A key GOP supporter of U.S. action in Syria went off on President Obama for just not being able to articulate anything to the world as commander in chief.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) crafted the amended version of Obama’s use of force authorization that passed committee 10-7-1 and is on hold in the Senate.
Obama said this week that any amended version that might be considered after negotiations with the Russians would again be up to Corker and Menendez.
Still, the Tennessee Republican isn’t very happy about how Obama has been handling his end of things.
“I really do think they’ve hurt our credibility around the world just in the muddled way that they have dealt with this Syrian issue… the president just seems to be very uncomfortable being commander in chief of this nation,” Corker told CNN yesterday.
“It’s just the results. We have these conversations. It appears that it has an impact. I would think that most Republicans who were at the luncheon yesterday would believe — would ever believe last night he was going to make the greater case, the strategic case for us in Syria,” he continued. “I heard no word, not one word of it. He’s very good in an interpersonal setting. He just cannot follow through. He cannot speak to the nation as a commander in chief. He cannot speak to the world as a commander in chief. He just cannot do it and I don’t know what it is.”
“And I sent an e-mail over this morning to Denis McDonough, his chief of staff, telling them I could not be more disappointed in what happened last night. I just think it so much he doesn’t make the case for why this is important to U.S. credibility and why U.S. credibility in the region is so important to our own safety and to the world’s safety.”
Corker added, “I probably shouldn’t be saying everything I’m saying right now but I guess as a result of last night my temperature level is up slightly today. He’s a diminished figure here on Capitol Hill. I can assure you of that.”
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