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Senate rebukes Trump by approving House-passed measure calling for end to Iran war
The Senate on Tuesday approved a war powers resolution previously passed in the House that rebukes President Donald Trump by calling for an end to the U.S. war against Iran.
The resolution passed 50-48, with four Senate Republicans joining almost all Democrats in support of the measure. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., opposed the resolution, and two Republicans did not vote.
The nonbinding measure is Capitol Hill’s sharpest symbolic pushback on the war yet.
The House voted 215-208 this month to pass the same Democratic-led measure to end Trump’s war with Iran, offering a rare reprimand of the president.
The resolution “directs the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or a congressional authorization for use of military force against Iran.”
The Senate has voted on a war powers resolution nine other times, but none of those votes reached the simple majority threshold necessary to pass it until Tuesday.
The vote comes as several GOP senators have broken with Trump over his 14-point memorandum of understanding with Iran, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pushing back on it.
Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 margin. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Dave McCormick, R-Pa., did not vote Tuesday. McConnell was hospitalized this month. His office said Monday that he would not vote this week.
The vote comes a day before Trump heads to Capitol Hill to speak with Senate Republicans at their weekly lunch.
A White House official downplayed the Senate vote, saying in an email that it had “no significance” and that the resolution would neither go to Trump’s desk nor have any force of law. The official added that the vote’s outcome was due to Republican absences.
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McCormick and McConnell have both previously opposed resolutions like this one. Had they been there for the vote and opposed it, the resolution would have failed on a 50-50 tie.
The resolution is largely symbolic. Its introduction in the House as a concurrent resolution means it does not need to go to Trump for his signature; instead, it expresses the sentiments of both chambers of Congress.
The White House official added that the resolution “directs the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran. Yet there are no hostilities from which to remove U.S. forces, as hostilities terminated with the ceasefire on April 7th.”
Both the U.S. and Iran have insisted that the April ceasefire remains in place, even as the countries occasionally exchange strikes.
The vote also comes the day after Vice President JD Vance departed Switzerland following high-level talks between the U.S. and Iran. Vance said the talks had laid a “good foundation” for a final deal.
Vance and Trump have insisted that Iran agreed to allow the United Nations to examine Iranian nuclear sites, which Iran fiercely denied. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for talks with officials who have been mediating negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
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