Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both progressive ‘Squad’ members, lashed out at President Donald Trump on Saturday in response to his decision to strike Iran. 

‘Trump has launched an illegal regime change war,’ Omar posted on X. ‘As someone who has survived the horrors of war, I know military strikes will not make us safer; they will inflame tensions and push the region further into chaos.’

Omar, who fled Somalia as a refugee as a young child, added, ‘When we abandon diplomacy, we choose destruction.’

Tlaib reacted on social media to a clip of Trump acknowledging that there may be American casualties in this attack. 

‘He doesn’t care about our loved ones in the military,’ Tlaib posted on X in a message that was reposted by Omar. ‘He doesn’t care about the fact that Americans don’t want this war.’

‘He doesn’t care about the Iranian people. He is corrupted. Don’t fall for the lies.’

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York also slammed President Donald Trump for abandoning diplomacy in favor of launching an attack against Iran, predicting the outcome will be ‘catastrophic.’

‘The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.

‘Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead. President Trump flippantly acknowledged the possibility of American casualties, stating ‘that often happens in war,’’ she continued. ‘Mr. President: this was not an inevitability. This is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people.

Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, another progressive House member associated with the informal ‘Squad’ group, called Trump’s actions an ‘illegal war’ in a post on X.

‘Yet again, an American president is sending other people’s kids to risk their lives in a senseless regime change war,’ Casar said. 

The U.S. and Israel launched the joint attack just after 9 a.m. local time in what the Pentagon has dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury.’

In video remarks posted to Truth Social, Trump addressed the Iranian people directly and told them to ‘seize control of [their] destiny.’

‘The hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,’ Trump said. ‘This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No President was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a President who is giving you what you want.’

While Trump focused some of his message on empowering the people of Iran, he stated that the intent of the operation is to ‘defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,’ which he described as ‘vicious’ and ‘very hard, terrible people.’

Trump also said that while there may be American casualties as a result, the mission is ‘noble’ as it is aimed at stopping a ‘wicked, radical dictatorship’ from threatening American national security interests and destabilizing the Middle East.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report

President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Saturday, after launching joint attacks on Iran, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Saturday morning. 

‘President Trump monitored the situation overnight at Mar a Lago alongside members of his national security team,’ Leavitt posted to X on Saturday. ‘The President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu by phone.’ 

Trump announced in a Truth Social video message at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time that the strikes had been launched, and addressed the Iranian people directly, telling them to ‘seize control of (their) destiny.’ 

Leavitt continued on X that Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided congressional notification to the ‘Gang of Eight,’ which is a bipartisan group of top congressional intelligence leaders, and that administration security leader continue to monitor the situation. 

‘Prior to the attacks, Secretary Rubio called all members of the gang of eight to provide congressional notification, and he was able to reach and brief seven of the eight members. The President and his national security team will continue to closely monitor the situation throughout the day.

Gang of Eight Democrats have rebuked the operation, including Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who serves as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. 

‘Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,’ Himes wrote in a statement. ‘As I expressed to Secretary Rubio when he briefed the Gang of Eight, military action in this region almost never ends well for the United States, and conflict with Iran can easily spiral and escalate in ways we cannot anticipate. It does not appear that Donald Trump has learned the lessons of history.’ 

Tensions have been flaring with Iran for months. The U.S. launched a series of strikes on that nation’s nuclear program in June, before returning to the table for negotiations over the program. 

In the lead-up to Saturday’s strikes, Trump had warned that the regime needed to fully dismantle its nuclear infrastructure or face consequences.

Trump celebrated in his video message early Saturday morning directed at Iranians that the ‘hour of your freedom is at hand.’

‘Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,’ Trump said. ‘This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No President was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a President who is giving you what you want.’

Arab nations are sounding off against Iran after the regime launched strikes against U.S. interests in neighboring countries in the region in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli joint strikes against Iran’s leaders.

The Iranian response targeted all U.S. bases in the Gulf, except for U.S. bases in Oman, Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin reported, since the Omani foreign minister had tried to mediate the nuclear talks in Geneva, even flying to Washington, D.C., to meet Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Friday to try to avert what is quickly turning into a regional war.

Griffin reported that approximately 40 missiles had landed in Israel. Meanwhile, the U.S. military in Iraq intercepted at least one missile targeting U.S. facilities. Additionally, Iran appeared to hit the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, but no casualties were reported.

Iran also launched missiles at Saudi Arabia and Jordan, where the U.S. has squadrons of advanced fighter jets, Griffin reported.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates were among the Gulf states that condemned the Iranian strikes, with many saying they reserve the right to defend themselves and respond accordingly to attacks on their sovereign territories.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it reserves its ‘full right’ to defend itself after what it described as Iranian aggression targeting Qatari territory. Its Defense Ministry said it ‘successfully thwarted a number of attacks targeting the country’s territory’ after multiple rounds of alerts sounded. Authorities reported no immediate injuries or damage in residential areas.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said it affirmed ‘its full solidarity with and unwavering support for the brotherly countries’ and warned of ‘grave consequences resulting from the continued violation of states’ sovereignty and the principles of international law.’

The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Defense said the country ‘was subjected to a blatant attack involving Iranian ballistic missiles,’ adding that air defense systems ‘successfully intercepted a number of missiles.’ Authorities said falling debris in a residential area caused ‘one civilian death of an Asian nationality’ and material damage.

The ministry called the attack ‘a dangerous escalation and a cowardly act that threatens the safety of civilians and undermines stability,’ and stated the UAE ‘reserves its full right to respond.’

Jordan’s foreign minister wrote a series of posts on X, saying that King Abdullah II ‘condemns the attack on the territories of Jordan, and any attacks on Arab countries,’ expressing Jordan’s ‘solidarity with the brotherly Arab countries in confronting any aggressions that affect their sovereignty, security, and stability.’

Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it also ‘strongly condemns the Iranian attacks,’ adding that it ‘affirms its full solidarity with these fellow Arab States and firmly rejects any violation of their sovereignty, any threat to their security, or any action undermining their stability.’

Meanwhile, the Omani Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran.

‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the Sultanate of Oman’s profound regret over the military operations launched by Israel and the United States of America against the Islamic Republic of Iran, warning of the danger of the conflict expanding into consequences that cannot be rectified in the region,’ the Omani Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to X’s translation.

‘The Sultanate of Oman considers this action to be in contravention of the rules of international law and the principle of resolving issues through peaceful means rather than hostile means, the shedding of blood, and calls on all parties to immediately suspend military operations, while urging the United Nations Security Council to convene an urgent meeting to impose a ceasefire and for the international community to take a clear stance in support of international law,’ it added.

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

Former President Bill Clinton is sitting Friday for a deposition over the Epstein scandal nearly 29 years to the date of an infamous encounter with an intern that sparked a famous public denial.

On February 28, 1997 — 29 years from Saturday — Clinton allegedly had his ‘blue dress’ encounter with then-intern Monica Lewinsky at the White House.

The official report from independent counsel Kenneth Starr to Congress lists the date in its section laying out ‘Physical Evidence.’

‘Physical conclusively establishes that the president and Ms. Lewinsky had a sexual relationship,’ the referral from Starr to the House of Representatives reads.

‘After reaching an immunity and cooperation agreement with the Office of the Independent Counsel on July 28, 1998, Ms. Lewinsky turned over a navy blue dress that she said she had worn during a sexual encounter with the President on February 28, 1997.’

Starr’s report went on to say that when Lewinsky next pulled the blue dress from her closet she ‘surmised that the stains’ then appearing on it ‘were the president’s semen.’

That discovery led Starr’s office to request a blood sample from Clinton, which he provided to a physician in the White House Map Room on August 3, 1998, in the presence of an FBI agent and one of Starr’s attorneys.

Two subsequent tests concluded the president’s DNA was found on the dress and that ‘genetic markers’ on the semen were characteristic of 1 out of 7.87 trillion Caucasian males.

When Clinton was deposed in the Paula Jones matter, he was asked whether he had sexual contact with Lewinsky, which he denied. The February 28 encounter, however, was later used by Starr to argue that Clinton had lied under oath.

Clinton publicly denied the affair at the end of an unrelated January 26, 1998, press conference:

‘I want to say one thing to the American people: I’m going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky,’ Clinton said.

‘I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people.’

Clinton was later impeached by the House, but the Senate voted against removing him from office.

A painting depicting Clinton wearing Lewinsky’s blue dress and sitting in a provocative pose was recorded on page EFTA00000862 of the Justice Department’s Epstein Files cache.

The painting was originally reported in 2019 to have been photographed inside Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. It was not commissioned by Clinton and is not a White House image. Clinton himself also denied knowledge of the unique work.

Also on February 28 — this time in 1989 — federal authorities effectively shut down the financial firm that ultimately led to the Whitewater investigation. On February 28, 1989, federal authorities placed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, owned by Clinton ally Jim McDougal, into conservatorship. The entity became the genesis of Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation, which later expanded to include the Lewinsky matter. While scrutinizing Bill and Hillary Clinton’s connection to the real estate dealings beginning in 1994 — for which they were both exonerated — Starr ultimately uncovered a presidential affair with an intern and the public deceit that followed.

What resulted in Clinton’s 1998 impeachment began more than a decade earlier, as Starr examined real estate transactions in a resort community project called Whitewater Estates in the Ozarks that involved a company formed by the future first couple and their politically-connected friends Jim and Susan McDougal.

The Clintons and McDougals wanted to sell lots for vacation homes, but in 1979 interest rates rose to nearly 20%, leaving potential buyers wary, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Jim McDougal eventually took control of a rural bank later renamed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan.

Starr ultimately investigated whether loans from Madison were improperly connected to Whitewater, and whether or what political influence benefitted McDougals financial dealings.

The Clintons were both investigated but never charged in connection with the bank or Whitewater, but the McDougals were, along with Clinton’s gubernatorial successor Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

The Clinton Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former President Bill Clinton is telling the House Oversight Committee that he had ‘no idea’ of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes as his deposition kicks off in Chappaqua, New York.

Clinton is in the hot seat for the committee’s bipartisan investigation into the late financier and sex trafficker for what is expected to be an all-day session of questions into his relationship with Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

‘Now, let me say what you’re going to hear from me. First, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. No matter how many photos you show me, I have two things that, at the end of the day, matter more than your interpretation of those 20-year-old photos,’ Clinton said, according to his prepared opening remarks.

‘I know what I saw and more importantly, what I didn’t see. I know what I did and more importantly, what I didn’t do. I saw nothing and I did nothing wrong.’

Clinton also warned lawmakers, ‘You’ll often hear me say that I don’t recall,’ but said he would not speculate when asked questions.

‘That might be unsatisfying, but I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago, and I’m bound by my oath not to speculate or to guess. This is not merely for my benefit, but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later,’ Clinton said.

Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., suggested he had an abundance of questions for the former president ahead of the deposition.

‘I think everyone’s seen that there are a lot of photos that have been released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as the Epstein estate. There are a lot of email correspondence that included President Clinton,’ Comer said when asked what he needed to hear.

‘Secretary Clinton confirmed this yesterday: Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane at least 27 times. So those are questions that we’re going to ask.’

But Clinton said in his opening remarks that he would not have ridden on the plane if he knew the illicit things that took place there.

‘As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I have not flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,’ Clinton said.

‘But even with 20/20 hindsight, I saw nothing that ever gave me pause. We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long, and by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.’

Comer also said questions would pertain to Epstein and to Clinton’s relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, the late financier’s accomplice who is serving out a prison term in Texas after being convicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

Comer told reporters that his list of questions for Clinton had ‘increased’ in the wake of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s own deposition before the committee on Thursday.

‘Mrs. Clinton deferred a lot of questions to her husband today. There were at least a dozen times when she said, ‘You’ll have to ask my husband that. I can’t answer that,” the chairman said.

He said that many of those deferrals had to do with the Clintons’ nonprofit work.

‘There are so many examples in the evidence the Department of Justice released, in correspondence where Epstein bragged about how involved he was initially in setting up the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation,’ he said.

‘We asked those questions to Secretary Clinton yesterday, and she kept saying she was in the Senate at that time. She wasn’t focused on it. ‘You’ll have to ask my husband.’ So a lot of the Clinton Global Initiative questions yesterday went unanswered because Mrs. Clinton deferred to her husband.’

The former president defended his wife during his opening statement as well, telling lawmakers that ‘before we start, I have to get personal.’

‘You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him,’ Clinton said. ‘She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties. Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her, was simply not right.’

Like Hillary Clinton did in her opening remarks, he said Epstein’s victims deserve both ‘justice’ and ‘healing,’ telling lawmakers that it was for them that he was appearing before the committee.

Clinton’s deposition began a few minutes after 11 a.m. on Friday, a person familiar with planning told Fox News Digital.

Comer told reporters on Thursday after Hillary Clinton’s sitdown that he expected the ordeal to be ‘even longer’ on Friday. 

Her deposition lasted roughly six hours from start to finish, with a brief lunch break in between.

Neither of the Clintons has been accused of anything related to Epstein’s crimes. But the former president’s name appears multiple times in documents released by the DOJ and the House Oversight Committee pertaining to the investigation into Epstein.

Like his wife’s testimony, Clinton will speak to the committee behind closed doors and under oath. 

The interview will be transcribed, with a video likely to be released within a week of its conclusion.