge mistake in tearing that up and giving Iran the green light to more and more enrichment. We‘re living through that now. But it‘s never too late to look for diplomatic options. And I praise the Trump Administration for doing it. Those discussions Sunday were going to be very high stakes. I‘m frankly shocked that the Israeli prime minister would decide that he couldn‘t wait 3 or 4 days, and he wanted to torch diplomacy before it occurred.”
BERMAN: “Very quickly, what‘s your assessment of Iran‘s capabilities this morning compared to what they were 24 hours ago?”
KAINE: “Weakened. Certainly weakened. And that‘s — that’s [muted] have significant capacity. And I have friends in Israel and I‘m praying for them. Friends in the region, praying for them. It is — it is impossible to conceive that after an attack of this kind, Iran will not try to respond. They will. The history demonstrates that they will at a time and manner of their choosing. And so I‘m praying for my friends in the region that they‘re safe. But I especially want to make sure U.S. troops and U.S. citizens in the region are safe.”