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tim kaine
Senators Launch Bipartisan Bid to Block Trump War on Venezuela
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela," said Sen. Adam Schiff. "And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war."
Oct 17, 2025
With President Donald Trump floating potential military action within Venezuela and authorizing operations by the Central Intelligence Agency after launching several deadly strikes on boats near the South American country, three lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on Friday said they would force a new vote on blocking the White House from carrying out an attack there.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) last week introduced a measure to rein in Trump's bombing of boats in the Caribbean, which the White House has claimed are being used to traffic drugs into the US and present an imminent threat.
The measure failed, with one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.) joining most of the GOP in opposing it and two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), supporting it.
Kaine and Schiff on Friday were reportedly hoping that a new bipartisan measure, introduced with Paul, would garner more support from the Republicans.
They said they would force a vote on a war powers resolution to block the use of force by US troops "within or against" Venezuela unless it was "explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force."
The 1973 War Powers Act requires Congress to consider and vote on resolutions regarding a president's power to enter an armed conflict without congressional authorization.
"Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war in South America," said Schiff.
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere."
The lawmakers announced the resolution as it was reported that two survivors of the military's most recent drone strike on a boat have been detained by US forces, with legal experts questioning whether they are prisoners or war or criminal suspects.
The White House has insisted it is acting within its rights to defend US security by striking boats it believes are carrying drugs—even as details have emerged calling into doubt the allegations that the vessels pose a threat.
Venezuela is not a significant source of drugs that are trafficked into the US—a fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed when a reporter brought it up soon after the military began bombing boats, at least six of which have been struck so far. At least 27 people have been killed, and the grieving family of one victim spoke out Thursday and said they had not been involved in drug trafficking.
Even if the vessels were carrying illegal substances, legal experts and critics in Congress have stressed in recent weeks that they should be dealt with, as in the past, by federal law enforcement agencies, as Congress has not authorized military action against Venezuela or drug cartels.
“The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote," said Paul. "We ought to defend what the Constitution demands: deliberation before war."
Kaine told reporters on Thursday the Congress' knowledge of legal rationale for the boat strikes amounts to “a complete black hole."
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested this week he could further escalate attacks on Venezuela, saying the Caribbean Sea is "very well under control"—even though Vice President JD Vance has joked that the US could accidentally strike fishing boats in its operations there.
"We are certainly looking at land now," Trump said Wednesday.
Kaine said he was "extremely troubled that the Trump administration is considering launching illegal military strikes inside Venezuela without a specific authorization by Congress."
"Americans don’t want to send their sons and daughters into more wars—especially wars that carry a serious risk of significant destabilization and massive new waves of migration in our hemisphere,” said Kaine. “If my colleagues disagree and think a war with Venezuela is a good idea, they need to meet their constitutional obligations by making their case to the American people and passing an authorization for use of military force."
"I urge every senator to join us in stopping this administration from dragging our country into an unauthorized and escalating military conflict," said the senator.
The New York Times reported that Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) could potentially join the effort to pass the war powers resolution after voting against last week's measure, which he said was too broad.
"I am highly concerned," Young said after the vote last week, "about the legality of recent strikes in the Caribbean and the trajectory of military operations without congressional approval or debate and the support of the American people."
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Senate Dems, Sanders Call for US Recognition of Palestinian Statehood
"The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction," said Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Sep 19, 2025
As some of the United States' closest allies join most of the world's nations in officially recognizing Palestinian statehood amid Israel's worsening genocide and famine in Gaza, US Sen. Jeff Merkley and seven colleagues on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to follow suit.
The senators introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on the president "to recognize a demilitarized state of Palestine, as consistent with international law and the principles of a two-state solution, alongside a secure state of Israel."
The resolution—which is cosponsored by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)—repeatedly mentions Hamas "terrorism" while ignoring the alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes for which fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The resolution's demands are "first, an immediate ceasefire, return of all hostages, and influx of aid. But then, a foundation for peace and prosperity for the future—and the only viable path for that is two states for two peoples," said Merkley, who was the first senator to back a Gaza ceasefire.
"The goal of a Palestinian state can’t be put off any longer if we want the next generation to avoid suffering from the same insecurity and affliction," Merkley added.
I’m leading the first-ever Senate resolution in support of Palestinian statehood. There is only one pathway that builds security, peace, and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians. That path is two states for two peoples.
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— Senator Jeff Merkley (@merkley.senate.gov) September 18, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Van Hollen—who has been one of the Senate's strongest critics of US complicity in Israel's obliteration of Gaza and even tried to visit the strip with Merkley last month—said, "The most viable way to create some light at the end of the very dark tunnel in the Middle East, and assure security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians alike, is a two-state solution."
"Given that the Netanyahu government has obstructed that goal and the Trump administration has abandoned it, the Congress must make its position clear," he added.
Kaine said: "The US supported a historic United Nations resolution in 1947 to establish two states—Israel and Palestine. After nearly 80 years, the world has only kept one of those two promises and the lack of progress toward Palestinian autonomy has been a source of continuing tension in the region."
"Since July 2024 when the Israeli Knesset voted to deny a path to Palestinian statehood and made clear that Israel would not accept Palestinian autonomy, I have believed the US should no longer condition recognition on Israeli assent but rather on Palestinian willingness to live in peace with its neighbors," he added.
Approximately 150 of the UN’s 193 member states have officially recognized Palestine. Since October 2023, countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have openly boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood. The prime minister has made clear his intention for Israel to control "from the river to the sea"—meaning all of Palestine—as envisioned in the founding platform of his Likud party.
Last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—who, like many of his far-right compatriots, denies the very existence of the Palestinian people—proposed another expansion of Israel's illegal settler colonization of the occupied West Bank, asserting that the construction of thousands of new apartheid homes "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."
Netanyahu signed the proposal last week, declaring that "there will be no Palestinian state"—a position shared by all 15 Likud ministers, who want the prime minister to annex the entire West Bank by year's end.
Smotrich is also among the Israeli officials who favor annexing Gaza, ethnically cleansing its Palestinian population, and opening the strip for Israeli colonization. Trump, meanwhile, has proposed US control of Gaza and transformation of its Mediterranean coast into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Lawmakers in Israel's Knesset, or Parliament, have also worked to block progress toward a two-state solution. In July, they hosted a conference titled "The Gaza Riviera–From Vision to Reality" advocating the conquest of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in order to make the strip what Smotrich called "an inseparable part of Israel."
Critics allege that the ultimate goal of some Israeli leaders is the realization of a so-called "Greater Israel" stretching from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq.
The senators' resolution comes as more and more congressional Democrats accuse Israel of genocide, and reflects the wishes of a majority of Americans, according to recent polling.
On Wednesday, Sanders became the first upper chamber lawmaker to say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza following the publication of a United Nations commission report that reached the same conclusion. Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice launched by South Africa and backed by around two dozen countries.
However, on the whole, the US government—which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support—continues to back Israel. On Thursday, the US for the sixth time vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and release of all hostages held by Hamas.
This, as Israeli forces intensified their bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza City during Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing that aims to leave Israel fully in control of the strip.
Israeli forces killed dozens more Palestinians on Friday, the 714th day of a genocide that's left more than 240,000 Gazans dead, maimed, or missing and hundreds of thousands more starving, with no end in sight.
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Democrats File Resolution to Stop Trump's Strikes Against Boats in Caribbean
"President Trump has no legal authority to launch strikes or use military force in the Caribbean or elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere," said Sen. Tim Kaine.
Sep 19, 2025
With 14 people killed in the Caribbean in recent days by US forces at the direction of President Donald Trump, two Democratic senators on Friday moved to stop the Trump administration from continuing military strikes against boats that it claims are involved in drug trafficking.
Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced a joint resolution calling for the US to stop engaging in military hostilities that have not been authorized by Congress, days after Trump announced that US forces had killed three people whom the president claimed were part of "extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels" based in Venezuela.
That strike followed the killing of 11 people aboard another boat in the Caribbean earlier this month, which US officials later acknowledged had turned back toward Venezuela before the US carried out the strike—further calling into question the claim that the vessel was headed toward the US and posed a threat.
"President Trump has no legal authority to launch strikes or use military force in the Caribbean or elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere," said Kaine in a statement, adding that the administration has refused to release basic information showing it was necessary to attack the vessels.
The strikes have been condemned by legal and human rights experts as "murder" and "extrajudicial executions" of civilians—people who, if they were in fact bringing drugs to the US as the White House has claimed, would typically be confronted by law enforcement agencies instead of struck by the military.
The US Coast Guard has in the past intercepted boats and searched them to confirm suspected drug smuggling, and arrested their crews.
As Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said last week, Trump's claim that boats are carrying fentanyl, which caused roughly 48,000 drug overdoses in the US last year, is likely inaccurate. Fentanyl is primarily trafficked from Mexico and Central America into the US, he noted, not from Venezuela.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's assessment that Venezuela is also not a major source of cocaine was of no importance to the administration.
"I don’t care what the UN says," Rubio told reporters after the first military strike in the Caribbean.
The White House has not released evidence showing that the boats were carrying drugs; after the first bombing, the president said the administration had "tapes of [the victims] speaking" that showed they were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which it has designated a terrorist organization that works directly with the South American country's government—despite US intelligence agencies' finding that the group does not work with President Nicolás Maduro.
Even if the president's suspicions were correct, said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, "US officials cannot summarily kill people they accuse of smuggling drugs."
“The problem of narcotics entering the United States is not an armed conflict, and US officials cannot circumvent their human rights obligations by pretending otherwise," Yager said Thursday.
While claiming the military is targeting drug traffickers, Vice President JD Vance suggested this week that the US could mistakenly kill civilians who are not involved in drug activity, joking, "I wouldn't go fishing right now in that area of the world."
The administration has not disclosed a legal analysis of why it believes the strikes, which it has said will continue, are lawful.
Congress has not authorized any military conflict with drug cartels, and at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, a nominee for a position at the Pentagon was unable to answer Democratic lawmakers' questions about the legality of the administration's strikes.
On Friday, reporting by The New York Times suggested that Republican lawmakers and the White House are working to grant the administration the legal authority to continue the strikes.
A draft bill is circulating around the White House and Congress to grant the president the power to order military strikes to carry out "the drug trafficking war."
The authority would last for five years, and longer if renewed by Congress, and would cover groups that the administration has designated terrorist organizations as well as nations that harbor those groups.
Jack Goldsmith, a former George W. Bush administration official and a Harvard Law School professor, told the Times that the legislation is "insanely broad."
"This is an open-ended war authorization against an untold number of countries, organizations, and persons that the president could deem within its scope," said Goldsmith.
Introducing their resolution on Friday, Kaine and Schiff said they do not want to prevent the US from carrying out strikes in self-defense against an "armed attack."
But, they emphasized, “the trafficking of illegal drugs does not itself constitute such an armed attack or threat.”
Yager called on Congress to also "open a prompt and transparent investigation into the decision-making process behind these attacks, including the legal rationale and chain of command.”
“The US military should immediately halt any plans for future unlawful strikes," she said, "and ensure that all military operations comply with international human rights and humanitarian law."
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