Despite having a razor-thin majority, House Republicans continue to be plagued by absent members — including one GOP representative who’s missed 100 votes during a “mysterious” 77-day absence — and those absences now risk handing the president a “high-profile defeat" as soon as next month, Punchbowl News reported Friday.
On Thursday, House GOP leaders “abruptly" canceled a vote on a resolution that would have limited Trump’s war powers amid his deeply unpopular war against Iran — a vote that, had it been held, would have likely passed due to the number of absent House GOP members, 10 in total.
"We had the votes without question and they knew it, and as a result they're playing a political game," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the sponsor of the resolution, CBS News reported.
The vote was subsequently rescheduled and is expected to be held in June, though with “Republicans’ attendance problems” not “going away” any time soon, the risk of Trump being handed a “high-profile defeat remains acute when the issue comes up again," Punchbowl News reported.
“It’ll take nearly all GOP lawmakers to be present — and no further Republican defections — to ensure the Iran war powers resolution doesn’t pass,” the outlet reported in its morning newsletter Friday.
“Support [for the resolution] has risen in the House, where Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Tom Barrett (R-MI) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) joined with Democrats last week to back the resolution. It ultimately failed 212-212.”
Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who previously opposed the resolution to check Trump’s war powers, has since reversed his stance, giving Democrats another number alongside the handful of defecting Republicans.
As to House Republican leadership’s decision to cancel another vote on the resolution Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) suggested it was only a matter of time before the resolution passed.
“It tells me that we now have the support to pass the war powers resolution, and they’re trying to scramble to figure out some way to avoid that reality,” Smith told Punchbowl News.