Democrats Who Backed Obama’s Unilateral Bombings Now Have Problem With Trump’s Iran Strike

Democrats who voiced no concern about former President Barack Obama dropping bombs without congressional approval are now slamming President Donald Trump for striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Several Democrats who supported Obama’s Libya strike in 2011 slammed Trump’s Saturday attack on three Iranian nuclear sites as unconstitutional. Iran launched a strike on a U.S. Air Force Base in Qatar Monday, though there were no casualties reported.

Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday Trump “ignored the Constitution by unilaterally engaging our military without Congressional authorization.” Yet Pelosi defended Obama’s ability to move forward in Libya without Congress in 2011.

Pelosi’s office pointed the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation to a 2011 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo finding “prior congressional approval was not constitutionally required to use military force in the limited operations under consideration.” Obama’s strike followed the United Nations authorizing a military intervention in Libya.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who called Trump’s Iran attack “illegal and unconstitutional,” indicated in 2011 that Obama’s Libya strike was a “good decision.” Markey’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Though the Constitution’s text gives Congress the sole authority to declare war, George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley argued Trump is supported by precedent.

“Fourteen years ago this week, I represented a group of bipartisan members of Congress in challenging the Obama administration’s decision to attack Libya without a declaration of war,” he wrote for The Hill. “It is a curious anniversary of the litigation, because many of the politicians and pundits who supported (or remained silent on) the action of President Barack Obama are now appalled that President Trump is considering an attack on the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow, which is buried deep in a mountain.”

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the strikes are “absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”

“The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers,” she wrote on X. “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.”

Ocasio-Cortez has previously expressedopposition to the “outdated” Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) approved after September 11, 2001.

Turley wrote on his Substack that impeachment calls “are absurd given the prior actions of presidents in using this very authority.”

“Once again, some Democrats appear intent on applying a different set of rules for impeaching Trump than any of his predecessors,” he wrote.

Some Democrats have remained more consistent: Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur opposed Obama’s 2011 strike, and Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said using military force against ISIS lacked “legal authority” without congressional authorization. Bothcriticized Trump’s Iran strikes.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday Congress was notified “after the planes were safely out” to comply with the War Powers Act of 1973. The act states that the president must notify Congress within 48 hours of military action and limits the use of armed forces without congressional authorization to 60 days.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who introduced a resolution with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna June 17 to restrict military action in Iran, has also said the strike was unconstitutional. The resolution reached 57 cosponsors on Monday, Massie wrote on X.

Trump slammed Massie on Truth Social Sunday, calling him “a simple minded ‘grandstander’ who thinks it’s good politics for Iran to have the highest level Nuclear weapon, while at the same time yelling ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ at every chance they get.”

“Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky is not MAGA, even though he likes to say he is,” he said. “Actually, MAGA doesn’t want him, doesn’t know him, and doesn’t respect him.”

Trump’s team launched the Kentucky MAGA PAC to defeat Massie during the 2026 midterms, Axios reported Sunday.

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, who argued Trump’s actions did violate the Constitution and the War Powers Act, told the DCNF impeachment calls are justified but unlikely to succeed.

“I think the impeachment calls are well-justified, especially given multiple other actions by Trump that qualify for impeachment, such as massive abuse of emergency powers, illegal detention and deportation without due process, and more,” he told the DCNF. “But I also think they are – at this time – highly unlikely to succeed.”

John Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor and former Department of Justice (DOJ) official, said Trump is acting within his constitutional powers, noting “Presidents and Congresses have long understood that Presidents must act quickly and decisively to forestall threats on our national security.”

“Congress can choose to cooperate or to check Presidents with the power of the purse (as it did to end the war in Vietnam),” he told the DCNF. “Instead of claiming that President Trump has violated the Constitution, those on the far right and the far left should stop distorting the law and try to persuade Congress to cut off funds, if they dare, for the weapons systems and deployments that achieved the dramatic attacks on Iran.”

Trump does not need congressional approval based on the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy argued in National Review. The authorization allows the president to use all necessary force against those that “planned, authorized, committed or aided” 9/11 terror attacks or who “harbored” those groups.

Debates about an AUMF for Iran have been “confined mainly to a handful of lawmakers who oppose American intervention and who regard the prospect of an AUMF debate not as good constitutional governance but as a way to forestall a U.S. attack,” McCarthy wrote Saturday.

“President Trump won’t ask for congressional authorization,” he wrote. “Sadly, that is a relief to the people’s representatives in both chambers. The vast majority of lawmakers split into two camps, neither of which has a political incentive to vindicate congressional war powers.”

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