Senate to Vote on Venezuela War Powers 01/14 06:19

   Senate Republicans are facing intense pressure from President Donald Trump 
to vote down a war powers resolution Wednesday that is aimed at limiting the 
president's ability to carry out further military action against Venezuela.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Republicans are facing intense pressure from 
President Donald Trump to vote down a war powers resolution Wednesday that is 
aimed at limiting the president's ability to carry out further military action 
against Venezuela.

   Five GOP senators joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week, 
but Trump has lashed out at the defectors as he tries to head off passage of 
the bill. Democrats are forcing the vote after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan 
leader Nicols Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month.

   "Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a way to 
be against it. It's pretty amazing. And it's a shame," Trump said at a speech 
in Michigan Tuesday. He also hurled insults at several of the Republicans who 
advanced the legislation, calling Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky a "stone cold 
loser" and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine 
"disasters."

   Trump's latest comments followed earlier phone calls with the senators, 
which they described as terse. The fury being directed their way from the 
president underscored how the war powers vote has taken on new political 
significance as Trump expands his foreign policy ambitions in the Western 
Hemisphere.

   The legislation, even if passed by the Senate, has virtually no chance of 
becoming law because it would eventually need to be signed by Trump himself. 
But it represented both a test of GOP loyalty to the president and a marker for 
how much leeway the Republican-controlled Senate is willing to give Trump to 
use the military abroad.

   At least one Republican reconsidering

   Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who helped advance the war powers 
resolution last week, has indicated he may change his position.

   Hawley said that Trump's message during a phone call last week was that the 
legislation "really ties my hands." The senator said he had a follow-up phone 
call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that was "really positive."

   Hawley said that Rubio told him Monday "point blank, we're not going to do 
ground troops." The senator said he also received assurances that the Trump 
administration will follow constitutional requirements if it becomes necessary 
to deploy troops again to the South American country.

   "I'm in listening-and-receive mode at this time," said Hawley, adding, "I 
don't know how we're going to proceed next on the floor."

   Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican who also voted to advance the 
resolution, declined repeatedly to discuss his position but said he was "giving 
it some thought." Collins had voted against similar war powers resolutions in 
previous months before voting last week to advance the one currently before the 
Senate.

   Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has brought a series of war powers 
resolutions this year, said he wasn't surprised at Trump's reaction to Congress 
asserting its ability to check the president.

   "They're furious at the notion that Congress wants to be Congress," he said. 
"But I think people who ran for the Senate, they want to be U.S. senators and 
they don't want to just vote their own irrelevance."

   The shifting rationale for military intervention

   Trump has used a series of legal rationales for his campaign against Maduro.

   As he built up a naval force in the Caribbean and destroyed vessels that 
were allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the Trump administration tapped 
wartime powers under the global war on terror by designating drug cartels as 
terrorist organizations.

   The administration has claimed the capture of Maduro himself was actually a 
law enforcement operation, essentially to extradite the Venezuelan president to 
stand trial for charges in the U.S. that were filed in 2020.

   In a classified briefing Tuesday, senators reviewed the Trump 
administration's still undisclosed legal opinion for using the military for the 
operation. It was described as a lengthy document.

   As he exited the classified briefing room at the Capitol, Paul said, "Legal 
arguments and constitutional arguments should all be public, and it's a 
terrible thing that any of this is being kept secret because the arguments 
aren't very good."

   Lawmakers, including some Republicans, have been alarmed by Trump's recent 
foreign policy talk. In recent weeks, he has pledged that the U.S. will "run" 
Venezuela for years to come, threatened military action to take possession of 
Greenland and told Iranians protesting their government that " help is on its 
way."

   "It's amazing. He's concerned about the protesters in Iran, but not 
concerned about the damage that ICE is doing to the protesters and Americans in 
Minnesota and other places," said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, 
referring to the fatal shooting of a woman in Minnesota by an Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement officer.

   How Senate will tackle the war powers resolution

   Republican Senate leaders were looking for ways to defuse the conflict 
between their members and Trump and were eager to move on quickly to other 
business.

   Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., questioned whether this war 
powers resolution should be prioritized under the chamber's rules.

   "We don't have troops in Venezuela. There is no kinetic action. There are no 
operations. There are no boots on the ground," he said, arguing that the 
legislation "doesn't reflect what is current reality in Venezuela."

   But even if Republican leaders attempt to dismiss the legislation under 
those grounds, it would still get a vote.

   Schumer said he hoped at least the five Republicans would hold to their 
position because they "understand how important this is."