Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) has now filed his fifth War Powers Resolution against Donald Trump in just over a year, this time trying to shut down Operation Epic Fury — America’s ongoing campaign to turn Iran’s nuclear program into a smoking parking lot. The Senate swatted it down 47-53 on Wednesday.
Five resolutions against Trump. Zero against Obama. Zero against Biden. You’d almost think this isn’t about the Constitution.
Here’s the math, in case Tim needs it explained slowly: five resolutions against Trump, zero against two Democrats who had drones in the air for a combined twelve years. If Kaine has a principled concern about unchecked executive war authority, it appears to have been in a very deep sleep from 2009 to 2017 and again from 2021 to 2025. Must have been one heck of a nap.
War Powers Resolutions have only been used eleven times in fifty years. Tim Kaine alone is personally responsible for nearly half of them. He has filed more War Powers Resolutions against Donald Trump than the entire Senate filed against the previous four presidents combined. This is what a principled constitutional stand looks like, apparently.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have struck more than 2,000 targets in Iran, wiped out roughly 50 top Iranian leaders, and are operating with more than 50,000 troops, 200 fighter aircraft, two carrier strike groups, and B-2 stealth bombers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Iran’s capabilities are “evaporating by the hour.” Kaine’s solution to all of this winning is to file another piece of paper.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso summed it up beautifully on the floor: “Democrats would rather obstruct Donald Trump than obliterate Iran’s national nuclear program.” Hard to argue with that when you watch a man file five resolutions in fourteen months and describe each one as his brave constitutional stand.
Kaine declared from the Senate floor: “If you don’t have the guts to vote yes or no on a war vote, how dare you send our sons and daughters into war where they risk their lives.” Stirring stuff! Barack Obama sent sons and daughters on drone missions across multiple countries for eight years and Tim Kaine apparently had all the guts he needed to stay completely quiet about it.
Kaine also called Trump “too mentally incapacitated” to understand that he tore up the Iran nuclear deal in his first term. This is the same deal that was “keeping Iran’s nuclear program in check” right up until Trump already bombed those sites into rubble during Operation Midnight Hammer last year. So Trump obliterated the program once, now he’s obliterating it again, and Kaine is still filing resolutions about the deal.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
The loneliest vote in the Senate on Wednesday belonged to Jon Fetterman, the only Democrat willing to cross the aisle and support the strikes. His entire statement: “My vote is Operation Epic Fury.” Fetterman then presumably went back to his hoodie and left his colleagues to their hand-wringing. We respect that man more every single day.
What really sank Kaine’s resolution, according to sources familiar with the closed-door Republican discussions, was simple annoyance. His own serial filing worked against him. Republicans who might have had concerns about the war’s scope looked at the man who has personally accounted for nearly half of all War Powers Resolutions in American history and decided maybe Tim Kaine is not the guy they want to hand a victory to.
He announced after the vote that he could file another one in two weeks. He very much intends to do exactly that.
Senator Lindsey Graham offered the obvious counter: “If you want to stop this war, say, ‘We will not vote to pay for it.'” That would require political courage with actual consequences. A War Powers Resolution that fails 47-53 has no consequences. It is a press release with a roll call vote stapled to it.
Kaine once ran for Vice President of the United States. He lost. He has now spent the better part of Trump’s second term filing resolutions that also lose, against a military operation that, by all accounts, is winning. Seven American service members have died in this operation. Nearly fifty Iranian leaders have been eliminated. The B-2s are still flying. Tim Kaine is still filing paperwork.
At some point, a man this dedicated to a losing strategy deserves a nickname. We’re going with “Resolution Tim.”
He said there will be a sixth. When that one fails too, we’ll be here.
