‘Peculiar to hear’: GOP rep says House Speaker ‘misinterpreted’ Trump’s power to bomb Iran

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said Sunday that House Speaker Mike Johnson misinterpreted President Donald Trump’s constitutional authority to bomb Iranian nuclear sites without the approval of Congress.

Johnson said that Trump acted within his rights established by Article I of the U.S. Constitution by making the decision to bomb Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan, the three nuclear sites located outside of Tehran. Massie said on “Face the Nation” that not only is Johnson misinterpreting the president’s powers, but that it is “peculiar” that he did not bring Congress into session to deliberate his resolution that would block Trump from striking Iran.

“[Johnson] is probably referring to the War Powers Act of 1973. But that’s been misinterpreted. There was no imminent threat to the United States, which was what would authorize that,” Massie said. “And I think that’s peculiar to hear that from the Speaker of the House. Look, Congress was on vacation last week when all this was happening.”

“We haven’t been briefed, they should’ve called us all back and frankly, we should’ve debated this war powers resolution that Ro Khanna and I authored instead of staying on vacation and doing fundraisers and saying ‘oh, well the president’s got this under control, we’re gonna cede our constitutional authority,’” the congressman added.

Massie, along with Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna, introduced a resolution on June 17 that seeks to prevent Trump from engaging in “unauthorized hostilities” with Iran. Before the legislation was deliberated, Trump announced the “very successful attack” on the nuclear facilities in a Saturday night statement.

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Khanna, who appeared on “Face the Nation” with Massie, said it is a “tragedy” that Americans have borne the “consequences” of prolonged wars that the U.S. has entered.

“The tragedy in this country is that we keep entering these overseas wars, we triumphantly declare the mission is accomplished the day after, and then we’re left with Americans bearing the consequences for decades,” Khanna said. “Now, Thomas is absolutely right in showing courage. I mean, the headlines all across this country say ‘The United States enters war with Iran.’”

“[Massie] is actually representing a lot of the people in the MAGA base. People like Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, [Republican Georgia Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene, Theo Von … who is saying ‘we don’t want this war.’”

At the time they introduced the resolution, Massie said that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to decide whether to enter a war.

Following the bombings, Khanna stated that Congress needed to “immediately” return to session to pass the resolution in order to “prevent America from being dragged into another endless Middle East war.” Massie stated that Trump’s action is “not Constitutional.”

Vice President JD Vance disputed that the U.S. is “at war” with Iran during a Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press,” arguing that the U.S. has declared war on Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump warned during a Saturday address that there will be devastating attacks “far greater” than Iran has ever seen if the nation does not seek peace.