A picture was taken during a tense moment in Washington on Wednesday of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointing her finger at President Donald Trump during a meeting. The image is now being used on both sides to show strength and weakness.
Speaker Pelosi was meeting with President Trump and other House and Senate members to discuss the President’s decision to pull out U.S. troops from Syria. After the meeting, the Speaker said she was probably excusing herself and saying “All roads lead to Putin,” when the picture was taken.
Congressman Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was in the meeting, and he confirmed that phrase was the last thing Pelosi said. He also said he doesn’t think the situation was handled very maturely.
“We’re all adults in the room,” McCaul said. “After the speaker left the cabinet room that the other Democrats stayed in the room with us, and the President, and the Secretary of Defense and the joint Chiefs of staff, and we had a very productive discussion about moving forward.”
McCaul said his question to the President and the Secretary of Defense is are they going to have a residual force to protect the homeland. He said they made the mistake to remove troops from Iraq under Obama, and they do not want to see the same situation happen in Syria.
“I was given the assurance that we are not removing 100% in Syria, but there will be a residual for us both in Syria and Iraq to address any counter terrorism issues and to protect the homeland,” McCaul said.
McCaul has been working on a bi-partisan bill with Chairman Eliot Engel that would impose sanctions on Turkey for their attacks on Syria. McCaul said the bill is predicated on the cease fire, but if it doesn’t work they will be ready.
“If (the cease fire) does not work and it fails then we are prepared to move forward with our sanctions bill which would sanction essentially financial institutions associated with the leaders in Turkey and in the military movement into Syria,” McCaul said.
