Republicans Narrowly Fend Off Bid To Limit Trump On Venezuela

House Republicans on Thursday barely defeated a bid to block renewed military action against Venezuela without congressional approval.

The GOP pulled out all the stops to back President Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy moves, managing a 215-215 tie vote that saw just two GOP lawmakers defect while all Democrats supported the measure.

In a sign of how tight the vote was, Republicans held the vote open well after time expired as Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) returned to the Capitol to vote against the measure. With Democrats winning the vote 215-214, Hunt, who is running for the Senate in Texas and did not vote in the House all week, cast the tying vote, killing the resolution.

The vote is a win for Trump, who averted a GOP-backed reprimand of his foreign policy for the second time in as many weeks. It follows a vote last week in the Senate, where GOP leaders and top administration officials convinced enough skeptical Republicans to switch their votes and kill a war powers measure in the upper chamber.

While Trump continues to send shockwaves through the world order — from his saber rattling towards other Latin American countries to his drive to take over Greenland — Republicans decided not to send a message to the administration on Thursday.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a cosponsor of the resolution, and Don Bacon, broke ranks to support the measure.

Democrats had hoped for different results on the war powers measure — sponsored by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Massie — after the House narrowly rejected a similar measure in December, before Trump ordered the military raid that seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Advocates had counted on enough Republican defections to sway the outcome in a House GOP majority that has tightened since December with the resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and the unexpected death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.).

Critics pointed to Trump's refusal to rule out further action in Venezuela and assertion that the U.S. will "run" the country and control its oil. Along with a sizable military presence in the Caribbean Sea, that amounts to a U.S. commitment that mandates congressional approval.

"He has been very explicit about what his intent is: We're there to take Venezuela's oil,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on House Foreign Affairs Committee. “That's what this was about."

McGovern slammed Republicans for opposing the measure now after arguing a similar measure wasn’t necessary a month ago because the U.S. wasn’t engaged in hostilities with Venezuela.

"I guess the best we can get from the current majority here is that there's never a good time for Congress to assert its war powers. It's either too soon or it's too late,” McGovern said. “Well, I don't think it's too late because we're still dealing with the consequences of this unauthorized, unlawful military strike."

But GOP unity kept a rebuke of Trump at bay.

Top Republicans made a technical argument against the measure. They noted that U.S. troops aren’t deployed to Venezuela, and cited pledges by the administration to comply with war powers laws if troops are sent there. They also echoed an administration argument that seizing Maduro was a law enforcement operation that was supported by the military.

"The U.S. is not at war with Venezuela. I know you all predicted that there's going to be some forever protracted war, but we were never at war with Venezuela,” House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said. “There are no boots on the ground."

The failed rebuke of the administration's Venezuela policy from the GOP-controlled House also comes as Trump stands down from a potential conflict with NATO over Greenland.

Trump on Wednesday ruled out using military force to seize the Danish territory, an unprecedented move that almost certainly would shatter the NATO alliance, and backed off a threat to impose tariffs on European allies after announcing a "framework of a future deal" on Greenland.