Crow Takes to House Floor to Demand Congress End Trump's War with Iran

WASHINGTON — Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO), a former paratrooper and Army Ranger who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Armed Services Committee, delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives demanding Congress pass a War Powers Resolution to end President Donald Trump’s war with Iran. Crow’s remarks came  ahead of a House vote on a Crow-backed War Powers Resolution. 

“Working class Americans, like the kids that I grew up with, the kids that I deployed with, fought with, suffered with, they're the ones that have to do the fighting, and the dying, and the paying for these conflicts,” said Congressman Crow during his remarks. “They see that the burden of these wars fall on them, while the elites and the rich and the powerful in this country get richer, and more powerful, and more comfortable. The burden is not equal in this nation. It's because the system is broken.”

He continued, “I want to be clear: this isn't about process to me. Yes, there are important constitutional checks and safeguards at play, but this isn't about inside baseball notification process… What it's about to me is accountability. When I did my combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, combat mission, after combat mission, after combat mission, what I had to know is that important questions were being asked, people were being held to account and asking tough questions, so that I could focus on my mission in bringing my men home. But that has stopped. The debate isn't happening.”

Crow has repeatedly condemned Trump’s illegal war of choice in Iran. He previously introduced a War Powers resolution with Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) to end this war and introduced legislation to prohibit federal funding for the war. As someone from a working class family who served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Crow has seen firsthand the toll forever wars have cost servicemembers and hardworking Americans.

Watch the full remarks here, and a full transcript is below:

Mr. Speaker, I'm here on behalf of the millions of working class Americans who have had it, are fed up with an endless cycle of unaccountable conflict in the Middle East. I started my service to this nation in uniform, like the Chairman. I honor his service like all of our brothers and sisters. And I'm proud of that service, as should all of my brothers and sisters who took the oath I took, stood up when our country called, and did our duty honorably. 

But what is abundantly clear is that our system is broken. Working class Americans, like the kids that I grew up with, the kids that I deployed with, fought with, suffered with, they're the ones that have to do the fighting, and the dying, and the paying for of these conflicts. They see that the burden of these wars fall on them while the elites and the rich and the powerful in this country get richer, and more powerful, and more comfortable. The burden is not equal in this nation. It's because the system is broken.

I want to be clear: this isn't about process to me. Yes, there are important constitutional checks and safeguards at play, but this isn't about inside baseball notification process. Americans’ eyes glaze over when people talk about that under this dome. What it's about to me is accountability. When I did my combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, combat mission, after combat mission, after combat mission, what I had to know is that important questions were being asked, people were being held to account and asking tough questions, so that I could focus on my mission in bringing my men home. But that has stopped. The debate isn't happening.

We're paying for these wars with debt, five to eight trillion dollars, seven thousand American lives, and on and on it goes. It's not just our right. It's our duty. It's our job under this dome to take votes, to appropriate money, to ask tough questions, to hold people to account, and then go home and stand in front of high school gymnasiums, stand in front of our our constituents, go to rotary clubs and explain those votes, why we should send our sons and daughters and our money to the Middle East again, and again, and again. That is what our system requires. That is what Americans deserve. 

This is not optional. The Framers dedicated this responsibility to us because they knew that the decision to send our sons and daughters into war and to spend our taxpayer money was our most solemn responsibility. And not one person should make that decision. This system is broken. It's our duty to take it back. That's what this vote is for. Maybe we should go to war in one instance, but the debate must happen. The vote must happen. I encourage, I demand, that my colleagues step up and take this vote and retake our constitutional duty and to get this done. It's what our servicemen and women deserve. 

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