Rep. Krishnamoorthi on Trump’s Unlawful War in Iran

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2:01Pursuant to clause 13 of rule one, the House state adjourned until 2 30 p.m.

2:07Ben Meiselas:on Monday, April 13th, 2026. All hell just broke loose on the floor of the House of Representatives as Democrats try to introduce a war powers resolution through what's called unanimous consent to try to stop Donald Trump's unlawful war power exertion. Donald Trump's unlawful war in Iran, and to restrain his power with congressional approval, which is frankly required under the Constitution. What you just saw right there were the MAGA Republicans rushing to take the gavel because in this pro forma session, the individuals presiding over it because Republicans control the House of Representatives is a Republican, the MAGA Republicans.

2:59Ben Meiselas:So as soon as the Democrats requested unanimous consent, meaning if there were no objections to it, this war powers resolution could at least pass in the House of Representatives unless there was an objection or unless a MAGA Republican declared it procedurally invalid. So that's why you heard the MAGA Republicans right there, you know, slam that gavel right there. MAGA Republican Congress member Chris Smith started slamming the gavel down to basically say you're out of order, Democrats, for simply trying to introduce a war powers resolution to say Congress should have some oversight over Donald Trump's catastrophic and unlawful war.

3:41Ben Meiselas:You see Democrats right here, a large group of them now outside of the House of Representatives, speaking to the press about the need for diplomacy, about the need for congressional oversight. So you have that happening, a split screen, because over in Iran, Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khomeini, has broken his silence. He has said, we will enter a new phase in the management of the Strait of Hormuz. Also, Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Moj Taba Khomeini, says to our southern neighbors, you are witnessing a miracle. See it correctly and stand in the right place. Be suspicious of the false promises of the devils.

4:28Ben Meiselas:He also says, we will not abandon the criminal aggressors who attacked our country. We will demand compensation for every single damage and the blood price of our martyrs. Strong words from the Ayatollah. He's also saying, you, the heroic nation of Iran, have been the decisive victors of this battlefield. Iran today stands at the dawn of becoming a great power. So on the one hand, you have MAGA Republican Congress members refusing to introduce a war powers resolution and gaveling out to not even allow the Democrats to try to introduce it. Over in Iran, you have the Ayatollah breaking his silence.

5:12Ben Meiselas:We also have heard again from M.B. Galabaf, Iran's very powerful parliament leader. Here's what he says. Past experience has shown us that we must have absolute distrust toward the enemy. America's historic retreat and acceptance of the general framework of Iran's 10-point plan is an undeniable victory, but we consider it an incomplete step. If the United States stops violating its commitments, negotiations may be possible. In essence, we're not even getting to the step of negotiations. We've humiliated the United States by making them agree to our 10-point plan, which says Americans leave all military bases in the Middle East.

5:54Ben Meiselas:Americans give us full reparations. Americans allow us to enrich uranium. Americans allow us to control the Strait of Hormuz and charge$2 million per ship. America allows full and long-lasting security guarantees to Iran, Iran Shiite groups in Iraq, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen. The United States removes all sanctions from Iran, all United Nations sanctions in Iran, and it basically recognizes Iran as a major power player in the world. That's why I think even though Iran recognized that Donald Trump would likely break or not follow through on the 10 point plan. The mere fact that Trump agreed to it has signaled to the rest of the world that Donald Trump is weak and pathetic in many ways.

6:42Ben Meiselas:When Trump begged Pakistan before Trump's own self-imposed 8 p.m. Eastern time deadline on Tuesday, please, can you get Iran to re-offer us the 10 point plan? We'll agree to it. We'll agree to it. I mean, the Trump regime literally drafted the social media posts for Prime Minister Sharif of Pakistan, right? The Trump regime. Iran was like, okay, you're going to publicly announce that you agree to these terms. The powerful United States, the superpower, the country that's led the world is going to agree to all of these terms. That right there is a bigger victory than we could ever ask for. I mean, that's what, and they're like, well, well, if the United States breaks the agreement, we'll just continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, which is what they're doing right now.

7:27Ben Meiselas:And what we're seeing as well, as Donald Trump is now threatening all of his, all of the NATO countries and European countries that you need to send ships to the Strait of Hormuz immediately, send the ships or else, or else. What we're actually seeing happening is a number of nations, as John Larrier writes, a number of nations, including France and other European countries. They're just speaking directly to Iran right now. They're not speaking with the U.S., not sending ships to the Strait of Hormuz. They're going to speak with Iran because Iran's the power player right now. They're the ones who are controlling things.

8:04Ben Meiselas:So they're just going to work bilaterally with Iran. They saw how easy it is for the United States to collapse and cede all of those 10 points. You also have Iran's foreign minister, Aragchi posting the following moments ago. He goes, Netanyahu's criminal trial resumes on Sunday. A region-wide ceasefire, including in Lebanon, would hasten his jailing. If the U.S. wishes to crater its economy by letting Netanyahu kill diplomacy, that would ultimately be its choice. We think that would be dumb, but we are prepared for it. They're mocking Trump. Iran is mocking the Iran is behaving like the superpower and Donald Trump is behaving like Iran used to behave.

8:50Ben Meiselas:That's the wild tables are turning. Here's what Donald, after all I've just read to you, here's what Donald Trump says. Trump says he's very optimistic about a deal with Iran. They're much more reasonable. They're agreeing to what they have to. If they don't make a deal, it's going to be very painful. I spoke with Bibi. I spoke with Bibi Netanyahu. We have to be a A little more low key, a little more low key. That's what Donald Trump's telling NBC. How utterly, utterly pathetic. And folks, we'll take a look right now at what the oil markets look like. The latest U.S. oil prices have surged$101 a barrel.

9:25Ben Meiselas:They're up 11 % in the past 24 hours as growing doubts exist about a U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal. Or, you know, the oil companies are saying if Iran controls the straight-up removes and that's your plan, and this is what the surrounding Arab nations are saying, it will make it prohibitive, cost prohibitive for us to get oil out if we have to pay$2 million for a exit fee, which we never had to pay before this catastrophic war started. And so we're seeing that set in in the market, this sober realization, which should have set in before that Donald Trump made the worst deal. I mean, you couldn't have made a worse deal than what Donald Trump just made.

10:07Ben Meiselas:You know, and then you have the Trump regime officials now going on state regime media, and they're trying to act like things are going really well. I mean, what do you got here? You've got you got what as the economy is contracting, you've got Kevin Hassett over here saying, oh, actually, you know, we think the economy is going to get much better. We expect it to be gangbusters soon. Just even though the latest fourth quarter GDP numbers show that the GDP contracted even more than expected. Initially, 1.4 % was what fourth quarter GDP was, then 0.7 % for the fourth quarter GDP. Now we learn that the fourth quarter GDP was 0.5%.

10:48Ben Meiselas:And remember, this is when Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary, said, it's going to be gangbusters. Things are going to be amazing. So this was Kevin Hassett moments ago where he was like, you know, we think that the economy is going to get much better. Just 4%, 5 % growth. It's coming. It's right around the corner. Here, play this clip. All of that is happening because of optimism that President Trump not only will resolve this in the short term, but in the long term, his policies are going to create a golden age. And so I began the year with the guess that we'd probably be in the four to five range for economic growth because of all this.

11:22And I'll stick by those numbers. I think this is a temporary distraction that will very, very quickly go away. You saw that when you saw the market celebrate yesterday when they when they thought that this would be over.

11:34Ben Meiselas:I want to bring a Democratic Congress member Raja Krishnamoorthy, Congressman Krishnamoorthy. I mean, we're seeing this Ponzi scheme play out in real time. It's right around the corner. Don't worry. It's all going to be amazing. And meanwhile, they get us into these catastrophic and unlawful wars that compound things and make it worse. But always in a crisis mode creates a distraction, whether it's a distraction from the horrific economy, the distraction from the Epstein files, the distraction from a myriad of other things that Donald Trump is doing to destroy the country. And that's what Ponzi schemers do.

12:11Ben Meiselas:Distract. There's always an emergency. Look, let it look this way. And meanwhile, you see what's going on. What do you make of this moment, though, as, you know, this catastrophic war is following the same kind of Trump playbook, which is now he does the fraud deal. Now we're in. And all it does is it weakens us in the end because everyone looks at us like what the hell is going on with the United States of America, man? Look, as you said, this illegal and constitutional war has been disastrous, not only for our national security, but for our economy. I mean, you don't have to go further than the gas pump, where you're starting to see$4 gas go to$5, and it's going to be$6 to$7 in places like California pretty soon.

12:51And so when I hear Howard Lutnick say, this economy is going to be humming, I think he's referring to humming the blues. And at this point, you're right. I think that they're trying to distract from all their domestic problems, having started this foreign adventure. But now, you know, Kevin Hassett is saying this distraction is a distraction itself. I mean, it's become a disaster. And I think that we are kind of in this situation where it's a complete manmade disaster. And it is not what the American people signed up for in the least. They are complaining about their gas and complaining about not being able to buy a home, which, by the way, is becoming more unaffordable by the day.

13:38because of inflation. And as the Fed hikes interest rates or considering hiking interest rates, it's going to become even more unaffordable. So this is just a catastrophe right now.

13:49Ben Meiselas:The most important currency, I think, of governance and international policy is trust. And when trust and good faith is lost, the system disassembles. And what we've always been seeing with Trump's fake deals that he announces. He's doing that right now with Iran. I mean, Trump makes his social media posts. We've agreed. It's what he said. We've agreed to the 10-point framework put forward by Iran. Then he reposts the Iranian foreign minister Aragchi's message about a 10-point plan. And then the day later, J.D. Vance, while leaving of all places, hungry, where he's propping up Viktor Orban, a Putin puppet, says, you know what?

14:40Ben Meiselas:M.B. Galabaf, the parliament leader of Iran, doesn't really speak English well. And so there was reasonable misunderstandings here. Like they thought Lebanon was included in the ceasefire. We never, it's in English. They don't understand English well. And so they actually adopted our 15 point plan and it was just the language barrier. I mean, I kid you not, that's actually what they're saying and what they're pulling right now, Congressman. Yeah. And you see Wall Street's not buying it. They don't believe that this war has necessarily even gone into ceasefire, let alone that it's going to end.

15:18And so you see these oil futures trading higher and higher and higher. I think the one big thing that has emerged is we may be, quote unquote, winning militarily in certain regards, but we are losing economically, Ben. I mean, you can see that the Iranians have basically recognized their control of the Strait of Hormuz, and they are using that leverage to the hilt. And we are kind of in a situation where we basically expose a huge weakness of ours, and the Iranians are now going to use that leverage to get all kinds of other things that we would otherwise not in any way agree to. And that's what I'm concerned about.

16:03I'm concerned yet again that this illustrious group of negotiators, Jared Kushner and Wyckoff and Vance, are going to Pakistan and are going to basically negotiate something that, again, seeds our foreign policy interests and national security interests, just as they have with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And, you know, we're just becoming less safe as a result.

16:31Ben Meiselas:So where do we go from here? I mean, obviously, you know, this is how Trump wants this to play out for the next three years. Oh, yeah. By the way, before I get to that, I am still very concerned about the insider trading that's happening at the White House and in the executive branch, the people in the know with regard to the ups and downs of what's going on with the Iranian war. I think there's a lot of insider trading going on and people are making money off of the markets, gyrating the way they have and the oil prices going up. Getting to your point, where do we go from here? We bind with our friends, partners and allies once again to try to get a diplomatic solution to all of this.

17:18Look, the Iranians must not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, but I'm concerned that everything that we've done has caused them to accelerate that program. We need to have free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. And again, our actions are causing the opposite. They are strengthening their control over the Strait of Hormuz. And then finally, we need to, you know, reduce their nefarious activities and their ballistic missile program. And I think right now those are unfortunately entrenched even more than before. So, you know, we are just in a world of hurt right now. We got to get to a better place, ASAP.

18:02Ben Meiselas:You know, and how do Democrats, though, make it clear or set aside Democrats, just the media, everybody, just make it clear what's happening, because this is the cycle. Trump will do this for the next few years. He will break it, but he'll keep the Ponzi scheme afloat just enough by robbing Peter to pay Paul, as they say. And then, whether it's a Democratic president or whoever, Democratic president takes over, whoever that's going to be. and then they got to look at this and they go, you know, it's a Biden moment. Holy crap. Like I got to fix this, that and the other thing. And for me to fix it, I've got to do surgery.

18:46Ben Meiselas:And for me to do the surgery, I got to open up the body and to open up the body. It's going to look ugly, but that's the responsible thing to do. And the moment you start opening up the body, then your colleagues on the other side, they go, I'm a fiscal hawk and I'm this and I'm that. How dare you? And then Fox starts blasting. Could you believe this, that and the other? The fixing, it's not easy to fix things, but then you get blamed as being the arsonist by the arsonist when you're putting out the fire. So how do we how do we break this cycle? Well, first, we have to we have to point out what's going on right now.

19:22We have to do it in a unified fashion. I think that people already realize it in their gut. I think there's tremendous has buyer's remorse been among people who voted for Trump? I think they see that. I talked to farmers, for instance, and they are going through hell right now because their fertilizer costs are through the roof due to fuel prices going up, which is an essential component in making fertilizer. At the same time, their counter tariffs are hitting them in the pocketbook as well. And so So these are squarely Trump voters. And so these are folks who are having second thoughts about Trump.

19:58And it'll be very interesting to see what happens in places like Iowa, for instance, with their upcoming gubernatorial races and other statewide races that they consider. Do they want to go the same course or do they want to go a different course? So we have to point out what voters actually voted for and got from Donald Trump. That's step one. Step two, we have to talk about, okay, what do we want to do, right? And I think what we want to do is we want to focus back on people's pocketbook issues. We got to end the tariff chaos. We got to stop these crazy military adventures. And we have to kind of focus back on restoring some of these cuts that have decimated people's health care, whether it's in Medicaid or their food stamps, or for instance, even in the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act.

20:46Remember, one of the reasons why we are so in soup right now because of this Iran war is because of our reliance on fossil fuels and oil. Okay. And the Inflation Reduction Act was in part a way to incentivize the growth of our solar, our wind and renewable energy industries to basically wean us off dependence on those fossil fuels and that oil, which Iran is now taking very strong advantage of. And so if we really want to get out of the grips of being dependent on the beneficence of the rulers of Iran or in the Middle East, we've got to get our act together with renewable energy. So those are the types of messages I think that we need to continue with.

21:36And of course, holding the Trump administration accountable for all the horrible stuff they've done, whether it's with regard to the Epstein files, whether it's the economy, whether it's ICE or anything else.

21:48Ben Meiselas:Congressman Krishnamorthy, appreciate you coming on as always. Appreciate your leadership in Congress and fighting back in these crazy times. Thank you so much, Ben. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers.

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