an intense pressure campaign<\/a> from the Trump administration that included calls from the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.\n <\/p>\n\n The eleventh-hour flips underscore the president\u2019s significant influence over his party, as well as his willingness to attack any member who steps out of line with his agenda. The initial GOP defectors had endured the wrath of Trump, who railed on them publicly and vowed to end their political careers.\n <\/p>\n
\n GOP leaders and the White House in recent days were closely tracking the vote \u2013 the second such attempt to rein in the president\u2019s unilateral authority since November.\n <\/p>\n
\n The question of the boundaries of the president\u2019s authority \u2013 and Congress\u2019 role in authorizing military action abroad \u2013 has roiled Capitol Hill in recent months as the Trump administration has escalated its military campaign in South America.\n <\/p>\n
\n The US operation in Venezuela leading to the ouster and capture of then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro earlier this month triggered a series of classified briefings in Washington that largely deepened the partisan divide on the issue.\n <\/p>\n
\n Young, who had been in talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said he received \u201cfairly extensive personal assurances\u201d from the administration over the United States\u2019 role in Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n
\n The senator could be seen having one-on-one conversations with Sens. Tim Kaine, the Democratic cosponsor of the resolution, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, the Republicans who stood firm in their votes alongside Democrats.\n <\/p>\n
\n Hawley similarly told reporters ahead of the vote that Rubio\u2019s insistence that there would not be ground troops sent to Venezuela, and his pledge that the administration would seek congressional approval if that changed, ultimately convinced him that the resolution was unnecessary.\n <\/p>\n
\n Among the assurances: Prior to \u201cany major military operation in Venezuela,\u201d the administration will \u201ccome to Congress\u201d and seek congressional approval, Young said. He also said Rubio would testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later this month.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kaine scoffed at Hawley\u2019s decision hours ahead of the vote. \u201cSo, he doesn\u2019t think Congress has a role in war? That strikes me as odd,\u201d he told reporters.\n <\/p>\n
\n Paul, the Republican backer of the effort who said he had a \u201cspirited conversation\u201d with the president last week, dismissed the administration\u2019s argument that there is no war underway an \u201celaborate ruse.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you have 1000 boats or 100 boats off of a country\u2019s coast, you\u2019ve already bombed their capital, and you\u2019re now preventing any boats from coming in and out and taking all their oil. Are you at war with that nation?\u201d the Kentucky Republican said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a disservice to the people who put their lives on the line that we\u2019re not calling it a war. So we play games. And people need to point out that, frankly, this is an elaborate ruse that\u2019s being perpetrated on the American people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Murkowski said in a statement Wednesday night that the war powers resolution \u201creaffirms Congress\u2019s Article I responsibility to authorize hostilities and ensures that decisions of this magnitude receive appropriate debate and oversight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cCongress has an obligation to ask hard questions before\u2014not after\u2014hostilities escalate,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kaine argued Wednesday night that the measure had pressured the administration into some promises to Congress.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe way cracks grow is through pressure, and the pressure campaign that I sort of decided to launch by using these privileged motions, I\u2019m going to file every one I can to challenge emergencies, to challenge unlawful wars, seek human rights reports, arms transfers if they\u2019re wrong,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senate Republicans blocked an effort to curb the Trump administration\u2019s military action in Venezuela, a victory for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-407753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}