Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a guest host on “The View” this week, confronted co-host Sunny Hostin on Thursday over former President Barack Obama launching airstrikes against Libya in 2011 as the liberal co-host has repeatedly called President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran “illegal.”
“So did you believe it was illegal in April of 2011, when the Office of Legal Counsel memo stated from President Obama that the president has constitutional authority to direct the use of military force in Libya because you could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest?” Hasselbeck pressed.
“Prior congressional approval was not constitutionally required to use military force in these operations,” she said. “Where were you then complaining?”
“I was at home complaining,” Hostin quipped, noting she was not a co-host of the liberal talk show at the time. “But I wasn’t complaining because the Office of Legal Counsel was involved.” She continued: “This president [Trump] does not go through the Office of Legal Counsel. This president does not go to Congress. Congress has the power to enact — to approve wars. This Congress has the power of the purse. This president is acting more like a king than anything else. He is the commander in chief, but he is not a king.”
Hostin has called the Trump administration’s actions against Iran illegal and unconstitutional, as many Democrats have argued, since the president announced the strikes.
Trump’s strikes bear similarities to Obama’s decision to strike Libya in 2011 under Operation Odyssey Dawn. In that operation, Obama ordered a series of strikes against Libya, looking to deter Muammar Gaddafi from attacking civilians and anti-government opposition forces. The Office of Legal Counsel issued its statement after Obama decided to carry out the strikes.
Hostin said the Iran strikes should have gone through Congress, saying it would have given embassies more notice to evacuate American citizens from the Middle East.
“I don’t think that this was done appropriately. I maintain that this is illegal and unconstitutional,” she added.
A White House official pointed to the president’s Article II authority as commander in chief, and said Trump’s actions were directed at Iran’s military infrastructure. The official maintained that the Iranian regime has consistently pursued building missiles and acquiring nuclear weapons and that its capabilities directly threatened the U.S. and partners in the Middle East.
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Hasselbeck then asked Hostin if she liked the result of the strikes, which eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — and several other top Iranian officials — who ruled the Islamic Republic for more than three decades and oversaw an era of harsh internal repression and confrontation with the U.S. and Israel.
“No, I don’t,” Hostin responded.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg went to a commercial and when the show resumed, co-host Sara Haines also pushed back on Hostin’s argument.
“In regard to what Sunny’s saying about it being an illegal war, every modern president since Reagan has done this in attacks — from Syria, Libya, Bosnia, Panama. So it happens continually, to give it context,” Haines said. “Congress has ceded this power a long time ago. And I have a lot of criticisms of Congress and this is one of them. If you want to be part of the conversation, don’t hand your power over to the presidents, which they have done.”
Hostin went on to quote Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has said she believes this is an illegal war because “there was no imminent threat and the war was started under pretext.”
Fox News’ Leo Briceno contributed to this report.
