By Lauren Victoria Burke
BlackPressUSA Newswire Contributor
With no customary advance notice, senior members of Congress were caught off guard by the airstrikes on Iran. When President Trump ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites, there was no congressional vote beforehand. Democrats in Congress are strongly making that point, as most Republicans are taking their customary position of agreeing with every decision Trump makes.
In the case of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), she even added a call for impeachment because Trump once again actively ignored the Constitution.
“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” wrote Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on June 21.
Trump then wrote a June 22 message on social media about “regime change” and Iran. The moment was a flashpoint for conflict in the Middle East during a week when Congress returns to work.
“The President has attacked another nation without congressional authorization. There was no apparent imminent threat from Iran against the United States. Furthermore, the President’s own Director of National Intelligence testified before Congress earlier this year that the U.S. intelligence community assessed Iran was not building a nuclear weapon,” wrote Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) on June 21.
Rep. Scott was referring to Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has reportedly been out of the loop of decision making that is a core feature for most senior intelligence staff in the White House.
A War Powers Resolution, authored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in the Senate and Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) in the House, to terminate any ongoing military action by the United States against Iran unless authorized by Congress, will be on the table in Congress this week.
This week, the U.S. House returns to work, and the Senate resumes its full workweek. Congress is expected to make multi-million- and billion-dollar decisions on Trump’s controversial budget that cuts health care and attempts to hand out several corporate benefits to the tech industry.
Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the owner of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show Comms Class on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke.
