Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said Russian president Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed lecturing the United States on military action in Syria 'sickened' him Thursday on MSNBC's Jansing and Co.
Inhofe wasn't the only U.S. Senator disturbed by Putin's piece. Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) said being told what to do by a former member of the KGB made him want to vomit, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) said Wednesday night it was the "height of hypocrisy" to be told by Russian to go through the United Nations.
Inhofe added the idea that Obama's threat of force had created any sort of compromise over getting chemical weapons out of Syria was bogus, saying that he had dug himself into a corner and wanted the American people to believe this was all part of the plan.
CHRIS JANSING: Your colleague, Senator Bob Menendez, said that that op-ed by President Putin made him want to vomit. What was your reaction?
INHOFE: Oh, I think that's a pretty good reaction. It sickened me that we would have to sit there and read that, but let's look at it through Putin's eyes. He now knows that we had to come to him to get out of a hole, and so I think he's enjoying it a lot more than Menendez and I are enjoying it.
JANSING: You know, a lot of people who were supporters of the president's strategy and now we heard it from the British foreign secretary, they believe that the threat of force is what prompted this all along, that this never would have happened if the U.S. had not threatened force.
INHOFE: Well, I just don't agree with that. I know that that's what President Obama wants us to believe because he got himself in a situation, Chris, and no matter how much you support him, he was in a situation that he had to get out of and so it's a natural thing to try to say, it's the threat of force that did it. First of all, you've got to keep in mind, you're talking about Russia and Syria, and Russia has been the supplier of all of the armaments to Syria. So why should we trust them to do this? So I think, you know, I don't agree with that statement.