Response to Service Member Deaths
When asked about the news from Centcom regarding American service members killed in Jordan, the congresswoman expressed deep grief over the loss. She emphasized that losing service members in the line of duty is absolutely devastating, and noted that the tragedy is especially painful given her own family background of military service. She stressed that this incident reinforces a fundamental reality: the United States should never have been drawn into this conflict in the first place.
Critique of U.S. Military Involvement
The congresswoman directly attributed responsibility for the current military engagement to Donald Trump, characterizing it as an illegal war. She outlined the human and financial costs of this involvement: the loss of American service members' lives, thousands of civilian deaths across the Middle East, and billions of dollars in taxpayer money. She noted that despite these costs, the president is currently requesting additional congressional funding for the war effort. In response, she called for Congress to reject this request outright.
She pointed out that Congress has already passed multiple war powers resolutions intended to halt the war, yet the conflict continues. She emphasized that these resolutions must be enforced and that the war needs to stop immediately.
Presidential Options and Path Forward
Addressing the question of what options remain for the president given Iran's intensified rhetoric in the preceding 24 hours, the congresswoman reiterated her core position: the United States should never have involved itself in this conflict. She cited intelligence from the president's own national intelligence advisors and other officials who had advised against involvement from the start. She stressed that there were no clear objectives established at the beginning of the conflict, and over the preceding months, the president had failed to even articulate concrete objectives for resolving it.
The congresswoman called for immediate congressional action, stating it is absolutely imperative that Congress intervene. She directed criticism at her colleagues across the aisle, describing them as too weak to stand up to the president. She urged them to step in at this critical moment and advise the president to pull back, stop the war, remove American troops from the region, and halt the escalation of violence in the Middle East.