Senate Republican: American public ‘growing weary’ with Iran war

Senate Senate Republican: American public ‘growing weary’ with Iran war Comments: by Alexander Bolton - 07/24/26 8:35 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Alexander Bolton - 07/24/26 8:35 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Senate Republican Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said the American public is “growing weary” with the protracted military conflict with Iran, which President Trump initially said would last four to five weeks but instead has dragged on for nearly five months.

“I do think that the American public’s growing weary,” Capito told NewsNation’s “The Hill with Blake Burman” in an interview.

She warned about thinning patience for the conflict when asked about fellow West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice’s (R-W.Va.) comments earlier in the week about the need to find an “off-ramp” to the war.

“There’s got to be an off-ramp, that’s all there is to it,” Justice said on Wednesday.

“Naturally all of us are concerned because we’ve lost three wonderful, wonderful service people in the last little while,” he continued, referring to three U.S. service members killed by Iranian strikes in the past week.

Capito told NewsNation that she’s hearing the same concerns about the war from constituents as Justice.

“Senator Justice and I represent the same folks. We can feel that in our local conversations. And I do think a promised shorter endgame has now been, timeline’s been exceeded. We’ve lost four of our service members,” the senator added. “That is always devastating to Americans and American families, not just those most closely affected.”

“And I think that’s where you begin to see the weariness creep in,” Capito said.

Eighteen U.S. service members have died so far in the conflict along with hundreds or even thousands of Iranian civilians.

Four U.S. soldiers recently killed by strikes in Jordan and Iraq came from states around the country, including Hawaii, Texas, New York and North Carolina.

Despite the growing public weariness with the conflict, GOP senators including Capito and Justice voted against advancing a war powers resolution Thursday that would have directed President Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from the conflict unless it is authorized by Congress.

The House on Thursday approved a non-binding resolution directing Trump to end the war after four Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it. Those Republicans were Reps. Tom Barrett (Mich.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.).

The House this week also passed on a party-line Republican vote a budget framework providing $73 billion in funding to help cover the costs of the war.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that the conflict has cost taxpayers $37.5 billion so far.

Capito said that Senate Republicans will press the administration for more details about a possible endgame for the conflict as they consider an emergency supplemental defense spending package this summer.

“It’s part of our oversight to see how much this is being funded in for the Iranian situation. And where is the endgame,” she said.

The West Virginia Republican also noted that Hegseth’s answers about how to end the conflict were “vague” because of fast-moving events, such as the emergence of Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen who are threatening oil transports through the Red Sea.

“And you know … he was vague on that because I think what we see is it’s popping up. There’s more. They’re attacking seven countries. The Houthis are involved in this,” she said.