Pappas Praises Death of Ayatollah As a ‘Positive Development’

NH Journal | By Michael Graham

While many in his party are denouncing the U.S. military attacks on the Iranian regime, New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas said Monday that taking out Tehran’s leaders is “a positive development” for the Middle East.

Pappas made his remarks at a New England Council event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

“No one can doubt that Iran is the head of the snake. They export terror across the Middle East and around the world. They have targeted and chanted ‘Death to America’ over the course of decades,” Pappas told the group.

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) speaks with Jim Brett of the New England Council at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, March 2, 2026.
(CREDIT: NHJournal)

“No one should be losing sleep that the Ayatollah has been eliminated. That is a positive development for the people of Iran, as far as I’m concerned, and for the long-term security of the region.”

It’s a stance rejected by his Democratic primary opponent, Karishma Manzur.

“Chris Pappas’s comment justifying extrajudicial killing is deeply irresponsible. President Trump initiated military action against Iran without evidence of an imminent threat and without clear authorization from Congress,” Manzur said in a statement.

“I oppose unauthorized, illegal wars, including the attacks on Iran. Every strike and troop deployment is paid for by working families. Our tax dollars should be lowering child care costs, fixing roads and bridges, expanding affordable housing, and strengthening health care here in New Hampshire. Instead, politicians like Pappas continue to support endless wars while families struggle to make ends meet.”

One of the Democrats running to replace Pappas, state Rep. Heath Howard (D-Strafford), sent NHJournal a statement making it clear where he stands.

“I would vote against such military action and unequivocally oppose Trump and Netanyahu’s war, a distraction which has plunged Western Asia into chaos and allowed Israel to expand their colonial project in Palestine and Lebanon while furthering the interests of other authoritarian states like Saudi Arabia,” Howard said. “Ordinary Americans are not interested in furthering Israel’s genocide or Saudi Arabia’s theocracy – they are concerned with skyrocketing gas and heating prices while civilians are killed alongside American soldiers in endless wars abroad.”

Pappas has long touted his ranking as one of the most bipartisan Democrats in the U.S. House, and he has avoided making strident comments about Trump’s use of military force against Iran. That puts him at odds with the Democrats hoping to replace him in the NH-01 primary this fall. (Pappas is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.)

The reaction from the Democratic primary field has ranged from denouncing Trump’s “illegal war” to demanding the president be prosecuted as a war criminal. They argue the U.S. should have left the ayatollah and his Islamist regime in power rather than taking military action.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a likely 2028 presidential candidate who was in New Hampshire this weekend, agrees.

“This is not a war we should be in. We shouldn’t be having regime-change wars,” he told WMUR.

Instead, Khanna said, the U.S. should have relied on negotiations and sanctions.

“The best end game is for us to have a multilateral coalition that stops the war, but agrees on tough sanctions on the regime if they continue any of their mass killing of protesters,” Khanna said.

Pappas also believes in negotiating with Iran.

“Rewind a few months to the strikes on the nuclear assets in Iran, which this administration said obliterated the nuclear capabilities of Iran,” Pappas said Monday.

“But clearly it didn’t obliterate their nuclear ambitions, which is why I think we needed to continue to be at the table — where we had an Iranian regime that was at a historic weak point — to try to negotiate a deal that could keep a lid on their nuclear program and that could hopefully deal with the other threat in terms of their ballistic missile program.”

In fact, before the military strikes were launched on Saturday, U.S. sanctions on Iran had reached a state of “maximum economic pressure,” characterized by the full restoration of international restrictions and aggressive new targeting of Iran’s financial lifelines. Yet Iran had launched a surge in ballistic missile production and was attempting to restart its nuclear weapons program.

“I trust Iran to act like Iran. The one we can’t trust is Chris Pappas,” said GOP U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown. “His lack of foreign policy experience is clearly evident.”

As for negotiating with Iran, the former ambassador said, “They had plenty of time to negotiate. That time has clearly passed.”

“I commend the president and his team for their decisive actions, as well as the men and women who are executing those missions,” Brown added. “The neighbors of Iran don’t have to keep worrying about the bully in the region. They can work toward stability and prosperity that will hopefully last for a long, long time.”

The John E. Sununu campaign is equally unimpressed.

“Chris Pappas appears to be debating himself whether or not Iran was trustworthy. Of course, the greatest sponsor of terrorism around the world isn’t trustworthy,” said campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf. “As John has made clear, the world is a better place without Khamenei and his regime’s leaders.”