Congressional leaders were d♎oubtful yesterday that President Obama will win approval for a military strike against Syria — putting himself in a difficult position to then invoke the War Powers Act and order the bombings anyway.
“I would ♍expect the president to a꧅bide by whatever Congress does from this point forward,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters after a classified administration briefing on Syria late yesterday.
Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that Obama has the ability to act without congressional app🌳roval.
But when repea🌳tedly asked what the administration would do if Congress votes against military action, Kerry refused to entertain the possibility.
🐲“We are not going to lose this vote,” Kerry insisted on🏅 ABC’s “This Week.”
Lawmakers from both parties said Obama faces a tough task convincing Congress to retaliate against the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad over last month’s gruesome gas atta💟ck that killed nearly 1,500 civilians.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), r🔴an🍷king Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said, “I don’t think [Congress] will” approve a military strike, while Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island), said of House Republicans: “If the vote were today, it would probably be a no vote.”
Several Democrats who attended yesterday’s closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill were openly 📖skeptical of the president’s plans.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), u🌊sually a staunch Obama supporter, said he needed more convincing and wanted the president to assemble an international coalition against Syria.
“The precedent that will be set by engaging Syria militarily without the support of the United Nations, or at least an alternate coalition demonstrat🍨ing an international consenꦿsus, would be problematic,” Scott said.
Sen. 💝Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said the briefing “quite frankly raised more questions than it answered.”
“I found the evidence presented by administration officials to be circumstantial,” he saidꦗ in a statement.
“The coming debate in Congress will hopefully shine th🌊e light on outstanding questions — as will the results of the UN inspection team. We must wait for these results before any action is taken.”
Lawmakers from both parties also complained that the administration’s resolution seeking approval for military action was wri꧙tten too broadly and would even have given Obama permission to send US troops into Syria.
ไ“This is a partial blank check,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
Administration officials said Obama’s surprise Saturday announcement holding 🌼off on a widely expected retaliatory strike over the Aug. 21 massacre of nearly 1,500 civilians — including more than 400 children — was a last-minute decis🅠ion.
Obama ba🎐cked off from attack orders Friday night after taking a 45-minute walk with chief of staff Denis Mc꧋Donough to help him make up his mind, the officials said.
The deci🐽sion, which sparked a heated debate at the White House, followed reports that a US strike was im💛minent and a day after British parliament voted against joining an attack.
Obama called Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to tell them his new plan. He then met with top advisers Saturday morning to finalize the decisionജ.
Obama’s move has also made strange bedfe♑llows of some isolationist conservatives and anti-w☂ar liberals.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a libertarian leader who is skeptical of US intervention abroad, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the odds were “at least 50/50﷽ whether the House will vote down involvement in the Syrian war.”
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) isn’t backing military action either, a sign of Obama’s difficulty in winning support amඣong his left-wing base.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Obama’s waffling has given even hawki🍒sh 𒁏lawmakers reasons to second-guess a military strike, given the “unprecedented leaking” of US military preparations.
“If 𓆉he had acted, as Ronald Reagan did, as Bill Clinton did, a꧃s a number of other presidents did, in compliance basically with the War Powers Act, I think that he could have done that,” McCain said on “Face the Nation.”
Also yesterday, the Arab League urged the international community and the United Nations to take “the necessarꦐy deterrent measures” against Syria over the chemical attack, Al Jazeera reported.