Pence huddles with GOP allies on Syria

Vice President Pence on Thursday huddled in the Capitol with President Trump’s top allies in the House to discuss “progress” in Syria and other national security issues, meeting participants told The Hill.

Those who met with Pence in the Senate dining room included House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.), former Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), and the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas.

{mosads}The meeting comes amid serious tensions between Trump and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill over the administration’s decision to pull troops out of northern Syria — a move that green-lighted the Turkish incursion against the Kurds that quickly followed.

The House voted overwhelmingly, 354-60, to condemn Trump’s move. Nearly 130 Republicans — including McCarthy, Cheney, McCaul and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — joined all Democrats in backing the measure.

More recently, Cheney introduced legislation to slap new sanctions on Turkey in response to the invasion, even as Trump was lifting existing sanctions on Ankara.

Cheney, one of the loudest GOP critics of Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds, who have fought for years alongside the U.S. in the war against ISIS, declined to discuss specifics about the meeting but said GOP leaders and Pence talked about “where we are headed from a national security perspective.”

“We’re really grateful the vice president came and took the time,” Cheney said as she emerged from the meeting, “and personally I’m going to ensure that we continue to do everything we can do to fight ISIS to make sure that we can defend the nation, and I think it’s very important for us to continue to stand with our allies around the world.”

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said the meeting with Pence had been scheduled for several days. 

“The vice president wanted to come up and talk about where things stand with respect to Turkey and a number of other issues as well,” Cheney said. 

“The focus was very much on national security.”

– Mike Lillis contributed