Colorado’s Democratic delegation spent this week demanding congressional war authority over a conflict 47 years in the making — a constitutional principle they couldn’t locate during four years of Joe Biden.
The Senate rejected the Iran war powers resolution Wednesday, 47-53. The House followed Thursday, 212-219. Colorado’s Democrats voted unanimously for both measures. Colorado’s Republicans voted unanimously against.
The Iran the delegation wants Congress to authorize a response to is not a new threat. The Islamic Republic has funded proxy terror networks, pursued nuclear weapons, and killed Americans since 1979. What changed Saturday was the president’s party affiliation.
Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who completed three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the delegation’s most visible voice this week. He told reporters that “elites in Washington bang the war drums” while working-class kids pay the price. In the 117th Congress, Crow voted with Biden’s position 100% of the time and signed a letter urging Biden to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. When Lauren Boebert heckled Biden during the 2022 State of the Union over the 13 service members killed at Kabul airport, Crow condemned her, calling it “entirely inappropriate.”
Last November, Crow recorded a video with five other Democratic lawmakers urging military members and intelligence personnel to refuse what they called illegal orders from the Trump administration. A federal grand jury declined to indict him for it in February. No comparable urgency accompanied the Afghanistan withdrawal that killed those 13 troops and handed the Taliban a country.
Sen. Michael Bennet marked Biden’s exit from the 2024 race by comparing his presidency to Roosevelt’s and Johnson’s. Sen. John Hickenlooper called it one of the most significant White House tenures in history. The entire delegation signed a joint statement demanding a Republican committee chairman unblock hundreds of millions in Pentagon funding — pushing for more executive military capacity, not less.
The war powers clock, it turns out, is on a party timer. It started Saturday.
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