From the start of his time in the U.S. Senate, Tim Kaine has tried to convince presidents that it’s up to Congress to declare war. Now, he’s trying again, hoping to remind President Donald Trump that he needs to go to Congress before attacking Iran.
Before last week’s attack, Kaine filed a resolution saying “Congress hereby directs the President to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces for hostilities against the Islamic Republic of Iran or any part of its government or military, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force against Iran.”
It’s slated for a vote sometime after Trump’s top national security officials brief senators on last week’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities Thursday.
The point still matters, Kaine said.
“Sending American women and men to war is just too big a decision to be made by one man,” Kaine said before heading to the Dirksen Senate Office Building for committee hearings.
“I’ve talked to a lot of Virginia service members and their families, and they don’t think we need to have a third Middle East war,” he said.
Kaine said he worded the resolution to focus narrowly on the Constitutional issue: that Article 1 Section 8 says “Congress shall have Power … To declare War,” without making any value judgment on whether Iran should or should not be a target of military action.
“I think I can get the support of people who think attacking Iran is a good idea and from people who think it is a bad one,” he said.
The resolution also says it does not override earlier laws clarifying that presidents can act to defend the nation against imminent attack.
His aim is not political, Kaine said.
Kaine, who was one of the first elected officials to endorse Barack Obama’s bid for the White House, in 2013 challenged Obama’s plans to intervene in the Syrian civil war without first securing an authorization from Congress. That action, aimed at keeping the Syrian government from using chemical weapons against civilians, stirred strong feelings, but Kaine convinced his friend that it was right to go to Congress first.
In the end, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 for a resolution to authorize the use of military force, but before it reached the full Senate or House, Syria agreed to surrender all its chemical weapons stockpiles. That resolution had support, and opposition, from senators from both parties.
Kaine pushed another authorization of military force resolution after Trump in 2020 ordered the drone strike that killed Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani. This one did get a vote, was passed, but Trump vetoed it.
On the other hand, Kaine said, Trump got the message. He ordered no more attacks.
Kaine said he’s hoping to learn more about the attack on Iranian nuclear facilities at Thursday’s briefing.
“There are lots of questions … lots of conflicting information about how close they were to a nuclear weapon and how much damage we did,” Kaine said.
Trump has said Iran was on the verge of assembling enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, although director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard earlier this year told Congress that Iran was not close to doing so. Trump has said the attack obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but senior military officials have said only that the attack inflicted heavy damage on nuclear facilities.