union address talking about manufacturing, getting blue collar workers jobs back, taking a page out of my playbook. that s where he s most vulnerable and that s where i m strongest. megyn: i want to ask you, apparently your campaign told tour own john roberts that you are not quote pouring everything into the sunshine state. while you have done well in places like iowa, you are third in florida according to the latest last musele poll. is that true? the latest rasmussen poll. what does that mean? florida is a huge state. and the resources governor romney has and speaker gingrich has as a result of his bump out of south carolina. you have to pick where you are going to spend resources. we were the first one in florida. we flew in early the next morning and have been doing
this apart a little bit, eliot. the policy, the goal is clearly that gadhafi needs to go. but the president has been, i think, pretty clear even in that statement that we are not yet prepared to usele military means to achieve the policy. the military means, think, considering that it took some time for him to get there were driven in the end by fear of a massacre in benghazi. last time i was here we were facing a real massacre. really at the 11th hour the president turned around and said, okay, if we have to do something to prevent massacre let s use force to do that. it worked. the tanks were destroyed. artillery and armor was destroyed and the massacre didn t take place. as far as getting rid of gadhafi, the president is pointing to the sanctions policy and other steps they have taken.
consequences and things happen that weren t intended. i just think we have gotten into war ss so often since world wari carelessly. we are engaged in two wars now. we can t get out of either one and we are falling into another one and the authorities coming from the united nations. congress is irrelevant. congressman, we ll get to legal authority in a moment. i want to understand the parameters. some people applaud and some criticize you that you re an isolationist. you don t want any involvement in foreign affairs, no military alliances. give me an example where you would have supported our intervention because of genocide or humanitarian crisis where we would send the military to get rid of a foreign government perpetrating acts so heinous it violated our sense of humanity and decency. not militarily, no. only voluntarily. but the use of the word
now he has the power to come away from the house and the senate and from the congress. but the argument is he s getting authority from the u.n. treaties allow that become it is law of the land. there are limitations. you cannot amend the constitution by treaty. what if the u.n. te sided we shouldn t have a first amendment. would you say, oh, this is okay because the authority comes from the united nations? you can t rule out go ahead. let me interrupt. i clearly agree about that. of course the u.n. can t amend our constitution but you also can t amend the constitution through the war powers act, the statute you rely on which tried to cabin the president s power. the president would argue inherent in his executive power is the authority over the military to intervene where national security is at risk which is what he says.
isolationist is a misunderstanding of the definition. i am a noninterventionist. i am a free trader. i want people to come and go, trade with people. okay. and engage with people. isolationist is usually a protectionist. i m for working and trading wi cuba. fair point and a fair distinction. now i want to pivot. you have made a strong argument that the president lacks the constitutional power to do what we are doing. explain why and explain it s been since 1942 since we have had a declaration of war from the united states congress. it s been decades. doesn t mean you re wrong. why doesn t the president have power as commander in chief to send the military when he says this is threatening our national security which is what he said in a letter to congress today. well, i guess it s because i listened to his speeches when he was a senator because he was talking.