It will be difficult for Congress to step in and fix the situation following President Donald Trump's decision to pull U.S. troops from Syria, as the day-to-day management of American foreign policy is a power vested in the White House, Sen. Chris Murphy said Thursday.
"I think right now what is most important is for Republicans to focus their energies on pressuring this president and using the massive leverage that they have over him right now to change his mind or to at least act in a more responsible manner," the Connecticut Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "He signaled yesterday that he has no interest for the time being in either reversing the decisions he's made inside Syria or really trying to mount some coordinated pressure campaign on (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to act responsibly."
It's likely there will still be time for sanctions, said Murphy, but it's more important that Republicans pressure Trump to change his mind and manage the crisis, and use the leverage they have over him concerning his actions in Ukraine to do so.
"If they signal to him that they are no longer going to line up based on partisanship and listen to the facts that the inquiry hearing present, which are likely going to be impeachable, then they increase their leverage over him," said Murphy. "I think they have the opportunity to try to move him to action here."
However, he insisted that didn't mean he thinks a president should be impeached for bad policy, such as with Trump and Syria.
"What I'm suggesting is that the Republican party right now is engaged in blind partisan loyalty to this president," said Murphy. "They are not giving the facts surrounding impeachment a fair hearing. Now, I think that they should be patriots rather than partisans regardless of what is happening in Syria."
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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