GOP Senator Criticizes Trump’s Iran Threats: ‘Cannot Be Excused’

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the first GOP senator to speak out against President Donald Trump’s threats against Iran, sharing her critique in a social media post as the Tuesday evening deadline loomed.

The U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran have been controversial from the beginning, and Trump has gotten scathing criticism from the right as well as the left as the war has continued. The president’s social media posts over the last few days, threatening devastating consequences against civilian infrastructure like bridges and power plants if Iran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 pm ET on Tuesday, have been assessed as war crimes by numerous international law experts.

Trump’s Truth Social post on Tuesday threatened that Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if the deadline is missed, and further raised alarm around the world and sparked a wave of calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, removing Trump from office. Pope Leo XIV issued an unusually direct critique of Trump’s threats, calling them “truly unacceptable” and an escalation of an “unjust war.”

At least 70 House Democrats and two Senate Democrats have called for Trump to be impeached or removed under the 25th Amendment for his Iran post, according to a list compiled by Axios Congress reporter Andrew Solender.

Several congressional Republicans have previously offered criticism of Trump’s handling of the war, but most have remained tight-lipped regarding his latest posts. Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) appeared to be the first GOP House member to step forward, writing a lengthy social post declaring that destroying a “whole civilization” was “not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America.”

“I have and will continue to support a strong national defense—one that is focused, disciplined, and firmly rooted in protecting the safety and security of the American people. But, how we protect the lives of the innocent is just as important as how we engage the enemy,” Moran wrote. “America is great because America is good.”

Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), a former Republican who still caucuses with his old party, voiced similar views about how the U.S. “does not destroy civilizations…[n]or do we threaten to do so as some sort of negotiating tactic.”

Murkowski added her voice to this small coalition Tuesday afternoon as the deadline approached, also rejecting efforts by some of the president’s supporters to frame his “rhetoric” as just a negotiating tactic.

Wrote Murkowski:

The President’s threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran.

This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home.

The oppressive, terror-spreading regime of the Islamic Republic must be distinguished from the people and the civilization of Iran. Everyone involved—especially the President and Iran’s leaders—must de-escalate their unprecedented saber-rattling before it is too late.

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