Trump’s premise for Iran strike finds support from most of Louisiana’s congressional delegation

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - At the conclusion of a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday (March 3), President Trump took questions about America’s military operations in Iran.

For too long, Trump said, Iran had posed a threat to the Middle East and beyond.

“They’re evil and they’re bad,” Trump said. “It’s a bad seed and somebody had to do it.”

Following a briefing with House and Senate leaders on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the goal of the military operation against Iran is to eliminate its short-range ballistic missiles and its navy. Rubio then gave more details on the timing of the U.S. attacks, saying they were advanced because of plans by U.S. ally Israel.

“We knew there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said. “We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties. And then we would be here, all answering questions about why we knew that and didn’t act.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said he was satisfied with what he learned from the briefing with Rubio and other defense and intelligence officials.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) left that briefing saying Iran was not an immediate threat to the U.S.

“There was a threat to Israel. And if we equate a threat to Israel as an equivalent to an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory,” Warner said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) did not attend Monday’s briefing, but during a conference call with reporters Tuesday, he said he supports the president’s military plans for Iran and that America must now see them through.

“We’re in (Iran) there now,” Cassidy said. “And so now, we stand with the president. We stand with our troops. The president made the case there was a nuclear threat.”

Cassidy said he did not hear what Rubio said about the timing of military operations in Iran. Cassidy said he’d be attending another briefing on Iran on Tuesday afternoon and could speak more specifically about it after.

Fox 8 reached out to Rep. Troy Carter (D-Louisiana) and Rep. Julia Letlow (R-Louisiana) for comment, but each was unavailable.

In a previous statement, Carter said he was “deeply concerned” about the strike on Iran. Letlow previously said, “President Trump’s decisive strikes send a message that America will not tolerate Iran’s threats to our national security.”

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