June 25, 2026
The Senate just took it all back.
Late last night, the Senate re-voted on the War Powers Resolution, and this time it failed, which means Congress will not rein in President Trump’s military action in Iran after all.
I know this is confusing because I told you in this video just two days ago that it was done. The Senate had passed the same War Powers Resolution as the House. And on Tuesday, I reported that resolution was successful for two reasons. One, because of attendance, which I’m going to get into in a second. But two, because four Senate Republicans joined almost all of the Democrats and voted yes.
Well, President Trump was obviously not happy about that, and when he went to the Senate Republican lunch yesterday, he let his party know about it. Trump talked about why he didn’t like the vote later in the day.
Clearly it was not meaningless to Trump because he strong-armed his party enough to force them to take another vote. And when they did that last night at about 10:30 p.m., the final vote changed. This time the vote failed 47 to 50, with one senator voting present and two senators not voting.
So what changed?
Well, when the War Powers Resolution passed on Tuesday, Republican Senators Bill Cassidy, Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins voted with almost all of the Democrats and Independents. And one Democratic senator, John Fetterman, voted no with the rest of the Republicans. Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Dave McCormick were absent.
But last night, McConnell was still absent, but now Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado was also absent. Republican Senator Dave McCormick was back in action, and Senators Cassidy and Paul changed their votes.
Cassidy changed his yes vote to a no vote, and Paul changed his vote from a yes vote to a present vote.
But why the change?
According to Bill Cassidy, who reportedly got into a shouting match with Trump over the war with Iran at that lunch yesterday, he posted to his social media page that he got a special White House briefing on the war that “addressed many of my concerns.”
But Senator Paul is the interesting switch here. Rand Paul has been a yes on the War Powers Resolution for months. He is not a fan of what’s happening.
But last night, he posted to his social media page that his opinion on the war and executive power has not changed, but “since hostilities seem to be over and the president asked me to give consideration to his negotiating position, I will do so.”
He said, “My vote of present is a way to give the president more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace.”
So now what?
Well, the president seems to have won this round, but you can bet that Democrats will continue to bring up this War Powers Resolution for a new vote, as they have been for the last few months.
See how your Senator voted here.
Trump statement here.
Sen Rand Paul’s statement here.
Sen. Bill Cassidy statement here.
