Pelosi, Trump clash at briefing
House vote condemns U.S. troop withdrawal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared Wednesday the U.S. has no stake in defending the Syrian Kurdish fighters who died by the thousands as America’s partners against Islamic State extremists.
Hours later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats walked out of a meeting at the White House, accusing the president of having a “meltdown,” calling her a “third-rate politician” and having no plan to deal with a potentially revived IS.
Condemnation of Mr. Trump’s stance on Turkey, Syria and the Kurds was quick and severe during the day, not only from Democrats but from Republicans who have been staunch supporters on virtually all issues.
The House, bitterly divided over the Trump impeachment inquiry, banded together for an overwhelming 354-60 denunciation of the U.S. troop withdrawal. Many lawmakers expressed worry that it may lead to revival of IS as well as Russian presence and influence in the area — in addition to the slaughter of many Kurds.
At the White House, Mr. Trump, in statements that were seen as him washing his hands of Syria, said the U.S. has no business in the region — and not to worry about the Kurdish fighters.
“They know how to fight,” he said. “And by the way, they’re no angels.”
After the House condemnation vote, the congressional leaders of both parties went to the White house for a briefing, which grew contentious, with Mr. Trump and Ms. Pelosi trading jabs. The Democrats said they walked out when the meeting devolved into an insult-fest.
“What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters, saying Mr. Trump appeared visibly “shaken up” over the House vote.
“We couldn’t continue in the meeting because he was just not relating to the reality of it,” she said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Mr. Trump for not having an adequate plan to deal with IS fighters who
have been held by the Kurds. He said the meeting “was not a dialogue, this was sort of a diatribe, a nasty diatribe not focused on the facts.”
Republicans pushed back, saying it was Ms. Pelosi who’d been the problem. “She storms out of another meeting, trying to make it unproductive,” House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said.
Mr. Trump himself has stalked out of his White House meetings with congressional leaders — in May, saying he would no longer work with Democrats unless they dropped all Russia investigations, and last January during the partial government shutdown.
In public appearances Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign promise to bring U.S. troops home from “endless wars” in the Middle East — casting aside criticism that a sudden U.S. withdrawal from Syria betrays the Kurdish fighters, stains U.S. credibility around the world and opens an important region to Russia, which is moving in.
“We have a situation where Turkey is taking land from Syria. Syria’s not happy about it. Let them work it out,” Mr. Trump said. “They have a problem at a border. It’s not our border. We shouldn’t be losing lives over it.”
Mr. Trump said he was sending Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Ankara to urge the Turks to halt their weeklong offensive into northeastern Syria. But his remarks, first to reporters in the Oval Office and later at a news conference with his Italian counterpart, were seen as suggesting he sees little at stake for America.
“Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of sand over there. So, there’s a lot of sand that they can play with.
“Let them fight their own wars.”
More than once, Mr. Trump suggested the United States has little concern in the Middle East because it is geographically distant — a notion shared by some prior to Sept. 11, 2001, when alQaida militants used Afghanistan as a base from which to attack the U.S. That attack set off a series of armed conflicts, including in Iraq, that Mr. Trump considers a waste of American lives and treasure.
The current withdrawal is the worst decision of Mr. Trump’s presidency, said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who meets often with the president and is one of his strongest and most important supporters in Congress. “To those who think the Mideast doesn’t matter to America, remember 9/11 — we had that same attitude on 9/10 2001.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said he strongly disagreed with Mr. Trump and had told the president so.
Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria a week ago, two days after Mr. Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the area. Turkey’s Mr. Erdogan has said he wants to create a 20-mile-deep “safe zone” in Syria.
Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are nothing more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s and which Turkey, as well as the U.S. and European Union, designate as a terrorist organization.
Mr. Trump downplayed the crisis that followed his decision to pull out of Syria, which critics say amounted to giving Turkey a green light to invade against the Kurdish fighters.
“It’s not between Turkey and the United States, like a lot of stupid people would like you to believe,” he said. “Our soldiers are not in harm’s way, as they shouldn’t be.”
Mr. Trump did impose new sanctions on Turkey this week in an attempt to force Mr. Erdogan to end his assault. But he said Wednesday, “It’s time for us to come home.”
Even as Mr. Trump defended his removal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, he praised his decision to send more troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom defend against Iran. He said the U.S. is sending missiles and “great power” to the Saudis, and “they’re paying for that.”