A group of Democrats in the United States Senate is demanding public hearings on the country\u2019s war against Iran after receiving a series of classified briefings from officials in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers say the White House has not clearly explained why the US entered the conflict, what its goals are, or how long it may last.<\/p>\n
Republicans currently hold a narrow, 53-47 Senate majority, which gives them the power to control what legislation comes to the floor for debate.<\/p>\n
Some Democrats have expressed frustration after the latest closed-door briefing. Trump has not ruled out sending US ground \u2060troops into Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just came from a two-hour classified briefing on the war,\u201d Senator Chris Murphy from the state of Connecticut said on Tuesday. \u201cIt confirmed to me that the strategy is totally incoherent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is pretty simple: if the president did what the Constitution requires and came to Congress to seek authorisation for this war, he wouldn\u2019t get it \u2013 because the American people would demand that their members of Congress vote no,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Here is what we know:<\/p>\n
What has happened so far?<\/h2>\n
Since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have held several closed-door meetings to brief Congress members on the military campaign and its progress.<\/p>\n
Because the meetings are classified, lawmakers are restricted in what they can publicly disclose about the information they received.<\/p>\n Several Democratic senators have said they left the briefings frustrated, arguing that the administration had not provided clear answers about the war\u2019s objectives, timeline or the long-term strategy guiding their approach to the conflict.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, six Democratic senators also called for an investigation into a strike on a girls\u2019 school in Minab, in southern Iran. Reports indicate the attack, which investigators say involved US forces, killed at least 170 people, most of them children.<\/p>\n \u201cThere seems to be no endgame,\u201d Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said. \u201cThe president, almost in a single breath, says it\u2019s almost done, and at the same time, it\u2019s just begun. So this is kind of contradictory.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts raised concerns about the cost of war.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one part that seems clear is that while there is no money for 15 million Americans who lost their health care, there\u2019s a billion dollars a day to spend on bombing Iran,\u201d Warren said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Others seem worried that a ground deployment could take place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here,\u201d Blumenthal, of Connecticut, told reporters after Tuesday\u2019s classified briefing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people deserve to know much more than this administration has told them about the cost of the war, the danger to our sons and daughters in uniform and the potential for \u2060further escalation and widening of this war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Republicans, who have slim majorities in both houses of Congress, have almost unanimously backed Trump\u2019s campaign against Iran, with only a handful expressing doubt about the war.<\/p>\n Some Republican leaders say the strikes are necessary to curb Iran\u2019s military capabilities, missile programme and regional influence.<\/p>\n They have also argued that the operation is limited in scope and designed to weaken Iran\u2019s ability to threaten US forces and allies in the region.<\/p>\n Republican Representative Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, last week publicly thanked Trump for taking action against Iran, saying the president is using his constitutional authority to defend the US against the \u201cimminent threat\u201d posed by Tehran.<\/p>\n But some Republican members of Congress have voiced concerns.<\/p>\n Representative Nancy Mace from South Carolina said she did \u201cnot want to send South Carolina\u2019s sons and daughters into war with Iran\u201d, in a post on X.<\/p>\n Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, accused the Trump administration of changing its narrative and rationale for the war on a daily basis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep hearing new reasons for war with Iran\u2014none convincing,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201c\u2018Free the oppressed\u2019 sounds noble, but where does it end? We\u2019ve been told for decades Iran is weeks from a nuke. War should be a last resort, not our first move. A war of choice is not my choice.\u201d<\/p>\n The dispute has revived a long-running debate in Washington, DC, about the limits of presidential war powers.<\/p>\n Under the US Constitution, Congress has the authority to declare war, but modern presidents have frequently launched military operations without formal congressional approval, often citing national security or emergency threats.<\/p>\n The law allows the president to deploy US forces for up to 60 days without congressional authorisation, followed by a 30-day withdrawal period if Congress does not approve the action.<\/p>\n Some lawmakers and legal experts say the war on Iran highlights the need for stronger congressional oversight of military action.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the 1970s, we adopted something called the War Powers Resolution that gives the president limited ability to do this,\u201d said David Schultz, a professor in the political science and legal departments at Hamline University.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, either you could argue that what the president is doing violates the Constitution by\u2026 not [being] a formally declared war; or b, it exceeds his authority, either as commander-in-chief or under the War Powers Act,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd therefore, you could argue that domestically, his actions are illegal and unconstitutional,\u201d Schutlz said.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has argued that the February 28 strikes were justified as a response to an \u201cimminent threat\u201d, a rationale often used by presidents to justify military action without prior congressional approval.<\/p>\n However, US intelligence agencies had themselves said before the start of the war that they had no evidence of an imminent Iranian threat to the US or its facilities across the Middle East.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A group of Democrats in the United States Senate is demanding public hearings on the country\u2019s war against Iran after receiving a series of classified briefings from officials in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration. Lawmakers say the White House has not clearly explained why the US entered the conflict, what its goals are, or how long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-06T222928Z_1741524461_RC2AZJAXJJOX_RTRMADP_3_USA-TRUMP-1773186804.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
What are Democrats saying?<\/h2>\n
![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/AP25030604931015-1739816799.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
What are Republicans saying?<\/h2>\n
Why does the debate matter?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"