‘Hypocrisy’: House Speaker Blasts Dems Who Say Trump’s Iran Strike Was Unconstitutional

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday blasted Democrats who accused President Donald Trump of acting unconstitutionally after ordering strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, bluntly calling them out for their hypocrisy.

“Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan … engaged in several military actions without congressional assent. … President Clinton followed with interventions in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, the Middle East, and, most significantly, Kosovo, none of which were authorized by Congress. While President George W. Bush sought and received approval of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama’s wars in Libya and Syria went ahead in violation of the War Powers Resolution’s time limits,” National Review noted.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) both accused Trump of acting unconstitutionally; Jeffries said Trump “misled the country about his intentions, failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.” Schumer barked, “No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy,” calling for legislators to support war powers legislation to block further military action against Iran, Jewish Insider reported.

“A lot of your Democratic colleagues and leadership are saying they didn’t get a call from the president that this was happening,” Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones stated. “Karoline Leavitt said that’s not true, they reached out to them. Apparently, Chuck Schumer answered the phone but Hakeem Jeffries didn’t. What can you tell us about that?”

“I’ve spoken to Hakeem about this; he’s my counterpart in the House, the Democratic leader, and he wasn’t available when they called, and that’s just the way these things go,” Johnson replied. “It is ridiculous for anyone to assert that the Commander-In-Chief, using his Article II power in the Constitution, should have to consult all the members of Congress or even all the leadership in Congress every time he has to make a decisive, quick action. I mean, that would not be feasible. So the idea that they’re saying that what he’s done is somehow inappropriate or unconstitutional is nonsense. None of them ever complained when Barack Obama and Joe Biden used the same authority to drop bombs all over the Middle East, all over the world. It’s entirely inconsistent with their previous actions, and I think we call them on that hypocrisy.”

The Commander in Chief does NOT need the permission of every member of Congress before taking decisive action to protect America or our interests.
 
Where was the Left’s outrage when Obama and Biden used the same Article II powers? This isn’t about the Constitution. This is about… pic.twitter.com/V9mlx4VyN2

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) June 24, 2025