Two Senate Republicans, who supported bringing a war powers resolution to a vote last week, caved to pressure from Trump, reversing their votes to quash Trump’s ability to use military force in Venezuela without Congressional approval.
Josh Hawley and Todd Young had a sudden change of heart to vote with other Senate Republicans — except for Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins — to wash their hands of the matter. JD Vance got to cast the tiebreaking vote on Wednesday shortly after 6pm.
Trump called for the five outcasts who broke from the pack to be defeated in their re-election campaigns. He followed up with nasty phone calls to each of them. Susan Collins received a “profanity-laced rant” while Indiana’s Todd Young, who is up for re-election in 2028, got reamed out by Trump during his speech in Detroit on Tuesday.
“And then you have a gentleman from Indiana, Todd Young,” Trump fumed during his Tuesday speech. “You say, ‘Why are you voting against?’ They can’t give you an answer. They’re unable to give you an answer. It’s like, why are they against the attack on Venezuela? They’re against the attack after they found out. It was the most successful attack, probably.”
Rand Paul said he told the president that his support for the resolution was about upholding the Constitution, not personal.