Despite voter fury and rising fuel prices, most Republican senators stayed the course with President Donald Trump and his war on Iran in a vote Thursday.
Though vulnerable Republicans on the campaign trail broke with Trump earlier this week, calling for an “immediate end” to the war, lawmakers on the Hill stuck with him and defeated another attempt by Democrats to rein in his war authorities as the conflict nears the eight-month mark.
Still, there was a group of rebellious Republicans who had consistently voted with Democrats, including Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Rand Paul, R-Ky. New blood was added this time with Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
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Tillis, who is retiring at the end of the year, argued his decision to vote for the latest war powers resolution came after the administration again blew past a 60-day deadline to involve Congress.
“We know the resolution’s not gonna pass, but it is important to start saying, ‘We deserve an update. You better start treating — Congress can be an assistance with this war effort, if you inform us,’” Tillis said.
To Tillis’ point, the resolution that failed in the Senate, which passed in the House with seven Republican defectors, would have headed to the president’s desk, where it likely would have been vetoed. And without a veto-proof majority, the effort wouldn’t have teeth legally. However, it will hurt on the airwaves in the ads to come.
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Thursday’s vote comes as Republicans are getting an earful about the war, particularly over skyrocketing gas and diesel prices, on the campaign trail. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that fuel prices are a growing issue for Americans.
“Well, I think people are, there’s voter fatigue with high gas prices and high diesel prices in my part of the world,” Thune said.
“So, that’s a frustration, it’s an economic frustration, and that’s why, again, I hope the administration is laser-focused on trying to get the [Strait of Hormuz] open, get the shipping lights opened up, and help out with that global energy supply, because that ultimately will get prices down,” he continued.
Three vulnerable Republicans running for toss-up seats this week, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan, and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, all requested that the fighting come to an “immediate end” as the war grows in unpopularity with their voters.
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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who has acted as the self-anointed traffic cop for the deluge of Democratic war powers resolutions over the last several months, diagnosed the defections as a by-product of reports that U.S. bombs had fallen on an Iranian school and that diesel costs are “going up and up and up.”
“They are listening to their constituents. They should [have] listened to them before now, because their constituents were saying, ‘Don’t get into this thing,’” Kaine said. “But they’re finally listening to them. And nothing makes you listen as much as an election staring you in the face.”
But Trump isn’t swayed by the effects that the conflict could have on the midterm elections as the GOP fights to keep power in Congress.
“The Republican Party is running, and I’ll be helping them, but I am not running,” Trump told reporters this week. “I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran. It doesn’t even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
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