Senators spar over vote to block US role in Yemen war

A debate over the U.S. position in Yemen’s civil war scrambled party lines in the Senate on Tuesday, hours before a vote over a resolution to bar President Trump from providing aid to ally Saudi Arabia.

Trump, like former President Barack Obama, has allowed the U.S. military to cooperate with the Saudi Arabia-led coalition determined to defeat an insurgency in Yemen that is backed by Iran. An unusual alliance of lawmakers — libertarian-leaning Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. — hope to end that support and argue it is an unconstitutional conflict and a humanitarian disaster.