Can Democrats stop Trump's war in Iran?

0:00Jeanne Shaheen:Mary, what you reading over there?

0:01Emily Rose:Oh, hey Nick. It's the Planet Money book from NPR.

0:05Jeanne Shaheen:I would love to meet some of the people behind that. Is there any chance that I could do that in the upcoming future?

0:12Emily Rose:Nick, you're not going to believe this. The Planet Money team is going on tour. So we will be in a city near you. Tickets and information at planetmoneybook.com.

0:24Jeanne Shaheen:WBUR Podcasts. Boston.

0:29Marco Rubio:Netanyahu, for decades really, has seen a confrontation with Iran, he says, eliminating the threat of Iran upon Israel as a kind of crusade.

0:39Jeanne Shaheen:The leaders of both the U.S. and Israel are claiming credit for starting the war against Iran, which immediately exploded into a regional conflict.

0:59Jeanne Shaheen:It's Tuesday, March 3rd, and this is Here and Now, anytime from NPR and WBR. I'm Chris Bentley. Today on the show, Congress waited until after President Trump went to war with Iran to hold a vote on war powers. And that vote is still forthcoming as of Tuesday afternoon. But Democrats might have another chance to meaningfully oppose war by withholding money, says Senator Jean Shaheen of the Armed Services Committee.

1:28Emily Rose:We are spending billions of dollars with the buildup in the Middle East and with the ongoing operations. So at some point, I assume they're going to have to come back to Congress.

1:41Jeanne Shaheen:Also, a top intelligence official who served in the first Trump administration says the president's current inner circle is different than it was the first time around, and is unlikely to challenge him even on matters of war.

1:54Marco Rubio:And this circle of advisors is very limited, and they are all people who owe their positions to him and are very supportive.

2:03Jeanne Shaheen:That conversation coming up in about 15 minutes. But first, the State Department is now urging Americans in 14 countries to leave as the war with Iran spreads across the Middle East. More than 800 people have been killed in the conflict since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday. The vast majority of those deaths are in Iran. But Israel is escalating the war in Lebanon today, retaliating against missile strikes from Hezbollah with airstrikes on Beirut and a deployment of ground troops over the border into southern Lebanon. We called up Emily Rose for the latest on the war's expanding front lines and how it's going over so far in Israel.

2:44Jeanne Shaheen:She's a correspondent for Reuters based in Jerusalem, and she spoke to Robin Young.

2:49Marco Rubio:Today, the streets of Jerusalem are absolutely vacant, completely empty. Even stark it is, if you think about the fact that today is the Jewish holiday of Purim, when there would normally be these massive street parties that just go on for blocks, and it's completely empty, but for a few stranded tourists here and there, and just a few merchants opening up their shops, but mostly things have been closed.

3:13Emily Rose:Well, the U.S. State Department is urging Americans to leave 14 countries, including Israel. Are you seeing, you say some stranded tourists there, but are you seeing more than just Americans leaving?

3:27Marco Rubio:So what's interesting is that we're actually seeing reports of Israelis trying to get back to Israel. This is something we saw in the last round as well in June with Iran. stranded Israelis trying to get ships and come through land crossings via Egypt. So that's a phenomenon that we saw in the last round. We're seeing it again this round. And I have been hearing that tourists are trying to leave through land crossings and other mechanisms. But mostly that interesting element is to see Israelis actually trying to get back home.

3:57Emily Rose:Yeah. Well, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave an interview on Fox News last night, adamant that the war with Iran is a good thing.

4:05Marco Rubio:It's high time that the people of free societies understood that they have to act to protect their freedom and our way of life. We're fighting barbarians. Israel is at the front line of this battle against barbarism. And America, America under President Trump, has entered this fight to protect our civilization and to protect our common future.

4:28Emily Rose:Emily, what is your sense of the political support that he has for this war with Iran and, you know, a probable wider war?

4:39Marco Rubio:So I think one thing that's important to mention is that Netanyahu, for decades really, has seen a confrontation with Iran. He says eliminating the threat of Iran upon Israel as a kind of crusade. He's really spoken about this at length. And we also have to remember that Israel is heading into an election year. And this week, we saw many members of the Israeli opposition, so that is people who would be running against Netanyahu in the elections, come out and show support for this war, calling it a just war, saying that they do have support. But I do want to say that in the confrontation with Iran in June, there wasn't really a surge in support for Netanyahu after that in the polls.

5:18Marco Rubio:Actually, what we saw was that Netanyahu's bloc, his coalition, still wouldn't have the support it needs to form a government. And so we really do need to see how Israelis do poll after this confrontation if they do show that support and if we do see his coalition getting enough support to form a government.

5:40Emily Rose:Well, explain why things might be different now and then or the same, but why? Why? You know, that was supposed to obliterate the nuclear capability, which obviously didn't get obliterated. Does this feel more existential for people, this sense of, you know, it's maybe about regime change and all that that brings, the destabilization? What are you hearing?

6:02Marco Rubio:I've spoken to many Israelis who think that the origin of a lot of the threats against Israel via Iranian proxies, via Iranian direct actions, pose a deep, deep threat to Israel, and that's true. But that being said, when we look at Israeli domestic politics, there's a lot more at play. Netanyahu, there's still a good chunk of the population that discusses Netanyahu's possible responsibilities. for October 7th and the failures there. And so there are a lot of other domestic issues that might be at play when it comes down to elections. Those could still be at play, but it feels a lot like those politics will still play out.

6:47Marco Rubio:And we really need to see what the results of this military campaign will be in terms of their strategic results and their military results.

6:55Emily Rose:Well, just sticking with that, I mean, are you saying that there are people who might be thinking in Israelis, Israelis thinking that Netanyahu is doing this as a distraction from some of his own problems.

7:04Marco Rubio:There is a little bit of analysis and discussion about possibly this being kind of used to potentially delay budget passing, which might trigger early elections, though it's far too soon to tell. And again, this is still seen as something that Israelis really see as a deep threat to the Israeli state.

7:27Emily Rose:Reuters, Emily Rose in Jerusalem. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

7:34Jeanne Shaheen:Coming up next, a Democratic senator weighs in on what Congress could do to rein in President Trump. Stick around.

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8:24Jeanne Shaheen:Democratic lawmakers are moving forward with what will likely be a symbolic vote on war powers, expected tomorrow in the Senate and later this week in the House. Symbolic because the war has already begun without any input from Congress. Senator Jean Shaheen is a Democrat from New Hampshire. She's the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. This morning, she spoke to Indira Lakshmanan.

8:49Marco Rubio:So you've just come from a hearing with Elbridge Colby, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. What was your main takeaway?

8:58Emily Rose:I think he had a very difficult time in explaining why the nuclear defense strategy that he had written was inconsistent with the action that the president is taking now in Iran. Unfortunately, the president hasn't put forward a clear strategy for what we're doing in Iran. He hasn't really shared with the American people why it is we are undertaking this mission. He campaigned on ending forever wars, and yet what we're seeing in Venezuela, here in Iran, is putting us into potential entanglements that have no end point. And now he's left open the option of putting boots on the ground in Iran.

9:56Marco Rubio:Now, Senator, you asked the Undersecretary of Defense just now in testimony whether there had been efforts to dissuade Israel from attacking Iran? What were you able to learn in terms of the administration's actions and whether this war was one of necessity or one of choice?

10:16Emily Rose:Well, Undersecretary Colby really didn't answer that question. Now he's supposed to be the head of policy at the Department of Defense, so one would hope that if we were making policy decisions about whether to go to war in a country like Iran, that the head of policy should be part of those discussions. But he either wasn't part of the discussion or he refused to answer. Yeah.

10:43Marco Rubio:Senator, the president did not seek congressional approval for this war. Now you are trying to rein in his power after a war has already started. It doesn't look as if the Democrats have enough support from Republicans. Are there any other levers at your disposal right now?

11:02Emily Rose:Well, the other area where Democrats have the ability to weigh in is in appropriations. And what it appears the administration is going to need is additional funding to operate this war. And they haven't yet told us how much it's going to cost. But clearly, we are spending billions of dollars with the buildup in the Middle East and with the ongoing operations. So at some point, I assume they're going to have to come back to Congress. And all this is at a time when Americans are struggling with the cost of living, when the administration has said we can't afford to help people with keeping their health insurance because that's too expensive, that it's not too expensive to go to war.

11:51Emily Rose:So I think there are real questions here about where the president's priorities are.

11:57Marco Rubio:Interestingly, not everyone in the Democratic Party is opposed to the president on this. Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania posted on X that every member in the U.S. Senate agrees we cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. I'm baffled why so many are unwilling to support the only action to achieve that. What is your response to that? Do you see this war as the only action that could have stopped Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?

12:27Emily Rose:No, what we heard from the negotiations that had been ongoing for weeks now from several negotiators, including the negotiator from Oman, was that they were making real progress. And what we know about something like the nuclear program is once they've got the knowledge on how to enrich uranium, it's very hard to eliminate everybody who has that knowledge. So the best way to ensure that they don't get a nuclear weapon is to have a negotiated settlement and have inspections from the IAEA that come in and make sure that they are not enriching uranium, that they are not building a nuclear weapon.

13:08Emily Rose:And unfortunately, President Trump turned his back on that negotiation process, even though they seem to be making real progress.