Biden stands by impeachment threat; Bush has 'damaged us' like no other administration has

Biden stands by impeachment threat; Bush has 'damaged us' like no other administration has

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) appeared on MSNBC's Hardball and reiterated that he would seek the impeachment of President Bush were he to invade Iran without the permission of Congress.

Biden, a Democratic candidate for the White House himself, was asked by host Chris Matthews if he stood by his earlier comment regarding the impeachment of the president. Biden said yes, explaining it as "a warning."

"The president has no constitutional authority to take this nation to war against a country of 70 million people, unless we're attacked or unless there is proof that we are about to be attacked," said Biden. "And if he does ... I would move to impeach him.

"This administration has damaged us to a degree that no other administration has in American history," the senator remarked. "We have no credibility."

Excerpts from the transcript of the video, found in full here, follow:

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Matthews: Senator Biden, I know you've been the foreign affairs expert for the Democratic Party. Were you snowed? Were you shocked to hear we do not face a weapons system under production in Iran?

Biden: No. I never believed we were. And I said it. I've been trying to engage Iran way back five years ago with Dick Lugar and others, trying to engage them. Look, this is not--you know, if this weren't so deadly earnest--this isn't about curiosity, it's about credibility. This administration has damaged us to a degree that no other administration has in American history. We have no credibility, Chris. ...

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Biden: We have added to the urban legend in the streets of all the Muslim capitals in the world that this is a war against Islam. We have made it more difficult for every moderate Muslim leader, from Karzai on, to be able to deal directly with us. This is incredibly devastating to our interests in the Middle East, from Iraq through Pakistan, as well as our credibility around the world. It is going to cost us in a way that no one's calculating it. The good news is it makes it harder for these cowboys to go to war. The bad news is we have been further damaged, and that hurts America's interests in a big way.

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Biden: I don't know what President Bush thinks, but I think he's bought hook, line and sinker the Cheney rationale that the only way for us to be able to be dominant in the 21st century is to use our overwhelming power in the face of the moral disapprobation of the rest of the world, threaten the rest of the world and that's how we avoid war in the future.

I think these guys are irresponsible. But the thing that angers me the most ... is how incomprehensible it is for anyone to think that the president did not know that his intelligence agencies didn't believe what he was saying. I believe that's why these guys came out with now 16 American intelligence agencies uniting, saying, I'm not going to wear the jacket again on this one. ...

MATTHEWS: ...I want to ask you about something you've been involved with. You said that if the president of the United States had launched an attack on Iran without congressional approval, that would have been an impeachable offense.

BIDEN: Absolutely.

MATTHEWS: Do you want to review that comment you made? Well, how do you stand on that now? Do you think...

BIDEN: Yes, I do. I want to stand by that comment I made. The reason I made the comment was as a warning. ... I got together and brought a group of constitutional scholars together to write a piece that I'm going to deliver to the whole United States Senate, pointing out the president has no constitutional authority to take this nation to war against a country of 70 million people, unless we're attacked or unless there is proof that we are about to be attacked. And if he does--if he does--I would move to impeach him. The House obviously has to do that, but I would lead an effort to impeach him.