And for continuing the genocide in Yemen:
Furious over being denied a C.I.A. briefing on the killing of a Saudi journalist, senators from both parties spurned the Trump administration on Wednesday with a stinging vote to consider ending American military support for the Saudi-backed war in Yemen.
The Senate voted 63 to 37 to bring to the floor a measure to limit presidential war powers in Yemen. It was the strongest signal yet that Republican and Democratic senators alike remain vehemently skeptical of the administration’s insistence that the Saudi crown prince cannot, with certainty, be blamed for the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
This was merely a procedural vote, indicating an interest in intervening in Trump's War Powers Act authority, but it will likely be followed next week by genuine action. The ironic (and extremely hypocritical) move by Richard Burr to vote against this centers on his role as Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. In any other instance, the refusal of the CIA to cooperate would have Burr turning red in the face. But since the CIA (apparently) has overwhelming evidence of the Crown Prince's involvement in Khashoggi's brutal assassination and dismemberment, Burr simply "doesn't want to know." But luckily for us (and maybe those Yemeni children), other Senate Republicans refuse to play possum:
The vote was striking for its defections by Republicans who in the past had supported the yearslong military alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. As part of the Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which began with a bombing campaign in 2015, the Pentagon is mostly providing military advisers and intelligence.
Mr. Graham initially rejected Wednesday’s measure, then huddled with colleagues and switched his vote. Thirteen other Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to end American military action in Yemen — with the exception of operations against Al Qaeda.
Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, the retiring chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that he had previously backed arms sales to the Saudis but was now in a different place. He estimated that 80 percent of the senators who attended Wednesday’s briefing left dissatisfied with the administration’s explanation about Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
“As to whether the crown prince was involved in this killing, it’s my belief that he was,” Mr. Corker said on the Senate floor. “It’s my belief that he ordered it.”
Prince Mohammed “has done nothing to show ownership over what has happened,” Mr. Corker said. “And that is an affront — not just to the American people, but it’s an affront to the world.”
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