Mike Pence insisted Thursday that there’s no daylight between him and Donald Trump on establishing safe zones in civil war-ravaged Syria.
But Trump’s vice presidential nominee deflected questions about whether Trump supports a more robust U.S. military intervention in a country led by Bashar Assad.
Pence, during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, said the U.S. should weigh using military force, even if it risks alienating Russia, an Assad ally.
Speaking on CBS’ “This Morning,” Pence said “Donald Trump’s been very, very clear about his view of the Syrian situation.”
“Well, where there’s absolute agreement is we have to establish safe zones for people to be able to get out of harm’s way in Aleppo,” Pence said. “And if you don’t back that up with military resources and our allies in the region, then you really can’t guarantee that people and those 100,000 children are going to be able to get out of harm’s way.”
He added: “Whether that’s – you establish a no-fly zone or whether you go beyond that with military force, I think that would have to be a real time decision by our commander in chief,”
Pence told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday that “We’ve got to be prepared to use military resources, whether it’s a no-fly zone, or more direct military action, to preserve that exit route and to create that safe zone. That’s what Donald Trump called for.”
Trump has said little about the Syrian civil war, but he has ruled out intervention against Assad. Trump said in a May MSNBC interview that “I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldn’t have fought so much for Assad, against Assad, because I thought that was a whole thing. (America has) bigger problems than Assad.”
Instead, he’s pledged to “knock the hell out” of Islamic State fighters in the region. In March, he said he’d put 30,000 troops in Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS.
The GOP presidential nominee also called for cooperating with Russia and said it would be a “great thing” if the two countries worked together to fight ISIS.
William Douglas: 202-383-6026, @williamgdouglas
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