Politics

Wesley Clark chides Ron Paul: Obama didn’t need congressional approval to attack Libya [VIDEO]

Nicholas Ballasy Senior Video Reporter
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Retired General Wesley Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate, disagreed with GOP presidential candidate and Texas congressman Ron Paul after Tuesday night’s CNN Republican debate, telling The Daily Caller that President Obama did not need congressional authorization for his military operations in Libya.

Watch the video from the spin room of the GOP presidential debate:
[dcvideo videoid=”24779576″ name=”ndnPlayer_24779576″ type=”ndn” /]

Obama “did actually look at the legal requirements of the War Powers Act, and this has been an issue that every president’s had to face,” Clark told TheDC in the post-debate spin room.

“It’s a question of ‘exactly where does the War Powers Act kick in?’ and when he looked at it and the lawyers looked at it and evaluated it, they said, ‘it doesn’t quite kick in.’ I stand with those lawyers.”

Rep. Paul had said during the debate that “if you’re going to keep sending foreign aid overseas and these endless wars that you don’t have to declare, and go into Libya without even consulting with the Congress,the biggest threat to our national security is our financial condition.”

The War Powers Act requires the president to consult Congress before sending troops overseas: “[W]ithin sixty calendar days after a report is submitted or is required to be submitted … the President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces with respect to which such report was submitted (or required to be submitted), unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by law such sixty-day period, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States.”

Videography by Sean Rainey

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