With Democrats in the congressional minority, the party has limited opportunities to stand in the way of the Republican agenda and Donald Trump’s most radical excesses. Democrats can, however, force votes on War Powers Act resolutions, which has already happened earlier this year.
This week, it happened again. The New York Times reported:
Republicans in the Senate blocked a measure on Wednesday that would bar President Trump from using military force against boats in the Caribbean Sea, turning back an effort to check his power to wage war without authorization from Congress. The vote against bringing up the Democratic resolution was 51 to 48, mostly along party lines. It came less than a week after the U.S. military carried out the fourth strike in the Trump administration’s legally disputed campaign targeting alleged drug runners in the Caribbean.
Just two Senate Republicans — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Kentucky’s Rand Paul — broke party ranks and supported the measure. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted with the GOP majority.
At issue, of course, is the recent series of deadly military strikes the president has approved against civilian boats in international waters, which a variety of legal observers have characterized as impermissible. The White House tried to address these concerns last week, sending Congress a notice claiming that the offensive is legal because he unilaterally “determined” that the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
But since it’s up to Congress to approve wars, two Senate Democrats — Virginia’s Tim Kaine and California’s Adam Schiff — tried to force a vote on the matter. (Privileged resolutions reach the floor, whether the majority’s leadership likes it or not.)
Schiff said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, “The president has used our military to strike unknown targets on at least four occasions, and he is promising more. With at least 21 people dead, and more killing on the way, with the president telling us that strikes on land-based targets may be next, we ask you to join us and reassert Congress’ vital control over the war power.” “Americans want fewer wars—not more—and our Constitution clearly grants Congress alone the power to declare one,” Kaine added. “Yet President Trump has repeatedly launched illegal military strikes in the Caribbean and has refused to provide Congress with basic information about who was killed, why the strikes were necessary, and why a standard interdiction operation wasn’t conducted. Should this lawless Administration drag our servicemembers into an escalating conflict without a specific authorization by Congress, every American will be able to tell from today’s vote if their senators tried to stop it, or rolled over.” For 49 GOP senators and Fetterman, this proved unpersuasive. For his part, Trump declared earlier this week that he considered the deadly military strikes to be “an act of kindness,” which was every bit as weird as it sounded.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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