Pelosi Tells Dems She’ll Hold A Vote To Limit Trump’s War Powers In Iran

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks during a news conference on October 15, 2019. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Sunday telling them she will hold a vote to curb President Donald Trump’s aggression toward Iran after he ordered top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani assassinated via drone strike last week.

In the letter, Pelosi accused the Trump administration of carrying out the strike “without the consultation of Congress and without respect for Congress’s war powers granted to it by the Constitution.”

“This week, the House will introduce and vote on a War Powers Resolution to limit the President’s military actions regarding Iran,” Pelosi wrote. “It reasserts Congress’s long-established oversight responsibilities by mandating that if no further Congressional action is taken, the Administration’s military hostilities with regard to Iran cease within 30 days.”

The House speaker blasted Trump’s “provocative and disproportionate” strike.

“This action endangered our service members, diplomats and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran,” she wrote.

Pelosi’s letter came after she criticized the Trump administration’s classified formal notification to Congress of the strike, which Pelosi said “raises more questions than it answers.”

The Trump administration said it conducted the strike to protect the U.S. from an “imminent” threat, though it has refused to publicly lay out what exactly that threat was.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: