President Joe Biden has violated the US Constitution and ought to be impeached for permitting Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles into Russia, Congressman Thomas Massie has said.
Multiple US outlets reported over the weekend that Biden had lifted the restrictions on Kiev’s use of US-supplied rockets. While the White House has neither confirmed nor denied the news officially, a volley of missiles was fired at Russia’s Bryansk Region early on Tuesday.
“By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all US citizens,” Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
“This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state,” he added.
According to anonymous officials who spoke to the media, the US permission would “mostly” apply to the Kursk Region of Russia, which Ukraine invaded in August. The decision was reportedly triggered by the Ukrainian claim that 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Kursk to aid the Russian troops.
The US and its allies had placed certain restrictions on the use of the weapons they have supplied to Kiev since 2022, in order to maintain plausible deniability regarding their involvement in the conflict with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the use of long-range missiles would change the nature of the conflict and make NATO a direct participant in the hostilities. Moscow has also revised its nuclear doctrine to encompass conventional attacks by proxies.
Massie has served in the US House of Representatives since 2012 and won his latest re-election bid unopposed. His insistence on constitutionalism has often put him at odds with both the Democrats and his own party.
Under the US Constitution, only Congress has the power to start a war. The last time this happened, however, was in 1942, when it was declared against Axis-aligned Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. Since 1991, the national legislature has passed three Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMF), twice against Iraq and once against Al-Qaeda. The AUMF targeted at Al-Qaeda has been stretched to justify the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan as well as subsequent interventions in Syria, Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere.