McCain Responds To Syria Chemical Attack, Blames Trump Administration

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday that the Trump’s administration is "partially to blame" for Syria’s chemical attack last week, which killed about 80 civilians and was apparently orchestrated by President Bashar al-Assad.

"I think it probably was partially to blame," McCain said on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday. "And Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson basically saying the same thing after kind of contradicting himself and then saying the same thing argues vigorously for a plan and a strategy."

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McCain was referring to the comments Tillerson made last month during a press conference in Turkey when he said the "longer term status of President [Bashar] Assad would be decided by the Syrian people."

McCain, who supported the strikes against a Syrian airbase said they were an "excellent first step" and a "reversal of the last eight years," but stressed that Trump needed to come up with a more strategic planning going forward.

"Well, I think the fact that we acted was very important, and I support the president’s action," McCain said. "And I have been told that there was some recommendations to take out all six places that the Syrian air force operates out of. But now that they are flying again, basically, within 36 hours is not a good signal," he said, adding the U.S. did not do "as thorough enough job, which would have been catering the runways. And somebody will say, ‘Well, then they can fill in the runways.’ Yeah, and we can crater them again too."

Trump took to his Twitter page to explain why the U.S. strikes didn’t crater the runways.

"The reason you don't generally hit runways is that they are easy and inexpensive to quickly fix (fill in and top)!" he tweeted Saturday.

McCain also said he does "not agree" with Tillerson’s idea that the U.S. needs to focus on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) before they deal with Assad’s actions, saying ISIS and Assad are "totally connected" matters.

"You can’t — to a large degree, Bashar Assad, by polarizing the Syrian people have also given rise to ISIS and Al Qaeda," McCain said. "So they are both connected. And I believe that the United States of America can address both at the same time. We can walk and chew gum. We have the capability to do both."