Most politicians do their finest to not let their faces betray what they’re pondering. Bernie Sanders isn’t most politicians—and the latest proof of that was his response when listening to that the U.S. had bombed Iran’s nuclear amenities over the weekend.
The famously straight-shooting senator from Vermont realized the U.S. had entered Israel’s battle with Iran whereas onstage at a rally on June 21. Although the group’s energetic response is what ended up going viral, it’s Sanders’s wildly expressive visage that captures the complicated feelings of the second.
Ever since Israel launched a preemptive missile strike towards Iran’s nuclear amenities on June 12, pundits and politicians have breathlessly speculated about whether or not the U.S. would step in to offer diplomacy or navy may. As tensions escalated, President Trump teased his subsequent transfer with typical reality-show aptitude. (“I could do it, I could not do it,” he mentioned on June 18 of the potential for a U.S. strike on Iran. “I imply, no person is aware of what I’m going to do.”)
Three days later, a lot of the world discovered in unison what Trump determined to do: launch a collection of coordinated bombing assaults towards Iran. Video clips from Sanders’s Tulsa “Preventing Oligarchy” rally that evening replicate the gravity of the Iran information because it reached the general public, and underscores how members of Congress—technically the physique that ought to green-light a navy motion just like the one launched Saturday, code-named Operation Midnight Hammer—have been blindsided by the information. A TikTok displaying the senator and his crowd absorbing the data collectively has already been seen almost 20 million instances—with additional hundreds of thousands of views in a tweet shared on X.
@victoriaaayy
This feels so unreal. Rapid chills…. #berniesanders #berniesanderstulsa
♬ unique sound – Victoria✨
The video, taken at a distance from Sanders’s right-side profile, begins with an viewers member shouting, “We simply bombed Iran!” The senator then stops talking briefly, till an aide brings him a printout of Trump’s assertion from Reality Social, which Sanders reads aloud—“We’ve got accomplished our very profitable assault on the three nuclear websites in Iran,” ending with “etcetera.” From right here, the group breaks out right into a collection of “boos” that give approach to a spontaneous, deafening chant of “No extra battle!”
Different movies taken on the occasion have emerged, together with some from Sanders’s personal social staff, displaying what occurred subsequent. The Senator agrees with the thrust of the mantra, and describes the bombing as “so grossly unconstitutional.” He needn’t have mentioned something in any respect to get the identical message throughout, although, because the footage of Sanders’s face throughout the second between listening to the shout from the group and studying the Reality Social publish says all of it.
Sen. Bernie Sanders held a "Preventing Oligarchy" rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he acquired information of President Donald Trump's strikes on Iran.
— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-06-22T21:08:17.318Z
First, there’s half a snort because it appears to daybreak on Sanders that the group might have extra info than he does. When the information seems to sink in, his mouth hangs open in slack-jawed shock, and he turns to get affirmation from his aides. After one in every of them presumably confirms the information off-screen with a nod, the corners of Sanders’s mouth tighten right into a form of discombobulated grimace. Fury flashes throughout his complete face, resulting in some wily eyebrow gymnastics.
As he pauses, signaling the necessity for more information, an aide rushes over with a printout of Trump’s Reality Social publish. Upon laying eyes on it, Sanders shakes his head within the disgusted method of somebody dissatisfied regardless of already dismal expectations. He appears to concurrently not imagine what he’s studying and perceive that it makes good, horrible sense. (“The look on Bernie’s face is all of us,” reads a typical response to the video on Bluesky.)
A part of the rationale Sanders had the very best approval score within the Senate as of January 16, in accordance with Morning Seek the advice of, is as a result of he’s extensively perceived as genuine. One of many many memes he’s impressed, in spite of everything, was primarily based on his refusal to fake the climate at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 was something lower than soul-piercingly chilly. This authenticity oozes out of the longtime anti-war politician within the rally clip, suggesting a lot of Congress was not knowledgeable upfront, not to mention consulted, earlier than the U.S. struck Iran.
Whereas the oldsters who could be inclined to attend a Saturday evening Bernie Sanders rally should not precisely a consultant pattern of all Individuals’ political leanings, early proof suggests the broader public mirrors their on the spot response to the bombing information. A YouGov survey of two,824 U.S. adults on June 22 discovered 85% of respondents answering no to the query, “Would you like the U.S. to be at battle with Iran?” Solely 5% answered affirmatively.
In the meantime, The New York Instances checked again in with an ongoing panel of six 2024 Trump voters and located that two absolutely supported the Iran strike, two conditionally supported it, and two have been towards it. (“One of many large causes I voted for him was him preserving us out of stuff within the Center East,” mentioned one within the latter class.)
Many different politicians on each side of the aisle additionally got here out towards the strike. Whereas no report exists of what their faces regarded like after they heard the information, because of Sanders, it’s simpler to think about.
