President Donald Trump suffered a rare defeat in the House of Representatives on Wednesday after Democrats joined by a handful of Republicans voted to sharply curb his war powers in Iran.
Lawmakers voted 215-208 to withdraw troops from using military force against Iran absent congressional authorization.
All Democrats present voted for the measure to effectively halt the U.S. military campaign against Iran. Meanwhile, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Warren Davison, R-Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., were the lone Republicans to buck the president and support the war powers resolution.
Massie, an ardent foe of the president who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, and Davidson, a libertarian-aligned lawmaker have criticized the war in Iran. Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick and Barrett are both facing potentially difficult re-election bids in swing districts.
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A majority of Republicans, however, sided with the president as Democrats sought to put them on the record.
"It’s just a total BS vote. I think there’s no Democrat, no Republican that can tell you what forces they would want pulled from Iran," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Fox News. "They just want a stupid political vote, which is what this is."
The successful war powers vote is largely a symbolic loss for Trump given an expected presidential veto and the lack of a veto-proof majority.
Even if Congress did cobble together a supermajority to force the president’s hand, it’s unclear whether Trump would ultimately withdraw U.S. forces.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly argued the 1973 War Powers Resolution requiring congressional oversight of military action is unconstitutional.
The Senate advanced a similar resolution curbing the president’s war powers in May. But Democrats in both chambers have not yet gotten behind a bicameral measure that could be sent to Trump’s desk.
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The GOP defections come as a growing number of Republicans have started to sour on the president’s handling of the war. For weeks, Trump has floated a potential deal with Iran to end hostilities, but both sides have continued to trade strikes amid stalled negotiations.
Roughly six in ten voters oppose military action against Iran, according to a Fox News poll published in May. However, 72% of respondents said the U.S. is winning the war.
Some Republicans argued the war powers resolution would undermine efforts to end the conflict, which they said has largely subsided since the first ceasefire was announced in early April.
"It doesn’t seem like it’s much of a war at this point," Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., told Fox News. "I know there's some skirmishes back and forth, but we’ve got to give President Trump the latitude to negotiate."
"So people who are trying to get in his way, I think, are being a little foolish right now," he added. "The war for all intents and purposes ended back in April."
Republican leadership initially delayed the vote on the Democratic-led resolution in late May following attendance issues among GOP lawmakers.
"We had a vote because of this president's war of choice that was going to pass. We had the votes. Without question, and they knew it," House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who led the resolution, told reporters following the scrapped vote.
