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Kinzinger: I Haven't Heard Back from White House on Offer of Help on Syria

September 9, 2013

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R., Ill.), a supporter of taking military action in Syria for Bashar al-Assad's regime using chemical weapons, said Sunday on This Week that he had not heard back from the White House after reaching out to offer help in rounding up congressional support for the resolution.

Kinzinger added President Obama had a "trust deficit" with the U.S. Congress because he had failed to build a proper relationship with its members:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman, you are a Republican supporting the president on this, but you have a big intra-party battle in both parties. The president doesn't have the votes now. Can he get them? Is he making the right case?

KINZINGER: Look, I think it's going to be very difficult for him to get votes, and I think this goes back, not just to the issue itself, but you can't begin to build a relationship with Congress for the first time when you need their support on something like this. I mean look, a week and a half ago, my office actually reached out to the White House and said we support the strike on Syria. We're going to help you round up support if you need it. I haven't heard back from the White House yet. I haven't heard back from anyone. I don't even know who my White House liaison is which is supposed to be creating this relationship. Now we find ourselves in a situation where I think the president has made the decision, correctly, that the cost of using chemical weapons should far exceed the benefit that anybody gains from it, and he's trying to build a relationship with Congress, and there's a trust deficit.