Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said on a podcast released Friday that he is against U.S. involvement in Iran and suggested the United States is not the “good guys” in helping Israel with its war against the terrorist group Hamas.
On Friday, comedian and podcaster Theo Von released a new episode of his podcast, This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, featuring a discussion with Khanna on the progressing conflict between Iran and Israel and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Von, an outspoken critic of Israel, asked Khanna if he thought the U.S. is headed into World War III as Israel and Iran trade strikes.
“I am really concerned,” Khanna responded. “I’m fearful. We have a possibility where we are going to blunder into another war in the Middle East.”
Khanna told Von that he does not believe President Donald Trump is doing what is needed to keep a wider war from happening with Iran, and to stop the Israel-Hamas war. Khanna announced earlier this week that he is joining Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to introduce a bipartisan War Powers Resolution to prohibit “United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
However, Khanna offered rare praise of Trump’s presidential campaign, approving of his promise from the 2024 election not to get into new wars.
“The reality is that if we strike Iran, they start hitting us back, hitting our troops in the Middle East, terrorist activity, that’s going to cost this country a lot of money that should be spent here at home,” Khanna said. “It’s going to mean people could die who are serving the country.”
In the episode, Khanna said an “anti-war” movement is needed in the U.S.
“I don’t think it has to be Democrat or Republican, I think Americans are sick of war,” he said.
Throughout history, Khanna said America has been seen as the “good guys” when it comes to war.
“We were the good guys in World War II,” Khanna said. “We saved the world from Naziism. We were the good guys in the Cold War. We stood up to the Soviet Union. People want to think that we are the good guys. Why are we helping [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in the killing of children, women, and so many Palestinian civilians?”
The pair also criticized Hamas for its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, during which the group murdered, raped, tortured, and kidnapped well over 1,000 innocents. However, they placed more of the blame for civilian casualties in the war on Israel than they did on Hamas.
Hamas has been accused of using Palestinians as “human shields” by engaging in military operations in hospitals, schools, and residential areas and by not allowing Gazans to leave despite Israel providing advanced attack warnings. Hamas has also been accused of stealing aid meant for Palestinians in war-torn Gaza and selling it on the black market to fund the terrorist group.
Despite these challenges, Israel has maintained a civilian-to-combatant ratio of less than 2-to-1, far better than the typical United Nations estimate of civilians making up 87% of war-related casualties. Hamas has been found to have “falsified” civilian death figures.
Khanna told Von that he believes Trump could stand up to Netanyahu and say “enough,” regarding Israel’s conflicts with Iran and Hamas.
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The California representative said he believes one solution to the war in Gaza is for Trump to “convene” Arab countries together, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, to create a new government in Gaza. Khanna calls it the “23-state solution.”
Trump “could win the Nobel prize,” Khanna said. “I think if he comes in and he says to Netanyahu, ‘Stop. Stop this. I am actually the president who is going to bring peace, and here is how we are going to do it.”