WASHINGTON — (AP) Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says President Donald Trump must “be prepared to take other action” in Syria.
In an interview on MSNBC, McCain praised Thursday’s air strikes as a measured approach to chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government that “restores credibility” to the U.S. and gives Trump a chance to “reboot with the American people.”
McCain says the Syrian air force must be neutralized and that new demilitarized “safe zones” should be created to address the humanitarian crisis.
Also, McCain says it would help for Trump to stop impulsively tweeting. He says: “I would love to see the tweeting stop. But I’d also like to see pigs fly. … I just think it’s in his DNA. But perhaps there will be more restraint.”
Sen. Marco Rubio says the next step in Syria should be to work with Sunni governments to discuss “an alternative” government in Syria.
Rubio is a Florida Republican and onetime rival of President Donald Trump.
The conservative tells NBC’s “Today” show that Trump should reach out to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Turkey, to discuss ways to get Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and create a new regime.
Assad has not responded to diplomatic pressure in the past, but Rubio says the military strikes could change that.
He says, “We need to now move forward through a combination of diplomacy and, quite frankly, the support of groups on ground, particularly non-jihadist Sunni groups, to create alternatives to the Assad regime.”
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