The US Senate on Thursday advanced a bipartisan war powers resolution to prevent Donald Trump from taking further military actions against Venezuela, after he ordered a weekend raid to capture that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, without giving Congress advance notice.
The measure passed with 52 senators in favor and 47 opposed. All Democrats voted for the resolution , as did Republicans Rand Paul, Todd Young, Lisa Murkowski, Josh Hawley and Susan Collins.
Should the Senate approve the measure, it will need to pass the House and be signed by Trump.
The war powers resolution, introduced by the Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, requires Trump to seek permission before attacking or otherwise using the military against Venezuela. Following the Saturday raid that saw US special forces assault the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and spirit Maduro to New York City to face trial on charges related to “narco-terrorism”, the president said he did not tell lawmakers beforehand because “Congress has a tendency to leak”.
Normally, this would die in Congress, but they recently had a MAGA Rep assume room temperature, and another old geezer MAGA got mangled in an accident, so they only have a one or two vote lead. All it would take would be a couple of Reps out of over 400 to flip, and it passes.
Of course, then Trump would refuse to sign it, and there probably isn’t the votes to override the veto.
Then again, the Midterms is looking like a bloodbath, and these guys are starting to think about self-preservation. Once the Epstein Files Release looked like it was sure to pass by a single vote, they all jumped on board, and even Trump was forced to publicly endorse it (heh-heh). If Trump’s veto looks like it’s going to hurt them in November, enough might crossover to override.