Neither Schumer Nor Hakeem Jeffries Was Serious About Defending America’s Constitutional Order

Democratic Congressional Leadership Is Found Hollow Again

Yesterday a member of Congress called me to chit chat while he was waiting for a plane. I said I would bet that before he landed we would be at war. He didn’t think so, but he had the House Democrats’ talking point ready: “Only Congress can declare war.” I agree… although did Trump “declare war” or just hit 3 Iranian sites in unprovoked sneak attacks? Ted Cruz says that’s not war and doesn’t require congressional approval. Lindsey Graham, as you might guess, agrees. Warren Davidson, an Ohio GOP extremist, didn’t agree; “it’s hard to conceive a rationale that’s Constitutional.” Thomas Massie agrees: “This is not Constitutional.”

Straying for the official Democratic talking points, AOC said the bombing raid is “absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.” MAGA Mike isn't going to move on that, of course. But does anyone think Hakeem Jeffries would?

Hakeem Jeffries, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AIPAC, was more circumspect, saying only that Trump “failed to seek congressional authorization for the use of military force and risks American entanglement in a potentially disastrous war in the Middle East.” Watching his AIPAC puppet masters in the rearview mirror, he stopped short of labeling the attack illegal or unconstitutional. His #2, Katherine Clark, isn’t burden down the way he is by AIPAC: “The power to declare war resides solely with Congress. Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to attack Iran is unauthorized and unconstitutional. In doing so, the President has exposed our military and diplomatic personnel in the region to the risk of further escalation.”

Listen to Trump spewing propaganda and lies while the three stooges look on expressionless. This is so embarrassing and disgusting:

Before the attack Peter Beinart had written that “On many issues, Americans are deeply polarized. War with Iran isn’t one of them. An Economist/YouGov poll of U.S. adults taken in the days after Israel’s attack last Friday found that Democrats opposed entering the conflict by a margin of 50 points and Republicans opposed entering it by a margin of 30 points.” I expect those numbers will change and there will be a rally-round-the-flag moment for Señor TACO. At least in part that will be because of Democratic AIPAC puppets like Jeffries and Schumer, leaders of the opposition who do not oppose when it counts. 

“Given these numbers,” wrote Beinart, “you might think Democratic leaders would be doing everything they can to prevent President Trump from striking Iran without the approval of Congress. Sadly, they’re not. More than 20 years ago, powerful Washington Democrats acceded too timidly to a catastrophic Middle Eastern war. Now they’re at risk of doing so again.” They were at risk. Now they share the blame, having “said nothing about the need for Congress to authorize war. As the days passed and news reports suggested that Trump was edging toward entering the fray, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, invoked the War Powers Act to require the president to gain congressional permission. Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, proposed something similar in the House. Neither Schumer nor Jeffries has signed on.”Both should be fired at once. Beinart said Schumer and Jeffries should have led a full-throated public campaign but that neither did. Did anyone imagine they would?

Given the gravity of this moment, Democratic leaders should be holding news conferences, addressing mass protests, even bringing Congress to a standstill with all-night filibusters in order to prevent an unauthorized, unjustified war. The public is deeply weary of conflict. And yet top Democrats are not boldly rallying them against the possibility of another.

This is a serious blunder. It’s a foreign policy blunder because Iran— a corrupt and brutal regime interested primarily in staying in power— poses no more of a direct threat to the United States than Iraq did nearly a quarter-century ago. An American strike on the Islamic republic would probably violate international law and further erode whatever credibility the United States has left when it criticizes Chinese aggression toward Taiwan or Russian aggression toward Ukraine. American intervention in Iran could also fracture the country, as the United States did when it bombed Iraq and Libya— in both cases creating greater dangers than existed before.

In addition, both Republicans and Democrats should realize that yielding the right to authorize war to the president alone has costs that go beyond foreign policy. For at least 50 years, historians have noted that wars expand presidential power. In peacetime, Trump has had to invent national emergencies to justify his authoritarian power grabs, like sending the Marines to Los Angeles. It’s terrifying to think what he might do if America is actually at war.

The War Powers Resolution, which Kaine, Massie and Khanna are trying to employ, was passed in the waning years of Vietnam, when another lawless president, Richard Nixon, tried to use the cover of war to subvert the Constitution. Schumer and Jeffries are their party’s leaders; if they won’t fight for the War Powers Resolution now— when the most lawless president in modern American history is contemplating waging a lawless war— then they’re not serious about defending America’s constitutional order in its moment of peril.

Finally, failing to aggressively defend Congress’s role in authorizing war would be political malpractice for Democrats.

On foreign policy, Trump has never been more politically vulnerable. In 2016 and 2024, his pledge to keep the United States out of foreign wars proved crucial to his appeal. Now he could be close to breaking that promise, despite clear opposition from Americans of both major parties. And some of his most influential supporters are accusing him of betrayal.

By failing to adequately push back against Trump, Schumer and Jeffries are not only alienating an already alienated Democratic base. They’re squandering a unique opportunity to lure part of the MAGA coalition to their side.

On the 20th anniversary of America’s invasion of Iraq, Schumer offered something of an apology for supporting that war in 2002. “With the luxury of hindsight,” he said, “it’s clear that the president bungled the war from start to finish and should not have ever been given that benefit.” He pledged to learn from his mistake by “putting the war powers back where they belong— in the hands of Congress.”

Now, with the United States on the verge of what might be its most disastrous military adventure since it toppled Saddam Hussein, it’s time for Schumer to fulfill that promise. So far, he’s showing that he hasn’t learned much at all.

But of course, Schumer never learns. And Jeffries never leads. Together, they represent the spiritual descendants of the same hollow Democratic leadership class that green-lit the Iraq War (Gephardt who was fired for it), rubber-stamped mass surveillance and rolled over every time a Republican president waved the flag and cried “national security.” These men don’t lead movements; they manage decay. They don’t challenge power; they accommodate it. Their instincts are AIPAC-demanded, poll-tested, consultant-approved and utterly divorced from the urgency this moment demands.

When Trump unilaterally attacks Iran— without congressional approval, without public support and without a shred of strategic clarity— Schumer and Jeffries respond not with fury, but with mild-mannered concern. While Trump bulldozes the Constitution and ignites yet another powder keg in the Middle East, they hold press availabilities. They tweet. They issue vaguely worded statements carefully engineered to avoid offending donors, particularly the billionaire class underwriting AIPAC’s lock on Democratic leadership. Moral cowardice, sure; goodbye… but it’s political suicide. Trump just handed them the clearest opening in years to reassert congressional authority, defend the Constitution, and speak to the war-weary American public with one voice: Enough. But instead of seizing that moment, they shrank from it. Why? Because standing up to war means standing up to the military-industrial lobby. Because defending democracy means challenging a bipartisan consensus built on cowardice, complicity, and campaign cash. Schumer helped sell the Iraq War. Jeffries is helping sell the next one. The difference is that this time, no one can pretend to be fooled. This isn’t a repeat of 2002; it’s a rerun that Democrats could have at least tried to cancel in pre-production— if only their leaders had spines instead of focus groups.

If Democratic voters want real opposition, they’ll have to look outside the marble halls of the leadership suites. Because Schumer and Jeffries aren’t resisting Trump’s war— they’re enabling it, just like their predecessors did. And history won’t forget it.

This is as good a time as any to list the non-incumbent House candidates who were most financially favored by the Israel-First caucus led by AIPAC (These figures do NOT include independent expenditures. Defeated candidates in bold type are running again this cycle):

• Wesley Bell (D-MO)- $2,744,534

• George Latimer (D-NY)- $2,538,736

• Steven Irwin (defeated-PA)- $689,487

• Antone Melton-Meaux (defeated-MN)- $648,957

• Sarah Elfreth (D-MD)- $611,579

• Mazi Melesa Pilip (defeated-NY)- $230,006

• Nikki Budzinski (D-IL)- $205,064

• Kirsten Engel (defeated-AZ)- $1181,629

• Christina Bohannan (defeated-IA)- $175,541

• Kristen Mcdonald Rivet (D-MI)- $159,654

• Jake Elzey (R-TX)- $132,082

• Ashley Ehasz (defeated-PA)- $112,349

• Gabe Amo (D-RI)- $100,563

• Rebecca Cooke (defeated-WI)- $99,045

• Carl Marlinga (defeated-MI)- $97,298

• Monica Tranel (defeated-MT)- $93,661

• Seth Magaziner (D-RI)- $90,626

• Scott Baugh (defeated-CA)- $90,613