U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has joined four other Republicans and every Democrat in the chamber in voting to invoke the War Powers Act, following President Trump’s order last weekend to send the military to Venezuela and capture President Nicholas Maduro.
“When it comes to Venezuela, if the President or the Department of War would feel the need to put troops on the ground into Venezuela in the future, Congress would need to be on the hook for that,” Hawley told Missourinet. “I think we’d have to vote on it.”
Hawley maintained that it’s about following the U.S. Constitution.
“Today’s vote is looking forward and saying, ‘if there were to be ground troops into Venezuela for hostilities, Congress would need to vote on that,’” he said.
However, Hawley also told Missourinet that the president had a “pretty strong case” for launching the operation that captured Maduro and his wife, who are now in federal custody in New York.
“The United States can absolutely, number 1, indict criminals, which is what happened with Maduro and his wife. Number 2, we have the right to extradite those criminals,” he said. “We have the right to go into other countries where we can, and if we can, and to bring those criminals to justice for the purpose of standing trial, which is what’s going to happen to Maduro and his wife. So, there’s quite a bit of legal authority for that.”
The measure needs another vote by the full U.S. Senate, and the House has to pass it, too, before sending it to President Trump – who would likely veto it.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, roughly 15,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed to the southern Caribbean region as part of a large naval presence to deter drug trafficking.
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