The Senate voted down legislation Wednesday aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from taking military action against Iran without congressional approval.
Lawmakers in the upper chamber voted 52 to 48, giving Trump the greenlight to continue his strikes on Iran without worrying about Congress. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a cosponsor of the legislation, was the only Republican to vote with nearly every Democrat aiming to curb the president’s authority to use military force without first consulting Congress.
“They’ve [Iran has] been saying they’re one week away from a nuclear weapon, I think, since 1996,” Paul told reporters Wednesday. “The other thing is, ‘Oh no, we’re really been at war for 40 years, and now we’re just ending the war.’ I mean, most of the arguments don’t seem to hold water.”
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman also broke with his party and sided with Republicans, even going as far as to commend Trump for taking out the oppressive regime.
“So for me, why can’t we just say, ‘look, this is a good thing the way we are,’” Fetterman said Wednesday. “And now, what’s the end game? Well, the end game is for more real peace, rather than just putting out tweets and statements saying we can never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. When someone does something about that to make that happen, you know, I think we should just [be] country over party.”
Paul also supported a War Powers resolution in January aiming to block Trump’s military action in Venezuela after the capture of dictator Nicolas Maduro. Four other Republicans — Sens. Todd Young of Indiana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — supported the Venezuela resolution, but voted against restraining Trump’s use of force in Iran.
“Passing this resolution now would send the wrong message to Iran and to our troops,” Collins, who is running for reelection in a hotly-contested race, told reporters Wednesday. “At this juncture, providing unequivocal support to our service members is critically important, as is ongoing consultation by the Administration with Congress.”
The vote comes just days after Trump authorized Operation Epic Fury on Iran on Saturday morning to demolish the Islamic theocracy’s nuclear arsenal and naval capabilities, claiming Iran “was going to attack first.” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other senior Iranian officials were killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes.
The Iran campaign is widely unpopular, according to recent polling. Just one in four Americans support strikes in the region, but Trump has brushed the polling aside, saying he has “to do the right thing.”
Administration officials held a briefing on Iran with the top eight lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of Trump’s State of The Union address last week, and again on Monday.
All lawmakers in both chambers of the Hill underwent briefings on the strikes Tuesday, but some lawmakers, such as Young, pointed to the necessity of oversight and hearings by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“In the immediate future we need to make sure the American people are safe and secure,” Young told reporters Wednesday. “My reading of the situation, setting aside how we got here now that we’re at war, is it would be very dangerous to the American people if we were to immediately cease action, withdraw troops amidst this destabilization.”
The immediate removal of troops is also sparking tensions in the House. The lower chamber is expected to vote Thursday on a War Powers Act introduced by Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna. However, a group of bipartisan lawmakers found that immediately ceasing military action would negatively impact the administration’s key national security efforts.
A half dozen Democrats introduced a second War Powers Act to give the administration 30 days to cease its operation and remove troops. As the war is ongoing and expected to quickly escalate, Trump will likely veto any attempts to block his authority over military action.
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