Democrats
walked out of Syria meeting after Trump had 'meltdown', Pelosi says
President
launches Twitter tirade after Democratic leaders exited meeting they say
devolved into insults
Guardian
staff and agencies
Thu 17 Oct
2019 03.50 BSTFirst published on Thu 17 Oct 2019 01.26 BST
Donald
Trump’s clash with Democratic lawmakers reached new heights when top Democrats
walked out of a White House meeting and House speaker Nancy Pelosi pitied the
president for having a “meltdown”.
Pelosi and
other top Democrats say they walked out of the contentious White House briefing
on Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria after it devolved into an
insult-fest and it became clear the president had no plan to deal with a
potentially revival of Isis in the Middle East.
The Senate
Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters Trump had called Pelosi a
“third-rate politician”. He said the meeting “was not a dialogue, this was sort
of a diatribe, a nasty diatribe not focused on the facts”.
Pelosi
said: “I pray for the president all the time … I think now we have to pray for
his health – this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the president.”
She added
Democrats “couldn’t continue in the meeting because he was just not relating to
the reality of it”.
Republicans
pushed back, arguing it was Pelosi who’d been the problem. “She storms out of
another meeting, trying to make it unproductive,” said the House GOP leader,
Kevin McCarthy.
The White
House spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, called Pelosi’s action “baffling but not
surprising”.
Trump
himself pushed back in a series of tweets, calling Pelosi “Nervous Nancy” and
the Democrats the “Do Nothing Democrats”.
Donald J.
Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The Do
Nothing Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer stormed out of the Cabinet Room!
View image
on Twitter
48.5K
12:42 AM -
Oct 17, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
27.9K
people are talking about this
Donald J.
Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Do you
think they like me?
View image
on Twitter
94.3K
12:21 AM -
Oct 17, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
58.8K
people are talking about this
Donald J.
Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Nervous
Nancy's unhinged meltdown!
View image
on Twitter
81.4K
12:29 AM -
Oct 17, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
71.7K
people are talking about this
Advertisement
(Pelosi
later made one of the photos her Twitter cover photo.)
Drew
Hammill
✔
@Drew_Hammill
Thanks for
the new cover photo @realDonaldTrump!
View image
on Twitter
19.6K
1:10 AM -
Oct 17, 2019
Twitter Ads
info and privacy
3,550
people are talking about this
The move
came on the same day the US House, which is bitterly divided over the
impeachment inquiry, nonetheless banded together to overwhelmingly support a
resolution condemning the president’s Syria policy by a vote of 354-60.
Turkey
launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria two days after
Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing forces from the area. Trump
declared on Wednesday that the US had no stake in defending the Kurdish
fighters, who died by the thousands as America’s partners against Isis
extremists.
Condemnation
of Trump’s stance on Turkey, Syria and the Kurds was quick and severe during
the day, and Pelosi said Trump appeared visibly “shaken up” after nearly
two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted in support of the resolution.
The
non-binding resolution states Congress’s opposition to the troop pullback and
says Turkey should cease its military action in Syria. The measure also says
the White House should present a plan for an “enduring defeat” of the Islamic
State; many worry that Isis will resurge as Turkish forces attack Syrian Kurds
who are holding the extremists.
The Syria
briefing marked the first face-to-face interaction between Trump and Pelosi
since the House speaker formally launched an impeachment inquiry against the
president last month.
Trump
himself has stalked out of his White House meetings in the past, including with
congressional leaders in May, when he said he would no longer work with
Democrats unless they dropped all Russia investigations, and last January
during the partial government shutdown.
In public
appearances on Wednesday, Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign pledge to
bring US troops home from “endless wars” in the Middle East – casting aside
criticism that a sudden US withdrawal from Syria betrays the Kurdish fighters,
stains US 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,” Trump said. “They have a problem at a border. It’s not
our border. We shouldn’t be losing lives over it.”
Details of
the contentious encounter continued to emerge throughout Wednesday evening.
Trump was said to have kicked off the meeting by bragging about his “nasty”
letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a Democrat
familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity by the Associated Press to
discuss it.
Pelosi
mentioned the House vote and Schumer began to read the president a quote from
the former defense secretary James Mattis on the need to keep US troops in
Syria to prevent a resurgent of Islamic State fighters.
But Trump
cut Schumer off, complaining that Mattis was “the world’s most overrated
general. You know why? He wasn’t tough enough.” Trump went on: “I captured
Isis.”
Pelosi
explained to Trump that Russia has always wanted a “foothold in the Middle
East”, and now it now had one with the US withdrawal, according to a senior
Democratic aide who was also granted anonymity.
“All roads
with you lead to Putin,” the speaker said.
Then things
escalated.
Trump said
to Pelosi: “I hate Isis more than you do.” Pelosi responded, “You don’t know
that.”
Schumer
intervened at one point and said: “Is your plan to rely on the Syrians and the
Turks?”
Trump
replied: “Our plan is to keep the American people safe.”
Pelosi
said: “That’s not a plan. That’s a goal.”
Trump turned
to Pelosi and complained about Barack Obama’s “red line” over Syria. According
to Schumer, he then called her “a third-rate politician”.
At that
point, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, interjected: “This
is not useful.”
Pelosi and
Hoyer stood and left the meeting. As they did, Trump said: “Goodbye, we’ll see
you at the polls.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário