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Tuesday on CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk Box,\u201d Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said the evidence that Iran was an imminent threat to the United States was not there.<\/p>\n
Co-host Joe Kernen said, \u201cYou have such a tough job. I asked Senator Scott, and he said, I love Senator Paul because you never waver, but everybody wavers. I was going to ask you about war powers, and the Constitution is messy, and to stick with it as you do in the real world, it\u2019s hard. I don\u2019t know why you even have this job. It must be so difficult at this point for you, right? It\u2019s a pain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul said, \u201cIf not me, who will do it? Somebody needs to do it. And people say, \u2018Oh, be on the team.\u2019 There\u2019s enough people on the team. There needs to be somebody not on the team on occasion who says, \u201d You know what, we have to vote on the initiation of war, it\u2019s our obligation. And that\u2019s what our founders put in there, because they didn\u2019t want all the power in one person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kernen said, \u201cRight, but you look at how many times, you know, the War Powers Act was essentially violated, you wonder why people say, well, it was, you know, Libya, Kosovo, all these other things. It just seems like, de facto, it\u2019s not relevant anymore or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul said, \u201cThe interesting thing about the War Powers Act is it\u2019s misreported all the time. It\u2019s misreported it as a reporting, requirement that after 60 days, the president needs to report. Well, people don\u2019t read the whole War Powers Act. War Powers Act only says there\u2019s three instances when a president can go to war, a declaration by Congress, use of authorization of force by Congress or an imminent threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cSo really, the debate now should be is a 47-year-old conflict and imminent threat. Were there changes in their nuclear program that made this an imminent threat? And I don\u2019t think the evidence is there that there was an imminent threat that would allow the president to go to war on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow Pam Key on X <\/i>@pamkeyNEN<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n