On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) denounced as “Totally vague” a statement that he thought was the rationale used by the Trump administration to justify force in Iran when it was actually the statement used by the Obama administration to justify force in Libya.
Host Bill Maher said, “So, this statement from the administration, ‘The President had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force…because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.’ That’s too vague for you?”
Schiff answered, “Totally vague.”
Maher then said, “Okay, because that’s from Obama about Libya.”
Schiff responded, “Well, Obama made the argument, initially, that he could go into Syria without an authorization. I, and many others, pushed back on that argument. Ultimately, he did not go forward with going after Assad, even though Assad was gassing his own people, because he thought he might lose the vote in Congress. But I respect the fact that that was important to him, and the fact that he did not have the support of Congress meant that we weren’t going to go forward. We are unquestionably at war now. The founders made an extraordinary decision at the time, which was not to give that power to the president, but to give it to the Congress, because they worried, I think, as Hamilton said, that a president would grow too fond of making war. After Venezuela, after the earlier Iran conflict, after bombing Nigeria and Iraq and Syria, he’s grown too fond of this. And Congress…needs to step up, assert its role, or it’s going to be gone for good. And then, any time a president, for any reason, anywhere in the world, for any length of time, will feel free to make war, and that would be hugely dangerous for the country.”
Maher added that war should be voted on by Congress, but going around Congress on war has been going on for a while.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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