Graham: Trump 'reconsidering' Syria pullout; Obama rationale for leaving Iraq a 'bunch of bulls--t' - Fox News

In a wide-ranging interview broadcast Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested that President Trump is "reconsidering" his planned pullout of all U.S. troops from Syria, which has drawn widespread bipartisan criticism.

Graham also characterized former President Barack Obama's justification for pulling troops out of Iraq in 2011 -- a move widely credited with allowing the rapid rise of the terrorist group ISIS there -- as a "bunch of bullsh--, pardon my French."

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union" to host Dana Bash, Graham rejected the idea that the 2008 U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, signed by President George W. Bush, had forced Obama's hand. The agreement called for all U.S. forces to leave the country by the end of 2011.

“That’s a complete and absolute lie," Graham said. "I was there, talking to the prime minister of Iraq -- Obama wanted to get to zero. He got to zero. October 21, 2011, I said I hope the president is right, but I fear this decision will come back to haunt us. ISIS came about as a result of our withdrawal from Iraq."

Arguing that "everything we're dealing with today falls on Obama's watch," Graham called for President Trump to reverse his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of neighboring Syria.

"If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get slaughtered," Graham said, referring to U.S.-aligned Iranian ethnic fighting group in the region. "He has talked to [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. [Joseph] Dunford, I got a call from Gen. Dunford. The president is reconsidering how we do this. He's frustrated, I get that -- people should pay more, fight more."

In a video shot outside the White House and posted to his Twitter account earlier this month, Trump explained his sudden decision to pull troops out of Syria hours earlier in unusually personal terms, saying he has found it increasingly difficult to inform soldiers' loved ones that their kin had died in combat.

"We've been fighting for a long time in Syria," Trump said. "I've been president for almost two years, and we've really stepped it up. And we've won against ISIS. We've been them, and we've beaten them badly. And now it's time for our troops to come back home."

But Graham, who told Bash that he has unprecedented "access" to Trump and would discuss the matter with him at lunch Sunday, said the U.S. mission in Syria is not yet complete.

"We're not the policemen of the world here," Graham said, after praising Trump's decision to keep troops in Iraq for now. "We're fighting a war against ISIS. They're still not defeated in Syria. I'm asking the president to make sure we still have troops there to protect us. Don't outsource our national security to some foreign power. If we leave now, the Kurds are going to get into a fight with Turkey, they could get slaughtered."

He added: "If we leave now, there'll be a land bridge from Tehran to Beirut, in terms of supplying weapons against Israel. I'm gonna ask the president to do something President Obama would never do: reconsider."

Graham said Trump's decision was being made against "sound military advice," including that of outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Mattis, who signed orders to pull all American troops out of Syria in the coming weeks, gave his resignation letter to President Trump earlier this month, in which he acknowledged that a strong nation relies on a "comprehensive" network of alliances, and must be "resolute and unambiguous" in approaching countries with strategic differences, citing China and Russia.

"Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position," Mattis wrote.

A senior U.S. defense official told Fox News that Mattis was leaving "in protest over the president's national security policies.”

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

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