“Well, I think the president has an obligation to call us back tomorrow to start this debate…The president is putting together an international coalition. It’s time to put the coalition together at home as well.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) appeared on “Fox News Sunday” this morning to talk about American and international efforts to combat the terrorist group ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He also said that the Senate should not confirm a new Attorney General during a lame-duck session of Congress. 

Below are key excerpts of the interview:

On Congressional Authority:

“Well, I think the president has an obligation to call us back tomorrow to start this debate. We have been adjourned now until after the elections, this is the earliest Congress has adjourned in over 50 years. I don’t think Harry Reid wants this debate or the vote. I think we have an obligation, the Prime Minister of Britain called the British Parliament back. No member of Congress should be left off the hook. The Constitution is clear, Article I, Section 8, powers vetted in Congress to declare war. If you go back to the founding documents of this nation, the decision of going to war was to be made by people closest to the ground, the elected officials, to make those decisions. I think that the public deserves it, they should be demanding it. The president is putting together an international coalition. It’s time to put the coalition together at home as well.

On Arming and Training Syrian Rebels:

“Absolutely. I’ve been calling for the support of the Syrian rebels for years. I met with a number of them in Germany a couple years ago. I don’t know how many of them are still alive. So, I absolutely want to do that. We need to do it all. I believe that the president is right when he calls to degrade and destroy ISIS, the bombing will only go so far to degrade, but will not destroy. So yes, arm the Kurds, help the Iraqi army, help with training the Syrians, but you have to face reality here. Over the next year, the best they can do with vetting and training, equipping, is to get you to about 5,000 members of the Free Syrian Army against a bloodthirsty group of over thirty thousand, two thousand with European passports—another 100 with American passports. I think the president needs to work more closely with his generals—they’ve got to get rid of this distrust that is between the two of them. 

On Attorney General Nomination:

“It does need to wait. I do oppose any vote on a successor during the lame-duck session. If it happens it would be the first time since the civil war that we’ve had a vote on an attorney general in a lame-duck when parties switched. But this shows the desperation, and how the Democrats feel threatened that they’re going to lose control of the Senate. And if this happens, this would be Harry Reid’s final act in a tragic play that has been his legacy in Harry Reid’s lead in leadership. Specifically with Holder, I mean to me he has been a political protector, a partisan protector of the president. We need an attorney general for the people, not a presidential protector and a puppet of the administration. And if they try to do this in the lame-duck session, this will clearly poison the well, and will define what we’re going to see for the next two years, the final two years of the presidency of Barack Obama.”

                                                                        ###