Democratic US Senator Cory Booker has criticized both his own political party and his Republican counterpart for being “irresponsible” in ceding congressional war powers to Donald Trump, saying their decision could embolden the president to unilaterally attack Cuba, North Korea and other countries.
“I’m going to be one of those Democrats who say I think both parties have been irresponsible in allowing the power of the presidency to grow,” Booker said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
The New Jersey senator said nothing Barack Obama did while in the White House – or even Trump did before his first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden – was “in any way related to what we’re seeing now.”
Booker’s comments allude to the US military strikes Trump has ordered in Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran since Christmas. He called the war that the United States and Israel began in Iran on February 28 – when a missile attack killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – “our country’s largest military engagement since the war in Afghanistan.”
Meanwhile, during that stretch, Trump has also renewed his threats to seize Greenland for the United States by military force if necessary.
Booker’s fellow Democrats in the US House of Representatives introduced a measure calling for a halt to US military action in Iran. But without support from members of Trump’s Republican Party, the move failed and the military campaign in Iran has continued.
A day earlier, the U.S. Senate rejected a war powers resolution in a 47-53 vote that largely followed party lines.
Booker noted how the spiraling conflict has not only affected regional stability but also oil markets. The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global trade, has been closed for two weeks since Sunday.
“Literally, what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz right now is the biggest squeeze on the oil markets that we’ve ever seen,” Booker told CNN. “The consequences for us of strategically moving so many assets in the region mean that we are jeopardizing assets that we necessarily and potentially have in other areas.”
Booker alluded to the deaths of 13 US military personnel reported as of Sunday amid the conflict with Iran, saying: “This is a massive military undertaking, costing American taxpayers billions of dollars and tragically 13 lives.”
He acknowledged that previous presidents had strayed beyond the limits of their power to engage in war, but argued that Trump’s campaign in Iran had surpassed that precedent.
“At this magnitude, at this cost, why does Congress just sit back and do nothing?” Booker said. “Because, if we allow this to happen, then we give Trump permission to say, ‘Okay, I’m done with Venezuela, I went to Iran, now I’m going to go to Cuba, now I’m going to go to North Korea.’
“It is outrageous and never conceived that we could have this level of military commitment without the people’s chamber, Congress, doing something about it.”
