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'It's Disputed by Our Founding Fathers': Paul Challenges Pompeo on Syria, Military Deployments
Fox News Insider ^ | 4-12-2018 | Fox News Insider

Posted on 04/12/2018 7:35:55 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) challenged Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo Thursday on whether President Trump can authorize strikes on Syria without approval from Congress.

Pompeo, the current CIA director and a former congressman, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he believes the president has the authority to sign off on another attack on Bashar al-Assad's forces.

He said that power of the president has not been disputed by Democrats or Republicans for an "extended" period of time.

Paul disputed that, arguing the Constitution gives that power to Congress, not the executive branch.

"Actually it's disputed mostly by our founding fathers," he countered, adding he objects to the idea that a president can "go to war when he wants, where he wants."

Paul argued the U.S. government now wants to keep pursuing radical Islamists around the world based on the authorization from Congress after 9/11.

He said he believes Trump has "good instincts" against these deployments, but his advisers are influencing him with the opposite view.

(Excerpt) Read more at insider.foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Syria
KEYWORDS: constitution; randpaul
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It is a shame that Rand Paul is one of the few in Washington who takes the Constitution seriously.
1 posted on 04/12/2018 7:35:55 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Thomas Jefferson sent ships to fight the Barbary pirates without a declaration of war.


2 posted on 04/12/2018 7:40:32 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

It is a shame that Rand Paul is one of the few in Washington who takes the Constitution seriously.

I was under the impression the FBI ran everything.


3 posted on 04/12/2018 7:40:47 PM PDT by Flick Lives
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

The Kenyanesian Usurper was excluded from office by the founders because he was the son of a foreign national, born with divided allegiances, loyalties and citizenships.

No one in the District of Corruption cared.


4 posted on 04/12/2018 7:42:19 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: marktwain
Congress gave Jefferson the authority to attack the Barbary states if they declared war first which Tripoli did. It wasn't an open-ended authorization to attack nations which had not attacked us nor declared war against us.
5 posted on 04/12/2018 7:46:59 PM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

I actually do not agree with this. Strong, and important precedent is set that a president can respond unilaterally in response to events. If it’s a protracted military effort, Congress must act, but not for brief attacks. Congress doesn’t vote to bomb an airbase or send a group of special forces into nations. There’s definitely debate to be had on the issue, and I am not sure where this Syria discussion falls, but the president can act on his own in approving a response.


6 posted on 04/12/2018 7:56:18 PM PDT by ilgipper
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Congress gave the authority *after* we were already at war.

“On arrival at Gibraltar July 1, Commodore Dale learned we were at war with Tripoli. During the next few months, squadron vessels blocked two Tripolitan corsairs in Gibraltar, delivered goods and messages in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, escorted American merchant ships, and briefly blockaded Tripoli harbor. In the only real action that year, the schooner Enterprize engaged and soundly defeated the Tripolitan ship Tripoli off the coast of Malta on August 1.22

In his annual address to Congress at the end of the year Jefferson reported on the demands of the pasha, concluded that “the style of the demand admitted but one answer,” and described the action taken to date. That action had been taken without any consultation with Congress, but the president now asked for formal and expanded power to deal with Barbary. Two months later Congress passed an act authorizing him to instruct naval commanders to seize Tripolitan goods and vessels, and to commission privateers to aid in the effort.23”

https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/first-barbary-war


7 posted on 04/12/2018 7:57:25 PM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

The CIA can order strikes on their own.


8 posted on 04/12/2018 8:00:40 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Flick Lives

Brennan still runs everything.


9 posted on 04/12/2018 8:02:45 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Kind of a modern day Cicero


10 posted on 04/12/2018 8:04:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: marktwain

Pirates


11 posted on 04/12/2018 8:04:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Paladin2
I believe the CIA created the "chemical Weapons" false flags in Syria

Trump got snookered

the CIA is a system of lies and deception, most evil tentacle of the Deep State

12 posted on 04/12/2018 8:05:56 PM PDT by KTM rider ( .......than to post and remove all doubt)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

But in this case, we’re not even pursuing the radical Islamists. We’re pursuing a secular, admittedly barbaric tyrant who actually protects Christians from the radical Islamists.

And besides, wasn’t the 9-11 authorization for use of force against the Taliban in Afghanistan???


13 posted on 04/12/2018 8:07:22 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

No, this is stupid.
Our Founders waged lots of war without Congressional declaration: pirates and Indians mostly but also against France.

What’s changed is that Congressmen are not concerned with what’s good for the US, but what’s good for their image and their donors.


14 posted on 04/12/2018 8:16:14 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

If only we had a Congress that wasn’t corrupt, attempting to kill every move the president makes, and didn’t sink ships with their collective loose libs. I have absolutely no faith/trust in Congress. I do have faith and trust in President Trump.


15 posted on 04/12/2018 8:23:08 PM PDT by Gator113 ( ~~Trump 2020~~)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Rand is just pissed because he got warred upon while mowing the lawn

Dear Rand you missed a spot !


16 posted on 04/12/2018 8:37:37 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (I think therefore im Dangerous to the liberal agenda !)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Rand Paul is brilliant!


17 posted on 04/12/2018 8:46:48 PM PDT by Bogie
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

“...Memorandum: Get, if I can, The Federalist without buying it. It is not worth it. But, being a lost book, Izard, or some one else, will give it to me. It certainly was instrumental in procuring the adoption of the Constitution. This is merely a point of curiosity and amusement to see how wide of its explanations and conjectures the stream of business has taken its course. “

“February 1st, Tuesday.—This day I had much to say against the report of a committee which went to declare war against the Algerines. It is not suspicion that the designs of the court are to have a fleet and army. The Indian war is forced forward to justify our having a standing army, and eleven unfortunate men, now in slavery in Algiers, is the pretext for fitting out a fleet to go to war with them. While fourteen of these captives were alive, the barbarians asked about thirty-five thousand dollars for them; but it is urged that we should expend half a million dollars rather than redeem these unhappy men. I vociferated against the measure, and, I suppose, offended my colleague. This thing of a fleet has been working among our members all the session. I have heard it break out often.”

Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, 1789-1791

This cantankerous anti-federalist should be Paul’s guide.


18 posted on 04/12/2018 8:47:04 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
And besides, wasn’t the 9-11 authorization for use of force against the Taliban in Afghanistan???

Sigh. Such a pre-9-11 mindset.

We've always been at war with Eastasia.

19 posted on 04/12/2018 9:27:30 PM PDT by Gunslingr3
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
Rand Paul is wrong in his interpretation of the Constitution's war power clause. Although the issue was only briefly discussed at the federal convention, there was understood to be a distinction between the Congressional power to declare war and the Executive's power to repel attacks and to make war.

During the Vietnam war, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of undeclared war by holding that if Congress provided the necessary military funding, the President, as Commander in Chief, had the power to make war, subject to the power of Congress to cut off of funding. Based on that determination, a Democratic Congress cut off funding for continued US support of South Vietnam, which swiftly led to its fall to the invading North Vietnamese army.

The United States has a long-standing national policy that Congress has endorsed that opposes foreign states having or using chemical weapons. In several instances, Congress has tacitly or expressly approved military force to prevent or punish the use of chemical weapons. President Trump has the constitutional authority to use punitive military force against Syria.

The harder questions arise from the larger context of what our strategy is in regard to Syria. No matter the verbiage though, the bottom line is that we are finding our way through a minefield, step by step.

20 posted on 04/12/2018 11:41:19 PM PDT by Rockingham
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