--- title: Democratic Debate: How Hillary Clinton Muddied the AUMF description: Hillary Clinton muddied the water over the powers of the post-9/11 war authorization against al Qaeda. canonical: https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-15T02:59:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:54.217Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How Hillary Clinton Muddied the 9/11 War Declaration og:description: At the Democratic debate. og:url: https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cab56fc5b09cb37/698871253c16398d6245ab91/clinton-debate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the second official 2016 U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate in Des Moines og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Hillary Clinton Muddied the 9/11 War Declaration twitter:description: At the Democratic debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cab56fc5b09cb37/698871253c16398d6245ab91/clinton-debate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Hillary Clinton Muddied the 9/11 War Declaration > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 15, 2015 2:59 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton speaks during the second official 2016 U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate in Des Moines, IO on Nov. 14, 2015. Hillary Clinton speaks during the second official 2016 U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate in Des Moines, IO on Nov. 14, 2015. Jim Young—Reuters by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Nov 15, 2015 2:59 AM UTC Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she wasn’t in favor of a specific declaration of war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria in Saturday’s Democratic debate, but she muddied the water over the powers of the post-9/11 war authorization against al Qaeda. Clinton repeated the Obama administration’s assertion that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force covers the ongoing campaign against ISIS. “We have an authorization to use military force against terrorists. We passed it after 9/11\. It certainly does cover it,” she said. But, in fact, the act only authorizes action against those nations or groups which “planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.” The discrepancy is one that has been repeatedly seized upon by congressional critics of executive overreach such as Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who has supported action against ISIS but has called for the passage of a new, specific authorization for strikes against ISIS. The Obama administration has relied on a complicated logic to justify its 15-month campaign against ISIS under the 2001 law, though it has called on Congress to amend the legislation—a move Clinton endorsed Saturday. --- > “” --- Here’s how the Obama administration [justified](http://time.com/3362683/obama-isis-iraq-syria-war-aumf/) using the 2001 AUMF against ISIS in 2014: --- > “” --- _With reporting by Tessa Berenson in Washington_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/"},"headline":"Here's How Hillary Clinton Muddied the 9/11 War Declaration","datePublished":"2015-11-15T02:59:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:54.217Z","description":"Hillary Clinton muddied the water over the powers of the post-9/11 war authorization against al Qaeda.","url":"https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","al-Qaeda","ISIS","Martin O'malley"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cab56fc5b09cb37/698871253c16398d6245ab91/clinton-debate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0cab56fc5b09cb37/698871253c16398d6245ab91/clinton-debate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the second official 2016 U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate in Des Moines","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the second official 2016 U.S. Democratic presidential candidates debate in Des Moines","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4113470/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-aumf/","name":"Here's How Hillary Clinton Muddied the 9/11 War Declaration"}}]}] ```