WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to reject a resolution blocking President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, a day after the Senate blocked a similar war authorization resolution.
Taken together, the pair of failed House and Senate votes last weekend represented implicit authorization from Congress for Trump to carry out his military strikes against Iran, a war most Americans say they oppose.
The House vote was 212-219. Only two Republicans, Reps. of Kentucky. Thomas Massey and Warren Davidson of Ohio broke with Trump and joined most Democrats in supporting the resolution.
Massey and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., the same bipartisan duo that successfully fought for the release of the Epstein files, authored the resolution. It would have halted Trump’s military operations in Iran unless Congress voted to declare war or authorize the use of military force.
Democrats point out that the Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and that Trump and his top brass are calling it war.
Even before the vote, Massey acknowledged that his resolution was headed for defeat. But he said the vote represented a “victory in itself” because it forced a lengthy debate on the Iran conflict, publicly, on the House floor. He predicted that Trump’s war popularity would drag on.
“The war won’t be any more popular than it was on day one. And I think the enthusiasm for it will drop,” Massey told reporters. “When the true costs of this war begin to be known and begin to pile up, there will be more support for ending it,” he said.
Six Americans have been killed in the conflict so far.
At his weekly news conference Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DNY, blasted Trump and Republicans for “throwing America into another endless conflict in the Middle East, spending billions of dollars to bomb Iran” while failing to reduce the cost of groceries, health care and housing for Americans.
“What justifies American men and women risking their lives to send them into the theater of war?” Jeffries asked. “We’ve already tragically lost six heroic service men and women, and we mourn for them and we pray for their families, and we don’t want to see any more American lives lost in Trump’s war of choice.”
Republicans acknowledged that Trump had a choice, arguing that the commander in chief chose to protect the United States from an “imminent threat.” The president himself has argued that if the US and Israel had not launched joint strikes, Iran would have struck first and started a nuclear war.
“Defending yourself is a choice. It’s a choice that not everyone makes. Some people, instead of defending themselves, curl up in a corner and cry,” said Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., an Afghanistan war veteran. “Some people stand up, and they step into the fight, and they make the tough choice of going through the battles it takes to protect yourself.”
“I thank President Trump again for protecting America from an imminent threat — an imminent threat that no president has the courage to stand against,” he said.
