Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sounded a warning to those in the Trump administration taking aggressive military steps toward confronting Iran: You can’t go to war without Congress.
“The responsibility in the Constitution is for Congress to declare war,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “So I hope that the president’s advisers recognize they have no authorization to go forward in any way.”
Pelosi specifically argued the current authorization for use of military force (AUMF), which was passed to fight terrorists in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks, would not extend to a confrontation with Iran.
“They cannot call the authorization, AUMF, the authorization for the use of military force that was passed in 2001, as any authorization to go forward in the Middle East now,” she said.
The existing AUMF has been used by presidents of both parties to launch operations well beyond its initial target of Afghanistan. And many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say it needs updating to fit the current conflict, which has extended into Syria, terrorist hotspots in Africa and beyond. (A separate AUMF, passed in 2003 to authorize the invasion of Iraq, has since expired.)
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Pelosi warns Trump not to start war with Iran: Only Congress can declare war https://t.co/SHkqNgUCg3 pic.twitter.com/60oZoSCpof
— The Hill (@thehill) May 17, 2019
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