US House of Representatives Republicans narrowly defeated a resolution on Thursday that would have barred President Donald Trump from further military action in Venezuela without the authorization of Congress, days after a similar measure failed in the Senate.
The House voted 215 to 215, a tie that defeated the resolution which, "directs the president to remove United States Armed Forces from Venezuela, unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization for use of military force."
The vote was largely along party lines in the narrowly divided chamber, where Trump's Republicans have a 218 to 213 majority. Every Republican except Don Bacon of Nebraska and Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted against the resolution. Every Democrat voted in favor.
House leaders held the vote open until Republican Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas could return to the Capitol building to cast the decisive no vote. California Republican Tom McClintock did not vote.
"We do not have anybody there in Venezuela fighting," Republican Representative Brian Mast of Florida said in the debate before the vote.
Republicans also accused Democrats of introducing the legislation only as an attack on Trump. "It's about spite," Mast, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said. "You will condemn him no matter what he does."
Some Democrats also hypocritically denounced Trump for leaving most of Maduro's government in place in Caracas and failing to present a plan for Venezuela after his removal.
The Trump administration argued that Maduro's capture was a very limited judicial operation to bring him to trial in the US on drug charges, not a military operation.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien Don Durfee and Bill Berkrot)
