Republicans rebuke Trump over Gulf arms sales
Congress is going on offense against President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to arm Arab states.
Some of President Donald Trump’s key Republican allies joined Senate Democrats today in a sharp rebuke of his decision to invoke emergency powers to get around Congress on arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.
Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Todd Young, R-Ind., introduced 22 separate resolutions intended to halt $8.1 billion in arms transfers to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and several other states. The unusual ideological mix also includes the top Democrats on the Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Armed Services Committees — Sens Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Jack Reed, D-R.I. — as well as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Even Republicans who may support the sales are stepping aside to let Congress assert its authority.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch, R-Idaho, said the Menendez-Graham resolutions were “absolutely within regular procedure, regular process.”
