(Host) Senator Bernie Sanders says he thinks President Bush will provoke a constitutional crisis with Congress if the president takes military actions against Iran without specific congressional authorization.
Sanders is the first co-sponsor of legislation, drafted by West Virginia senator Robert Byrd that requires congressional approval before the administration “instigates offensive military action against another country.”
Sanders says he delivered the same message to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a meeting she held with freshmen senators on Tuesday.
(Sanders) “This president in a dozen different ways has shown his contempt for the Congress, contempt for the courts and the belief that as a president he can do anything he wants in any way that he wants. And what we are trying to say as clearly as we can, and I made this very clear to Secretary Rice is that if you, without the consent of Congress, attack Iran you are precipitating a major, major constitutional crisis. And we hope that they listen to that.”
(Host) Sanders is also a co-sponsor of legislation that prohibits the President from expanding troop levels in Iraq without the consent of Congress.