Sen. Lindsay Graham: President's Decision On Syria A 'Disaster In The Making'

In an interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan on Thursday, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria is a “disaster in the making” and was not based on sound military advice.  He also expresses concerns about the possibility of the President withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, saying it would pave the way for a second 9/11.

Here is the complete transcript of the segment, courtesy of CNN:

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR:  I’ve been traveling this week overseas with Senator Graham and this is one of the big issues we’ve been talking about and Senator Graham is joining me right now so we can talk about this.  Senator, we just got back from Afghanistan this was one of your key questions while we were over there.  What if the President pulls all the troops out of Afghanistan?  You land back in the United States with him doing exactly that in Syria, what’s your message now today for the President?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA:  Well, that if you do this in Afghanistan according to our military commanders and everybody I know, we want to withdrawal from Afghanistan with honor and do it based on conditions on the ground.  Based on my assessment in Afghanistan if we withdrew anytime soon, you’d be paving the way for a second 9/11. 

The President said he wants others to fight, since August of 2017 5,600 Afghan’s have died fighting the Taliban and ISIS, 18 American’s killed in combat for kill through accidents sky bless the 22.  You say you want others to fight, most of the fighting to destroy ISIS in Syria has been done with the Kurds.  So my question to the President, if you do not want to fight this war alone, how do you justify leaving Syria at a time when those who helped us, the Kurds, are certain to be overwhelmed and slaughtered and if we do this to the Kurds who’s going to help us fight in the future?

BOLDUAN:  Have you spoken to him directly about his decision in Syria?

GRAHAM:  No, no I was shocked when I got home.  The first thing I saw coming back from the airport was this announcement that he’s going to withdrawal immediately from Syria.  I’ve done a lot of work since then, I can assure you it was done not based on sound military advice, all the advice the President received from his national security team was it’s not time with withdrawal from Syria. 

That ISIS will come back, they have not been defeated, most importantly the Kurds who have helped us so much, been such good allies, are now exposed to be taken over by Turkey, Assad, Syria and maybe become victims of ISIS themselves.  They’re almost 700 foreign fighters in Syrian democratic forces hands, the Kurds and the Arabs who’ve been helping us, they’ll get out of jail or just – this is just a disaster in the making. 

I’m urging the President to reconsider, withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan put conditions warrant, you’re right to want to wall on the southern border Mr. President, you should fight for that wall but we can’t build a wall between us and the Mid East Mr. President.  Taking our forces out of Syria, the 2,200, would be a can to tearing down the wall along the southern border where more exposed with withdrawing our forces because they’re a virtual wall to protect us against the rise of ISIS and radical Islam.

BOLDUAN:  Two important questions though here, if he’s not – if you say he’s not basing this on sound military advice, so you’re saying he’s not listening to the generals, if you will, on this, he’s not taking your advice on this.  Though he has a many issues especially pertaining to foreign policy, who is he listening to, where is he getting this?

GRAHAM:  I think this is a view that he has and he’s frustrated and I get it.  We’ve been over there a long time, we spend a lot of money, I wish we could bring our troops home and I want to, I really do but I think the troops understand why they’re there.  This is a very small footprint and President Trump has done a lot of good things, we are taking the fight aggressively toward Iran, getting out of the Iran nuclear deal was right move.  We have the hurt ISIS mightily, changing the rules of engagement in Afghanistan has got the Taliban now maybe to the table. 

He’s done a lot of good things but this decision in Syria is going to undo a lot of those good things.  The biggest winner, I think, is going to be Iran over time and ISIS has not been defeated, they’ve been hurt and they will certainly come back if we leave too soon.  We learned that in Iraq, so I am basically pleading with the President to reconsider, postpone this withdrawal, make it conditions based.  I think you’ll have a lot of support Mr. President to keep our presence in Syria, to stand by our allies the Kurds, and to make sure ISIS doesn’t come back.  You’ll have a lot of bipartisan support if you change course.

BOLDUAN:  But can he un-ring this bell?  I do wonder that.

GRAHAM:  Yes.

BOLDUAN:  Once he’s made this announcement, yes he can change his mind but is damage all ready done but what he has all ready announced?

GRAHAM:  Good question, the worst is definitely yet to come.  I talked to the Secretary Mattis yesterday, the traffic, the chatter out there is pretty devastating.  When the President suggests that Assad, Iran, and Russia are not happy, they are very happy.  The biggest winner of this could be the Iranians to have a corridor now from Tehran all the way into Lebanon.  They could use the space that we occupied to get more weapons to Hezbollah is certainly putting the Kurds at risk and we see a lot of chatter. 

So, yes he could and all I would ask him to do is reconvene his national security team, listen to what’s going on and postpone this decision and make sure it’s based on conditions on the ground when you withdrawal.  I said the same thing to President Obama, I said, Mr. President I’m a republican I will support a continued presence in Iraq no matter how popular it might be at home because it’s the right decision, he went another way.  The results are in about our withdrawal from Iraq and I fear our withdrawal from Syria is going to even be worse.  It will be hard to sign up people in the future to fight with the United States if we abandon the Kurds.

BOLDUAN:  If he doesn’t change course, if he doesn’t listen, if he doesn’t listen to you, what are you prepared to do about it?

GRAHAM:  Well, I’ve got a resolution that is bipartisan all ready.  We got about 30 co-sponsors asking him to reconsider the decision, make it a conditions based withdrawal.

BOLDUAN:  But at this point is this one of those things were – are you going to like…

GRAHAM:  This just advice, yes.

BOLDUAN:  …hold up judicial nominations before – until he listens to you?

GRAHAM:  No, what I want to do is let him know that there are a lot of republican and democrats who will stand with him to see this through.  That bringing our troops home from Syria is the goal, you just got to do it smartly.  Getting other people to fight more and pay more is a worthy goal and actually it’s working, he’s getting NATO to pay more and people in the region need to do more.  We can’t – he’s the commander in chief, I couldn’t make President Obama listen to the general’s, I advised him to, I can’t make President Trump listen to his national security team, I’ve advised him to.  But what we can do in Congress is hold President’s accountable, there’s a historical record that the decision to withdrawal from Iraq was not based on sound military advice, then all the concerns came true.  We’ll make the same record in Syria and President Trump has done a lot of good things on national security, this dramatically undercuts those good things.

BOLDUAN:  But Senator is something bad going to have to happen before that backlash really sets in?

GRAHAM:  I don’t know.

BOLDUAN:  I mean that’s a pretty horrible prospect.

GRAHAM:  That’s a really good question, President Obama wound up sending troops back into Iraq, he wound up doing things to undo the damage caused by withdrawing.  President Trump will have to do the same thing but here’s what the President’s done, there’s not a ground swell of political pressure to get us out of Syria.  I think most American’s know that some of our troops over there preventing the rise of ISIS is probably smart, it’s 2,200, very small foot print, I think most American’s know that when you get somebody to help you like the Kurds you owe it to them to see it through.  There’s not a ground swell of support, Senator Paul is an out liar, I like him but I think his view of the world is dangerous. 

In his world view, we just leave everybody alone, they’ll leave us alone, that didn’t work in Afghanistan, we had no troops, not even an ambassador in Afghanistan on September the 10, we got hit anyway on September 11.  This radical Islamic movement won’t leave us alone, you may be tired of fighting them but they’re not tired of fighting you.  So, I think there is a lot of support for the President to reconsider this, if he presses forward he’s going to own it all.  If the Kurds get decimated, he’ll own that, it’ll be hard to sign up people in the future if ISIS comes back at the way I think they will, you’ll own that and this is a gift to Russian and Iran and that’s not a good thing.

BOLDUAN:  You’ve become, over time, you’ve become an important ally to the President on many issues.  And you’ve said you work with where you can and you stand up to him when you can’t but does this singular decision has the potential to change all that?

GRAHAM:  Well, that will be up to the President, I’m not going to change being me.  The President’s been very gracious towards me as an individual.  I’ve played golf with him, I like his company, he does listen, I respect the fact that I have access to the President.  I can not be any good to him if I don’t tell him what I honestly believe.  I tried the same thing with President Obama, we had a different world view, different political parties, I’m aligned with President Trump on a lot of things but I would say as to Syria, do not expect me to tell you something I don’t believe, it’s just not me saying this Mr. President. 

It’s everybody around you, so leadership is adjusting, you know President Bush understood we needed to search, probably made a mistake going into Iraq but you have to adjust.  This is your time Mr. President, this is the Trump presidency, it’s not the Bush presidency, it’s not the Obama presidency, you got a chance to change things in the mid east you have done so in many good ways.  This is a giant step backward, I would ask you to reconsider, there will be a lot of support if you do.

BOLDUAN:  Real quick, you had mentioned something that I just want to make sure that we hit on.  You said you spoke with General Secretary Mattis yesterday.

GRAHAM:  Yes.

BOLDUAN:  And that his assessment says that the chatter is pretty devastating.  Obviously, you can’t go into details but safe to say that General Mattis did not suggest this to the President and what does that chatter mean right now

GRAHAM:  Well it’s safe to say that I don’t think anybody, I talked to Pompeo yesterday, you know Mr. Jefferies the special envoy to Syria, who was a great pick the former ambassador to Iraq, just 48 hours ago, 72 hours ago and now it’s that we’re not going to leave.  You had Brett McGurk, the guy in charge of Syria and Iraq, said that even though the space has been taken back, the land has been taken back, ISIS is not yet defeated, they’re 20 to 30,000 fighters, they’ve been hurt mightily because President Trump’s change in strategy but they’re not defeated. 

So, Secretary Mattis is firmly in the camp of the job in Syria is not yet done, that abandoning the Kurds now will hurt us down the road.  That ISIS could and probably will come back and I think that’s the universal view of Bolton, Pompeo, and Mattis.  The President has the right to do what he likes, he is the commander in chief, so did President Obama, all I am saying if you don’t trust these people’s judgment, find somebody you do trust.  General Obama turned out not to be such a good general, I don’t think General Graham is going to be a great general, I don’t think General Trump is going to be a great general.  The people around him are the most talented people I’ve met in the last 20 years, I would ask the President to reconsider, come up with a plan to withdrawal that’s conditions based.

BOLDUAN:  One final thing because it’s happening right now, there seems to be a lot of concern over the stop gap funding bill, pass the Senate.  Seems to be some real heartburn over it in the House, Trump even tweeted something that even seems he could wavering on if he’d go along with it.  What’s your message to the President on this one and your House colleagues quite frankly?

GRAHAM:  Well, I’ve been consistent, I think the idea of not giving the President more money for the wall and securing the border after the caravan is unreasonable by the democrats.  Almost every Senate democrat voted for 25 billion in wall and border security funding in February.  To say that we don’t need five billion versus 1.3 is ridiculous, particularly after the caravan, so I encouraged the President to dig in and force the democrats and republicans to help him better secure the border.  If I were him, I would stand firm…

BOLDUAN:  Not sign it.

GRAHAM:  Not sign it, I can understand picking a fight on border security to get more money at a time we need it, that’s a fight worth having, I do not understand withdrawing the 2,200 troops from Syria that protect our nation from the rise of ISIS yet again and we’ll stand by our allies.  That’s the keen to tearing a wall down, I understand wanting to build a wall along the Mexican border, I don’t understand wanting to tear the wall we have in place which is our ford deployed forces to protect us against radical Islam, so I would stay firm to get more money and I would reevaluate my decision to withdrawal from Syria.

BOLDUAN:  Senator, thank you so much, really appreciate time, really appreciate it, thank you.

GRAHAM:  Thank you.​