After Trump says U.S. could ‘run’ Venezuela for years, Senate clears way for vote to limit his war powers

WASHINGTON – Five Republicans voted with Democrats as the Senate on Thursday cleared a path for a vote next week that could block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Venezuela, after he said the United States could “run” the South American country for years.

The procedural motion passed by a 52-47 vote and allows for the full Senate to debate whether to invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a Vietnam War-era law intended to rein in a president’s ability to wage war without authorization from Congress. That clears the way for a vote next week, which would take only a 51-vote majority to pass, but a likely veto by Trump would require a two-thirds majority of the 100-member Senate to override.

Every Democrat, including Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, voted for the motion. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho voted against it, while only five of their fellow Republicans voted in favor: Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

“President Trump’s actions in Venezuela have set a dangerous precedent,” Cantwell said in a statement on Thursday. “It’s certainly not worth U.S. blood to commandeer oil that is not going to lower prices at the pump. My hope is Republicans will continue to join Democrats in reasserting the role of Congress.”

Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to “take the oil” from Venezuela as part of an arrangement that left the country’s current government in place, with the sole exception of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who served as a legislator in the National Assembly. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, but it produces only about 1% of the world’s oil. Industry analysts say the exceptionally heavy, sulfur-rich crude is costly to produce and would require billions of dollars of investment, which oil companies may be reluctant to do at a time when relatively low global oil prices result in small profit margins.

In a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with reporters from the New York Times on Wednesday, Trump – who previously said he intends to “run” Venezuela after a U.S. military operation removed the country’s president over the weekend – said “only time will tell” how long the United States will oversee the Venezuelan government through coercive force. The president said U.S. control of the country could last “much longer” than a year.