A war powers resolution seeking to block President Trump from ordering future military action against Venezuela was sidelined in the Senate Wednesday after Vice President JD Vance was called in to cast a tie-breaking vote to dismiss the measure.
The resolution to end hostilities toward Venezuela had garnered the support of five Republicans and all Democrats in the upper chamber last week, enraging President Trump, but still needed to be approved by the House and Senate to take effect.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) had voted to advance the proposal last week but flipped Wednesday — amid pressure from Trump — when Senate Foreign Relations Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho) brought up a point of order to block the resolution.
Risch’s effort to block the measure was approved in 51-50 vote.
The Idaho Republican contended that the war powers resolution was unnecessary because there currently aren’t any US troops on the ground in Venezuela.
“The objective of this resolution is to stop something that is not happening,” Risch said on the Senate floor.
“Only Congress could dream this up,” he fumed, arguing that “having 535 commanders-in-chief is a really bad idea.”
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) once again voted with Democrats in support of blocking US military action in Venezuela.
Ahead of the vote, Hawley explained that he initially had concerns about “ground troops occupying Venezuela” but learned that wouldn’t be the case after speaking to the president and top administration officials.
“I talked to the president. I talked to the secretary of state. I talked to the Department of Justice … what the secretary of state said to me very clearly is, ‘We are not doing that. We do not have ground troops in Venezuela. This is not another Iraq. We are not going to occupy Venezuela,’” Hawley said during an appearance on “The Will Cain Show” on Fox News.
“And you know what? That’s good enough for me,” the senator added.
Trump argued that the Senate was attempting to “take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” in a Truth Social post after last week’s vote.
He said Republicans should be “ashamed of the Senators” that voted with Democrats and those lawmakers “should never be elected to office again.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) argued Republicans “abdicated their responsibility” after the vote to dismiss the war powers resolution.
“What has happened tonight is a road map to another endless war,” Schumer told reporters.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who introduced the measure, vowed that Democrats would “file a whole lot more war powers resolutions” in response to Trump’s threats to other nations.
