ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
To Washington now. The Trump administration has been doing a victory lap after its surprise attack on the three Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday. On NBC's "Meet The Press" this morning, host Kristen Welker asked Vice President Vance if the U.S. is at war. Here's how he answered.
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VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: No, Kristen, we're not at war with Iran. We're at war with Iran's nuclear program.
LIMBONG: The White House is also facing pushback from a bipartisan group of lawmakers who say that the attack was made without congressional approval. NPR's Stephen Fowler has been following the political reaction and fallout from the strikes and joins us now. Hi, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey, there.
LIMBONG: So it's been nearly 24 hours since the attack in Iran was carried out. How does the Trump administration view yesterday's military operation?
FOWLER: I mean, the White House views it as a success. In a press conference Sunday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Iran's nuclear ambitions were, quote, "obliterated" after President Trump OK'd the mission.
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PETE HEGSETH: The order we received from our commander in chief was focused. It was powerful, and it was clear. We devastated the Iranian nuclear program.
FOWLER: On various Sunday morning news shows, Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the rounds and gave interviews explaining more details about this operation that was kept close to the vest until after it happened. Here's Rubio on CBS' "Face The Nation."
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MARCO RUBIO: It was not an attack on Iran. It was not an attack on the Iranian people. This wasn't a regime change move. This was designed to degrade and/or destroy three nuclear sites related to their nuclear weaponization ambitions.
FOWLER: Vance and Rubio stressed their belief that these strikes were necessary for national security reasons and were limited and targeted in their focus. And after his cabinet members made it clear this was not a strike on Iran's regime, Trump did float this idea on Truth Social Sunday evening. In a press release today, the White House said the interviews were sending a clear message, and that message is, quote, "the world is safer today because of President Donald J. Trump's highly successful precision strikes against the Iranian regime's key nuclear facilities, and that what happens next is up to them."
LIMBONG: What is the White House saying about the legality of these strikes - right? - 'cause I know some people are pointing to, like, Article 1 of the Constitution and say that, you know, this required congressional approval.
FOWLER: Well, Vance gave a pretty good summary of the administration's stances on an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press."
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VANCE: First of all, the president has clear authority to act to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the worst weapon of mass destruction of them all is nuclear. The idea that this was outside of presidential authority - I think any real, serious legal person would tell you that's not true.
FOWLER: But a lot of people disagree there with the vice president.
LIMBONG: Yeah, I imagine that includes congressional Democrats, right? What do they have to say about the strike and how the White House went about it without Congress?
FOWLER: Well, for the most part, Democratic lawmakers say not involving Congress beforehand is unconstitutional, before even getting to the merits of the strike being the best course of action. Another thing, top Democrats weren't briefed about the mission until after U.S. forces left Iranian airspace, which they object to as well. In his interview on "Meet The Press," Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said what many other Democrats have been saying, namely that the decision to strike without Congress' approval also escalated risk for our troops.
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MARK KELLY: Well, I would say when there's a clear and imminent threat to U.S. citizens, to the United States, to the homeland, the commander in chief has a right to act. That wasn't the case here. And I think certainly for the 40,000 troops in at least six countries in the Middle East - we have a lot of bases in the Middle East - those troops are now at greater risk.
LIMBONG: Democrats are in the minority and have little power in Congress, but there are - are there any Republicans who wish Trump did things differently?
FOWLER: Well, not really. There is one notable exception. That's Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie. Massie was on CBS' "Face The Nation" today talking about a war powers resolution he's co-sponsoring with Democratic representative Ro Khanna to prevent military action in Iran without Congress' OK.
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THOMAS MASSIE: They should have called us all back, and frankly, we should have debated this war powers resolution that Ro Khanna and I offered instead of staying on vacation and doing fundraisers and saying, oh, well, the president's got this under control, we're going to cede our constitutional authority.
LIMBONG: Why aren't there more Republicans who share Massie's concern about going around Congress?
FOWLER: Well, there are a few things that have been at play during President Trump's second term this year. One, there's even more agreement among Republicans with the policies and priorities that President Trump is pursuing, from things like immigration to the economy to, yes, foreign policy. Basically, there's near unanimous support for bombing Iran's nuclear sites.
Two, Republicans in Congress have also been content to let President Trump's view of executive power expand more and more, including into congressional appropriations and these war power-type actions that the Constitution says belongs with Congress. So there's not really any pushback and hasn't been for many things this year.
LIMBONG: That's NPR's Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thank you so much.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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