Lawmakers respond to U.S. launching strikes on 3 Iranian nuclear facilities

Washington – the legislators of the political alley offered a mixed response on Saturday after the announcement of President Trump that the The United States has launched strikes On three Iranian nuclear installations.

Immediately after Mr. Trump’s announcement, the Congress Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham and Sen. Ted Cruzsupported Mr. Trump’s actions, while a certain number of leading democrats have condemned his decision to launch the attack without consulting the congress.

In a TV address On Saturday evening, the president described strikes as a “spectacular military success” and said that “Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities were completely and completely erased”. He warned against “much greater” attacks if Iran does not make peace “.

“There is not another soldier in the world that could have done so,” said Trump in an article on social networks. “The time has come for peace! Thank you for your attention to this question.”

Here is what the legislators say:

Many Republican legislators support us in Iran, but not all

“Well. It was the right call. The regime deserves him. Bravo, President @realdonaldtrump,” said Senator Graham, a Southern Carolina Republican, on X.

The president of the Chamber, Mike Johnson, said in an article on social networks that “military operations in Iran should serve as a reminder to our opponents and allies that President Trump means what he says”.

“The president gave the leader of Iran at each opportunity to conclude an agreement, but Iran refused to engage in a nuclear disarmament agreement,” said Johnson in the post. “President Trump was constant and clear that Iran with nuclear arms will not be tolerated. This posture has now been applied with strength, precision and clarity.”

The Senator of Texas Cruz, who supported Israeli strikes against Iranian targets, said in a press release: “As long as Iran was able to access and carry out activities at Fordow, they could always rush to build a nuclear arsenal. The actions of this evening went far in the seizure of this possibility, and to counter the apocalyptic threat posed Iranian nuclear “.

Representative Rick Crawford, republican president of the House Intelligence Committee, congratulated Trump in a press release and said: “I was in contact with the White House before this action and will continue to follow the developments in close collaboration with them in the coming days.”

The strikes announced by Mr. Trump on Saturday evening increased the conflict between Iran and Israel, which began on June 13. Mr. Trump, Wednesday, always made people think If the US military would join Israel’s current attacks against Iran.

Before the announcement of strikes, the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was among the rare Republicans who opposed the American action, arguing on social networks, “this is not our fight”.

“Whenever America is on the verge of grandeur, we get involved in another foreign war,” she said in an article on X. “There would be no bombs falling on the people of Israel if Netanyahu had not dropped bombs on the people of Iran.”

The representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, referred Mr. Trump’s post to the strikes with a laconic comment: “not constitutional”. Mass presented a resolution on Tuesday To prohibit us in the conflict. A few days earlier, he stressed that the power to authorize the use of the military force rests with the Congress and said about the Israeli-Iranian conflict on X, “this is not our war. But if that was the case, the Congress must decide such questions according to our Constitution.”

Appearing on “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday, Massie said Its resolution, introduced with the Democratic representative Ro Khanna, seeks to “slow the executive and reaffirm the authority of the Congress, the only authority, to declare war and to initiate or authorize the commitment of acts of war”.

Some Democrats say that American strikes in Iran are unconstitutional

The Democratic Manager of the Hakeem Jeffries Chamber and other Democrats agreed with Massie that the president should have consulted the congress, and Saturday demanded that the legislators be “fully and immediately” informed of the attacks in a classified framework.

“President Trump induced the country induced the country about its intentions, failed to request the authorization of the congress for the use of military force and risks the American tangle in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,” said Jeffries.

The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, also called on Congress to enforce the law on war powers.

“President Trump must provide the American people and the Congress clear responses on the actions taken this evening and their implications for the security of the Americans,” Schumer said in a statement. “No president should be authorized to make this nation unilaterally in something as consecutive as war with erratic threats and no strategy. Confront the ruthless campaign of Iran of terror, nuclear ambitions and regional aggression requires force, resolution and strategic clarity. The danger of the wider, longer and more devastating war has now increased considerably.”

Senator Mark Warner, vice-president of the restricted intelligence committee, said that even if I was in doubt that Iran constitutes a serious threat to regional stability, “president’s actions threaten to drag the United States in an open conflict” without consulting the congress “and” without clear strategy “.

California’s Democratic Representative of California, who spread the massie resolution, seeking to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers, said in a statement early Sunday that Congress “was to return to DC immediately to vote” on resolution “to ensure that there is no more conflict and climbing”.

“Trump’s strikes are unconstitutional and put the Americans, in particular our troops, in danger,” said Khanna.

Appearing on “Face The Nation”, Khanna said that “the procedure should have been that the Congress was informed before we decided to enter the war and that we in fact had a vote on this subject”.

Democratic representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts called on the Congress to return to Washington to vote on the legislation of Massie and Khanna “to stop this madness”.

The Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginie introduced a resolution similar to the Senate, and said “facing the nation” that it was “so disappointed that the president acted so prematurely”.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described Mr. Trump’s decision to bomb Iran without authorization from Congress “is a serious violation of the Constitution and the powers of the Congress War”.

“He risked impulsively to launch a war that can trap us for generations,” wrote the Democrat in New York. “These are absolutely and clearly dismissal patterns.”

Legislators on both sides of the aisle were Try to limit Mr. Trump’s ability to order strikes On Iran in the midst of his in -course war with Israel, stressing that only Congress has the power to declare war under the Constitution. The extent of the president’s authority to enter foreign conflicts without the approval of the legislative power has been questioned in recent years. The last time the congress authorized the use of military force, it was in 2002, against Iraq. A year earlier, days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Congress adopted a bill approving the use of the military force against the nations, organizations or individuals that the president determines “planned, authorized, committed or helped the terrorist attacks of September 11”.

Michigan Democratic Representative Rashida Tlaib urged Democratic colleagues in a post, “do not make another mistake to train our country in another war”, and added: “You can arrest the president and the war merchants at the Congress by signing our resolution of war powers.”

Unlike other Democrats in Congress, senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania said he was fully supporting American strikes on Iran.

“As I had kept it for a long time, it was the right decision of @potus,” said Fetterman in an article on social networks. “Iran is the main sponsor of terrorism in the world and cannot have nuclear capacities. I am grateful and praised the best soldiers in the world.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, who is on tour this weekend in the States of South Red, announced the news of the American attacks against Iran to his supporters and met the songs of “more war” of the crowd.

“It’s so unconstitutional,” said Sanders. “You all know that the only entity that can bring this country to war is the American Congress. The president is not allowed.”

Caitlin Yilek and Kaia Hubbard contributed to this report.