Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) lashed out at President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) Saturday morning following the aftermath of a joint U.S military strike with Israel on Iran, claiming there are no talks at the moment of Congress returning to vote on a war powers resolution.
“Not under the completely feckless Mike Johnson. I think he will go down as the weakest speaker in American history, and he’s not talking about calling us back at all,” Moulton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “There are members of Congress, including a few Republicans, who are pushing to have a vote on a war powers resolution later next week. But of course, that’s a week late.”
The president on Saturday announced “major combat operations in Iran,” the defense department labeled “Operation Epic Fury,” and called on the Iranian people to “take over” their government in a pursuit of regime change.
Trump justified the attack, claiming Iran continued to develop its nuclear program with plans to develop missiles to reach the U.S.
“There’s no strategy underlying what we’re doing,” Moulton said. “He can’t even clearly articulate to the American people, and therefore to our troops, exactly what objective they’re trying to achieve.”
Trump received a mix of reactions following the attack, with some praising the operation and others criticizing the lack of Congressional approval.
Johnson said leading members within Congress known as “The Gang of 8” were briefed in detail earlier this week of possible military action “to protect American troops and American citizens in Iran.”
The president warned the public after the operation that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.”
“That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future. And it is a noble mission,” he continued.
Moulton told Blitzer he and other members of Congress “should be authorizing this,” and warned that “this sounds an awful lot, lot like it could be Iraq War, 2.0.”
“The President didn’t even try to explain that this was just a limited strike. He said outright, this is war. These are major combat operations, and under the Constitution, that means Congress must vote on whether or not we send American troops to war,” Moulton said.
He furthered his point in a jab against the president, stating that “It seems that the only person that Trump cares about getting permission from is Benjamin Netanyahu.”
“He hasn’t asked the American people. He hasn’t asked the U.S. Congress. He just got the go ahead from Benjamin Netanyahu, and now we’re at war,” Moulton said.
