Wisconsin’s congressional delegation split along party lines over US strikes on Iran

After the U.S. struck three Iranian nuclear sites Saturday, Wisconsin federal lawmakers’ reactions were divided along party lines.

Republicans praised the strikes as a necessary step and said they were within the bounds of presidential authority. Meanwhile, Democrats criticized President Donald Trump for ordering the strikes without approval from Congress and said they risked creating a wider conflict.

In an interview Sunday on FOX News, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Trump had been clear that Iran could not become a nuclear power.

“They were getting too close. They simply would not listen to him. They wouldn’t give it up,” he said.

He expressed disbelief that “anybody could have been surprised at this,” arguing the president had “telegraphed” his intentions.

Johnson said the U.S. was “not at war with the Iranian people.”

“I hope they take this opportunity of the regime’s weakness to rise up and establish a more democrat, Western-leaning, prosperous Iran,” he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin argued that diplomacy, not war, was the way to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons.

“I have been clear-eyed that Iran is a threat to the safety of people across the world and cannot have a nuclear weapon,” she wrote in a statement Sunday.

That was why, she wrote, she supported former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal. She claimed Trump’s withdrawal from it “got us into this whole situation.”

“We should be learning lessons from our war in Iraq and what it means to engulf us in a conflict across the globe,” she wrote. “I did not support that war, and I don’t support this one.”

House Republicans back Trump, Democrats back checks on presidential powers

Reactions were similar among Wisconsin’s U.S. House delegation, which is split between six Republicans and two Democrats.

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Clyman, called diplomacy “our preferred path,” but argued Trump’s actions will “prevent a far greater conflict down the road.”

“Now is the time for Iran to reassess its path and choose negotiation over provocation,” the 5th Congressional District representative wrote in a statement Saturday.

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, characterized the strikes differently.

She said Trump was “putting American lives in jeopardy and choosing to escalate in a region already on edge.”

“Rest assured, no one is sleeping safer or more secure because of the unfolding attacks,” she wrote on social media site X.

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, blamed “weak” previous Democratic administrations for emboldening Iran.

“I fully support President Trump’s actions to defend our greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel, and send a clear message to our adversaries that America does not tolerate nuclear intimidation,” he wrote.

U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, said Iran’s leadership bore blame.

“Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has squandered our good-faith efforts to negotiate for nuclear disarmament and left the US with few options other than to destroy Iran’s ability to have a nuclear weapon,” he wrote on X Monday.

Axios reported Trump was willing to meet Iran’s president in Turkey as recently as last week, but the Iranian side couldn’t reach Khamenei to greenlight the meeting.

“Iran’s rulers have been vowing ‘Death to America’ for decades,” wrote U.S. Rep Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, in a statement. “President Trump understands that peace is achieved through strength, and strength means preventing a nuclear Iran.”

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, R-De Pere, reposted an American flag shared by Trump and echoed the president’s “peace through strength” motto. But he also wrote that “now is the time for peace and an end to endless wars.”

Also writing on X, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from the Town of Vermont west of Madison, urged Congress to pass a recently-introduced bill that orders the president to seek congressional authorization before military action in Iran.

The bill was written by Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a conservative libertarian from Kentucky who frequently clashes with Trump. It’s cosponsored by 43 Democrats, including Moore and Pocan.

“Hot take: war is bad,” Pocan also posted Monday.

The office of U.S. Rep. Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, did not respond to a request for comment, and as of Monday afternoon, Grothman had not shared a reaction to the attack on his social media accounts.