Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, ripped Donald Trump for his military attack against Iran on Saturday, saying the move is “absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

Ocasio-Cortez ripped the president’s action on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote, “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

On the other hand, Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, came to Trump’s side and wrote on X, “As I’ve long maintained, this was the correct move by @POTUS. Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism and cannot have nuclear capabilities. I’m grateful for and salute the finest military in the world.”

  • @[email protected]
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    6018 days ago

    clearly grounds for impeachment

    …add it to the pile, I guess.

    But considering that impeachment is a legal process and that the current administration has zero respect for or inclination to follow the law, it’s not like it’ll accomplish shit. Dude needs to be deposed by those who have sworn to defend the constitution from domestic threats (the military) not run through some formal process.

    • @[email protected]
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      1618 days ago

      Impeachment is specifically NOT a legal process but a political one. Trump’s second impeachment acquittal was based on impeachment being a political process, and that the criminal justice system was the correct venue for J6.

      That’s also why the Justice department policy on not charging a sitting president and the SCOTUS ruling that Presidents are immune from prosecution are bullshit.

      • @[email protected]
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        418 days ago

        I mean, in practice, I guess yeah. On paper, it’s initiated by a political process, but ultimately it’s a criminal investigation. The acquittal was due to the process being wrongfully politicized. In a system that actually followed its own rules, he’d have been indicted and imprisoned for the crimes he’s committed against the US.

        The system we have will, at best, put on a dog-and-pony show, call it “impeachment”, and try to pass that off as actual justice like it did last time.

    • Øπ3ŕ
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      118 days ago

      run through

      Sounds downright piratey, but that’ll work, too.

  • @[email protected]
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    2918 days ago

    Every day the Criminal in Chief commits impeachable crimes. Every. Day.

    This is just the latest. But Congress is currently packed with illegitimate, undemocratically placed criminal cronies who face no accountability while shielding their criminal collaborators from accountability. So here we are.

  • Kamikaze Rusher
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    1518 days ago

    I don’t disagree that bombing Iran puts us at risk of starting a war we don’t want to be involved in. However I think the public is too split on the matter to put majority support behind impeachment.

    Conservative circles themselves appear divided with some saying the display of force was necessary and avoided direct conflict (minimizing operational costs), some saying the President is authorized to conduct these actions under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, and some voicing dissent or disapproval altogether of this action.

    The War Powers Resolution will probably be the loophole that conservative outlets use to claim that Trump has done nothing wrong. I don’t know if there’s been an exercise of this authority without congressional approval that has lead to the targeted country declaring war as a result. If this were to happen, maybe there will be clear grounds to impeach, but I don’t think the public will display a majority support for it to happen.

    • Kühlschrank
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      518 days ago

      I agree that for practical purposes there is not the support for impeachment. But I do think that every unconstitutional thing he does should be called out with the simple but direct message that ‘impeachment and removal is the only remedy to a corrupt and unconstitutional POTUS’. We should say that over and over and over so that takes on its own meaning and the public is ready for it when sentiment inevitably brings us to the point it is actually possible.

  • @[email protected]
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    4118 days ago

    Israel is quite literally the world’s biggest terrorist nation state. The paper thin transparent spin tactics of Israel’s defenders would be amusing if the results of its terrorism wasn’t so horrifying.

  • flandish
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    7618 days ago

    he’s been impeached. what’s another one gonna do except distract everyone while he continues to war?

    • @[email protected]
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      6818 days ago

      If the senate actually has balls, they can remove him from office. Impeachment doesnt inherently carry consequences. The senate determines consequence

      The first two times were like a jury declaring a person guilty, and then the judge came in for sentences and said, “eh but did he really do it? I sentence you to… no punishment.”

      • @[email protected]
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        3418 days ago

        The older I get, the more I feel like the Senate is essentially the means through which corporations and the capital class defeat any popular movement. Our Constitution was written mostly by drunk, privileged, rich kids. I think sometimes you can really smell the disdain for lower classes in the way everything is built.

          • @[email protected]
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            318 days ago

            I guess, but I am referring more to that there should only be a House of Representatives, and that the Senate serves no purpose other than to represent corporate interests and tamp down on popular sentiment.

            • Devolution
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              318 days ago

              And I’m saying that Ancient Rome only had a senate (no house or senate branches) and their corruption reached a point to where the ideal of a dictator was an improvement over the status quo.

              Many Americans thought this. But the best they could come up with was Trump???

      • @[email protected]
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        1918 days ago

        The first two times were like a jury declaring a person guilty, and then the judge came in for sentences and said, “eh but did he really do it? I sentence you to… no punishment.”

        Not quite. The first two times were like a grand jury returning an indictment. That’s the House’s part of the equation. They have a vote requiring 50% of members to vote to impeach the president, effectively indicting him. The Senate then has to hold a trial that which takes a 67% vote to convict him and remove him from office.

        Saying he has been impeached twice but not removed from office is the equivalent of saying someone has been indicted twice but not convicted. He hasn’t yet been convicted.

      • Photuris
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        418 days ago

        The reason (well, one of the reasons) they don’t do it, is because Trump ignores orders. Meaning: if they want to remove him from office, it would literally come down to sending goons in to physically remove him, and the other goons might resist. It would get ugly.

        • @[email protected]
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          1018 days ago

          No, the reason was Reds protecting their guy and refusing to hold him to account. Even if what you suggested were part of their motivation, the optics of Trump refusing accountability and literally being dragged out, hasn’t been paying attention to the optics that Trump himself brings to the US and the GOP, specifically. It’s a pretty shit justification.

        • @[email protected]
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          2318 days ago

          Um, *raises hand* point of parliamentary procedure; people are suffering and quite literally dying right now. It’s already extremely ugly.

          • Photuris
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            13 days ago

            Yes, but most Democrats in congress are feckless cowards. They don’t want to be seen “instigating” something ugly.

            Instead, they’ll give speeches, hold up plaquards, and write firmly-worded letters.

            And the Republicans are complicit, so.

            Edit: I’m not sure why I was downvoted for calling Democrats feckless and ineffective, and Republicans complicit in tyranny. Because, well, fucking look around.

            I’m not equating the two parties. It’s just that, with a few notable exceptions, our voting choices tend to be between Evil and Chickenshit.

        • @[email protected]
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          618 days ago

          The moment they decide he’s removed, he has no authority to stop them from removing him. Sec Serv wouldn’t listen to him. He’d be an 80 year old man hiding behind a door.

    • @[email protected]
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      518 days ago

      IMO this is business as usual thinking.

      The left needs to push for a vote to get Congress on the record where they stand.

      And even if it doesn’t pass, getting some Republicans to vote yes would be a big win and a first step towards checking TACO.

  • @[email protected]
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    10718 days ago

    If literally anyone thinks “it’s okay that Trump bombed Iran, it was the right move”…

    Then couldnt you just argue that “if it was such an obviously right move, wouldn’t it have been easy to get congress to approve it?”

    It’s illogical to on one hand say it was the right thing to do, while ignoring the fact he did it without approval.

    If it was so right, then approval would’ve been easy to get…?

    • Lady Butterfly she/her
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      3318 days ago

      Trump fans would say he couldn’t ask because they’d unfairly block him. And he’s a decisive dynamic man who took initiative. Or something

    • redfellow
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      18 days ago

      Sorry but EU is neither a lapdog nor responsible for the disaster you voted for. We aren’t really asking for much these days, either. Business is good and new deals with China are boosting the economy.

  • @[email protected]M
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    3518 days ago

    Like Obama’s action against Libya? 🤔

    Look, I don’t like Trump either, but this is the same bullshit threat Republicans dropped when Obama was President.

      • @[email protected]
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        18 days ago

        I’m a bit confused. Isn’t the War Powers Act what gives congress the power to declare war, and the president can only do so if the US is DIRECTLY attacked? Someone more educated in US constitutional acts please correct me if I’m wrong, I know post-9/11 a lot of stuff got…“suspended in times of need”.

        • @[email protected]
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          518 days ago

          The war powers act makes it lawful for a president to take military action against any country, provided Congress is notified within 48 hours of that action. Then a president gets 60 days + 30 “withdrawal” to wage any war they want without congressional approval. Furthermore it’s been ruled violations are basically irrelevant if troops are gone before the matter gets to the supreme court.

          Clinton and Obama both violated this law with 0 consequences. Trump might also violate the law, but we won’t know for 90 days.

          • @[email protected]
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            218 days ago

            I see, thank you for the explanation! I only learned about it in school within the context of Nixon and Vietnam during history class.

          • @[email protected]
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            118 days ago

            This is the right answer. Trump is absolutely a piece of garbage, and I think he was wrong for attacking Iran, but at this point I don’t think he’s broken any laws by attacking Iran.

    • ORbituary
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      3818 days ago

      Agreed. Except Netanyahu, a genocidal prick pulling the puppet strings of the White House for years, didn’t goad Obama into that. Obama made that terrible decision alone.

      Trump is a manbaby who’s easily manipulated.

      • @[email protected]
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        418 days ago

        We’d have to prove that Trump was inappropriately influenced by an outside power before I support impeachment. Even though my gut tells me he probably traded bombs for a bucket of fried chicken…

        • @[email protected]
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          1118 days ago

          Really? Even though he blatantly defied the constitution and attacked a foreign state out of nowhere without approval? That isn’t enough, he also needs to be stupid and easily manipulated (which he obviously is based on the mountains of evidence) before you want to hold him accountable?

          Go fuck yourself.

          • @[email protected]
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            618 days ago

            I will go fuck myself. But let’s be fair. Clinton and Obama both dropped bombs(Obama did it theu drone strikes) on Iraq and other places like Yeman. Must be realistic about what “impeachable offenses” are and since “official acts” are off the table for presidential prosecution we should look to see if an act was “unofficial” i.e. illegal.

              • @[email protected]
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                318 days ago

                Well, I truly believe Trump is evil and should be impeached and thrown of out office, I just don’t think it will be for this unless an inside can provide proof that Trump did it for reasons, “OTHER Than self defense”, it’s just too easy for our Presidents to say, “I felt like Iran was a threat that constituted an emergency and then decided to act in order to protect America.”.

                Over all, we’ve just given the PResident far too much power.

                And I agree with your previous statement, he should have had authorization from somewhere, like a defense subcommittee or joint congressional/bi-partisan panel. This is something we should probably fix for the future…

  • @[email protected]
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    18 days ago

    I think it depends. If Iran can be tenuously linked to AlQuaeda, then it’s legal.

    Edit, I’m downvoted by people who don’t even know the laws of their country that have been (ab)used by every one of their presidents for the last 20 years…

    • Saik0
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      118 days ago

      I think it depends. If Iran can be tenuously linked to AlQuaeda, then it’s legal.

      Eh… We know that Iran was harbored AlQaeda, wouldn’t be hard to claim that they’re still doing it. I bring this up from time to time… While I was deployed to Jalalabad, we never had issues with the locals. Everyone that ever bombed that FOB while I was there was coming over the Iranian border and mortaring us from the mountains, then retreating back to Iran.

      Sometimes we could get air assets up quickly enough to handle them before they got back to the Iranian border. But we couldn’t follow them into Iran. Many… many requests were made to Iran to stop this. Didn’t stop until the base was closed down due to the pull out.

  • Kindness is Punk
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    118 days ago

    Impeachment was never the real battle it was always about Senate driven consequences. In a Republican-controlled Senate, ‘accountability’ is a one-way street paved entirely for Democrats. Their majority exists to shield their own from justice while weaponizing procedure against the opposition. Until that imbalance is broken, consequences will remain a fantasy reserved only for the left.

  • @[email protected]
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    118 days ago

    To skip congress, all they need is “something” they can use to say it is urgent. And they do have satellite activity showing a bunch of cargo trucks or what not. So they can hang thier hat on that and say it couldn’t wait. That would make it pretty hard to impeach on frankly. So this call is just political theater.

    Now as for should we have done it… well I can at least see both sides. Iran has been defiant in it’s continued operation of it nuclear program. And all the “talks” haven’t really done much. The bombing likely does slow them down at least. Of course the other side to that questions what right does the US have to say other countries can research nuclear anything.

    So there really everything about this is in the gray area where logical arguments could be made and debated endlessly about.

    • @[email protected]
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      1318 days ago

      Trump pulled out of the negotiated nuclear deal.

      Trump then said they’re so bad for not making a deal.

      Trump then bombed them.

      There’s no point here where Trump acted right.

      • @[email protected]
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        218 days ago

        I’m not saying he did. I am saying it can be argued endlessly in all directions. Which counters the “clearly” impeachable part. And really, he has done much less gray things he could be impeached on. This isn’t going to be the one that makes it happen.

    • @[email protected]
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      418 days ago

      Are you suggesting that seeing a bunch of cargo trucks on satellites means that it’s would have been able to go from no nukes to functional nukes in less time than it would take comes to vote on striking? Cargo trucks and mobilization in a foreign country is absolutely not a justifiable reason to attack. Especially considering the strikes that came before and the evacuation that Iran went through in anticipation of Trump’s terrorism. There’s naturally going to be an uptick in activity.

      There’s absolutely no gray area in this one. There wasn’t an imminent threat and he bypassed the constitution by bypassing Congress to attack a foreign nation.

      • @[email protected]
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        118 days ago

        Its not about imminent threat. The “stated” purpose of the strike was to prevent the use of the materials at the site in a bomb. (Nevermind that our own intelligence people said they were still years away originally). But under that goal, cargo trucks could move material to many different locations and make it nearly impossible to keep track of. While there is a lot of BS in there. It’s an argument that can be made.

    • @[email protected]
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      1318 days ago

      “He’s guilty of crimes. He should be prosecuted for those crimes.”

      “You stupid idiot leftists. Don’t you realize opposing rich people never works? Just brown nose them so you can become one somebody. That’s the real ticket.”

      • @[email protected]
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        18 days ago

        There are twice as many NFL players on their standard rosters than there are billionaires in the U.S.

        Mathematically the ~850 billionaires make up 0.00025% of the population.

        The average person is about 22 times more likely to get struck by lightning than to become a billionaire.

        There’s a lot of people trying that brown nosing tactic, yet don’t realize there isn’t room on the roster for infinite members, there is a fairly finite amount of funds, and for someone to move up, the money has to come from others. Roughly the net worth of 5,000 U.S. families given to one person. But in reality, the devaluing of wealth from near every individual in the U.S. so they can have it.

      • @[email protected]
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        218 days ago

        You make progress by fighting the battles you can win. Fighting battles you can’t win is all about getting attention and accomplishing nothing.