Mike Johnson called the Iran war ‘an epic success.’ But now he’s urging ‘a resolution’ as gas and grocery prices climb

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the long-running fight with Iran now needs “a resolution.” He made the comment in an interview with a local television station and did not lay out a timeline or name the steps he wants the administration to take.

Johnson also said Operation Epic Fury was “an epic success.” He told the station, “It’s been a priority and an objective of every administration, for 50 years nearly, to ensure that Iran didn’t have a nuclear capability. Now that’s done. Operation Epic Fury was an epic success. … The world is safer because of it.” He followed that by saying, “But now we’ve got to bring that to a resolution.”

Those remarks come as some Republicans facing tight races have begun pressing for the war to end, arguing that American households are paying more at the pump and the grocery store.

Johnson ties higher fuel and grocery bills to the closed Strait of Hormuz

Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Iowa who is running for Senate, wrote Tuesday on X, “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.” She called for a suspension of the federal gas tax and a halt to diesel exports, among other steps. “These actions to lower costs are needed ASAP,” she said, “and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end.”

However, users on X pushed back against her recent comments on the war, and pointed out that she voted against resolution to immediately end the war four times this year. 

Democrats have opposed the war since it began. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Wednesday at the Capitol that several Republicans in competitive races are only now saying the fighting should stop. The debate over the war’s future continues, as J.D. Vance recently stated the U.S. is still in the middle of the game with Iran and negotiations might not be an end to the war. 

“It’s interesting to me that several [Republicans] who are in tight races, and are on the verge of losing – including in places like Iowa, or Michigan, or Wisconsin – are all now starting to say the war needs to end,” Jeffries said. 

He then asked, “Where were these Republican sycophants over the last six-plus months when Democrats, in lockstep, have been fighting to end the war of choice in Iran, precisely because it’s not made our country safer, but it has made America, and the American people, economically weaker?” He added, “That’s the source of the problem.”

Johnson said a closed Strait of Hormuz is affecting commerce and driving up prices. “The Strait of Hormuz not being open affects commerce. It directly affects gas prices and fuel prices. And also, you know, the price of groceries, for example, because they got to be transported, and the higher fuel prices are a factor in that as well,” he told the local station.

He said those effects are acknowledged. “Now, all that said, we acknowledge it. We got a lot of work to do,” Johnson said. “I think as soon as the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, and I think we’re entering a new phase of that very soon, then the president’s right. Gas prices come back down.”

Johnson’s comments are the clearest sign yet from House Republican leadership that the drawn-out conflict is becoming a political problem for the party as the midterm elections near. Democrats have used the same cost issues on the campaign trail in the closing weeks of the race.