Senate blocks Democrats’ bid to check Trump power over Venezuela strikes | US Senate
The US Senate on Thursday blocked a Democratic war powers resolution that would have forced Donald Trump to seek congressional approval to launch an attack on Venezuela, allowing the president’s ability to expand his military campaign against the country to remain unchecked.
The 49-51 vote against passing the resolution, mostly along party lines, came a month after a previous effort to stop attacks on boats allegedly smuggling drugs in international waters similarly failed 48-51.
The new resolution narrowed its scope to appeal to Republicans, but senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski remained the only two Republicans who crossed party lines to support the resolution. Susan Collins and Thom Tillis, who expressed reservations about the strikes, voted against it.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has stepped up its military campaign against drug cartels and to destabilize the Venezuelan government, deploying the United States’ most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean just days after Trump announced the United States would strike its next land targets.
“I think we’re going to kill the people who bring drugs into our country, okay?” Trump told reporters at the White House on October 23. “We’re going to kill them, you know. They’re going to die and everything.”
The administration has also developed a range of options for military action in Venezuela, and Trump aides have asked the justice department for additional guidance that could provide a legal basis for striking targets other than boats, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Trump has yet to make a decision, in part because the legal counsel’s office at the justice department has yet to release an updated memo. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump is also unsure about the most aggressive plan to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power.
The war powers resolution had virtually no chance of becoming law because it would have to be signed by Trump himself, but voting on the resolution gave senators the opportunity to register their concerns about increasing U.S. military entanglements in the region.
“If the administration intends to escalate the conflict with Venezuela, Congress has a constitutional duty to declare and authorize such action,” Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said before the vote. “We can’t sleepwalk into another war.”
“If this operation makes strategic sense, let the administration explain it to Congress and the American people,” Reed said. “What happens when we win? What does it mean to win? What are the limits of this operation?”
Ongoing strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats and the possibility of land strikes in Venezuela have led to growing frustration among lawmakers, including Republicans on key committees, who are seeking more detailed legal justification.
In a classified briefing by defense secretary Pete Hegseth and secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday, top congressional leaders were told that the administration continues to rely on a legal counsel memo that lists dozens of drug cartel groups as legitimate targets for deadly attacks.
The administration also sent T Elliot Gaiser, head of the justice department’s legal counsel, according to people familiar with the matter. Gaiser had previously told lawmakers that the attacks did not rise to the level of “hostility” covered by a 1973 law called the War Powers Resolution that limits the president’s ability to conduct unilateral military operations.
Trump announced what appeared to be the first attack on September 2 by releasing a short video of the attack. In the following weeks, the administration announced new strikes without disclosing details other than the number of people killed and the allegations that the boats were carrying drugs.
Since the start of the military campaign, the administration has offered a dubious legal justification for the attacks, claiming the boats were linked to “designated terrorist organizations” or WTOs with which the United States is currently engaged in a “non-international armed conflict,” the Guardian reported.
However, to date, the administration has not provided any concrete evidence that those killed in the boat attacks were smuggling drugs into the United States. In briefings to Congress, Pentagon officials said the boats were legitimate targets because Trump had designated them as assets of cartels viewed as DTOs, people familiar with the matter said.
The military operation also attracted the attention of the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump confirmed on October 15 that he authorized the CIA’s so-called “covert action” in Venezuela. The Guardian reported that the CIA provided much of the intelligence used in the airstrikes.
