A.G. Gancarski
Ron DeSantis sees no constitutional conflict created by the Joe Biden administration’s decision Thursday to attack Iranian-backed Houthi forces.
Calling them “stateless actors,” the 2024 presidential candidate likened them to the Barbary Pirates who bedeviled merchants and battled American forces in the early 19th century.
“So if you have military action on the seas, what does that look like in the terms of congressional authorization? We actually know what the Founders thought because some of the main military skirmishes that were happening at the dawn of the republic were against the Barbary Pirates,” DeSantis said in Ames, Iowa.
He noted that while “Congress did authorize that through funding and other stuff,” legislators didn’t “formally declare war.”
“I think the Founders didn’t view that as rising to the diplomatic level where you would need it,” DeSantis said, even though “Congress would have to agree to fund those operations.”
“But I think that if shipping is stopped and you’re taking defensive actions to me, I don’t think that that rises to the level where you’re going to another country, but at a minimum, Congress would need to be able to be willing to apply funding to ratify that. And I think that they would do that.”
The Governor said the Barbary Pirates were “the original terrorists that our country had to deal with,” presenting “a huge, huge issue for years and years and years.
“I think all of our early presidents took action to fight the Barbary Pirates. And so I view it as similar to that. I think these are stateless actors. I think they’re operating outside the traditional laws of armed conflict. And I think you have a right to ensure that commerce continues and that they’re not allowed to just bomb ships and do and do other things.”
8 comments
Thomas Kaspar
January 11, 2024 at 8:27 pm
God you Disney clowns are ignorant. Go read about Thomas Jefferson.
SteveHC
January 11, 2024 at 9:27 pm
? Maybe you posted your comment to the wrong article?
MH/Duuuval
January 11, 2024 at 10:38 pm
The part of TJ’s story about Sally Hemmings and their children together is an edifying one, don’t you think?
SteveHC
January 11, 2024 at 9:30 pm
GOD do I hate to admit it but on this particular matter I have to agree with DeSantis – not that I know of *anyone* who’s claimed that Congress would need to approve any attacks on these Houthi “rebels” I mean terrotists in order to protect merchant ships…
SteveHC
January 11, 2024 at 9:31 pm
– Sorry *terrorists* not “terrotists”.
MH/Duuuval
January 11, 2024 at 10:41 pm
There is the 1973 War Powers Act which was passed in response to a lengthy, bloody conflict in Southeast Asia that was touched off by attacks on a US Navy vessel off the coast of Vietnam.
And, surely the leading members of Congress got a heads up, right?
PeterH
January 11, 2024 at 11:23 pm
The president of the United States does not have to request Congress’s permission to protect American citizens, property or military from foreign aggression.
MH/Duuuval
January 12, 2024 at 2:07 pm
“The president of the United States does not have to request Congress’s permission … .”
Presidents usually bring aboard leadership in Congress, as Biden did before the Houthis strikes.
However, the activities of various US clandestine agencies overseas are another matter.
The Vietnam war was waged without formal Congressional approval although the money was always provided by the Congress. Hence, the 1973 War Powers Act — which has probably been ignored as often as it has been successfully invoked.
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