Story highlights Kentucky Senator Rand Paul says Trump shouldn't have ordered strikes in Syria without a vote in Congress

Paul: "We have to debate when and where we go to war. That's what our founding fathers asked us to do"

(CNN) Sen. Rand Paul said Saturday that he wants Congress to exercise its constitutional authority to declare war before any further actions in Syria. And he had sharp words for those who say a post-9/11 law gives President Trump that power, calling them "dishonest" and "not intellectually serious."

The Republican from Kentucky told CNN's Michael Smerconish that without "a vote in Congress," Trump's missile strikes in Syria were an "inappropriate way to start a war."

"I think this is a wrong-handed notion that we just skipped the most important step," he said.

As for whether the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, or AUMF , could be invoked in the case of Syria, Paul said that those who might make that argument "are not intellectually serious people."

"That resolution specifically says Sept. 11... and if someone is gonna come on television or in any public forum and say Assad had something to do with 9/11, they're frankly just a dishonest person," he said.

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