The U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday have rendered ideal results for addressing the crisis between Iran and Israel, according to former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. 

‘Bottom line, this is about the best place we can be,’ Brett McGurk said in a CNN interview late Monday. ‘I give extremely high marks to this national security team and President Trump for managing this crisis and getting where we are.’

Additionally, McGurk said that the Trump administration has an opportunity to pursue a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza amid ongoing attempts for months to secure one. 

‘There’s a chance for diplomacy here,’ McGurk said. ‘Not only on the Iran side, but also in Gaza. Those talks are also going on back channel in Cairo; there’s a Hamas delegation there. Try to get that ceasefire in place. And you can come out of this in a place that is far better than we would have anticipated 10 nights ago.’

While McGurk most recently served in the Biden administration, he’s been part of both Republican and Democrat administrations. He previously served on former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s National Security Councils. 

He also served as the special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during both the Obama administration and President Donald Trump’s first term. However, he resigned from that post in 2018 following Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, along with then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis for the same reason. 

In addition to McGurk, other officials who served in Democratic administrations also weighed in to support Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict, including Jamie Metzl, who previously served as former President Bill Clinton’s director for multilateral affairs on the National Security Council. 

Metzl said that while he’s been critical of Trump and voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, he doesn’t believe Harris could have pulled off the strikes against Iranian targets like Trump did. 

‘Iran has been at war with the United States for 46 years,’ Metzl said in a post on X Sunday. ‘Its regime has murdered thousands of American citizens. Its slogan ‘death to America’ was not window dressing but core ideology. It was racing toward a nuclear weapon with every intention of using it to threaten America, our allies, and the Middle East region as a whole.’

‘Although I believe electing Kamala Harris would have been better for our democracy, society, and economy, as well as for helping the most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world, I also believe VP Harris would not have had the courage or fortitude to take such an essential step as the president took last night,’ Metzl said. 

The U.S. launched strikes late Saturday targeting key Iranian nuclear facilities: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The mission involved more than 125 U.S. aircraft, including B-2 stealth bombers, according to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

While Trump said early Tuesday that a ceasefire had gone into effect between Israel and Iran, Trump issued tough words for both countries later Tuesday morning amid accusations from both sides that the other had violated the agreement. 

Trump told reporters both Israel and Iran failed to follow the terms of the agreement, which he said is still in effect. 

‘I’m not happy with them,’ Trump said at the White House Tuesday morning. ‘I’m not happy with Iran either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning.’ 

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,’ he said. 

Progressive New York Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, fired back at President Donald Trump’s Truth Social rampage on Tuesday after the two traded barbs following Saturday night’s U.S. strikes on Iran. 

‘Mr. President, don’t take your anger out on me – I’m just a silly girl,’ Ocasio-Cortez responded Tuesday after the president dubbed her ‘Stupid AOC.’ 

‘Take it out on whoever convinced you to betray the American people and our Constitution by illegally bombing Iran and dragging us into war,’ she said.

Ocasio-Cortez emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest congressional critics after the U.S. attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran on Saturday night. While Democrats raged against Trump, calling his actions unconstitutional, Ocasio-Cortez went as far as to call for his impeachment. 

‘It only took you 5 months to break almost every promise you made,’ the 35-year-old Democratic socialist, who is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said Tuesday, before adding, ‘Also, I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast. Respectfully.’

She was responding to a lengthy post from the president in which he referred to her as ‘Stupid AOC’ and ‘one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress.’

Trump criticized Ocasio-Cortez for ‘now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before.’

During Trump’s first term, he was impeached twice. First, in 2019, Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over allegations that he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to interfere in U.S. elections. Following the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection.

The Senate acquitted Trump in both instances. 

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas., who advocated for Trump’s impeachment during his first term and was censured for disrupting Trump’s joint address to Congress earlier this year, introduced articles of impeachment against Trump last month for ‘devolving democracy within the United States into authoritarianism.’

Green once again introduced articles of impeachment against Trump after the U.S. strikes against Iran, which he said violates Article I of the U.S. Constitution, saying only Congress has the authority to declare war. 

The House voted to dismiss Green’s resolution Tuesday afternoon in a 344–79 vote, including support from 128 Democrats.

‘It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,’ Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday night, responding to Trump’s announcement that the U.S. had successfully struck Iran’s nuclear facilities. Several Democrats joined Ocasio-Cortez’s call for impeachment, but Trump focused his criticism on fellow progressive ‘Squad’ members in his lengthy Tuesday post. 

After insulting Ocasio-Cortez’s intelligence, Trump said she is ‘far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country.’

He also said, ‘AOC should be forced to take the Cognitive Test that I just completed at Walter Reed Medical Center, as part of my Physical.’

And Trump dared Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Go ahead and try Impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!’ after telling her to go back home to her district in Queens, where Trump was raised, and ‘straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime-ridden streets, in the District she ‘represents,’ and which she never goes to anymore. She better start worrying about her own Primary.’

In her social media rebuttal, the New York Democrat also fired back at Vice President JD Vance, who said on X, ‘I wonder if other VPs had as much excitement as I do.’

‘Maybe that’s because you advised the president to illegally bomb Iran,’ Ocasio-Cortez replied. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

While President Donald Trump has asserted that the military’s weekend strike against Iran ‘completely and totally obliterated’ its nuclear weapon-making capabilities, there are still questions about whether the ground-penetrating ‘bunker buster’ bombs used to attack Iran’s key enrichment sites were enough to stop the rogue country from developing a nuclear bomb.

A report released last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explains that the special ‘bunker buster’ bombs the U.S. used in Iran over the weekend that everyone is talking about, known as GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, might not be able to fully destroy the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow. Fordow, which Trump said was ‘gone’ now following the strike, is considered central to Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capabilities. 

Meanwhile, a satellite imagery expert relayed to Reuters that confirmation of below-ground destruction could not be determined via pictures alone, because the facility’s hundreds of centrifuges are too deeply buried in order to make an accurate determination. 

‘I actually have a little bit of a rosier view on things,’ Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program, told Fox News Digital. ‘I think that because of the massive damage and the shock wave that would have been sent by 12 Massive Ordnance Penetrators at the Fordow site, that it likely would render its centrifuges damaged or inoperable.’

Stricker noted that centrifuges are ‘very delicate’ and the kind of shock wave coming from the MOPs would at least put them ‘out of commission.’ She also said if any centrifuges did survive the blasts, it would be likely that they would be inaccessible by Iranian authorities for several months.   

‘Underground facilities present a difficult target, not only for destruction, but also in terms of follow-on battle damage assessment,’ added Wes Rumbaugh, a fellow in the Missile Defense Project at CSIS. ‘The United States and Israel will likely need to invest additional intelligence resources to determine the true extent of the damage from the U.S. strikes and their long-term effect on Iranian nuclear infrastructure.’

In addition to Fordow, the U.S. used its MOPs at an Iranian enrichment facility called Natanz, where, according to Stricker, at least 1,000 centrifuges are located, as well as an above-ground enrichment plant and other labs capable of making uranium metal. 

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the above-ground labs had previously been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, destroying the plant’s electrical infrastructure. Meanwhile, satellite imagery following the U.S.’s decision to drop two MOPs on Natanz show two craters located where the site’s underground enrichment facilities are reportedly located. However, it is still not clear if the U.S. attacks completely destroyed the underground nuclear infrastructure.  

Either way, Striker noted, the significant damage to Iran’s Natanz facility will create a ‘bottleneck’ in the country’s supply chain for weapons-grade uranium, which will significantly impact Iran’s nuclear weapon-making capabilities. 

The third site targeted by the U.S.’s airstrikes was Iran’s Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility, but MOPs were not used at that site. Instead, the U.S. used Tomahawk cruise missiles, which the IAEA confirmed caused significant damage. Satellite imagery reportedly shows Isfahan’s above-ground facilities were taken out, but it remains unclear the extent of the damage to the site’s underground sections.

One of the biggest outstanding questions regarding the success of the United States’ weekend strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, is whether authorities in the country were able to move their nuclear materials from the targeted sites before the U.S. launched its missiles at them. But, according to CSIS’s Bumbaugh, even if that is the case and Iran moved their nuclear materials, the chaos would still make it hard for Iran to ‘sprint to a nuclear weapon.’  

‘Having to move these assets to new facilities likely degrades Iran’s immediate ability to sprint to a nuclear weapon but makes it likely that Iran will go to great lengths to conceal their new location,’ Bumbaugh said. ‘This movement of nuclear infrastructure or material would make follow-on strikes difficult if intelligence is unable to find all of the new hidden facilities.’

‘There’s a lot of alarmism right now about whether Iran could sprint to a bomb,’ Stricker added. ‘Israel has done so much damage to their ability to make nuclear weapons [and] the weaponization supply chain. So the facilities, the components that [Iran] would need, the equipment, and then up to 14 nuclear scientists, I think, if they did want to build a bomb quickly, they’re really stymieing – they don’t have access to all of all that, all of those assets they would need. And so, I think in the short to medium term, we don’t need to be overly concerned that they could get there.’

Fox News Digital reached out to both the Pentagon and the Air Force to glean more details about the success of the weekend strike on Iran, but no new information was gleaned.

An Air Force spokesperson did confirm to Fox News Digital that, in total, U.S. forces deployed 75 ‘precision guided weapons’ targeting Iran over the weekend, including 14 30,000 pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators.

On Monday, Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, appealed for immediate access to the targeted Iranian nuclear sites in order to assess the damage that is likely ‘significant,’ according to the United Nations. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to protect religious freedom rights during a House hearing Monday and indicated to lawmakers that she was focused on a range of religions, from Judaism to Islam. 

‘It’s not only Catholics, it’s every religion, and even mosques that were slow-walked under the Biden administration and not allowed to open,’ Bondi said. ‘We will protect every religion in this country.’

The attorney general’s remarks came in response to questions from Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., who asked what budget resources Bondi needed to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’ in the department.

Bondi also referenced recent high-profile incidents that appeared to be rooted in antisemitism, including the murder of two people who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. The pair were gunned down in May outside the Capitol Jewish Museum by a man who shouted ‘free Palestine!’ as he was arrested.

Bondi’s nod to mosques was an apparent reference to a handful of blue-leaning states closing all religious buildings as part of their COVID-19 protocols in 2020 during the Trump administration.

The attorney general said she talks ‘almost daily’ with the DOJ Civil Rights Division, which handles discrimination cases, and she commended division head Harmeet Dhillon, who has upended the division and shifted its focus, in part, to religious freedom.

‘They are working to protect people of all religions,’ Bondi said.

Moore also broached a controversial internal memo that originated in the FBI Richmond Field Office under former FBI Director Christopher Wray. The memo, which Congress made public in 2023 after receiving it from an FBI whistleblower, offered a threat assessment of ‘radical-traditionalist Catholics.’

The internal document laid out what the FBI perceived as a pattern of extremism among a small group of Catholics, identifying them as those who opposed modern-day popes, held ‘extremist ideological beliefs,’ and ‘engaged in violent rhetoric.’

The document pointed to three real-life examples of criminal suspects who identified with that sect of Catholicism to illustrate its point, and it used the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-leaning nonprofit, to bolster its assessment. In response to backlash, the FBI retracted the memo. Wray later said he admonished employees involved with making it but also said he did not uncover any ‘bad faith conduct’ among them.

Bondi said during Monday’s hearing that under her tenure, the DOJ will not use the Southern Poverty Law Center as a resource.

More Americans say they oppose rather than support this past weekend’s U.S. military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to a new national poll.

However, the Reuters/Ipsos survey points to a wide partisan divide, with most Republicans supporting President Donald Trump’s decision to launch aerial attacks against Iran in order to prevent the Islamic State from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Thirty-six percent of adult Americans questioned said they supported the airstrikes, with 45% opposed and 18% unsure or skipped answering the question.

However, among Republicans, support for the military strikes stood at 69%, with 17% opposed. Only 13% of Democrats supported the attack, with nearly three-quarters opposed. Among independents, support stood at 29%, with nearly half opposed.

The survey was conducted on Sunday and Monday following the attacks, which the president announced to the nation on Saturday evening. The airstrikes came after more than a week of daily exchanges between Iran and Israel, sparked by an initial Israeli attack on Iranian territory. 

Just over a third of those surveyed (35%) said they approved of how Trump is handling Iran, with half saying they disapprove. There was an expected partisan divide, with 70% of Republicans but only 10% of Democrats and 28% of independents giving the president a thumbs up on his handling of Iran.

Trump announced following the attacks that ‘the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.’

However, some independent experts say that commercial satellite imagery of Iran’s facilities after that attack suggests that Tehran’s nuclear program is far from destroyed.

The poll also indicated that six in 10 believe U.S. airstrikes on Iran will not make America safer, with 36% saying they will make the nation safer. As with the previous questions, there is a wide partisan divide, with just 12% of Democrats, 29% of independents and two-thirds of Republicans saying the strikes will make America safer.

The poll also indicates that four in five worry that Iran may target U.S. civilians in response to the airstrikes.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll questioned 1,132 adult Americans, with an overall sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

The House of Representatives voted along bipartisan lines to quash a lone progressive lawmaker’s bid to impeach President Donald Trump Tuesday afternoon.

Lawmakers agreed to table the measure in a 344–79 vote. A vote to table is a procedural mechanism allowing House members to vote against consideration of a bill without having to vote on the bill itself.

The resolution was offered by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who was infamously ejected from Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year for repeatedly interrupting the president.

A majority of House Democrats joined Republican lawmakers to kill Green’s resolution, a sign of how politically caustic the effort appears to be. Just 79 Democrats voted to proceed with the impeachment vote, while 128 voted to halt it in its tracks.

Green, who has threatened to impeach Trump before, said his latest bid is aimed at the president’s strikes on Iran from over the weekend.

‘I did not come to Congress to be a bystander while a president abuses power and devolves American democracy into authoritarianism with himself as an authoritarian president,’ Green said in a statement Tuesday morning.

‘President Trump’s unauthorized bombing of Iran constitutes a de facto declaration of war. No president has the right to drag this nation into war without the authorization of the people’s representatives.’

Other progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called for Trump’s impeachment over the strikes in Iran.

Trump mocked those progressives in a lengthy Truth Social post Tuesday, taunting them to ‘make my day.’

‘She better start worrying about her own Primary, before she thinks about beating our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, whose career is definitely on very thin ice!’ Trump wrote. ‘She and her Democrat friends have just hit the Lowest Poll Numbers in Congressional History, so go ahead and try Impeaching me,’ he posted.

The push has put House Democratic leaders in a difficult spot as well. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sidestepped questions on progressives calling to oust Trump during a press conference Monday.

‘A tool that’s on the table right now is to continue to demand that the administration present itself before the United States Congress and make the case to the American people as to why this extraordinary step has been taken. That’s step one,’ Jeffries said.

‘Step two is for the War Powers Resolution, whether that’s the one that has already been introduced or others that may subsequently be introduced, for those resolutions to be debated on the House floor, as should have occurred already. And then we’ll see where we’re at thereafter.’

Pressed again on whether he was taking calls for Trump’s impeachment seriously, Jeffries said, ‘This is a dangerous moment that we’re in, and we’ve got to get through what’s in front of us. And what’s in front of us right now is the Trump administration has a responsibility to come to Congress, justify actions for which we’ve seen no evidence to justify its offensive strength in Iran.’

Hours after President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, the fragile agreement nearly collapsed as hostilities flared before the truce took effect.

Despite the president’s announcement, Israel continued its military campaign — launching attacks before the ceasefire’s scheduled start 12 hours later. Iran retaliated with a deadly rocket barrage on a hospital in Be’er Sheva, killing at least four people. 

Israel began preparing a full-scale response before the president stepped in.

Trump, visibly frustrated as he departed for the NATO Summit in the Netherlands, blamed both sides — but especially Israel. ‘Israel. Do not drop those bombs. If you do it is a major violation. Bring your pilots home, now!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Speaking to reporters while boarding Marine One, the president added, ‘[Iran] violated it, but Israel violated it too. Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out, and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel.’

He continued, ‘When I say, okay, now you have 12 hours — you don’t go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them.’

Timeline: A Ceasefire in Crisis

6 p.m. ET / 1 a.m. Tel Aviv: Trump Announces Ceasefire Agreement

Trump posted the ceasefire terms on Truth Social.

‘It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a complete and total ceasefire (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in-progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered ended… During each ceasefire, the other side will remain peaceful and respectful.’

According to Trump, Iran would begin the ceasefire at hour 12. Israel would follow at hour 24. A global salute to the ’12 Day War’ ending would follow. 

3 a.m. Tel Aviv: Israel Strikes Targets in Iran

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office confirmed that Israel launched a major assault hours ahead of the ceasefire starting, hitting central Tehran. ‘We attacked forcefully in the heart of Tehran, hitting regime targets and killing hundreds of Basij and Iranian security forces,’ the statement read.

Iranian media confirmed nine casualties in the northern Gilan province. Fars News Agency said, ‘Four residential buildings were completely destroyed and several neighboring houses were damaged in the blasts.’

Just Before 7 a.m.: Iran Retaliates with Missiles

In response, Iran launched missiles at Be’er Sheva just minutes before the ceasefire took effect. Four people were killed, and several others were injured in the strike on a hospital.

7 a.m.: Ceasefire Begins Amid Tensions

Trump once again took to Truth Social.

 ‘The ceasefire is now in effect. Please do not violate it!’

7:06 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.: More Missiles Fired

Despite the ceasefire, Iran fired three additional missiles in the hours following. The projectiles were either intercepted or landed in open areas without causing casualties.

Israel Launches Counter-Response

Israel destroyed a radar installation near Tehran and was preparing a broader offensive before Trump publicly expressed his anger.

‘I’m really unhappy about Israel going out this morning… because of the one rocket that didn’t land — perhaps by mistake. You know what we have? We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing. Do you understand that?’ the president told reporters.

Trump Intervenes — Israel Pulls Back

After a direct call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump persuaded the Israeli leadership to halt further military actions. The Israeli Defense Forces ordered fighter jets to stand down and return to base.

Lawmakers are anxious that the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran may not hold, but many are not ready to call for regime change in the Islamic Republic.

President Donald Trump on Monday announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a truce, but as the evening carried into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, whether that peace would last came into question.

Israel had reportedly geared up for a retaliatory bombing run against Iran, and Trump accused both of breaking the newborn truce. On Tuesday morning, the president put out a sharp reprimand against both countries.

‘We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f— they’re doing,’ he told reporters.

On Capitol Hill, in the immediate wake of the ceasefire announcement, lawmakers were already looking at the deal skeptically but had confidence that the president’s negotiating power would ensure the fragile truce was not shattered.

‘I remain hopeful,’ Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital. ‘I trust the president. He’s been right on everything, and he’s the only president that’s been able to bring Iran and Israel to the table in this manner. So I’m going to hope and pray that this works, and if it doesn’t, then we know Trump will act decisively.’

Trump’s announcement came on the heels of a weekend strikes with bunker-busting bombs that the White House says obliterated Iran’s nuclear program. Many lawmakers stood firm last week that the entire point of supporting Israel in their bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic was to ensure that Iran could not make or obtain an atomic weapon.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that it was the groundwork Trump laid in his first term with the Abraham Accords and his recent visit to Saudi Arabia that could help solidify a lasting ceasefire between the two sides.

‘All you can do is just trust that because of the events that have happened, I mean, Iran … their conventional weapons have been decimated, their platforms have been decimated,’ he said. ‘Their nuclear program has been obliterated. So they’re at the table because of that.’

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital that Iran has ‘typically never done what they said they would do.’

However, he believed that with the pressure from both the U.S. and Israel, and because Trump was willing to use force — which he described as the president showing he ‘means business’ — things could be different.

‘I think they’re going to come to the table now, and they’re in a very weak position, so it’s different, but their track record is very bad,’ he said. ‘You can’t count on what they say. So this goes back to the Reagan ‘trust but verify.’ Anything we negotiate with them has to be verifiable, and certainly that’s how the administration is going to approach it.’

However, even with a ceasefire, the Iranian regime remains unchanged. A shared sentiment among many lawmakers, however, was that if regime change were to take place in Tehran, it would have to be up to the Iranian people, not the U.S. government.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who is pushing for his war powers resolution to get a vote in the upper chamber, warned, ‘Do we really want to get in another regime-change war?

‘We changed Iran’s regime in 1953 by leading a coup against their prime minister,’ Kaine said. ‘And that’s one of the reasons why the U.S.-Iran relationship is so bad 70 years later. Do we really want to do that again?’

Indeed, the U.S.-backed toppling of then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh opened the door for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to take control of Iran. However, by 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place and removed Pahlavi from power and saw the birth of the current regime.

Rep. Jack Bergman, a retired Marine general, laid out his position against regime change in more succinct terms. ‘It’s not our role.’

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., lauded the president’s action over the weekend and said he believed the strikes had put negotiations on a path that could lead to a ‘generational shift’ regarding the future peace and stability of the Middle East and Western World.

Still, he noted that ‘regime changes can break one or two ways, but it would be hard to do worse than what is there today.’

‘I’m cautiously optimistic, but we’re not there yet,’ he continued.

Not every lawmaker shared the same feelings, however.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital that he believed the U.S. should take a stronger posture when it comes to regime change in Iran.

‘I’m a Navy SEAL commander who spent time there, and buried a lot of my friends,’ he said. ‘While the attack was brilliant, and it was deceptive, and it made a statement, etcetera, etcetera, I don’t think Iran will bend. I think it’s going to take regime change.’

President Donald Trump dared progressive ‘Squad’ member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to try and impeach him over the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, after she had suggested such a measure.

‘Stupid AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the ‘dumbest’ people in Congress, is now calling for my Impeachment, despite the fact that the Crooked and Corrupt Democrats have already done that twice before,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

Trump said the ‘reason for her ‘rantings’ is all of the Victories that the U.S.A. has had under the Trump Administration.’ 

‘The Democrats aren’t used to WINNING, and she can’t stand the concept of our Country being successful again,’ he wrote. 

Trump said Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘test scores’ will show that ‘she is NOT qualified for office but, nevertheless, far more qualified than Crockett, who is a seriously Low IQ individual, or Ilhan Omar, who does nothing but complain about our Country, yet the Failed Country that she comes from doesn’t have a Government, is drenched in Crime and Poverty, and is rated one of the WORST in the World, if it’s even rated at all. ‘

The president was referring to Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Texas Democrat who called Trump ‘the mo-fo’ who is ‘occupying the White House’ during a 21-minute social media video rant about the U.S. strikes in Iran. He was also referring to another progressive, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who recently claimed Trump is turning the United States into one of the ‘worst countries’ in the world. The congresswoman originally came to the U.S. as a refugee from Somalia.  

‘How dare ‘The Mouse’ tell us how to run the United States of America!’ Trump wrote. ‘We’re just now coming back from that Radical Left experiment with Sleepy Joe, Kamala, and ‘THE AUTOPEN,’ in charge. What a disaster it was!’ 

Trump said Ocasio-Cortez should be forced to take the same cognitive test that he completed at Walter Reed Medical Center as part of his annual physical. 

‘As the Doctor in charge said, ‘President Trump ACED it,’ meaning, I got every answer right,’ Trump wrote. ‘Instead of her constant complaining, Alexandria should go back home to Queens, where I was also brought up, and straighten out her filthy, disgusting, crime ridden streets, in the District she ‘represents,’ and which she never goes to anymore.’ 

Trump addressed how Ocasio-Cortez is reportedly weighing a primary run against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in 2028. Ocasio-Cortez won re-election in November and next defends her House seat in the 2026 midterms. The congresswoman has come under fire for perceived inaction against a notorious ‘Red Light’ prostitution strip and illegal street vendors plaguing her migrant-heavy district in New York City.

‘She better start worrying about her own Primary, before she thinks about beating our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, whose career is definitely on very thin ice!’ Trump wrote. ‘She and her Democrat friends have just hit the Lowest Poll Numbers in Congressional History, so go ahead and try Impeaching me, again, MAKE MY DAY!’ 

Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday condemned what she called Trump’s ‘disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and Congressional War Powers.’

‘He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,’ the democratic socialist wrote on X. ‘It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.’ 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the prospect of caucusing with Democrats an ‘interesting hypothetical,’ but she fell short of fully committing to doing so if the Democrats pick up three seats in the 2027 midterms. 

‘It’s an interesting hypothetical,’ Murkowski said on the ‘GD Politics’ podcast with Galen Druke. ‘You started off with the right hook here, is if this would help Alaskans.’ 

The senator is promoting her new book, a memoir titled, ‘Far From Home.’ She was repeatedly asked if she would caucus with Democrats if the party divide in the upper chamber of Congress becomes 50-50 after the next election. 

‘That’s why this book is kind of scary, because now people know what motivates me, and it’s this love for Alaska and what I can do,’ she said. ‘So, that’s my primary goal. I have to figure out how I can be most effective for the people that I serve.’

Murkowski said the ‘problem’ she had with Druke’s hypothetical was that ‘as challenged as we may be on the Republican side, I don’t see the Democrats being much better.’ 

She said the Democrats also have policies that she inherently disagrees with. 

‘I can’t be somebody that I’m not,’ Murkowski said, describing how she received pressure to run as a Libertarian after narrowly losing the GOP Senate primary in 2010. She went on to win as a write-in candidate in a historic victory, launching her Senate career. ‘I can’t now say that I want this job so much that I’m going to pretend to be somebody that I’m not. That’s not who I am.’  

Druke, arguing that Murkowski would not have to become a Democrat to caucus with them, asked, ‘Is there world in which by becoming unaligned or an independent that you could help Alaskans, you’d consider it?’  

‘There may be that possibility,’ she said, noting that the Alaska legislature currently features a coalition with members of both parties.

‘This is one of the things that I think is good and healthy for us, and this is one of the reasons people are not surprised that I don’t neatly toe the line with party initiatives, because we’ve kind of embraced a governing style that says if you’ve got good ideas, and you can work with her over there, it doesn’t make any difference if you’re a Republican or Democrat,’ Murkowski said. ‘We can govern together for the good of the state.’ 

‘If Democrats won three seats in the next election and offered you a way to pass bills that benefit Alaskans if you caucused with them, you’d consider it?’ Druke pressed. 

Murkowski said in response that a coalition is ‘not foreign to Alaskans,’ but it is at the federal level in the U.S. Senate.

‘I’m evading your answer, of course, because it is so, extremely hypothetical, but you can tell that the construct that we’re working with right now, I don’t think is the best construct,’ Murkowski said, adding: ‘Is it something that’s worthy of exploration?’ 

Murkowski joked that Druke was trying to ‘make news’ and said the rank-choice voting system in Alaska means candidates are more likely to get elected if they are not viewed as wholly partisan.

‘It is a different way of looking at addressing our problems rather than just saying it’s red and it’s blue,’ she added. 

Druke hammered the senator again, saying, ‘Was that a yes? There’s some openness to it?’ 

‘There’s some openness to exploring something different than the status quo,’ she said. 

Murkowski, one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6 riot, recently called the July 4 deadline that GOP leadership wants to pass Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ by ‘arbitrary.’  

‘I don’t want us to be able to say we met the date, but our policies are less than we would want,’ Murkowski told Axios. ‘Why are we afraid of a conference? Oh my gosh.’ 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are hesitant about going to conference with the upcoming debt ceiling ‘X date’ approaching and the party lines so tight. 

Murkowski, a critic of Trump’s foreign policy, particularly on Ukraine, told the Washington Post that she was in a ‘lonely position’ in the Senate, and sometimes feels ‘afraid’ to speak up among Republican colleagues out of fear of retaliation. 

‘We used to be called the world’s greatest deliberative body,’ she told the Post in a recent interview promoting her book. ‘I think we’re still called it, but now I wonder if it’s in air quotes.’