Amna Nawaz
Amna Nawaz
@PBSNewsHour·5.3M subscribers·62.2K videos

WATCH: Rubio calls War Powers Act 'unconstitutional’

Posted

May 5, 2026

Views

1,336

Likes

32

Engagement

2.40%

Search the Record

Indexed

Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.

Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.

Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line

YouTube Description

as posted by the channel

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the War Powers Act, which allows the president to deploy the military in cases of "imminent threat" for a 60-day period without congressional approval, is unconstitutional.

Rubio said Trump and every past U.S. president hold the same view.

“We don't acknowledge the law is constitutional,” Rubio said. “Nonetheless, we comply with elements of it for purposes of maintaining, you know, good relations with Congress, and we want them to be involved and we want them to be informed.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concern last week that the war in Iran was exceeding the 60-day limit outlined by the War Powers Act.  Efforts in the Senate to pass a resolution limiting Trump's actions in Iran have failed.

Rubio was responding to a reporter’s question about whether additional fighting in Iran would fall under Project Freedom, an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping traffic that the White House announced on Monday.

Sign up for Here's The Deal with Lisa Desjardins

Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters

PBS News podcasts

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app

Find more from PBS News at

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Guests & Subjects Covered

WATCHState Marco RubioWar Powers ActWar Powers Act EffortsProject FreedomWhite HouseMonday Watch PBS NewsPBS News Hour

Sentinel Indexing in Progress

Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.

All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.

WATCH: Rubio calls War Powers Act 'unconstitutional’ · Amna Nawaz · Sentinel