WASHINGTON, D.C. — A dramatic escalation in the Middle East and a growing debate on Capitol Hill unfolded Monday night.
Following the sweeping military offensive against Iran over the weekend, which resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and dozens of top commanders, President Donald Trump said the operations will continue.
“Today, the United States military continues to carry out large-scale combat operations in Iran,” said President Trump, speaking publicly Monday for the first time since the launch of “Operation Epic Fury” early Saturday.
Iran responded across the region over the weekend, targeting U.S. bases. As of Monday afternoon, U.S. Central Command confirmed six American servicemembers were killed and others seriously injured.
There are sharp divisions on Capitol Hill over the president’s authority to carry out the strikes on Iran. Lawmakers are teeing up a key vote that could pump the brakes on the administration’s actions.
“Article One of the Constitution explicitly provides Congress with the authority to declare war, period full stop,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., during an interview with CNN. “There’s no indication that Iran had reconstituted its nuclear program. There’s no indication that Iran was prepared to strike the United States preemptively or to strike any of our interests in the region.”
The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying troops and limits military action to 60-90 days without authorization. But at least one Democrat publicly supports the president’s actions.
“Every single senator that I’m aware of says that we could never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. Well, do you think harsh language and strong tweets are going to prevent that or stop that or make anything change,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who also believes the president is well within his rights as commander in chief.
“This isn’t an illegal war and there wasn’t anything that was broken in that sense,” Fetterman added.
Lawmakers are expected to vote this week on a War Powers resolution that would curb further executive use of military power against Iran without congressional approval.
