Democratic Rep: ‘Active Public’ Is Opposed To Syria Strike

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A Democratic lawmaker said earlier this week that he doesn’t know a single member of Congress whose e-mails and phone calls from constituents indicate robust public support for a military strike against Syria.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Washington Post that President Barack Obama should propose a narrower resolution to authorize military force and that he should make his case on television. But Sherman said Obama is facing a skeptical American public.

“One, [Obama] needs to quickly propose a different resolution that is extremely narrow,” Sherman said. “It needs to authorize only what he says he wants to do. If instead the lawyers and planners in the administration say they want a resolution that authorizes anything they might want to do, they’ll fail. Second, I think he’ll need to go on TV, in primetime. The active public is against this. I don’t know a member of Congress whose e-mails and phone calls are in favor of this.”

A pair of polls released this week indicate that Sherman is right. Pew Research Center found nearly half of the country opposed to airstrikes in Syria, while an ABC News / Washington Post survey showed even steeper opposition.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: