Plan B Forum

In rare bipartisan moment, Senate unanimously votes for Trump to release whistleblower complaint to intelligence committees

The Senate voted unanimously in favor of a resolution on Tuesday calling for a whistleblower complaint involving President Donald Trump to be turned over to congressional intelligence committees.

The move is monumental and a rare moment of bipartisanship between Democrats and Republicans in the upper chamber. It also came as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to announce her support of a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump stemming from the whistleblower's complaint.

House approves whistleblower resolution as lawmakers begin reviewing complaint

Washington (CNN)The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution calling on the Trump administration to release a whistleblower complaint to Congress that has ignited a backlash against the President even though lawmakers have now been given access to the complaint in a secure location on Capitol Hill.

The vote was 421 to 0 with two lawmakers voting present.

House Republicans joined Democrats in condemning Trump’s actions in Syria

In a bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump, the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning his decision to pull United States troops out of Syria, abandoning US allies in the region as Turkish troops have moved in.

The 354-60 vote on the resolution Wednesday was largely symbolic, but it signaled the widespread disapproval among lawmakers for Trump’s latest controversial foreign policy move. It came as fighting continued in northeastern Syria between Turkey and Kurdish fighters, who have been a key US ally in fighting the terror group ISIS.

“At President Trump’s hands, American leadership has been laid low, and American foreign policy has become nothing more than a tool to advance his own interests,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-NY), who introduced the resolution. “Today we make clear that the Congress is a coequal branch of government and we want nothing to do with this disastrous policy.”

Trump’s decision to pull out American troops pleased Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who promptly moved his troops in to fight Kurdish militias he views as a threat. But it inflamed both congressional Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. This follows a pattern; Republicans have been most willing to rebuke Trump on his foreign policy choices, including a vote to end the Saudi war in Yemen. Some who have otherwise defended Trump throughout his impeachment inquiry in the House have been quick to criticize him on the chaos he’s causing in the region — fearing it will spur a reemergence of ISIS.

“The entire region will suffer the consequences of some very bad actors getting back on the battlefield again because of that,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) on the Senate floor Wednesday. “The administration clearly did not coordinate with the State Department, with the Department of Defense, with what was happening in the region, to make sure we were securing those fighters and preparing for that moment.”

The non-binding resolution reiterates the House’s opposition to the pullout of Syria troops and calls on Turkey to stop its military action in the country. It also asks Trump to present a plan to combat and defeat ISIS in the region. Both the House and Senate are considering sanctions packages in the coming days that go beyond the White House’s proposed punitive measures against Turkey. [These will probably pass swiftly and by veto proof margins, handing Trump a substantive rebuke from his party.]

It appears Trump is shutting down communication with Congress on Syria; the White House abruptly canceled a bipartisan all-member Congressional briefing on the situation, per a tweet from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Romney rips into Trump's betrayal of Syrian Kurds on Senate floor

In a blistering speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) again condemned President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria and attacked him for portraying the temporary ceasefire announced with Turkey as a victory.

"The decision to abandon the Kurds violates one of our most sacred duties. It strikes at American honor. What we have done to the Kurds will stand as a blood stain in the annals of American history. There are broad strategic implications of our decision as well. Iranian and Russian interests in the Middle East have been advanced by our decision. At a time when we're applying maximum pressure on Iran by giving them a stronger hand in Syria, we've actually weakened that pressure. Russia's objective to play a greater role in the Middle East has also been greatly enhanced. The Kurds, out of desperation, have now aligned with [Syrian President] Assad."

Why it matters: Trump's expectation that Republicans would reverse their criticism of his Syria policy after Vice President Mike Pence struck a ceasefire with Turkey appears to have fallen short. The agreement — which Turkey insists is not actually a ceasefire — [No, in fact all it is is an agreement to pause while they reload...]will force U.S.-allied Kurdish forces to evacuate the area that Turkey is conducting its military operation within 120 hours (five days).

• Sen. Mitt Romney delivered perhaps the most thorough Republican rebuke of President Trump’s Syria withdrawal Thursday, calling Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds there “a bloodstain on the annals of American history.”
  
  But while that line has gotten a lot of play, there’s something else Romney said that shouldn’t escape notice. He suggested Trump got bullied into the withdrawal by Turkey — and that he backed down.
  
  “It’s been … suggested that Turkey may have called America’s bluff, telling the president they are coming no matter what we did,” said Romney, of Utah. “If that’s so, we should know it. For it would tell us a great deal about how we should deal with Turkey, now and in the future.”
  
  Romney then returned to the idea that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have given Trump an ultimatum that was met with acquiescence.
  
  “Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey!?” Romney said. “I believe that it’s imperative that public hearings are held to answer these questions, and I hope the Senate is able to conduct those hearings next week.”
  
  Romney is elevating an idea that hasn’t gotten enough attention, though it appears to have been confirmed by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Trump himself in the days before Romney’s remarks.
  
  The Washington Post reports that Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trump copped to this in their contentious Oval Office meeting on Wednesday. Schumer said Trump recalled Erdogan told everyone “we’re going to go in whether you want it or not.”
  
  Esper, too, seemed to indicate Sunday that Erdogan told Trump that Turkey was going in regardless.
  
  “The first thing that we understood — I’ve understood from my counterpart, Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo … and certainly from President Erdogan, is they were fully committed to doing this, regardless of what we did,” Esper told “Fox News Sunday.”
  
  “We thought [the withdrawal] was prudent,” Esper added. “It was my recommendation. I know the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed as well. We should not put U.S. forces in between a Turkish advance.”
  
  Esper reiterated the point later: “I think they were fully committed. That was what I took from my conversations with my counterpart, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff took from his, Secretary Pompeo from his.”
  
  Most of the theorizing about what happened has focused on the idea that Trump got rolled by Erdogan, who has been pitching the idea that Turkey could take over the fight against ISIS in northern Syria for a long time. The possibility that Trump gave away the farm because Erdogan was particularly convincing or because of something else — Trump’s business interests in Turkey, his desire for Middle East withdrawals, etc. — is a well-trafficked theory among Trump’s opponents.
  
  But whether that is true, it seems Trump basically got told what was going to happen and essentially let Erdogan dictate the terms of a withdrawal. We are talking about a relatively small country forcing the hand of the United States and the supposed dealmaker in chief.
  
  And in retrospect, it makes sense that’s how it went down.
  
  Trump spoke with Erdogan the day he abruptly announced the withdrawal. He also may be entering his final year as president, and Turkey has long wanted to go after the Kurds in northern Syria. If you’re Erdogan, you know that the next president almost definitely won’t be so amenable to your plans for the region. You’ve also been pitching this idea more softly for two years without getting your desired U.S. withdrawal. So why wouldn’t you eventually play this card? It might be a bluff that Trump could call and you’d come to regret, but it might also be your last, best chance to get a compliant U.S. president. And this is an issue of major emphasis for Turkey, which views Syria’s Kurdish fighters as terrorists who constitute a clear and constant threat to it.
  
  But exactly how this was communicated is important. Esper’s confirmation is secondhand and suggests this is his understanding. But we don’t quite have the full story.
  
  Romney is now calling for hearings on it. Other Trump critics have called for the release of what Trump and Erdogan said on that call, similar to the release of the call with Ukraine’s president.
  
  The White House certainly won’t want to disclose what was said. But we’ve seen with Ukraine that pressure can force disclosure. And at the very least, it seems fair to ask whether Turkey dictated a U.S. withdrawal — because, as Romney says, that says a lot about the relationship.