Top Democrat Breaks With Biden Over Bombing Yemen: ‘Congress Needs to Be Brought Into This’ Before Wider War Breaks Out

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined CNN on Wednesday to discuss a recent letter he wrote with some of his Senate colleagues demanding that the Biden administration come before Congress to defend, debate, and ultimately seek approval for airstrikes in Yemen against Houthis rebels targeting U.S. military assets and commercial vessels.

“At what point did the U.S. military involvement in the region cross the line from, the president is fine going it alone here without Congress, to early, Congress needs to weigh in now?” asked Brianna Keilar.

“Brianna, every president has inherent power under Article Two to defend the United States. And that’s always been understood to mean to defend U.S. personnel, U.S. military assets, possibly even U.S. commercial assets. He doesn’t need to ask Congress permission,” Kaine replied, adding:

But when you go on the offense against a group and if it’s more than just self-defense, and now suddenly it’s a back and forth that’s escalating. That’s classically when it becomes an offense of not just defense of operation. And then second, we just have to remember that most of the ships transiting the Red sea are not U.S. ships. They’re foreign flagged ships. And there might be a good strategic reason to protect them. But that is not a self-defense rationale under the Constitution.

And then second, we just have to remember that most of the ships transiting the Red Sea are not U.S. ships. They’re foreign flagged ships. And there might be a good strategic reason to protect them. But that is not a self-defense rationale under the Constitution.

And so a bipartisan group wrote the president asking this set of questions that begins with, what is the strategy when we’re trying to deter and degrade? But your administration is actually predicting that the Houthis are going to up the pace, which they are doing. Okay. What’s the strategy? How do we de-escalate? And what are your legal authorities? We need to be briefed on that. And I think Congress needs to be brought into it, because the last thing we need to do is to slide into another war in the Middle East without a really careful consideration and a debate in front of the public.

Kaine was joined by Sens. Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Mike Lee (R-UT) in signing the letter, which declares “any offensive or sustained military action against the Houthis must require a vote of Congress.”

“And as you and other lawmakers point out in this letter, quote, ‘two U.S. Navy Seals tragically died while combating these threats,’” Keilar followed up, asking if Kaine disagrees with the administration’s claim the U.S.’s actions are defensive.

Kaine replied arguing that there are many ways to interpret what is happening in the Middle East, but argued, “Let’s just face it, there is a regional escalation of military activity because of the war in Gaza.”

“You see it in the Red Sea. You see it in Yemen. You see it with Iranian-backed militias in Syria, in Iraq, you see it with Hezbollah in Lebanon. This pace is increasing. And that is just absolutely critical,” Kaine declared, arguing:

This pace is increasing. And that is just absolutely critical. And I say this as an Armed Services Committee member with the son in the military, in a state that has so much many military families. We do not need to be sliding into a military escalation in the region unless there is a considered debate about the strategy and the stakes and whether it’s worth it or not.

And so I think the escalation, you know, if the president took an action against the Houthis because of these shots into the Red Sea, and that stopped it, and it was just kind of a one off defense. We might not be having this, but everything we’re seeing suggests that the escalation will continue. And if that’s going to be the case, then Congress needs to be brought into this.

Watch the clip above via CNN.