Senate to explore president’s unchecked nuclear authority

FILE:,Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (Photo by U.S. Embassy Moldova/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is looking into the president’s unchecked authority to use nuclear weapons.

The committee led by Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee plans to hear testimony from a former commander of the Pentagon’s nuclear war fighting command and other witnesses.

Corker says numerous lawmakers have raised questions about legislative and presidential war-making authorities and the use of America’s nuclear arsenal. He calls a discussion on the topic “long overdue.”

The question of whether anyone could stop a president from ordering a pre-emptive nuclear strike was rarely raised before Donald Trump ran for the White House.

The answer to the question is simple: No. Under the long-established protocols, neither the Congress nor the defence secretary can stop the president. Military officers are duty-bound to execute the order.