With an introduction by Missoula Mayor John Engen, Montana’s senior Senator Jon Tester addressed a town hall meeting at the Holiday Inn in Friday morning.

One question came from a woman in the audience addressed the issue to possible war with Iran.

“I would like to know why the Senate and the Congress are letting this psychopath start a war with Iran?”

After a round of applause from the audience, Tester responded.

“We’re trying to get an authorization for the use of military force passed to stop exactly that,” said Senator Tester. “We need that so that Congress can play a role in whether we go to war with Iran or not. What’s gone on in Iran is pretty interesting because we pulled out of the Iran deal to limit nuclear weapons and now we really are on the cusp of doing something that’s going to cost a lot, both in lives and treasure. Congress needs to be able to have an influence on this, and it’s critically important. There are efforts to get this done and I support those efforts.”

When asked about the issue of climate change, Tester invoked a comment from the Late Republican Senator John McCain.

“The sad part is that we have done nothing, Congress had done nothing on climate change, nothing,” he said. “That’s not a good thing, because even if you don’t think it’s real, I go back to what the late John McCain said, that even if you don’t think that people are causing it we should act like people are. We should come up with common sense solutions that don’t shut our economy down and yet deal with the issue of carbon in our atmosphere and climate change overall.”

Tester recently won reelection by defeating Republican Matt Rosendale, who has now declared his intention to run for the U.S. House.

 

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