Episode 161 | Trump’s War Powers Tested in Congress as Conflict Spirals

It's Complicated

Renato Mariotti

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Americans woke up on Saturday morning to news that Trump and Israel had bombed Iran, killing Ayatollah Khamenei along with top Iranian military leaders. Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases and allies in the region. Asha and Renato analyze Trump’s inarticulate and circular reasons for launching the attack, what triggers the War Powers Resolution and how a president has “first-mover advantage” when it comes to taking the country to war. Then, Renato and Asha turn to the Trump administration’s latest retaliatory moves at home: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk after the company refused to let its AI model be used for autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, and the Justice Department’s clumsy moves against four law firms that successfully challenged Trump’s executive orders against them. Listen up!Ask Asha: War Powers Who Has the Final Say?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3MvJrHNf0Asha Substack: https://asharangappa.substack.com/Subscribe to our podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/its-complicatedFollow Asha on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/asharangappa.bsky.socialFollow Renato on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/renatomariotti.bsky.socialFollow Asha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asha.rangappa/Follow Renato on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renato.mariotti/Cruise with us! https://www.travelstore.com/group-travel/its-complicated-cruise-2026/Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgZJZZbnLFPr5GJdCuIwpA/join Become a member of the Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/20off Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595 Subscribe to the Intersection with Michael Popok podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection-with-michael-popok/id1818863274 Subscribe to Unprecedented with Michael Popok and Dina Doll podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unprecedented-by-legal-af/id1867023089 Subscribe to Court of History with Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-court-of-history/id1867022920 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.9	So, Asha, can we stop Trump from leading us into a forever war?
1:07.3	Eh, it's complicated. I'm Asha Rangappa. I teach national security law at Yale University. I'm a former FBI
1:17.2	special agent, and I'm the author of the Freedom Academy Substack. And I'm Renato Miriati. I'm a former
1:23.7	federal prosecutor, a practicing lawyer, and a legal analyst.
1:27.7	And we're here to help you understand topics that can't be boiled down into a sound bite or a skate.
1:36.9	Wow. I didn't expect this topic this quickly, Ashton.
1:43.6	Yeah, it's like Groundhog day yeah and such a to me it's it's
1:49.5	what's really which really bothers me is the way in which um Trump went about this I mean look
	...

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