The White House has forcefully pushed back against a report claiming Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was overruled by President Trump in wanting to secure congressional approval ahead of last week’s military strikes in Syria.
“Reports that Secretary Mattis urged the president to seek congressional approval before last week’s strikes in Syria are categorically false,” press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
Sanders added that Trump “appropriately ordered the strikes under his constitutional authorities.” Her comments came hours after Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White called the New York Times story that contained such claims “blatantly false.”
Citing anonymous administration officials, the Times reported earlier Wednesday that Mattis had asked Trump to request congressional authorization ahead of the targeted strikes late Friday evening.
“But [he] was overruled by Mr. Trump, who wanted a rapid and dramatic response,” the Times reported, claiming that Mattis “underscored the importance of linking military operations to public support” in White House meetings last week.
The U.S. launched a series of airstrikes against the Assad regime last Friday in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians outside Damascus in early April.
“The Syrian raid was so perfectly carried out, with such precision, that the only way the Fake News Media could demean was by my use of the term ‘Mission Accomplished,'” Trump tweeted a day after the strikes.
