Indiana Gov. Mike Pence accused ABC’s Martha Raddatz of mischaracterizing his position on U.S. policy toward Syria during Sunday’s presidential debate, leading Donald Trump to offer an answer that made it seem as though the two men hold conflicting views on the issue.
Raddatz, who co-moderated the second debate, had asked Trump how he would address the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo where Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies have backed a bombing campaign by Russian air power that has reduced the city to rubble. Pence had said in last week’s vice presidential debate that the U.S. should establish safe zones in the region and that “provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength,” including the use of military force if necessary.
“He and I haven’t spoken, and he and I disagree,” Trump told Raddatz when asked if he agreed that military force against the Assad regime should be left on the table. The Republican presidential hopeful said he supported the establishment of safe zones, but only if “other people” in the region pay for them since “they have all kinds of money.”
Pence on Monday said he and Trump see eye-to-eye on the issue, despite his running mate’s response during the second debate.
“I think Martha Raddatz just mischaracterized the statement that I made in my debate a week ago,” the Indiana governor told Fox News. “The question that was asked by [CBS News’] Elaine [Quijano] in our debate had to do with the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, and I said that Donald Trump and my position is that we need to establish safe zones.”
“We need to secure those safe zones and, if necessary, to use military force to allow the hundreds of thousands of people trapped in Aleppo, including 100,000 children, to be able to escape,” Pence said. “Last night, Martha Raddatz conflated those into a larger question about Russian provocation, Russian aggression. So I didn’t begrudge [Trump] at all saying we haven’t discussed it.”
During the original vice presidential debate on Tuesday, Pence said: “And secondly, I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. And if Russia chooses to be involved and continue, I should say, to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo.”
Raddatz, at Sunday night’s debate, asked Trump: “If you were president, what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, and I want to remind you what your running mate said. He said ‘provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength’ and that if ‘Russia continues’ to be involved in airstrikes along with the Syrian government forces of Assad, ‘the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike’ the ‘military targets of the Assad regime.’ ”
Pence later told MSNBC that he and Trump were “really both right and Martha Raddatz was wrong.” Trump had come under fire for suggesting in his answer on Sunday that Russian forces and Assad have been focused on directly targeting Islamic State militants in Aleppo.
“The way Martha presented that question last night was to suggest that Russian provocation broadly and that of the Assad regime should be met with military force. That was nothing I ever advocated for. It’s not the policy of this team or of this administration,” Pence said.
He continued, “Donald Trump and I are focused on establishing and securing safe zones for the people of Syria to be able to escape and get out of harm’s way. But his focus, I believe is the right focus, is to destroy ISIS at its source, pull together the resources of our country, hit them in Raqqa, hit them wherever they are and make our people and, frankly, make the world safer as a result.”
