Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has pressed President Obama to seek approval from Congress for any U.S. military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, regardless of whether a congressional OK is necessary.
“The view of myself and most of my members is, the president should be seeking congressional approval, period, for whatever he decides to do,” the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday. “That’s the way you hear from those of us who represent everyone in the country, that’s the way you get congressional support.”
The question of whether the president needs Congress’ blessing before engaging in military actions — particularly airstrikes when ground troops aren’t involved — has been hotly debated.
Obama raised the question himself during his first presidential campaign, telling the Boston Globe in 2007 that “the president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
“It is always preferable to have the informed consent of Congress prior to any military action,” he said.
McConnell said it would be in the president’s “best interest” to get Congress to “buy into” his plan for responding to the Islamic State.
“The president is the commander in chief, as we all know, and it’s his responsibility to come up with a plan for dealing with this,” the minority leader said. “It’s to his advantage and the country’s advantage to have Congress buy into that.”
McConnell was more defiant than House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that Congress should have a vote in any proposed attacks against the Islamic State. When Boehner was asked earlier in the day by a reporter if the president should ask Congress for “some kind of authorization,” he responded that “it’s not a key question because we don’t know what the strategy is.”
“Until the president outlines a strategy to deal with this serious threat, I don’t know what’s going to be involved,” Boehner said. “Nobody knows — no, let’s not assume.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also said Tuesday he will reserve judgment on the question until he learns more from the president about his plans.
“Everybody should just let us proceed based upon the facts,” he said.
The president has invited McConnell, Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to the White House for a Tuesday afternoon briefing on ISIS.
