Senate Republicans on Wednesday defeated a war powers resolution to block President Trump from using military force “within or against” Venezuela after two Republicans who voted last week to advance the measure reversed themselves and joined their leaders in quashing it.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) voted on Wednesday to support a point of order against the resolution after coming under intense pressure from Trump, who called for their ouster from the Senate after they defied him last week.
Their sudden change of heart about the resolution underscores Trump’s tremendous ability to wield his influence over GOP lawmakers on big votes.
The Senate voted last week to discharge the bipartisan resolution out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after five Republicans, including Hawley and Young, voted to do so.
That action provoked an angry response from Trump who called on social media for the defeat of all five Republicans who broke with him. The president followed up with heated phone calls to those lawmakers.
Hawley said earlier on Wednesday that he decided to withdraw his support from the resolution after Secretary of State Marco Rubio assured him that U.S. troops are not present in Venezuela and that the administration would seek congressional authorization before deploying U.S. troops to the country.
Young told reporters right before the vote that he was swayed by Rubio’s pledge not to deploy troops to Venezuela without congressional authorization.
“I will not be supporting the Kaine war powers resolution. I have secured from the administration fairly extensive personal assurances related to our future intentions in Venezuela. I’ve secured from them a letter, which will be posted online … indicating that prior to the major military operations in Venezuela the administration will come to Congress prior to for a formal authorization,” he said.
“I’ve secured from Secretary of State Rubio, personally, that he’ll appear before the Foreign Relations Committee [later this month] to discuss this very topic,” he added. “It’s been a real point of emphasis of mine that we need public scrutiny of these sorts of operations and need to involve the public.”
Their votes gave Senate Republican leaders what they needed to pass a point of order objection against the resolution raised by Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Trump lashed out at both Hawley and Young along with Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who also voted to advance the measure last week.
“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. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” he wrote on Truth Social after the vote.
Trump took another shot at Young, who is up for re-election in 2028, during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
“And then you have a gentleman from Indiana, Todd Young,” Trump fumed during his Tuesday speech. “You say, ‘Why are you voting against?’ They can’t give you an answer. They’re unable to give you an answer. It’s like, why are they against the attack on Venezuela? They’re against the attack after they found out. It was the most successful attack, probably.”
Hawley’s and Young’s votes to sustain Risch’s procedural objection to the resolution left the Senate deadlocked 50-50.
Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol shortly after 6 p.m. to cast the tie-breaking vote to defeat the measure.
Risch argued that the War Powers Act was not applicable to the situation in Venezuela because the United States does not have any military forces in the country at this time.
“What we are debating is trying to stop something that is not happening,” he said on the floor.
“We are attempting to direct the president to terminate the use of the United States Armed Forces for hostilities within or against Venezuela. Only Congress could dream this up,” he argued. “Currently, there are no U.S. forces engaged in hostilities in Venezuela.
He said Trump’s military mission this month to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was “limited in scope” and “short in duration.”
The successful vote to advance the measure last week came as a surprise.
Hawley and Young, a populist conservative and a traditional Republican defense hawk, respectively, joined three colleagues to discharge the resolution out of committee.
