{"id":12404,"date":"2026-01-15T00:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12404"},"modified":"2026-01-15T00:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T00:18:25","slug":"vote-to-block-venezuela-war-fails-after-trump-bullies-gop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=12404","title":{"rendered":"Vote to Block Venezuela War Fails After Trump Bullies GOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/span> furious public pressure campaign succeeded Wednesday night in flipping the votes of two Republican senators who last week supported blocking further attacks on Venezuela.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan war powers resolution was defeated in the full senate after Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote. The bill was defeated during parliamentary maneuvering before a full up-or-down vote.<\/p>\n

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Todd Young, R-Ind., had voted to advance the resolution last week but voted against it this week following intense lobbying from the White House.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe real threat of congressional pushback now hangs over the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Still, critics of the war on Venezuela said they were counting the debate as a partial victory, having forced Congress to confront an issue that GOP leaders would rather avoid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extraordinary lengths the administration went to in order to kill this vote show that it takes congressional war powers authority seriously when Congress actually asserts it,\u201d said Cavan Kharrazian, a senior advisor at the left-leaning group Demand Progress. \u201cThe real threat of congressional pushback now hangs over the administration as it decides how to proceed militarily in Venezuela and elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Procedural Chicanery<\/h2>\n

Last week, the Senate voted to advance to a full-fledged debate on the resolution cosponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Rand Paul, R-Ky.<\/p>\n

The resolution<\/a> \u201cdirects the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four other Republicans joined Paul in voting for last week\u2019s resolution.<\/p>\n

Still, it was only a procedural vote setting up a full debate. Trump immediately lashed out at the five GOP senators who voted for it, declaring that they should never be elected to office again. He repeated his attacks Tuesday, calling Paul a \u201cstone cold loser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaine and Paul\u2019s resolution was set for a full debate Wednesday. Instead, Republican leaders killed the bill through a bit of parliamentary maneuvering. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, argued a point of order that the resolution was not privileged \u2014 a special status that allows it to pass with a simple majority vote \u2014 because hostilities against Venezuela were not ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven this institution cannot stop something that isn\u2019t happening,\u201d Risch said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before the vote, Hawley had already said he would vote with GOP leaders, citing a personal assurance from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secretary told me directly that the administration will not put ground troops in Venezuela,\u201d Hawley said, according to CBS News.<\/p>\n

Young kept his intentions a mystery right up until the vote.<\/p>\n

Paul and Kaine ridiculed the argument that hostilities have come to an end. There is still an American flotilla in the Caribbean, and Trump is still threatening Venezuela\u2019s leaders with further attacks, they said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us. <\/h2>\n


\n Become a member
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

\n
\n Join Our Newsletter <\/span>
\n
\n Thank You For Joining! <\/span>
\n <\/h2>\n

\n
\n Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. <\/span>
\n
\n Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept? <\/span>\n <\/p>\n


\n Become a member
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\n

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Risch had sought to bolster the case for his procedural motion by asking the White House to confirm that the U.S. operation against Venezuela was over and hostilities had come to an end.<\/p>\n

He received a response from Rubio that dodged those questions. Instead, Rubio said<\/a> only that there were no U.S. troops in Venezuela at present and that \u201cnew operations\u201d would be undertaken \u201cconsistent with the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA softball set of two questions to the secretary of state to justify their position produced a response where he would not agree that the operation is over,\u201d Kaine said, \u201cand he would not agree that the U.S. is now not in hostilities in or against Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public Pressure<\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s angry denunciations of the Republicans who voted for the measure last week may have had more effect than the White House\u2019s legal justifications for the attack.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cCongress\u2019s war powers aren\u2019t supposed to rest on trust, they rest on law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Kharrazian, of Demand Progress, said the White House had gone to \u201cextraordinary lengths\u201d to pressure the GOP senators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat looks less like being persuaded by good-faith legal argument and more like an effort to bully Congress into abdicating its role based on political threats and promises it shouldn\u2019t simply trust,\u201d he said. \u201cCongress\u2019s war powers aren\u2019t supposed to rest on trust, they rest on law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s strong-arm pressure campaign was all the more remarkable because even supporters of the measure acknowledged that it had little chance of passing into law. It\u2019s fate in the House was uncertain and it was far from reaching a veto-proof majority.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

#Vote #Block #Venezuela #War #Fails #Trump #Bullies #GOP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s furio… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}