Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) on Monday said President Trump should end the Iran war as the conflict hit its seven-month mark, during which gas prices have soared and contributed to Americans' concerns over the cost of living. Capito made the remarks during an interview with "NewsNation Live" host Connell McShane on NewsNation, The…
Page A3From§Eachthe midnight edition — 29 September 2026
Republican senators ask Trump to end the war some of them voted four days earlier to keep alive.
As it ran on the front
Start with the sentence: Senate Republicans are telling reporters President Trump should end the Iran war, four days after enough of their own conference voted to keep it running.
Go back to August 28th. Senator John Fetterman told The Hill his own party has a "socialism problem," naming two Democrats as proof — Abdul El-Sayed, already the party's Senate nominee in Michigan, and Graham Platner, who had already dropped his bid in Maine. Twelve days later, on September 9th, a pre-recorded video of Fetterman played at the Republican National Committee's midterm convention in Dallas, backing Senate candidate David McCormick and pledging to work with Trump. Fifteen days after that, on the 24th, the Senate took up a House-passed resolution ordering Trump to withdraw troops from the war with Iran. Four Republicans — Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and a fourth — crossed over to join nearly the entire Democratic caucus in voting for it. Fetterman crossed the other way, joining Republicans to help defeat it. Common Dreams filed the mismatch that day: the president had just threatened to "annihilate" Iran, and the resolution that would have stopped him died anyway.…
…(cont) The day before that vote, CBS had already found the same strain elsewhere in the party. The candidates wanted out. The conference that actually casts the roll call voted to stay in.
That is where Monday sits. Senator Shelley Moore Capito told NewsNation the president should end the war, marking the conflict's seven-month anniversary — seven months in which gas prices have soared and added to Americans' worries over the cost of living. The same day, CBS reported more Republican candidates breaking from Trump on Iran as the midterms close in. None of it needed a new vote. The vote already happened, on the 24th, and it went the other way.
A war does not end because a senator says so on cable news. It ends when the same senator votes for the resolution sitting in front of them — the one four of their colleagues backed, and Fetterman helped kill four days before Capito's interview aired. The talking point costs nothing five weeks before an election. The roll call is the receipt, and it is dated.
“The switch is easy: vote no where it's recorded, then go on NewsNation and say yes where it isn't. Four days between the roll call and the interview, same month these senators start running for reelection five weeks out. Say what you want on cable — the war doesn't end till the vote does, and that vote already happened, on the 24th, and it lost.”
“Voting against that resolution wasn't about the war, it was about proper process — precedent, executive deference, the usual. Senator Capito's comments show independent thinking, which totally squares with voting four days earlier to keep the same war running. Did I say four days? That number keeps coming up, I should look at the tally again.”
Earlier in this story
- Fetterman says he has no reason to leave the party he keeps quitting on tape and by vote. By Sal · the early evening edition, 28 September 2026
- The zip code with Mar-a-Lago bans the data centers Interior is scouring public land to build. By Ruth · the breakfast edition, 28 September 2026
- Fetterman supplies the Senate's fiftieth vote for Republicans, calls losing that majority 'entirely possible.' By Lou · the milkman edition, 28 September 2026
- Democrats vow to confront Israel once they win an election Israel's attorney general already outran. By Chip · the wee small hours edition, 28 September 2026
- Democrats vow to confront Israel's annexation once they retake the House; the deadline already outran the vote. By Chip · the late evening edition, 27 September 2026
- Trump's best attorney general in Texas history trails by six points in the seat he handpicked him for. By Lou · the early evening edition, 27 September 2026
The receipts
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
More GOP candidates bucking Trump, calling for end to Iran warWith the 2026 midterm elections weeks away, some Republican congressional candidates are breaking with President Trump over the war in Iran. CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto and CBS News political contributor Kyle Kondik take a look at the situation.
Even as some swing-state Republican US Senate candidates are suddenly calling for an end to President Donald Trump's unpopular and illegal war with Iran, the vast majority of elected GOP senators are voting to keep the conflict going. A war powers resolution that would have compelled Trump to end the war he started more than six months…
· Senate GOP defeats resolution directing Trump to end Iran war as more Republicans sour on conflict from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· These GOP candidates in tight races are calling for a quick end to Iran war from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.