President Donald Trump lashed out at the five Republican senators who voted to advance legislation that would constrain his war powers in Venezuela on Thursday.
The GOP lawmakers — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Todd Young of Indiana and Josh Hawley of Missouri — joined with the chamber’s entire slate of Democrats to tee up a vote that could compel Trump to seek the approval of Congress before taking any additional military action in Venezuela.
The president, who is looking to wield his foreign policy powers to reassert greater U.S. control over the Western Hemisphere, wrote on his social media platform Thursday that Republicans “should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats to take our Powers.”
The senators, he declared, “should never be elected to office again.”
“This vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s authority as Commander in Chief,” Trump wrote.
Collins is the only one of the five Republicans who is up for reelection this year. Her seat has long been a top target for Democrats, although she has continuously won in a state that Democrats typically carry in presidential and other statewide races.