Democrats are at odds over response as Trump announces the US has
entered Israel-Iran war
[June 23, 2025]
By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and THOMAS BEAUMONT
After nearly two years of stark divisions over the war in Gaza and
support for Israel, Democrats seemed to remain at odds over policy
toward Iran. Progressives demanded unified opposition before President
Donald Trump announced U.S. strikes against Tehran's nuclear program but
party leaders were treading more cautiously.
U.S. leaders of all stripes have found common ground for two decades on
the position that Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
The longtime U.S. foe has supported groups that have killed Americans
across the Mideast and threatened to destroy Israel. But Trump’s
announcement Saturday that the U.S. had struck three nuclear sites could
become the Democratic Party’s latest schism, just as it was sharply
dividing Trump's isolationist “Make America Great Again” base from more
hawkish conservatives.
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, noted that in
January, Trump suggested the U.S. could “measure our success not only by
the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most
importantly, the wars we never get into.”
“Today, against his own words, the president sent bombers into Iran,”
Martin said in a statement. “Americans overwhelmingly do not want to go
to war. Americans do not want to risk the safety of our troops abroad.”
Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said the U.S. entering the war in
Iran “does not make America more secure.”
“This bombing was an act of war that risks retaliation by the Iranian
regime,” Welch said in a statement.
While progressives in the lead-up to the military action had staked out
clear opposition to Trump's potential intervention, the party leadership
played the safer ground of insisting on a role for Congress before any
use of force.
Martin's statement took a similar tact, stating, "Americans do not want
a president who bypasses our constitution and pulls us towards war
without Congressional approval. Donald Trump needs to bring his case to
Congress immediately.”
Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine called Trump's actions, “Horrible
judgement" and said he'd “push for all senators to vote on whether they
are for this third idiotic Middle East war.”
Many prominent Democrats with 2028 presidential aspirations had been
silent on the Israel-Iran war, even before Trump's announcement —
underscoring how politically tricky the issue can be for the party.
“They are sort of hedging their bets,” said Joel Rubin, a former deputy
assistant secretary of state who served under Democratic President
Barack Obama and is now a strategist on foreign policy. “The beasts of
the Democratic Party’s constituencies right now are so hostile to
Israel’s war in Gaza that it’s really difficult to come out looking like
one would corroborate an unauthorized war that supports Israel without
blowback.”
Progressive Democrats also are using Trump’s ideas and words
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had called Trump's consideration of an attack
“a defining moment for our party.” Khanna had introduced legislation
with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that called on the Republican president
to “terminate” the use of U.S. armed forces against Iran unless
“explicitly authorized” by a declaration of war from Congress.
Khanna used Trump’s own campaign arguments of putting American interests
first when the congressman spoke to Theo Von, a comedian who has been
supportive of the president and is popular in the so-called “manosphere"
of male Trump supporters.
“That’s going to cost this country a lot of money that should be being
spent here at home,” said Khanna, who is said to be among the many
Democrats eyeing the party's 2028 primary.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who twice sought the
Democratic presidential nomination, had pointed to Trump’s stated goal
during his inaugural speech of being known as “a peacemaker and a
unifier.”
"Supporting Netanyahu’s war against Iran would be a catastrophic
mistake,” Sanders said about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[to top of second column]
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from left, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.,
and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speak to reporters on Capitol Hill in
Washington, April 4, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Sanders reintroduced legislation prohibiting the use of federal
money for force against Iran, insisted that U.S. military
intervention would be unwise and illegal and accused Israel of
striking unprovoked. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New
York signed on to a similar bill from Sanders in 2020, but so far
was holding off this time.
Some believed the party should stake out a clear anti-war stance.
“The leaders of the Democratic Party need to step up and loudly
oppose war with Iran and demand a vote in Congress,” said Tommy
Vietor, a former Obama aide, on X.
Mainstream Democrats are cautious, while critical
The staunch support from the Democratic administration of President
Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for Israel’s war against
Hamas loomed over the party's White House ticket in 2024, even with
the criticism of Israel’s handling of the humanitarian crisis in
Gaza. Trump exploited the divisions to make inroads with Arab
American voters and Orthodox Jews on his way back to the White
House.
Today, the Israel-Iran war is the latest test for a party struggling
to repair its coalition before next year’s midterm elections and the
quick-to-follow kickoff to the 2028 presidential race. The party
will look to bridge the divide between an activist base that is
skeptical of foreign interventions and already critical of U.S.
support for Israel and more traditional Democrats and independents
who make up a sizable, if not always vocal, voting bloc.
In a statement after Israel’s first strikes on Iran, Schumer said
Israel has a right to defend itself and “the United States’
commitment to Israel’s security and defense must be ironclad as they
prepare for Iran’s response.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said “the U.S. must continue to stand with
Israel, as it has for decades, at this dangerous moment."
Other Democrats have condemned Israel’s strikes and accused
Netanyahu of sabotaging nuclear talks with Iran. They are reminding
the public that Trump withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear agreement that
limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting
of economic sanctions negotiated during the Obama administration.
“Trump created the problem,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted on
X.
The progressives' pushback
A Pearson Institute/Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
Research poll from September 2024 found that about half of Democrats
said the U.S. was being “too supportive” of Israel and about 4 in 10
said their level of support was “about right.” Democrats were more
likely than independents and Republicans to say the Israeli
government had “a lot” of responsibility for the continuation of the
war between Israel and Hamas.
About 6 in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans felt Iran was an
adversary with whom the U.S. was in conflict.
___
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Linley Sanders, Will
Weissert and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report
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