On the recordJanuary 9, 2020
Many of the senior leadership on the other side of the aisle voted for the 2002 AUMF on Iraq, including the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the majority leader, and the chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The AUMF in 2002 gave this President every bit of authority he needed to go after a terrorist in Iraq. In fact, the terrorist that he killed, Soleimani, was designated under Barack Obama Executive Order No. 13224 as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2011. Where was the outrage when President Obama was using the same AUMF as justification for dropping bombs in countries like Yemen or Syria, or violating the sovereign airspace of Pakistan, which we all agreed with, but violated the airspace of Pakistan to go in and kill Osama bin Laden? We were fine with that. This is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist who deserved death after he was responsible for 600-plus American deaths, atrocious and abysmal acts.
