Amna Nawaz:
Well, for more now on how the White House and Congress are responding to the strikes, I’m joined now by our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, and our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins.
So, Liz, kick us off here. We saw President Trump make his first public appearance today since the war began over the weekend. What did he say?
Liz Landers:
Right.
This was the first public event that the president has had since this started. It was a Medal of Honor ceremony that he had in the East Room of the White House. And, as Nick pointed out in his reporting there, we really heard for the first time the objectives that the administration, that the president is laying out here for these attacks on Iran.
However, the way that the president has gone about explaining this to the public has been nontraditional. He and his allies like to say he’s a nontraditional president. We have seen these TRUTH Social videos that he has recorded and posted over the last few days. He’s also done a number of phone calls with journalists.
He’s talked with CNN, “The Atlantic.” And earlier today, he spoke with The New York Post and saying something that would impact a lot of people, of course, is, he was asked if he would send U.S. troops on the ground there to the region. And he said, if they were necessary, so not ruling that out.
Reporters in the room trying to ask questions of him as he left. I tried to ask a question of the president. He did not talk to reporters today at the White House.
Amna Nawaz:
As you know, Liz, this is a president who ran on an America-first platform, no new foreign wars. How is all of this resonating with his base?
Liz Landers:
This was a huge part of why people liked him. And when I reported on the 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns, a lot of the MAGA base said that they really supported this part of the president’s agenda.
Today, we’re seeing some backlash from some of these MAGA conservative voices and commentators. People like Tucker Carlson called the attack — quote — “absolutely disgusting and evil” in an interview over the weekend. We also heard from former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a very close former ally of the president, no longer.
She said on X, she said: “We voted for America-first and zero wars.”
He is getting some defense, though, from far right activists like Laura Loomer, who we know she does talk to the president occasionally. She is defending these actions. But when you also look more broadly at how the American public is responding to this, we’re starting to get some polling.
Reuters and Ipsos did a poll post these attacks. It showed that only 27 percent of Americans approved of the U.S. strikes that killed Iran’s leader; 43 percent disapproved of the Iran strikes; 29 percent said that they were not sure. More than half, 56 percent of Americans, said that they believe that the president is too willing to use military force.
So, Amna, the president definitely still has some selling to do to the American public.
Amna Nawaz:
So, Lisa, that’s where the American public is. What about Congress, the branch responsible for war? Where are they on the U.S. attacks in Iran?
Lisa Desjardins:
As Nick reported, Secretary of State Rubio was up on the Hill talking to the top eight leaders today.
And I want to point out something he said to the press before he went in. He made the argument that the president not only doesn’t need authority from Congress, but he didn’t even need to notify all of Congress. Listen.
Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State: There’s no law that requires the president to have done anything with regards to this. To begin with, no president, presidential administration has ever accepted the War Powers Act as constitutional, not Republican presidents, not Democratic presidents.
That said, we have followed the notification at 48 hours, and we’re here today.
Lisa Desjardins:
Now, the War Powers Act is not just significant because of the notification requirement, but because it limits presidents to having this kind of conflict power for just 60 to 90 days.
And what Rubio is saying here is what other presidents said before. They’re ignoring, that he’s going to keep this up as long as they want. Now, as for Congress themselves, it was remarkable that he said this just days before we expect a vote in the House over whether Congress should block action in Iran without congressional approval.
It is a tough vote, especially for some Democrats. There are some very pro-Israel Democrats that are nervous about the situation. They want to support Israel. There are others who are Article I kind of constitutionalist Democrats that are not sure what to do and on the front line.
Right now, I don’t think that has the votes to pass the House, but it is going to be a vote to watch.
Amna Nawaz:
Well, we know DHS funding is in question right now. There’s a government — partial government shutdown. Will the Iran action impact that at all?
Lisa Desjardins:
The short answer is no. It doesn’t seem to be. Democrats are still digging in. They say we may have something overseas that we need to pay very close attention to that’s significant, but that doesn’t change the issues that we have.
Now, what could change is when more people start missing paychecks. That is still a week-and-a-half away.
Amna Nawaz:
Lisa Desjardins, Liz Landers, thank you so much.
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