During Tuesday night’s CNN Democratic presidential debate, 2020 candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden bashed President Trump for recently ordering a strike that took out top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Biden insisted the president must first go to Congress before taking this kind of military action.
CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer then noted, “Mr. Vice President, just to be clear, the Obama-Biden administration did not ask Congress for permission multiple times when it took military action.”
“So would the Biden doctrine be different?” Blitzer asked.
“No,” Biden immediately replied. “There was the Authorization for the Use of Military Force that was passed by the United States Congress, House and Senate, and signed by the president.”
“It does not give authority to go into Iran,” Biden said. “It gave authority to deal with these other issues.”
Um, what?
What is Joe Biden saying here?
They had an AUMF? It was a good thing? They tried to replace it? So they didn’t like it? But used it anyway?
A lot of contradictions for under 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/Cm1GZjl8Q6
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) January 15, 2020
Biden is correct that the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, did give the White House permission to go after the perpetrators of 9/11, which the administration would stretch to include Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
But ever since, presidents have used the AUMF to go after enemies that had nothing to do with 9/11, including President Obama’s strike on Libya in 2011 and desire to wage war on Syria in 2013, among other examples. Obama insisted at the time that the AUMF gave him the authority to take military action in these countries.
This is exactly what the Trump administration argues today to defend the president’s recent strike to take out Soleimani. Critics of Trump’s controversial order make the argument that an AUMF passed nearly two decades ago cannot provide justification today for the executive branch to launch any war it wants.
“[Trump officials] maintain, both in private and in public, that a vote by Congress in 2003 or 2002 to go after Saddam Hussein was a vote that now allows them to still be in Iraq and do whatever they want, including killing a foreign general from Iran,” said Sen. Rand Paul on Meet the Press on Sunday. “And I don’t think that’s what Congress meant in 2002.”
“We really need to have a debate about whether we should still be in Iraq or in Afghanistan,” the Kentucky Republican continued. “There needs to be authorization from Congress.”
This is what Biden originally said at Tuesday night’s debate, that Congress must vote on war — until he said the AUMF justified his past administration’s actions to the contrary, thus blatantly contradicting his prior statement.
Paul noted that Obama used the AUMF as his excuse for the supposed legality of his targeted killings. “Well, you know this is not a new trend,” Paul said, adding, “President Obama did hundreds and hundreds of targeted killings without asking for permission.”
Apparently, Biden defends these many killings under Obama with his claim that the AUMF justifies “other issues.” Right.
Joe Biden was just asked about the Obama administration’s interventions without going to Congress. He cited the AUMF which is basically saying “we didn’t need to.” That authorization is still in place today yet he still criticized Trump for not going to Congress.
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 15, 2020
Biden is now attacking Trump for not going to Congress before taking military action, though his own administration did the same thing many times over, using the same rationale the Trump administration does today.
Biden didn’t belong anywhere near the White House the first time — and he just reminded us why.
Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul.
