Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Friday that President Trump had the legal authority to launch a missile attack at a Syrian airfield Thursday night, because it was a limited attack that fell short of a full declaration of war.
“The president was authorized to conduct this strike,” Rubio said on ABC News. “He not asking for a declaration of war, he’s not committing ground troops over an extended period of time.”
"[Trump] was authorized to commit strike… not only does he have right, he has an obligation to act." – @marcorubio to @GStephanopoulos pic.twitter.com/slfg626CTu— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 7, 2017
“He was dealing with exigent circumstances, and as the commander in chief, not only does he have the right, he has an obligation to act,” Rubio said.
“Obviously, if this is going to be a broader, long-term conflict, it is important that he comes to Congress because we need to pay for it, it needs to be funded on top of everything else,” he added. “And I believe that’s exactly what they will do.”
On Fox News, Rubio added that Assad violated its commitment to get rid of its nuclear weapons, and said that violation put U.S. troops in the region at risk.
“So it posed a threat to American personnel,” he said.
.@marcorubio: #SyriaStrikes were the right thing to do. It was legal, Assad posed a threat to Americans, & it achieved a military objective. pic.twitter.com/PlsZ8TvgJR
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 7, 2017
But while Rubio defended Trump’s action, many Democrats said Trump needed congressional approval.
It’s an issue that Congress will likely need to debate again in the wake of the attack. Some are already arguing that the Constitution does not allow Trump to take the kind of action he did without congressional approval because the U.S. was not facing an imminent threat from Syria.
But Congress faced similar questions in 2011, after President Obama approved military operations against Libya without approval from Congress.
Then, Obama decided to assist a U.N.-led operation against Libya, and said the effort was aimed at preventing a “humanitarian catastrophe.” Obama defended his action as something that would be “limited in their nature, duration, and scope,” language similar to what Rubio used in his defense of Trump’s action.
“The United States has not deployed ground forces into Libya,” Obama wrote to Congress. “United States forces are conducting a limited and well-defined mission in support of international efforts to protect civilians and prevent a humanitarian disaster.”
