US Senate rejects push to rein in Trump on Iran

The Senate on Friday rebuffed a Democratic-led push to require President Donald Trump to seek approval from Congress before taking further action against Tehran following U.S. airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites last weekend.

Support for Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) war powers resolution — the first legislative challenge to Trump on the strikes — fell almost entirely along party lines. The measure failed in a 47-53 vote.

Democrats in both the Senate and House have sought to force a vote that would allow them to weigh in against Trump launching military operations without consulting Congress.

The U.S. launched airstrikes last weekend targeting Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz, marking the first ever combat use of the 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker busting bomb to strike deeply buried facilities. The move followed strikes by Israel on Iran’s nuclear sites and days of the two nations trading air and missile strikes.

Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran Monday. But the president said Friday he would bomb Iran again “without hesitation” if intelligence suggests Tehran continues to have the capability to enrich uranium, even as he and his administration maintain the airstrikes “obliterated” its nuclear program.

The surprise attack, Democrats argued, amounted to a breach of Congress’ constitutional prerogative to declare war.

“I pray the ceasefire continues, but I fear we’re going to be back here on this floor,” Kaine said in a speech Friday. “And I hope when we are on this floor again, members of this body will stand for the proposition … that war is too big an issue to allow one person to make the decision that sends our sons and daughters into harm’s way.”

The measure was doomed without Republican support, and only Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky supported it. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), a vocal supporter of Israel and strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, bucked his party to oppose it.

Republicans, who control the Senate, were unlikely to break ranks and largely touted the success of U.S. strikes on Iran this week.

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Senate Republican, accused Democrats of rushing to turn a “successful strike into a political fight.”

“Iran used diplomatic talks to stall. It did so as it continued to race toward a nuclear weapons. As commander-in-chief, President Trump has full authority to act,” Barrasso said on the Senate floor. “He did so decisively. It was a limited, powerful, and precise strike. It was aimed specifically at Iran’s nuclear facilities — not at Iran’s leadership and not at the Iranian people.

The near-party-line outcome contrasts with the last Senate vote to restrain Trump’s war powers on Iran in his first term. Four Senate Republicans voted for the proposal in 2019 as tensions between Washington and Tehran ratcheted up: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Lee of Utah, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Paul.

But all but one of those Republicans opposed the resolution Friday, as did other GOP senators who’ve often been skeptical of broad presidential war powers — a sign of shifting attitudes in the party following Trump’s return to the White House. Trump has called out Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) this week after the libertarian lawmaker called out the president’s decision to attack Iran as unconstitutional and sponsored a resolution to block further military action.

Senators received a classified briefing Thursday from top military and intelligence officials on the assessment of the weekend strike against Iran. Some Senate Republicans exited that session not quite ready to endorse Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” — though many still hailed the attacks’ success.