Democrats Missed Their Chance to Prevent Trump From Attacking Iran

The vote condemning Trump’s Iran policy on Thursday won’t change anything—here’s what would have.

Win McNamee/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The House approved a resolution on Thursday to restrain President Donald Trump from attacking Iran, giving lawmakers a mostly symbolic opportunity to rebuke the White House’s increasingly unchecked authority to conduct war. Unlike a binding resolution that could have forced Trump’s hand in a meaningful way—or at least challenged him to veto it—Thursday’s measure signaled a far more timid approach. 

The resolution, which passed the House on a 224–194 vote, invoked the 1973 War Powers Act, but was structured as a concurrent resolution, meaning it won’t require Trump’s signature or carry the force of law. “The Congress of the United States, in its full power and full voice, can speak in a united way about what the war powers should look like—and that should count for something,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a speech on the House floor. As a privileged resolution, the Senate will have to take up the bill, where it is expected to come down to a narrow vote. Republicans can only withstand three defectors and two GOP senators, Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Kentucky), have already said they will support it.

Sure, a debate about war powers is important and a formal rebuke from Congress is a way to show people both in this country and abroad that not everyone approves of the Trump administration’s hawkish approach to Iran. But this resolution won’t curb Trump’s authority. Only a veto-proof piece of legislation can do that, though apparently House Democrats think this measure can be an exception to that rule. “Constitutionally, the President cannot take America into a war until he has a declaration of war or authorization from Congress,” a Democratic aide told CNN. “If both Houses of Congress concurrently tell the President he cannot continue hostilities, there should be no doubt that the President must come to Congress for legal authorization before taking us to war.”

That’s by no means a settled fact. As CNN noted, “the question has not been tested in the courts.” This weak strategy, relying on an unproven legal argument to bolster a non-binding resolution, makes one wonder why Democrats did not take a stronger line weeks ago when they had a different opportunity to rein in Trump’s war powers.

The left flank of House Democrats had tried to do that earlier last year. The initial version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which cleared the House in July on a party-line vote, contained provisions that would have blocked Trump from starting a war with Iran unless Congress approved it. 

The version passed by the GOP-controlled Senate, however, did not include those restrictions. When representatives from the two chambers of Congress met in the fall to hash out a compromise bill, the limitations on Trump’s war powers were cut out. Congress has passed the NDAA for nearly 60 straight years, usually with bipartisan majorities, and no one thought House Democrats’ progressive bill would pass muster with a Republican Senate without substantial changes. As I reported in December, “The only big item from the progressives’ agenda that Democrats did secure was a commitment to grant federal employees 12 weeks of paid parental leave, but that came in exchange for approval to create Trump’s Space Force.”

That compromise was acceptable to Pelosi and other members of House leadership, even though it cut out policies supported by the party’s progressive wing, such as the Iran amendment and limits on Trump’s ability to use Pentagon funds to build his border wall. “Ultimately,” a Democratic aide close to the negotiations told me at the time, “for every progressive policy not included in the conference report, the blame rests with the Republican Senate and White House who refused to budge on these issues.”

The House passed the compromise package with 377 votes. Only 41 Democrats opposed it. 

If Democrats truly believed Trump’s approach to Iran was reckless and wanted to block it, they would have fought to keep this provision in the bill back in December. They chose not do so, and the chances of that changing appear slim for now, though the fight is not over. Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) reintroduced that legislation as a standalone bill. “After authorizing a disastrous, $738 billion military budget that placed no restrictions on this president from starting an unauthorized war with Iran,,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement, “Congress now has an opportunity to change course.” Their bill faces the same hurdles as any legislation making its way from the Democratic House to the Republican Senate. Even if the Senate passed it, it would likely require a veto-proof majority to overcome Trump’s opposition. Those are long odds, but one wonders why Democratic leadership wouldn’t take them over a non-binding resolution.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate