Kaine’s push to verify the powers of Trump’s Iran’s war failed in the Senate vote

Pressure from the Democratic Senate to put a check on the president Donald Trump The powers and reaffirm the war authority of the Senate were closed by the legislators of the upper chamber Thursday.

Senator Tim Kaine The resolution of war powers, which would have forced the congress to debate and vote to find out if the president could declare war, or strike Iran, was canceled in the Senate during a largely partial vote, with the exception of Senator John Fetterman, D-P., An ardent defender of Israel who supported Trump’s strike on the Islamic Republic, Rand Paul days.

Earlier in the week, the Virginia Democrat promised to move forward with the resolution despite a fragile cease-fire negotiated between Israel and Iran after the weekend strikes on the main nuclear installations of the Islamic Republic which were not given by the Congress.

Dem Senator advances with the resolution of war powers despite the ceasefire

The White House said that the President’s advisers urged him to oppose Kaine’s resolution. (Reuters)

Kaine argued that the ceasefire gave its resolution more credibility and breathing to properly debate the role that Congress plays when it comes to authorizing both war and attacks abroad.

He declared before the Senate’s soil vote he came to Washington to make sure that the country does not accept again in another “useless” war and invoked precipitation to approve the war powers for President George W. Bush more than two decades to engage with Iraq.

“I think that this week’s events have shown that war is too important to be devoted to the decisions of a single person,” said Kaine.

“ Not constitutional ”: the congress evokes a new resolution of war powers to reject Trump strikes on Iran

The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, speaks during a press conference after the republican policy of the weekly Senate in the American Capitol on June 17, 2025. (Getty Images)

Indeed, its resolution has become a focal point for a debate that raged on Capitol Hill since Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran: if the strikes like those carried out during operation Midnight Hammer constituted an act of war which required the approval of the Congress, or if Trump’s decision was under its constitutional authority as a commander -in -chief.

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The Senate Republicans have largely argued that Trump was in his field, while most of the Senate Democrats have raised constitutional concerns concerning the president’s ability to strike without the legislators weigning.

Experts also argued that Trump was in his executive power to strike Iran.

The Constitution divides the powers of war between the Congress and the White House, giving legislators the only power to declare war, while the president acts as commander -in -chief leading the army.

And almost two centuries later, at the height of the Vietnam War, the resolution of the 1973 war powers was born, which sought to define these roles more.

But the most impact that the legislators could have, by the power of the handbag, and the senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, who plays an important role in controlling the Stockings of the Stock Exchange as a sub-comity of the Senate credits on defense, had a lively message against Kaine’s resolution.

McConnell has used cases where Democratic presidents in the past three decades have used their authority for limited commitments to Kosovo, Libya, Syria and Yemen, and wondered why “isolationists” would consider Iran’s strike to inform its nuclear program as a mistake.

“I have not heard frequent leaflets on the resolutions of war powers counts seriously with these questions,” he said. “Until they do, efforts like this will remain divorced from strategic and constitutional reality.”