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Republicans’ support for President Donald Trump’s war on Iran fractured on Wednesday.
Senate Democrats have tried to splinter off Republicans from their near-unified backing of Operation Epic Fury for months with a campaign of attrition, putting war powers resolution after war powers resolution on the floor ever since fighting began.
And after two months of trying, they finally got some in the GOP to flip on Trump with Sen. Jeff Merkley’s, D-Ore., latest attempt. Still, it wasn’t enough to terminate ongoing operations in the Middle East.
GOP HOLDS WITH TRUMP ON IRAN WAR, BUT CRACKS EMERGE AS DEADLINE NEARS
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has consistently voted to handcuff Trump’s war powers, all joined Democrats to end Operation Epic Fury.
It comes after Congress blew past the 60-day deadline to weigh in on fighting in the region, and hours after Trump touched down in China.
Top Trump administration officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, argued that the 60-day deadline was moot because fighting was paused under a ceasefire.
However, Trump, after rejecting the latest proposal from Iran, said on Tuesday that the fragile truce is on “life support.”
CONGRESS IGNORES KEY DEADLINE AS REPUBLICANS READY ‘RESTRAINT’ ON TRUMP’S WAR IN IRAN
“I would call it the weakest, right now, after reading that piece of garbage they sent us — I didn’t even finish reading it,” Trump told reporters.
“I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support, where the doctor walks in and says, ‘Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living,'” he said.
Whether Trump’s trip overseas and the deadline now in the rearview mirror would have an impact on Wednesday remained an open question heading into the vote.
SENATE GOP MOVES TO BLOCK DEMS’ WAR POWERS PUSH, PRESERVE TRUMP’S AUTHORITY IN RARE MOVE
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that Trump’s trip to China would likely have national security implications, and said that it “would be best if everybody hung together and supported the president.”
“People have their own minds about some of these issues, and this is not a new vote, it’s one we’ve had many times before, but you know, we’ll see what votes are,” Thune said.
Congress has the option of voting on an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that would either authorize or halt any further fighting in Iran. Some Republicans argue that the move would give Trump a strong legal tool in making the case for the war.
Murkowski warned earlier this month that unless there were signs that a peace deal was nearing completion or further communication from the administration on their objectives, she would bring an AUMF to the floor.
During a hearing with Hegseth on Tuesday to pick through the president’s staggering, $1.5 trillion budget request for the Pentagon, Murkowski asked Hegseth if he believed it would “be helpful to the president if it was made clear that, in fact, the Congress did allow, did provide an AUMF” should fighting restart.
“I think the president — our view is that he has all the authorities he needs under Article II to execute,” Hegseth said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who started the war powers effort, contended that if an AUMF were put on the floor, and it passed, it would make an “illegal and unwise war, just an unwise war, not an illegal one.”
“But I see almost no circumstance in which Republicans would want to have a vote on that in committee or on the floor,” Kaine told Fox News Digital. “They are actively trying to avoid accountability for the war.”
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