This vote isn't about supporting or opposing President Trump. I voted for President Trump. I plan to vote for President Trump again. This vote is about exercising our constitutional authority, but more importantly, our moral obligation to decide when and where our troops [00:00:17] are going to be asked to give their lives. And we certainly don't need another war. And if we do go to war, it needs to be with the blessing and the support of the people and a mission that our soldiers can accomplish. And we do that by following the vision of our Founding fathers. We debate it here on the floor of the House. [00:00:34] - That's what this resolution is about. - Five years ago, GOP Congressman Thomas Massie was one of three Republican representatives that supported a resolution to stop Trump from taking military action against Iran [00:00:50] without congressional approval. Now that our special ally Israel has waged war with Iran, Massie is urging opposition to war again. Massie is one of the most outspoken Republicans in urging the President and Congress against further U.S. [00:01:07] Military action abroad, and he is consistent about this to his credit. He posted this to X yesterday. This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution. I'm introducing a bipartisan War Powers resolution tomorrow [00:01:24] to prohibit our involvement. I invite all members of Congress to co-sponsor this resolution. Now, before we get into the details and the reactions, what are your thoughts on this? Oh thank God. So we should all be helping them. [00:01:41] In fact, you know what? I'm going to go I'm going to go to it later in this story. I'm going to tell you how you can help them. So we'll talk more about it with Dave Smith at 8:00 eastern tonight, too. But I want to get you started on helping this movement that has organically started in in Congress. [00:01:57] Bernie's a big part of it. And the co-sponsor for Tom Massie is Ro Khanna. You see that? That's actual bipartisanship. A Republican with principles and a Democrat with principles who are both against war, saying, not on our watch. Now, of course, the great majority of Congress is bought by AIPAC, [00:02:15] but we have a plan for that. I'll tell you about that in a minute. Yes. Ro Khanna also very consistent on this, not just with Iran or Gaza, but also with Yemen. And he posted this no war in Iran. It's time for every member to go on record. [00:02:32] Are you with the neocons who led us into Iraq, or do you stand with the American people? I'm proud to co-lead this bipartisan War Powers resolution with Representative Massie that is privileged and must receive a vote. The text of the resolution states, Congress hereby directs the president [00:02:51] to terminate the use of armed or United States armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran, or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran. [00:03:09] It clarifies, though, that the resolution should not be used to disrupt intelligence gathering or the sharing of intelligence between the United States and any coalition partner. If the president determines such sharing is appropriate, and in the national security interests of the United States. [00:03:26] Key Democratic representatives have already signaled their support to back the resolution, including AOC and Rashida Tlaib, AOC said. Signing on. You can see that here. Rashida Tlaib, I look forward to supporting this War Powers Resolution. The American people aren't falling for it again. [00:03:43] We were lied to about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that killed millions and forever changed lives. It's unconstitutional for Trump to go to war without a vote in Congress. Representative Don Beyer has also stated he would sign on. [00:03:59] As of right now, though, no other Republicans have co-sponsored the resolution. We will see if there is meaningful bipartisan support as it develops. But over in the Senate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Tim Kaine have already introduced two different but similar resolutions. [00:04:15] Yesterday, Bernie released a statement introducing his legislation prohibiting the use of federal funds for any use of military force in or against Iran, with the exception of self-defense. He posted here tonight, I introduced legislation to stop Trump from leading us [00:04:31] into an illegal war with Iran. Another war in the Middle East could cost countless lives, waste trillions more dollars, and lead to even more deaths, more conflict, and more displacement. The following senators are joining Bernie on the legislation Peter Welch, Elizabeth [00:04:49] Warren, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, Ed Markey, Tammy Baldwin and Tina Smith. Senator Tim Kaine, as we mentioned earlier, filed a separate resolution but with the same premise of enacting a War Powers resolution. [00:05:04] Kaine led the charge with an almost identical resolution back in 2020, which passed in both the House and the Senate, but was vetoed by Trump and failed a veto vote in the Senate. In a statement regarding his most recent resolution, Senator Kaine stated it is not in our national security interest to get into war [00:05:23] with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States. I'm deeply, deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict. The American people have no interest in setting service members to fight [00:05:42] another forever war in the Middle East. This resolution will ensure that if we decide to place our nation's men and women in uniform into harm's way, we will have a debate and vote on it in Congress. Kaine stated earlier today that he didn't have any co-sponsors ready to announce, [00:05:59] but, quote, I definitely have interest. According to a new economist and YouGov poll released earlier today, like Jake mentioned in the last block, only 16% of Americans back US involvement. 60% say the US should not [00:06:14] be involved, 24% were unsure and the numbers are pretty similar when you get into party affiliation. Just 15% of Democrats believe the US should get involved, and 23% of Republicans agree. More than 60% of Democrats, however, and more than 50% of Republicans [00:06:32] believe the US should not be involved. Among Trump voters specifically, 19% believe the US should get involved in the growing conflict, while 53% believe we should stay out of it. Another 28% said they were unsure. But does Trump care? [00:06:50] No, I have not reached out to Iran for peace talks in any way, shape or form. This is just more highly fabricated fake news. If they want to talk, they they know how to reach me. They should have taken the deal that was on the table would have saved a lot of lives. [00:07:07] Jake, you know what would have saved a lot of lives? Not ripping up the deal that was already in place simply because Obama did it. - I'm going crazy here. - Yeah, so that's definitely true. And that deal was perfectly fine. [00:07:22] We'd stopped their uranium enrichment program entirely. Everybody was happy with that deal except Israel. And Israel didn't like the deal because it was a good deal and it prevented war. And they've been wanting war since 1995. [00:07:38] We already showed you the clip of Benjamin Netanyahu since 95 to now saying, oh, it's imminent. Iran's going to get a nuke any day now, any week now. Right? So they've been lying about this from day one. That's why they were furious with Obama that he made a really good peace deal with Iran that prevented them from having nukes. [00:07:54] And he's like, what are you doing? You're going to take away my excuse to drag you guys into this war, to knock out one of my regional rivals so I could dominate the Middle East and take more Palestinian land. And if you think that's conspiratorial, well, it's a conspiracy that's out in [00:08:09] the open now because the Israeli cabinet voted to take Gaza for Israel. Oh, but there's nobody to fight back. There's no Hamas has gone, Hezbollah is gone, etc.. You can say those are terrible organizations, but Israel wanted all of them wiped off the face of the earth and now wants Iran [00:08:27] wiped off the face of the earth. They wanted Iraq wiped off the face of the Earth. Why? So they could completely dominate. And no one can complain when they take Gaza or West Bank, western Syria, southern Lebanon, and set up Greater Israel. And they have maps of Greater Israel in their cabinet. [00:08:44] So it's not like they're hiding it. They talk about Judea, and Samaria, etc. And how it's theirs. So this is an aggressive imperial empire, but they don't want to pay their own bills. They want to make us pay their bills. We've already given them $311 billion in adjusted inflation [00:09:01] inflation adjusted numbers. So are we ever going to get 311 billion back. No they're just going to keep it right. Special ally only takes they dragged us into the Iraq war with fake intelligence about WMD. What are they claiming about Iran. Fake intelligence about WMD. [00:09:17] And so how much did that cost us in the global war on terror that we didn't need at all? All of these are all the people that have attacked us, etc., from the Muslim world. They're all Israel's enemies. Israel just dragged them over here to America and said, congratulations, they're now your enemies. [00:09:33] You deal with it. Global war on terror has cost America $8 trillion. Are we going to get that money back from Israel? No. And if you ask for money back, they'll say Might show up and give me your money. [00:09:49] Okay. It's almost like a goddamn robbery now. To be fair to Israel, I guess if any government can just bribe our politicians, they could all do this. And by the way, others have begun to figure it out. So Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia now funneling money to Trump, to our politicians, [00:10:05] to our think tanks, because they're like, oh, Israel just figured it out first. They're it's an open auction. They allow unlimited money in politics. These idiots will let anyone bribe their politicians. The Supreme Court did that. We need an amendment to go above their heads. Check out wolf-pac. Okay, back to. [00:10:21] How are we going to stop the war today? So originally, I had a plan, where I was going to go on with a right winger and ask for him to pick their champion. And I was going to pick our champion. Not because I'm the guy who has the credibility to pick it, etc.. [00:10:37] Forget about me. I'm totally irrelevant. But everybody agrees to who our champion is. It's Bernie Sanders, right? But and I'm positive that whoever it was on the right would have picked Tom Massie. And it turns out they're already champions. They don't need us to nominate them. [00:10:53] They already did it without anybody asking them. Introducing bills to stop this war in the House and in the Senate. Okay, so step one is already done. Look, by the way, getting anyone, anyone to be opposed to war in in Congress is a very hard ask. Like when Bernie used to do it, like decades ago, he was like, [00:11:12] sometimes the only person in Congress, Barbara Lee on Afghanistan was literally the only vote, right? So. All right, so step two is, well, now we all take a pledge because this oh, this is very important. Before I get to step two, they have to get you do a vote on this. [00:11:30] War powers resolution cannot be blocked by the president because it checks the president's power. The Congress has the power to declare a war. According to the Constitution. So the president cannot object. Okay. And since this is what is called a privileged bill, it must get a vote and [00:11:48] it will get a vote within about 15 days. So they have to wait for 15 days in committee and then vote on. That's right around 4th of July. That is very powerful symbolism. And they're all going to have to go on the record. Okay. So step two is we all take a pledge [00:12:05] to never, ever vote for anyone who votes for this war. Okay. If they vote no on the war, then, you know, use your own judgment. Hey, you like their policies on Medicare and taxes and all the other immigration, etc., all the other factors. [00:12:21] But if they vote yes on this war, that's it. That's the last vote they ever take. Okay. Now are we going to be able to muster up enough people to do that? I don't know, but I'm going to go around the country and try to find out. Okay. So who appointed me? No one other than you guys, Young Turks members. [00:12:37] You always send me on these missions, right? And so that mission starts tonight at 8:00 with Dave Smith. I would argue the head of the libertarians in this country at this point, and I'm going to ask him if he's willing to go along with this pledge. The pledges right now on United against War.com. [00:12:53] Okay. So check that out. United against War.com. And it's super simple. I pledge to vote against any legislator that supports U.S. Involvement in the war with Iran. Period. They all have to vote on it. They don't have a choice, and we're all going to see it. [00:13:09] And step three is we're going to track it. And and look, I don't know how many of us will see what the pledge, how many of us are going to vote based on that. But if it gets to a million, I bet they get uncomfortable. If it gets to 2 million, 5 million, they start to get super uncomfortable because [00:13:26] those votes, Republican or Democrat, are going to be locked in, set in stone. You vote to get America into war. That's the last goddamn vote you're going to take. That's our pledge as American citizens. Remember, only 16% want this war. The rest of us don't want it. [00:13:45] So if the rest of us rise up, if they if these establishment figures, the uniparty, neocons, whatever you want to call them, if they have awoken a sleeping giant, we're going to find out. Now, look, if Young Turks does this by themselves, sometimes we moved, you know, [00:14:02] progressives in Congress, other times we've created helped to create the Justice Democrats and that made a difference, etc. But we cannot do it on our own. So we've got to bring in the libertarians for sure. They're definitely anti-war. And we've got to bring in true America first that actually believed in America [00:14:20] first more than they believed in Trump. If you say no, Trump's my daddy. And if he says war, then I love war. And if he says Israel first, America second, then I'm for America second, then you're not going to sign it and you're not going to be interested and you're not anti-war. You're not part of our group. That's okay. [00:14:37] Go off into the corner. Some in the radical left will say, oh, I'm never going to work with the Republicans. Never. It would taint my morality and my purity. All right. Go. Go away, go away. Go sit in your couch. Do whatever you're going to do, okay? But for the rest of us, for the 84%, for God's sake, let's do something. [00:14:54] So we're going to track those guys. And if they vote yes for the war, let's all pledge to make sure that they never win. And one thing that's important, guys, this is not Partizan. You defeat them in their primaries so you don't have to worry. Oh my God. [00:15:10] Is this a trick to get me to vote for Republicans? Is this a trick to get me to vote for Democrats? No. You eliminate them in the primary. Okay, so that way you're going to have a Republican. If you're a Republican, you're gonna have a Democrat if you're a Democrat, but you're just not going to have that incumbent who is not for this country, [00:15:26] who's for a different country. Okay. We're going to get American representatives back into Congress. That's the plan. If it doesn't work, I'm fine with it. Okay. If it turns out it's. Look at that, Jenkin. Young Turks and Young Turks members and all this, thou good, earnest people [00:15:42] who wanted to stop war, who were honest. Ha ha! They tried, but they failed. Okay, I can live with it as long as we try. Jordan. Yeah, it's worth trying. You know, I, I really appreciate Thomas Massie for remaining consistent [00:15:57] and just being consistent on War Powers resolutions, US involvement abroad, intervention and regime change. The seldom you see people who are consistent on that. And I think he really is like the most consistent [00:16:15] out of everyone on the broader right. We'll throw libertarians in there to some extent but I yeah I on Gaza on on this on on Iran both as we showed you in 2020 and now really appreciate that from him. So credit where it's due. [00:16:31] Good on him. And he was out early on this. It's not someone waiting until it's convenient to do something. So I really, really appreciate that. Good to see others jumping on. Love to see more Democrats sign on. Of course we welcome Republicans in Congress signing on. [00:16:48] I don't know how many we'll get. But yeah, I think hanging this around their necks is good. Not just for preventing hopefully preventing more now, but also down the line when some of these inevitably seek potentially the presidency or if they're in the House, [00:17:04] a Senate race, hang this around their necks in those campaigns as well. Make them wear this for the rest of their political career. You saw how that hurt Hillary in 2016. People didn't want to support her, in large part because of her support [00:17:20] for the war in Iraq. So the more we can do this, and the more we can brand these career politicians who are in there to represent the military industrial complex and almost nothing else. Maybe some corporate interests to diversify but make that their political [00:17:36] brand for the rest of their careers. I would support any and all efforts to try to do that. Yes. And look, guys, the most important part of the plan is you have to vote against them. If they get away with this, they're basically saying you don't. [00:17:51] It's not a democracy anymore. It's not your country. Whichever government comes in here and whichever corporation comes in here and bribes us and we're total, all of us are open for bribes. They are. They all take they literally take billions of dollars in bribes, which mainstream media calls campaign contributions, because it largely goes to them when they [00:18:08] spend ads on mainstream media, right. When they buy those ads. They're the media is the beneficiary of all that corruption. So that's why mainstream media never tells you about it, right? But any corporation and any government can buy these guys. So if these guys go, no, I don't serve America. [00:18:24] I serve my donors. And my donors at AIPAC, which have AIPAC, has given to almost everyone in the House but 30 members. So they they control. And if you're in mainstream media and you say no, no, giving a couple of million dollars to a congressman doesn't mean you control them. [00:18:42] You're funny, you're hilarious, but you don't even realize that you're a joke, that the rest of the country now is not listening to you anymore. We think that your guys are disgusting propagandists telling us no, politicians are so honorable they'd never be affected by millions of dollars. [00:19:00] What kind of a fool says that, let alone a so-called reporter? So we're not listening to any of that garbage anymore. So if they vote yes for this, there has to be accountability. You're the accountability. That's why I'm calling this operation consequences. [00:19:17] You take that war vote to drag America into yet another senseless war in the Middle East, and there's going to be political consequences. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.