White House Homeland Security Advisor Thomas Bossert said not to "take anything off the table" Sunday with regard to a military response by the U.S. to a reported chemical weapons attack by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
Reports emerged Saturday of a Syrian attack on the Damascus suburb of Douma that left at least 70 people dead. The State Department has condemned the attack, and President Donald Trump warned of a "big price to pay" from his Twitter account Sunday morning.
Bossert said he was struck by this being the one-year anniversary of the Assad regime's chemical attack in 2017 that led to Trump ordering a targeted strike against a Syrian air base. This was an issue on which countries across the globe had agreed was an "unacceptable practice," Bossert said.
"So is it possible there will be another missile attack?" ABC host Martha Raddatz asked.
"I wouldn't take anything off the table. These are horrible photos. We're looking into the attack at this point," Bossert said.
Pressed by Raddatz about Trump's recent remarks that he wanted to pull the U.S. military presence out of Syria, Bossert defended his boss.
"The pendulum has swung in the wrong direction for too long and the United States of America has been taken advantage of in their responsibility to provide security for the entire world," he said. "It is time to move that pendulum back in a way that brings regional partners and others with equities in these matters all around the globe into putting their resources and their treasure and their boys and girls on the line, and not just American troops."