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Governor Romney, that raises the question, if you were president of the United States,
would you need to go to Congress to get authorization to take military action against Iran's nuclear
facilities?
You sit down with your attorneys and tell you want you have to do, but obviously the
president of the United States has to do what's in the best interest of the United States
to protect us against a potential threat. The president did that as he was planning
on moving into Iraq and received the authorization of Congress...
Did he need it?
You know, we're going to let the lawyers sort out what he needed to do and what he didn't
need to do. But, certainly, what you want to do is to have the agreement of all the
people -- leadership of our government as well as our friends around the world where
those circumstances are available.
But the key thing here is to make sure we don't have to use military action against
Iran. That's what you hope to be able to do and that's why we're going to put a lot tougher
sanctions on Iran -- economic sanctions, credit sanctions.
We're also going to have to get serious about treating Ahmadinejad like the rogue and bafoon
that he is. And it was outrageous for the United Nations to invite him to come to this
country. It was outrageous for Columbia to invite him to speak at their university.
This is a person denied the Holocaust, a person who has spoken about genocide, is seeking
the means to carry it out. And it is unacceptable to this country to allow that individual to
have he control of launching a nuclear weapon.
And so we will take the action necessary to keep that from happening.
And I think each person on the stage, certainly in my case, I would make sure that we would
take the action necessary to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
I guess I want to get to the basic constitutional view here of you gentlemen
Congressman Paul, do you believe the president needs authorization of Congress to attack
strategic targets in Iran, nuclear facilities?
Absolutely. This idea of going and talking to attorneys totally baffles me. Why don't
we just open up the Constitution and read it? You're not allowed to go to war without
a declaration of war.
Now, as far as fleeting enemies go, yes. If there's an imminent attack on us. We've never
had that happen in 220 years.
The thought that the Iranians could pose an imminent attack on the United States is preposterous.
There's no way. This is just...
(CROSSTALK)
This is -- this is just war propaganda, continued war propaganda, preparing this nation to go
to war and spread this war not only in Iraq, but into Iran, unconstitutionally. It is a
road to disaster for us as a nation. It's a road to our financial disaster if we don't
read the Constitution once in a while.
(APPLAUSE)