00:01On this vote, the A's are 50, the Nays are 47. The motion is agreed to. The joint resolution
00:06is discharged and will be placed on the calendar.
00:12They tried seven times. Seven times Republicans blocked it. Then one senator, who just lost his
00:20primary, walked across the aisle and changed everything. The U.S. Senate just did something
00:26it has refused to do all year. Since Trump launched military operations against Iran
00:31in late February, Congress has tried and failed seven times to force a vote on whether the
00:38president even has the legal authority to keep fighting this war. Seven times. Blocked. Every
00:45single time. Then Tuesday happened. And this time, the vote went through. The Senate voted
00:5250 to 47 to advance a War Powers Resolution, a measure that would force Trump to either
00:58withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran or come to Congress and get formal approval
01:04to keep the war going. Under the Constitution, only Congress has the power to declare war.
01:11The War Powers Resolution, passed in 1973, was designed to stop presidents from waging open-ended
01:18conflicts without that approval. Trump, like presidents before him, has largely ignored
01:24it. Tuesday's vote doesn't end the war, but it opens the door to a final Senate vote. And
01:30for the first time all year, that door is actually open. Four Republicans crossed party lines.
01:37All but one Democrat voted yes. 47 votes against. Three Republicans did not vote. John Fetterman
01:45was the lone Democrat to vote no. The crucial vote came from someone with nothing left to lose.
01:51Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana, just lost his primary last weekend. Trump had
01:58endorsed his opponent. His political future in the party is effectively over. And so on Tuesday,
02:05for the first time, Cassidy voted against his party and with the Democrats. He joined three other
02:11Republicans who had been a lonely minority all year. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. Together,
02:19they gave Democrats exactly enough to get over the line. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia,
02:26who sponsored the resolution, made a pointed argument on the Senate floor. With Iran reportedly
02:32offering new peace proposals and a fragile ceasefire holding, he argued this was exactly the moment
02:39Congress should weigh in before the shooting starts again. He accused the administration of receiving
02:45diplomatic proposals and, in his words, throwing them in the trash without sharing them with Congress.
02:52Here's the reality check, though. Tuesday was a procedural vote. A first step, not a finish line.
02:58For this resolution to actually constrain Trump, three more things have to happen. Final Senate vote
03:05needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, meaning even more Republican defections, pass the House,
03:11currently controlled by Republicans who have shown no appetite to challenge Trump on the war,
03:16and survive a presidential veto. Trump would almost certainly veto it, requiring a two-thirds override vote
03:24in both chambers. In other words, this is almost certainly not going to stop the war, but that may not
03:30be
03:31the point. What Tuesday's vote really signals is a crack in Republican unity on the Iran war,
03:37at a moment when the operation has already cost 42 aircraft $29 billion and American lives. The question
03:46now is whether that crack gets wider.
04:00Subscribe to OneIndia and never miss an update. Download the OneIndia app now.
Comments