If you missed my conversation with veteran Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, you can watch the recording here. As always, Barbara’s analysis of the conflict with Iran — and its potential consequences — is sharp and clear-eyed.
Tomorrow Congress will vote on a war powers resolution, and much of the debate has focused on whether such authorization is even necessary. I’m less concerned about that question — administrations of both parties have often declined to seek it — than I am about the administration’s shifting rationale for war, and even more so about the endgame.
A lot of this comes down to mixed messaging from the administration — which will be the focus of my next conversation, with Emily Horne, author of the whip-smart Substack Spin Class on messaging, communications strategy, and the politics that shape them. I highly recommend subscribing.
In a recent column, Emily unpacks the messaging around the decision to go to war with Iran through what she calls the Underpants Gnomes Theory of Foreign Policy (yes, it’s a South Park reference). In a line I plan to borrow forever, she writes that the administration shouldn’t be able to “yada-yada its way past” the prospect of attacking Iran.
I hope you’ll join us tomorrow at 1pm ET / 10am PT.
Danny will be sending out today’s special Hot Takes edition on Iran, and we’ll be back tomorrow at our regular time — 5:30pm ET / 2:30pm PT.
Thank you Emily Horne, David Galinsky, Lana, Courtney Busby, Maria I. Puerta Riera, and many others for tuning into my live video with Danielle Pletka! Join me for my next live video in the app.
