Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Tuesday said the U.S. has “already won” its military operation in Iran, as the Trump administration teased a major bombing campaign.
Kennedy appeared on Fox News and challenged remarks made by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who slammed President Trump for finding “billions of dollars for bombs, but can’t find any money to actually bring down the high cost of living here in the United States of America.”
“He’s wrong,” Kennedy said in an interview with host Sean Hannity. “He’s wrong. We’ve already won.”
He added that the U.S. will leave Iran “after having destroyed their renewed efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, after having destroyed their missile arsenal, after having destroyed their missile launches, after having destroyed their Navy, and the good people of Persia will now have an opportunity to pick their own leadership.”
A joint U.S.-Israeli military operation carried out airstrikes on Iran on Saturday, killing the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday. The bombing campaign has since killed nearly 1,000 Iranian civilians, with another 880 deaths under review as of Tuesday, according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency.
Iran retaliated, sending missiles and drones to strike back at the U.S. and to attack Gulf partners. Six U.S. service members were killed in Kuwait.
The Louisiana senator has defended Trump’s actions since Saturday.
“I don’t know how this will end, but we had to do it,” Kennedy told the “Hannity” host. “We had to do it and I thank Donald Trump for doing that.”
Kennedy said Monday that he does not think Trump will deploy troops, rather that “we’ll be able to accomplish all or most of everything we’re trying to accomplish without putting boots on the ground.”
On Wednesday, he dismissed calls for a war powers resolution, saying other presidents have bombed enemies of the U.S. and that he’s “not aware of any Supreme Court case that says the president cannot do that.”
“I think a fair-minded person will conclude that our founders intended to give both Congress and the president a role, and I happen to believe they left it intentionally vague,” Kennedy said.
The Trump administration plans to assert greater control over Iran’s airspace. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday at a press conference that “more and larger waves are coming.”
“We are just getting started,” the secretary continued. “We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant.”
The U.S.’s bombing campaign has degraded Iran’s defensive capabilities to allow for GPS-aided free-fall weapons and hell-fire missiles to be deployed, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine said at the same press conference.
“The throttle is coming up, as the secretary said, as opposed to ramping down,” Caine said. “This will allow us to maintain consistent pressure on the adversary over the coming days, disrupt their launch timelines and impose costs every day around the clock.”
