Senate to attempt to override Trump’s Iran war powers veto Thursday

The Senate will attempt on Thursday to override President Trump’s veto of a resolution that constrains his ability to take military action against Iran without congressional signoff.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday that the chamber will hold a veto override vote at 1:30 p.m. It’s expected to fall short of the two-thirds support needed, effectively ending the attempt to nix Trump’s veto.

The Senate’s vote will come less than a day after Trump vetoed the resolution and lashed out at Congress, saying it “should not have passed this resolution.”

“This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party. The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands,” he said in a statement.

The resolution, spearheaded by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), would require Trump to pull any U.S. troops from any hostilities against Iran within 30 days unless he gets congressional approval for the military action.

“I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to override his veto. Unless there’s a carefully reached consensus in Congress that war is necessary, we should not be sending our troops into harm’s way,” Kaine said in a statement on Wednesday.

The resolution initially passed the Senate in February in a 55-45 vote, with eight GOP senators supporting it. It then passed the House in a 227-186 vote in March as one of its last votes before lawmakers left town amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Democrats had vowed to force a vote on the resolution, which they are able to do under the War Powers Act, after the United States launched an airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, sparking days of escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.