Josh Hawley Tries to Make Amends After Trump Calls For His Defeat: ‘I Love the President’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) tried to make amends with President Donald Trump on Thursday after he voted to advance a bipartisan bill that would block the Trump administration from putting troops into Venezuela again without Congressional approval.

Trump attacked Hawley and the four other Republicans who voted for the bill, saying they should never win another election. “Republicans should be ashamed of the Senators that just voted with Democrats in attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young should never be elected to office again,” Trump raged, adding:

This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief.

Hawley took to social media to explain his vote, writing, “With regard to Venezuela, my read of the Constitution is that if the President feels the need to put boots on the ground there in the future, Congress would need to vote on it. That’s why I voted yes on this morning’s Senate resolution.”

NBC News’s Sahil Kapur reported Hawley also added, “I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job. I just think, when it comes to Venezuela, which is what we’re voting on today — I think that if the president should determine that he needed to put troops on the ground in country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that. I thought about this a lot. I’ve read the resolution. I’m an old law professor, once upon a time, constitutional law. And I just don’t know how else to read Article I. I just think we would need to weigh in on that.”

Trump’s attack on five sitting GOP senators was particularly stunning given his party only has a three-seat majority.

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