Free Republic

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., on Wednesday cast the deciding vote against the latest effort to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to attack Iran — the seventh such time he’s broken with his party since the war began but the first time that Republican deflections made his vote decisive. The war powers resolution failed 49 to 50 as the Pennsylvanian was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans who control the Senate. Three Republicans — U.S. Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky; Susan Collins, of Maine; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska — voted with Democrats. The vote comes less than a...

President Trump's declaration that hostilities with Iran are "terminated" has thrown Democrats' strategy around congressional war powers into turmoil, Axios has learned. Why it matters: House Democrats, led by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, had been planning to force a war powers vote every day. It is now unclear whether that will — or even can — happen. Lawmakers involved in the war powers effort have been quietly reassessing how to approach the matter when Congress returns next week, according to multiple aides and lawmakers familiar with the matter. "There's a lot to happen between now and next week," one senior...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday argued the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, adding that the Trump administration is only complying with “elements” of it to maintain good relations with Congress. “The War Powers Act is unconstitutional, 100 percent,” Rubio told reporters during a White House briefing, claiming that his position has been shared by “every single president” that has occupied the Oval Office since the law passed in 1973. Also known as the War Powers Resolution, the federal law requires the sitting president to seek congressional authorization for foreign conflicts. Meant to function as a check on the...

Donald Trump has eight days before he will be forced to make up his mind on Iran. He wants to end the unpopular war, but claimed on Thursday he was under “no time pressure” to do so. In fact, the US president is bound by the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which limits his ability to wage war without congressional approval to 60 days. That deadline passes on May 1, 60 days after his formal notification of the war to Congress on March 2. It will compel him to choose one of four options – seek congressional authorisation to continue the...

Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said the evidence that Iran was an imminent threat to the United States was not there.Co-host Joe Kernen said, “You have such a tough job. I asked Senator Scott, and he said, I love Senator Paul because you never waver, but everybody wavers. I was going to ask you about war powers, and the Constitution is messy, and to stick with it as you do in the real world, it’s hard. I don’t know why you even have this job. It must be so difficult at this point for you, right?...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., urged U.S. service members to "refuse illegal orders" Tuesday after President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out Iran’s "civilization." "The President’s mental faculties are collapsing and cannot be trusted," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in response to Trump’s Truth Social post. "To every individual in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders. That includes carrying out this threat." Trump appeared to issue a warning about bombing some of Iran’s civilian infrastructure in an effort to persuade the country to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, among other demands. The president set a deadline of...

he Republican-led House on Thursday rejected a measure aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from carrying out further military strikes on Iran without congressional approval, delivering a victory for the White House even as lawmakers voice deep unease about the widening conflict. The War Powers Resolution, introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, failed in a 212-219 vote after Republican leaders rallied enough support to defeat it, allowing the Administration to continue its military campaign against Iran for now without seeking new authorization from Congress. All House Democrats voted for the resolution except for Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas,...

Senate Republicans closed ranks Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a win on his use of force in Iran, despite lingering questions about America’s involvement in the Middle East. The Senate shot down a resolution from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., aimed at limiting Trump’s military actions in Iran on Wednesday, following days of speculation about whether Republicans would cross the aisle — as they have done before — to reprimand the president. The administration pushed hard to lobby support for Operation Epic Fury, holding several briefings with Congress to make its case. It appeared to work, at least for now, convincing...

VIDEOCBS reporter Scott MacFarlane, who was wounded with severe PTSD at the Battle of Butler when he heroically survived an attack of extreme glaring by a MAGA crowd, has weighed in about Congress needing to vote on a War Authorization Measure for the Iran attack. Because MacFarlane is such a war hero, Nancy Pelosi herself provided the answer he is seeking for his question.

One of President Donald Trump's longtime Republican critics, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined Gang of Eight Democrats in opposition to Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. strikes on Iranian military targets. Trump has not sought congressional approval for an attack on Iran, Massie wrote on X, rebuking "acts of war unauthorized by Congress." "When Congress reconvenes, I will work with @RepRoKhanna to force a Congressional vote on war with Iran. The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war."

Senate Republicans voted to dismiss a war powers resolution Wednesday that would have limited President Donald Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela after two GOP senators reversed course on supporting the legislation. Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed in heading off passage of the legislation. Two of the Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under the pressure.Vice President JD Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on a Republican motion to dismiss...

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) said that she hopes extremists will be deterred by the strikes in Nigeria, “But if they don’t, I do think that Congress needs to take the step of declaring, or at least taking the vote to declare, because we don’t want to see more unilateral action out of the administration, whether it’s Republican or Democrat.”Host Cheryl Casone asked, “Congresswoman, your reaction to these new strikes in Nigeria. The president had warned the Nigerian government ahead of time, and, apparently, that government agreed that these strikes...

Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, have introduced a War Powers Resolution to block the Trump administration from engaging in hostilities within or against Venezuela absent congressional authorization. The Constitution does not permit the executive branch to unilaterally commit an act of war against a sovereign nation that hasn’t attacked the United States,” said Rep. Massie.

A notice calls the people the U.S. military recently killed on suspicion of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea “unlawful combatants.”President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week. The notice was sent to several congressional committees and obtained by The New York Times. It adds new detail to the administration’s thinly articulated legal rationale for why three U.S. military strikes the president ordered...

President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel, and hinted that the military targeting of cartels could be further expanded. "The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.," Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike. "These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to U.S. National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital U.S. Interests." The strike was carried out nearly two weeks after another military...

The Senate blocked an effort Friday to prevent President Trump from taking future military action against Iran without authorization from Congress, less than a week after he directed strikes aimed at the country’s nuclear capabilities. Senators voted 47-53 largely along party lines against the war powers resolution. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP lawmaker to vote with Democrats. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an ardent backer of Israel, voted with Republicans.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued that the War Powers Act, a Nixon-era law limiting the president’s power to unilaterally wage war, is unconstitutional. President Donald Trump’s decision to order strikes on Iranian nuclear targets over the weekend was “clearly” within his powers under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Johnson said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, has introduced a War Powers resolution that would bar the U.S. military from “unauthorized hostilities” in Iran. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., argued Tuesday that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, and vowed that a pending resolution...

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration would “absolutely” continue to remove Venezuelan immigrants on deportation flights despite a ruling from a federal judge ordering them to pause their efforts. “These are foreign terrorists, that the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said Monday on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday temporarily blocked President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which would grant him the authority to detain and deport individuals of countries deemed foreign adversaries with little...

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/24/1246784475/south-korea-lawsuit-government-climate-change-violating-human-rights I am posting my own thoughts and analysis while making reference to the NPR article - The level of authority that President Biden and his administration will have if the term “Climate Crisis” continues to be used by media and talking heads The so called “Green New Deal” may be administratively implemented without the need to have congress pass legislation if it is done so using “war powers” type authority What say you?

In March, in a joint resolution, Congress directed the president to terminate military hostilities against Iran unless authorized by Congress. ..President Donald Trump vetoed the measure, and Congress lacked the votes to override. During recent decades, such has often been the end result of legislative efforts to limit presidential war making... The 1973 War Powers Resolution took effect when Congress’s actual powers to declare war, appropriate funds, and organize the armed forces were at a low point.... Consecutive administrations have expanded the executive branch’s authority to use military force, and Congress has often become sidelined in the process. This reality...