Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters

Politics Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters By Anne Bryson Updated on: March 9, 2026 / 10:14 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state's famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump's strategy and endgame. "If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours," Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene. "This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it," Beshear continued. "He hasn't done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn't even a plan for what success looks like. He's gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn't realistic where he is." Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump's war powers. "He is trying to ignore Congress. He's trying to even ignore the American people," Beshear said. He went on to note that the president's State of the Union address took place "three — four days before he launched this attack," and Mr. Trump "didn't even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us." Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump's war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support. For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjami...