House passes – A House-passed war powers resolution would require the president to seek congressional approval before any further U.S. military operations in Iran, putting Donald Trump at the center of a new political collision. On MS NOW, Lawrence O’Donnell tied that vote t
On a day when the House moved to constrain President Donald Trump’s Iran authority, Lawrence O’Donnell framed the political message as bluntly as the procedural one.
Wednesday on MS NOW’s “Last Word. ” the host called Trump a “big loser” after the House voted to pass a war powers resolution that would require the president to get congressional approval before carrying out any more military operations in Iran. O’Donnell said the “big loser” in California the night before was Trump. then pivoted to Congress: the “big loser in the United States Congress today was Donald Trump” after the House of Representatives cast what he described as an historic vote against Trump’s war.
The resolution, O’Donnell said, directs Congress’s demand onto the president’s next step. As he put it. with some Republicans joining all Democrats in voting for the measure. the resolution says Congress directs the president to remove United States armed forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
O’Donnell also zeroed in on the man who controls the House calendar. He argued that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had been trying to avoid the vote by sending the House on an early recess. In O’Donnell’s account. the choice to delay becomes its own signal: if you’re trying to dodge a confrontation. you’re “on your way to losing that vote.”.
He then pointed to an assessment from Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who told The Washington Post that Johnson’s delay actually helped build support for the vote that followed.
The political argument didn’t stay inside Washington. O’Donnell moved from the war powers floor vote to last night’s campaigns in California. saying Trump “probably doesn’t realize just how badly his Trump candidates did.” He highlighted Trump’s reaction to the governor’s race. referencing Trump’s congratulation of his candidate for governor: British-born former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
O’Donnell said that in a social media post, Trump called Hilton a “WINNER,” and he contended that Hilton has “never won anything.” O’Donnell added that the only other time Hilton even “considered running for office” was for British Parliament, and that campaign “never even got started.”
From there. O’Donnell described what he called the decline and fall of the Republican Party in California. using Hilton’s path as his example: he argued that to field a candidate for governor this year. the California GOP had to wait for Steve Hilton to leave British politics. He also said Hilton pushed what he called “the absolute stupidest British idea”—Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. a historic. controversial moment known as Brexit—before becoming a U.S. citizen and running for California governor.
He then returned to the numbers and timing. “And as of the vote count last night. Donald Trump was right. ” O’Donnell said. but with a twist—Hilton. he said. was “right” only in the sense that Hilton was first “on the scoreboard. ” like being first in the early minutes of a basketball game. In O’Donnell’s view, that advantage is meaningless. He predicted Hilton would lose “by 20 points at least. ” and he said Trump’s “clownish candidate” for mayor of Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt. has a similarly poor chance of victory.
O’Donnell reminded viewers that much of California’s voting is done through mail-in ballots. with ballots continuing to arrive and be counted over the coming days. In his telling. Trump will discover that reality eventually—that there will not be a Trump-endorsed mayor of Los Angeles and not be a Trump-endorsed governor of California.
“Congress directs the president to remove United States armed forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran. ” O’Donnell said of the House measure’s language. By the time he finished. he had made his point across two arenas at once: congressional authority over war and the political consequences of endorsing candidates in California.
He ended with a warning that sounded less like analysis and more like a curse he expected voters to repeat. O’Donnell said there could not be “a greater curse on a candidate running in Los Angeles or running statewide in California than the endorsement of Donald Trump.”
United States Congress war powers resolution Iran Mike Johnson Donald Trump Lawrence O'Donnell MS NOW California governor race Steve Hilton Spencer Pratt Los Angeles mayor mail-in ballots Gregory Meeks
War powers again 🙄
So Congress is gonna make Trump ask permission to do anything with Iran? That seems like tying the president’s hands right in the middle of whatever threat is going on. Also they said something about O’Donnell calling him a loser? Like okay dude lol.
I don’t even think this will stop anything. War powers votes are basically theater. If they really cared, they’d just pass something that prevents strikes, not “seek congressional approval” which can take forever. And I saw Mike Johnson’s name—wasn’t he the one who already approved stuff? Confusing. Also Lawrence O’Donnell calling him a loser means like… what exactly? That the House actually controls the Pentagon now?
Wait, am I reading it right that they want the president to remove US forces from hostilities against Iran? Doesn’t that just restart the whole “withdrawal” argument again? And the article mentions an early recess like that’s proof he was trying to dodge it… maybe, but maybe they just needed time. I feel like politics is just everyone posturing and blaming each other while the people in charge do whatever they want anyway.