Trump Hits Back at Brian Kilmeade For Panning His Syria Decision: ‘Got it All Wrong’

Colby HallOct 14th, 2019, 7:28 am
 


President Donald Trump reacted swiftly to Brian Kilmeade’s criticism, saying that the Fox & Friends co-host “got it all wrong” in criticizing his decision to withdraw U.S. military support of Syrian-based Kurds — which led to reported atrocities this weekend.

Fox & Friends opened Monday morning’s show highlighting the Turkish invasion of northern Syria and attacks on Kurdish forces who have long been allied with the United States in a fight against ISIS. Trump’s decision came after a phone call with Turkish leader Recep Erdogan that has drawn bipartisan criticism, which Kilmeade highlighted in his own way.

“It’s been worse than anyone could have imagined,” Kilmeade noted, describing his understanding of what’s happening in northern Syria, before turning to how it’s playing domestically by noting the “bipartisan outrage.” He continued, “the president must realize he made a huge mistake and listen, and just say listen, I had a conversation with Erdogan, he misled me like he’s misled everyone in the region.”

Trump is an avid consumer of cable news programming and the very pro-Trump opinion-based Fox & Friends has long been reported to be his favorite shows. So Kilmeade’s comments caught Trump’s eye, who responded via Twitter:

“Brian Kilmeade over at @foxandfriends got it all wrong. We are not going into another war between people who have been fighting with each other for 200 years. Europe had a chance to get their ISIS prisoners, but didn’t want the cost,” he wrote, before threatening Turkey with sanctions.

Trump’s claim that the Syrian-based Kurds are releasing ISIS as a means to force US troops to engage is reportedly similar to the narrative promoted by pro-government Turkish media, according to Daily Beast’s foreign policy expert Michael Weiss:

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Colby Hall - Founding Editor

Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.