[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5585-S5586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Authorization for Use of Military Force

  Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I could stay here all day, listening 
to the names of the brave men and women whom I was lucky enough to 
serve with in the military. I could stay here all night, telling 
stories about their heroism and courage. I could stay here all week, 
all month, talking about the troops who are serving overseas right now 
and about those who are on their eighth or ninth tours of duty or about 
those teenagers who weren't even alive when the Twin Towers fell, yet 
who are ready to ship off to Afghanistan at this very moment if that is 
what is asked of them. I could go on and on all year if I wanted, and I 
still wouldn't be able to convey the sacrifices they are making because 
they love this country and would do anything to defend her.
  I will not stand idly by and let a single one of them shed blood in 
an avoidable conflict because Donald Trump has abdicated matters of war 
and peace to a despot who regularly flouts basic human rights and 
openly murders journalists. Yet, after tensions spiked between Saudi 
Arabia and Iran this past weekend, that is exactly what he seemed to be 
willing to do. He tweeted that the U.S. was ``locked and loaded'' and 
just waiting for the Crown Prince to tell him how to proceed. We can't 
let that slip by.
  The President--the Commander in Chief of the greatest military of the 
greatest democracy on the face of the Earth--just suggested that he was 
outsourcing the powers of war to a foreign monarch--powers that aren't 
even his to hand over--and he did it in a tweet.
  While Trump may have never read the Constitution, I have, so let me 
direct his attention to article I, which makes it clear that the 
President does not have the authority to declare war. Only Congress has 
that power. We are the ones tasked with deciding when and how Americans 
are sent into combat. We are the ones charged with that most solemn 
duty, not Donald Trump and certainly not Muhammad bin Salman. Yet Trump 
is acting as if article I simply doesn't exist, as if he could just 
usurp this power from the legislative branch and trade it to whomever 
he pleases, as if obeying the Constitution is optional even while he 
tweets that he is willing to obey a foreign prince.
  This should not be a partisan issue. No matter if you are struggling 
to pay rent or if your name is plastered in gold on the front of a 
building on Fifth Avenue, no one can overrule the Constitution. Trump 
doesn't get to mire us in yet another Middle East conflict just because 
he has a bizarre tendency to bow down and kiss up to the world's 
cruelest tyrants.
  Whether you ask constitutional scholars or high school students 
taking U.S. history classes, they will tell you the same thing--that on 
matters of military force, whether they are our allies or our 
adversaries, American Presidents do not get to choose to take orders 
from foreign leaders. They take direction from Congress--full stop.
  I am here to say that we have not authorized him to ensnare us in 
another endless, senseless war.
  We haven't debated and passed a new authorization for the use of 
military force in more than 15 years, and there is just no way that the 
AUMF passed to go after the perpetrators of 9/11 can justify military 
action against Iran nearly two decades later, sending troops overseas 
who may not have even been alive when that AUMF was voted on.
  Listen, it is not just me who believes this. It is not just my fellow 
Democrats in the Senate either. During the confirmation hearing for 
now-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, I asked Trump's own nominee point-
blank whether the existing AUMF gives this administration the right to 
conduct a war with Iran. His answer? His answer was: No. No, they do 
not.
  Even in decades past, when prior Presidents have gotten us entangled 
in bad wars based on bad intelligence, at the very least they made sure 
to loop in the United Nations, but Trump is acting as if he wouldn't 
even do that. He is too busy thumping his chest and catering to the 
whims of autocrats. He is too infatuated with maximum pressure to 
consider even minimum diplomacy, too distracted beating the drums of 
war to even think about how many troops he would be sending into harm's 
way.
  For what? To protect the Saudi oil industry or the Crown Prince's 
personal profits?

[[Page S5586]]

  Once again, the Trump foreign policy doctrine has proven reckless, 
senseless, and dangerous, full of gaslighting and bluster, a doctrine 
in which fact and fiction are one in the same.
  It is shameful. It is terrifying that we have a Commander in Chief 
who comes to military decisions by virtue of temper tantrum and then 
announces them via tweet, a President who doesn't seem to care that if 
he keeps on the path of fire and fury he has been treading, our own 
homeland will be in greater danger, more wounded warriors will be sent 
to Walter Reed, and more fallen heroes will be laid to rest in the 
hallowed grounds of Arlington.
  Donald Trump may never have deigned to put on our Nation's uniform, 
so he probably doesn't know that the commander's greatest 
responsibility is to safeguard the troops so they are able to carry out 
the mission. That means we do not send them into harm's way recklessly 
and without full support both logistically and legally.
  As a former unit commander, I ran for Congress so that when the drums 
of war sounded, I would be in a position to make sure our elected 
officials fully consider the true costs of war, not just in dollars and 
cents but in the sacrifices of our troops and their families. That was 
the vow I made to my buddies that I deployed with and all those who 
have served since I hung up my uniform.
  Now, as the drums of war are pounding once again, I am here today to 
keep my promise to do our troops justice and to make sure Donald Trump 
does not outsource overseas yet another American job--Congress's job to 
declare war. If the Trump administration wants to go to war, they must 
bring their case to Congress and give the American people a say through 
their elected representatives. They must respect our servicemembers 
enough to prove why war with Iran is worth turning more moms and dads 
into Gold Star parents. They must testify about what the end state in 
Iran actually looks like.
  Then, when their case has been made, when Congress's debate is done, 
we should vote. It is our duty. It is the least we owe to the troops we 
would be sending into harm's way. If the vote to authorize military 
force passes, then I will be the first person to volunteer to deploy. I 
am ready to pack my rucksack, to dust off my uniform. I am ready to fly 
helicopters, take on the grunt work, do whatever else it takes to 
uphold that oath that all servicemembers and veterans have sworn: to 
protect and defend this Nation we love, no matter what.
  It would be nice if we had a President willing to do the same instead 
of one who thinks he looks tough by pushing us to the brink of a 
needless conflict.
  Listen, Trump may think he comes off as strong by using phrases like 
``locked and loaded'' and by spewing threats 280 characters at a time, 
but he has never seemed weaker to me. A real Commander in Chief would 
not dole out matters of war to the highest bidder. A true leader would 
not bend to the whims of despots just because of the size of their bank 
accounts. A strong President would not care more about keeping tyrants 
happy than safeguarding our most precious resource: the brave men and 
women willing to lay down their lives to defend our Nation. Yet, day 
after day, Donald Trump wraps himself in the flag in the morning and 
then abandons our servicemembers and our democratic norms by the 
afternoon.
  While he may have already shirked his duty as an elected official, I 
refuse to abandon mine. So as many times as is necessary, I am going to 
keep coming back to this Chamber, keep raising my voice under this 
great Capitol dome, and keep demanding what is actually in our Nation's 
best interest because, you see, I don't take my orders from war 
criminals or dictators or princes or monarchs. I don't serve foreign 
regimes. I serve the American people. Trump would do well to try that 
sometime.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.