Senate Democrats hunker down ahead of war powers confrontation
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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he and his colleagues want to see what comes out of their classified briefing Tuesday before scheduling a vote on his war powers resolution, which could come as soon as Wednesday.
Why it matters: The procedural vote will allow Democrats to register their objections to President Trump's strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. But it will also put pro-Israel Democrats in a potentially difficult position.
- A vote will force them to choose between their party's base, which distrusts Trump, and their deeply-held policy positions.
- Trump announced an Iran-Israel ceasefire on Monday, and told Congress that he ordered the strike against Iran under his constitutional authority.
- Democrats, and even some Republicans, argue the president needed to seek approval from the Capitol first.
What they are saying: "I think everybody wants to get this briefing tomorrow afternoon," Kaine told Axios.
- "It's one thing to launch some bombs, but the next thing is: How do you predict what's going to happen next?" Kaine told Axios.
Driving the news: The vote would also serve as a foreign policy interlude from the Senate's main business of the week, passing their version of Trump's "one big, beautiful bill."
- In the House, there's a bipartisan war powers resolution by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), to restrict the president's ability to escalate in Iran.
- "This is not Constitutional," Massie said on X over the weekend. Allies of Trump are accelerating their efforts to defeat him in a primary.
Zoom out: Some Democrats, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), are seething over Trump's unilateral actions against Iran, which administration officials say was a success and has led to a ceasefire.
- There is also broader concern in the party that top Democrats were essentially left in the dark about the strikes and didn't receive the kind of notification they expect before the U.S. military engages in hostilities.
- Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrats on the Senate and House Intelligence panels, weren't briefed before the attack, sources familiar told Axios on Saturday.
- Their Republican counterparts were given advance notice.
