Democratic Rep. [crscore]Tulsi Gabbard[/crscore] of Hawaii said on Friday that defeating ISIS should be America’s main priority, and added “one of the biggest problems getting in the way of that right now is this illegal, counterproductive war to over throw the Syrian government of Assad.”
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” live from Paris, Gabbard told host Chris Cuomo that US action to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “illegal because Congress has not declared war. It has not authorized a war to overthrow the Syrian government of Assad.”
Overthrowing Assad is “counterproductive because it works to help our enemy achieve their objective to take over the Syrian government and take over all of Syria and beyond, and presents a greater humanitarian crisis and huge threat not only to the region but to the world,” explained Gabbard.
Gabbard said that she wants to defund the U.S. efforts to overthrow Assad and said she and Rep. [crscore]Austin Scott[/crscore] introduced a bipartisan bill yesterday to do just that. (RELATED: Syria’s Assad Flies To Russia To Thank Russia’s Putin For Air Strikes)
Cuomo pressed Gabbard asking if she was “not against Assad.” Gabbard responded, “That is beside the point. My point is, no well first of all no, I don’t think Assad should be removed and here is why. If he’s removed and overthrown, ISIS, al Qaeda, al Nusra, these Islamic extremist groups will walk straight in and be an even greater threat and they will be even stronger and it will repeat the same mistakes of the past that we’ve seen in overthrowing a sectarian dictator in Iraq, in Saddam Hussein, and overthrowing one in Libya, in Gaddafi. And now we’re poised to do the very same thing in Syria.”