{"id":42176,"date":"2025-06-25T12:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42176"},"modified":"2025-06-25T12:57:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T19:57:38","slug":"i-havent-taken-a-look-at-it-jeffries-blows-off-resolution-to-limit-trumps-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/25\/i-havent-taken-a-look-at-it-jeffries-blows-off-resolution-to-limit-trumps-iran-war\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Haven’t Taken a Look at It’: Jeffries Blows Off Resolution to Limit Trump’s Iran War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"House<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) holds a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo: Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Who is going to primary this guy?” said one critic. “Please. I am begging someone to step up.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

STEPHEN PRAGER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 24, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shocked war opponents Monday when he told reporters he had not looked at a bipartisan resolution that would require congressional approval for military action against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has beat the drums for war with Iran in recent weeks, Reps. Ro Khanna<\/a> (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a resolution<\/a> to invoke the War Powers Act of 1973, which would require the president to seek congressional approval before taking military action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution to put a check on Trump’s war-making powers in Iran had 59 Democratic co-sponsors. A group of 12 House Democrats\u2014all military veterans, most of whom had not been initial co-sponsors\u2014also voiced their support for the resolution in a letter<\/a> on Monday. A similar resolution, introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), has gained traction<\/a> in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a press conference<\/a> Monday, Jeffries (D-N.Y.) agreed that the Trump administration should “have to come before Congress and explain their justification” for its “offensive military strike” against Iran over the weekend. But when a reporter asked whether he supported Khanna and Massie’s resolution, Jeffries brushed off the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I haven’t taken a look at it,” Jeffries said, before quickly moving to the next question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution was released six days before Jeffries’ comment and is less than 400 words long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1937230550512595396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1937230550512595396%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fjeffries-iran-war-powers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conflict with Iran is extraordinarily unpopular with the public. A YouGov poll<\/a> conducted Sunday\u2014hours after Trump announced strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities\u2014found that 85% of American adults, including 92% of Democrats, did not want the U.S. to be at war with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries was already facing criticism for what many viewed as a weak response to Trump’s push to war. His failure to address the War Powers proposal only fueled that anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Look at my opposition party dawg,” wrote<\/a> independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, who posted the viral clip on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries’ answer quickly drew more angry rebukes from war critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hey, not like this is an urgent matter with lives on the line. He’ll get to it,” quipped<\/a>Reason<\/em> Magazine commentator Zach Weissmueller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krystal Ball, the left-wing co-host of the Breaking Points <\/em>podcast, was dismayed, calling for new Democratic leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Who is going to primary this guy?” Ball tweeted<\/a>. “Please. I am begging someone to step up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)\u2014one of the Democratic Party’s staunchest defenders<\/a> of Israel\u2014had also voiced support <\/a>for using the War Powers Act following Trump’s strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffries’ response also reignited scrutiny on his support from the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC<\/a>), which has been one of the strongest advocates<\/a> for Trump’s aggressive actions against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the video, the group Track AIPAC<\/a>, which monitors donations by pro-Israel lobbyists, shared a graphic showing the large sums Jeffries has received from such groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=e30%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1937236293030982095&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fjeffries-iran-war-powers&partner=rebelmouse&sessionId=c39f28c8615d583cce034e5e9f43dc6b0ed8aa5c&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to OpenSecrets<\/a>, Jeffries was the top recipient of money from pro-Israel lobbying groups in the House of Representatives during the 2023-24 election cycle, receiving more than $1.1 million. AIPAC was also Jeffries’ top contributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Michael Arria wrote for Mondoweiss<\/a><\/em> Monday, many of Jeffries’ comments have closely mirrored AIPAC’s talking points, including reiterating that U.S. support for Israel<\/a> is “ironclad” and his claim that Iran “poses a grave threat to the entire free world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Many prominent Democrats who have expressed concerns about Trump\u2019s process have effectively endorsed his rationale,” Arria wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPHEN PRAGER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) holds a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2025.  (Photo: Bill Clark\/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) “Who is going to primary this guy?” said one critic. “Please. I am begging someone to step up.” STEPHEN PRAGER Jun 24, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42177,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42176\/revisions\/42177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}