Rep. Tokuda Statement on Unauthorized U.S. Military Strikes on Iran

Hawaiʻi - "This morning, Americans woke to the news that our nation launched large-scale military strikes on Iran. In starting this conflict, President Trump neither sought authorization from Congress nor presented the American people with evidence of an imminent threat that would justify bypassing it. The Constitution is clear: the power to take this nation to war does not rest with one person alone.

Instead, we are left with the President's own acknowledgement that our service members may die in this conflict as he calls for regime change in Iran. There is no question that the brutal Iranian regime has sponsored terrorism against our country and brutally repressed its own people. But every American, especially those with loved ones serving in our military, must ask whether this President has sufficiently justified sending our troops into battle and whether he has laid out a strategy and plan that will guide this conflict toward a defined and achievable end.

President Trump has failed on both fronts. He has not demonstrated an imminent threat to justify this conflict, nor has he laid out how and when this conflict will end.

The human toll abroad and the economic pain at home should never be the price Americans pay for one man's war. We deserve better than this."

###