Live Updates: Trump Claims Success After U.S. Bombs Key Iran Nuclear Sites

Top Republicans in Congress swiftly rallied behind President Trump on Saturday after he ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, even as senior Democrats and some G.O.P. lawmakers condemned it as an unconstitutional move that could drag the United States into a broader war in the Middle East.
In separate statements, the leading Republicans in Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, commended the military operation, calling it a necessary check on Iran's ambitions of developing a nuclear weapon. Both men had been briefed on the military action before the strike was carried out, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thune both argued that the airstrikes were necessary after Iran had rejected diplomatic overtures to curb its nuclear program.
'The regime in Iran, which has committed itself to bringing 'death to America' and wiping Israel off the map, has rejected all diplomatic pathways to peace,' Mr. Thune said.
Image
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said that Iran rejected pathways to peace.
Credit...
Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
Mr. Johnson argued that the military action was consistent with Mr. Trump's muscular foreign policy.
'President Trump has been consistent and clear that a nuclear-armed Iran will not be tolerated,' he said. 'That posture has now been enforced with strength, precision and clarity.'
But top Democrats, who were given only perfunctory notice of the strikes before they occurred, harshly criticized the move.
'President Trump misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East,' Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in a statement. He said the president 'shoulders complete and total responsibility for any adverse consequences that flow from his unilateral military action.'
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, demanded 'clear answers' from Mr. Trump on the operation and called for an immediate vote on legislation that would require explicit authorization from Congress for the use of military force.
'The danger of wider, longer, and more devastating war has now dramatically increased,' he said.
Representative Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, condemned the operation as unconstitutional and warned that it could drag the United States into a larger conflict.
'Donald Trump's decision to launch direct military action against Iran without congressional approval is a clear violation of the Constitution, which grants the power to declare war explicitly to Congress,' he said in a statement. 'It is impossible to know at this stage whether this operation accomplished its objectives. We also don't know if this will lead to further escalation in the region and attacks against our forces, events that could easily pull us even deeper into a war in the Middle East.'
While Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, called Mr. Trump's move 'the right call,' the top Democrat on the panel, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, said he had taken steps that could drag the United States into a war 'without consulting Congress, without a clear strategy, without regard to the consistent conclusions of the intelligence community, and without explaining to the American people what's at stake.'
Leading national security Democrats on Capitol Hill were not informed of the strikes until after Mr. Trump had posted about them on social media, according to three people familiar with the matter who would discuss it only on the condition of anonymity.
And one high-profile Democrat, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, called the operation grounds for impeachment.
'He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,' Ms. Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in a post on social media.
Democrats widely condemned the surprise attack as unconstitutional. But Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was the first on Saturday to say it was grounds for Trump's removal, breaking with party leaders who have avoided talk of impeachment since the president returned to the White House, after two failed attempts to remove him during his first term. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, but in modern times, presidents of both parties have unilaterally carried out attacks on other countries without congressional authorization. It has been decades since Congress voted on whether to authorize military force, and efforts to claw back the legislative branch's war powers have repeatedly stalled.
Most of the praise immediately following the operation in Iran came from Republicans, many of whom argued that the bombings would not lead to a ground deployment of American forces in the region.
'To those concerned about U.S. involvement — this isn't a 'forever war' in fact, it's ending one,' Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, said on social media.
Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, called Mr. Trump's decision to strike in Iran 'deliberate' and 'correct.'
'We now have very serious choices ahead to provide security for our citizens and our allies and stability for the Middle East,' Mr. Wicker said in a statement.
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, whose unqualified support for Israel has put him at odds with other members of his party, was one of the few Democrats to offer an immediate statement of support. He wrote on social media that the military action 'was the correct move.'
'Iran is the world's leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities,' Mr. Fetterman added. 'I'm grateful for and salute the finest military in the world.'
Other lawmakers, many of them Democrats who had already expressed concerns that the Trump administration was considering sidestepping Congress's constitutional power to declare war, immediately criticized the strikes on the nuclear sites.
Image
Representative Thomas Massie, center, said the strikes were not constitutional.
Credit...
Eric Lee/The New York Times
Mr. Trump, 'did not come to Congress to explain his reasons for bombing a sovereign nation and to seek authorization for these strikes,' Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, said in a statement. 'These reckless actions are going to put the lives of American service members and American citizens at risk.'
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, who earlier this week introduced a bipartisan resolution that would require congressional approval before U.S. troops could engage in offensive attacks against Iran, wrote on social media that the attack was 'not Constitutional.'
Carl Hulse and Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Fox News

31 minutes ago

• Fox News

Gabbard was in Situation Room on Iran, still key player despite Trump saying she was 'wrong' on intel

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was inside the Situation Room Saturday when the U.S. military launched successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, a White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital Sunday morning. A White House official confirmed Gabbard was in the room Saturday and that she is a "key player" on President Donald Trump's national security team. Speculation had mounted there was a rift between Gabbard and Trump after the president told the media Gabbard was "wrong" about intelligence on Iran back in March when she testified before the Senate that the nation was not actively building a nuclear weapon. Photos of the Situation Room released Saturday evening did not show Gabbard present alongside Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other administration officials. The photos, however, did not include wide shots showing the entire room or each individual present, with the White House confirming the intelligence chief was present. Trump and Gabbard appeared at odds earlier in June, when the president was asked about Gabbard's testimony before the Senate in March, when she reported intelligence showed Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. Trump told the media June 16 he did not "care" what Gabbard had to say in previous testimony, arguing he believed Iran was close to building a nuke. "You've always said that you don't believe Iran should be able to have a nuclear weapon," a reporter asked Trump while aboard Air Force One on June 16. "But how close do you personally think that they were to getting one?" "Very close," Trump responded. Then again Friday, Trump said Gabbard was "wrong" after she reported that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. "My intelligence community is wrong," Trump said when asked about the intelligence community previously reporting that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. When Gabbard appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March, she delivered a statement on behalf of the intelligence community that included testimony that Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon. "Iran's cyber operations and capabilities also present a serious threat to U.S. networks and data," Gabbard told the committee March 26. The intelligence community "continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003," she said. She did add that "Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons." "Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorist actors, which it refers to as its axis of resistance," she warned. However, as critics picked apart Gabbard's past comments, the White House stressed to Fox Digital that Gabbard and Trump were closely aligned on Iran. A White House official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon that Trump and Gabbard are closely aligned and that the distinction being raised between Gabbard's March testimony and Trump's remarks that Iran is "very close" to getting a nuclear weapon is one without a difference. The official noted that Gabbard had underscored in her March testimony that Iran had the resources to potentially build a nuclear weapon. Her March testimony reflected intelligence she had received that Iran was not building a weapon at the time but that the country could do so based on the resources it amassed for such an endeavor. Gabbard took to social media and blasted the media for "intentionally" taking her March testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee "out of context." "The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division," Gabbard said in a Friday post on X, accompanied by a video clip of her March testimony to Congress. "America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly," she wrote. "President Trump has been clear that can't happen, and I agree." Trump announced in a Saturday evening Truth Social post that the U.S. military had carried out strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran, obliterating them. Trump held an address to the nation later Saturday night, describing the strikes as wildly successful and backing Iran into a corner to make a peace deal. "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan," Trump said from the White House on Saturday evening. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number-one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for any additional comment on the Sunday strikes, but did not immediately receive a reply.

CNN

32 minutes ago

• CNN

On GPS: How Iran and Israel are rethinking strategy

Fareed asks Iran expert Vali Nasr and Israeli columnist Nadav Eyal how leaders in Iran and Israel are adjusting their strategies moving forward following US airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Yahoo

32 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Suicide bomber kills at least 9 in Syrian church near Damascus during mass

DWEIL'A, Syria (AP) — A suicide bomber in Syria on Sunday detonated himself inside a church filled with people, killing at least nine, Syrian state media reported. The explosion in Dweil'a in the outskirts of Damascus took place as people were praying inside the Mar Elias Church. SANA, citing the Health Ministry said that at least 15 others were wounded. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says there were 30 people wounded and killed, but did not give exact numbers. Some local media reported that children were among the casualties. The attack was the first of its kind in Syria in years, and comes as Damascus under its de facto Islamist rule is trying to win the support of minorities. As President Ahmad al-Sharaa struggles to exert authority across the country, there have been concerns about the presence of sleeper cells of extremist groups in the war-torn country. No group immediately claimed responsibility Sunday, but the Syrian Interior Ministry said an extremist from the Islamic State group entered the church, fired at the people there before detonating himself with an explosives vest, echoing some witness testimonies. A witness who identified himself as Rawad told The Associated Press he saw the attacker who was accompanied by two others who fled as he was driving near the church. 'He was shooting at the church … he then went inside the church and blew himself up,' he said. Syrian Information Minister Hamza Mostafa condemned the attack, calling it a terrorist attack. 'This cowardly act goes against the civic values that brings us together,' he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. 'We will to back down from our commitment to equal citizenship … and we also affirm the state's pledge to exert all its efforts to combat criminal organizations and to protect society from all attacks threatening its safety.' Security forces and first-responders rushed to the church. Panicked survivors wailed, as one lady fell to her knees and burst into tears. A photo circulated by Syrian state media SANA showed the church's pews covered in debris and blood. ___ Chehayeb reported from Beirut.