Trump steps up pressure campaign to avoid rare Congress reprimand on war powers

By Sarah Ferris, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump is working to tighten his grip on his party this week as he faces an unusual threat from Congress: an embarrassing rebuke of his military actions overseas.

On the cusp of a key Senate vote that would rein in Trump from further actions in Venezuela without Congress’ approval, an agitated Trump and his team are dialing up critical GOP lawmakers to pressure them to stay in line.

Already, one of the five GOP defectors — Sen. Josh Hawley — appears to be reconsidering his position just days after bucking Trump in a procedural vote on the matter. Hawley’s hesitation comes after several days of calls from Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and officials at the Department of Justice.

On Tuesday, Hawley spent nearly an hour in a secure Senate basement room to review classified details of legal rationale of the president’s actions in Venezuela, he said. That came after a call Monday with Rubio and a one-on-one discussion with Trump after his vote with Democrats last week. The president made the point during that call, Hawley said, that he felt that the war powers resolution was tying his hand.

“I am talking to anybody who wants to talk, which is a lot of people,” Hawley said. “This was good. I need to think through what they just presented to me. I asked a lot of questions.”

Trump’s one-on-one outreach to Senate Republicans underscores that he is tuned in – and troubled by – the small rebellion within his party over his recent actions in Venezuela. While Republicans in Congress are still firmly behind the president, cracks in his coalition have begun to show in recent weeks, threatening party unity ahead of the midterms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who’s also been in close touch with the president on the matter, told CNN that he spoke to a “very, very fired up” Trump just before the initial vote last week.

Final decisions from senators like Hawley will be critical. If the Missouri Republican sticks with Trump, Senate GOP leaders would only need to flip one more Republican to avoid a humiliating defeat for Trump this week. If the measure does pass, it would be mostly symbolic – at least for now. Democrats across the Capitol are planning to force a vote on a similar measure in the House next week and are engaging in their own behind-the-scenes campaign to win over GOP votes, according to multiple people familiar with the outreach.

Republicans are also eying another escape hatch: keeping the measure from coming up at all. One of Thune’s deputies, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, said Republicans are weighing a parliamentary move that would keep the measure off the floor by stripping it of its “privilege” — arguing that there are no ongoing hostilities in Venezuela and therefore a war powers measure does not apply. A simple majority of the Senate could vote to set it aside. A GOP aide added that a decision has not been finalized on this approach but it is a leading option and was discussed at the conference’s lunch.

“Privilege motion has to do with current war activities, and since there aren’t any, I don’t think that this ought to be able to come to the floor,” Barrasso said.

House Democrats, with the help of Trump antagonist Thomas Massie, are targeting over a dozen Republican votes in the national security or libertarian wing of the party. They need to pick off just a handful of Republicans to pass their version – enough to deliver a formal rebuke to Trump’s desk.

Sen. Rand Paul, who is leading the effort on the Venezuela war powers resolution, told CNN on Tuesday that Trump called him three times last week, though he declined to comment on the tone of the discussions, calling them “private conversations.”

​Paul was again critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the matter on Tuesday, blasting the White House for keeping its legal justification for the Venezuela operation classified.

“Legal arguments and constitutional arguments should all be public, and it’s a terrible thing that any of this is being kept secret because the arguments aren’t very good,” he said.

The president’s phone calls to all five GOP defectors come after he publicly harangued them last week, blasting on Truth Social that they should “never be elected” again. And several of those Republicans made clear that a phone call from the president was not enough to sway their vote.

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the five Republicans to side with Democrats on the initial vote, said she has since had a short conversation with Trump about war powers but is not going to change her vote.

“No, I am not considering changing my mind,” a defiant Murkowski said, adding. “It wasn’t much of a conversation.”

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who is up for reelection in the midterms, also received an angry screed from the president shortly after she voted on the Senate floor.

During the course of the call, which included some profane language, the president made an offhand comment he could support her opponent in the midterm, according to a source familiar with the discussion.

GOP Sen. Todd Young, meanwhile, confirmed he recently spoke to Trump about the war powers vote, but declined to say if he is reconsidering his position, as he’s “not speaking to that matter.”

The issue spilled into the Senate GOP’s party luncheon Tuesday where multiple lawmakers described a “robust” discussion that included Paul speaking out on his position and other lawmakers asking clarifying questions about the scope of the resolution. Following the lunch, Collins said she still was a “yes” on the resolution.

The Senate vote is expected to take place later this week, which will include a slew of amendment votes known as a “vote-a-rama” that could further complicate the politics of the war power resolution. Any amendment needs just 51 votes to pass.

Regardless of whether the Senate resolution succeeds, House Republicans will soon face a similar headache. Democrats there plan to force a vote next week on a similar measure to rein in Trump’s authority to conduct further military strikes in Venezuela.

This will be the second time in recent weeks that the House is taking up a war powers measure related to Trump’s actions in South America. The last measure, which specifically focused on the Trump administration’s boat strikes, failed by just two votes.

Democrats there have already begun their behind-the-scenes whipping operation. It’s been led by Rep. Greg Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. Other Democrats with national security backgrounds have also been having private discussions with GOP colleagues as they strive to win the vote later this month.

“I’ve had multiple conversations with veterans of our last two forever wars in the Republican party who are specifically troubled,” Rep. Pat Ryan of New York said of the effort, adding that he is “optimistic that we’ll see more folks speak up” the anxieties over dragging the US into further conflicts without a clear end.

Meeks told CNN on Tuesday that Democrats are actively courting votes from Republicans — and believe they may only need to flip two members to win it.

“Folks are starting to decide – they are up for reelection, not Donald Trump. And the stakes are high. So they have to do the right thing,” he said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.