WATCH: Baldwin Condemns Trump’s Illegal War in Iran, Forces Vote on Her War Powers Resolution to Immediately End It

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) forced the Senate to vote on her War Powers Resolution to immediately bring an end to the illegal Iran war. The vote comes as the fragile and crumbling ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was set to expire today, the Strait of Hormuz is again closed, and U.S. servicemembers recently boarded and seized an Iranian ship. This vote is the latest in a series that Senators Baldwin, Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) have forced the Senate to debate and take up in their effort to stop the war in Iran.

"This entire war has been unnecessary, illegal, and unwise. And we need to put a check on this President before it gets even worse," said Senator Baldwin. "The American people have been crystal clear that they do not want this war. They want what they were promised from this president: lower costs and no foreign wars. They were sold a bad bill of goods and now we are left cleaning it up. It is time for Congress to do its job and end this war, now."

War Powers Resolutions, which, if passed, would halt the war in Iran and require the Administration receive congressional approval to resume it. The resolutions are privileged, meaning they can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote by any Senator after ten calendar days of filing.

"President Trump dragged the U.S. into a cost-raising war of choice against Iran with no authorization from Congress, no coordination among allies, and little support from the American people," said Senator Kaine. "Our military is incredibly talented, but that alone cannot make up for a President who has unclear goals and no serious plan about how he's going to end this chaos. Have we learned nothing from the failures of our previous military interventions in the Middle East? More war is not the answer to long-term peace and stability for the United States, Israel, and our partners in the region, and the American people have been clear that they want us to focus on lowering costs. My colleagues in Congress urgently need to find their backbone and end this war."

"The Trump Administration, backed by Senate Republicans who have chosen to stand down rather than uphold their constitutional responsibilities, has pushed our nation into an unconstitutional and reckless war with Iran," said Senator Booker. "Oversight is not optional; it is a constitutional duty, and Republicans cannot simply opt out of the oath they swore. No hearings, no oversight, no accountability. This conflict is escalating in cost, consequence, and global economic turmoil. Accountability is the only safeguard ensuring that decisions of war are never made by one leader alone, but weighed by the representatives of the American people."

"We've never seen a foreign conflict mismanaged in public like this before," Senator Murphy. "I understand many of my Republican colleagues want to support their president, but we are becoming a laughingstock in the world. While at the same time, we are hurting Americans who are now paying billions more in gas prices and we are risking a global famine as fertilizer is unavailable to poor farmers all over the world and economies are shutting down because of the high price and shortage of fuel. The cost of keeping this war going one more day are just too high - both in reputational cost to the United States but also in the cost to lives and the pocketbooks of millions of Americans."

"We know already this war has come at a terrible cost," said Senator Schiff. "An average family - your family - can expect to pay at least a thousand dollars more this year in costs like those at the pump, as a result of Trump's Iran war, and that is on top of another thousand in additional taxes to pay for all the bombs we are dropping. But we are paying an additional cost: more wars by this president or future presidents because Congress has refused to exercise its constitutional authority over war. And that cost could be the most substantial of all, because the establishment of a precedent in which the president can initiate a war of such enormous consequence, a war in which we pay a tremendous cost in loss of life and treasure - without any input, and without any approval - that precedent may lead to additional wars, needless wars, dangerous and damaging wars."

"It's infuriating that Senate Republicans keep shirking their oaths and giving Donald Trump the green light to plunge our nation even deeper into his war of choice, further endangering our troops abroad and surging prices at home," said Senator Duckworth. "This wanna-be dictator keeps breaking every single promise he's made to the American people, who are sick and tired of watching Republicans duck their responsibility to stop this chaos. Our nation deserves leaders who don't betray their duties to their constituents and servicemembers-and Senate Democrats will keep doing all we can to end Trump's unjustified forever war."

A full recording of Senator Baldwin's floor speech is available here.

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