Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pushed out out of power, telling Breitbart News at his weekly press conference, “Well I know there’s a lot of talk about–you want to be careful–you don’t want to use words like regime change and all that stuff. I’m speaking only for me. Assad is a demon–a tyrant and the sooner he goes the better. So, I’m all in favor for helping the rebels all we can.”
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) agrees. McCain told Sky News on Tuesday morning, “I’d also like to point out that I think we still need to begin to provide aid to the Free Syrian Army, so that we change the momentum and negotiate a settlement that leads to Bashar al Assad’s departure.”
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) told Breitbart News that the President told Democrats the administration’s goal was not a regime change.
Manchin said, “They said we’re not trying to change the regime, but they’d also like to see him go.”
Reid, along with other Senate Democrats met with President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill Tuesday, and told reporters, the president “made it very clear that he will act if he must,” adding, “That’s the message he gave us.”
The Nevada Democrat also said that while a resolution vote in the upper chamber to strike Syria is still progressing, there is no time frame as to when it will happen.
“It’s important we do this well, not quickly,” he said, later noting that both the Democrats and the President agree the resolution will need some “tweaking.”
Reid told reporters that while he prefers a more political approach, he is “not a blood-and-thunder guy.” However, the threat of a military strike from the U.S., Reid believes, is the only way to enforce the confiscation of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons.
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