WATCH: Sen. Schiff Condemns Republican Capitulation on War Powers Debate, Urges Continued Push to Check President Trump’s Military Use on MS NOW

Schiff: "There's no more important time than now to reestablish Congress's power to say no to the authorization of military force."

Washington, D.C. - Last night, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined MS NOW's The Briefing with Jen Psaki to call out Senate Republicans' refusal to allow debate on the military actions President Trump is taking around the globe - following the Senate blocking U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Schiff, and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer's (D-N.Y.) resolution that would have blocked future military action in Venezuela without authorization by Congress.

Schiff raised concern over risking American servicemembers' lives in order to secure the oil resources of another country. He reiterated the need to call up additional War Powers Resolutions in Congress to avoid the United States getting embroiled in another war.

View the full interview here.

Key Excerpts:

On Senate Republicans cutting off debate on a possible check on the president's military actions in Venezuela:

[…] That letter from Rubio says that they will seek congressional approval before a major military operation in Venezuela. But at the same time, they're saying what they've done already in sending hundreds of troops, in capturing the leader of that country, in blockading that country - that wasn't hostilities, that didn't even rise to the level of hostilities. So, I don't know what a major military operation looks like. And saying that they will come to Congress in that event isn't much of a promise.

[…]

As one of our Founders wrote, they knew that the executive was a branch that was too prone to war, too keen on war. And so, they did something that was really unprecedented at the time. They said, okay, we're going to give that power to the legislative branch. But like a lot of other powers, if you don't use it, you lose it. And we have allowed that power to atrophy. We have put very little limit on the executive. And particularly this executive, who's now used military action in Venezuela, in Iran, in Nigeria, in Syria and Yemen, all within his first year, and seems very prone to continue using it. There's no more important time than now to reestablish Congress's power to say no to the authorization of military force. 

On the need for future War Powers Resolutions in Congress:

[..] We are going to be proceeding with other War Powers Resolutions depending on circumstances and events. The president is obviously threatening more military action in Iran at this moment. And we firmly stand with the Iranian protesters. We hope they're successful in toppling that horrible regime. We support their right of freedom and to express themselves and associate with themselves and have good governance that they choose, not this repressive regime of mullahs.

But we don't want to get mired in a war in Iran. Neither do we want to see the United States get militarily involved in Colombia or Mexico or Greenland, for God's sake. But this president seems all too inclined to believe that he can just use military force whenever he wants or whenever - as he put it the other day - his morality supports its use. I  would hate to trust any of this to the morality of any president, let alone this particular president.

There will be other efforts like this, but it certainly indicates they will go to any length, including threatening members who vote in contrary fashion to prevent even a debate from taking place.

On Trump's obsession in acquiring Greenland:

He had this obsession in the first Trump administration. He wanted to try to buy Greenland. I don't know how this idea got planted in his head. But as we've seen with him before, once he gets an idea, no matter how scatterbrained it may be, it's difficult for him to let it go. And now, with a very pliant Congress and with nobody left in his administration, unlike the first term, to tell him, "Hey, Mr. President, that's a dumb idea. Hey, Mr. President, if you use military force in Greenland, that's the end of NATO." There's no one like that.  No one of stature, no Secretary Mattis to say no, no General Kelly. And so, we see these harebrained ideas gain a lot of traction and do a lot of damage. 

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