In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RSC, said it was not the United States’ job to choose Iran’s next leader and the US should not put boots on the ground after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a series of strikes by US and Israeli forces.
Moderator Kristen Welker emphasized that it was up to the Americans to decide whether Iran’s future would be decided by Iranians and whether the U.S. had a plan to ensure Iran would not become a major state sponsor of terrorism, Graham argued.
“It’s not his job or my job to do this,” Graham said. “How many times do I have to tell you? Our job is to make sure Iran is no longer the largest state sponsor of terrorism, to help the people rebuild a new government. No boots on the ground.”
Graham argued that it was in the US interest to make sure Khamenei was dead. President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Khamenei had been killed in the attack, and he said in an interview with NBC News on Saturday that “most of the people” who make decisions for Iran are gone.
“It is in America’s interest to ensure that Iran can no longer become the largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Graham said. “We’re close. Once the people decide what to do next, I don’t mind helping them, but I know what they won’t be allowed to do next: reproduce the biggest state sponsor of terrorism.”
Democrats are divided on whether the US is safer now that Khamenei is dead.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on “Meet the Press” that he disagreed with Graham, arguing that the senator has been “consistently wrong.”
“I will say this: Khamenei is a brutal dictator, but Americans are not safe today,” Khanna said.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said in a separate interview on “Meet the Press” that he agreed with Graham’s assessment that the world is safer now that Khamenei is dead. At the same time, Kelly criticized Trump’s post on Truth Social referring to his wishes for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and police to “merge peacefully with Iranian patriots”.
“Hope is not a strategy,” Kelly said. “We have a plan here. I mean, what is the strategic goal and how do we achieve it?”
Asked if the U.S. could continue operations without boots on the ground, Kelly said, “That would be incredibly challenging.” Kelly argued in the interview that Iran would not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, but criticized Trump for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal during his first term.
Graham asserted in his interview that “there will be no American boots on the ground.”
“It’s not Iraq, it’s not Germany, it’s not Japan,” he said. “We are going to liberate the people from a terrorist regime.”
Graham has been a staunch supporter of the administration’s decision to attack Iran. X In a post Saturday, Graham called the move “one of the most effective military operations in modern history.” In a separate post, he argued that Trump “has become the gold standard for foreign policy achievements as a Republican president.”
After the strikes, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. Several Democrats, including many, have called for a war powers vote to force the administration to seek authorization from Congress before engaging in future military operations.
Asked if he would vote to support the war powers resolution, Kelly said he would “have to watch it closely.”
“I want to hear from the White House what their strategy is going forward,” Kelly said. “I would say at this point, it’s unlikely that I will be.”
Khanna said on “Meet the Press” that he believed every Democrat would eventually support a war powers vote. He acknowledged that it would not pass, but argued that the vote was “close” and that “we have a few days to work on it.”
“We are at war with Iran,” he said. “We killed their leader. Over 100 of our fighter jets bombed them. The point of this resolution is to say, ‘We don’t want another war in the Middle East,’ or at least Congress has to say that, vote on that.”
Across the aisle, Graham has condemned European leaders who pushed for diplomacy after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, calling them “pathetic weaklings” in an interview with Fox News on Saturday.
“To our European friends, you have lost your way,” he said on Saturday. “You’ve lost your sense of who you are and what makes you different. You’re pathetically weak.”
In the same interview, he argued that calls for talks were “an offense to the Iranian people”.
Graham previously shared similar remarks at X, arguing that the heads of France, Germany and the United Kingdom were wrong not to help the Iranian people, and “adding insult to injury, you’re suggesting we continue to negotiate with religious Nazis.”
