A Senate Republican spurned by President Donald Trump joined Senate Democrats to handcuff his war powers in Iran and provided the key vote to advance a war powers resolution through a key hurdle.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who lost his primary bid over the weekend, sided with Senate Democrats in their war of attrition to curtail Trump’s policing powers in the Middle East. It comes after Democrats successfully gained another defector, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, last week.
Cassidy said in a statement on X after the vote that while he supported the administration’s effort to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, “the White House and Pentagon have left Congress in the dark on Operation Epic Fury.”
“In Louisiana, I’ve heard from people, including President Trump’s supporters, who are concerned about this war,” Cassidy said. “Until the administration provides clarity, no congressional authorization or extension can be justified.”
Democrats’ gambit finally worked after seven failed tries, with four Senate Republicans joining them to move the measure forward. But there is still a long way to go before the resolution becomes official. And even if it were to succeed, Democrats likely do not have a veto-proof coalition to counter Trump.
While much of the focus in the upper chamber has shifted elsewhere, like to funding immigration enforcement for the next three-and-a-half years or Trump’s bombshell endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Democrats still plan to plow ahead with war powers resolution after another.
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And it comes after Trump declared that he postponed a “major attack” against Iran after allies in the region pressed for more time to continue negotiations.
“Trump’s no closer to ending this war, no closer to bringing down the skyrocketing costs of this war, no closer to getting our troops out of harm’s way,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.
“Senate Republicans must not continue to allow Trump to remain stuck in this never-ending loop of threats and failed negotiations,” he continued.
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The previous small Republican coalition they built, however, held. Murkwoski, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Schumer and Democrats to support the move.
Murkowski explained last week that after Congress blew past the 60-day deadline to weigh in on the war, either authorizing or halting it, she felt it was time for lawmakers to have a debate over the War Powers Resolution Act.
“We’re in a different place than we were last time we voted on this,” she said.
Conversely, while the GOP opposition held, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., continued to vote with Republicans against the resolution.
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Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., when asked by Fox News Digital if Democrats were pressuring Fetterman to flip, said that the “responsibility isn’t on one senator, it’s on everybody who has the chance to cut funding off to this war.”
“I mean, if this war continues, and I think it will, and likely it’s gonna become a very hot war again, one of these war powers resolutions very soon will pass. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Murphy said.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance said ahead of the vote that the administration was ready to take action if talks to prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon fell through.
“It takes two to tango,” Vance told reporters at a White House press briefing. “We are not going to have a deal that allows the Iranians to have a nuclear weapon.”
“So, as the president just told me, we’re locked and loaded,” he continued. “We don’t want to go down that pathway. But the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to.”
