QUESTION: So, if the Democrats take the Home and presumably the Senate, and if I bear in mind appropriately, Biden didn’t signal that act saying the president can not withdraw from NATO? Does that imply the Democrats can pressure us into World Warfare III to guard Zelensky?
HJ
ANSWER: Sure and No. In 2024, Biden signed Part 1250A into legislation, which prohibits the President from unilaterally withdrawing the USA from NATO. The 2024 Nationwide Protection Authorization Act (NDAA) included it, and it’s codified at 22 U.S.C. § 1928f.
The legislation explicitly prohibits the President from suspending, terminating, denouncing, or withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty besides by one among two strategies:
Recommendation and consent of the Senate, with two-thirds of Senators current concurring, or
An Act of Congress.
It additionally bars the usage of any federal funds to assist a NATO withdrawal with out assembly these necessities. This was supported by the Neocon then Sen. Marco Rubio (now Secretary of State) and Sen. Tim Kaine.
The legislation units up a possible authorized conflict. The manager department’s Workplace of Authorized Counsel (OLC) issued a 2020 opinion arguing that treaty withdrawal is an unique presidential energy that Congress can not constitutionally constrain. If a President tried to withdraw with out congressional approval, the matter would find yourself in courtroom except you had a Democrat as president.
Nonetheless, the sensible impact is that any President would want at the very least 14 Democratic Senators (assuming all Republicans voted to withdraw) to achieve the two-thirds threshold required by the legislation. Part 1928f is titled “Limitation on withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Group.” Its sole function is to forestall the President from unilaterally withdrawing the USA from NATO with out congressional approval.
Whereas I consider it’s unconstitutional, the actual pressure can be the Democrats would shut down all funds till he despatched People to due for the ethnic cleaning of Zelensky. Anyway you slice this, we’re in for a chaotic 2 years into 2028 and the American folks, and the world, will marvel if the USA is even salvageable.
