Hawley breaks with Trump on Venezuela as policy rift continues
Of the five Senate Republicans who voted to curb President Donald Trump's war powers, one has closely aligned himself in rhetoric with the president, but has a history of breaking...
By Fox News · Fox News
Of the five Senate Republicans who voted to curb President Donald Trump's war powers, one has closely aligned himself in rhetoric with the president, but has a history of breaking with him in a variety of policy areas. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., often touts his relationship with Trump and regularly vouches for many of his policy desires in the Senate. But he has a tendency to buck the president, be it on key votes or policy pushes, and ends up on the receiving end of a digital tongue-lashing from Trump. Thursday’s vote to rebuke future military action against Venezuela was another instance where Hawley was at odds with a furious Trump, who charged that he and his colleagues, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Todd Young, R-Neb., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul , R-Ky., "should never be elected to office again." TRUMP BLASTS GOP WAR POWERS DEFECTORS, SAYS THEY 'SHOULD NEVER BE ELECTED TO OFFICE AGAIN' Hawley quickly sought to do damage control while explaining his vote. "I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job," he told reporters afterward. "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 a country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that." But Hawley has broken with Trump in several other areas, like on healthcare , unions and his push to ban stock trading in Congress. The last time the president publicly berated the lawmaker was in July, when Hawley broke away from Republicans in a bid to get his Honest Act, originally named the PELOSI Act after the former House Speaker and her infamous stock portfolio, out of committee. 'NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME': TRUMP, REPUBLICANS SLAM GOP LEADER'S STOCK TRADE BAN BILL Trump at the time called him a "second-tier Senator," and questioned why he would "pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats.…