House Speaker Mike Johnson pulled a war powers resolution from the floor after Democrats secured enough Republican support to pass it, according to Rep. Greg Meeks — a stunning allegation that Johnson personally intervened to prevent Congress from reining in Donald Trump's military campaign against Iran.
"We had the votes to stop this war," Meeks told MS NOW on Saturday. "And he pulled it and said we have to look at voting for it when we get back, after the memorial recess."
Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he had assembled a bipartisan coalition sufficient to pass the war powers resolution — which would have asserted congressional authority over Trump's ongoing conflict with Iran — before Johnson abruptly removed it from consideration.
The move echoes a pattern that has played out repeatedly under Johnson's speakership: bills with genuine bipartisan support quietly disappearing from the schedule when they threaten to embarrass Trump or constrain his power.
The allegation comes as the Senate has separately been wrestling with its own war powers debate. A handful of Republican senators have broken with Trump over the Iran conflict, and a companion effort in the upper chamber was similarly stalled.
Meeks framed Johnson's intervention as a deliberate act of protection for Trump rather than a procedural delay.
"They know," Meeks said, referring to Republican leadership's awareness of shifting sentiment within their own caucus. "That's why they're playing games all over this country."