Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Thursday on CNN’s “New Day” that Congress should begin debating whether or not to use military force in Syria.
“That’s the Constitution. If we’re going to escalate this to a great degree, it seems to me, you’ve got to have a debate in Congress,” Jordan said. “That’s what the Constitution clearly spells out. Let’s have that debate. We should have a debate on all AUMF’s [Authorization for Use of Military Force] We have been functioning under one in Afghanistan for 17 years.”
Jordan said what Syrian President Bashar al-Assad did with the chemical weapons attack was pure evil and thinks it’s worthy of a response from the United States.
“I also understand what Assad did. This is as evil and as wrong as it gets and deserves some kind of response,” Jordan added.
He also said Congress shouldn’t feel beholden to the U.N. and can make their own decisions on how to handle Syria.
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“It’s less important about what the U.N. Says then what the United States government and United States Congress says,” Jordan said. “The constitution doesn’t say we’ve got to wait for U.N. to give us the okay to do something.”
“We could decide when this happens, how it happens. I’m for that,” he continued. “It is important. It is consistent with the document that founded this great nation, the greatest nation ever, the United States constitution.”
Jordan said Congress must determine all the facts before acting, but was convinced the U.S. should hit back against Assad.
“We need to have this debate. Figure out exactly what took place here,” Jordan concluded. “If it did happen, and it sure looks like it did, there should be a response.”
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