WASHINGTON — Republicans are happy to criticize President Donald Trump’s war on Iran behind closed doors but “willing to give up congressional power” when given chances to actually rein him in, a prominent Democrat charged, shortly before the House of Representatives rejected a bipartisan attempt to assert its constitutional powers.
“There is an incredible sense in the Congress in the last year that so many Republicans have been willing to give up congressional power,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) told Raw Story at the Capitol.
Republicans, Balint said, “all tell you behind closed doors a whole variety of things they don't like about what's happening.
“If you pick your head up and all of a sudden your power is gone, don't whine about it because you gave it away.”
‘I’m not stupid’
Under Article One of the U.S. Constitution — and the 1973 War Powers Resolution — only Congress can declare war.
In reality, presidents have long ignored such strictures.
Balint was speaking shortly before the House considered a war powers resolution that would have forced the Trump administration to pause strikes on Iran.
“I'm not stupid,” Balint, a member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, said.
“I can count. I don't think we're going to have the votes, but I think in every opportunity we have to assert our Article I powers, we have to keep doing these actions that show that we understand that every time we don't stand up to [Trump], legislative powers are slipping away.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), said such votes were important, to “get people on the record.”
The record for the ensuing vote showed the resolution was rejected 219-212, with Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Warren Davidson (R-OH) voting yes, while four Democrats voted no.
Massie co-sponsored the resolution with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), his partner in pressuring the Trump administration over the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his links to powerful figures, prominently including the president himself.
Davidson, a former military officer, is usually a loyal supporter of the Republican line.
On the floor of the House, he said, “Make no mistake, Iran is an enemy of the United States. As our military engages them, they do so justly. Unfortunately, they are not yet doing so constitutionally.
“For some, this debate will be about whether we should even be fighting in Iran. For me, the debate is more fundamental: is the president of the United States, regardless of the person holding the office, empowered to do whatever he wants?
“That’s not what our constitution says.”
‘Whatever it takes to win’
Amid continued confusion over Trump’s aims in attacking Iran — currently by air and at sea and at the cost of six American lives and more than 1,000 Iranians killed — it was reported on Thursday that strikes could extend until September.
Raw Story asked one senior Republican if that bothered him.
“Not worried at all,”Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) replied “Trump knows what he’s doing.”
Raw Story pressed: Was Norman really saying he would be okay with such a lengthy campaign, with all its attendant dangers for wider conflict through the Middle East and the world?
“Whatever it takes to win,” Norman said.
'Spiraling out of control'
Balint considered another pressing issue: Republicans’ reluctance to even say Trump has taken America to war, despite the president’s own use of the word.
“You can't call it a ‘military action,’ that it has a very short timeline, when this is the chatter,” Balint said, of the reports of a possible September end date.
“We knew that it's spiraling out of control … and again, like, where's the opposition within his own party?”
