Sanders calls Trump’s Iran nuclear strikes ‘unconstitutional’ during rally

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was delivering remarks at a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally in Tusla, Okla., on Saturday night when President Donald Trump announced the United States had successfully attacked three nuclear sites in Iran. 

An aide interrupted Sanders’ remarks to deliver the message Trump had just blasted off on Truth Social. 

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in the post. 

Sanders read the piece of paper with Trump’s Truth Social post to his supporters, shaking his head as the socialist senator processed what the president had just announced. “No more wars!” the crowd chanted. 

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Trump added in the post: “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

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Sanders nodded along as the crowd continued to chant, “No more wars!” before responding to the news in real time. 

He said the news was not only “alarming,” but “so grossly unconstitutional.”

“All of you know that the only entity that can take this country to war is the U.S. Congress. The president does not have the right,” Sanders shouted. 

Sanders joins the bipartisan coalition in Congress who have called out the “unconstitutionality” of Trump striking Iran without congressional approval. 

A bipartisan War Powers Resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives this week as strikes between Israel and Iran raged on, and the world stood by to see if Trump would strike. Congress has the sole power to declare war under Article I of the Constitution. 

The War Powers Resolution seeks to “remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic State of Iran” and directs Trump to “terminate” the deployment of American troops against Iran without an “authorized declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military forces against Iran.”

“The American people do not want more war, more death!” Sanders said. “It might be a good idea if we concentrated on the problems that exist in Oklahoma and Vermont rather than getting involved in another war that the American people do not want.”

But Sanders told the crowd not to give up on their vision for America’s future. 

“In this moment in American history, what we have got to do in Vermont and Oklahoma, in Texas, all over this country, is stand up and fight back, and tell them this is our country!” Sanders said. 

Sanders has been a vocal opponent of the United States joining Israel in its war against Iran as Trump weighed striking its nuclear facilities. 

“Netanyahu is not the President of the United States,” Sanders said on social media earlier this week. 

“He should not be determining U.S. foreign and military policy. If the people of Israel support his decision to start a war with Iran, that is their business and their war. The United States must not be a part of it,” he added. 

The democratic socialist has been a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war against Gaza since Israel retaliated following Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. 

After Israel launched preemptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities last week, Sanders said it was “just his latest violation of international law,” likening Netanyahu to a “war criminal.”

The Vermont senator was speaking at his second rally of the day, part of his southern swing of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour that Sanders started in response to Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda. 

Rep. Greg Casar, D-Tx., and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Tx., are slated to join the Vermont senator at his rallies in Texas on Sunday. 

And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined Sanders on his Western swing of the tour earlier this year. 

The tour targets deep red districts currently held by Republicans, a strategy picked up by Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., who hosted town halls in Republican congressional districts, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) through their “People’s Town Halls” across the United States. 

Sanders also held a rally in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s hometown of Shreveport, La., on Saturday.