Trump vetoes Iran war powers resolution

[May 07, 2020]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed legislation passed by both houses of Congress to limit a president's ability to wage war against Iran, as Trump wages a campaign of maximum pressure against the Islamic Republic.

 President Donald Trump holds a chart on global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) data as he reacts to a journalist during a meeting with Iowa Governor Kimberly Reynolds in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., May 6, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

"This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party," Trump said in a statement released by the White House. "The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands."

The Senate, where Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 53-to 47-seat majority, is expected to hold a veto-override vote as soon as Thursday.

The resolution, which passed the House of Representatives in March and the Senate in April, was the latest effort by Congress to wrest back from the White House its constitutionally guaranteed authority to declare war.

A handful of Republicans in both houses supported the measure when it passed, but not enough to muster the two-thirds majority necessary in both houses to override a veto.

(Reporting by Eric Beech and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Leslie Adler)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.