Sen. Mike Lee on ISIS: 'They've got to be stopped'

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Sen. Mike Lee on ISIS: 'They've got to be stopped'

Lawmaker sounds off about the president's stance

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: All right, Colonel Oliver North, as always, thank you, sir. Appreciate you being with us.

And joining us with more reaction, the author of ‘Our Lost Constitution.’ Utah senator Mike Lee is with us. Senator, during the Super Bowl, Savannah Guthrie rightly pointed out to the president that, you know, the fact that they gained more territory since the air strikes began.  And Obama said that's just not accurate.

Well, we have a map. And unfortunately, it speaks volumes that Savannah Guthrie was right and not the president. Here's a map of an area of influence of the cities that are controlled by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

They've nearly doubled their -- the territory that they have in Syria. And as you can see, Mosul and Fallujah and all these other big countries that they have.

And then we got another map from the Institute Study for the War (sic), and look at the expanse of radicalism in Africa and the Middle East -- northwest Africa, Somalia, Kenya, Libya, Nigeria, the Arabian peninsula, Syria, Iraq and all these areas, all happened -- all -- so much of this territory taken while he's president! Why?

SEN. MIKE LEE, R-UTAH: Well, because this is an extremist organization. This is an evil terror group that is absolutely bent on going after anyone who believes in freedom and loves peace. They will stop at nothing unless or until we stop them. They've got to be stopped.

HANNITY: So why don't -- why did -- the Jordanian king responds in 24 hours, and he responds with force. Why does our president, when an American is beheaded, James Foley -- he went to play golf within three minutes of a hastily held press conference!

LEE: Yes. Look, I don't speak for the president. You'll have to ask him why he chose to do that. But the point here is, Sean, this is building. I mean, we have the Jordanian pilot yesterday with this video being released. Just days ago, we had Japanese citizens beheaded. And we've had attacks against Americans. We've had Americans killed.

This is building, and it's building to the point where it's undeniable. This is an evil group. They're bent on attacking the United States. They're bent on attacking U.S. allies in the region. And they've got to be stopped.

HANNITY: One last question. How is it -- it was one year ago that the president referred to ISIS as the JV team. Now, I've got to believe that American intelligence did a better job informing the president how dangerous this group was. How could he have possibly a year ago referred to them as the JV team?

LEE: Well, he certainly got that wrong. And let's just hope that anyone who advised him that it was OK to use that term or even to think of them in any way is part of a JV team is no longer advising him and that he's got a new team there that's making clear the reality of this threat.

But regardless, I want to see a plan from the president about how he's going to attack ISIS. And ideally, that plan needs to include some kind of a request for authorization for the use of military force in the region.

Congress needs to be consulted. And with that request for, or whether it's a declaration of war or whatever he wants to call it, would come a threat assessment.

This is the responsibility of the president of the United States to put this together, to make the case to the people's elected representatives in Congress. And we need to approve that.

HANNITY: All right. Senator, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.

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