The two Congressmen who represent the Mid-Peninsula denounced President Trump’s decision to attack Iran, saying he should have sought Congressional approval.
Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, said the strikes on Iran constitute an “illegal war that could escalate wildly and has put our service members in harm’s way.”‘ This military action has not been justified or explained to the American people, nor approved by Congress.”
“Trump justified last year’s attacks on Iran by claiming that he ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capabilities; if true, he wouldn’t need this year’s war to do so,” said Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, who represents Palo Alto. “Trump urges regime change, yet no mere bombing campaign — no matter how horrific or brutal — can deliver that outcome. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and even Venezuela, history shows that regime change requires a far more protracted engagement than the American public will support.”
Trump, in a televised speech Saturday morning, justified the attack by saying negotiations failed because the Iranians wouldn’t give up their nuclear program. He warned that Iran would eventually build a bomb that could threaten the United States.
Mullin said the bombing campaign goes too far. “We can support the Iranian people and put extreme pressure on Iran’s leadership without starting another regime change war that puts our troops at risk,” he said in a statement posted on his website.
Gov. Gavin Newsom echoed Trump’s call for regime change but said the war started by the U.S. and Israel was “illegal.”
“The corrupt and repressive Iranian regime must never have nuclear weapons,” Newsom wrote on X. “The leadership of Iran must go. But that does not justify the President of the United States engaging in an illegal, dangerous war that will risk the lives of our American service members and our friends without justification to the American people.”
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California called on congress to act.
“The Constitution is clear, and Republican members of Congress must join us in holding this administration accountable and restoring Congress’s role in foreign policy,” he said in a statement.
Of course Trump believes what he says. That’s why he sent Barron to the mideast to fight this war.
Where was the outrage when President Obama bombed Libya without Congressional approval in 2011? Or when he struck Syria and Iraq in 2014 without Congressional approval? Or when he ordered air strikes in seven countries in 2016?
Dan, you probably didn’t know this, but the War Powers Act started in January 2017.
It’s a bad law and should be repealed.
Maybe educate yourself on the war powers act before you post comments about it: The War Powers Act refers to the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a U.S. federal law intended to limit the president’s power to involve the United States in armed conflict without Congress’s approval. 1973!
I think Waldorf was being sarcastic. Too bad liberals don’t have a sense of humor.
Here’s a question AJ won’t answer: How can a resolution passed by Congress amend the Constitution? If you want to take away a president’s powers, don’t you need a constitutional amendment?
The War Powers Act won’t be triggered by the Iran attack because too many Democrats are in favor of the operation versus the number of Republicans against.
Yes, precisely.
And I wonder if we could have taken out Iranian leadership if we waited to declare war?
Maybe we need to have a two-step approach.
Did Congressmember Ilhan Omar get a confidential briefing before these attacks?
Not to worry, I’m sure her jewish husband/handler informed her of the attacks ahead of time.
Her real husband is her brother and he’s a Muslim too.
Khamenei may be gone, but after the glow of today’s military operation fades away, there will be terror attacks all over the world. Trump hasn’t thought this through but the consequences will be extreme.
There will be false flag terror attacks, like the one in Austin, to incite the American people to support the war. The two fit hand in glove. Don’t fall for it. In my opinion, almost every terror act since WWII was either a false flag or a psyop perpetuated by CIA/Mossad/MI6 (globally) or the FBI (domestically) – see the Lavon Affair, King David Hotel, 72 Munich Olympics, Oklahoma City, 9-11, Bondi Beach, etc.
Sure
What always amuses me is these same people say Iran can’t have nuclear weapons, but when you ask them how they’re going to prevent that they don’t have an answer.
Hey Mullin,
Should we have just sent over more billions of our taxpayer dollars on pallets like your prior great leader?
Should the world tolerate this guy killing his citizens in the streets for protesting?
Complaining isn’t a solution.
This condemnation of the bombing of Tehran will wear about as well as when these Dems called for defunding the police, and then backtracked when public opinion swung in favor of police.
General Bone Spurs rides again. Amazing how brave he’s gotten since dodging the draft !
You have to go back to George H.W. Bush to find a president who actually served in the military in any meaningful way. Only he and Harry Truman actually saw combat. McCain and Dole saw a lot of combat but they lost.
What about JFK? Clue, moron, he wrote a book about it.
While JFK was heroic in saving some of his men aboard PT-109, the fact that they needed to be saved in the first place was a major screwup. If we had more of that going on we probably would have lost the war. The spin on the story in the book was all about Joe Kennedy.
Your standards are ill informed. You say JFK and his heroism doesn’t count because his mission was a major screwup. But you praise Bush 41 even though you’re not aware that his plane was shot down by the Japanese and he lost two men who served under his command. Where did you learn your history? Wikipedia? Truth is that both JFK and Bush 41 were heroic, and in war, you lose a lot of the time. By the way, you left off your list presidents who served in numerous ways — Eisenhower (I know, you’ve never heard of him, but I’ll bet you can find him on Google) and Carter (yeah, mostly peacetime service but it required a great deal of competence). Others who served were Nixon, Johnson, Ford and Reagan. Go ahead and belittle those who wore the uniform and put their lives in harm’s way, but at least respect them enough to get your facts right.
I’m not giving anyone credit or criticism for anything. What I’m saying is that recent history makes military service irrelevant as a qualification for the presidency.
The Iranian nuclear problem can’t be wished away, nor are they likely to put it on hold while we spend years debating what to do about it. Recall how Clinton supposedly “solved” the N. Korean nuclear program with his “Agreed Framework” deal, which allowed us to give them a lot of money, and them to secretly successfully conduct their quest for the bomb. They are now a much bigger threat.
How’s that search for WMDs going?
Obama’s attempt to buy off the Iranian nuclear program may have slowed the nuclear weapons program but it didn’t do anything about terrorism. In fact, it made it worse. How much of that money went into killing Israelis and Americans?
Why should I be concerned about 2 individuals who have absolutely no knowledge of the actual information that resulted in the action, have not taken the time to inform themselves of the laws that Congress has enacted and zero foreign relation experience to opine on the issue? These two did not have the respect for our country and customs to attend the recent State of the Union. They refused to stand for my safety or to recognize the pain of those injured from governmental agencies failing to enforcing the laws of the land. They should resign and know that the one who is my representative will NOT get my vote this November.
This story sounds familiar. The government tells us we need to attack a middle eastern country because they’re about to get a nuke. We invade and then find they out they don’t have anything that threatens us. Talk about crying wolf!
Yeah, they’ve been one or two years away from getting a nuke for the past 30 years, according to Bibi. This war only benefits Israel. Iran is no threat to us. People who say otherwise no nothing about Iran, Shia Islam, or the history of the Persian people.
If New York City were nuked by Iran, these two clowns would insist on a congressional resolution for the US to respond. Criticizing is easy when you don’t live in the real world.
Even if the military were able to draft Barron Trump and only Barron Trump they wouldn’t be able to do it. At 6-9, he’s too tall.
You don’t know how war works. Barron will be “drafted” with photo-ops in (Florida) CENTCOM in his uniform, next to a good-looking female IDF soldier – both pointing intensely at a screen, like they’re tracking “terrorists”…all the while playing video games and launching another pump-and-dump scheme in some sh*tcoin raking in millions more. This all after the next psyop, bigger than 9-11, to pump up recruitment (think Pat Tillman) and Americans up in arms like robots.
The Democratic Party has lost its way. Their only agenda seems to be opposing Trump. Even if he were to cure cancer, they would oppose it. Didn’t they advocate for Palestinian lives and call to stop the “genocide” that never happened in Gaza? But murdering Iranians in the street is totally fine? How can you trust leaders who cannot think for themselves and have no real values? Very disappointing. It’s ridiculous to say they care about American soldiers when they are supporting the IRGC, which killed hundreds of Americans.
I see Kamala Harris is now in favor of lowering the voting age to 16. She’d actually have an even better chance to win if we lowered the voting age to 2. Lot of 16 year olds in Oakland have enough judgement to vote!
I have to admit I voted for Liccardo in the general election, but with zero enthusiasm. It was like anyone but that simpering twit Evan Low.
The two leftists say what?
Just as I predicted, the Senate today voted down the craven and miserable attempt by Sensitive New Age Guy Tim Kaine to stop the action against Iran, that the two numbskull congresspeople mentioned above joined him in. These guys just love to go down in flames.
Why did Sam Liccardo and Kevin Mullin denounce the attack on Iran?
Why don’t you read their quotes in the article? Regime change wars have a dismal track record. They haven’t had a chance to vote on it. The administration has done a [Word removed — Terms of Use violation] poor job explaining the reason for the bombings. There are other ways to support the Iranian people.
[Portion removed — Terms of Use violation]
This has to be the most unpopular war started in history. But it has been wildly successful in one sense for Trump. No one is talking about the Epstein files anymore. Wag the dog!
If you support Trump, you’re going to support this war. If you hate Trump, you’ll condemn the war. Each side tries to come up with arguments to make it seem as if their position is justified. When Obama launched bombing campaigns, Democrats supported them and Republicans were against. Nothing original here. None of this persuades people on the other side to change their opinion. And Trump doesn’t care about polls. He’ll do what he wants.
Agree with your last sentence about Trump doing what he wants – “only his mind” can stop him – but it’s not true that if you’re a Trump voter, you’re going to support the war. Look up CNN and NYT, two very pro-Iran war publications, and even they found that almost 60% of Americans oppose the war. Other polls I read claimed that between 25%-35% of Republicans oppose the war. And personally, I voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024 and oppose the war. That’s one of the reasons I voted for him, along with immigration, cultural issues and the economy, that he would not start a new war.
2 politicians angry because Iran was not notified about the plan to take out their military capability? Welcome to the New California.
Isn’t the rejection of the War Powers Act invocation the same as Congressional approval of a declaration of war? I think it is. The counter argument is bureaucratic and technical and amounts to splitting hairs.