Trump: 'Big Price' Will Be Paid for 'Mindless CHEMICAL Attack'

The president hits Twitter after Syria strike
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2018 10:15 AM CDT
Trump: 'Big Price' Will Be Paid for 'Mindless CHEMICAL Attack'
President Donald Trump responds to White House visitors on the South Lawn in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Trump responded to news of a Syrian chemical-weapons attack near Damascus with his own weapon of choice: the tweet. "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," he tweeted Sunday, per CNN. "Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price..." and he went on, "....to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!" He also blamed President Obama for troubles in Syria, tweeting that "Animal Assad would have been history" if Obama had stuck to "his stated Red Line in the Sand."

Meanwhile Syrian rebels have surrendered their last positions in Douma, a town in the eastern suburbs of Damascus that was hit with the alleged gas attack, the AP reports. The Army of Islam had been in talks with Russia, a Syrian ally, to let government institutions back into Douma until negotiations fell apart Friday, leading to widespread bombing and shelling of the area and the apparent gas attack. In Washington, Sen. Lindsey Graham called this a "defining moment" for Trump on ABC's This Week, reports CBS News. "If it becomes a tweet without meaning then [Trump has] hurt himself in North Korea, if he doesn't follow through and live up to that tweet, he's going to look weak in the eyes of and Russia and Iran," said Graham, who advised Trump to "show a resolve that Obama never did to get this right." (More Syria stories.)

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