La Crosse Rep. Kind, SE Minnesota’s Rep Hagedorn vote along party lines on limiting Trump’s war powers

The House of Representatives approved a resolution Thursday asserting that President Donald Trump must seek approval from Congress before engaging in further military action against Iran.

The nonbinding War Powers Resolution was approved mostly along party lines, 224-194. Three Republicans and one independent joined Democrats to pass the measure. Eight Democrats opposed it.

Ron Kind, a Democrat who represents La Crosse as part of the 3rd District, voted in support of the resolution. Jim Hagedorn, a freshman Republican who represents Southeast Minnesota’s 1st District, voted against it.

“If the President wants to continue escalating an already tense situation with Iran, then his Administration must come to Congress and present a clear, thought-out strategy,” part of Kind’s statement said. “This resolution sends a clear message to this Administration, our men and women in uniform, and all Americans: We will not go into another war without the President making the case to the American people and seeking approval from Congress — the only branch that has the power to declare war under the Constitution.”

Kind also wrote of his support of the “2015 Iran nuclear accord, which President Trump left in 2018 without putting forward an alternative plan that protects the interests of the United States.”

Hagedorn, a staunch Trump supporter, sees the War Powers Resolution, differently but, like Kind, claims Constitutional rhetoric on the complete opposite basis.

Hagedorn claimed, on one of his two Congressional Facebook accounts, that Trump doesn’t need to notify Congress that the U.S. is going to assassinate another country’s second-highest ranking official, and the resolution to do so is politics.

“Once again Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and House Dems are putting partisan politics ahead of American interests by pushing through a vote to restrict the President’s ability to exercise his war powers against Iran. These powers are well within the commander-in-chief’s authority under Article II of the Constitution and were rightly used by President (Barack) Obama in the order to take out Osama bin Laden. This resolution would only embolden Iran and undermine President Trump and our military’s ability to swiftly respond to continued Iranian acts of aggression. I will vote against this unconstitutional partisan ploy.”

The difference, perhaps, is Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who Trump had assassinated last week, was the second-highest ranking official of the Iranian government — a country the U.S. is not formally at war with. Escalating tensions with Iran is different than escalating tensions with Al Qaeda, headed by bin Laden, a group the U.S., at one point, was formally at war — duly authorized by Congress.

Last October, Trump also had the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed, which did also get some pushback from Congressional leaders.

Pelosi complained the House should have been briefed on the raid, “which the Russians, but not top Congressional leadership, were notified of in advance, and on the Administration’s overall strategy in the region.”

Trump was also impeached by the House on Dec. 18, 2019.