Fixed: This story has been updated to clearly make the leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, was called before the strike, not afterwards as initially indicated.
Cnn
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President Donald Trump And his team was in contact with the best Republicans in Congress before his Strike on Iranian nuclear installationsBut some key democrats were not informed of his plans after falling the bombs, according to several people familiar with the plans.
The two main republicans of the Congress, the president of the Mike Johnson Chamber and the head of the majority of the Senate John Thune, were both informed of American strikes on Iranian nuclear installations in advance, according to several GOP sources.
People familiar with the case initially declared to CNN that the head of the minority of the Senate Chuck Schumer and the chief of the Hakeem Jeffries House minority received notifications shortly before the public announcement – and after the attack itself.
But after the press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, challenged this story, a source conceded that Schumer had been called around 6 p.m. – just under an hour before the strikes – with little details. He was informed of the imminent military action without naming the country in which the action should take place, said the source.
Leavitt wrote on X that the administration made “bipartite courtesy calls to the management of the congress” and spoke to Schumer before the strikes. She said Jeffries “could not be reached until after after, but he was informed.” Familiar sources with the case said the administration had made several efforts to reach Jeffries before the strikes after talking to Schumer.
But senator Mark Warner and representative Jim Himes, the best democrats in the Senate and the room intelligence committees, were only informed after strikes, sources said.
The reaction to strikes has so far broken along predictable partisan lines.
The Republicans of the Congress plunged into a massification massively behind the president after the surprise struck, because most of the Democrats quickly condemned his decision to launch them without approval of the congress and demanded classified information sessions.
Johnson and Thune both said in a few minutes that they were behind Trump, followed by dozens of GOP legislators who posted their support.
“Congress leaders were aware of the urgency of this situation and the commander -in -chief assessed that the imminent danger was prevailing on the time it would take to act,” Johnson wrote on X, defending Trump’s decision to move unilaterally. “The president fully respects the power of the congress of article I, and the necessary, limited and targeted strike this evening, follows the history and tradition of similar military actions under the presidents of the two parties.”
On Saturday evening, only three GOP legislators were publicly skeptical of Trump’s decision – including one, the representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who was already being forced to a full vote in the House next week on the advisability of restricting the powers of the Trump war.
The president’s air strikes on Saturday evening will now be a debate already tense at the congress on the limits of his war powers, the Chamber and the Senate should take votes in the coming days.
Warner made the decision of the Trump administration’s decision to strike Iran, “without consulting the congress, without a clear strategy, regardless of the coherent conclusions of the intelligence community, and without explaining to the American people what is at stake.”
Fareed Zakaria reacts to striking nuclear sites in Iran
“The American people deserves more than rhetorical and unilateral waves that could trigger a wider war. The president must immediately appear before the Congress to articulate clear strategic objectives and explain how he plans to protect American life and ensure that we are not dragged again in an expensive, unnecessary and avoidable conflict, “said Warner.
His colleague Democrat in Virginia, Senator Tim Kaine, confirmed that he was still planning to force a vote in the full senate by affirming the role of the congress, after initially introduced resolution last week forcing Trump to request the approval of the congress before any strike on Iran.
“I will push all the senators to vote to find out if they are for this third silly war in the Middle East,” Kaine said in a statement, adding that the American public remains opposed to American participation in the conflict.
Massie, the Kentucky Republican who leads the push to the House, simply said in response to the announcement of Trump’s air strikes: “It is not constitutional.”
Democrats are also likely to press the White House on its decision not to inform their senior officials before the end of the strike.
The democrats of the “gang of the eight”, which includes the leaders of the congress of each party and the chairs and the members of the chamber and the intelligence of the Senate, would generally be informed of an important American military commitment. An official of the White House said that the administration had called for certain members of the congress before the strikes as “capture with courtesy” but did not address the partisan rupture of which was informed.
In the aftermath of the strike, many Democrats published statements criticizing Trump for having pursued strikes without approval from the congress, the representative of Illinois, Sean Casten, calling him an “impeccable offense”.
The independent senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that the action was “very unconstitutional”, while Jeffries warned that American troops in the region could face reprisals from Iran when he demanded classified classified briefings for legislators.
President Trump approaches the nation after we hit nuclear sites in Iran
“Donald Trump promised to bring peace to the Middle East. He failed to keep this promise. The risk of war has now increased considerably, and I pray for the security of our troops in the region that have been endangered,” said the New York Democrat. “President Trump induced the country induced the country about its intentions, has failed to seek the authorization of the Congress for the use of military force and risks the American tangle in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.”
Saturday evening, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat in Congress to rent strikes, assignment On X, “as I have kept it for a long time, it was the right decision of @potus. Iran is the main sponsor of terrorism in the world and I cannot have nuclear capacities. I am grateful and welcomed the best soldiers in the world.”
While most of the House and Senate Republicans quickly supported strikes such as the “good decision” or the “correct decision”, a small number of conservatives of the Chamber warned that strikes required the approval of the congress.
Representative Warren Davidson, a former forest ranger who previously accused the Congress of having “apparently returned his power” after September 11, raised questions about Trump’s authorities.
“Although President Trump’s decision can be right, it is difficult to design a justification that is constitutional. I look forward to his remarks this evening,” wrote the Ohio Republican on X.
Before Trump announces strikes, representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also warned against Iran’s strike in an article on X. “Each time America is on the verge of grandeur, we get involved in another foreign war. Republican wrote.
After the strikes, she added“Let us join and pray for the safety of our American troops and the Americans in the Middle East. Pray so that we are not attacked by terrorists on our homeland after our border has been opened in the past 4 years and more than 2 million sips have arrived.”
Manu Raju, Lauren Fox from CNN, Haley Britzky and Alayna Treene contributed to this report.