Booker and “Senate Six” “Declare War on Iran War”

Booker and “Senate Six” “Declare War on Iran War”

Booker on new war powers push: “We’re not going to let the Senate go on with business as usual.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and six of his Democratic colleagues are “on the war powers warpath” in response to President Trump’s reckless and unconstitutional war on Iran, readying a “volley of war powers resolutions,” and “threatening to use every procedural tool at their disposal” in order to exercise the Senate’s constitutional role in matters of war and peace, hold this administration accountable and require debate over the Iran War in the Senate.

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MS NOW The Rachel Maddow Show
Cory Booker Calls Out Trump's Dangerous, Strategic Blunders on The Rachel Maddow Show
March 16, 2026

Sen. Booker: “I think what we are witnessing here is the most monumental strategic stupidity exhibited by any president in our lifetime. I mean it is utterly outrageous that he is at one time begging people to come help with the mess that he created, causing the worst oil shock we have seen in our lifetime, begging people to help and then when they are not racing to help him, after he has already unleashed chaotic tariffs on them, after he has already insulted them before, demeaned and degraded them, didn’t go America first but America alone.” 

POLITICO
Dems on the War Powers Warpath
By: Daniella Cheslow and Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing
March 16, 2026

  • The war powers push Senate Democrats are leading this week is nearly bound to fail. But they’re out for concessions like public hearings from Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and to put Republicans on the record as supporting U.S. military action in Iran.
  • “We are optimistic that more public scrutiny of the administration’s lack of rationale and planning will hasten the end of this unnecessary war,” Sens. Tammy Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) And Chris Murphy (Conn.) wrote to NatSec Daily in a joint statement. They are all sponsors or cosponsors of half a dozen individual resolutions to rein in the administration’s Iran operations that they can begin to force votes on this week.

CNN State of the Union
Booker: ‘The Senate should not be operating as business as usual’ amid Iran war
March 15, 2026

Sen. Booker:  I understand past presidents have drifted and taken power from the article one branch of government. But at this scale, at this magnitude, at this cost, why is Congress just laying down and doing nothing? Because if we allow this to happen, then we give Trump the permission to say, "Okay, I finished with Venezuela. I went to Iran. Now I'm going to go to Cuba. Now I'm going to go to North Korea." It is outrageous and I never conceived that we could have this level of a military engagement without the people's house, Congress, doing something about it.” 

The Hill
Senate Democrat: Congress ‘feckless’ in handing over war powers
By: Ashleigh Fields
March 15, 2026

Sen. Booker: “This is a massive military undertaking, costing American taxpayers billions and billions of dollars and tragically costing 13 lives. So I understand past presidents have drifted and taken power from the Article 1 branch of government. But at this scale, at this magnitude, at this cost, why is Congress just laying down and doing nothing?” 

JAMIE STIEHM
Senate Six declare war on Iran War
By: Jamie Stiehm
March 13, 2026

  • Senator Booker voiced the strongest case against the escalating war in the Middle East.

Sen. Booker: "The president jumped into a war of choice with no oversight, no hearingsThe Senate has to do our job."

Sen. Booker: "This is the choice of one reckless individual. All that an authoritarian government needs is for the Senate and House to do nothing."

MS NOW Morning Joe
Cory Booker And Tim Kaine Call for Public Hearings on Iran
March 10, 2026

Sen. Booker: “You know what we're demanding is what the American people want. Like you have people sitting at home watching this president drive up their health care costs, drive up their fuel costs, cut their student lunch programs for their kids, cut the VA benefits for people who've been to war and come home. All while now he's expending billions and billions of dollars on this unilateral decision to go to war. and they're saying, "Hey, where's my Congress? You're supposed to provide a check and a balance. You're supposed to provide oversight. You're supposed to provide investigation. Damn, you're the most deliberative body and you're not even deliberating over this war. That's unacceptable." And so what we hope to do is bring these leaders before Congress and provide that oversight that is urgent right now when Americans are paying the ultimate sacrifice for Donald Trump's war. And let me say one last thing. I don't think this is defensible.” 

CNN The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Sen. Booker joins Colleagues to discuss Trump's illegal war with Iran and War Powers Push
March 9, 2026

Sen. Booker: “This is a major military conflict with a major power in the Middle East that American lives are being lost and the Senate of the United States of America is rolling over and doing nothing. No oversight, no hearings, no checks and balances. Republicans in the Senate are letting this president act unilaterally, which the Constitution says there's no way you a president can indiscriminately pick countries he wants to invade. That power lies with Congress. But Congress has got to use their power. And that's why the four of us along with Senator Murphy, Senator Duckworth, and others are saying enough. No more business as usual. Our country is in crisis. The costs for average Americans are skyrocketing. And this president wants to spend tens of billions of dollars in his adventures overseas without coming to Congress.”  

Semafor
Senate Democrats vow to force Iran war votes if Republicans don’t hold hearings
By: Burgess Everett
March 9, 2026

  • Senate Democrats are threatening to force repeated votes on President Donald Trump’s war with Iran unless Republicans agree to hold committee hearings about the ongoing war.
  • Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Adam Schiff of California, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut introduced the resolutions last week. They will be ready for floor action in the coming days and weeks.
  • Now is the time for Democrats to use all the leverage we have to try to stop this unnecessary war,’all five senators and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said in a statement for this story.

NOTUS
Senate Democrats Threaten to Gum Up the Works With Repeat Iran War Powers Votes
By: Hahmed Ahmadi
March 9, 2026

Sen. Booker: “We’re not going to let the Senate go on with business as usual.”

CNBC
Democrats threaten more Iran war powers votes, call for Hegseth, Rubio to testify
By: Justin Papp
March 9, 2026

  • A group of Senate Democrats is vowing to force a series of war powers votes to block further military activity in Iran unless Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio testify publicly.
  • Six Democrats in the U.S. The Senate on Monday said they are embarking on an intensified campaign for public hearings on the Iran war, with top Trump administration officials testifying under oath and to take steps to interrupt regular Senate business if Republicans resist.

The Hill
Democrats vow to shut down Senate over Iran conflict
By: Alexander Bolton
March 9, 2026

  • A group of Senate Democrats are threatening to use every procedural tool at their disposal to hold up business on the Senate floor unless Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior officials testify before key committees under oath on the military conflict with Iran.

Sen. Booker: “We have collectively agreed that we’re going to use the levers that we have. We should be having hearings on the biggest military engagement since the war in Afghanistan.”

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