U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley said Thursday he doesn't foresee President Donald Trump asking Congress for ground troops to invade Iran.
Since Trump chose to strike Iran, the United States military has primarily conducted an air campaign.
Hawley voted against a War Powers resolution constricting Trump's ability to use military force in Iran. But he's said he would potentially reconsider if Trump wanted Congress to send ground troops to the country.
"I have absolutely no indication that it will," Hawley said, pointing to two instances earlier in the week where Trump dismissed the need for ground troops in Iran. "They don't have nukes now, and I don't know how they're going to in our lifetimes based on the devastation we've inflicted on their program. We've also destroyed their navy. We've destroyed their ballistic missiles. It seems like to me we should celebrate what our military has done here, and I hope for a swift end to this conflict."
Some military analysts have questioned whether the United States could actually accomplish any of the stated goals without ground troops – especially if Iran's government remains the same as it was before Trump started the war.
Mojtaba Khamenei recently became the country's new supreme leader after an Israeli airstrike killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He said in a written statement his country would continue to respond to America and Israel's strikes.
Hawley said he doubts Iran has the ability to rebuild its nuclear program or its ballistic missile program, whether it's Mojtaba Khamenei "or Bugs Bunny who's running the country."
"I mean, will they always be a problem? Yeah, of course. I mean, they are run by terrible, evil people," Hawley said. "But I think in terms of the direct threat to the United States? What our military has been able to do between last year's strikes in the last almost two weeks I think has been pretty decisive."
Hawley pushes his abortion pill fight
Also Thursday, Hawley said that his legislation aimed at removing a pill used for abortions from the market could be a major test for congressional Republicans.
Hawley introduced a bill Wednesday that would strip the pill mifepristone of its approval from the Food and Drug Administration, ban its use for pregnancy termination and create a pathway for women who say they've been harmed by the drug to pursue legal action against its manufacturer.
While Republicans have majorities in the House and Senate, Hawley's bill will almost certainly have trouble getting 60 votes to break a filibuster in his chamber. Asked if there's any chance his bill will pass without changing the filibuster rules, Hawley replied: "Well, we'll see."
"I mean, we've got to go and persuade some people," Hawley said. "I think the first thing to ask is Republicans in Congress, in the Senate and the House, will they support it? If they say they're pro-life, they should support this. This is where the fight for life and for women's health is now today in America."
Hawley had initially sought to get the Food and Drug Administration to restrict mifepristone. But that hasn't happened and Hawley criticized the FDA last year for approving a generic version of the drug.
Asked if he's given up on trying to use the administrative process to restrict mifepristone, Hawley said "putting FDA regulations on the drug, putting safety protocols on the drug, is very cumbersome and very complicated."
"It takes forever to do, and another administration can just remove them, which is what's happened over the last 20 years – one liberal administration after another has just removed one safety restriction after another," Hawley said. "I think Congress should just admit the facts, which is that this drug is inherently dangerous when it's used for abortion."
Advocates and health providers said that reams of data show the pill is safe and that claims it's dangerous are politically motivated and not rooted in evidence.
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