PELOSI VS TRUMP: President Trump didn’t have any desire to sit down with Congressional leaders right after the House passed a bipartisan resolution rebuking him for his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, but Trump says he reluctantly agreed to the meeting at the White House, which included Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.
The measure passed 354-60 vote, with all Democrats and 129 Republicans voting in favor, including top three House Republicans, an indication of the deep concern over the unraveling of America’s alliance with Syrian Kurds.
IT QUICKLY GOES SOUTH: Democrats say they wanted to know what the plan is to secure the hard-won gains against ISIS and prevent the escape of captured ISIS fighters, now that Turkey is overrunning Kurdish defenses, and Syrian regime forces and Russian troops are filling the void left by the hasty U.S. retreat.
The mood quickly turned sour. Trump, anxious to dispel the notion he gave Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a green light to invade, handed out a letter he wrote the Turkish president three days after the famous Sunday night phone call between the two leaders.
McCARTHY’S VERSION: According to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, when the letter was passed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she didn’t look at it.
“She turns it over flat to show in the president’s face she’s not going to read his letter,” McCarthy told Laura Ingraham on Fox News “Then she starts to smile. The president calls her out, Nancy, why are you laughing? This is a serious item.”
THE TIMES VERSION: The back and forth went downhill from there, with Trump at one point telling Pelosi “I hate ISIS more than you do,” and Pelosi telling Trump that all roads with him led to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Associated Press.
As the tone got nasty Pelosi, along with Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, left as the president reportedly bade them goodbye with a curt “We’ll see you at the polls.”
On the White House driveway Schumer described the exchange as “not a dialogue but a nasy diatribe,” and Pelosi said Trump had had a meltdown and was disconnected from reality.
THE WHITE HOUSE VERSION: “The President was measured, factual and decisive, while Speaker Pelosi’s decision to walk out was baffling, but not surprising,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“She had no intention of listening or contributing to an important meeting on national security issues. While democratic leadership chose to storm out and get in front of the cameras to whine, everyone else in the meeting chose to stay in the room and work on behalf of this country.”
WHOSE MELTDOWN WAS IT? Afterward, Trump tweeted three official White House photos of the meeting including one of Pelosi standing and pointing at the president, which he labeled “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown!” and another of the three Democrats glowering across the table, with the caption “Do you think they like me?”
Then last night he followed up with another personal attack on Pelosi: “Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country,” Trump tweeted. “She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!”
‘DON’T BE A FOOL’: Trump’s Oct. 9 letter to Erdogan has been dismissed by Turkey, which has moved beyond it, according to Gulnur Aybet, a senior adviser to Erdogan, who spoke to NPR’s Morning Edition.
In the letter Trump suggests Erdogan negotiate directly with the leader of the Kurdish forces. “General Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions that they would never have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing a copy of his letter to me, just received.”
Aybet told NPR that Erdogan will not negotiate with a terrorist leader, dismissing the idea as “ridiculous.”
“You don’t want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy — and I will,” Trump warns Erdogan.
“History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things don’t happen. Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” Trumps writes, adding, “I will call you later.”
Good Thursday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Susan Katz Keating (@SKatzKeating). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @dailyondefense.
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HAPPENING TODAY: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen will unveil their bipartisan legislation to impose severe sanctions on Turkish officials in response to their incursion into northern Syria.
Graham, who is vowing to hit Turkey with “sanctions from hell,” and Van Hollen have a news conference set for 12:30 p.m. in the Senate Radio-TV Gallery. An outline of the sanctions can be found here.
Over in the House, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney says her Turkey sanctions bill has more than 90 Republican co-sponsors. She released the text of the legislation yesterday.
“It’s very important to recognize the impact, in particular, that the Turks now are in a situation where we risk the resurgence of ISIS, where the Turks have gone in and we see evidence of atrocities being committed, and where our allies, the Kurds, frankly, are facing what looks like a betrayal from the United States that could have very negative consequences and impacts for us globally,” Cheney said.
‘STRATEGICALLY BRILLIANT’: Trump continues to defend his decision to quit Syria and leave it to Turkey, Russia, Syria and Iran to sort out. “We have a situation where Turkey is taking land from Syria. Syria’s not happy about it. Let them work it out. We shouldn’t be over there,” Trump said during a joint press conference with the Italian prime minister.
“They have a problem with Turkey, they have a problem at a border. It’s not our border. We shouldn’t be losing lives over it,” Trump said earlier. “I view the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be, for the United States, strategically brilliant. Our soldiers are out of there. Our soldiers are totally safe.”
NOT SO FAST: Fox News, which has been aggressively fact-checking Trump’s assertion about the situation on the ground in Syria, says it’s too soon to say U.S. forces are out of danger.
In a report yesterday, National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin disputed Trump’s claims that Syria is protecting the Kurds and U.S. troops are safe.
“Senior US defense officials tell me that what we’re witnessing right now is a deliberate phased withdrawal of US troops out of Syria. They will be repositioned elsewhere in the Middle East,” Griffin said. “The US military is collapsing patrol bases in northern Syria and will pull back to one base in north-east Syria from which they will be airlifted out. It is an extremely dangerous evacuation that is underway according to military commanders.”
A U.S. military spokesman confirmed that the U.S. is having to conduct airstrikes to destroy weapons and ammunition so they don’t fall into the wrong hands.
“On Oct. 16, after all #Coalition personnel and essential tactical equipment departed, two Coalition F-15Es successfully conducted a pre-planned precision airstrike at the Lafarge Cement Factory to destroy an ammunition cache and reduce the facility’s military usefulness,” tweeted Col. Myles Caggins a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition based in Iraq.
BLESSING IN DISGUISE: Trump has an ardent defender in Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who told CNN Trump’s pullout from Syria “was strategically the best thing to do.
“This may be the best thing that ever happened to the Kurds, because they need a protector in Syria that’s willing to stay. We had been preventing having them talk to Assad and now they made an alliance with Assad and the irony of this is, it may end up being the best thing that ever happened to them,” Paul told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “If Assad and Erdogan can now have a truce and Assad will agree to patrol the Syrian side of this, there’s a possibility that the Kurds could have an autonomous region similar to what they have in Iraq.’
“That seems like very wishful thinking,” said Tapper, to which Paul replied, “We’ll see. We’ll see, Jake. Nobody knows.”
AF SEC CONFIRMED: The Senate voted yesterday to confirm Barbara Barrett as Secretary of the Air Force by a vote of 85-7. The vote means that the Pentagon now has Senate-confirmed civilians in all the top leadership jobs, as well as a fully-confirmed joint chiefs of staff.
NEW CHAIRMAN, NEW ADVISER: Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley has picked an airman to be his senior enlisted adviser, for the first time since the office was created in 2005.
Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Ramon Colon-Lopez is currently the command senior enlisted leader of U.S. Africa Command, in Stuttgart, Germany. He replaces Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell.
A WORD FROM MY EDITOR, SKK: My editor Susan Katz Keating, aka SKK, attended the AUSA exposition this week. I asked for her impressions.
“The final day, Wednesday, brought more international encounters, when military officers from Greece, Germany, Columbia and Australia lurked alongside me watching people test their urban combat skills at a Korean-made simulator. Apparently I just missed seeing 4-star General Robert B. Abrams, commander of United States Forces Korea, score high against virtual bad guys.”
The Rundown
AP: US delegation to seek a cease-fire with Turkey and Kurds
Washington Examiner: ‘Strategically brilliant’: Trump spends day touting northern Syria pullout as a smashing success
Washington Examiner: ‘Nobody is dumping those terrorists on Turkey’: Erdoğan won’t take custody of ISIS fighters
AP: Syrian forces enter key border town, blocking Turkish plans
Defense One: The U.S. Literally Doesn’t Know How Many ISIS Fighters Have Escaped In Syria
Air Force Magazine: Trump: US Confident American Nuclear Bombs are Secure in Turkey
Reuters: Satellite Images Reveal China’s Aircraft Carrier ‘Factory,’ Analysts Say
Washington Examiner: China required to report meetings with Americans
The Diplomat: U.S. Congressman Accuses China of ‘Visa Blackmail’ Due to Planned Taiwan Visit
Washington Examiner: Training injuries ‘biggest medical threat’ to military readiness, researchers say
Reuters: Iran-Backed Militias Deployed Snipers In Iraq Protests – Sources
USNI News: Afghanistan Wants Partnership With U.S. Military Even As Relationship, Conditions Evolve
Defense News: 3 Ways The Pentagon Wants To Make Buying American Weapons Easier
Calendar
Check here tomorrow for Calendar items for Friday.
R“Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine. It’s a lot of sand. They’ve got a lot of sand over there. So there’s a lot of sand that they can play with.”
President Trump, saying Wednesday he’s not concerned about ceding territory in Syria to Russia.
