CNN: Congressman, is it worth it for your constituents to pay higher prices because of the war in Iran?
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie: [Gives rambling answer about Joe Biden, claims prices are starting to come down]
CNN: Diesel’s still about three bucks higher than it was at the beginning of the war.
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie: [Gives rambling answer about Russia and Ukraine and ‘far-left radicals’]
CNN: And you don’t think it’s worth limiting the President’s war powers at all? You’ve consistently voted against it. You don’t think it’s worth limiting his war powers at all, given the impact that this is having on your constituents?
Rep. Ryan Mackenzie: I think when you’re dealing with foreign policy, there are four main levers. There’s diplomacy, information, military, and economics. And if you want to resolve a crisis, you can’t go and take one of those levers of power away from an executive during a time of conflict. That is going to lead to a lesser outcome for our country because you’ve tied his hands in one particular area. So I don’t think, when you’re involved in a conflict like this that is ongoing, that you want to take any of those away. In fact, I’m glad that we added powers to the President and the executive by giving him additional sanction power, which had bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. So we are actually giving the President more ability to constrain Iran and also Russia in that instance, because both of those sanctions were included in that legislation.
CNN: All right. Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, we’re going to have to leave it there.
