- Senate Republicans have blocked the war powers measures four times.
- Almost all Republicans are firmly behind Trump.
- Democrats warn that the conflict could escalate.
A majority of the US Senate backed President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on Wednesday, voting to block a Democratic-led resolution aimed at halting the war until hostilities are approved by Congress.
The Senate voted 52-47 not to advance the war powers resolution, underscoring his party’s continued support for the Republican president’s war policies more than six weeks after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran.
Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network carried out on Tuesday and broadcast on Wednesday, that the war was close to over. Also on Wednesday, the army chief of mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict after weekend peace talks ended without an agreement.
It was the fourth time Democrats have forced Senate votes on war-torn measures since the war began. All of them have failed in the face of opposition from every Republican in the Senate except Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The libertarian-leaning Paul, who often advocates against excessive military spending and for a strict interpretation of the Constitution, was the only Republican vote for the resolution in the most recent vote. The only Democratic “no” came from Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. Republican Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia did not vote.
Although the U.S. Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, presidents from both parties have long maintained that the restriction does not apply to short-term operations or if the country is under immediate threat.
‘No one is coming to help you, Iran’
The White House, and nearly all of Trump’s Republicans in Congress, say Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the United States by ordering limited military operations.
Polls show the war is largely unpopular, although views differ along partisan lines. ONE Reuters/Ipsos poll released on March 31 found that 60% of Americans opposed US military strikes on Iran, with 74% of Republicans supporting the action compared to 7% of Democrats.
Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the sponsors of the war powers resolution of supporting Iran in a speech before the vote.
“No one is coming to help you, Iran, except the 47 people over here,” he said, referring to senators who support the resolution.
Democrats said they wanted Congress to reassert its constitutional power to declare war and withdraw the country from what they warned could be a protracted conflict.
“I urge my colleagues … to choose the path of peace before President Trump’s war becomes irreversible,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a speech urging support for the vote.
Democratic Party leaders have vowed to keep bringing the war powers resolutions until the conflict ends or Congress authorizes continued fighting.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider a similar measure later this week.
