Sen. Rand Paul invoked the U.S. Constitution during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria Tuesday, imploring Secretary of State John Kerry to “stand up for us,” the Blaze first reported.
“Make me proud today, Secretary Kerry,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Stand up for us and say you’re going to obey the Constitution and if we vote you down — which is unlikely, by the way — you would go with what the people say through their Congress and you wouldn’t go forward with a war that your Congress votes against.”
Mr. Paul then asked the Democrat to be more specific on what the administration plans to do if Congress votes against an intervention.
“I don’t know what the decision is,” Mr. Kerry replied, “but I’ll tell you this … [President Obama] still has the Constitutional authority and he would be in keeping with the Constitution.”
Mr. Paul vehemently disagreed, saying the founders were very specific about military powers granted to the executive.
“[James] Madison was very explicit when he wrote the Federalist Papers,” he said. “He wrote that … the Constitution supposes what history demonstrates. That the executive is the branch most likely to go to war and therefore the Constitution vested that power on the Congress.”
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“It’s explicit and runs throughout all of Madison’s writings,” he added. “This power is a congressional power and is not an executive power. … If we do not say that the Constitution applies, if we do not say explicitly that we will abide by this vote,” the senator lectured, “you’re making a joke of us. You’re making us into theater. And so we play Constitutional theater for the president.”
Mr. Kerry assured the senator that what is going on is very “real,” and he intends to “leave to the man who was elected to be the President of the United States the responsibility for telling you what his decision is if and when” Congress votes against him.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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