Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence had a strong performance in support of Donald Trump earlier this week, but openly disagreed with the head of the ticket when he took an aggressive stand against Russia.
Pence had stated: “I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. And if Russia chooses to be involved and continue, I should say, to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo.”
Those comments were brought up in the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And in an almost unprecedented maneuver, Trump frankly admitted he and his running mate do not have the same viewpoint when it comes to Syria.
“He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said.
Though Pence did not reference the exchange, Trump’s vice presidential nominee praised the head of the ticket for his overall performance on Twitter after the debate concluded.
Congrats to my running mate @realDonaldTrump on a big debate win! Proud to stand with you as we #MAGA.
— Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 10, 2016
Instead of targeting the Assad regime, Trump argued for a focus on the Islamic State.
“Right now, Syria is fighting ISIS,” said the Republican nominee. “We have people that want to fight both at the same time. But Syria is no longer Syria.”
Trump noted both Russia and Iran are fighting ISIS in Syria and condemned both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for helping Iran become a “powerful nation.” Nonetheless, Trump did not advocate conflict with either of those powers.
“I believe we have to get ISIS,” he said. “We have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.”
Trump also claimed the Syrian government’s offensive against the rebel stronghold of Aleppo has essentially already succeeded.
“It [Aleppo] basically has fallen,” said Trump.
The populist Republican nominee bemoaned the “stupidity” of American foreign policy, claiming it was a bad idea for the American military to announce its intention to spearhead a campaign to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State. Pointing out that the warning allows the Islamic State’s leaders to flee, Trump said the United States should instead have “quietly” launched a “sneak attack” and taken out the leadership.
He thumped Hillary Clinton for the current state of Syria and Iraq, noting acidly “she had a chance to do something with Syria.”
For her part, Hillary Clinton said she would not use ground forces in Syria. She declined to answer what she would do differently than President Obama, instead expressing hope the city of Mosul will soon be taken.
Clinton repeatedly attacked Russia during the debate and tried to paint Trump as a dupe of Russian foreign policy. She accused the Russian government of hacking American accounts to influence the election “for Donald Trump.”
“Now, maybe because he has praised Putin, maybe because he says he agrees with a lot of what Putin wants to do, maybe because he wants to do business in Moscow, I don’t know the reasons,” she sneered.
Trump called the charges “so ridiculous” and attacked Clinton for being caught in a “total lie” because of new revelations in the recent Wikileaks dump.
Trump also said he did not know Putin, had no loans in Russia, and scoffed at how Clinton is “trying to tarnish me with Russia.”
Trump mused it would be “great if we got along with Russia” so the two powers could work together on issues like fighting ISIS.
However, Trump took a quick detour away from the topic to land one of his strongest blows of the night. Referencing Clinton’s earlier allusion to the recent movie Lincoln as a portrayal of presidential leadership, Trump highlighted the difference between the woman he calls “Crooked Hillary” and Honest Abe.
“Honest Abe never lied,” Trump quipped. “That’s the good thing. That’s the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.”
