Sen. Mike Lee: Trump Admin Refused to Answer If They’d Get Congress Approval For Strike Against Iranian President
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) claimed in an interview with NPR, Thursday, that the Trump administration refused to answer a question on whether they’d seek congressional approval for a strike against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
In the interview with NPR’s Morning Edition co-host Rachel Martin, Lee claimed that Trump administration officials “were unable or unwilling to identify any point” they’d seek authorization from Congress for their actions related to Iran.
“What kind of hypotheticals were you putting to them in hopes of understanding when the administration sees a need for Congressional authority?” asked Martin.
“As I recall, one of my colleagues asked a hypothetical involving the Supreme Leader of Iran: If at that point, the United States government decided that it wanted to undertake a strike against him personally, recognizing that he would be a threat to the United States, would that require authorization for the use of military force?” replied Lee. “The fact that there was nothing but a refusal to answer that question was perhaps the most deeply upsetting thing to me in that meeting.”
On Wednesday, following President Donald Trump’s speech on Iran, Lee announced that he would be supporting the War Powers Resolution, which would require the president to obtain congressional approval for acts of military force.
“These powers are not ours, they don’t belong to any of us,” he declared. “But when we allow them to be exercised through the wrong branches of government, with the wrong process — when you don’t have debate and discussion, you don’t allow the process itself to correct itself for the American people who will be most affected by these decisions to weigh in. That was insulting. That was demeaning to the process ordained by the Constitution. And I find it completely unacceptable.”
“On that basis, I’ve decided to supported Senator Kaine’s resolution, subject to the minor amendments that he and I discussed earlier today,” Lee continued.
Listen to the full interview above via NPR.
