A former chair of the Republican National Committee ripped into the GOP-controlled Congress for The Hill, chastising the lawmakers for abandoning their duties and letting President Donald Trump inflict a "catastrophic disaster" on the entire world.

Marc Racicot has an extensive background in politics and beyond, having served as the attorney general and governor of Montana, in addition to his time as RNC chair in the early 2000s, all of which came after service in the U.S. Army, where he attained the rank of Captain. He has been harshly critical of Trump since the early days of Trump's political career, frequently speaking out against his agenda and endorsing Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race. The latter resulted in the Montana Republican Party voting to censure him in 2023.

Writing for The Hill on Tuesday, Racicot ripped into Congress for being asleep at the wheel as Trump and his Defense Department committed acts that amounted to "war crimes," including the launch of "without provocation, 55 military air strikes on vessels navigating the high seas, killing at least 174 civilians with four survivors and 11 missing and presumed dead." Those strikes, he wrote, have so far seen "no legitimate congressional oversight," and things only got worse when Trump opted to start a war with Iran.

"Fast forward to the invasion of and use of armed force against Iran. The same pattern is replicated," Racicot wrote. "There was no cognizable provocation or imminent threat to the U.S. No genuine oversight provided by Congress. No justification for the use of lethal force in self-defense. All amid the potential prosecution of rank-and-file service members for carrying out the orders of a commander in chief who has never been a member of the armed forces himself."

He continued later: "The truth is, Trump has incompetently and smugly led the world into economic disaster and shown indifference to the loss of innocent lives. He has fractured a world order that was decades in the making, depleted NATO, neutered Congress, soiled the office he temporarily holds and tarnished the reputation and leadership of the U.S. around the globe."

As Trump's Iran conflict has spiraled out of control and evaded peaceful de-escalation, the world economy has been pushed to the brink of catastrophe, with oil prices soaring at record rates after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. All the while, Republicans in Congress, vested by the U.S. Constitution with the power to check a president's desire to wage war, have "sat on their hands, hiding in the darkness of the moment."

"They are impotently failing as a co-equal branch of government to stop a catastrophic disaster for America and the entire planet," Racicot concluded. "When, if ever, will they live up to the promise of their oath and their constitutional duties by passing a bipartisan Iran War Powers Resolution governing Trump’s irrational wars?"

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