Rand Paul teams up with Ocasio-Cortez, Omar to press Trump on Syria withdrawal

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is teaming up with liberal House Democrats, including firebrand freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.), to urge President Trump to follow through on his pledge to pull U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, a move that’s opposed by most congressional Republicans.

“We write in bipartisan support of your announcement of the start of a ‘deliberate withdrawal’ of U.S. military forces in Syria, and we welcome the completion of this process within the next six months,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Trump.

Others who signed the letter occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum on Capitol Hill: Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.).

They argue that the 2015 deployment of U.S. military forces to Syria was never approved by Congress, in violation of the Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

“We believe that the stated intention of withdrawing our forces is appropriate, and we look forward to the orderly return of our service members from this theater of conflict,” they wrote.

Republican leaders in Congress have pushed back against Trump’s December announcement that he would pull U.S. troops from Syria and substantially reduce the number of American combat personnel in Afghanistan.

The president did not consult with Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads U.S. Central Command, before making his Dec. 19 announcement, which caught Republicans in Congress by surprise.

The Senate in early February passed a resolution drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that stated the sense of the Senate was that Islamic militants in Syria and Afghanistan still pose a threat to the United States. It passed 70-26.

Paul told reporters Wednesday that Trump hasn’t changed his mind on withdrawing U.S. forces, and that the president delivered a blunt message to Senate Republicans at a lunch meeting last week.

“The finishing words of the lunch to us were, ‘Whether you like [it] or not, I’ve promised people not to leave troops in the Middle East forever, and that includes,’ he specifically mentioned, ‘Syria and Afghanistan,’” Paul said.

The Kentucky Republican acknowledged that voices in the administration and the Republican Party have tried to rein in the president by characterizing possible troop withdrawal as being dependent on conditions on the ground, language that has been used for years to justify a continued U.S. combat presence.

“There are competing forces, like in any administration,” Paul said. “There are a lot of people involved and many of them are from what I call the foreign policy swamp and they want to stay forever everywhere and they think we have endless resources and endless amounts of money.”

Paul previously teamed up with Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) on legislation to end the war in Afghanistan, an effort lawmakers promoted Tuesday in the Kennedy Caucus Room at an event hosted by the Committee for Responsible Foreign Policy.

Members of the conservative-liberal coalition that sent the letter to Trump say the push is about protecting Congress’s constitutional power to decide when the nation goes to war, something that has steadily drifted to the executive branch over the past 55 years following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the Vietnam War.

“The president cannot pursue a foreign policy agenda without the advice and consent, let alone the support, of the Congress,” Khanna said in a statement. “Thanks to Sen. Paul for joining me in bringing an end to these wars. The Constitution isn’t partisan.”