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GOP lawmakers are pushing back hard against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after she called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump following his order to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” Ocasio-Cortez posted Saturday on X. “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”
Republicans swiftly denounced her comments. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) responded, “Shut up you pathetic little hypocrite. YOU fully supported our military and IC running the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. And you VOTED to fund the Ukraine war under your President with dementia. You don’t get to play anti-war and moral outrage anymore.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) also criticized Democrats’ response, pointing to past military actions by President Barack Obama that did not trigger similar calls for impeachment.
“For my colleagues that are now demanding impeachment, it’s absolutely absurd … these folks are truly reaching new levels of Trump derangement in the aftermath of yesterday’s decision,” Lawler said on Fox News.
Even some Democrats distanced themselves from Ocasio-Cortez’s stance. Dan Turrentine, a former Senate aide to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, said the airstrikes did not merit impeachment and echoed comparisons to past Democratic presidents.
“This was not an impeachable offense, and Trump did not need congressional approval for one precision attack under the circumstances, just as Obama did not when striking Bin Laden,” Turrentine posted on X.
“If one must then assert Congressional authority at the moment, add that any escalation will require congressional approval,” he added. “But, for so many in my Party to knee jerk with unhinged calls for impeachment … is truly TDS.”
Trump was impeached twice during his first term, though both efforts ended in acquittal by a Republican-controlled Senate. With Republicans currently holding the majority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats have no path to pursue impeachment.