Republican lawmakers are pushing back forcefully against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) after she called for President Donald Trump’s impeachment following his authorization of precision strikes on three Iranian nuclear-related facilities.
The operation, which reportedly crippled Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, has triggered sharp partisan responses—particularly from Democrats on the far left—despite being widely viewed as a strategic success.
Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent member of the progressive “Squad,” accused Trump of violating the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution. “The President’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation… It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she wrote on X.
Her remarks were swiftly met with condemnation from GOP members. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene responded with a scathing rebuke, accusing Ocasio-Cortez of hypocrisy for supporting U.S. involvement in Ukraine while now opposing military action against a hostile regime actively pursuing nuclear capabilities.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) added that the outrage was selective and politically motivated. “Obama conducted strikes in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan without congressional approval. Where was the impeachment talk then?” Lawler asked during an appearance on Fox News. He described the reaction as “absurd,” chalking it up to ongoing symptoms of what critics have labeled “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Adding weight to the Republican response, Dan Turrentine—a former staffer for Hillary Clinton during her Senate years—publicly broke ranks with fellow Democrats. In a detailed post, Turrentine argued the strike was not an impeachable offense, echoing precedent established during the Obama administration.
Turrentine also criticized his party for failing to articulate this longstanding position, noting that preventing a nuclear Iran has been a core Democratic foreign policy goal for decades. He called the immediate calls for impeachment “unhinged” and disconnected from strategic realities.
It was too depressing to write this last night, after we got off air, so I went to bed. But, it needs to be said by more Democrats: this was not an impeachable offense, and Trump did not need congressional approval for one precision attack under the circumstances, just as Obama…
— dan turrentine (@danturrentine) June 22, 2025