Fox contributor claims Trump doesn't need Congressional authorization for war against Iran

Marc Thiessen: “No, he does not need to go to Congress ... If there is an attack on a U.S. ally, he has the authority to go ahead and do that”

Video file

Citation From the September 16 edition of Fox News' The Daily Briefing

DANA PERINO (HOST): Do you think that the president would need to go to Congress before taking action? You see some people --

MARC THIESSEN (WASH. POST OPINION WRITER): No, he does not need to go to Congress. No, he does not need to go to Congress. He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and if there is an attack on a U.S. ally, he has the authority to go ahead and do that. I mean -- and the reality is, look, what's happening here is the Iranians are trying to pressure Europe to lift -- to get us to lift the sanctions, to get us to lift the maximum pressure. Because one of the developments is, as you noted in the opening of this, is that we're not dependent on Middle Eastern oil anymore because we're the world's largest oil producer. Europe is dependent on oil coming out of the Middle East. And also we don't trade with Iran; Europe does. So Europe has an interest in not having tensions with the United States and not having any threat to the oil shipments coming out of the Middle East.

PERINO: It's a good point because it was France who, just, I think was it last week or two, basically was like trying to push the president in a direction the president didn't want.