With pro-Israel, oil industry support, WV congressional members back bombing Iran

The U.S. struck uranium enrichment plants across three major nuclear sites in Iran over the weekend, claiming to have devastated a nuclear program that Israel has said it wants to dismantle, launching a surprise attack on Iran on June 13.

Trump said Friday his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was “wrong� when she testified to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in March that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon. Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed for more than three decades that Iran has been on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons.

But despite Trump’s claim in a Saturday night address to the nation that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities were “completely and totally obliterated,� national reports have indicated that targeted sites were damaged but not destroyed. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Sunday the extent of damage to one key uranium enrichment facility was not immediately possible to determine.

Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore, and Sen. Jim Justice, all R-W.Va., released statements Saturday night supporting Trump’s decision to strike Iran, followed by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Sunday afternoon.

“The Commander in Chief has my full support,� Miller’s X account posted, claiming in an unlikely statement that America had “ended [Iran’s] nuclear weapons program.�

Moore said what he called Trump’s “targeted strike� was “the right decision� and called for a “negotiated peace settlement.�

“I pray tonight Iran will not squander this opportunity offered by the president,� Moore said in a statement posted to X.

Iran responded Monday with a missile strike on a U.S. military base in Qatar. The Qatar Defense Ministry said there were no reported deaths or injuries in the attack.

“President Trump is exactly the leader we need in these uncertain times,� Justice’s X account posted Saturday night, saying Trump had shown a “peace through strength approach.�

Capito's X account posted that she “fully support[s]� Trump’s move, claiming Iran was responsible for “the horrors of October 7th.� Oct. 7, 2023, marked Hamas-led attacks on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people and sparked the ongoing Gaza war.

But U.S. intelligence officials determined under the Biden administration that while Iran may have been indirectly complicit given long-term support it has provided to Hamas, there wasn’t evidence it helped plan the attack.

Independent third-party groups have concluded Israel has been and is committing genocide against Palestinians amid support from the U.S., having cut off water, electricity and fuel and imposing mass forced displacement.

Reaction among U.S. lawmakers striking Iran has been mostly split along party lines, but some Republicans have opposed the Trump administration’s move, echoing Democrats in saying the move warranted congressional support and risked human and economic costs akin to those the U.S. has incurred in other conflicts it has escalated throughout the Middle East this century totaling thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars lost.

Oil, defense and pro-Israel sources key contributors

Oil, gas and defense industry sources, including company executives and political action committees, and pro-Israel groups have contributed roughly $336,000, over 13%, of the nearly $2.5 million the campaign committees for Capito, Justice, Miller and Moore have netted in contributions since July 2024, according to a Gazette-Mail review of campaign finance report data.

The oil and gas industry contributed roughly $235,000 to the four lawmakers in the past year. The defense industry contributed just shy of $56,000, while pro-Israel sources contributed roughly $45,000.

Moore’s campaign committee received just under $70,000 from those three categories of contributors, about 16% of the roughly $445,000 it netted, including over $29,000 from the oil and gas industry, nearly $20,000 from the defense industry and nearly $21,000 from pro-Israel sources.

Miller’s campaign committee received just over $86,000 from the three categories of contributors, about 13% of the roughly $676,000 it netted, including over $60,000 from the oil and gas industry, over $8,000 from the defense industry and more than $17,000 from pro-Israel sources.

Justice’s campaign committee received just shy of $70,000 from the three categories, about 12% of the approximately $603,000 it netted, including nearly $47,000 from the oil and gas industry, just under $16,000 from the defense industry and roughly $7,000 from pro-Israel sources.

The campaign committee for Capito, the only one of the four legislators who wasn’t running for a seat in Congress last year, netted over $111,000 from those categories, about 15% of the approximately $764,000 it netted, including nearly $99,000 from the oil and gas industry, $12,000 from the defense industry and $500 from a pro-Israel source.

That source was the contributor behind most of the lawmakers’ pro-Israel support: the political action committee for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.

Pro-Israel, industry sources poised to benefit 

AIPAC has been an aggressive spender in congressional races and is said to be one of the most influential lobbying organizations in the nation, drawing criticism it represents only right-wing Israeli policy. AIPAC hailed the U.S. bombing of Iran in a statement Saturday night, claiming a nuclear-armed Iran would “pose an existential threat to our most reliable ally, Israel.�

Palmer Luckey, Costa Mesa, California-based founder of Anduril Industries, a defense technology company that has been awarded contracts to provide air defense capabilities for the Department of Defense, contributed just under $10,000 to the campaign committees for Moore and Justice since July 2024, per their campaign finance reports.

Anduril Industries was highlighted in a Financial Times article Monday focusing on defense tech companies’ increase in stock and brightening business outlook as the spotlight turns to “the tools of war.�

Yahoo Finance published an analysis Monday recommending to invest in defense contractor stocks, highlighting an aerospace and defense investment fund whose top holdings include GE Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, RTX Corp. and Northrop Grunman.

Those companies’ employees and their political action committees combined to contribute $20,000 to West Virginia congressional members’ campaign committees since July 2024.

Oil price climb expected

The global price of oil is expected to increase as a result of the U.S. attack on Iran.

An analysis published Wednesday by AInvest, an investment news website, predicted refiners like Marathon Petroleum would benefit from higher margins as crude oil prices climb while refined products stay in demand.

The Findlay, Ohio-based political action committee for Marathon Petroleum employees contributed $17,500 combined to all four members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation since July.