After accusations of cowardly delays, Democratic leaders in the US Congress moved Wednesday toward a vote on yet another war powers resolution aimed at stopping President Donald Trump from waging more unauthorized war on Iran as the tenuous day-old Mideast ceasefire unravels.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Wednesday that Democrats will force a vote on a war powers resolution when upper chamber lawmakers reconvene next week.
“Congress must reassert its authority, especially at this dangerous moment,” Schumer said during a press conference at his New York office. “No president, Democrat or Republican, should take this country to war alone. Not now. Not ever.”
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reiterated remarks made during a Tuesday evening interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, in which he said he’s demanding House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “immediately reconvene the House back into session” so lawmakers can vote on the war powers resolution.
“A two-week ceasefire is insufficient,” Jeffries said. “We need a permanent end to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice.”
“Assuming it doesn’t happen this week, we’ll go back into session next week and we will present a war powers resolution as soon as it becomes available to us to do so as a matter of privilege on the House floor,” he continued. “All we need are a handful of Republicans to join us.”
“The American people strongly oppose this reckless war of choice and know that we should not be spending billions of dollars to drop bombs in Iran while Republicans and Donald Trump are unwilling to spend a dime to actually make life more affordable for the American people,” Jeffries added.
The GOP-controlled House and Senate have rejected attempts to pass war powers resolutions, with Johnson denying that the US is even at war – a dubious argument used in as far back as the Korean War in order to skirt the constitutional requirement for congressional assent.
Hellbound and Down 