Senate Republicans just voted to let Donald Trump keep bombing Iran without congressional approval, killing a War Powers resolution 53-47 and ensuring there will be no formal debate on a military conflict that has already left six American servicemembers and hundreds of Iranian civilians dead.
The vote wasn’t even close.
Only one Republican—Rand Paul of Kentucky—crossed party lines to support the resolution he co-introduced with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). Every other GOP senator fell in line behind a president waging war without the congressional authorization the Constitution requires.
Among Democrats, only John Fetterman of Pennsylvania broke ranks to support continuing the war. Shocking.
“The president has broad authorities under Article II of the Constitution,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, defending the strikes. “I think the president is perfectly within his rights to take the steps he took.”
Democrats aren’t buying it. Kaine said after a classified briefing that he’s seen no evidence the U.S. faced the kind of “imminent threat” that would justify unilateral military action.
“I do not believe this got anywhere near that the U.S. was facing an imminent threat,” Kaine said.
The Trump administration has cycled through roughly half a dozen justifications for the war—regime change, nuclear disarmament, self-defense, the claim that it’s not really a war at all. Paul, the lone Republican dissenter, called the arguments “absurd double-speak.”
“They’ve been saying they’re one week away from a nuclear weapon, I think, since 1996,” Paul said. “The other thing is, ‘Oh no, we’ve really been at war for 40 years, and now we’re just ending the war.’ Most of the arguments don’t seem to hold water.”
The strikes have killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior regime leaders. The mission’s objectives remain murky, its scope open-ended, and the possibility of ground troops looms.
Even Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a vocal Trump critic, voted to block the resolution—though he hedged that his position “could change” if the war drags on for weeks.
The House will vote on its own War Powers resolution Thursday. It’s expected to fail too, thanks partly to at least seven House Democrats who support the operation.
“How many parents watched their kids ship off and fight and die in Iraq and Afghanistan?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked on the floor. “How many hundreds of billions of dollars were wasted? How much anguish and suffering and grief did America endure?”
“This is madness,” he added.