18 | POLITICO | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
said. “She kept her cool completely,
but he called her a third-rate poli-
tician. And he said there are com-
munists involved [in ISIS], and you
guys might like that. This was not
a dialogue; this was sort of a dia-
tribe, a nasty diatribe not focused
on the facts.”
Pelosi said Trump appeared
“very shaken up” after the House
overwhelmingly approved a reso-
lution condemning the U.S. with-
drawal from northern Syria and
the abandonment of its Kurdish al-
lies. House Minority Leader Kevin
McCarthy of California, Minority
Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana,
GOP Conference Chairman Liz
Cheney of Wyoming, were among
the 129 Republicans who crossed
party lines and voted for the Demo-
cratic-drafted measure, a dramatic
slap at Trump in the midst of one
the most serious foreign policy cri-
ses of his presidency.
“What we witness on the part of
the president was a meltdown, sad
to say,” Pelosi declared.
“We were offended — deeply —
by his treatment of the speaker of
the House of Representatives,”
Hoyer added. “I have served with
six presidents. I have been in
many, many, many meetings like
this. Never have I seen a president
treat so disrespectfully a co-equal
branch of the government of the
United States.”
Democrats walked out after
Trump let loose a stream of per-
sonal attacks on including calling
her a “third-grade politician.”
A Democratic source famil-
iar with the meeting said it “de-
volved into the president calling
the speaker a name. [Trump] was
quite nasty, so she stood up to go.
She started to sit back down but
[Hoyer] got her to go. Pelosi and
Hoyer walked out of the meeting.].”
McCarthy told reporters that the
California Democrat “stormed out”
of the White House meeting.
“Unfortunately, the speaker tries
to make everything political. Her
own statements weren’t produc-
tive,” he said. “To storm out of a
meeting, which I’ve watched times
before in other crises, is really not
the style of how a speaker should
carry herself.”
The ugly exchange between the
country’s top political leaders —
while common in the Trump era –
capped off another disastrous day
for Trump, who has been lambasted
by lawmakers in both parties over
the Syria debacle.
Even top Republicans — normally
wary of crossing the thin-skinned
president — expressed deep dismay
over Trump’s latest comments,
which they viewed as a sign the
president is digging in over his con-
troversial move to abruptly upend
U.S. foreign policy in the region.
“I hope President Trump is right
in his belief that Turkey’s inva-
sion of Syria is of no concern to
us, abandoning the Kurds won’t
come back to haunt us, ISIS won’t
reemerge, and Iran will not fill the
vacuum created by this decision,”
said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“However, I firmly believe that if
President Trump continues to
make such statements this will be
a disaster worse than President
Obama’s decision to leave Iraq.”
Trump later pushed back at
Graham — a vocal Trump critic
turned huge loyalist — saying the
South Carolina Republican “would
like to stay in the Middle East for
the 1000 years ... I think Lindsey
should focus on Judiciary.”
Lawmakers in both parties also
slammed the president’s remarks
as undermining Vice President
Mike Pence, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo and national secu-
rity adviser Robert O’Brien, who are
traveling to Ankara on Wednesday
to meet with Turkish President Re-
cep Tayyip Erdogan. The high-level
U.S. delegation hopes to broker a
cease-fire between Turkey and
Kurdish forces, although Erodganalready told Sky News that he had
no plans to halt the offensive.
“Big, big mistake,” said Sen.
Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) of Trump’s
Syria policy. “One thing I’m pret-
ty certain of is that Erdogan is not
going to agree to a cease-fire until
he’s established control of northern
Syria.”
Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas),
who is crafting a bipartisan sanc-
tions package and attended the
White House meeting, said the
president assured lawmakers that
“we are not withdrawing com-
pletely from Syria.”
“As I pointed out to the president,
within one year, this president
crushed the so-called caliphate in
Iraq and Syria. And today, we see
the situation as a little different,”
McCaul said. “I wanted assurances
from the president ... to have a re-
sidual force in Syria to protect the
homeland. I was given that assur-
ance today that we are not with-
drawing completely from Syria. We
will have a residual force of special
operators, to first and foremast,
protect the homeland.”
Trump may still avoid a formal
rebuke in the GOP-controlled Sen-
ate as some Republicans are begin-
ning to soften their criticism.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell has given no indica-tion that he would allow a version
of the House resolution to be taken
up by his chamber, although that
could change after the White House
session.
The Kentucky Republican said
Trump’s decision to withdraw
troops from northern Syria was a
“mistake.” But he also noted that
there was only so much Congress
could do to persuade Trump to
change his mind.
“Any president has a lot of lati-
tude in deploying troops and many
of us have been arguing that this
was a mistake, it shouldn’t have
been done and hoping that he would
reverse course,” McConnell said.
“There seems to be no evidence of
it so far.”
McConnell didn’t directly ad-
dress the House resolution con-
demning Trump’s removal of
troops from northern Syria, but
reiterated that the Senate is consid-
ering legislation that would impose
sanctions on Turkey.
Schumer urged McConnell at a
news conference to bring the House
resolution to the floor.
“This legislation is a repudiation
of President Trump’s actions — a
clear repudiation,” Schumer said.
“There is no better way to put pres-
sure on him.”
One Republican senator pri-vately said the resolution seemed
less popular in the caucus at this
time because it could be seen as a
shot at Trump. Other Republicans
said the meeting with the president
on Wednesday could determine the
legislative response from Trump’s
own party.
“I would hope that he would be
open to changing his policies based
on the inputs he gets ... we have
some very strong views up here
on what’s going on. And we’re in a
tough spot now because the horse
is out of the barn,” said Senate Ma-
jority Whip John Thune of South
Dakota. “Whatever discussions
occur with the White House and
president, hopefully we’ll find a
way to move forward in the same
direction.”
Democrats expressed little hope
that Trump will reverse course and
they planned to move ahead with
the resolution vote in the House
before the White House huddle.
“I don’t have any kind of idea
why the president has had this
meeting. Perhaps to inform us of
why he made this decision. So we’ll
see,” Hoyer said. “It is hard to con-
ceive of an action more helpful to
our enemies ... This is a betrayal
of our allies across the world and
the consequences are growing by
the day.”
The administration dispatched
Defense Secretary Mark Esper to
Capitol Hill on Tuesday to explain
Trump’s Syria decision to a group of
House Republicans. But GOP law-
makers were not satisfied by Esper’s
response to questions about how
the Pentagon was going to prevent
the resurgence of ISIS, according
to aides familiar with the meeting.
Cheney, an outspoken critic
of Trump’s Syria shift who at-
tended the White House meet-
ing, will unveil a sanctions pack-
age on Wednesday that has broad
GOP support and is tougher than
the bipartisan legislation being
drafted by the House Foreign Af-
fairs Committee.
Cheney did not call out Trump
by name during a GOP news con-
ference on Wednesday morning,
though she did take a shot at rival
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has
loudly backed Trump’s decision.
“Our allies the Kurds frankly
are facing what looks like a be-
trayal from the United States. That
could have very negative impacts
and consequences for us globally,”
Cheney said. “If we go down the
path that’s been suggested by Sen.
Paul and others into isolationism,
then others will fill that void.”Heather Caygle and Burgess
Everett contributed to this report.Dems hold little hope Trump will shift course on Syria
SYRIA from page 1
President Donald Trump warned
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of
Turkey to not be “a tough guy” and
“a fool” in a bombastic letter last
week that was apparently delivered
as the Turkish military launched its
invasion of northeast Syria.
In the letter, which was authen-
ticated by the White House, Trump
urges his foreign counterpart to ne-
gotiate an end to Turkey’s assault
against U.S.-allied Kurdish fight-
ers, which has drawn widespread
condemnation by the international
community.
The correspondence was made
public Wednesday as Trump
continues to face fierce criticism
for granting tacit approval of the
incursion earlier this month and
as administration officials have
sought to project a hard line against
Erdogan’s government amid sus-
tained political fallout.
“Let’s work out a good deal! Youdon’t want to be responsible for
slaughtering thousands of people,
and I don’t want to be responsible
for destroying the Turkish economy
— and I will. I’ve already given you a
little sample with respect to Pastor
[Andrew] Brunson,” Trump wrote
in the letter, referring to sanctions
the Treasury Department imposed
on senior Turkish officials for the
detention of an American evangeli-
cal clergyman.
“I have worked hard to solvesome of your problems. Don’t let
the world down. You can make a
great deal,” he continued, adding
that Kurdish Gen. Mazloum Kobani
of the Syrian Democratic Forces “is
willing to negotiate with you, and
he is willing to make concessions
that they would never have made
in the past.”
“History will look upon you
favorably if you get this done the
right and humane way. It will
look upon you forever as the devilif good things don’t happen,” the
president concluded. “Don’t be a
tough guy. Don’t be a fool! I will
call you later.”
The letter is dated Oct. 9 — the
same day Erdogan tweeted that
Turkey had begun its offensive
into Syria. The White House had
announced in a weekend state-
ment three days earlier that
Turkey would “soon be moving
forward with its long-planned
operation.”BY QUINT FORGEY
Trump to Turkish president: ‘Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!’
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from
northern Syria was a “mistake.” But he also said Congress isn’t likely to be able to get Trump to change his mind.