Axelrod: ‘Senator Obama’ would have wanted vote on strikes

David Axelrod, a former senior advisor to President Obama, said on Wednesday that he thinks Obama, as a senator, would have wanted a vote in Congress on strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) targets. 

“I suspect that Senator Obama would have been of those pressing for a debate and a vote on this,” Axelrod said on MSNBC. “And so it’s interesting. When a guy becomes president of the United States, he’s invested with the responsibility of being commander in chief. You have to make different judgments because the politics can get very difficult.”

{mosads}Axelrod had earlier blamed “pure politics” for the lack of a vote in Congress to authorize the U.S. strikes against ISIS militants. 

“The leaders didn’t want to vote, that’s why there wasn’t a vote,” he said. “It was a potentially sticky issue, and so they said, ‘No, no, you take care of it.'” 

The Obama administration has not sent a request for authorization to Congress.

Many lawmakers, such as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), have been calling for a vote on authorizing the strikes. It is possible that Congress could debate and vote on the issue when it returns after the elections, but leaders have not made any firm commitments. 

The Obama administration says it would “welcome” a vote to authorize the strikes, but says it does not need Congress’s approval. It argues that the 2001 authorization to take action against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks still covers its actions.

ISIS was not involved in those attacks, but the administration argues that ISIS is descended from al Qaeda, which did carry out the attacks. 

After calling Congress’s not taking up the issue “pure politics,” Axelrod added, “the president is in a position where he has to deal with the threat as he sees fit and still try and honor the concerns of the Congress. … He went forward under the authority he believes he has under those earlier acts of Congress.”