During the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) offered a policy proposal for addressing the civil war in Syria that differed from comments Donald Trump has made regarding Syria and the fight against the Islamic State.
“If Russia chooses to be involved — and continue, I should say, to be involved — in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo,” Pence said during the debate.
He and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) also both supported creating safe zones in northern Syria.
Pence’s comments about using military force differ from what Trump has said about how the U.S. should approach Syria, as Yahoo News noted.
During a May interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump suggested that it would not make sense to fight the Islamic State and Syrian President President Bashar Assad at the same time, and that the fight against ISIL should be the bigger priority.
“I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldn’t have fought so much for Assad, against Assad because I thought that was a whole thing,” Trump said. “You have Iran, which we made into a power. Iran now is a power. Because of us, because of some of the dumbest deals I have ever seen. So now you have Iran and you have Russia in favor of Assad. We’re supposed to fight the two of them. At the same time, we’re supposed to fight ISIS, who is fighting Assad.”
The Clinton campaign took note after the debate that Pence and Trump have stated differing views on Syria.
“It’s troubling that they don’t seem to be acting as a unit,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said, according to Yahoo News. “Mike Pence either didn’t defend [Trump], or we heard entirely new positions. Which leads me to wonder if Mike Pence thinks Donald Trump has the wrong opinions.”
