Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) moved swiftly to defend both his constitutional reasoning and his loyalty to President Donald Trump after backing a bipartisan measure to limit the administrations authority to deploy troops to Venezuela without explicit Congressional approval.
According to Mediaite, Hawleys vote placed him among a small group of Republicans who sided with Democrats on the resolution, prompting a fierce public rebuke from the President. Trump blasted the five GOP senators who supported the bill, declaring, Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again, and warning, This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the Presidents Authority as Commander in Chief.
Facing backlash from the conservative base, Hawley attempted to clarify that his vote was rooted in a strict reading of the Constitution rather than any break with the Presidents America First agenda. He wrote on social media, With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. Thats why I voted yes on this mornings Senate resolution.
Hawley, who has long styled himself as a constitutional conservative, stressed that his position was about preserving Congresss war powers, not undermining the Presidents broader foreign policy. NBC Newss Sahil Kapur reported Hawley also added, I love the president. I think hes doing a great job. I just think, when it comes to Venezuela, which is what were voting on today I think that if the President should determine that he needed to put troops on the ground in country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that. I thought about this a lot. Ive read the resolution. Im an old law professor, once upon a time, constitutional law. And I just dont know how else to read Article I. I just think we would need to weigh in on that.
The clash underscores a long-running tension on the right between robust executive authority in national security and the constitutional requirement that Congress authorize the use of military force. Trumps broadside against five sitting Republican senators is especially striking given the GOPs narrow three-seat majority, raising the stakes for any internal dissent even when it is framed, as Hawley insists, as fidelity to the Founders design rather than opposition to the President himself.
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