Rep. Max Rose: Killing of Soleimani was legal and justified
Democratic Congressman Max Rose announces plans to vote ‘no’ on resolution limiting the President’s war powers.
Rep. Max Rose, D-N.Y., defended President Trump's order to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike week and opposed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to pass a War Powers Resolution to restrict Trump's ability to take further military action without congressional approval.
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"Let's be clear...the killing of Soleimani was legal, justified," Rose said on "Your World." "Nobody should mourn the loss or the death of someone with the blood of U.S. soldiers on his hands. He was a terrorist."
"Now, we have real questions of war and peace," Rose added. "But those questions have to be dealt with through looking at the authorization for the use of military force, looking at congressional appropriations for long-term and protracted wars. It should not be dealt with messaging documents and straight-up politics. Congress is not a rapid response PR agency. It is a serious body. We’ve got to treat it as such."
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The House was expected to vote later Thursday on the non-binding resolution, with Pelosi, D-Calif., saying Democrats have “serious, urgent concerns about the administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran and about its lack of strategy moving forward.”
The measure states that “Congress has not authorized the president to use military force against Iran" and “directs the president to terminate the use of United States Armed Forces to engage in hostilities in or against Iran or any part of its government or military” unless there is a specific blessing by Congress.
In other words, the plan would have specifically forbidden the drone strike that killed Soleimani.
Rose, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who still serves in the New York Army National Guard, accused his Democratic colleagues of pushing a "political messaging document," instead of holding serious bipartisan discussions related to the separation of powers.
"There are several justifications for this," Rose said. "One, you have Article II [of the Constitution]. Secondly, you have the 2002 AUMF [Authorization for the Use of Military Force]. He's [Soleimani] killed so many soldiers and injured so many others. I think about people I served with in Afghanistan who this man nearly killed ... I understand that."
"Now, here we find ourselves," Rose continued. " ... What we have to do in a bipartisan fashion is talk about separation of powers, talk about revising authorizations for the use of military force, which are more than 20 years old or nearly 20 years old. We have serious questions to consider. This is not the way to do it."
Rose also discussed his decision to vote in favor of Trump's impeachment last month -- a choice he explained that he didn't take lightly.
"I’m not in a Republican district. I'm not in a Democratic district. I'm in a patriotic district," Rose said.
" I voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and voted for Max Rose in 2018. When the ... impeachment decision was being made, I said one thing over and over again. That was, this is the second most consequential decision I could ever have to deal with as a member of Congress, the first being the decisions of war and peace."
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Firing back at those who accused the congressman of opposing the War Powers Resolution in an effort to regain Republican support in his district following his impeachment vote, Rose said he would "never play politics with a decision like this."
"People can say what they want. I do not care," he said. "What I do care about though about is keeping America safe and treating our men and women in uniform with both the respect that they deserve as well as treating them as the most potent natural resource that we have."
Fox News' Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.
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