Newsom, California lawmakers slam Trump on Iran

California Democrats criticized President Donald Trump over the weekend after his decision to launch a military strike against Iran on Saturday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump’s explanations for the attack amounted to “manufactured crisis,” and that while Iran’s leadership “must go,” Trump is leading “illegal, dangerous war.”

Some Democrats seeking to succeed Newsom also sounded uneasy: U.S. Rep. Eric Swwell said Congress must respond “hell no” if asked for permission to go to war, and Tom Steyer wrote that Trump has “no respect” for human life.

The airstrikes, carried out in coordination with Israel, killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country since 1989. More than 40 Iranian political and military leaders were killed, Trump said Sunday. Iranian state media said an airstrike killed more than 150 children in a girls’ school. Three American soldiers were killed in the conflict. In the meantime, at least nine Israelis were killed in retaliatory strikes by Iran.

Trump said more deaths of US service members are likely.

The president signals the conflict it can last four weeks to achieve “peace throughout the Middle East” but also pointed out that it is open again for negotiations with the Iranian government.

On Sunday Silicon Valley representative Ro Hanna said that “Khamenei was a brutal dictator, but Americans are no safer today.” That was a sentiment echoed by US Senator Adam Schiff of California, adding that Iran “was not an immediate threat of attack.”

Democrats in Congress, as well as several Republicans, are pushing for a vote early this week on whether to end the US bombing of Iran. The president can veto the decision of Congress.

Trump called for regime change in Iran, urging Iranians to “take over your government” after the strikes are over. But US-led efforts to topple governments and encourage popular uprisings have a decades-long history of bloodshed and frequent refusal. Ten years ago, Trump said The US should “abandon” regime change efforts.

Meanwhile, Californians seem divided on the military conflict. Like hundreds of anti-war demonstrators gathered in San Francisco on Saturday, some Iranian-Americans supported the moveand in Los Angeles, celebrations broke out.

Schiff of Sunday said he supported the Iranians after the assassination of Khamenei, but that if they “rise up”, the US “cannot fight this war for you”.