Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted his colleagues for failing to pass a resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s military campaign in Iran. 

The Kentucky Republican made the remarks in an opinion column published on Fox News a day after the Senate rejected a measure that would have required congressional authorization for continued U.S. military action against Iran. Paul was the lone Republican to join Democrats backing the resolution, which failed in a 47-53 vote.

“The constitutional separation of war powers is not just some notion that belongs in our history books,” Paul said. “It’s a vital part of a democratic republic. This Congress should be ashamed of how it has allowed this unilateral march to war.”

The resolution, led by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a law designed to limit a president’s ability to involve U.S. forces in hostilities without approval from Congress. The measure would have required the Trump administration to seek congressional authorization to continue military operations against Iran. 

The vote came amid rapidly escalating tensions with Iran following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian leadership and military targets. The conflict intensified after Iran launched missile and drone attacks across the Middle East, one of which killed six U.S. soldiers in Kuwait. 

Paul said the public is ill-informed about the war in Iran and criticized Trump’s manner of communication. 

“Americans were not asked if they would bear the burdens of war. Instead, the American people were told, through a presidential eight-minute video posted around 2:30 in the morning, that the country was, once again, at war,” Paul said. “We have no idea how many casualties the American people are supposed to tolerate. We cannot know the answer to these questions because no one bothered to make the case that war with Iran was worth the sacrifice.”

Paul warned that allowing the executive branch to conduct military operations without congressional authorization undermines the constitutional balance of powers.

Paul framed his colleagues’ decision as an intentional move to evade a public debate on Iran. He said lawmakers want to have “plausible deniability” as they head into the midterm elections. 

“The congressional leadership — resigned to their own irrelevance — will gladly hand the president the power to initiate war in exchange for plausible deniability,” Paul said. “Congressional leaders want to make the case to voters that they are not to be held accountable at the ballot box because they played no role in the decision to go to war. That is not statesmanship. That is shameful.”

A longtime vocal critic of U.S. military intervention in the Middle East, Paul has frequently argued that Congress must reassert its authority over war powers. He previously opposed military action against Iran and has pushed for greater oversight of U.S. military engagements abroad. 

The effort to rein in Trump’s military power in Iran is not yet over, as the House will vote on the Iran War Powers Resolution from Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Thursday.