WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today appeared on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the ongoing situation in Syria.

“A military action, in and of itself, isn’t a strategy when it comes to Syria – it’s a one-off,” said Sen. Menendez. “The administration has failed to have a comprehensive strategy against Syria. If we want to defeat ISIS, end the civil war, and end the humanitarian disaster, then we have to have full engagement. That means we have to have our diplomacy working, which means that the freeze that the President has on our aid to help the Syrian people has to be rethought, the suggestion that we have to get out right away has to be rethought, and finally we have to get a coalition of the willing to isolate Assad’s enabler, which is Russia and Iran. And our Gulf partners have to think seriously, if they want to stand up for the Syrian people, they’re going to have to stand up to Russia and Iran.”

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The senator was also asked about reports that President Trump is considering firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein following the FBI raid on Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

“There’s a serious concern among us that the President may be on the verge of creating a constitutional crisis, where we have a ‘Saturday Night Massacre’ where he fires the attorney general, possibly the deputy attorney general, and therefore firing the special counsel at the same time,” said Sen. Menendez. “Our hope is that we can engage our Republican colleagues to have a bipartisan message and a bipartisan action that is very clear: ‘First, don’t do this Mr. President, don’t create the constitutional crisis. And secondly, if you do, there have to be serious consequences.’ And I hope that, if this were to happen, that our colleagues would join us as patriots and not partisans."

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