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Donald Trump is panicking as Congress is trying to shut down his unlawful war against Iran on a bipartisan basis. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, led by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and Republican Senator Rand Paul, and in the House of Representative, Republican Thomas Massie and Democratic Congress member Ro Khanna, they are working to put forward a War Resolution act which would require Donald Trump to get authorization of Congress to continue this unlawful war against Iran. And if Donald Trump does not get congressional authorization, which he was required to do, frankly, anyway, under the Constitution, the war could be shut down. Now, Donald Trump has threatened that he would veto any War Resolution act, and he has said that he would ignore it. Also. I I don't think we even need a War Resolution act, given that Congress has the authority when it comes to declaring war, and Donald Trump requires congressional authorization to declare a war in general. But regardless, this War Powers act in the 1970s allows Congress to assert its authority over these areas. And that's precisely what these Democrats and Republicans are doing on a bipartisan basis. But Donald Trump is fighting it. Donald Trump has sent his MAGA Republican sycophants out there now to say, this is not a war against Iran. This is actually a special military operation. And if that term sounds familiar to you, and it sounds, I don't know, Russian. Yeah, that's what Putin called his invasion of Ukraine, a special military operation. And that's essentially how Donald Trump and MAGA Mike and the MAGA Republicans are now trying to refer to this invasion against Iran as a special military operation. So they're saying it's not a war, then we don't need a declaration of war, and we don't need any type of war resolution at all. So let me show you what went down. Here you have MAGA Mike Johnson running away from Manu Raju when he was asked about any type of War Powers Resolution. MAGA Mike says, it's an operation. It's an operation. It's not a war. It's not a war. Here, play the this clip.
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This is a war. This is war.
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Right now.
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I think it's an operation. The people U.S. service members are getting spilled right now. How can you say it's not a dangerous operation? An important one.
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We had to act with an imminent threat. There's not a declaration of war.
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We'll see you all tomorrow.
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Here you have MAGA Republican Senator Joni Ernst also saying, when Manu Raju was asking, well, why shouldn't Congress have voted to authorize this war in Iran? Why isn't that a Congress thing? And she goes, well, try to name for me any time Congress required where there was congressional authorization for war. And Manu Raju's like, Afghanistan and Iraq, they both had congressional authorization. She's like, oh, well, name me something else. I mean, those are the two recent wars that got congressional authorization. I want you to see what goes down here. Play this clip.
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So why shouldn't have Congress voted to
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authorize this war before it began, and that service members are losing their lives over this?
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Yes, and I take that very personally. Obviously, I've served. My daughter serves on active duty now. But I would love for anyone to name the last time Congress authorized operations or strikes in other countries.
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Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan.
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This is serious.
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We're just a few days in.
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So then the White House sent a letter, purportedly under the War Powers act, where they're asserting, you know, it's within, you know, 48 hours or two days of the. Of the war beginning, but they're saying it's not a war. And again, they're saying it is A special military operation. This was the letter sent by Trump to Congress or whoever wrote it on Trump's behalf to Congress, probably Elbridge Kobe or, you know, someone on Marco Rubio's team. March 2, 2026. Here's what it said. Dear Mr. President, I write to apprise you of military action taken on February 28 against the government of the Islamic public of Iran. I have separately notified you of changes in the global posture of United States forces in the Middle east in response to threats emanating from the then ongoing tensions with Iran. As I previously communicated to Congress, Iran remains one of the largest, if not the largest, state sponsors of terrorism in the world. Despite the success of Operation Midnight Hammer, the Iranian regime continues to seek the means to possess and employ nuclear weapons. Its array of ballistic cruise anti ship and other missiles pose a direct threat and are attacking United States forces, commercial vessels and civilians, as well as those of our allies and partners. Again, there's no mention here of war or the fact that there were imminent strikes. And here's how it's detailed further in this letter by Trump. Although the United States desires a quick and enduring peace, it is not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary. As such, United States forces remain postured to take further action as necessary and appropriate to address further threats. I directed the military action consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests. I'm. I'm providing this report as part of my efforts to keep Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution. And again, he's trying to say that it's actually not a war. So here you have Mark Wayne Mullen, maga, Republican Senator, also trying to say, you know, this is not a war. No, no war is taking place. But he says it's a war. So then they go, you just said it's a war. He's like, oh, I must have misspoke. That's not really a war. Here, play this clip.
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Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership?
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This is war and we're taking out the threat. And if you're part of the threat, then you have the. You're a target. You. What we'd call. Call not all the arrows, but going after the archers, you'll concede this is war. We haven't declared war. They declared war on us. Secretary, he. Now you said they've called it war. What I was saying. Okay, well, that was misspoke. What I was saying that they've declared war on us. But, but War is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we're, you know, we're at a. We're taking out a regime that's been trying to attack us for quite some time.
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But you're not conceiving this as well.
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We have declared war. So if we haven't declared war, then I don't see that the President asked us to declare war yet, but they have declared war on us. We're just simply fighting the, the threat that, that's, that's been at our door for 47 years. I've already answered the question.
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Then you've got Maga Mike Johnson over here saying that if you are trying to move forward a war powers motion to restrict Donald Trump's ability to engage in this unlawful war, you're a traitor, is basically what MAGA is saying. The idea that a few colleagues would try to move a war powers motion to the floor is dangerous. It plays into the hand of, of the enemy. So if you support the Constitution, Trump has ordered Mag and Mike and sycophants to say that means you support terrorists and you support Iran. That's what they're going with. Right out of the playbook, right out of the neocon playbook that Donald Trump said, frankly, worse than the neocon. Like, way worse than the neocon playbook. The neogan playbook was bad. This is way worse. And Trump's whole campaign was like, we're against that. Like y' all are that times 100. Anyway, play.
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This clip is squarely within the law. He used his discretion and his authority and the intelligence that he had, exquisite as it was, as is demonstrated by its effectiveness. And he did what he should have done as a commander in chief. This, the idea that a few colleagues here would try to move a war powers motion and resolution to the floor right now is dangerous. Imagine a scenario where Congress would vote to tell the commander in chief that he was no longer allowed to complete this mission. That would be a very dangerous thing. You see that Iran is firing almost seemingly indiscriminately at targets. They're trying to intimidate America. They're trying to test our resolve. And the idea that there's some members of this legislative body that would play along with that plays right into the hands of the enemy. And I think it's shameful. I do believe we have the votes to defeat it. I certainly hope we do, because we have lots of troops, service members, in harm's way right now. And, and the balance of this thing is, is hanging there. It's been very effective thus far. It needs to be completed. We don't need Congress getting in the way of that.
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More from Maga Mike here. He's asked by the reporter, is there any indication of of like plans? What happens when the war ends? Maga Mike, like can you tell us what the hell is going on? Maga Mike doesn't know. Let's play this clip.
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Is there any indication of plans? Representative Scalise said he heard one. Democrats say they're not hearing one. What happens when the war ends? What does that look like? And then what does the day after look like?
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Look, no one can yet determine with any degree of certainty how this will turn out. We have taken out what appears to be top few layers of leaders and potential leaders who would take over there. It is time for the people of Iran to step up and seize this moment of opportunity for them, the one that they have long awaited to have freedom there. We are encouraging that. We're hopeful for that. I think our NATO allies and our other allies around the world are watching with great, great anticipation and hope. I suspect that the entire world will reach out a hand of encouragement and assistance.
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I D A S then MAGA. Mike says the reason. Remember he, yesterday or two days ago, he said the reason that we're at war with Iran is that Israel was going to strike Iran first. So we had to strike Iran before Israel struck Iran because Iran would retaliate the United States if Israel struck Iran. And now he's saying, oh, it's ballistic missiles. Let me do it. Ballistic missiles here.
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They made clear, and they've been very consistent from the beginning that the objective, the mission here, the rationale for it is very clear and very simple. You've heard it articulated over and over and over from the President of the United States, from the Secretary of State, from the Secretary of War, myself and many others who have said this over and over. I'm not sure why there are lingering questions about this. This is really a very simple matter. It's about the building of ballistic missiles. That's what Iran was engaged in. And they were doing it at a speed and at a scale that was exceeding the ability of our regional allies to respond appropriately. This created an imminent and serious threat.
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And also you have Marco Rubio yesterday also flip flopping or just saying the exact opposite of what he previously said. Here's what he said yesterday. Here's what he said the day before. You can play this clip.
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Yesterday you told us that Israel was going to strike Iran and that that's why we needed to get involved. Today the President said that no Iran was going to get.
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Yeah, your statement is false. So that's not what he. I was asked very specific. Were you there yesterday?
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Yes, I asked.
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And so the President made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed. And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't act.
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You have maga. Mike Johnson has asked additional questions like, you know, what's the purpose of this all? He's like, we have no ability to get into nation building. We're not the world's policeman. But here we need to do it. Play this clip.
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Leaders who would take over there. It is time for the people of Iran to step up and seize this moment of opportunity for them, the one that they have long awaited, to have freedom there. We are encouraging that. We're hopeful for that. I think our NATO allies and our other allies around the world are watching with great anticipation and hope. I suspect that the entire world will reach out a hand of encouragement and assistance as is needed to help them. We have no ability to get into the nation building business. We don't do that. We're not the world's policemen. America has enough trouble of our own. But I think this is a great development for the people there to be able to stand on their own two feet and seize this moment of opportunity. We're certainly hopeful and prayerful that they will and that no other innocent people are killed. Iran, by some estimates, murdered tens of thousands of their own citizens just within the last several weeks. Those people are now deceased. They do not have the ability to do that. There's still dangerous folks there, but there's more good people. There's more people who desire to have freedom and liberty. And there are terrorists and tyrants in the world. I'm grateful for that. This is their moment to step up, and I hope they will.
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Then Lindsey Graham doesn't even really give a crap. Lindsey Graham is like, yeah, who cares if it's imminent?
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Just.
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Just go to war with everybody. Here's what Lindsey Graham says. Play this clip.
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You know, in 1939 out of 35, I don't know if Hill was an imminent threat, but I wish somebody would dealt with him. Any regime that embraces a cult of death that's killed Americans, vows to kill Americans in the future, trying to build a nuclear weapon even after midnight Hammer trying to build weapons to hit America is a imminent threat. And it doesn't have to be imminent to me, because you don't want it to be imminent.
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Right?
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The whole idea is for it not to be imminent, dumbass. You want to prevent it from being imminent? Senator, let me ask you this, because I find it.
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I'm putting this in context, which I know you always do.
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Well, it is a war. Let's be clear. And here are the first confirmed fatalities in Trump's illegal war. Captain Cody Kirk, 35 years old. Sergeant First Class. Noah Tejens, 42. Sergeant First Class. Nicole Amer, 39. Sergeant Declan J. Cody. We're going to see a lot more photos like that. Sadly, our heart goes out to their families, of course, and also in Iran. 175 people we reported on this before were killed in a elementary school that was blown up by either the United States and Israel or Israel in the United States. And neither the Israeli nor US Government has directly addressed the strike on the school. But the US Central Command said on Saturday that it was aware of reports concerning civilian harm and was quote, unquote, looking into them. Thousands in Iran attended a burial of children killed in the bombing of that school. There were students attending classes at the time that the school was destroyed. 175 people were killed in the attack on the girls elementary school. And here's a handout picture released by the Iranian Foreign Media Department of graves getting dug for the victims of that strike on the elementary school as further reported by Reuters. Right there. Let's take a look at what Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego says. He's voting yes on the war Powers resolution. Play this clip.
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Senator, you have called for the Senate to immediately return to session and vote on a war powers resolution that could block the use of forces in Iran. How do you see that going down? What do you see the language of that being? And where do you see the votes?
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Well, I know I'm going to vote yes. This is an illegal war. The justification for war is not there. It was made up. But from some of the things that we're gathering, Iran actually had conceded a lot to the point where, again, there was no imminent threat of any nuclear capability. Another senator talked about them potentially being able to load a bomb and send a bomb. That's absolutely ludicrous. Not even close to that. And so, you know, there isn't the president has not justified at all why we are at war. So for me, it's a very simple vote. It should be everyone's very simple vote.
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Here's what Democratic Senator Blumenthal said that his takeaway was after a briefing that took place yesterday regarding this was a briefing by Marco Rubio and the State Department and Defense Department to senators and members of Congress about the war. Here's what Democratic Senator Blumenthal said occurred in the briefing.
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I just want to say I am more fearful than ever, ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have. But I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be of the administration going forward, whether it is destroying the nuclear capacity of Iran or simply the missiles or regime change or stopping terrorist activities. And I think the administration owes it to the American people to have briefings not just for members of Congress, but for the American public. Nothing here should have been classified. It should be available to the American people.
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Here's what Senator Chris Murphy said happened during the briefing.
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This is as serious as it gets. This is war and peace.
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They told us in that room that
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there are going to be more Americans that are going to die, that they are not, in the short run, going to be able to stop these drones that are going to continue to fly into the Middle East. We have to have a debate in the United States Senate on an authorization of military force. It will likely fail. It will likely fail. And we shouldn't be voting to proceed to other pieces of legislation until we get a debate on this deeply unpopular, immoral and illegal war with Iran.
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And here's what Senator Brian Schatz said occurred during that briefing.
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There are times when you go into a classified session and you walk out and you have a better understanding about the gravity of the situation and the rationale behind the military action. This is not one of those times.
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We remain as confused as.
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As the American people are. They have had three or four or five justifications for this act of war over the last four or five days, and nothing in this classified session alleviated that confusion.
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I also should note that America conducted military operations in Ecuador yesterday. I know this isn't getting a lot of attention, but the US Conducted joint military operations with Ecuador against, quote, unquote, designated terrorist organizations. The U.S. southern Command said that joint activity with Ecuador was an effort to combat the scourge of narco terrorism, but did not provide other details about the operation. So we actually are in a war again in Ecuador. And there's the leader of Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa is a big Trumper. There was the Naboa Trump meeting at Mar a Lago on March 29, 2025. Trump helped the guy, Naboa get elected. And just so you also know about Naboa. Naboa's family runs a big banana company and a big produce company in Ecuador. And there have been lots of accusations that the Naboa family was helping cartels and narco traffic. Just accusations. Let me be very clear. But these are accusations that are out there helping the narco terrorists ship the cocaine in the bananas that are then moved into the United States and elsewhere. And then the Boas deny it. But there's lots of reporting, you know, and accusations about that. And so my query is, is Donald Trump helping Naboa and Naboa's family crack down on basically the competing cartels because we know that Donald Trump actually supports narco trafficking, right? In Honduras, Donald Trump allowed Juan Herlando Hernandez, one of the biggest narco traffickers who worked with Chapo. Donald Trump pardoned the guy and let him out. So it makes sense that Donald Trump would be supporting a guy like Naboa, wealthy family, you know, you're running this kind of, you know, similar type of Trump regime version of it in Ecuador, you know, the same way Donald Trump helped Juan Orlando Hernandez in over in Honduras. Well, there you have it, folks. We'll keep you posted every step of the way about what happens with this vote. So the War Powers Resolution vote occurs first in the United States Senate. Then it will take place in the House of Representatives. First it takes place in the Senate on Wednesday. The vote in the House will take place on Thursday. And we'll, we'll keep you posted every step of the way of how Congress votes. Let us know what you think. Hit subscribe let's get to 7 million. Thanks for watching. Love this video. Support independent media and unlock exclusive content, ad free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to other others. Let's keep growing together.
Episode: Trump Loses It over Congress War Vote!!!
Date: March 4, 2026
Hosts: Ben Meiselas, Brett Meiselas, Jordy Meiselas
This episode centers on the growing bipartisan backlash in Congress against President Trump’s initiation of war-like actions against Iran without proper congressional authorization. The Meiselas brothers break down the political and legal chaos triggered by Trump’s actions, analyze how various Republicans and Democrats are positioning themselves on war powers, highlight contradictory justifications from the administration and its allies, and discuss the broader implications for U.S. democracy and foreign policy. The episode also briefly covers a related, underreported U.S. military operation in Ecuador.
[04:09] Mike Johnson:
“It's an operation. It's not a war.”
(In response to journalists’ questions, dodging the war label.)
[05:22] Joni Ernst:
“Name the last time Congress authorized operations or strikes…”
Reporter: “Iraq and Afghanistan.”
(Highlighting congressional oversight in previous wars, exposing GOP evasions.)
[08:03] Markwayne Mullin:
“This is war and we’re taking out the threat... We haven't declared war. They declared war on us… Okay, well, that was misspoke.”
[09:50] Mike Johnson:
“The idea that... would play along with that plays right into the hands of the enemy. And I think it's shameful.”
[13:34] Mike Johnson:
“This is really a very simple matter. It's about the building of ballistic missiles.”
[16:28] Lindsey Graham:
“It doesn't have to be imminent to me, because you don't want it to be imminent... The whole idea is for it not to be imminent, dumbass.”
[18:53] Ruben Gallego:
“This is an illegal war. The justification for war is not there. It was made up...”
[19:51] Richard Blumenthal:
“I am more fearful than ever after this briefing... I also am no more clear on what the priorities are.”
| Time | Segment/Quote | |-------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:34 | Introduction to the Iran conflict and Congress's bipartisan War Powers Resolution efforts | | 04:09 | MAGA Mike Johnson's "It's an operation, not a war" live exchange | | 05:22 | Joni Ernst pressed on historical war authorizations | | 08:03 | Markwayne Mullin’s contradictory statements about war | | 09:50 | Mike Johnson: Calling War Powers motion advocates “dangerous” to U.S. security | | 11:18 | Johnson admits lack of endgame or strategy | | 13:34 | Shifting rationale for U.S. action in Iran | | 16:28 | Lindsey Graham dismisses need for imminent threat; “dumbass” moment | | 17:08 | Naming first U.S. and Iranian fatalities, elementary school strike | | 18:53 | Senator Gallego denounces the war as illegal | | 19:51 | Blumenthal: “I am more fearful than ever…” after classified briefing | | 20:50 | Murphy: “More Americans are going to die…” and calls for Senate debate | | 21:24 | Schatz: “We remain as confused as the American people are.” | | 21:55 | U.S. military operation in Ecuador discussed |
Throughout the episode, the brothers maintain their trademark mix of sharp political commentary, legal analysis, and irreverent, brotherly banter. They are openly critical of Trump and his allies, using sarcasm to underscore the lack of transparency, the dangerous precedents set, and the performative nature of Republican leaders’ justifications. The tone also turns somber when discussing casualties and the innocent lives lost.
The episode presents a critical, detailed analysis of Trump’s military escalation in Iran and the spiraling efforts in Congress to reassert constitutional war powers. The Meiselas brothers emphasize the stakes for American democracy, highlight bipartisan concern, call out rhetorical obfuscations from Trump’s allies, and pledge to continue rigorous coverage of both the congressional votes and the broader consequences for international law, civilian safety, and U.S. democratic norms.
For real-time updates and further analysis, follow the MeidasTouch Podcast on their platforms and join ongoing discussions around protecting constitutional democracy and responsible governance.