WASHINGTON — The top Senate Republican said on Friday that the administration would brief all senators next week on the United States drone strike ordered by President Trump that killed Iran’s top security commander.
The morning after the strike on the powerful commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, lawmakers divided sharply along party lines over a move that could escalate United States tensions with Iran, which Mr. Trump undertook without authorization from Congress.
Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, lauded the strike as long-overdue justice.
“For too long, this evil man operated without constraint and countless innocents have suffered for it,” he said. “Now his terrorist leadership has been ended.”
Mr. McConnell said he had spoken with the defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, and asked that the administration brief lawmakers early next week on the strike, a request mirroring one by Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Thursday night. Mr. McConnell said Senate staff aides would receive a classified briefing on the strike later on Friday.
“Predictably enough in this political environment, the operation that led to Suleimani’s death may prove controversial or divisive,” he said, in a feat of understatement as criticism poured forth from Democrats that Mr. Trump had acted rashly and overstepped his authority.
“Although I anticipate and welcome a debate about America’s interest in foreign policy in the Middle East,” he added, “I recommend that all senators wait to review the facts and hear from the administration before passing much public judgment on this operation and its potential consequences.”
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on the administration to “immediately” provide answers to lawmakers, chiding Mr. Trump for failing to consult with congressional leaders on its rationale, strategy and plans for the aftermath before launching the strike.
“The administration did not consult in this case, and I fear that those very serious questions have not been answered and may not be fully considered,” Mr. Schumer said.
It is unclear exactly which lawmakers were given advance notice of the strike. Ms. Pelosi said that Congress had not been consulted; an aide said she spoke with Mr. Esper after the attack was conducted.
But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close ally of the president’s, told Fox News that he was briefed this week of the possibility of the strike when he visited the president at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“I really appreciate President Trump letting the world know you cannot kill an American without impunity,” he said.
On no other issue have Republicans, including Mr. Graham, been as willing to criticize Mr. Trump as they have on foreign policy, challenging the president on his relationship with Saudi Arabia, rebuking him on withdrawing troops from Syria and Afghanistan, and trying to force his hand on human rights in China. But the strike on General Suleimani appeared, for the moment, to unite Republicans around the party’s traditional posture of projecting American military strength.
“The message to all those who mean harm to America is loud and clear,” said Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and a leading Iran hawk.
Mr. Trump’s pledge to end the intractable military conflicts in the Middle East won him the support of a newer, anti-establishment group of Republicans that cheered his waning interest in continuing to convey American military power around the world. But those lawmakers on Friday either remained silent or applauded the airstrike as a necessary and measured reaction to Iran’s mounting aggression.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies, sponsored legislation last year that would have mandated that the president obtain explicit congressional approval before going to war with Iran. “Let them make the case to Congress and the American people,” he said then.
But on Friday, Mr. Gaetz defended the strike, writing on Twitter that Mr. Trump “correctly *responded* to violence & ongoing threats against US personnel after repeated warnings and admirable restraint.”
That left Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, to emerge as one of the lone voices of dissent.
“A war without a Congressional declaration is a recipe for feckless intermittent eruptions of violence,” Mr. Paul tweeted, with “no clear mission for our soldiers.”
Democratic lawmakers joined Mr. Paul in expressing anguish over the ripple of chaos they said the strike would set off in the region. And they stressed the importance of Congress’s role in authorizing military action abroad.
“What always kept both Democratic and Republican presidents from targeting Suleimani himself was the simple question: Was the strike worth the likely retaliation, and the potential to pull us into protracted conflict?” said Representative Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a former C.I.A. and Defense Department official. “The two administrations I worked for both determined that the ultimate ends didn’t justify the means. The Trump administration has made a different calculation.”
In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress has consistently shied away from clawing back some of its authority on matters of war and peace, despite lawmakers’ perennial bouts of outrage when presidents take military action without consulting them and long-simmering debates over the scope of presidential war powers. The Senate rejected a measure in June mirroring Mr. Gaetz’s legislation that would have required Mr. Trump to get Congress’s explicit approval before striking Iran.
Another series of measures — including one narrowly tailored to prevent unauthorized attacks on Iran and another that would have repealed the 2002 authorization of military force — made it into the House’s version of the must-pass annual defense bill. But those provisions were stripped out of the final version of the legislation in negotiations between lawmakers in the Senate and the House, and Democrats ultimately joined passed the bill without them.
Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, on Friday tried to revive those efforts, introducing a new measure invoking the War Powers Act that would a force a debate and vote in Congress to prevent further escalation of hostilities with Iran.
“We’re now at a boiling point,” Mr. Kaine said, “and Congress must step in before Trump puts even more of our troops in harm’s way.”