Reporter Asks Mike Johnson Straight Up When ‘Does Congress Need to Assert Itself’ On Iran

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took questions on stage at the Congressional Institute on Tuesday and was asked about Congress’s role in overseeing President Donald Trump’s ongoing war in Iran, which is how Trump describes it.

NBC News Senior Congressional Reporter Scott Wong moderated the conversation and asked, “Okay, but if this does drag out for a month, two months, three months, is there a role for Congress then to step in and either do a War Powers Resolution or a formal declaration of war? At what point does Congress need to assert itself?”

“We’ll have to see. We have asserted ourselves. The president, up to this moment, and his administration have complied in every way with every provision of law. They have informed us before, after, and during the operation,” replied Johnson, who has repeatedly insisted the operation is not a war.

“We’ve been in almost constant contact about it. They’re keeping Congress apprised, which is the legal obligation. If it comes to a declaration of war, then Congress would step in and act and exercise its authority,” he continued, adding:

But we all know that that has not happened in many decades, in spite of the various excursions that we’ve been involved in. This Commander-in-Chief desires peace. He’s demonstrated that on the world stage. He’s ended eight wars, as he always reminds us, and he’s trying to end the others.

But this was a situation with an avowed enemy of the United States that had killed American citizens, presenting imminent harm to our troops and personnel and citizens, and the President acted accordingly to protect America’s interests, and I think that’s appropriate.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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