Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, said Friday that while she may not consider Syrian President Bashar al Assad a direct enemy of the United States, she does think he is a "brutal dictator."
"There are brutal dictators in the world and Assad of Syria is one of them," the Hawaii lawmaker told CNN's "New Day." "That doesn't mean the United States should be waging regime change wars around the world and acting essentially as the world's police."
Waging "regime change wars" in Iraq, Syria, and Libya have made the lives of people in those countries "far worse off," said Gabbard.
Gabbard also said she believes American troops should be brought back from Syria, but only if the mission against ISIS is completed.
"You hear from some people in the administration as well as leaders in Congress that our troops should remain in Syria indefinitely in order to counter Iran, which is a mission that Congress has not authorized," said Gabbard. "I have said that our troops should come home, but they should come home in a responsible way that does not leave the Kurds on their own to be slaughtered by Turkey."
Gabbard also commented on President Donald Trump's upcoming emergency order for the border, saying it is "unconstitutional."
"Congress, through Article One, has the responsibility to appropriate funds for the government to serve our people," she said. "Now because President Trump has not gotten the amount of funding he wanted to get, he is blatantly taking this action."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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