Republicans aren’t ready to jump ship against President Donald Trump’s Iran war, as evidenced by another failed attempt to handcuff his war powers in the Middle East, but they also aren’t lining up to support a prolonged conflict.
Senate Republicans blocked another war powers resolution from Senate Democrats for a fourth time on Tuesday as Operation Epic Fury entered its 46th day. It comes as a fragile ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is nearing its end, and talks toward a broader peace agreement remain tenuous.
Democrats initially started their war powers strategy to compel Secretary of State Marco Rubio and War Secretary Pete Hegseth to testify publicly on the administration’s rationale behind the conflict. They argued that Iran posed no imminent threat, making the war unconstitutional without congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution.
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Now, they’ve loaded up six new resolutions to continue that push.
“We’re going to have a debate and a vote every week in the United States Senate until either this war comes to an end or our Republican colleagues decide to do their constitutional duty,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said.
Most Republicans, for now, aren’t breaking with the president. But a 60-day deadline that will require either Congress to weigh in or Trump to cease hostilities is fast approaching, and it’s raising questions among some in the GOP.
Under the War Powers Resolution, Trump has 60 days until Congress is required to weigh in and either authorize or disapprove of the war. If the latter, the administration has 30 days to draw down forces in Iran.
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“The president needs to come to Congress in the absence of some imminent threat to the country or an attack on the country, to seek an authorization,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said. “Otherwise, it’s illegal to make war as he’s doing.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who has bucked Trump before on Venezuela but toed the party line on Iran, is drafting an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) on the war in Iran, describing the effort in an interview with The New York Times as a way to put parameters around Operation Epic Fury.
When asked by Fox News Digital if she was still working on the AUMF, she said, “Uh huh, I’m working on so much.”
Whether Republicans will support the administration and authorize the war remains an open question. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has sided with Senate Democrats on each effort to handcuff Trump’s war powers, wouldn’t say how he’d vote on a potential AUMF.
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“I’m not for the war in Iran, I think it’s a war of choice but not my choice,” he said.
Others see an AUMF as a potentially useful tool, if successful, for Trump and his efforts in the Middle East.
“I think maybe an AUMF could be an advantage for the president, to say, even Congress is here for the long time, removing the political calculation that maybe the president doesn’t have Congress’ support,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said.
Still, the economic toll at the pump and on goods is making Republicans’ constituents feel the immediate pain of the conflict.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged the crunch that the war was having on the cost of fertilizer in his agriculture-heavy state, but he questioned the authority of the War Powers Resolution.
“If you accept the war powers as being constitutional, it would be the threshold under which that law would apply,” Thune said. “But I think, you know, at least right now, the steps that have been taken so far I think have been very effective and successful. But we do, they need a plan out, how to wind this down, how to get an outcome.”
Democrats still argue that the war was illegal to begin with and have no plans of letting up on their war powers push, even as the deadline nears.
“If the president has a plan, he can come to Congress and ask for authorization, and we can have the debate we should have had beforehand,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said.
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