Rep Boebert rejects call for another $200 billion to fund Iran war, while Americans ‘can’t afford to live’
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told CNN Thursday she is opposed to sending another $200 billion to fund the Iran war, warning that such efforts are endangering Republican chances in the midterms.
“I will not vote for a war supplemental. No. I am a ‘No.’ I’ve already told leadership, ‘I am a no on any war supplementals,'” Boebert told CNN’s Manu Raju.
“I am so tired of spending money elsewhere. I am tired of the industrial war complex getting all of our hard-earned tax dollars. I have folks in Colorado who can’t afford to live.
“We need America First policies right now, and that — I’m not doing that.”
ROGAN SAYS VOTERS FEEL ‘BETRAYED’ BY TRUMP’S IRAN CAMPAIGN AFTER HE PLEDGED ‘NO MORE WARS’ FOR YEARS
In the past few months, there has been a growing internal battle among President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition over whether he has fulfilled the campaign promises he ran on for years.
Some podcasters who have praised or been friendly with Trump in the past, ranging from comedian Andrew Schulz to Joe Rogan, have blasted the Iran war as a huge departure from Trump’s rhetoric on ending such foreign conflicts.
Now the GOP is struggling to wrangle enough support to keep funding the military operation in Iran.
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In her declaration to CNN that she will not back the Pentagon’s bid for $200 billion in supplemental funding, Boebert echoed the common sentiment that the military operation is putting Republican chances in the midterms at risk, and other initiatives are far more pressing.
“We need the SAVE America Act, FISA with warrants. There’s a lot of hard lines that I have right now, and we’ve got to get our act together if we want to keep this majority, and the path that we’re going doesn’t look very promising,” she said.
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When another reporter asked whether she thinks the Trump administration should get out of Iran, she replied, while walking away, “That’s up to the president.”
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Iran regime could ‘fall pretty soon,’ Victor Davis Hanson says, as global tide turns
Historian Victor Davis Hanson predicted the Iranian regime could “fall pretty soon” as President Donald Trump’s air campaign continues in the Middle East.
Appearing on “Hannity” Thursday, Hanson argued the president’s strategy in the Middle East is working. He pointed to what he described as a shift in global momentum, three weeks into the joint U.S. and Israeli mission, Operation Epic Fury.
“If Trump sees it through, and I think he will, I think they’re [going to] fall pretty soon, in two, three, four weeks,” said Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, of Iran.
“And I think they know it. And I think the Europeans know it. And I think the Middle East knows it,” he added.
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Hanson argued Trump is avoiding what he described as the mistakes of past administrations in Iraq and Afghanistan by refusing to deploy massive numbers of troops. Instead, he said, the U.S. is using precision intelligence, advanced technology and aerial firepower to achieve its goals.
“We’re not [going to] put people in a Fallujah-like context where they’re going door-to-door against jihadists,” said Hanson.
“We’re [going to] play to our strength — which is intelligence, technology, firepower — and we’re going to do it in a new way with enhanced drones and satellite reconnaissance, so we know the individual names of individual commanders.”
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While U.S. drone strikes have targeted top Iranian officials, the strategy is expanding. Three more warships and roughly 2,500 Marines are being deployed to the Middle East to address Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Disruptions in the strait have already sent oil prices surging.
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Trump has posted about his disappointment with allies for not taking a wider role in reopening the vital waterway. The United Kingdom said the U.S. military can use U.K. bases to launch strikes against Iranian missile sites targeting ships in the strait.
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“Europeans would never agree to go anywhere near Iran unless they thought the tide was turning and they think that we’re [going to] win,” added Hanson.
The operation began with strikes that resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. Last week Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, released a statement vowing the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the war ends and demanding that U.S. military bases be removed from the region.
Iran conflict won’t trigger Biden-style refugee replay, expert predicts
Iran’s instability is unlikely to trigger a Syrian- or Afghanistan-style refugee crisis, a top immigration expert told Fox News Digital, even as questions mount over what comes next for the Iranian people once the fighting subsides.
With Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in an airstrike, several top officials dead and competing factions vying for control, questions are mounting over whether Iran’s turmoil could trigger a refugee crisis.
However, given the geography and environment in Iran, a mass refugee exodus appears unlikely, according to Andrew “Art” Arthur – a nationally-recognized national security and immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies.
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“It’s actually an interesting question, and there are a couple of things to keep in mind,” Arthur said in a recent interview.
“One is Iran is about twice the size of Texas. It’s, I think, roughly the size as Alaska. It is a huge country, and I think there are 93 million people there, but it’s still a big country and most of it is untouched by the conflict, so it’s not like individuals couldn’t relocate in-country and be perfectly safe.”
Unlike Afghanistan, he added, the U.S. and the West don’t have a previous footprint on the ground and don’t have people inside the country offering assistance.
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“[W]e don’t have the ability to do something like President Biden did where we load up C-130s with everybody we can get our hands on and fly them to the United States. So, that’s a huge distinction.”
During the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, chaos reigned at Hamid Karzai International Airport as U.S. military planes with refugees hanging off of them flew in and out of Kabul while Taliban forces created deadly roadblocks and uncertainty for those trying to flee.
The operation led to a huge influx of largely unvetted Afghan nationals into the U.S., which many immigration hawks blame for some of the migrant violence seen domestically.
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Arthur said that exemplar is rare, in that most refugees don’t or aren’t able to fly “halfway around the world” to escape unrest.
“The Afghanistan evacuation operation, Allies Refuge and Allies Welcome, was completely without precedent in U.S. history, because, generally, refugees resettle in an adjacent country assuming that they can resettle in-country,” he said.
Such was true during the other major refugee flow this century, the Syrian crisis during the 2011 “Arab Spring.”
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Then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad responded to peaceful civilian protests with military force, spurring years of outflows of about 11 million Syrian nationals around Europe with a smaller proportion ultimately making their way to the U.S.
The Obama administration set a goal of 10,000 admissions of Syrians through refugee resettlement, while nearly 5 million were registered globally as refugees as of 2017, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
A good proportion of the U.S.’ Syrian population also predates the refugee crisis, some by more than 100 years, like the estimated 5,000 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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Addressing the potential for any Iranian refugee crisis, Arthur said that, in practice, the U.S. could offer resources to neighboring countries but would not be obligated to take in refugees.
“That’s not the way that this works,” he said, pointing out that during the 1980s Afghan-Soviet conflict, Afghans relocated to Pakistan and the U.S. helped them from afar.
“We didn’t bring them to the United States,” he said, adding that the U.S. helped enforce a no-fly zone to assist aligned factions, such as the Kurds, maintain safer territory.
MEDIA UNDER FIRE: JOURNALISTS KEEP QUESTIONING IRAN WAR AS HEGSETH CALLS THEM ‘UNPATRIOTIC’ AND ‘ANTI-TRUMP’
Fox News Digital also asked the White House for its thoughts on the prospect of another refugee crisis amid another bout of instability in a Mideast country.
The White House directed Fox News Digital to recent comments by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the matter, when he was questioned about the proclivity for such conflicts as Iran to force thousands to flee from the conflict zone and into the U.S. – and whether there are any “safeguards” in place to prevent such.
“I think it’s safe to say there’s no plan for a wave of new Middle Eastern refugees to the United States of America,” Hegseth said.
“I think, as the president has pointed out for a long time, there are a lot of countries in the region who would be capable of providing that kind of support if need be.”
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“But that’s certainly not something we’re planning on,” he said.