Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has made it pretty clear that he’s no fan of President Trump; he delivered a whole speech that attacked Trump’s worldview and seemed to knock Trump for receiving Vietnam War deferments for bone spurs. But McCain’s comments about Trump on Sunday may be his most severe.
In a statement, McCain indirectly blamed Trump for the chemical weapons attack in Syria, suggesting that Trump’s recent comments about U.S. troops leaving Syria “very soon” and his noninterventionist approach have “emboldened” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“President Trump last week signaled to the world that the United States would prematurely withdraw from Syria,” McCain said. “Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers have heard him, and emboldened by American inaction, Assad has reportedly launched another chemical attack against innocent men, women and children, this time in Douma.”
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McCain did choose his words carefully so as not to completely lay what happened at Trump’s feet. He doesn’t directly tie Trump’s withdrawal comments to the chemical weapons attack. But he does seem to lump them in with “American inaction,” and the clear implication is that the Assad regime has decided to act in a way it might not otherwise have acted — were it not for Trump signaling that the United States would soon be gone and doesn’t really want to be there.
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