Laubacher says Trump administration bears ‘all the responsibility’ for Jordan troop deaths

Retired Rear Adm. Eileen Laubacher said President Donald Trump’s administration bears “all the responsibility” for the deaths of two U.S. service members in Jordan, delivering her sharpest attack on the administration’s Iran war as the American military death toll rose again Sunday.

“I think this administration bears all the responsibility for what happened in Jordan,” Laubacher told me in a FoxTalk interview. “Those service members did not have to die. We did not have to be in this war. We did not have to have this fight.”

Watch FoxTalk’s full interview with Eileen Laubacher

The interview was recorded after U.S. Central Command said two service members were killed Friday while defending against an Iranian missile and drone attack in Jordan. Another service member was missing.

Later Sunday, the military announced that a service member had been killed in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone. The death raised the number of U.S. service members killed since the war began to 17.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to the Jordan deaths by writing, “Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.” The U.S. launched additional strikes against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Sunday, describing them as retaliation for the Jordan attack. Trump has argued that the war is necessary to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Laubacher, the Democratic nominee for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, said she understood why Trump ordered retaliatory strikes after American troops were killed. But she said the broader war should never have begun and accused Hegseth of pursuing changing objectives without a credible exit strategy.

“Starting a war with no defined end plan, with no way out, is leading us into really a quagmire that is costing lives and money,” she said.

Asked whether she would vote to authorize continued military action against Iran, Laubacher answered, “Absolutely not.”

Watch Laubacher’s response on continued military action.

She also said she would oppose sending American ground troops into Iran.

Laubacher argued that Congress has failed to use its constitutional authority over war and accused Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Republican incumbent she is challenging, of helping Trump continue the conflict.

The official House record confirms that Boebert voted against three resolutions that would have directed the president to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress authorized the war.

Boebert voted no on a March 5 resolution that failed 212-219. She again voted no May 14, when a withdrawal resolution failed in a 212-212 tie. Any one member changing from no to yes would have altered that result.

On June 3, Boebert voted no a third time. That resolution passed the House 215-208, with four Republicans joining Democrats. The measure was largely symbolic because it would also have needed action in the Senate before taking effect.

Laubacher described those votes as Boebert voting “in support” of the war and said at one point that the conflict “was originated by Lauren Boebert voting in support of it.”

The timeline does not support that wording. The U.S. and Israel launched the war Feb. 28, before any of the three votes Laubacher cited. Boebert’s votes did not start the conflict. They were votes against congressional efforts to direct the president to withdraw American forces after fighting had begun.

Boebert has also publicly opposed giving the Pentagon additional money for the war. In March, she said she had told Republican leaders she would vote against any war supplemental, citing federal spending and the cost of living in Colorado. Voting on military funding and voting on whether to order troop withdrawal are separate congressional decisions.

Neither Boebert’s campaign nor her congressional office responded to FoxTalk’s requests for comment by publication time.

Laubacher tied the war to rising costs in Boebert’s sprawling district, which includes major agricultural communities. She said higher fuel and fertilizer prices were hurting residents and argued that Boebert was not paying enough attention to the consequences for farmers.

The war and the fight over the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted energy supplies and intensified inflation concerns. The strait carried about one-fifth of global oil supplies before the war, according to The Associated Press.

Laubacher served 34 years in the Navy and said her son is currently serving. She recalled deploying to Afghanistan in 2009 while her husband and five children remained home.

“I understand the personal cost, not just for the service member, but for their entire family,” she said. “I know the cost that that had on us then and even now.”

Laubacher offered no simple path for ending the conflict. She said the administration now faces the problem of returning to the conditions that existed before the war while Iran has demonstrated its power over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

“I do not envy the administration for having to try to figure out their way out of this,” she said. “I think that what they’re going to end up with is prolonged negotiations, which are going to leave us weaker than when we started.”