Posts
Senate Republicans closed ranks on Wednesday, delivering President Trump a solid victory on his use of force against Iran, This came despite the usual lingering questions about America's role in the Middle East mess.
The Senate decisively shot down a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that sought to limit Trump's military actions in Iran. This followed days of speculation about whether any Republicans would break ranks, as some have done in the past, to slap the president on the wrist.
The administration went all-in to rally support for Operation Epic Fury. They held multiple briefings with Congress to lay out the case. It worked, at least for the moment. It convinced some wavering Republicans to stick with continued military action against the regime.
President Donald Trump confirmed the U.S. launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, 2026.
Only Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted for Kaine's resolution. On the flip side, Sen. Jon Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the lone Democrat to cross over and support the president's position.
Democrats tried to frame Trump's moves as yet another case of him blowing past Congress's authority on military force. They complained about no clear strategy ahead and accused him of breaking another campaign promise.
"It's time for the president to keep promises, not break them," Kaine said ahead of the vote. "That's why I'm so glad that we're going to put everybody on the record … Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end run around the Constitution."
Democrats also hammered the administration for refusing to take ground troops off the table."They refuse to take off the table the insertion of ground troops," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). He warned the conflict could balloon beyond air and naval ops. "This is going to make the operations in Libya look like child’s play."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced a war powers resolution to rein in President Donald Trump's military action in Iran.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who once backed a similar resolution to curb Trump's war powers in Venezuela, made it clear he opposed this one.
But like before, he noted that any ground operation would need congressional approval."I’ve always said that committing ground troops would be something I think would require immediate congressional authorization, but that doesn’t appear to be on the immediate horizon," Hawley said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) claimed the administration kept moving the goalposts, which he called proof positive that "a strategy is missing."
Republicans fired back that the president was squarely within his constitutional authority as commander in chief. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dismissed the War Powers Act as "an unconstitutional shift of authority from the president." He pointed out that Congress can always pull the funding plug if it really disagrees with the action.
"We don’t need 535 commanders in chief," said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), tearing into the legislation.
There was also clear fatigue in GOP circles over Kaine's habit of repeatedly pushing these congressional power plays in every conflict.
Republicans huddled privately on Tuesday to hash out the strikes and the looming war powers vote. This came ahead of their briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan "Raizin" Caine, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on during a meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 9, 2026.
A source familiar with the closed-door session told Fox News Digital that some Republicans who might have been persuadable were fed up with Kaine's nonstop use of the Senate floor to limit Trump's war authorities.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) highlighted that this was Kaine’s fifth resolution targeting Trump’s war powers since he returned to office last year. That tally accounts for nearly half of all war powers resolutions in U.S. history.
"These resolutions have been used only 11 times in 50 years," Barrasso said. "The senator from Virginia alone accounts for nearly half of them. Yet Senator Kaine introduced zero war powers resolutions when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were president."
Rubio told reporters after Tuesday's all-senators briefing that the administration had complied with the War Powers Act, even though it views the law as unconstitutional. He added that congressional leaders got notified before the strikes.
Rubio had earlier floated that the U.S. acted in Operation Epic Fury because Israel was set to strike first, though he later dialed that back.
"If you tell the President of the United States that if we don't go first, we're going to have more people killed and more people injured, the president is going to go first," Rubio said. "That's what he did. That's what the president will always do."
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have hammered more than 2,000 targets in Iran so far, zeroing in on the regime’s air defenses and missile stockpiles. Six American service members have been killed in the operation, along with nearly 50 top Iranian leaders.
The Iranian government claims at least 1,045 people have been killed across the country during the campaign.
Thanks for following Brain Flushings, guys. Please consider subscribing, and if you would like to support my work, visit the sponsors on this page, or you can Buy Me A Coffee.
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment