Ilhan Omar wants to know why Syrian airstrikes were authorized without Congressional approval

Mary Rose Corkery, DCNF

Democratic Minnesota Ilhan Omar said Friday she wants to know why President Joe Biden’s administration authorized the airstrikes on Syria without Congressional approval.

“I mean, I certainly am hoping that the administration can give, you know, legal rationale on why they authorized this strike without Congressional approval. You know, we in Congress have congressional oversight in engaging in war, and we haven’t been briefed yet,” Omar said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”

WATCH:

A member of the Iraqi militia was killed while many others were wounded in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, the administration’s first military action, an official from the Iraqi militia said Friday, according to the Associated Press.

John Kirby, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, said militia groups had utilized the targeted facilities to strike U.S. interests in Iraq, according to the AP. One of the attacks was a rocket strike on Feb. 15 in northern Iraq, which left a civilian contractor dead and a U.S. service member and others injured.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and other high-profile Democrats previously criticized then-President Donald Trump’s authorization of airstrikes in Syria.

Psaki questioned Trump’s “legal authority” for airstrikes in an April 2017 tweet. Trump at the time authorized an operation that aimed at a base in Syria.

“And what is the legal authority for strikes? Assad is a brutal dictator. But Syria is a sovereign country,” Psaki tweeted.

“We have not authorized war in Syria. And so her question was important when it was a different administration, and that question still remains with this administration. Our ability to engage in constitutional actions does not diminish when the party in power is ours,” Omar said.

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