Steve Benen describes it the best of anyone I've seen.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/under-pressure-trump-war-powers-republicans-senate
Under pressure from Trump on war powers, Republicans fold and try to appease White House
Some GOP lawmakers were willing to show a little independence when the stakes were low, but they lost their nerve when it really mattered.
On Tuesday, Congress did something it had never done before: It approved a war powers resolution that rebuked Donald Trump and called on the president to end the war in Iran.
It was a largely symbolic move — the measure had no formal force of law — but as Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted in a statement, “This marks the first time since the enactment of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 that both chambers of Congress have approved a concurrent resolution directing a sitting president to end a military conflict.”
Hours after Senate Republicans heard from the president, they took fresh steps to try to appease him. MS NOW’s Jack Fitzpatrick reported:
A procedural vote on an Iran war powers resolution failed at about 11 p.m. on Wednesday, as two Republicans changed their position after yesterday’s confrontation with Trump.
The vote was 50-47, with one member, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting present. Paul has voted for every war powers resolution since the Iran war began. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., voted against the motion along with most other Republicans. Those two members had supported the House-approved concurrent resolution that the Senate adopted on Tuesday.
GOP leaders specifically held the vote, knowing it would fail, in order to make Trump feel better.
With this in mind, shortly before midnight, the president published a new item on his platform, celebrating the move. “Wow!” he wrote. “The Senate just changed its vote on Iran from 50-48 against, to 50-47 for. … This vote puts Iran on notice!” That wasn’t quite right.
The Senate didn’t change its vote, so much as it held two separate votes on related but distinct resolutions.
The measure on Tuesday afternoon, which has not been negated or undone, was historically significant, but it lacked any real practical meaning. The resolution simply expressed the sentiment of Congress. It didn’t even advance to the White House for a presidential signature or veto.
The only reason the Republicns voted for the first resolution is because it was effectively meaningless. It accomplishes nothing. The second resolution would have explicitly directed Trump to “remove the United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against Iran” unless authorized by Congress. Republicans were never going to vote for that.
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