Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said Sunday night that President Donald Trump is rethinking the “immediate” American military pullout from Syria.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who criticized President Trump's withdrawal of troops from the Middle East, says Trump today told him "some things I didn't know that make me feel a lot better about where we're headed in Syria" pic.twitter.com/HBbvzirDfO
— CBS News (@CBSNews)
The president will make sure any withdrawal from Syria will be done in a fashion to ensure the Islamic State terror organization is permanently destroyed, he said. He’ll also make sure “Iran doesn’t fill in the back end, and our Kurdish allies are protected,” Graham added.
Trump is “talking with our commanders and working with our allies to make sure these three objectives are met as we implement the withdrawal,” the senator said.
He also told reporters after meeting with the president at the White House that the president is “firm in his commitment to make sure we get money for border security,” as the partial government shut down continues into its second week.
Graham said that Trump “understands what’s at stake in Syria,” and agreed to slow down the immediate withdrawal of the troops that was ordered earlier this month.
The senator told CNN’s Jake Tapper on the “State of the Union” program prior to his meeting with Trump, “The president is reconsidering how we do this…. We’re fighting a war against ISIS. They’re still not defeated in Syria.
“I’m going to ask him to sit down with his generals and reconsider how to do this,” Graham said on the program, which aired prior to the senator’s noontime meeting with Trump. “Slow this down. Make sure that we get it right. Make sure ISIS never comes back. Don’t turn Syria over to the Iranians. That’s a nightmare for Israel.”
Graham warned that America’s first line of defense against radical Islamic terror begins overseas – not at home – adding that it is important not to abandon those who have fought against the rise of ISIS.
When it comes to radical Islam, a border wall is our last line of defense — not our first.
Our first line of defense is a forward deployed presence working with partners to disrupt enemy operations directed at our allies and homeland.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC)
I hope President Trump will not do in Syria what Obama did in Iraq — which led to the rise of ISIS.
We also must not abandon our Kurdish allies who have fought so hard by our side in Syria.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC)