Senate Democrats Say They Have Found A Big Vulnerability To Stop Trump's War Powers
Trump survived a war powers vote to block him from further aggression in Venezuela, but Senate Democrats say that they found a major vulnerability in Republicans and more war powers votes are coming.
After five Senate Republicans voted to rebuke Trump and block his ability to take further action on Venezuela, the White House put on a full court press to block the final passage of a war powers resolution.
In the end, Trump got Sens. Todd Young (R-IN) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) to flip their votes in exchange for a public hearing on Venezuela and assurances from the administration that no boots would be put on the ground without congressional authorization.
The final vote was 50-50 with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie.
Trump got a rubber stamp from Senate Republicans on Venezuela, but Democrats left the vote encouraged because they discovered a key weakness and divide between Trump and his party.
At a press conference after the vote, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who has been fighting to rein in presidential war powers for years, said:
This is very disappointing and it’s disappointing that my colleagues let the president beat ‘em into submission. After they voted last week, to basically say this is an important enough issue to discuss in front of the American public as the Constitution requires the White House, put a full court press on, unlike any I’ve seen in 13 years here to stop a public debate about a war.
A full court press to stop a public debate if they were that righteous about the justice of this cause or the validity of their legal rationale. They wouldn’t be afraid of a public debate, but they’re afraid of that. And so they really went after. The Republicans to try to switch enough votes to come up with a different outcome tonight.
And the outcome they came up with was interesting. They didn’t vote against the war powers resolution. They voted that what we’ve witnessed four months of military action, more than 200 combatants killed. US troops injured. 16,000 troops and massive military assets. Raided an armada around Venezuela and threats for more invasion threats, for more activity.
Control of Venezuelan politics, control of the Venezuelan economy. They just voted on the floor that’s not hostilities.
And j. D Vance, who made his chops here in the Senate and even as a vice presidential candidate, as the anti-forever war guy, as the focus on the home front guy and don’t spend money overseas, comes in to cast the tie-breaking vote for forever wars and end running Congress and doing it in the skiff behind closed doors.
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