Congress is divided over the recent U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran, particularly following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Republicans are largely backing the operation, while Democrats are questioning President Trump‘s strategy and pushing for congressional approval.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, made it clear that he thinks it is “not our job” to pick Iran’s next leader, and that the U.S. should not put “boots on the ground” in the region. For Graham, the main goal is to ensure Iran can no longer be the largest state sponsor of terrorism, and he believes removing the supreme leader was a crucial step.
According to NBC News, he called President Trump the “gold standard for foreign policy achievements as a Republican president” on X. Democrats, however, are divided on whether Khamenei’s death actually makes the U.S. safer.
A war powers vote is gaining support among Democrats, but deep strategic questions remain unanswered
Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, stated that while Khamenei was a “brutal dictator,” Americans are not necessarily safer today. Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, agreed the world is safer without Khamenei, but criticized Trump’s public statements about hoping for a peaceful merger of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the police, saying, “Hope is not a strategy.”
Kelly also criticized President Trump for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal during his first term and raised concerns about continuing military operations without ground troops. Graham, meanwhile, insisted there “will be no American boots on the ground,” stressing this is not like past interventions in Iraq, Germany, or Japan, and that the aim is to “free the people up from a terrorist regime.”
If there’s one lesson the Iranian regime should have learned by now, it’s this: President @realDonaldTrump does not ignore those with American blood on their hands. pic.twitter.com/l0tU5Wuxog
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 1, 2026
It is worth noting that Trump’s advisers warned the Iran conflict could turn catastrophic, yet those warnings were reportedly ignored. Following the strikes, many Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are calling for a war powers vote, which would require the administration to get Congress’s approval for any future military actions.
Khanna believes almost every Democrat would support such a vote, even if it might not pass, arguing that since “we’re at war with Iran,” Congress needs to have a say. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, said he “saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of pre-emptive strike against the United States of America,” calling this a “war of choice” by President Trump.
While Warner said he would not “shed any tears over the death of the Iranian leadership,” he raised a key question: “Is America safer or not? That, to me, is very much of an open question.” Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, argued that Iran’s missile capabilities, including their space launch program, represent a “gathering threat.”
Military families deserve answers. What is the President’s plan in the Middle East? pic.twitter.com/lmPzSFGkZR
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) March 1, 2026
He fully supported Trump’s actions, saying it is “absolutely vital and necessary now to address that threat before it fully materializes in the near future.” Meanwhile, the rising civilian toll and rattled markets paint a broader picture of the conflict’s real-world impact.
Congress remains split, with Republicans focused on eliminating threats and avoiding ground troops, while Democrats are demanding a clear strategy and congressional oversight. The central question that neither side has a definitive answer to is whether America is truly safer now, and what the long-term plan actually looks like.
