Two parallel war-related votes in the House and Senate reveal growing dismay and political fractures over President Trump's Iran war, as the Strait of Hormuz remains locked down and ceasefire still seems distant.
The Republican-controlled House voted Thursday to reject a resolution ordering the White House to end the war with Iran, as Memorial Day approaches and Americans are anxious over gas prices and general rising costs at the grocery store.
The vote was 213-214, almost entirely along party lines, with dominant Republicans overwhelmingly sticking with Trump - not so much as allowing formal robust Congressional debate. There was one notable exception who broke ranks.
The lone Republican outlier was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who voted for the measure to impose Constitutional guardrails over what the Executive can do in terms of waging war overseas.
But on the other side, a lone Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against it. Additionally, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, merely registered a vote of "present" while three Republicans did not vote at all.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of NY (Dem) pushed the measure which "directs the President to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
"Donald Trump has dragged the American people into a war of choice, launched without congressional authorization. The president has no coherent strategy, and this open-ended, undefined military engagement is precisely what the War Powers Resolution was designed to restrain," Meeks said on the floor before the vote. “Every day we delay, we inch closer to a conflict with no exit ramp.” --NBC
But it shows waning support amid fears the US is getting bogged down in a new quagmire in the Middle East (which we should note Trump strongly and eloquently campaigned against). Per Politico:
It marks the second time the House has declined to intervene since the war began. But the 213-214 vote was even tighter than the last attempt in early March, as several Democrats who previously broke ranks to support the military campaign switched their votes to oppose it.
Parallel to the House side, the Senate also just swatted down an effort to choke off US weapons flows to Israel.
In the opening days of Operation Epic Fury, statements by President Trump and White House officials including Rubio strongly suggested that they moved in Israel's interests, as the Netanyahu government made the case that a nuclear-armed Iran must face preemptive attack or else Israel would be in the crosshairs.
Two Senate resolutions led by Bernie Sanders aiming to block arms sales to Israel failed Wednesday, even as they pulled backing from roughly 75% of Democrats. Republicans, however, closed ranks and almost unanimously voted them down.
Massie is in a reelection bid which will decide his political future, even as Trump has ramped up the personal attacks:
Sanders had targeted specific packages, including a $295 million sale of bulldozers and a $151.8 million shipment of 12,000 1,000-pound "dumb bombs". But both measures went down: 59-40 and 63-36.
But what the Senate vote reveals is that what previously used to be automatic, bipartisan support for arming Israel is starting to fracture, with Democrats increasingly uneasy since Israel's high casualty Gaza campaign following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack, and the more recent Israeli official admissions that the death toll was over 70,000 killed. However, the Israeli stance is that at least a few tens of thousands of these were Hamas militants or 'Hamas-linked'.