From PBS NewsHour.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., questions intelligence agency leaders about American adversaries benefiting from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as gas prices continue to rise.
“This has created one of the largest ever supply shocks to the global oil supply, which has sent gas prices skyrocketing for Americans, but not everybody is losing,” Kelly said.
Kelly asked CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard whether it’s accurate that Russia and China are benefiting from the war.
The Trump administration last week announced it’s temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil as the war in Iran impacts the global supply chain.
“Sometimes there are decisions made that will benefit adversaries at the same time policymakers think that it will benefit the American people,” Ratcliffe said.
Amid the rising gas prices, Kelly also asked if the White House had asked to be briefed on whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the war.
Both Ratcliffe and Gabbard sidestepped the question.
“I’m having a hard time finding out whether the White House asked or whether there was a brief, whether the president knew,” Kelly said. “Did he know this was gonna happen, or did he just disregard?”
Top U.S. intelligence officials were testifying Wednesday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at an open hearing on worldwide threats. It’s the first of two days of hearings on Capitol Hill surrounding the intelligence community’s release of its annual assessment of threats to national security.
The Senate hearing comes a day after National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned over President Donald Trump’s war in Iran. Kent, a former Green Beret and CIA official known for his past ties to right-wing extremists, said in a statement Tuesday that Iran “posed no imminent threat” to the U.S. and he could not “in good conscience” support the war.
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