Watch a live broadcast: The Republican Party in the Senate votes on the war powers resolution after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans voted Wednesday against an effort to stop President Donald Trump’s war against Iran, showing early support for a conflict that has spread rapidly across the Middle East with no clear U.S. exit strategy.

Watch the live stream in the video player above.

The legislation, known as the War Powers Resolution, failed by a vote of 47 to 53. It gave lawmakers a chance to demand congressional approval before carrying out any further attacks. The vote forced them to take a stand on a war that determines the fate of US military personnel, countless lives, and the future of the region.

Read more: How do military families feel about the unknowns in the Iran war?

Underscoring the gravity of the moment, Democratic senators filled the Senate chamber and sat at their desks as voting began. Typically, senators enter the chamber to cast their votes, then leave.

“Today every senator — every single one — will choose a side,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote. He asked, “Do you stand with the American people exhausted by eternal wars in the Middle East, or do you stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they push us upside down into another war?”

Senator John Barrasso, the second-leading Republican in the Senate, said during the debate that GOP senators would send a message that Democrats are wrong to force a vote on the war powers resolution.

He added, “Democrats would rather obstruct Donald Trump than eliminate Iran’s national nuclear program.”

The Trump administration is scrambling for congressional support

After launching a surprise attack on Iran on Saturday, Trump sought to win support for a conflict that Americans of all political stripes were already wary of entering. Trump administration officials have been frequently on Capitol Hill this week trying to reassure lawmakers that the situation is under control.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war could extend for eight weeks, a longer time frame than the Trump administration had previously proposed. He also acknowledged that Iran is still capable of carrying out missile attacks even as the United States tries to control the country’s airspace.

He watches: Hegseth announced that the United States had sunk the Iranian warship

US service members “remain in harm’s way, and we must be clear that the risk remains high,” Gen. Dan Keane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same news conference.

Six American military personnel were killed over the weekend in a drone strike in Kuwait.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa acknowledged the humanitarian costs of war in her speech. One of the soldiers killed on Sunday was from Iowa, and a National Guard unit from her state was attacked in Syria in December, killing two other soldiers.

But now is our chance to put an end to decades of chaos, said Ernst, who herself served as an officer in the Iowa National Guard for two decades.

“The sooner the better,” she added.

Trump also did not rule out the deployment of US ground forces. He said he hoped to end the bombing campaign within a few weeks, but his goals for the war had shifted from regime change to preventing Iran from developing its nuclear capabilities to crippling its naval and missile programs.

Read more: The Pentagon identifies 4 of 6 American soldiers killed in the Iran war in a drone strike in Kuwait

Almost all Republican senators were preparing to vote on Wednesday against the war powers resolution to halt military action, but a number of them still expressed hesitation about the idea of ​​deploying troops.

“I don’t think the American people want to see troops on the ground,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Los Angeles, said as he emerged from a secret news conference on Tuesday. He added that Trump administration officials “left this possibility open,” but it was not an option they were emphasizing.

Lawmakers to go on record

The votes in Congress this week represent potentially important markers of lawmakers’ stance on the war as they look ahead to the midterm elections and the aftermath of the conflict.

“No one can hide and give the president an easy pass or get around the Constitution,” said Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who is leading the War Powers Resolution. “Everyone must declare whether they are for or against this war.”

He watches: Rubio defends US attack on Iran, says State Department helping Americans leave region

Republican leaders succeeded, albeit narrowly, in defeating a series of war powers resolutions related to several other conflicts that Trump has entered or threatened to enter. But this is different.

In contrast to Trump’s military campaigns against alleged drug boats or even against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the attack on Iran represents an open conflict that is already beginning to reverberate throughout the region. For Republicans accustomed to working in a political party dominated by Trump and his promises to keep the United States out of foreign entanglements, the moment was a death blow.

“War is ugly, it has always been ugly, but we are eliminating a regime that has been trying to attack us for some time,” said Republican Senator Markwayne Mullen from Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who has long pushed Trump to engage abroad, said the widening conflict represents an opportunity for Arab and European countries to join the fight against Iran and the militant groups it supports.

“I don’t mind people announcing whether they think this is a good idea or not,” he told reporters, but he also said too much power over the military was ceded to Congress in the War Powers Act, which stipulates that presidents must withdraw troops from a conflict within 90 days if there is no congressional authorization.

A House vote looms

On the other side of the Capitol, House leaders are also preparing for an intense debate on the war followed by a vote on Thursday.

“I believe we have the votes to defeat him, and I certainly hope we do,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said after an all-member briefing Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he expects a strong performance from Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution. At a news conference on Wednesday, several Democrats who fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spoke of the high costs of those conflicts.

One of them was Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “I learned when I was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan that when the elites in Washington beat the drums of war, beat their chests, talk about the costs of war and act tough, they don’t talk about doing it, and they don’t talk about their children,” Crowe said. “They’re talking about working-class kids like us.”