War Making Authority News Today

>> it is the united states congress under our constitution that has war-making authority. not the president of the united states. if he attacks iran, in my view, that would be unconstitutional. >> this president cannot take military action against iran without coming to congress. the 2001 authorization for the use of military force does not cover a military strike against iran. >> reporter: from one of the presidents biggest allies in the senate, arkansas senator tom cotton, says irans behavio...

Provide that intelligence. youre already seeing grumbling on both sides of the aisle, comments from both sides of the ill that the white house is not authorized to launch another war, yet you have an acting department of defense secretary and you have folks secretarytory to who are really driving the train on this? what can and thats the rub, right? this is why presidents have exercised so much war making authority in the recent years. we dont have any like general mattis in the they can demand ...

Somehow you can send troops into that sovereign nation without having to have congress grant the president more authority there. i think you are in the miernori view on that, dont you think, senator? >> no. weve already got troops on the ground. i dont see anybody saying cut off funding. if you dont like the thousands of military troops helping to destroy isil. cut off funding. >> karen, the point there being a practical one. while you were sleeping, lindsey graham saying to the country, were al...

Larger point is correct, that the more support you have in washington, d.c., and across the country for a military campaign, the better. and i think that there is -- i dont think there is a lot of political cost for trump going to congress and getting an authorization. if he sought one, i think he would get it. what was problematic for obama and the reason obama could never get an authorization is because he was squeezed between two opposite sides. on one hand there were a whole bunch of anti-wa...

Coalition to get half of congress to give him a kind of broad authority here. thats the kind of authority that obama really never wanted but i think trump probably wants it. >> karen, i was exploring this point earlier about how the middle east is different. both parties were saying its a mess over there. were going to use drones, war-making authority wherever we want. putting syria to the side, president obama taking a lot of flak over the red line, but folks will remember he was bombing five-p...

The president can at his instance just initiate war against anyone because we say theres terror suspects in this country. weve got to be very careful that we dont ruin our democracy with this seemingly insatiable instinct to use aggression as a means of trying to settle our differences with groups and other countries. should we pursue terrorists? yes. but as an army, no. as an international police force, yes. >> one of the strangest power dynamics of the second half of the 20th century has been ...

House services committee chairman asking for these hearings. the letter read in part by declaring a global war against nameless individuals, organizations and nations associated with the taliban and al qaeda as well as those playing a supporting role in their efforts, the detainee security act would appear to grant the president never unfettered authority to initiate military action around the world. so this otherwise obscure detainee security act would actually in your view expand the president...

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