yep, 2002. it was approved almost two decades ago. since then, presidents bush, obama, and trump have used it to justify a range of military actions. critics say this authorization, which is also called an aumf, has been abused, invoked for things it was never intended for, letting the president exert powers the constitution does not give him. so what about president biden? well the white house says the president supports this repeal. that might be because there is another aumf from 2001. congress passed that one after the 9/11 terror attacks. congresswoman barbara lee of california was the only person in congress to vote no on the one aumf. she has been consistently campaigning to repeal them both. her district includes oakland and berkeley. she joins us now. congresswoman lee, good evening and welcome. nice to be with you. thank you, joshua. let s go back to 2001. here is part of what you said at
it is time to repeal that. the president said if he needs military action he will come to congress. we will work with him to try to craft an authorization that provides for what the president needs and provides for congress to exercise its constitutional duty to authorize or not authorize the use of force. why do you think this happened? barack obama was a constitutional law professor before he became president. he knows what articles 1 and 2 say good and well and even he used the aumf in ways critics i think would argue was beyond the scope of what it was intended for. why were presidents able to get away with doing this for so long? most presidents do what the congress gives them authorization. i was a vocal opponent of any effort by president obama respectfully to not allow him to use the current existing authorization. congress oftentimes is missing action, joshua. missing action on the hard
the time when you tried to get more members to vote against that aumf. watch. september 11th changed the world. our deepest fears now haunt us. yet i am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the united states. however difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. our country is in a state of mourning. some of us must say, let s step back for a moment. let s just pause just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control. congresswoman, how do you reflect on that today? particularly because with our military efforts we have not had another international act of terrorism. we ve had some significant
and the executive branch does not abuse their power. last ten seconds do you think the 2001 aumf will also get repealed or is that a different kind of fight? well, we re working on that right now as we speak, joshua. we have many members of congress who i m working with. i want to recognize our chairman, the chair of the foreign affairs committee. we put together a team of individuals, broad spectrum of political ideology and viewpoints. we re trying to do this. i have the authorization to repeal the 2001 resolution in place and gives the president eight months, mind you, stays in place, gives the president eight months to come back to congress to bring forth a new authorization if in fact he thinks that is necessary. so this is something we re working on as we speak. congresswoman barbara lee of california, good to see you. thank you very much. thank you. coming up, remember the summer of protests after george floyd s murder? in portland, oregon that summer never really ende
congress should use aumfs when the way we deploy our military isn t clear to us now for the threats of the future? thank you for that question. you know, we re in a asymetrical warfare is the new way, you just described the ways war is now engaged in. that is exactly why we need to have an authorization to use military force based on when in fact the use of force, and that s what it is, the use of our military power, is sought by the president. and so we re in the process now of talking through and talking to our national security advisers to see exactly what future aumf would mean in terms of the current military actions no matter where they may be but i tell you, asymetrical warfare is something we have got to understand and have to figure out because if it s not the use of force, military force, then we have to determine what role congress has in making sure that the three branches of government