Bill Maher pulled a fast one on California Sen. Adam Schiff while discussing the attacks on Iran — leading the Democrat to inadvertently throw shade at the Obama administration.
On his show “Real Time” Friday, Maher read a 2011 quote from the Obama camp about presidential power in authorizing military strikes — without naming the former commander-in-chief.
“This statement from the administration: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.’ That’s too vague for you?” Maher asked Schiff, who has loudly opposed Trump’s decision to strike Iran without congressional approval.
“Totally vague,” the senator replied confidently.
“OK. Because that’s from Obama about Libya,” the host revealed.
“Well, Obama made the argument, um, initially that he could go into Syria without an authorization,” the senator said while trying to gather himself, adding that he opposed the move.
“I and many others pushed back on that argument. Ultimately, he did not go forward with going after [former Syrian President] Assad — even though Assad was gassing his own people — because he thought he might lose the vote in Congress.
“But I respect the fact that, uh, that was important to [Obama], and the fact that he did not have the support of Congress meant that we weren’t going to go forward,” Schiff concluded.
The senator said earlier this week that he was going to force a vote in Congress to prevent Trump from “abusing his power,” after joint US-Israeli strikes last week killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with 40 top security and regime officials.
“There was no imminent threat to justify starting a war with Iran,” he said. “Instead, Donald Trump chose the path of more chaos — with American lives on the line. I’m joining my colleagues in forcing a vote to stop the president from abusing his power.”