Did Democrats miss their chance? Ceasefire complicates war powers vote
President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran isn’t swaying Democrats. The party’s leaders said they will continue pushing to limit the president’s war powers — but only after Congress returns from its spring break next week.
The move has faced fierce criticism from their opponents, who say they are overreacting to Trump, and from their supporters, who say they are too weak. If the ceasefire holds, Democrats may have less momentum in limiting Trump’s power to continue the war in Iran.
How have Democrats reacted?
Reactions from Democrats were mixed after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire Tuesday evening, hours after threatening to eviscerate the Iranian civilization without a deal. But many steered clear of mocking him for backing off threats for a massive attack for the fifth time.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., asked her colleagues not to make “TACO” jokes — a reference to “Trump always chickens out” — about the ceasefire. She said the ceasefire was important and Democrats should focus on the loss of life it prevented.
“I do not appreciate anyone — Democrat or Republican — taking this moment to make TACO jokes to say Trump ‘chickened out,’” Ansari wrote. “The president was threatening genocide against 90 million Iranians. I’m grateful there’s a ceasefire & scores of innocent people didn’t die tonight.”
A day earlier, Ansari appeared in an interview with MSNOW’s “All In,” where she outlined the “Trump cycle.” She said the ceasefire was a solution to a problem he created.
“This is the Trump cycle,” Ansari said. “He creates a crisis. He then tries to tell the American people that he’s solved the crisis and then he reverses course, and that’s exactly what’s happened with the ceasefire and with the Strait of Hormuz and so many details of what is happening in Iran.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., argued that the ceasefire changed nothing, saying Trump has done more than enough to justify impeachment.
“All of these incidents, and plenty more, have clearly driven our country past the threshold for impeachment or invocation of the 25th amendment,” she wrote on X. “Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the President must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”
Have Democrats missed their chance?
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Wednesday that Democrats would force a vote on a war powers resolution once Congress returns from recess next week. Democrats tried twice last month to limit Trump’s war powers after the U.S. attacks in Iran began. Both votes failed.
“If he restarts this war we will be in even worse shape,” Schumer wrote on X. “We must pass our War Powers Resolution to end this war for good.”
A few Republican votes would be needed to force a vote on the resolution — and to pass it. But it’s unclear whether any GOP members of Congress are willing to anger Trump during a midterm election year. A few Republicans had publicly rebuffed Trump after he wrote on social media that “a whole civilization will die. But with the deal still holding, Axios reported, those lawmakers are likely back in the fold.
Some Democrats have criticized the party for not forcing another war powers vote before the congressional recess. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said during a podcast appearance on Monday that it’s baffling that Congress is on recess while the country is in a foreign conflict.
“We’re in one of the major wars that we’ve been in in many years for two weeks, and then Congress is out for two weeks,” he said. “Don’t you think … that we should be, every day, debating that from the House floor? That we should be voting on war powers resolutions.”
Khanna said Democrats need to fight for things they believe in and be as “relentless” as he and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., were when they pushed for the Epstein Transparency Act, which eventually became law.
“We haven’t seen Congress stand up and say, ‘No, we’re going to push back in a meaningful, assertive way,’” Khanna said. “That’s why the Federalist Papers aren’t working, because you have a pliant branch of government on war and peace, because many members of Congress are fine not having to deal with these complicated controversies.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
