The Bipartisan Effort to Rein in Presidential Military Power

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

Just three days after 9/11, Congress authorized a major expansion of executive power: the President could now wage war against terrorism without prior approval. The resolution was called the Authorization for Use of Military Force, and it passed almost unanimously. Its reauthorization, in 2002, brought our country to war with Iraq, and has been used to deploy American forces all over the world. More than twenty years later, the mood in the country has changed dramatically, and lawmakers in both parties are pushing to roll back the President’s discretion to use force. A bill to revoke the A.U.M.F. passed the Senate 66–30 a few weeks ago, and it is expected to pass the House as well. David Remnick talks with the senators who led that effort—Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, and Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana—and with Representative Barbara Lee of California, who, in 2001, cast the sole dissenting vote in all of Congress.

Plus, David Remnick remembers the beloved cartoonist Ed Koren, a fixture of the magazine for more than half a century.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:13.4	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:18.4	Hello again everybody, this is Peter Jennings in New York and you were looking at the scene
0:21.9	and there are very cloudy and occasionally drizzly rainy day here in New York City.
0:27.1	This is intended to be in New York and in Washington today a national day of prayer and remembrance
0:33.6	which means of course.
0:34.6	Just three days after 9-11 on a day when the nation was mourning the victims of those attacks.
0:40.4	Congress passed a joint resolution of enormous gravity.
0:44.8	In just 60 words, representatives gave to the president the power to use all necessary
0:50.8	and appropriate force against whoever had perpetrated or aided the attack.
0:56.4	Not only that, he could also use military force to prevent future attacks of international
1:01.2	terrorism.
1:02.7	The president could now make war without having to go back to Congress, which is what the
1:07.7	Constitution had always demanded.
1:10.6	The resolution was called the authorization for the use of military force or AUMF and
1:17.2	it eventually brought our country to war with Iraq and was used to deploy American forces
1:22.9	all over the world.
1:24.7	The vote for AUMF in 2001 was unanimous, almost.
1:29.7	In the entire House and the entire Senate, there was just one representative who voted no,
1:35.9	Barbara Lee of California.
1:40.6	What do you remember about that day?
1:42.8	Describe the lead up to the vote and the reaction you got.
	...

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