Progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a handful of other Democrats quickly floated the prospect of impeaching President Donald Trump for launching a military strike on Iran without Congressional authorization.
“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” the four-term congresswoman from New York wrote on social media Saturday night, soon after the president announced the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Ocasio-Cortez charged that Trump “has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”
Democrat Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois also argued that the president’s order to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites without seeking Congressional approval could be considered an “unambiguous impeachable offense.”
Casten, a four-term representative whose district covers southwestern Chicago and surrounding suburbs, wrote Saturday night on social media that “this is not about the merits of Iran’s nuclear program….to be clear, I do not dispute that Iran is a nuclear threat.”
But he highlighted that “no president has the authority to bomb another country that does not pose an imminent threat to the US without the approval of Congress. This is an unambiguous impeachable offense.”
“I’m not saying we have the votes to impeach,” Casten added. “I’m saying that you DO NOT do this without Congressional approval.”
The calls for impeachment are the most visible, and furthest reaching, representation of the party’s anger with Trump for taking unilateral action against Iran.
