Once again, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has broken ranks with most members of the Democratic Party in offering praise and support for President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s sensitive nuclear sites on Saturday.
“As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities. I’m grateful for and salute the finest military in the world,” Fetterman posted on the X platform along with a screenshot of the president’s initial statement on the strike.
Meanwhile, members of Congress from both parties had mixed reactions to the strikes, with several members grousing about which branch – the Legislative or the Executive – has the more significant war powers authority.
“Most Republicans are willing to give great deference to President Donald Trump to strike Iran without Congressional authorization to hit sovereign territory inside another country,” Fox News reported Saturday evening.
“There are some concerns the President’s aggressive action could peel off some pro-MAGA supporters simply because Trump campaigned against getting involved in overseas conflicts,” the outlet said. “There are also divisions among Democrats. Pro-Israel Democrats have been calling for the U.S. to strike Iran because of the threat it poses to Israel.”
Regardless, lawmakers from both parties remain concerned about potential retaliation from Iran and its proxies, including the possibility of attacks on U.S. soil by sleeper cells, Fox added.
Members of Congress will seek a clear understanding of the risks facing the United States as it becomes more involved in the conflict, as well as insight into the administration’s planned strategies moving forward. CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly plans to brief the entire Senate on Tuesday, according to reports.
Fox went on to speculate about what else the U.S. may need to do now that Iran’s most sensitive nuclear sites have been hit and, presumably, largely destroyed.
“Will Congress feel it needs to authorize further action against Iran under the ‘war powers’ provision in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution?” the outlet said.
Representatives Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have introduced a resolution aimed at prohibiting U.S. involvement in Iran. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) plans to force a Senate vote on Thursday or Friday to decide whether the United States should engage militarily overseas at all.
Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Saturday that he was impressed by the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, commending President Trump’s use of “deception and trickery.”
“I‘m fascinated and, candidly, I‘m impressed,” he said. “I never really could understand what the two-week pause meant, or what it was for, what was left to negotiate, what were we going to expect the Iranians to offer? In many ways, it was much like a Trump deal. I mean, he‘s trying to make a deal to buy an apartment, but all of a sudden the apartment was destroyed, so where‘s the negotiation?
“So I think the use of deception and trickery in this case, first of all, was successful. But second of all, saved the potential loss of American lives,” he added.
Saturday evening, Trump announced that the U.S. had targeted three Iranian nuclear sites, declaring during a brief White House address that the Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities were “totally obliterated.”
Cooper then asked about the effects and what U.S. forces should be worried about in the region.
“They should be very concerned,” Kimmitt said. “Look, the Iranians are down, but they’re not out. The fact remains is the proxy networks, while diminished, are still lethal. You take a look at the significant number of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq alone, they can put up quite a fight and put a significant amount of American interests, American troops, American infrastructure at risk.”