Friday in Washington D.C. at the 2014 Values Voter Summit, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore apart President Barack Obama for “acting like a king and ignoring the Constitution” by using “explanations of an autocrat” to circumvent the power of Congress and illegally go to war.
Paul said, “America needs a revival” because we are in a “spiritual crisis” and “the problem is not the wolf’s at the door, [but] its termites in the floor.”
“The president acts like he’s a king and ignores the Constitution and says if Congress will not act, then I must. These are not the words of a great leader,” he continued. “These are the words that sound more like the explanations of an autocrat.”
“The president is just arrogant, instead of coming to congress he illegally acts on his own when we are faced with a crisis that does require action,” Paul added. “Though I am one that is hesitant to be involved in the civil war in the Middle East, ISIS is now a threat to the consulate. They are a threat to our embassy in Baghdad. We should act but within the will of law. The Constitution says that only Congress may declare war yet this president has in Libya and this week in this area committed our sons and daughters to a war that isn’t authorized by Congress. Had I been the president I would have called for a joint session of Congress. I would have laid out the threat and I would have requested congressional authority to respond. By failing, he missed the chance to galvanize the country and to become a great American leader.”
“How did we stray so far from the Constitution?” he said. :And how do we find our way back to the traditions of the founders?”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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