President Donald Trump lashed out at the five Republican senators who voted with Democrats on Thursday to pass a War Powers Resolution that would curb his ability to expand military operations in Venezuela.
“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Collins is in one of the most competitive reelection campaigns this year.
“The president obviously is unhappy with the vote. I guess this means that he would prefer to have Governor Mills or somebody else,” Collins told a reporter from Semafor, referring to Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine and one of the candidates running for Collins’ Senate seat.
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The legislation, co-sponsored by Paul, is the first rebuke from the Senate of the administration’s aggressive actions toward Venezuela, which culminated in the ousting of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, last weekend. Senators in both parties have expressed concern over moving the country toward war, even as many of them have celebrated the capture of Maduro.
Previous votes on similar resolutions have failed since October.
“The previous votes have been more hypothetical. This vote is about a real incursion,” Paul told reporters after Thursday’s vote. “It’s about a real invasion of a foreign country. … I think the vote today reflects that more Republicans are taking it seriously.”
The resolution is not likely to receive a vote in the House of Representatives and would likely be vetoed by Trump if it ever reaches his desk. Still, the vote shows the level of concern among senators over U.S. intervention in Venezuela.
Vice President JD Vance doubled down on the president’s remarks on war powers Thursday during a White House press briefing, telling reporters that Republicans are on board with the administration’s plan for Venezuela and that the vote would not change the administration’s actions.
“Every president, Democrat or Republican, believes the War Powers Act is fundamentally a fake and unconstitutional law,” Vance said. “It’s not going to change anything about how we conduct foreign policy over the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, and that will continue to be how we approach things.”
That’s not how some senators see it. In a post on X, Hawley defended his vote and the seriousness of Congress’ role in matters of war.
“With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution,” he wrote.
Hawley, though, maintained his support of Trump while speaking to reporters after the vote.
“I feel like we’ve had a good relationship and I support him,” Hawley said.
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This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS, VTDigger and The Maine Monitor.
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