U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said he will vote against limiting President Trump’s authority to go to war with Iran.
Johnson said he does not want to “hamstring” Trump, or future presidents, by voting to limit the president’s war powers. The U.S. House on Thursday approved a War Powers resolution to limit future military action against Iran without congressional approval.
“Public opinion does not want to get involved in wars. That is the biggest restraint any president has. And if you have any president go too far, beyond public opinion, Congress can always pull back the funding authority,” the Oshkosh Republican said in an interview aired Sunday on “UpFront,” produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.
In the Senate war powers debate, Johnson said he will offer an amendment to “pre-authorize the use of military force if it is pretty apparent that Iran is going to become a nuclear power.”
Johnson said he wanted to get every senator on record on that point.
He also said he is “not at all” confident that Iran is standing down now after launching missiles at U.S. military installations in Iraq. Iran retaliated for the U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.
Johnson said the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani was “more than justified.” Johnson blamed Soleimani for the IED explosions in Iraq that killed or injured hundreds of U.S. troops.
“Soleimani’s a really bad character,” Johnson said.
“UpFront” host Adrienne Pedersen also asked Johnson about President Trump’s impeachment trial, which could begin soon.
“This has all been politics. It’s been bizarre, the strategy (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s) employed. They all said, Democrats, we had to rush to judgment, we couldn’t take the time, because President Trump is such a threat to national security and they vote for impeachment and then they sit on them for weeks,” Johnson said.
“Do you have your mind made up on impeachment?” Pedersen asked.
“Well what I’ve seen so far certainly does not rise to the level of impeachment,” Johnson said.
See more from the program: http://www.wisn.com/upfront
