Sen. Lee continues to call for President Biden to get Congress’ permission before retaliating for strike that killed 3 U.S. soldiers
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When three U.S. troops were killed and dozens of others were injured during a drone strike in Jordan near the Syrian border, American officials blamed Iran-backed militia. Now, multiple news outlets report that the U.S. response to the drone attack will come soon and will strike multiple targets.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden told reporters he has decided how the White House will retaliate. He said he holds Iran “responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.” When asked if he was worried about escalating conflict in the region, he said, “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for.”
Iran denies any involvement, as Iranian Foreign Minister spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Monday in an official release.
Should the U.S. choose to engage in broader attacks against Iran, several lawmakers, including Utah’s Sen. Mike Lee, say Biden would require authority from Congress. This “ensures that decisions to go to war will be made public with input from the people,” wrote Lee, a Republican, on social media Monday.
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In an interview with the online magazine Responsible Statecraft, Lee said Biden is within his right to order “defensive strikes in cases of immediate threats to the United States and its military.”
“But as we have already seen, the Biden administration already interprets this prerogative far too broadly in other areas of the Middle East,” he said. “It is possible that retaliation is indeed the right move, but we cannot allow President Biden to sleepwalk America into an undeclared war with Iran in the process.”
On Wednesday, Lee reposted a 2007 video of Biden, where he threatened then-President George W. Bush with impeachment if Bush’s administration went to war with Iran without congressional approval. Biden served as the senator of Delaware at the time.
“If the House follows the Biden precedent, then ...” Lee wrote alongside the video.
