House lawmakers left an all-member briefing about President Donald Trump‘s decision to strike three Iranian nuclear sites divided along party lines, with Republicans praising the “spectacular” move and Democrats finding the intelligence officials’ presentation “unhelpful.”

Intelligence officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, briefed lawmakers Friday morning on the operation. The session was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but it was delayed.

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Lawmakers expressed frustration after the briefing was delayed. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) criticized the White House this week for not briefing the “Gang of Eight” on Capitol Hill over the strikes in Iran that took place Saturday night.

The “Gang of Eight” consists of the top members in both chambers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Jeffries, along with the top members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

Following the bipartisan briefing on Friday, Jeffries and his conference were unsatisfied.

“It wasn’t particularly enlightening, and there remain a whole host of questions that need to be answered for the American people,” Jeffries said while leaving the briefing. 

“I still have questions, and frankly, they had a hard stop and had to leave to attend to other matters, and there are a lot more members who had some questions to ask,” Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) told the Washington Examiner.

One House Democrat told the Washington Examiner that they still have a “lot of questions” and the briefing was “not very helpful.”

Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), a physicist, said he was “very disappointed” that members were given little information about the whereabouts of the highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear weapons and “what that meant for the breakout time to Iran’s first nuclear device.”

“There is, I think, frankly, a very over-optimistic portrayal of what was and was not accomplished by this issue, because we do not have understanding and control of where all of that material is,” Foster said.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced a bipartisan war powers resolution in the House last week, ahead of the strikes, signaling they may force a vote on the matter. Khanna remained critical of the attack following the briefing. 

“This has cost the American people a lot of money, and put our troops at risk, and the objective of denying Iran a nuclear bomb, it’s unclear how much that’s been set back,” Khanna told the Washington Examiner.

However, Republicans left Friday’s briefing feeling confident in Trump’s decision.

“I feel very satisfied,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said.

“I felt that they were warranted before. I’ve been wanting to have ongoing conversations; this is a part of that. We’ll have some more about what led up to the decision and then the powers of the president,” he added. “I think it was executed very well, limited in terms of the possibility of war afterwards, which obviously Congress has to get involved with.”

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) called the operation a “spectacular success.”

“Let me just say this: the United States of America, in 36 hours, flew halfway around the world, attacked a belligerent target, destroyed it, and shortly thereafter, the people that did it were back in the food court,” Perry said. “Twenty years ago, we would have had to mobilize an entire force and go to war over something like that.”

Perry didn’t comment on whether there was any clarity provided on the timeline of setbacks for Iran, after CNN and the New York Times reported that the strikes only set the Middle Eastern country back months as opposed to years, based on an early Pentagon intelligence assessment.

Johnson praised Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and said the information provided in the briefing was a “first-hand, authoritative, and reliable account.”

“I would say it’s a substantial setback that was a firsthand, authoritative, and reliable account that differs greatly from the low confidence preliminary assessment that was leaked, sadly and dangerously, probably from this body, and we’re going to get down to the bottom of that,” Johnson said.

“But you can dismiss the low-level initial assessment, and you can rely upon what the CIA has said, because these are firsthand accounts,” he added.

Johnson’s remarks came after Trump said he wanted to limit the flow of intelligence after the preliminary assessment of the strikes was leaked to the media.

“It probably affects what we are able to be told because there are real risks to that,” Johnson said. “So, it’s unfortunate. It affects how the institution works, and that’s a problem, so we got to address it.”

Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner that he was “reassured” while  “listening that America is the greatest country in the world and we have the best military.”

HOUSE SUPPORT FOR TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WAVERS AFTER SENATE CHANGES

Iran launched a missile attack Monday against a U.S. military base in Qatar in retaliation for the United States bombing three of its nuclear facilities over the weekend. Trump said no Americans were harmed in the strike, and he thanked Iran for giving the U.S. a heads-up. Trump then announced that Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire that remains fragile.

The Senate is poised to vote on a War Powers Resolution on Friday evening. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) pushed for a vote in the upper chamber on his resolution, which requires congressional debate and a vote before the U.S. takes any further offensive measures against Iran. Kaine introduced a similar resolution regarding Iran in 2020 that eight GOP senators backed.