GOP: Obama ‘shifting blame’ on ISIS

Republicans on Monday hammered President Obama, accusing him of trying to shift blame for the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“Shifting blame and shirking responsibility is not presidential or beneficial to the American people,” Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Monday.

{mosads}Coats said the administration was trying to avoid criticism for “its own policy failures.”

His remarks came a day after President Obama said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that the intelligence community had underestimated ISIS.

“I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” the president said. 

Republican lawmakers were quick to criticize Obama for his remarks, as the GOP looks to make national security an issue in November’s midterm elections, where control of the Senate is at stake.

Critics said the president was well aware of intelligence reports in early 2014 that ISIS was planning to go on the offense and seize territory, and that Obama was slow or unwilling to act.

They noted that member of his own administration called for arming Syrian rebels groups a year ago to take the fight to ISIS. Before lawmakers left for a five-week recess earlier this month they passed legislation authorizing Obama to arm vetted Syrian groups.

“A real leader, a true leader does not blame other people,” Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Monday on MSNBC. “The intelligence community was very concerned about ISIS.”  

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) tweeted on Monday: “Pres. Obama can’t blame others for underestimating #ISIS. The buck stops with the Commander in Chief. thebea.st/1ywI0RH#60minutes.” 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), a potential 2016 contender said on Fox News Monday, “you can’t keep blaming other people.”

Ryan, though, expressed support for Obama’s new policy, which includes airstrikes targeting ISIS.

“Now, he’s got a better policy today and he needs to see it through,” he said. 

The White House pushed back against charges that the president was putting blame on the intelligence community. 

“That is not what the president’s intent was. What the president was trying to make clear… [was] about how difficult it is to predict the will of security forces that are based in another country to fight,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Monday. 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper previously said that the intelligence community “underestimated” ISIS, according to a report in the Washington Post.

“In this case, we underestimated ISIL and overestimated the fighting capability of the Iraqi army,” he told the Post, using an alternate name for the terror group. “I didn’t see the collapse of the Iraqi security force in the north coming. I didn’t see that. It boils down to predicting the will to fight, which is an imponderable.”

The White House response, however, did not quell Republican criticism.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) tweeted afterEarnest’s briefing, “#Obama skirting responsibility yet again – now blaming intel community for his administration underestimating #ISIS.”