Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump’s non-interventionist stance on the conflict in Syria.
Gabbard gained fame during her time as a Democratic lawmaker for her vocal anti-war stance in Congress, even meeting with just-deposed Syrian leader Bashar Assad in 2017 in what she described as an effort to keep peace.
In the wake of Assad’s fall from power over the weekend, Gabbard said on Monday she agrees with Trump’s opposition to intervening in the Middle Eastern country.
“I stand in full support and wholeheartedly agree with the statements that President Trump has made over these last few days, with regards to the developments in Syria,” she told reporters before adding that “my own views and experiences have been shaped by my multiple deployments and seeing firsthand the cost of war and the threat of Islamist terrorism.”
Trump tapped Gabbard, who served in the Army National Guard for nearly two decades and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, to be the country’s next director of national intelligence. She continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve.
Gabbard said during her latest comments that she wanted to “address the issue that’s in the headlines,” alluding to the criticism against her. She added that Trump’s opposition to getting militarily involved in the Syrian unrest after rebel forces toppled Assad is “one of the many reasons why I appreciate President Trump’s leadership and his election, where he is fully committed, as he has said over and over, to bringing about an end to wars, demonstrating peace through strength and putting the national security interests and the safety, security, and freedom of the American people first and foremost.”
Her comments follow a statement Trump made shortly before Assad’s fall from power was confirmed on Sunday, saying that although “Syria is a mess” and is “not our friend,” the United States should have “nothing to do with it.”
“This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved,” the president-elect said in a post to Truth Social.
In a follow-up post on Sunday morning, Trump continued to suggest that major powers such as Russia, which backed Assad’s regime and has given him asylum following his deposition, held a bigger stake in resolving the Syrian conflict than the U.S.
“Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever,” Trump wrote.
The U.S. has backed a policy of regime change in Syria since civil war broke out in the country in 2011. Gabbard fought the idea that backing Syrian rebels’ efforts to topple Assad was in the U.S.’s best interest, arguing that regime change policies typically cost U.S. lives and money without securing sufficient returns.
After her 2017 meeting with Assad attracted criticism, Gabbard said in 2019 that she did it because “if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, if we truly care about ending their suffering, we’ve got to be willing to meet with whoever we need to if there is a possibility and a chance that can help us take steps forward towards peace.”
When pressed during a recent interview about whether he was concerned over Gabbard’s meeting with Assad, Trump waved away criticism.
Pointing out that he met with Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his first term in office, Trump said he had full confidence in Gabbard.
“She’s a very respected person,” he said during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
With roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria at the time of Assad’s fall, White House officials said on Monday that the U.S. was committed to “engaging with all Syrian groups to establish, and help wherever we can, a transition away from the Assad regime towards an independent, sovereign Syria.”
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While saying the “future here will be written by Syrians,” the White House said, “It’s very clear that the United States can provide a helping hand, and we are very much prepared to do so.”
When pressed on whether the U.S. would intervene militarily, the officials declined to comment, saying they “don’t want to talk about hypotheticals of U.S. military engagement.”