Sen. Murphy: ‘To Me, It Still Appears that We Have Only Set Back the Iranian Nuclear Program by a Handful of Months’

MURPHY: “I appreciate the briefing. This briefing should have happened immediately after these strikes. I think there’s a real question as to why the Director of National Intelligence is not allowed to be in these briefings. That’s a question that we should get answered. Listen, to me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months. There’s no doubt there was damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don’t seem to stand up to reason. So, obviously I can’t share any of the details from this briefing, but I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. It was certainly damaged, the program, but there is significant — there’s still significant remaining capability for the Iranians.”

Reporter: “[inaudible] potential for further strikes?”

MURPHY: “I’m not going to talk about what they said to me.”

Reporter 2: “Knowing what you know now, if the president had come to Congress to get approval to authorize this mission, would he have had your vote?”

MURPHY: “No. Ultimately, the only way to truly constrain Iran’s nuclear program is diplomacy. You cannot bomb knowledge out of existence. No matter how many scientists you kill. There are still people in Iran who know how to work centrifuges. And if they still have enriched uranium and they still have the ability to use centrifuges, then you’re not setting back the program by years, you’re setting back the program by months. The only path forward is diplomacy. And I just have not heard a realistic path from this administration about diplomacy. Of course, all of us would love a diplomatic agreement in which Iran promises to hold no enriched material. But that has not been a reasonable predicate for negotiations in the past, and it is not likely there will a predicate for negotiations in the future.”