OPINION:
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is calling for the impeachment of President Trump over the White House attack on Iran. Illinois Rep. Sean Casten is calling for Trump’s impeachment. Connecticut Rep. Jim Hines is accusing Trump of violating the Constitution. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries decried the fact that Trump didn’t seek congressional approval — implying an unconstitutional act. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the bombing “grossly unconstitutional.”
Democrats are just so ignorant. Don’t they have a Ukraine-Russia war to attend to — you know, the endless kind they now profess to hate?
But Sen. Chuck Schumer’s statement is hilarious.
“We must enforce the War Powers Act and I’m urging Leader Thune to put it on the Senate floor immediately,” he said, referring to Senate Majority Leader John Thune. “I am voting for it and implore all senators on both sides of the aisle to vote for it.”
Bill Clinton, while president, launched airstrikes over Kosovo without going the congressional war-declaration route, and instead cited his executive authority under the War Powers Act to attack. He actually violated the War Powers Act’s restrictions on the length of time a president could launch strikes without obtaining congressional approval. His unilaterally ordered attack lasted 78 days. The War Powers Act only allows for a presidentially ordered 60-day strike — under emergency conditions, actually — after which time Congress must vote on and approve continued strikes, or the troops must withdraw.
As New York Rep. Peter King said in 2013, “The House did vote against engagement in Kosovo, and Bill Clinton kept fighting anyway. And then, ultimately, a vote did pass. But [Clinton] had bombing missions being carried in Kosovo after the House of Representatives voted against him taking action.”
Schumer didn’t have an issue with the War Powers Act then.
Barack Obama, as president, also skirted War Powers requirements when waging action in Syria, against the approval of Congress.
Schumer didn’t have an issue with the War Powers Act then, either.
Democrats never care about the Constitution until they can use it as a political tool, to their advantage.
The War Powers Act is actually a terrible piece of legislation that circumvents the Constitution, even as it purports to uphold the Constitution. It was passed in 1973 supposedly to limit the president’s ability to wage war and order military strikes abroad. The Constitution, however, already makes clear that it’s only Congress that has the right to declare war and fund military engagements. So what’s occurred over the years is a failure of Congress to do the hard duty of openly and transparently declaring war, or voting against war, and then allowing the president, as commander-in-chief, to order the military here, order the military there — to essentially wage wars without calling them wars. Absent declaration, there is no real game plan; no real exit strategy; no real understanding of what is a win versus a loss.
Thus: never-ending occupations.
Democrats know this. So, too, Republicans.
So the dirty little secret of D.C. politics is that the War Powers Act is used and abused by both parties for political purposes.
But as usual, Democrats take their politicking to new levels of shameful gaslighting and hypocrisy.
Unlike past Democrat presidents, Trump, with this strike on Iran, has not broken the terms of the War Powers Act.
There is no impeachable offense.
“The president’s disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and congressional war powers,” Ocasio-Cortex wrote on X. “He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.”
And by “absolutely and clearly,” it’s of course meant “not.”
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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