Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Amodei breaks silence on Syria, blisters Obama administration for ‘bipolar gaffes’

Mark Amodei

Mark Amodei

Add Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei to the growing list of lawmakers opposed to strikes in Syria.

“It is clear Nevadans and their fellow Americans are united in opposition to the Administration’s much-discussed plans to strike Syria," Amodei said in a statement his office released Tuesday afternoon. "It is my hope that the diplomatic developments take the military option off the table."

Amodei's comments came just shortly after President Barack Obama came to Capitol Hill to brief senators of both parties on recent developments in Syria, including a Russian proposal to turn Syria's chemical weapons over to international authorities. The United Nations Security Council is currently discussing that proposal.

While most Republican senators don't agree with Obama, they nonetheless spoke respectfully of the administration in its efforts to grapple with this difficult diplomatic crisis.

Not Amodei.

“The lack of any discernible foreign policy strategy on the part of the Administration is unnerving and embarrassing," he said in his statement. "The only driving force appears to be their off-the-cuff misstatements, from the President’s ‘a redline for us’ to Secretary Kerry’s ‘unbelievably small, limited kind of effort’ to his musings on the possibility of Assad’s chemical weapons being turned over to ‘the international community’."

Amodei didn't stop there.

"That these bipolar gaffes are followed by disavowals and then claims that it was the plan all along further underscores the leadership vacuum, which is apparently being filled by Russian President Vladamir Putin," Amodei wrote, misspelling Vladimir Putin's name.

Amodei also indicated that he thinks Congress has already wasted too much attention on Syria, and should turn to pressing domestic matters instead.

“Absent a significant degradation of the current circumstances, I would like to see the priorities for the few remaining weeks of this legislative session concentrate on matters at home, such as the economy, jobs, immigration, and health care," he said.

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