The Latest: Trump says Syria attack ‘crossed a lot of lines’
The Latest on the Trump administration and Syria (all times local):
1:31 p.m.
President Donald Trump says a suspected chemical attack by the Syrian government against civilians “crossed a lot of lines.”
At a joint press conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah II Wednesday, Trump said that his attitude about Syria’s President Bashar Assad and about Syria has “changed very much.”
He repeated his accusations that the Obama administration issued a “blank threat” to the Assad government that using chemical weapons would result in consequences.
Trump says it was “not one of our better days as a country” when the previous administration failed to act on those threats.
He acknowledged that now “I have that responsibility and I will carry it proudly.”
The attack Tuesday in rebel-held northern Idlib is responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, including women and children.
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1:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump says that the goal of “any responsible refugee policy” is to pave the way for refugees to return home.
In a joint press conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah II Wednesday, Trump said he intends “finally to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East” and to the refugee crisis that has reached the worst since World War II.
Trump said he would partner with Jordan and other regional allies, including Egypt and Iraq, to address the problem.
The United Nations last week said that the number of Syrian refugees alone has exceeded 5 million.
Trump recently signed an executive order to temporarily ban Syrian refugees, as well as travelers from six Muslim-majority nations, from traveling to the U.S. That ban has been challenged by the courts.
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1:20 p.m.
President Donald Trump says this week’s chemical attack on Syrian civilians “cannot be tolerated.”
Trump spoke at a White House news conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah II., saying innocent people, including women small children “and even beautiful little babies” were killed.
Trump is calling the attack “an affront to humanity” and says, “These heinous actions by the Assad regime cannot be tolerated.”
A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks in the country’s six-year civil war.
The Trump administration has blamed the attack on the government of President Bashar Assad.
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12:20 p.m.
President Donald Trump is denouncing the chemical attack on Syrian civilians, calling it an “affront to humanity.”
Trump said as he welcomed King Abdullah II of Jordan, “These are very troubled times in the Middle East.”
He calls the attack a “horrible thing, unspeakable” and says, “It’s a terrible affront to humanity.”
Trump also thanked the king and his wife for visiting the White House, saying the two leaders will engage in some “very interesting discussions.”
Asked how he plans to respond to the attack he blames on Syrian President Bashar Assad, Trump said, “You’ll see.”
A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s rebel-held northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday. It’s one of the worst attacks in the country’s six-year civil war.
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12:05 p.m.
Senate Democrats are criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the chemical attack in Syria that killed 72 people.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania calls a White House statement on the attack weak because it omits any mention of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Casey says Trump should “finally tell it like it is – that these are war crimes” by Syrian President Bashar Assad against his own people.
The senator says the attack “was a moment the president could have spoken with moral authority and with the beginning of an outline of a strategy. And we don’t see it.”
Casey and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York say Trump is being undermined by the cloud of an ongoing investigation into possible Russian interference in the election.
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11:40 a.m.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria “was a heinous act and will be treated as such.”
He did not elaborate on what the U.S. may do in response.
Mattis was speaking at the start of a meeting in the Pentagon with Singapore’s minister of defense.
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