President Trump said he disagreed with Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican repeatedly criticized him for withdrawing troops from northern Syria.
“Lindsey and I feel differently. I think Lindsey would like to stay there for the next 200 years, and maybe add a couple of hundred thousand people every place,” the president told reporters Wednesday. “But I disagree with Lindsey on that. But I will tell you that I do agree on sanctions, but I actually think much tougher than sanctions, if he doesn’t do it in as humane way as possible. But I’ve gotten him to stop for, virtually from the first day that I was in office, but they have wanted to fight and that’s the way it is and they’ve done it for so long.”
Graham said he “absolutely” disagreed with the president’s decision to pull troops from northern Syria.
“If I didn’t see Donald Trump’s name on the tweet, I thought it would be Obama’s rationale for getting out of Iraq. Here is what is going to happen: this is going to lead to ISIS’ reemergence,” Graham said on Fox & Friends Monday. “Nothing better for ISIS than to create a conflict between the Kurds and Turkey.”
The South Carolina senator threatened sanctions on Turkey if they invaded Syria and attacked American allies, the Kurds. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Wednesday that country was invading Syria while eyewitnesses on the ground said bombings had started on Tuesday.
