Rand Paul grills Mike Pompeo on Constitutional authority of President to make war
During the confirmation hearing of Secretary of State Nominee Mike Pompeo in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul asked some very important question to Mr. Pompeo concerning whether the President has the Constitutional authority to essentially bomb another country:
Mike Pompeo
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Paul: You discussed with Sen. Kaine a little bit about whether the President has the authority to bomb Assad’s forces or installations in Syria and mentioned–historically, we’ve done it in the past.
I don’t think that’s a complete enough answer. My question would be, Do you think it’s Constitutional? Does the President have the Constitutional authority to to bomb Assad’s forces? Does he have the Constitutional authority, absent Congressional action, to bomb Assad’s forces or installations?
Pompeo: Senator, I think I said this to Sen. Kaine. I’m happy to repeat my view on this. Those decisions are waiting. Everyplace we can, we should work alongside Congress to get that, but yes, I believe the President has the domestic authority to do that. I don’t think that has been disputed by Republicans or Democrats throughout an extended period of time.
Paul: Actually, it’s disputed mostly by our Founding Fathers who gave that authority to Congress and actually, they were uniformly opposed to the Executive branch having that power.
In fact, Madison wrote very specifically, he said, the the Executive branch is the branch most prone to war, therefore, we have with studied care vested that authority in the legislature.
So the fact that we have in the past done this doesn’t make it Constitutional. And I would say that I take objection to the idea that the President can go to war when he wants, where he wants.
Sen Paul also questioned Mr. Pompeo on his views on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Watch questioning below:
