“Vote by vote, Democrats are breaking through Republicans’ wall of silence on Trump’s illegal war,” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement. “For more than 80 days, Trump has dragged America into a costly, chaotic conflict with no plan, no objective, and no legal authority. Today proved our pressure is working: Republicans are starting to crack, and momentum is building to check him. We are not letting up.”
Tuesday’s vote marks just the first step toward full passage of the resolution, which Trump will almost certainly veto even if it does pass in both the Senate and the House.
Still, Democrats see the resolution’s advancement as a way to force Republicans to take a stance on Trump’s unpopular war.
“The Senate should use this moment to do what we should have done before the war started – discuss the rationale, strategy, end state, and costs to American taxpayers and our economy,” said the bill’s sponsor, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, in a statement before the vote.
