Rep. Jayapal: Biden Should Have Sought Congressional Approval Before Authorizing Military Strikes in Yemen

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Velshi: “— you are getting two? It is the object district some selves, or it that the president engaged in them without congressional approval, or both?”

Jayapal: “It is the president engaged in these strikes without seeking congressional approval, and this is a long debated issue, of course, because article one of the Constitution gives the power to declare or two Congress, article two if the power to the president to direct military forces as commander-in-chief. So, just backing up, in 1973, amidst a you know, the disastrous war in vietnam, and the ways in which the dynasties was pulled into that conflict little by little, Congress decided to reassert our congressional authority by passing the war powers resolution of 1973. In the war powers resolution, it’s Pacific Lee articulated the instances where the instances or the president can uninitiated use of force and military actions that commit United States forces. And there were three instances. One was a declaration of war. Too was a statutory authority, is given. And three’s instances or the United States faces an emergency attack on the United States or on its possessions or territories. Now, the intent here was to say that the president must be in consultation whenever possible with Congress. In fact, section three of the war powers resolution says that. It specifically says in every circumstance where possible, the president must consult with Congress. So, we have both Congress and the president weighing what the course forward should be. In this situation, Ali, what the president did is consult with a huge number of allies. It took weeks and, in fact, the White House was telegraphing that there was going to be some retaliation, so, there was certainly time and space to come to Congress and consult with Congress, and ask for our authority, particularly given that the reason the houthis and you, know, this is a violent extremist group. We, obviously, have to deal with the houthis, but particularly because the houthis were saying the reason they’re doing this is because of the war in Gaza. So, I think the implications of all of this are that the United States could be pushed into a significant set of hostilities, and committing of our resources, and that is something Congress should consider. I don’t think we can anymore say we are in danger of the