From
Brock McNuggets@brock.mcnuggets@gmail.com to
talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.usa,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh on Sun Jan 11 07:54:54 2026
From Newsgroup: alt.politics.usa
It won't be long before they shove a corn cob up Trump's ass and hoist him
by the feet up a street light pole like they did to his dago hero Benito.
Donald Trump can’t count on Congress to have his back any more
Republicans dealt the president a series of rebukes Thursday that cast
fresh doubt about his sway on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) departs a vote at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 8, 2026. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) voted to constrain Trump's war powers then brushed off a presidential attack. “I love the president," he said. "I understand
he’s ticked.” | Francis Chung/POLITICO
By Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney and Nicholas Wu01/08/2026 06:48 PM EST
A cadre of congressional Republicans dealt President Donald Trump
significant defeats Thursday — a series of rebukes that demonstrate how his iron grip on Capitol Hill has weakened at the start of a critical election year.
The defiance kicked off in the Senate with a stunning vote, backed by five
GOP senators, to move ahead with a measure that would constrain Trump on a matter he has presented as a signature triumph — his military intervention
in Venezuela. Later in the day, 17 House Republicans joined with Democrats
to rescue Obamacare subsidies Trump has repeatedly railed against.
And in a surprise move, senators of both parties agreed unanimously to
erect a plaque honoring the officers who fought the mob at the Capitol on
Jan, 6, 2021 — breaking from Trump’s false narrative about that day.
Trump took notice of the disloyalty in the first instance. Almost
immediately, he shot off a social media post accusing the five Republicans
of “attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United
States of America” and declaring that they “should never be elected to
office again.”
None of the Republicans who voted crosswise with the White House Thursday
said they intended to deal a personal brushback to Trump. But several said they were determined to assert congressional authority that many on Capitol Hill fear has withered over the past year.
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana insisted “any future commitment of U.S. forces
in Venezuela must be subject to debate and authorization in Congress.”
“President Trump campaigned against forever wars, and I strongly support
him in that position,” Young said in a statement. “A drawn-out campaign in Venezuela involving the American military, even if unintended, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements.”
Speaking at the White House after the Senate vote, Vice President JD Vance rejected the notion that Trump’s grip on Congress was slipping, saying the
GOP opposition was “based more on a legal technicality than any
disagreement on policy.”
But the internal GOP dissent came to the delight of Democratic leaders, who are growing jubilant over their ability to highlight the splits and hammer Republicans heading into the midterms.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters “Republicans need to
get their act together in terms of their leadership,” saying the party had been badly distracted from addressing Americans’ cost-of-living concerns.
After the war powers vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed it
as “a critical step” for the chamber in “reasserting its constitutional authority” and pushing back on an imperious president.
Still, there were signs that Trump’s sway over the GOP had not entirely eroded.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), while voting to constrain Trump’s war powers, downplayed the break and reiterated multiple times that he supports the president.
“I don’t take any offense to that,” he said about Trump’s suggestion that
he should not be reelected. “I think the president is great. I love the president. … I understand he’s ticked.”
And in a particularly stark demonstration of Trump’s continued sway over
the House GOP, most Republicans in the chamber voted with him Thursday to sustain his veto of two bills they had allowed to pass unanimously just
weeks before.
One bill benefited the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, which opposed his administration’s attempt to build a vast migrant detention center in the Everglades. Another authorized a water project backed by Colorado
politicians who have clashed with Trump, including Democratic Gov. Jared
Polis and GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.
“I am disappointed to see the lack of leadership, the amount of people that will fold, that will cave, that will not take a stand,” Boebert said after
the vote. “This had nothing to do with policy. … Folks are afraid of
getting a mean tweet or attacked.”
Some House Republicans who opposed the veto override cited White House officials who circled the chamber as the votes unfolded. It was clear they were taking note of the defectors, one GOP lawmaker said. Trump going
nuclear on the five Republican senators who had defied him earlier in the
day helped convince others to not stick their neck out.
“It wasn’t worth it,” another House Republican said. “It’s not my bill.”
Still, 35 Republicans broke ranks with Trump on the Colorado project while
24 did so on the tribal bill. Two committee chairs voted to override both vetoes.
Later in the day, a critical mass of House Republicans sent an incontrovertible message on an issue much more central to the GOP’s midterm prospects than expanding a tribal reservation — addressing health care
costs.
Seventeen GOP members joined with Democrats to pass a bill that would
revive lapsed Obamacare tax credits for three years. Trump, with the encouragement of Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, has refused to engage
in bipartisan negotiations — instead slamming the subsidies as wasteful and calling on lawmakers to set up an alternate system where Americans get
direct payments to help afford coverage.
Watch: The Conversation
20:23
The top 5 interview moments of 2025 | The Conversation
But multiple Republicans, while still blaming Democrats for the morass,
said Thursday they were not willing to stand by and do nothing amid the standoff. The expired subsidies were used by more than 20 million
Americans, lowering their premiums in many cases by thousands of dollars
per year.
“I have a bunch of my constituents that are depending on these programs,
and I’m not going to leave them hanging because the Democrats broke the
damn system,” said GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents a swing Wisconsin district and referred to the bill as a “bridging mechanism.”
Asked if his vote could be seen as a rebuke of Trump, Van Orden said he “didn’t even think of it like that.”
Republicans were similarly roundabout when it came to the Senate’s action Thursday to display the contentious Jan. 6 plaque, which was created
pursuant to a 2022 law but has remained in storage as Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to install it.
But the timing spoke volumes, coming two days after the fifth anniversary
of the Capitol attack and the White House publication of a website casting
the riot as the fault of Democrats and the Capitol Police itself.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), without mentioning Trump, said the plaque was a commemoration of “what I would consider to be one of the most significant stress tests for this institution since it was founded.”
“It was a great day for democracy because of the law enforcement officers,”
he said. “We took a brief recess, we got ourselves together, the Capitol
was secured and before we left the compound we came back and completed our constitutional duty” to certify the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, the fallout of the war powers vote is likely to continue. Thursday’s vote sets up final consideration of the resolution next week,
where Trump’s commitment to an “America First” foreign policy will be
debated. In addition to the pushback on his plans for Venezuela, many Republicans aired deep misgivings this week about his overt attempts to
seize control of Greenland, a Danish territory.
The House is on track to take up a similar vote later this month after Democrats introduced a companion measure Thursday and expressed cautious optimism that more Republicans might vote to constrain the president.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he was already “inclined” to support the war powers resolution after hearing from top administration officials in
briefings this week and after hearing about Trump’s threats against
Greenland. But he said the president’s attack on the five GOP senators Thursday cemented his position.
“Reading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,” he said.
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