Kaine vows new war powers fights after Senate blocks Trump Venezuela check

Senate Republicans maintained their unity to kill Sen. Tim Kaine's, D-Va., attempt to rein in President Donald Trump's war authorities, but the lawmaker believes the cracks are still there.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is just getting started on his pursuit to rein in President Donald Trump's war authorities across the globe and plans to file even more war powers resolutions in the coming weeks. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

He argued that this resolution, though unable to make it out of the Senate this time, was similar to a war powers resolution he filed shortly after the strike ordered by Trump in 2020 that killed Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani.

The resolution garnered eight Republican votes in a GOP-controlled Senate at the time.

"When you do it, and you get Republican votes, it sends a message to the White House," he said.

Kaine and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who co-sponsored the latest war powers resolution, previously suggested that later attempts to rein in Trump’s war authorities could be focused on Greenland, Iran and Cuba.

SENATE GOP MOVES TO BLOCK DEMS' WAR POWERS PUSH, PRESERVE TRUMP'S AUTHORITY IN RARE MOVE

Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on during a meeting with oil and gas executives in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 9, 2026. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Young received the assurance from Rubio in a letter the day of the vote, when he said that should Trump "determine that he intends to introduce U.S. Armed Forces into hostilities in major military operations in Venezuela, he would seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting)."

Kaine said that while the outcome was disappointing, and Trump and Senate Republican leadership engaged in a "full-court press unlike any I’ve seen in 13 years here" to stop the resolution from succeeding, the cracks in the foundation were still there. And Kaine believed they were ripe to fracture even further.

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"The way cracks grow is through pressure and the pressure campaign that I sort of decided to launch by use of these privileged motions. I'm going to file every one I can to challenge emergencies, to challenge unlawful wars, to seek human rights reports, arms transfers if they're wrong," he said.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kaine-vows-new-war-powers-fights-after-senate-blocks-trump-venezuela-check