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Sen. Ruben Gallego Says He'll Vote To Fund Iran War 1 Day After Calling It 'Dumb'

Senator Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) committed to support funding for military action against Iran during a Tuesday stop by CNN, despite calling the operation “dumb” just one day earlier.

While the Democrat said it wasn’t in America’s “best interest” to spend billions of dollars of taxpayer money on an unpopular “war of choice,” he told host Kaitlan Collins that he’d vote for more financial backing for the conflict if the Pentagon asked.

But Gallego also argued Americans shouldn’t be bankrolling everything, adding that he’d want to see at least half of the resources sustaining the action coming from Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf States.

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Calling it unjustifiable for the country to cover the bulk of the military expenses while the cost of living crisis in the U.S. remains unaddressed, the Southwestern senator said, “People are hurting, you know, we cannot keep doing this.”

Also citing the human cost of the war, which has killed six U.S. servicemembers since its Saturday start, Gallego said, “We’re using our men to protect these countries” and that our allies “need to throw in and have skin in the game too.”

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His pragmatic assessment came on the heels of a Monday appearance on MS NOW, where he argued that there were “a lot of ways” the U.S. can support Israel in its efforts against Iran but that the nation has no need to go all-in on war on its behalf.

“Especially when it’s a dumb war,” the Democrat added.