The ominous aftermath of President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran has New Hampshire’s members of Congress, Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas, scrambling. Both quickly issued statements questioning Trump’s authority to act without congressional approval. But these newfound concerns reflect a significant shift from where they stood just last week. And that shift is particularly jarring due to phone calls I personally made to Goodlander’s office from June 17-19, before the bombs started falling.
On June 17, Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a War Powers Resolution in Congress to hold Trump accountable in the exact way Goodlander and Pappas now claim to be concerned about. Trump made several unhinged statements regarding Iran, including a demand for their “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!,” and this resolution was part of a bipartisan effort to keep him in check.
Prominent members of the House, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, supported the resolution immediately, but notably missing were New Hampshire’s own representatives, Goodlander and Pappas. I repeatedly contacted Goodlander’s office over the next several days to see if she would support the resolution. Her office never had an answer for me.
This begs the question: Why were New Hampshire’s Democratic members of Congress, who have never been shy in criticizing Trump, silent on Trump’s dangerous rhetoric regarding Iran when countless lives are at stake? Why didn’t they join the bipartisan effort to stop Trump before his bombs began to fall? Did Goodlander and Pappas experience a deadly lapse in judgment? Or are their actions indicative of a political calculus that favors donors over their own New Hampshire constituents?
AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, has reportedly been waging a strong propaganda campaign aimed at getting members of Congress to parrot pro-Israel talking points following Israel’s June 12 attack against Iran – the event that started this mess. House members were pressured to state they “stand with Israel” and that Iran “must never have a nuclear weapon.”
Sure enough, shortly after Israel’s attacks, both Goodlander and Pappas faithfully issued statements that were noticeably consistent with AIPAC’s demands. They made those statements on the social media platform, X, where both received ‘thank you’ messages from AIPAC’s official X account. Rep. Massie also noticed unusual activity on X, stating “AIPAC is very persuasive… If you look at my colleagues’ feeds now, they all look the same, they’re all tweeting the same message.” Even in their most recent statements on X, Goodlander and Pappas, yet again, start by referencing Iran and nuclear weapons.
This alarmism comes directly from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly and wrongly been predicting an imminent Iranian nuclear weapon since 1992. His motives are clear. As former President Bill Clinton recently put it, “Mr. Netanyahu has long wanted to fight Iran because that way he can stay in office forever and ever.” Netanyahu’s narrative is currently what’s driving U.S. involvement, despite our own intelligence agencies routinely finding no evidence that Iran is pursuing WMDs.
If the current situation feels eerily familiar, that’s because it should. Netanyahu has already succeeded in selling the U.S. on one regime change war, based on lies, in Iraq. In 2002, Netanyahu testified before Congress, stating there was “no question whatsoever” that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons – a lie that helped kill hundreds of thousands of people, including New Hampshire service members.
So why were Goodlander and Pappas busy parroting rhetoric from a prolific liar, instead of working to prevent Trump from dropping bombs and igniting another regime change war? When you look at their donors, the answer becomes clear.
According to OpenSecrets, Goodlander and Pappas share a key financial commonality: AIPAC was the largest single donor to both of their campaigns.
Meanwhile, the notable commonality between Massie and Ocasio-Cortez, who were both actively working to prevent this disaster before it began, is that both members have rejected taking money from AIPAC. And perhaps this illustrates where the most significant political lines are drawn today – not party affiliation, but donor affiliation.
Former President, Jimmy Carter, once said “AIPAC is not dedicated to peace. They’re dedicated to inducing the maximum support in America, in the White House, in the Congress and in the public media, for whatever policies the Israeli government has at a particular time. And they’re extremely effective.”
Unfortunately, it appears AIPAC has been “extremely effective” at ensnaring New Hampshire’s seats in Congress.
Damage control isn’t leadership. Accountability is.
If Goodlander and Pappas choose to avoid accountability, if they choose to hide behind the label of “Democrat” while prioritizing AIPAC over the lives of their own New Hampshire constituents, then the accountability that they reject falls upon us, the voters. And we desperately need to find different candidates for the next election cycle, who are not so eager to sell our neighbors out to the highest bidder.
John S. Hancock II lives in Concord.