Alaska’s two U.S. senators split on a vote that would have allowed the U.S. Senate to take up a resolutionthat sought to prevent President Donald Trump from unilaterally ordering the bombing of Venezuela.
Fifty votes were needed in the Senate to take up the resolution, but only 49 senators — all the Senate’s Democrats, plus Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voted in favor of the procedural action needed to force a vote.
Sen. Dan Sullivan joined a majority of Senate Republicans and voted against taking up the resolution, which was sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.
Thursday’s vote, and the split decision by Alaska’s senators, was similar to a vote that took place last month, when the Senate declined to consider a resolution intended to curtail America’s killing of suspected drug dealers without trial.
Since September, the United States has killed 67 people aboard boats in both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, according to tallies kept by the New York Times and CNN. There have been 16 known military strikes since Sept. 2, each targeting a boat that the U.S. government claims was carrying drugs.
It is illegal for the U.S. military to intentionally kill civilians who are not actively taking part in hostilities against the United States.
In October, Murkowski joined Paul and all but one of the Senate’s Democrats in voting to take up a resolution intended to curtail the strikes. Sullivan joined the rest of the Senate’s Republicans, and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, in voting to support the strikes.
Since that vote, Trump has said that he has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela and is considering military strikes against the country, which is governed by dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. military has positioned large numbers of soldiers and aircraft near Venezuela’s coastline, possibly in preparation for attack.
In a statement after Thursday’s vote, Murkowski said she has “been briefed multiple times and reviewed classified documents that provide insight into the administration’s factual justification” for attacking Venezuela.
“Even with this additional context, I do not believe their case has met the standard of clarity and rigor that Congress needs to fully evaluate the legality and scope of these operations,” she said.
Devyn Shea, a spokesperson for Dan Sullivan, said by email after the vote, “In both Democrat and Republican administrations, Senator Sullivan has consistently voted against limiting the authority of the President as Commander-in-Chief to protect the national security interests of the country.”
Sullivan “believes that under Article II of the Constitution, President Trump as Commander-in-Chief has the authority to defend our homeland from Venezuelan narcoterrorists, just as President George H.W. Bush did when he ordered the full military invasion of Panama in 1989 to remove the drug-trafficking dictator Manuel Noriega,” Shea said.