WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine plans to force a vote this week on a war powers resolution that would handcuff President Donald Trump’s ability to use military force in Iran without congressional authorization, he said today.
Kaine’s plan comes as Trump said that Operation Epic Fury could last as long as four weeks.
A vote on the resolution — likely the first opportunity Congress will have to weigh in on US-Israeli combat operations in Iran — will most likely occur on Tuesday but could slip to Wednesday, Kaine told reporters during a news conference.
“This is a president who ran on ending wars and yet has used the military without congressional authorization in multiple locations, Iran — twice — the Pacific, the Caribbean, Venezuela and Nigeria, while also threatening military action against Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, possibly Greenland,” he said. “And where next? We don’t know.”
Kaine’s resolution, as well as a parallel war powers measure in the House sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., face an uphill battle for passage through the GOP-led Congress. Even if the bill makes it to Trump’s desk, overriding a presidential veto requires two-thirds majority from each chamber, likely an impossibility.
However, Kaine said even an unsuccessful vote could put pressure on the White House to change its behavior or yield more information about the attacks to the public.
“Earlier this year, we forced a vote on a Venezuela War Powers resolution that fell short, but when the resolution was getting some Republican votes, the president canceled the second invasion, and then ended up finally agreeing to have the first public hearing about the operation,” he said.
In a video posted on social media site X Saturday, Khanna called on House members to return to Washington on Monday to vote on his war powers resolution. In a separate X post Saturday, Massie said he would work with Khanna to force a vote once the House reconvenes, saying, “The Constitution requires a vote, and your Representative needs to be on record as opposing or supporting this war.”
US lawmakers appear largely divided on party lines in their support, with Republicans rallying behind the operations while Democrats blasted the decision, describing it an illegal attack without congressional approval. However, several Republicans such as Massie, Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have questioned the attacks and indicated they would support a war powers vote, while Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman broke ranks with Democrats on the issue, backing the strikes.
Lawmakers will likely get a classified briefing on the operations this week, said Kaine, adding that the administration should also testify in a public setting.
“I know there’s an effort to put together the all-members briefing. I’ve not received any news either as a member of the Armed Services or Foreign Relations Committee about when we’ll be briefed,” he said, adding that he’s a “little nervous” about the administration’s briefing strategy.
“The administration comes in; they bring a lot of briefers. They say they’re going to be there for an hour. The briefers take up 45 minutes or so, and then 100 senators who all have questions, just a few of them get their questions answered.”
First US Casualties Declared
Sunday brought word that three US servicemembers had been killed as part of the operation, with US Central Command saying five others were seriously wounded. Reports indicate that the servicemembers were in Kuwait.
In comments released in a social video Sunday afternoon, Trump acknowledged the losses and seemed to prepare the American public for more to come.
“We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is, likely be more,” Trump said. “But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization.”
Earlier in the day, Trump told The Daily Mail that the conflict could last as long as four weeks.
Outside of Trump’s video and small interviews he has done, nearly 48 hours after the operation began, there has been little in way of public comment or justification for the war. None of the White House, Pentagon or State Department have hosted briefings for reporters, and White House officials largely avoided the Sunday morning talk show circuit. That has been in contrast to both the Venezuela operation earlier this year and last year’s Midnight Hammer effort, which saw long statements by top officials early on.
Most of the information has come out of CENTCOM’s social media outlets. On Sunday, the combatant command published a broad list of the weapons the US used during the operation, which included B-2 bombers, F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, and the new Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) one-way attack drone — a copy of the Shahed-136 drone used regularly by Iran. Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) were among the missile defense systems operated during the attacks.
The targets, CENTCOM added, ranged from command and control centers and ballistic missile sites, to Iranian ships. Trump, in his video, claimed that nine Iranian naval vessels had been sunk, though there has not been any corroborating evidence to that statement.
Mick Mulroy, a former Pentagon official in the first Trump admin who is now president of Fogbow, told Breaking Defense on Saturday that the strikes by the US and Israel appear to be “maximalist, as they not only targeted the nuclear and ballistic program, but also regime targets, calling for a regime change specifically.”
He added, “This is likely going to continue for weeks if not longer. This is by definition an existential threat to the regime, nothing will be off limits. … The region is now engulfed in a war.”
