From Fox News: Senate Republicans successfully spiked a bipartisan attempt to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers authority after a pair of key GOP lawmakers reversed their positions.
Republicans turned to a rarely used Senate procedure previously used by Senate Democrats in a similar situation to nullify the Venezuela war powers resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. The successful effort came after five Senate Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to advance the resolution last week.
Their move drew heavy criticism and anger from Trump, who demanded that they “should never be elected to office again.”
The resolution was tanked on a 51 to 50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance coming in to break a tie in favor of Trump.
While some of the GOP defectors did not flip, Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) helped to kill the resolution.
Hawley had primary been worried about placing troops in Venezuela, but Trump administration officials convinced him that no further military action was currently planned.
“To me, this is all about going forward,” Hawley said of his decision. “If the president decides we need to put troops on the ground in Venezuela, then Congress will need to weigh in.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the president achieved a procedural victory after arguing the resolution was unrelated to the issues in Venezuela.
“We don’t have troops in Venezuela. There is no kinetic action, there are no operations,” Thune said. “There are no boots on the ground. And I think the question is whether or not there ought to be expedited consideration or privilege accorded to something that’s brought to the floor that doesn’t reflect what’s what is current reality in Venezuela.”
“And so I think it’s very fair for Republicans to question why we ought to be having this discussion right now, particularly at a time when we’re trying to do appropriations bills,” he continued.
Read more at Fox News
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