Democratic Sen. [crscore]Tim Kaine[/crscore] ridiculed the Obama administration insisting, “There is a disconnect… I don’t think the administration has done a good job of laying out a clear strategy” in the fight against ISIS.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on Tuesday, Kaine called for the House of Representatives to have an “authorization debate” of the military action in Syria because it would “force that strategy to come together and that’s what we need to do.” (RELATED: Dem. Senator Blasts Obama’s Syria Strategy [VIDEO])
Mitchell asked Kaine that in light of the Russian airliner bombing, the Beirut bombing, and Paris attacks, why John Kerry was still claiming, “We knew this all along, this was not unexpected.”
Regarding the “real disconnect,” Kaine said, “Well, there is a disconnect. Look, while I’m blaming Congress for not authorizing the war against ISIL and feel we need to, I don’t think the administration has done a good job of laying out a clear strategy that encompasses the three elements that have to be put together.”
“There is the war against ISIL,” explained Kaine. “There is the ongoing civil war in Syria because of the atrocities of Bashar al Assad and there’s the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II with the fleeing of Syrian refugees. These things are all connected.”
“While the administration and the U.S. are taking steps, writing a big check to humanitarian aid or working with the Kurds in Iraq and northern Syria, we are doing a series of things, there hasn’t been an articulated strategy that really brings these three crises together and suggests a direction for dealing with it. And then that leads to all this back and forth and somebody says we have intel and somebody says we don’t.”
“That’s what an authorization debate would give us,” claimed Kaine. “It would force the White House to articulate a strategy. It would subject their witnesses to painful cross-examination from members of Congress to make sure the strategy makes sense. It would lead to a debate and a vote that educates the american public. An authorization debate will force that strategy to come together and that’s what we need to do.”
Kaine is not the first Democratic senator to have a different view than the Obama administration. On Monday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that, “ISIL is not contained. ISIL is expanding.” Last Friday, Obama said ISIL was “contained.”(RELATED: Sen. Feinstein: ‘ISIL Is Not Contained. ISIL Is Expanding’ [VIDEO])