WASHINGTON (AP) – On the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid predicted Thursday that lawmakers will put aside pre-election political differences to give President Barack Obama the tools he needs to combat Islamic state militants in the heart of the Middle East.
“Not the least of which is the authority to equip and train Syrian troops to fight these … evil terrorists,” Reid said, referring to the request Obama made Wednesday in his prime-time address to the nation.
Reid spoke on the Senate floor as House Republican rank and file met privately across the Capitol to plan their response to the president’s request. In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s speech on Wednesday night, both Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., spoke favorably about his call for new authority to battle forces that have overrun parts of Syria and Iraq and have also beheaded two American journalists whom they had held captive.
Congress is in a brief two-week pre-election session, and the president’s request is an unexpected addition to what had until recently seemed a period devoted to domestic issues such as extending government funding beyond the end of the current budget year.
Some House Republicans were already weighing in on Obama’s call for approval to train Syrian rebels.
Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a speech Thursday morning that he supports several elements of Obama’s strategy, including an expansion of airstrikes and training and equipping the rebels.
Obama says he already has the authority he needs to expand airstrikes from Iraq into Syrian terrority, although he did not say in his speech when he would order them launched.
Given the proximity to the elections, it was unclear what the political fallout would be from Obama’s speech.
In his remarks, Reid accused unnamed Republicans of taking “cheap political shots at the president.”
“This is a time for the rhetoric of campaign commercials to go away,” he said.