WATCH: Obama Takes Syria Case To Congress

President Barack Obama said he is confident that Congress will vote to authorize military action against Syria, and reiterated his desire for a “limited” mission against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in comments to reporters before a Tuesday morning meeting with congressional leaders at the White House.

“I’ve made a decision that America should take action,” the president said, “but I also believe that we will be much more effective, we will be stronger, if we take action together as one nation.”

“I would not be going to Congress if I wasn’t serious about consultations and believing that by shaping the authorization to make sure we accomplish the mission, we will be more effective,” the president added.

Obama’s remarks suggest that he is willing to negotiate with Congress on the language of an authorization bill, which will likely be necessary to assemble a broad coalition in support of a military strike.

President Obama also reiterated that he has no desire to put American troops on the ground in Syria.

“This is not Iraq, this is not Afghanistan,” he said. “This is a limited proportional step that will send a message not only to the Assad regime, but to other countries that may be interested in testing some of these international norms, that there are consequences.”

Video of the president’s statement is below.

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Narcissist Trump Disdained The Wounded And Admired The War Criminal

Former President Donald Trump, Gen. Mark Milley and former Vice President Mike Pence

We’ve long known who Donald Trump is: narcissistic, impressed with authoritarian displays, contemptuous of anyone he sees as low status, a man for whom the highest principle is his own self-interest. It’s still shocking to read new accounts of the moments where he’s most willing to come out and show all that, to not even pretend to be anything but what he is—and holy crap, does The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg have the goods in his new profile of outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Mark Milley, which focuses on Milley’s efforts to protect the military as a nonpartisan institution under Trump.

Keep reading...Show less
Ben Wikler

Ben Wikler

White House

From Alabama Republicans' blatantly discriminatory congressional map, to the Wisconsin GOP's ousting of a the states' top election official and attempt to impeach a liberal Supreme Court justice, to North Carolina's decision to allow the majority-Republican legislature to appoint state and local election board members, News from the States reports these anti-democratic moves have all recently "generated national headlines" and stoked fears ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}