Message: “he cares”
by digby
Trump just held a press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan and it was as horrifying as usual. After ignoring the subject at all his public events yesterday and going on and on about his “big win”, today he said he was upset about the little Syrian babies. (This from the guy who says “we have to take out the families.”) Obviously Javanka told him he needed to say he cared.
I don’t think he heard about this before the press conference but you can be sure he isn’t happy about it:
“In this case now, we have very limited options, and look, it’s concerning that the secretary of State … said that the future’s up to the people in Syria on what happens with Assad,” Rubio said on the radio show “AM Tampa Bay.” “In essence, [Tillerson was] almost nodding to the idea that Assad was gonna get to stay in some capacity.”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a few days later we see this,” Rubio added during the interview, which was first reported by CNN.
In New York on Thursday, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, condemned Assad’s history of human rights abuses against his own people.
But she said Washington would focus on working with powers such as Turkey and Russia to seek a political settlement, rather than focusing on Assad.
“You pick and choose your battles,” Haley told reporters.
“And when we’re looking at this, it’s about changing up priorities and our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out.”