WASHINGTON — Six Democratic senators on Monday pledged to fight to bring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to testify on Iran before Congress and to force more debate over the war on the Senate floor.
Democratic Senators held the conference because they believe the Trump administration has not provided adequate explanation to the American people for entering or staying in a war. Since the U.S., alongside Israel, first launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran 11 days ago, conflict has spread across the Middle East. Seven U.S. service members have died so far in the war.
“We are not going to let business as usual go on in the Senate while people in America are facing financial crises and health care crises and this President is spending billions of dollars of our treasure, and we’re losing American lives in a conflict that he has unilaterally brought our country into,” said Cory Booker, D-N.J. said at a news conference. “It’s time for the Senate to do its job.”
On the same day, President Donald Trump held a press conference on the war from his Florida golf club, saying that the U.S. has struck over 5,000 targets since the war began and that his goals in Iran are “pretty well complete.”
Some Republican senators have expressed their support for the war, including Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. Mullin, who was recently nominated by Trump to become the next Secretary of Homeland Security.
“They want to make sure that the ability for them to strike us anywhere at any time is gone,” said Mullin after a classified briefing last week. “No way they’ll be able to make a nuclear weapon or enrich uranium again. To take out their navy so they can’t disrupt commerce in the shipping lanes, and to take out their ability to restock and rebuild their missiles and drones. That’s the objective here.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., compared the classified briefings senators have received from Hegseth and Rubio last week to “a gag order to keep us from getting these questions before the public.”
“This is quite a pattern, with this administration; engage in military action of increasing severity, without coming to Congress, with no authorization, no meaningful consultation,” said Kaine. “Then, after the fact, offer a classified hearing with a limited amount of time, where the briefers take up most of the time, thus limiting the questions that senators can ask. Essentially handcuffing us, because all we are hearing is classified, and what we know we can’t really share with the American public.”
In addition to Booker and Kaine, the “allied” group included Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.. While they did not detail their floor strategy, they all agreed to leverage their power, individually and as a group, to force votes and debates in the coming weeks.
The group also demanded Rubio and Hegseth testify publicly before the Senate Armed Forces Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senators said that while the officials are under oath, they want to ask questions about the war’s justifications, aims and planned duration.
Senators also discussed the need for transparency regarding military action near civilians, highlighting conflicting narratives about a missile strike near an Iranian school that killed an estimated 170 people. The president and his administration have blamed Iran, but according to Associated Press reporting, it is “likely” the U.S. is responsible.
Murphy called this moment in time “a unique kind of Constitutional crisis” because Article 1 gives Congress the sole authority to declare war. However, modern presidents have greatly expanded presidential war powers.
“I don’t know how we put this genie back in the bottle,” said Murphy. “I don’t know how we don’t become a nation in which one person, one man, one woman, decides whether the entire country goes to war.”
Democratic senators have filed five different resolutions under the War Powers Act to force the U.S. military to withdraw from the Middle East unless Congress votes to authorize it. The group vowed to continue bringing votes to the floor and to hold up other Senate business until Rubio and Hegseth agree to testify.
Kaine said that debate in the Senate would allow the public to decide if the war is worth the costs. He added that he has already received questions from constituents about their family members in the war.
“It’s not, is Iran a bad actor, or in the abstract, have they done horrible things?” said Kaine. “Is this worth risking our kids’ lives? Is it worth risking our spouses’ lives? And that’s not a question that can be locked up and hidden away from people. It’s got to be put on the table.”
The six Democrats emphasized that they were not speaking on behalf of their entire caucus but seemed hopeful their actions would increase the pressure on Republicans to justify the war to their constituents and potential voters.
“I think it will become harder and harder as this war gets uglier and uglier, deadlier and deadlier, more costly and more costly for Republicans to continue to vote in favor of this war,” Booker said.