It’s no secret that Democrats intend to force President Donald Trump to end his war with Iran once they take control of the House and Senate next year. But Democrats also believe they may not have to wait that long.
With lawmakers needing to address government funding and a major defense policy bill before the new year — as well as the prospect of an impeachment vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — Democrats believe they may have some unexpected leverage to end the eight-month war in the coming weeks.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told MS NOW that Democrats should take an all-of-the-above approach, though he said a Dec. 11 government funding deadline is likely their most powerful point of leverage.
“I think we deal with the funding and we use that to end the war,” Gallego said Thursday. “I think that’s the strongest thing we could do.”
Whatever they do, Democrats can’t afford to wait very long, Gallego added.
“What I saw personally in war is that, as soon as a certain amount of men die, then we can’t get out because we’ve got to go avenge them, right?” Gallego said. “And that’s why the longer this war goes on, the more dangerous it becomes for it to spin out and actually become a real dangerous conflict.”
Other key Democrats agreed that defunding the war was a top priority.
Just a day after the midterm elections, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Democrats would find a way to force an end.
“This war must end,” Schumer said. “It must end.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told MS NOW in a statement that her party “will absolutely not fund Trump’s war of choice with Iran.”
But that’s just one of several prongs to the Democratic approach.
The push to impeach Hegseth already had some momentum in September, when Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced articles of impeachment. House GOP leaders opted to send members home to campaign rather than stick around and hold the vote. But Massie wrote on X last week that he would reintroduce the articles of impeachment unless Hegseth resigns.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the campaign trail that Democrats would “run Pete Hegseth out of town” quickly if they took power.
And when MS NOW asked Jeffries about oversight of Hegseth on Wednesday, the Democratic leader responded with a playful question: “Is Pete Hegseth still around?”
Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said Tuesday’s election results put the spotlight squarely on Hegseth.
“Tuesday was a referendum on Trump’s disastrous war in Iran, and the American people sent a message loud and clear: Pete Hegseth is the most incompetent, immoral SecDef in history — and he’s got to go,” Ryan said in a statement. “I have zero faith in Hegseth to bring this war to an end, so getting him out is priority number one.”
Democrats also haven’t given up on using a war powers resolution to demand that Trump cease hostilities with Iran. Senators have forced 14 votes so far on Iran war powers resolutions, including one successful vote that Trump ignored.
The balance will likely shift in favor of opponents of the war when new Democrats take office in January.
Sens. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., were key votes against the last war powers vote in September, which failed 49-50. Both members lost their re-election bids. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, whose race hasn’t been called, also cast a critical vote against the resolution.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’d push for an immediate vote on a war powers resolution in January.
“I will introduce a joint resolution to end the Iran War on the first day of the next Congress,” Meeks told MS NOW last week. “And Democrats will use hearings, legislation, oversight, and the power of the purse to push the administration toward a durable, diplomatic solution. We will keep fighting to end Trump’s failed war of choice, as we focus on addressing the needs of the American people.”
War powers resolutions aren’t without their weaknesses, however, and Democrats are aware of that. Trump’s decision to ignore a successful war powers measure, adopted by both chambers in June, highlighted the limits of the process.
Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., said the next Congress would need to establish its control over war powers.
“Presidents in both parties have abused the constitutional powers here,” Deluzio told MS NOW on Thursday. “The Congress should take it back. They should reassert the American people’s role in deciding when Americans go to fight.”
Another House Democrat, granted anonymity to discuss private sentiments within the caucus, said changes to the War Powers Act may need to be part of broader institutional changes in Congress.
“We need to treat this like the Watergate class, and not only address ending the war in Iran, but actually the institutional reform that we need to do so that this can’t happen again,” the lawmaker said.
This Democrat added that an impeachment vote against Hegseth would almost certainly take place during the lame-duck session.
At the same time, Democrats are trying to figure out how to write a directive into a government funding bill that would legally require Trump to end the war. It’s a complicated question, as Congress can’t require that Iran’s government loosen its grip on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and U.S. strikes have been stop-and-go during the hostilities.
Gallego said Democrats may want to preserve some discretion to let the U.S. naval blockade continue — just with strict time limits. Overly prescriptive language could create loopholes, he said. Overall, though, Democrats “have to focus on the funding side of it,” Gallego added.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also said Democrats can use the power of the purse to end the war, though they haven’t settled on a specific plan.
Of course, the push to end the war — an easy campaign talking point — runs up against the reality that Iran also gets a say in how the conflict ends.
The previously mentioned House Democrat acknowledged that part of the hope is that Democrats might force Trump back to the negotiating table — and make the Iranians feel confident that the U.S. will not just disregard any agreement.
“When you look at the Iranians’ posture, they don’t trust making a deal with Trump because every time they’ve been in negotiations, he’s started bombing them,” the lawmaker said.
Raskin said the Trump administration could also come to Democrats with proposals on how to extricate itself from the situation, if officials are chastened by the election results. He noted that Vice President JD Vance seemed to try to distance himself from the war in a long X post analyzing Republicans’ losses.
“If he really means that, what is his plan to extricate us from the wreckage of the Iran war?” Raskin told MS NOW. “He should put it on the table.”
Akayla Gardner and Peggy Helman contributed to this report.
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