Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate Wednesday night after some Republicans bucked President Donald Trump on a key war powers resolution.
Vance voted to block a war powers resolution aimed at reining in Trump’s authority to greenlight military operations in Venezuela. The vote was tied at 50-50 after Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine defied their party to defy Trump, requiring Vance to break the tie.
‘You know what? That’s good enough for me.’
The resolution ultimately failed in the Senate after Trump and his administration, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, lobbied lawmakers to change their votes.
The war powers resolution was originally advanced last week with the help of Murkowski, Paul, and Collins as well as Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana. Both Hawley and Young eventually flipped their votes, allowing Vance to block the resolution altogether.
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Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Hawley explained his initial support for the war powers resolution, saying he was concerned and unclear about the extent of American intervention in Venezuela.
“For me, this has always been about ground troops,” Hawley said in an interview with Fox.
“That’s not something that I think I would want to do.”
“What the secretary of state said to me very clearly is, ‘We’re not doing that,'” Hawley said. “‘We don’t have ground troops in Venezuela. This is not another Iraq. We’re not going to occupy Venezuela.’ And you know what? That’s good enough for me.”
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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Defectors like Murkowski emphasized their opposition to Nicolas Maduro and his regime but argued that “no meaningful end state has been articulated, and U.S. forces and assets remain fully postured in the region.”
“Even when an action is justified and its outcome welcomed, the Constitution is clear that Congress is a co-equal branch of government with an essential role in decisions that place the United States on a path toward sustained military involvement,” Murkowski said in a statement on X. “Excluding Congress from that process risks eroding public trust and blurring strategic objectives.”
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