Two Democratic lawmakers are pushing President Joe Biden to sign on to an effort to restrict presidential authority over the use of nuclear weapons ahead of President-elect Donald Trump taking office.
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Ted Lieu of California wrote to Biden on Thursday to urge him to support legislation that would block presidents from ordering a first-strike with a nuclear weapon. Markey and Lieu’s legislation, the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act, has been introduced to Congress numerous times since 2015.
“Mr. President, with just weeks left in office, you can safeguard the system against Donald Trump or any future unstable president, and make it constitutional,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote.
To make their case, they provided examples of military leaders who, under the Nixon and Trump administrations, took steps to undermine the president’s constitutional authority over nuclear weapons. Rather than denouncing such action, the lawmakers argued that a legislative fix is needed to keep the decision to launch a preemptive nuclear strike out of the hands of “just one fallible human.”
Despite the concerns of former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger under former President Richard Nixon and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley under Trump, neither president threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike.
“We urge you to announce that henceforth it will be the policy of the United States that it will not initiate a nuclear first strike without express authorization from Congress,” the lawmakers wrote.
According to the Democrats, under the legislation, “A president could order a nuclear launch only if (1) Congress had approved the decision, providing a constitutional check on executive power or (2) the United States had already been attacked with a nuclear weapon.”
“This would be infinitely safer than our current doctrine,” they wrote.
Come January, Donald Trump will have the sole authority to launch a nuclear strike. This should terrify you. That's why @RepTedLieu and I are urging @POTUS to put guardrails on presidential authority to start nuclear war. pic.twitter.com/Wtvb6B2m4r
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) December 12, 2024
Critics of the legislation accused the lawmakers of holding a partisan double-standard meant to cast Trump as unstable.
“They were fine with a guy who’s literally senile launching nukes…But now they want to rein things in?” RealClearInvestigations’ Mark Hemingway said.
