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Think congress has more power than you do when working in the executive. i understand both sides of this argument. but i think in this particular case what the president is doing now is so clearly authorized by the u.n. security council resolution that the president's position is particularly strong where he has the international law on his side. the president always is going to say he has -- even under the war powers act, he's got 90 days or 60 days to get a vote. look, the opponents are always going to cite the war powers act. no president since it was put in place in 1973 has ever accepted ...

Now he has the power to come away from the house and the senate and from the congress. but the argument is he's getting authority from the u.n. treaties allow -- that become it is law of the land. there are limitations. you cannot amend the constitution by treaty. what if the u.n. te sided we shouldn't have a first amendment. would you say, oh, this is okay because the authority comes from the united nations? you can't rule out -- go ahead. >> let me interrupt. i clearly agree about that. of course the u.n. can't amend our constitution but you also can't amend the constitution through the war ...

Isolationist is a misunderstanding of the definition. i am a noninterventionist. i am a free trader. i want people to come and go, trade with people. >> okay. >> and engage with people. isolationist is usually a protectionist. i'm for working and trading wi cuba. >> fair point and a fair distinction. now i want to pivot. you have made a strong argument that the president lacks the constitutional power to do what we are doing. explain why and explain -- it's been since 1942 since we have had a declaration of war from the united states congress. it's been decades. doesn't mean you're wrong. why ...

President presidential war power. now he has a different view. if you have been watching you have seen nic robertson reporting almost around the clock from tripoli. tonight he's responding to a story being pushed from fox news claiming he and other reporters covering the war in libya were taken to a compound and used as human shields to prevent a coalition strike, an allegation with zero foundation. earlier wolf blitzer spoke with nic for the real story. >> i want you to explain what you know about the suggestion, fox news reporting that you, a reuters crew and other journalists were used by g...

Could france go in? president sarkozy has been more aggressive than we in using military force. would they play that role? >> i don't think you should rule out the rebellion succeeding on the ground if we were to arm and train them, provide sophisticated weapons. we were preventing f ining gadhr force from operating. perhaps coordinating the air attacks with a ground offensive. then the mercenaries rushing to the east may be rushing to the south and going home and gadhafi will be left with hundreds defending him, not thousands. >> under the strictures of the u.n. mandate if rebels start playin...