Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said President Donald Trump had no legal or strategic basis to launch a war—or “major combat operations,” as Trump calls it—with Iran, stating that the administration failed to demonstrate an imminent threat to the United States and bypassed Congress in the process.
In an interview on Sunday with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Schiff acknowledged the brutality of Iran’s leadership, describing Ayatollah Khamenei as a dictator who presided over a murderous regime. But he said that reality alone does not justify military intervention, particularly one aimed at regime change.
According to Schiff, Iran had not reconstituted a nuclear weapons program and lacked ballistic missile capability to strike the United States. He pointed out that the president himself had previously claimed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure had been “obliterated,” raising further questions about the rationale for escalation.
“There was simply no basis,” Schiff said, warning that the strikes could unleash unpredictable consequences across the region. He raised the possibility that calls for uprising could embolden Iranian citizens to act, only to face violent repression without meaningful American support. Alternatively, he said, a successor regime could prove just as repressive, leaving the U.S. entangled in a conflict with no clear gain.
Schiff On Trump’s War With Iran: ‘The President Broke His Promise To The American People’
Schiff also emphasized the risks to U.S. service members stationed in the region, noting that even the president had acknowledged potential casualties. He said Congress must return immediately to consider a war powers resolution introduced by Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), asserting that the Constitution requires congressional authorization for sustained military action.
When asked by Stephanopoulos about scenes of Iranians celebrating in the streets over the death of Khamenei, Schiff said he hopes for the end of authoritarian rule but cautioned against creating false expectations. The U.S., he said, cannot fight the war for the Iranian people and that they should not expect American troops to be deployed on the ground.
Ultimately, Schiff framed the conflict as both a constitutional breach and a broken promise. He pointed out that Trump campaigned against regime-change wars and pledged to focus on lowering costs for American families. Instead, Schiff said, the administration has initiated a conflict that exposes U.S. troops to danger without a demonstrated threat to national security or a clear path to stability.
