Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken was pressed hard Tuesday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe over the Obama administration’s handling of the Syrian civil war and the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State.
Host Mika Brzezinski played clips from Friday’s show of two experts criticizing the Obama administration’s Syria policy and ISIS strategy and asked Blinken to respond to the video and growing calls for the United States to create safe havens for refugees.
"So look, two things going on here," Blinken said. "First, there’s the fight against ISIL and we do have a very clear strategy and we’re driving it. We’re trying to take away the core in Iraq and Syria. That’s what’s drawing people in, that’s the way they get resources, and that’s where we’re having real success. 50% of the territory they controlled a year ago is gone in Iraq, 20% in Syria."
"Second, we’re trying to cut off all the networks, the foreign fighters, the financing, the propaganda," Blinked continued. "There, too, against every measure we’re having a real impact."
Blinken elaborated on how he believes the Obama administration’s strategy to counter ISIS is working and how the terrorist group and the Assad regime in Syria will face an increasingly difficult path going forward.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace then took Blinken and the administration to task for failing to enforce the so-called "red line" that President Obama drew over Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
"Jim Woolsey, Bill Clinton’s former CIA director, called the refusal or the lack of will to enforce the red line that President Obama drew in Syria one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in American history. He called the Iran deal the second," Wallace said. "[Woolsey is] no Republican; he was Bill Clinton’s CIA director."
"I’ve heard you say success four times this morning," Wallace added. "Do you all sit around in private and take any responsibility for the morass that is this country’s Middle East policy, or is it all externally forced? And do you feel that you’ve strengthened [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s hand by letting him go in and essentially weaponize refugees?"
"We take responsibility every single day, and you’ve heard the president talk to this. I think there’s frustration across the board at this horrific civil war in Syria that’s taking so many lives," Blinken said.
"Did you create it?" Wallace asked.
"I don’t think we created it," Blinken responded..
Wallace continued to press Blinken on the Syrian red line.
"But the red line was drawn if Assad used chemical weapons on his citizens there was going to be a different action. Assad used chemical weapons on his citizens. We all saw the horrific images and nothing has happened," Wallace said.
Blinken defended the administration’s actions, echoing the points he already made.