11 Democrats Vote to Kill Bills Blocking Arms Sales to Israel

Senate Democrats on Wednesday refused to rally behind twin resolutions sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders to block nearly $450 million in weapons sales to Israel.

Seven Democrats joined every Republican in the Senate to vote against a resolution blocking the sale of bulldozers to Israel, given their role in razing Gaza to the ground. The resolution failed by a vote of 59-40. Another resolution to block the transfer of 1000-pound bombs failed by a vote of 63-36, with 11 Democrats voting against.

Despite protests at their offices on Monday urging them to support the resolution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand still voted against both resolutions.

This was the latest in a series of efforts by Sanders to halt weapons sales to Israel, which is bombing Lebanon and Iran with U.S. weapons and continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank despite a ceasefire, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Israel is also accused of encouraging ethnic cleansing against Shia Muslims in southern Lebanon.

“Under Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, we’ve seen an expanded war in Lebanon that is putting innocent Lebanese civilians at risk, and ongoing violence against Palestinians and their homes being demolished in the West Bank,” said Senator Mark Kelly, who had voted against Sanders’s previous two resolutions against weapons sales to Israel. “All of this has undermined the path forward for peace.”

Last July, 19 Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blocked Sanders’s last attempt. This time, Kelly was among the Democratic senators who changed their minds and voted for the resolution, taking into account that the resolutions are intertwined with President Trump’s unpopular war in Iran. A vote to continue weapons sales, which include $150 million in 1,000-pound bombs and $300 million in bulldozers, could be seen by voters as an endorsement of the war, which has hurt the economy and caused gas prices to skyrocket.

Here is the full list of Democrats who voted to continue sending bombs to Israel, with those who voted against both resolutions in bold:

1. Richard Blumenthal (CT)
2. Chris Coons (DE)
3. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV)
4. John Fetterman (PA)
5. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
6. Gary Peters (MI)
7. Jack Reed (RI)
8. Jackie Rosen (NV)
9. Chuck Schumer (NY)
10. Mark Warner (VA)
11. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

* This article has been updated to clarify the number of resolutions and how Democrats voted on each one.

A Black former federal employee is suing the Trump administration, claiming he was fired because of his race.

Alvin Brown, a Democratic member of the National Transportation Safety Board nominated by President Biden, was fired from his post in May 2025. In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Brown said that political differences couldn’t have been the main reason for his firing from the NTSB. Brown’s lawyers, who work for the Democracy Forward Foundation, also claim that 75 percent of Black officials at independent agencies have been fired under Trump.

“Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB cannot be explained by the fact that Mr. Brown is a Democrat and President Trump might have wanted to exert Republican control over the Board,” the lawsuit states. “At the time of Mr. Brown’s removal from the NTSB, there were two other Democrats serving on the Board.”

Since Brown’s firing was racially motivated, the lawsuit alleges, it “therefore violated Mr. Brown’s constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.” The lawsuit also points to people of color being dismissed at agencies including the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the Library of Congress.

The lawsuit cited Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and the fact that Brown’s replacement, John DeLeeuw, is white.

“President Trump has removed Black Senate-confirmed appointees; he has either nominated a non-Black individual for their replacement or has not formally replaced them at all,” the lawsuit states. “This trend fits with President Trump’s consistent messaging criticizing diversity and inclusion and his clear and demonstrable emphasis on hiring white people.”

Senate Republicans are allowing Donald Trump to continue to wage war with impunity.

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to block a resolution that would have stopped Trump from taking further military action in Iran without the express approval of Congress. The vote was 47–52, largely along party lines, with Senator Rand Paul joining the Democrats, and Senator John Fetterman siding with Republicans.

Some Republicans, however, expressed that they were nearing their breaking points. 

“I hope that we are arriving at an exit strategy here to bring this to a close to preserve our security interests and bring down the cost of gasoline. They’re very high. Very, very high,” said Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. 

Gas prices in the U.S. have surged beyond $4 a gallon as crude oil has climbed to more than $100 per barrel, placing a significant strain on Americans’ pocketbooks. Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports will only send prices higher.

It’s been 47 days since Trump first struck Iran. That means he has less than two weeks to acquire support from Congress. The War Powers Act states that the president can legally deploy armed forces in a hostile environment for a period of 60 days without congressional approval.  

South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds said that if Trump expects Congress to support the conflict beyond the 60-day window, then the administration should be prepared to “come in and give us a full description of it and sell the point and the plan.”

“We’ve got to start answering questions,” said North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. “The 60-day target is what I’m looking at.”

Earlier this month, Utah Senator John Curtis had warned Deseret News, “I will not support ongoing military action beyond a 60-day window without congressional approval. I take this position for two reasons—one is historical, and one is constitutional.”

On Wednesday, a federal jury found massive entertainment company Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, guilty of holding a monopoly on “major concert venues” and forcing artists to book via Ticketmaster or risk losing access to their amenities—a violation of federal antitrust laws. Remedies have yet to be determined.

The verdict was reached after four days of deliberations in a closely-watched trial in New York federal court. It comes after years of criticism of Live Nation’s predatory ticketing practices, and will likely completely change the face of the music industry from here on out. It also ends a long antitrust battle against Live Nation that Merrick Garland’s DOJ began in 2019.

The Department of Justice and 40 states sued Live Nation in 2024 for controlling “virtually every aspect of the live music ecosystem” along with Ticketmaster. In a move that surprised many of the states, and even the judge overseeing the case, Trump’s Justice Department decided to settle with Live Nation a week into trial for $281 million. Judge Arun Subramanian called the move “totally unacceptable,” given the lack of transparency from the DOJ. To make matters even worse, a whopping 34 of the 40 states involved rejected the settlement and chose to continue the trial without the DOJ’s help.

This story has been updated.

Six House Republicans sided with the Democratic Party Wednesday, forcing a vote on a bill that could expand protections for Haitian immigrants.

Republican Representatives María Elvira Salazar (Florida), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania), Mike Lawler (New York), Don Bacon (Nebraska), Carlos Giménez (Florida), and Nicole Malliotakis (New York) voted alongside 212 House Democrats and one independent to advance a vote to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians for three years.

“I have one of the largest Haitian populations in the country in my district,” Lawler told The Washington Post. “If you end [temporary protections] without addressing work authorization, it will cause a huge crisis in our health care system, especially in an area like mine, where a lot of our Haitian TPS holders are nurses.”

The minority party utilized a discharge petition to bring the issue to the House floor, circumventing the whims of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Donald Trump.

Politicians across the country have argued that ending TPS for Haitians would threaten the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of families, disrupt state economies, and jeopardize the futures of the population’s American-born children.

Haitians have become a favorite target of the MAGA movement in recent years. In 2024, several prominent members of the party—including then–vice presidential candidate JD Vance—hurled racist and baseless accusations against Haitian immigrants in Ohio, claiming that they were causing “constant car crashes” and were capturing and eating their neighbors’ pets.

The Trump administration set an effective end date for TPS for Haiti of September 2, 2025, a decision that was expected to affect more than 348,000 people in the U.S. But the effort has since been held up in the judiciary as lower courts stepped in to prevent the suspension.

The admin has appealed the matter to the Supreme Court, which will hear the government’s argument on April 29. Nineteen attorneys general have jointly filed an amicus brief imploring the nation’s highest court to uphold Haitians’ legal status.