Rep. Krishnamoorthi on Trump’s Unlawful War in Iran
4/10/202620 mincomplete
0:00Thank you. Pursuant to Clause 13 of Rule 1, the House state adjourned until 2
0:06.30 p .m. on Monday, April 13th, 2026.
0:11All hell just broke loose on the floor of the House of Representatives as Democrats
0:16try to introduce a war powers resolution through what's called unanimous consent to try to
0:24stop Donald Trump's unlawful war power exertion, Donald Trump's unlawful war in Iran, and to
0:34restrain his power with congressional approval, which is frankly required under the Constitution.
0:40What you just saw right there were the MAGA Republicans rushing to take the gavel
0:47because in this pro forma session, the individuals presiding over it because Republicans control the
0:55House of Representatives is a Republican, the MAGA Republican.
0:59So as soon as the Democrats requested unanimous consent, meaning if there were no objections
1:05to it, this war powers resolution could at least pass in the House of Representatives
1:11unless there was an objection or unless a MAGA Republican declared it procedurally invalid.
1:18So that's why you heard the MAGA Republicans right there slam that gavel right there.
1:23MAGA Republican Congress member Chris Smith started slamming the gavel down to basically say you're
1:29out of order, Democrats, for simply trying to introduce a war powers resolution to say
1:36Congress should have some oversight over Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war.
1:42You see Democrats right here, a large group of them now outside of the House
1:46of Representatives speaking to the press about the need for diplomacy, about the need for
1:52congressional oversight. So you have that happening, a split screen because over in Iran, Iran's
1:59new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khomeini, has broken his silence.
2:05He has said, we will enter a new phase in the management of the Strait
2:10of Hormuz. Also, Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khomeini, says to our southern neighbors,
2:19you are witnessing a miracle.
2:21See it correctly and stand in the right place.
2:24Be suspicious of the false promises of the devils.
2:29He also says, we will not abandon the criminal aggressors who attacked our country.
2:35We will demand compensation for every single damage and the blood price of our martyrs.
2:43Strong words from the Ayatollah.
2:45He's also saying, you, the heroic nation of Iran, have been the decisive victors of
2:50this battlefield. Iran today stands at the dawn of becoming a great power.
2:57So on the one hand, you have MAGA Republican Congress members refusing to introduce a
3:03war powers resolution and gaveling out to not even allow the Democrats to try to
3:08introduce it. Over in Iran, you have the Ayatollah breaking his silence.
3:12We also have heard again from MB Galiboff, Iran's very powerful parliament leader.
3:19Here's what he says. Past experience has shown us that we must have absolute distrust
3:25toward the enemy. America's historic regime.
3:27Retreat and acceptance of the general framework of Iran's 10 -point plan is an undeniable
3:35victory, but we consider it an incomplete step.
3:38If the United States stops violating its commitments, negotiations may be possible.
3:43In essence, we're not even getting to the step of negotiations.
3:46We've humiliated the United States by making them agree to our 10 -point plan, which
3:51says Americans leave all military bases in the Middle East.
3:55Americans give us full reparations.
3:57Americans allow us to enrich uranium.
3:59Americans allow us to control the Strait of Hormuz and charge $2 million per ship.
4:04America allows full and long -lasting security guarantees to Iran, Iran -Shiite groups in Iraq,
4:11Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen.
4:14The United States removes all sanctions from Iran, all United Nations sanctions in Iran, and
4:20it basically recognizes Iran as a major power player in the world.
4:24That's why I think even though Iran recognized that Donald Trump would likely break or
4:31not follow through on the 10 -point plan, the mere fact that Trump agreed to
4:36it has signaled to the rest of the world that Donald Trump is weak and
4:41pathetic in many ways. When Trump begged Pakistan before Trump's own self -imposed 8 p
4:47.m. Eastern time deadline on Tuesday, please can you get Iran to re -offer us
4:53the 10 -point plan? We'll agree to it.
4:55We'll agree to it. I mean, the Trump regime literally drafted the social media posts
4:59for Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan, right?
5:02The Trump regime. Iran was like, okay, you're going to publicly announce that you agree
5:07to these terms? The powerful United States, the superpower, the country that's led the world
5:13is going to agree to all of these terms?
5:16That right there is a bigger victory than we could ever ask for.
5:20I mean, that's whatever. And they're like, well, if the United States breaks the agreement,
5:23we'll just continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, which is what they're doing right
5:28now. And what we're seeing as well as Donald Trump is now threatening all of
5:33his, all of the NATO countries and European countries that you need to send ships
5:38to the Strait of Hormuz immediately, send the ships or else or else.
5:43What we're actually seeing happening is a number of nations, as John Larry Ayer writes,
5:48a number of nations, including France and other European countries, they're just speaking directly to
5:53Iran right now. They're not speaking with the U .S., not sending ships to the
5:57Strait of Hormuz. They're going to speak with Iran because Iran's the power player right
6:01now. They're the ones who are controlling, who are controlling things.
6:04So they're just going to work bilaterally with Iran.
6:07They saw how easy it is for the United States to collapse and cede all
6:11of those 10 points. You also have Iran's foreign minister, Aragji, posting the following moments
6:17ago. He goes, Netanyahu's criminal trial resumes on Sunday.
6:22A region -wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon, would hasten his jailing.
6:27If the U .S. wishes to crater its economy by letting Netanyahu kill diplomacy, that
6:34would ultimately be its choice.
6:36We think that would be dumb, but we are prepared for it.
6:39They're mocking Trump. Iran is mocking the, Iran is behaving like the superpower and Donald
6:47Trump is behaving like Iran used to behave.
6:50That's the wild tables are turning.
6:53Here's what Donald, after all I've just read to you, here's what Donald Trump says.
6:57Trump says he's very optimistic about a deal with Iran.
7:00They're much more reasonable. They're agreeing to what they have to.
7:04If they don't make a deal, it's going to be very painful.
7:06I spoke with Bibi. I spoke with Bibi Netanyahu.
7:09We have to be a little more low key, a little more low key.
7:12That's what Donald Trump's telling NBC, how utterly, utterly pathetic.
7:16And folks, we'll take a look right now at what the oil markets look like.
7:21The latest U .S. oil prices have surged $101 a barrel.
7:26They're up 11 percent in the past 24 hours as growing doubts exist about a
7:32U .S.-Iran ceasefire deal. Or, you know, the oil companies are saying, if Iran controls
7:37the strait of Ramos and that's your plan, and this is what the surrounding Arab
7:41nations are saying, it will make it prohibitive, cost prohibitive for us to get oil
7:47out if we have to pay $2 million for a exit fee, which we never
7:52had to pay before this catastrophic war started.
7:55And so we're seeing that set in in the market, this sober realization, which should
8:00have set in before that Donald Trump made the worst deal.
8:04I mean, you couldn't have made a worse deal than what Donald Trump just made.
8:08You know, and then you have the Trump regime officials now going on, state regime
8:13media, and they're trying to act like things are going really well.
8:17I mean, what do you got here?
8:18You've got, you got what, as the economy is contracting, you've got Kevin Hassett over
8:25here saying, oh, actually, you know, we think the economy is going to get much
8:29better. We expect it to be gangbusters soon.
8:32Just even though the latest fourth quarter GDP numbers show that the GDP contracted even
8:38more than expected. Initially, 1 .4 % was what fourth quarter GDP was, then 0
8:44.7 % for the fourth quarter GDP.
8:46Now we learned that the fourth quarter GDP was 0 .5%.
8:49And remember, this is when Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary, said, it's going to be gangbusters.
8:54Things are going to be amazing.
8:55So this was Kevin Hassett moments ago where he was like, you know, we think
9:00that the economy is going to get much better.
9:02Just 4%, 5 % growth.
9:04It's coming. It's right around the corner.
9:06Here, play this clip. All of that is happening because of optimism that President Trump
9:10not only will resolve this in the short term, but in the long term, his
9:13policies are going to create a golden age.
9:16And so I began the year with a guess that we'd probably be in the
9:19four to five range for economic growth because of all this.
9:23And I'll stick by those numbers.
9:24I think this is a temporary distraction that will very, very quickly go away.
9:29You saw that when you saw the market celebrate yesterday when they thought that this
9:34would be over. I want to bring a Democratic Congress member, Raja Krishnamoorthy.
9:38Congressman Krishnamoorthy, I mean, we're seeing this Ponzi scheme play out in real time.
9:43It's right around the corner.
9:45Don't worry. It's all going to be amazing.
9:47And meanwhile, they get us into these catastrophic and unlawful wars that compound things and
9:53make it worse, but always in a crisis mode creates a distraction, whether it's a
9:58distraction from the horrific economy, the distraction from the Epstein files, the distraction from a
10:06myriad of other things that Donald Trump is doing to destroy the country.
10:10And that's what Ponzi schemers do.
10:11Distract. There's always an emergency.
10:13Look, let it look this way.
10:14And meanwhile, you see what's going on.
10:16What do you make of this moment, though, as, you know, this catastrophic war is
10:21following the same kind of Trump playbook, which is now he does the fraud deal.
10:26Now we're in and all it does is it weakens us in the end because
10:29everyone looks at us like what the hell's going on with the United States of
10:32America, man? Look, as you said, this illegal and constitutional war has been disastrous, not
10:37only for our national security, but for our economy.
10:40I mean, you don't have to go further than the gas pump where you're starting
10:43to see, you know. $4 gas go to $5, and it's going to be $6
10:48to $7 in places like California pretty soon.
10:52And so when I hear Howard Lutnick say, you know, this economy is going to
10:56be humming, I think he's referring to humming the blues.
11:00And, you know, at this point, you're right.
11:04I think that they're trying to distract from all their domestic problems, having started this
11:09foreign adventure. But now, you know, Kevin Hassett is saying this distraction is a distraction
11:15itself. I mean, it's become a disaster.
11:17And I think that we are kind of in this situation where it's a complete
11:23man -made disaster. And it is not what the American people signed up for in
11:30the least. They are complaining about their gas and complaining about not being able to
11:35buy a home, which, by the way, is becoming more unaffordable by the day because
11:40of inflation. And as the Fed hikes interest rates or considering hiking interest rates, it's
11:45going to become even more unaffordable.
11:47So this is just a catastrophe right now.
11:50The most important currency, I think, of governance and international policy is trust.
11:57And when trust and good faith is lost, the system disassembles.
12:03And what we've always been seeing with Trump's fake deals that he announces, he's doing
12:10that right now with Iran.
12:12I mean, Trump makes his social media posts.
12:15We've agreed. It's what he said.
12:17We've agreed to the 10 -point framework put forward by Iran.
12:22Then he reposts the Iranian foreign minister Aragchi's message about a 10 -point plan.
12:30And then the day later, J .D.
12:33Vance, while leaving, of all places, Hungary, where he's propping up Viktor Orban, a Putin
12:39puppet, says, you know what?
12:41M .B. Goluboff, the parliament leader of Iran, doesn't really speak English well.
12:46And so there was reasonable misunderstandings here, like they thought Lebanon was included in the
12:52ceasefire. It's in English. They don't understand English well.
12:57And so they actually adopted our 15 -point plan.
13:00And it was just the language barrier.
13:02I mean, I kid you not, that's actually what they're saying and what they're pulling
13:07right now, Congressman. Yeah. And you see Wall Street's not buying it.
13:11They don't believe that this war has necessarily even gone into ceasefire, let alone that
13:18it's going to end. And so you see these oil futures trading higher and higher
13:22and higher. I think the one big thing that has emerged is we may be
13:29quote unquote winning militarily in certain regards, but we are losing economically, Ben.
13:35I mean, you can see that the Iranians have basically recognized their control of the
13:41Strait of Hormuz and they are using that leverage to the hilt.
13:46And we are kind of in a situation where we basically exposed a huge weakness
13:50of ours and the Iranians are now going to use that leverage to get all
13:57kinds of other things that we would otherwise not in any way agree to.
14:03And that's what I'm concerned about.
14:04I'm concerned yet again, that this illustrious group of negotiators, Jared Kushner and Wyckoff and
14:13Vance are going to Pakistan and are going to basically negotiate something that again, seeds
14:20our foreign policy interests and national security interests.
14:24just as they have with regard to Ukraine and Russia.
14:28And, you know, we're just becoming less safe as a result.
14:32So where do we go from here?
14:35I mean, obviously, you know, this is how Trump wants this to play out for
14:40the next three years. Oh, yeah.
14:43By the way, before I get to that, I am still very concerned about the
14:47insider trading that's happening at the White House and in the executive branch.
14:52The people in the know with regard to the ups and downs of what's going
14:58on with the Iranian war.
15:00I think there's a lot of insider trading going on and people are making money
15:03off of the markets, gyrating the way they have and the oil prices going up.
15:08Getting to your point, where do we go from here?
15:11We bind with our friends, partners and allies once again to try to get a
15:15diplomatic solution to all of this.
15:18Look, the Iranians must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, but I'm concerned
15:23that everything that we've done has caused them to accelerate that program.
15:28We need to have free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
15:33And again, our actions are causing the opposite.
15:36They are strengthening their control over the Strait of Hormuz.
15:40And then finally, we need to, you know, reduce their nefarious activities and their ballistic
15:48missile program. And I think right now those are unfortunately entrenched even more than before.
15:56So, you know, we are just in a world of hurt right now.
16:00We got to we got to get to a better place.
16:03You know, and how do Democrats, though, make it clear or set aside Democrats, just
16:07the media, everybody just make it clear what's happening?
16:12Because this is the cycle, you know, Trump will do this for the next few
16:15years. He will break it.
16:17But, you know, he'll keep the Ponzi scheme afloat kind of just enough by, you
16:23know, robbing Peter to pay Paul, you know, as they say.
16:26And then whether it's a Democratic president or whoever, you know, Democratic president takes over,
16:33whoever that's going to be.
16:35And then they got to look at this and they go, you know, it's a
16:38Biden moment. Holy crap. Like, I got to fix this, that and the other thing.
16:43And for me to fix it, I've got to do surgery.
16:46And for me to do the surgery, I got to open up the body.
16:50And to open up the body, it's going to look ugly.
16:53But that's the responsible thing to do.
16:55And the moment you start opening up the body, then your colleagues on the other
16:59side, they go, I'm a fiscal hawk and I'm this and I'm that.
17:03How dare you? And then Fox starts blasting.
17:06Could you believe this, that and the other?
17:08The fixing, it's not easy to fix things.
17:11But then you get blamed as being the arsonist by the arsonist when you're putting
17:16out the fire. So how do we how do we break this cycle?
17:20Well, first, we have to we have to point out what's going on right now.
17:23We have to do it in a unified fashion.
17:25I think that people already realize it in their gut.
17:27I think there's tremendous buyer's remorse, Ben, among people who voted for Trump.
17:32I think they see that.
17:34I talked to farmers, for instance, and they are going through hell right now because
17:39their fertilizer costs are through the roof due to fuel prices going up, which is
17:43an essential component in making fertilizer.
17:45At the same time, their counter tariffs are hitting them in the pocketbook as well.
17:50And so these are squarely Trump voters.
17:54And so these are folks who are having second thoughts about Trump.
17:58And it'll be very interesting to see what happens in places like.
18:01Like Iowa, for instance, with their upcoming gubernatorial races and other statewide races that they
18:08consider, do they want to go the same course or do they want to go
18:11a different course? So we have to point out what voters actually voted for and
18:16got from Donald Trump. That's step one.
18:19Step two, we have to talk about, okay, what do we want to do, right?
18:22And I think what we want to do is we want to focus back on
18:25people's pocketbook issues. We got to end the tariff chaos.
18:30We got to stop these crazy military adventures.
18:33And we have to kind of focus back on restoring some of these cuts that
18:38have decimated people's health care, whether it's in Medicaid or their food stamps, or for
18:45instance, even in the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act.
18:47Remember, one of the reasons why we are so in soup right now because of
18:55this Iran war is because of our reliance on fossil fuels and oil.
19:00And the Inflation Reduction Act was in part a way to incentivize the growth of
19:06our solar, our wind, and renewable energy industries to basically wean us off dependence on
19:13those fossil fuels and that oil, which Iran is now taking very strong advantage of.
19:19And so if we really want to get out of the grips of being dependent
19:24on the beneficence of the rulers of Iran or in the Middle East, we've got
19:30to get our act together with renewable energy.
19:32So those are the types of messages I think that we need to continue with.
19:36And of course, holding the Trump administration accountable for all the horrible stuff they've done,
19:42whether it's with regard to the Epstein files, whether it's the economy, whether it's ICE
19:46or anything else. Congressman Krishnamoorthy, appreciate you coming on.
19:52As always, appreciate your leadership in Congress and fighting back in these crazy times.
19:58Thank you so much, Ben.
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