On Thursday, 52 Senators, including five Republicans, voted to move forward with debate on a resolution that, if passed, would limit President Donald Trump’s ability to use military force in Venezuela.
“With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it,” Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, wrote on social media. “That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution.”
Both of Alabama’s two senators, Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt, voted against moving the resolution forward.
Trump quickly posted a condemnation of the Republican senators who voted for the resolution to the social media site his company owns, Truth Social.
“Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America,” the president stated. “Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again.”
Trump also claimed that “the War Powers Act is Unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution.” The second Trump administration has consistently taken a very expansive view of executive authority which many critics and constitutional scholars say abrogates the powers assigned to Congress.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution explicitly grants Congress, not the president, the power “to declare War.”
Additionally, the War Powers Act of 1973 specifically references Congress’ Constitutional power “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
Both Tuberville and Britt have been vocal supporters of the Trump administration’s intervention in Venezuela thus far.
While being interviewed on a rightwing radio show earlier this week, Britt said the operation “speaks to how incredible our military is” and that it was an example of Trump’s “peace through strength mantra.”
“Senator Britt believes using U.S. forces in support of and at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, resulting in the lawful capture of illegitimate narco-terrorist dictator Nicolás Maduro who is responsible for the loss of countless American lives, was well within the President’s authority under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” her office told APR in an email. “The Senator believes that boots on the ground should always be an absolute last resort and that this administration feels the same.”
Despite highlighting in February that there were “no new wars” during the first Trump administration, Tuberville has called the intervention in Venezuela “what America first national security looks like.”
During an interview on the Jeff Poor Show on Thursday, Tuberville also tied the intervention in Venezuela to unproven allegations of widespread voting fraud during the 2020 election.
“The other thing too—people don’t realize—is a lot of this cheating on this Dominion voting machines is coming from Venezuela,” the senator said. “Started with Hugo Chávez and the Smartmatics.”
“As I’ve said on Steve Bannon yesterday, there’s a handful of people up here who wouldn’t be in Congress—either the Senate or the House—if it hadn’t been for the cheating on these Dominion Smartmatic voting machines,” Tuberville continued. “I mean, it’s all proven. It’s all out there. And so President Trump’s getting to the bottom of all of it.”
On the January 6th episode of Steve Bannon’s show War Room, Tuberville had similarly claimed that “there’s a handful of Congressmen and senators up here, Steve, that if it weren’t for Venezuela, they wouldn’t be here, because of those Dominion voting machines and all the voting that was run out of Venezuela.”
“I hope we get the real truth out of Maduro while he’s here in jail in New York,” Tuberville said. “He’ll probably never see the light of day again but at the end of the day, if he wants to see the light every once in a while, he’s going to need to start talking like somebody that knows quite a bit that we know he knows quite a bit.”
Tuberville’s communications director did not respond to a message from APR requesting any information about the sources or evidence that may have led Tuberville to make these audacious claims.
Senator Tuberville’s office also has not responded yet to APR’s questions about Tuberville’s vote on Thursday.
While bringing the war powers resolution forward for debate was an important procedural step, the resolution would need to be passed by both chambers to take effect, and even then could still be vetoed by President Trump.
