White House, Holder respond to Rand Paul: ‘The answer is no’ (Lindsey Graham offended!)

Washington Examiner ^ | 3/7/13 | Joel Gehrke

[cotton1706]

Attorney General Eric Holder wrote Sen. Rand Paul,R-Ky., to confirm that President Obama does not have the authority to kill an American on U.S. soil in a non-combat situation, Obama’s spokesman announced today.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney quoted from the letter that Holder sent to Paul today. “Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on an American soil?” Holder wrote, per Carney. “The answer is no.”

Carney added that, “if the United States were under attack, there were an imminent threat,” the president has the authority to protect the country from that assault.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized Paul for posing the question. “I find the question offensive,” he said on the Senate floor this morning.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I'm guessing that Holder used the term combat because that's the whole point of what Paul was talking about:

"We're arguing about targeted strikes of people not involved in combat. That's my concern."

. . .

That's all I'm asking here. I'm asking for the President to admit publicly that he's not in favor of summary executions. That's really all I'm asking. Summary executions of noncombatants. It seems like a pretty easy answer. We could be done with this in a moment's notice if someone would call the President, ask him the question, we could be done with this. Because that's what I want to hear. Not that he's not going to use the military to repel an invasion. Nobody is questioning the authority of the President to repel an invasion. But I am questioning the authority of the President to kill noncombatants asleep at home, eating at the restaurant, or what have you"

. . .

"Another way to resolve this where we could conclude this debate and get on with the nomination would be for the majority party to come forward with a resolution that says you know what? We aren't going to kill noncombatants in America with drone strikes. We're not going to use the military."

. . .

"So it's a really easy question and the president should just very frankly answer the question, 'I will not kill noncombatants. In America.'"

. . .

"If the president will sort of say what Attorney General Holder was trying to say this morning and put it into actual words, that he thinks that he has the military authority to reject imminent attack, I think we all agree to that. But if he says that he's not going to use drones on people who are not engaged in combat in America, I think we could be done with this debate."

[CaptainPhilFan]

They are lawyers, and semantics is their specialty.

Everyone of us posting in this forum, or
posting anti-Obama things on FaceBook or the
Tea Party Community are, by the newly-defined
and named conditions of being a terrorist (by the
DHS), terrorists and dangerous enemy combatants.

It is my cynical, peevish and maybe even childish
belief that the 40 or so posts and comments I’ve
made today alone on this topic would be considered
‘combat’ by Holder and Prezident Skeeter.

[thouworm]

[SunkenCiv]

• ...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said. [Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften [immigration, gay marriage] stance]

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• One day after announcing on his radio show that he is "truly considering" running in 2014 for the U.S. Senate seat now held by New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg, Rivera amped up his message today in a television interview and a column on the Fox News Latino website... a moderate Republican who is fiscally conservative but also supports gay marriage and Roe v. Wade... [Geraldo Rivera declares himself a 'moderate Republican' as he eyes U.S. Senate run]

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