The action produced an interesting dynamic…..
Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican who carries the water for President Trump in the Senate lead the charge for the non-binding amendment to be added to a bipartisan Middle East policy bill that will easily pass both houses of Congress…..
Democratic Senator’s running for President in 2020 did NOT support it….
The Democratic led House is in agreement with the Senate effort ….
There IS a bill being drafted that would actually prevent Trump from the troop cuts unless his admin came to Congress to get its approval for that action….
The Senate, in a bipartisan rebuke to President Trump’s foreign policy, voted overwhelmingly to advance legislation drafted by the majority leader to express strong opposition to the president’s withdrawal of United States military forces from Syria and Afghanistan.
The 68-to-23 vote to cut off debate ensures that the amendment, written by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and backed by virtually every Senate Republican, will be added to a broader bipartisan Middle East policy bill expected to easily pass the Senate next week.
The vote was the second time in two months that a Republican-led Senate had rebuked Mr. Trump on foreign policy. In December, 56 senators voted to end American military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen in what was the strongest show of bipartisan defiance against Mr. Trump’s defense of the kingdom over the killing of a dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
This time, the vote was even more lopsided. Mr. Trump’s declaration of victory over the Islamic State provoked a swift backlash on Capitol Hill in December when he ordered that the United States pull 2,000 troops from Syria and 7,000 from Afghanistan.
Mr. McConnell, usually a reliable ally of the president’s, drafted an amendment warning that “the precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from either country could put at risk hard-won gains and United States national security.”
Without directly invoking the president’s name, Mr. McConnell countered Mr. Trump’s isolationist policies, arguing that “it is incumbent upon the United States to lead, to continue to maintain a global coalition against terror and to stand by our local partners.”…..
image…businessinsider
Senators not voting for cloture (23 nays, 9 not voting):
NAYs —23
Cruz (R-TX)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lee (R-UT)
Baldwin (D-WI)
Booker (D-NJ)
Cardin (D-MD)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Markey (D-MA)
Merkley (D-OR)
Murphy (D-CT)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Smith (D-MN)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting – 9
Alexander (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Isakson (R-GA)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Brown (D-OH)
Durbin (D-IL)
Looks like 4 that are running voted nay
One didn’t vote at all….
Schumer NO
Durban absent , eh?
And actual bill vote against troop removal …will be interesting
25 Democratic & independent Senators voting Yea on cloture for the McConnell resolution:
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Hassan (D-NH)
Jones (D-AL)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Manchin (D-WV)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Rosen (D-NV)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Sinema (D-AZ)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Warner (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=116&session=1&vote=00013
Hmmmm
The 2020 crew stay out it again….