A group of Republican senators delivered Donald Trump a message of opposition to begin the new year as they voted to limit the president’s ability to launch new attacks on Venezuela.
Five members of the president’s party broke ranks to support a War Powers Act resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, aimed at preventing the White House from using resources to support further military action inside Venezuela following the capture of the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro. The new resolution blocks the president from using the military against Venezuela without authorization from Congress.
One of them, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), denied that his vote was not a rebuke of the president: “This is all about going forward. If the president should determine, you know what, I need to put troops on the ground in Venezuela, I think that wouldn't require Congress.”
But after Thursday, a vote of 52-47 now stands as one of the largest shows of Republican resistance on Capitol Hill so far during Trump’s second presidency.
And the president clearly didn’t feel the same way. He quickly dropped a bomb on the wayward Republicans, naming them on Truth Social and writing that “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats...Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.”
The resolution passed with a greater showing of Republican support than had manifested for a similar resolution in the fall, which took place before the raid on Venezuela’s capital to capture Maduro. Just one Democrat, John Fetterman, expressed support for the president’s actions in response to the Maduro raid, but even he fell into line and voted with his party Thursday.
Just two Republicans previously voted to restrict the president’s warmaking in the fall, as a campaign of military strikes against small boats the U.S. has accused of being used for drug smuggling escalated in the Caribbean: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Three of their colleagues joined them this week. Sens. Susan Collins, Josh Hawley and Todd Young voted in the affirmative, and indicated to reporters that the capture of Maduro changed the calculation.
The legislation will be sent to the House, and can still be vetoed if it reaches the president’s desk.
White House officials including the president have refused to take the use of U.S. forces, including a ground invasion, off the table to stabilize Venezuela in the wake of Maduro’s capture.
Paul spoke to reporters after the vote and was equally averse to describing it as a firm break with the president.
“I think it's part of the healthy debate that we have in a republic,” he contended.
But the senator admitted that lawmakers and Americans alike were spooked by the rhetoric coming out of the White House, both from Trump who indicated that he’ll pursue potential efforts at regime change or efforts to stop drug trafficking elsewhere, and the likes of Stephen Miller and Karoline Leavitt who repeatedly refused this week to rule out a military invasion of Greenland, which is controlled by a fellow Nato member-state.
Trump and his allies have been cagey about details regarding his future plans for the Western Hemisphere. He has reignited calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, while pointedly not ruling out military force and drawing condemnations from European leaders, who say such an act would shatter the NATO alliance. Officials have also revealed only the hints of a solid plan for Venezuela’s future amid questions of who the administration views as the country’s rightful leader, when elections will be held and whether the U.S. has plans to take over or seize parts of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
“I think it concerns people the more they hear loose rhetoric like, Columbia, you're next green Greenland, you're next. Watch out. And so the more it becomes that, well, that the President can make these decisions without any kind of authorization from Congress. I think that's starting to worry more people,” said Paul.
Paul did not answer when asked by The Independent whether he would support similar legislation, introduced by Sen. Ruben Gallego, to restrict military force against Greenland. But he and other lawmakers in both chambers have warned against such saber-rattling from the White House.
“[A]ny effort to claim or take the territory by force would degrade both our national security and our international relationships,” wrote Murkowski, one of Thursday’s yes votes, on Wednesday evening.
Todd Young, her colleague, added of his yes vote on Thursday: “Although I remain open to persuasion, any future commitment of U.S. forces in Venezuela must be subject to debate and authorization in Congress.
“President Trump campaigned against forever wars, and I strongly support him in that position. A drawn-out campaign in Venezuela involving the American military, even if unintended, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements,” the Indiana Republican wrote in a statement.
The Senate’s vote follows an all-senators briefing on the subject earlier in the week and complaints from Democrats that the administration gave no forewarning, including to lawmakers with intelligence backgrounds, regarding the strike.
Members of the opposition party who exited the briefing on Wednesday said that the president planned to “steal” Venezuela’s oil “at gun point,” while the future of the country remained unclear.
“This is an insane plan. They’re talking about stealing Venezuelan oil at gunpoint for an undefined period of time to micromanage an entire country,” claimed Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, as he spoke with reporters after Wednesday’s briefing. “The scope and insanity of this is absolutely stunning.”
Even some Republicans who voted against the War Powers resolution on Thursday expressed the need for the administration to guarantee stability within Venezuela in the immediate term, and expressed doubts that American energy companies would make long-term investments without that guarantee. Those with concerns included Thom Tillis, who excoriated the White House this week over rhetoric from Miller and others about Greenland.
“I think [success] depends largely on whether or not we can help the President by passing legislation that sustains the effort. Because, frankly, if we don't do that, why on earth would anybody in the energy sector invest in something that may only be a stable it may be stable for three years?” Tillis asked.
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