Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) broke with President Donald Trump over his characterization of the war with Iran, telling CNN on Sunday that the conflict is “certainly not small potatoes.”
His comments came after ABC News’ Rachel Scott pressed the president on Friday about recent remarks from Vice President JD Vance, in which he said he would not characterize the conflict as a war.
“I’ll tell you what, a lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump told Scott in the Oval Office, contrasting the 18 Americans killed in the Iran war with the far greater U.S. death toll in Vietnam.
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Dana Bash confronted Lawler, who is running for reelection, with Trump’s “small potatoes” description and asked whether he agreed.
“The U.S. struck three Iranian targets just yesterday,” she pointed out. “You’ve said over 50% of your district is comprised of service members, veterans, law enforcement, first responders. Would you tell them that the U.S. is in a ‘small potatoes’ military conflict?”
“No,” Lawler responded confidently. “Anytime you are at war or in a military escalation, it is certainly not ‘small potatoes.’ It is serious. I think we all recognize that.”
The congressman continued, though, seemingly moving past his disagreement with Trump to explain why he believes the war carries significant stakes:
Uh, ensuring Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon, stopping them from continuing to finance terrorism — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terror proxies — stopping them from mass-producing ballistic missiles, drones, which are being used by Russia against Ukraine, is critical, and much of the military operation has been focused on depleting their military capabilities.
And in recent, uh, months, making sure that they are not blocking the ability of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil is back up to about 70% of what it was, uh, in terms of flowing through the Strait prior to the conflict.
We want to continue the flow, but remember, we don’t rely on petroleum out of Iran. That is China. And part of what’s happened over the last year, you’ve seen, the removal of Maduro in Venezuela and the blockade against Iranian oil flowing has severely impacted China’s capabilities of getting oil from Venezuela and Iran. That is something that I’ve targeted legislatively with the SHIP Act, the Iran-China Energy Sanctions Act, and something we must continue to pursue in terms of enacting strong sanctions against China.
Watch above on CNN.
The post House Republican Breaks With Trump on Iran: ‘Certainly Not Small Potatoes’ first appeared on Mediaite.
House Republican Breaks With Trump on Iran: ‘Certainly Not Small Potatoes’ 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-09-06 21:29:42 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law
БЪЛГАРИЯ НОВИНИТЕ – ИНФОРМАЦИОННА АГЕНЦИЯ 2009-2026 2026-09-06 21:29:42
Leave a Comment