Senior Biden officials brief House Intelligence Committee on deadly Jordan attack

Jan 30, 2024

House Intelligence Committee members got a multi-hour briefing on Tuesday from two senior administration officials on the attack by Iran-backed proxies in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members and wounded dozens more.

CIA Director Bill Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines briefed panel lawmakers. Prominent attendees for at least part of the session included Speaker Mike Johnson, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

“I’m a big fan of disproportionate responses,” said committee member Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) following the briefing. “There’s a lot of, soft-handed commentators out there that say, ‘That’s escalatory, you’re gonna get us into World War III.’ And they don’t know anything about foreign affairs, and they certainly don’t know anything about war.”

He added: “Once you’ve killed your service members, you’ve crossed some serious lines.”

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), another panel member, pronounced himself satisfied that the Biden administration is looking carefully at the full range of possible responses.

“Our adversaries need to know that we’re prepared and capable to strike decisively, and we will,” he said following the briefing. “And we’re going to do everything we can to protect our men and women from harm.”

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