Sen. Cruz Believes Obama Requires Congressional Approval to Strike Syria
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — Contradicting President Obama’s assertion, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said this morning on This Week that the president does not have the authority to order a military strike on Syria without Congressional approval.
“I don’t think he has the authority,” Cruz told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“It would be contrary to the Constitution,” he added later, when Stephanopoulos asked him if acting without Congressional approval would be an impeachable offense, as some republicans have suggested.
President Obama said last month that while he was in favor of a military strike on Syria and believed he could order one without Congressional authorization, he would seek the approval of Congress before he ordered military strikes against the Middle Eastern nation for its alleged use of chemical weapons last month that the United States says killed close to 1,500 people, including more than 400 children.
The president will address the American people Tuesday night in a nationally televised addressed. The day before, he’ll sit down for interviews with the country’s five major networks and PBS.
An unofficial tally by ABC News suggest that a resolution to strike Syria would fail in the House of Representatives and a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans opposed a unilateral U.S strike on Syria.
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