Yang on Potential Iran Escalation: ‘I Would Repeal the AUMF,’ ‘Restore Congress’ Historical Power’ on Military Use

Friday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Beat,” 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang reacted to the successful killing of Qasem Soleimani by the U.S. military a day earlier.

Yang argued that under his presidency, the United States would have remained a part of the nuclear deal negotiated with Iran during the Obama presidency, and argued that not doing so has brought us to the brink of war.

However, he also blamed the Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) that allows administrations to forego Congress in the particular uses of military force.

“We’ve had a serious of escalating provocations,” Yang said. “We need to keep them in line. Where, if Iran does something problematic, we need to let them know that that’s not something we’ll accept, but you don’t do something that’s going to precipitate a larger scale armed conflict. We’ve been in a constant state of warfare for the last 19 years, Ari, and that’s not the will of the American people. That’s not the way it was drawn up in the Constitution. It’s an act of Congress to declare war, that’s where we need to head back as a country.”

“I would repeal the AUMF and restore Congress’ historical power to make these kinds of military decisions,” he added.

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