First Draft: The Vote to Stop the War?
Congress has a chance this week to block further US military action in Iran. Gavin Newsom says the A-word about Israel. And a clear victory for Democrat James Talarico in the Texas Senate primary.
🚨 Tune in TODAY: Zeteo contributor John Harwood will talk to independent pollster G. Elliott Morris at 2:00pm ET (11:00am PT/7:00pm GMT) to discuss the political impact of Trump’s war with Iran, this week’s primary elections, and why he doesn’t think Democrats need to move to the center in 2026 and beyond. Tune in here.
Good morning! Andrew here, on what should be a big day in Washington, DC. We’ll find out how many US senators are OK with our mad-king president waging a new US war in the Middle East based, again, on lies. (Surely, only a few, right? Right??)
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ Trump could expand his war on Iran if Congress doesn’t stop him first, James Talarico defeats Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Senate Democratic primary, and Gavin Newsom (Gavin Newsom!) suggests Israel is an “apartheid state.” (Yes, you read that correctly.)
‘A Multi-Trillion-Dollar Open-Ended Conflict’
Over the next two days, we’ll find out whether lawmakers in Washington are ready to fulfill their duties and serve as a check on Donald Trump’s lawlessness, or whether the GOP-led Congress can still rally its narrow majorities to rubber-stamp the whims of an increasingly fascist and vicious leader.
Democrats have largely united behind War Powers resolutions in the House and Senate to block further US military action in Iran without congressional authorization. The Senate is expected to vote on Wednesday, and the House on Thursday. These votes are important tests. Unfortunately, Congress will likely fail them.
While Trump’s Iran conflict is the exact type of disastrous regime-change war that the president and his top officials have all rightfully (disingenuously) railed against, now that they’re in one, they want to ramp it up considerably.
“I’m more convinced now that this is going to be open-ended and forever,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters after senators received a classified briefing on the war Tuesday, according to HuffPost. “This feels like a multi-trillion-dollar open-ended conflict with a very confusing and constantly shifting set of goals.”
Murphy suggested the Trump administration would be “fine with hard-line elements being in control” in Iran, and is in fact already planning to “permanently run air operations in order to chase [Iran’s] missile-making capability, drone-making capability, and nuclear capabilities.”
Trump’s Iran war doesn’t have much support from the American public so far, early polling shows. Washington’s a unique place, though. Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle – and in the Beltway media – are used to backing Israel’s interests no matter what and have no qualms about the idea of bombing countries at will.
Take Republican Senator Josh Hawley (Mo.), who described the US war on Iran to Politico as “a massive operation” that’s “rapidly changing.” Echoing Murphy, Hawley said, “It sounded very open-ended to me.” But Hawley said he’ll oppose the War Powers resolution and allow Trump to keep his war going for now.