President Donald Trump scored a bipartisan win on Thursday when four House Democrats tanked legislation restricting his powers prosecute the war against the Iranian regime.
The House voted on a war powers resolution by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) that would have required Trump to terminate U.S. armed forces from any hostilities with Iran unless Congress explicitly votes to authorize such action. The measure failed in a 219-212 vote.
Given the narrow House majority, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could only afford to lose one Republican if all Democrats vote together. With Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) joining Massie in favor the measure appeared likely to pass if not for the no votes of Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and Greg Landsman (D-OH).
“We are not at war. We have no intention of being at war. …It would have been a very dangerous gambit to take the Commander in Chief’s ability away to complete this mission. It would have been a very serious misstep by Congress, and I’m grateful that resolution failed,” said Johnson.
The Senate voted down a similar war powers resolution on Wednesday. Even if it had passed both chambers, Trump would have been likely to veto it.
Yet, the Democratic defections posed a blow to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) who has spent the past week railing against Trump for starting a “forever war.”
The four Democratic defectors have signed onto a separate war powers resolution authored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) that would give Trump 30 days to oversee the conflict in Iran before having to seek congressional approval for use of military force.
Jeffries told reporters ahead of the vote that he expected a “majority” of Democrats to support the war powers resolution but conceded that there was a “handful of people who are undecided.”
“As is the case, in any other instance, we’re down to the wire. … We continue to talk with each other,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries and several House Democratic committee leaders have blasted Trump for providing no evidence of the immediate threat posed by Iran that would authorize the strikes, which began early Saturday morning.
“Donald Trump is not a king, and if he believes the war with Iran is in our national interest, then he must come to Congress and make the case,” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on the House floor Wednesday.
Davidson announced he would be a “yes” on the House floor on Wednesday, sharing similar sentiments with his Democratic colleagues that Congress, not the president, should make the call on declaring war.
“America is a republic, not an empire,” Davidson said. “So I encourage everyone to honor their oath and support our Constitution. Vote yes on this resolution.”
Democrats and Republicans met for an all-member briefing on Iran led by Trump administration officials on Tuesday. Democrats leaving that meeting were largely unanimous in their assessment of the briefing — that it was worthless.
“We got no additional information on what the imminent threat was,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told reporters after the briefing. “There were a lot of references to the 47 years of Iran being a problem. … That is in the past. Imminent means immediate threat to the U.S. That was just not addressed at all.”
