Mattis wanted approval from Congress before Syria strikes but was overruled: report

Defense Secretary James Mattis reportedly pushed President Trump to seek congressional approval for last week’s missile strikes against Syria but was overruled. 

The New York Times reported Thursday that the Pentagon chief tried to rein in Trump, who wanted a swift and decisive strike against the Syrian regime accused of unleashing another chemical weapons attack on its own people. 

In a closed-door White House meeting with defense officials last week, Mattis reportedly cited a need for more evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad carried out the attack and warned of deepening an armed conflict with Russia, and urged the president to seek congressional approval from Congress before the strike.

The White House later denied the report.

“Reports that Secretary Mattis urged the President to seek congressional approval before last week’s strikes in Syria are categorically false,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “As Secretary Mattis explained to Congress in yesterday’s all-member briefs, the president appropriately ordered the strikes under his constitutional authorities.”

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Mattis reportedly characterized the strike on Friday as a “one-time shot” at Syria and “a very strong message to dissuade” further human rights abuses. 

U.S. diplomats warned Russia in advance of the incoming strikes in order to avoid casualties. 

Numerous lawmakers of both parties complained in the following days that the White House had infringed Congress’s exclusive war powers listed in the Constitution. 

Since the attack, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) called for Congress to reassert its authority and introduced a measure that would allow for military force in Syria, but focused on striking at the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 

Democrats such as Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) have called the strikes “illegal” and “reckless.” 

Updated April 19 at 10:36 a.m.