The House Democratic Leader says President Trump and Republicans have “failed the American people, which is why they clearly are on the run and are on the verge of losing control of the House of Representatives,” after the House on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, sending a warning to the president for the second time as the war has escalated and the future of the conflict is increasingly uncertain.
“In many instances, Republicans have already lost control of the floor of the House of Representatives, as Democrats just demonstrated once again by successfully passing a war powers resolution,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, told reporters in a Thursday press briefing.
Though the votes forced by Democrats are largely symbolic, they are meant as a strong signal to the Republican president that his support on Capitol Hill is chipping away as the war drags on and lawmakers in both parties have questioned his administration’s endgame.
The war has had “no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal,” said Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who led the resolution on the House floor.
The resolution narrowly passed after a handful of Republicans voted with Democrats to end the war. But the vast majority of Republicans voted to back the war and cede congressional war powers to Trump.
Trump has insisted that continued U.S. attacks against Iran do not mean a return to war or long-term action. After the first House vote to halt the war in early June, he posted on social media that it was “unpatriotic” and “meaningless.”
Continued American airstrikes are occurring even as diplomatic efforts show little public sign of progress and officials on both sides have dug in on the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed.
The unpopular war threatens further worldwide economic disruption and is sending fuel prices up ahead of midterm U.S. elections this fall.
In the press briefing, Jeffries also addressed the Democrats’ strategy for the September spending bill, after the House adopted a Republican-only $95 billion budget proposal Wednesday, a long-shot effort to fund the Iran war and other White House priorities over objections from Democrats and a few GOP holdouts in a final push before the midterm elections.
House Republicans are relying on the budget reconciliation process, which enables approval on a majority vote in Congress, bypassing the Senate’s ability to filibuster the measure to stall or kill it.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been noncommittal on the House package that also divides his own GOP majority, with some Republican senators preferring more money for the military and others demanding the costs be offset with cuts elsewhere.
