The House’s No. 2 Democrat says he expects his chamber will easily approve President Obama’s request to lend support to rebels fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
“I believe that we will be united in an overwhelming majority to meet the threat as the president suggests,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” program, which was recorded this week and will air Sunday morning.
“I frankly think the majority of our members are prepared to support the president’s request to train and equip other nation’s fighters, in Syria and in other places in the Middle East, including Iraq.”
Hoyer said that many members also are pushing for a vote by year’s end to give the president broader authorization to fight terrorist in the Middle East “so that Congress can speak and represent the views of the American people.”
The Democrat also defended two new members of the House Republican leadership team — Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana — who got off to a rocky start in late July when they appeared to miscalculate members’ support for an emergency border security bill.
“I’m prepared to give Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Scalise the benefit of the doubt,” Hoyer said.
Hoyer added he is optimistic the pair, who assumed their leadership positions upon the resignation this summer of former Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., will cooperate in good faith with Democrats.
“I’m hopeful that over the next week that we start to forge such a relationship,” he said. “Mr. McCarthy has indicated that he wants to do that. Mr. Scalise … has also indicated that he wants to do that. And I will tell you that [House Minority] Leader Pelosi and I and other Democratic leaders will be positive in our response if in fact we find a receptive audience to a bipartisan process.”
CORRECTION: President Obama intended to offer support for the Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State. The organization he intends to support was misstated in an earlier version of this story. The Washington Examiner regrets the error.
