Ranking Intel Democrat: Clinton right about ISIS strategy

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton was right to say the U.S. is “where we need to be” in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

{mosads}“Well, this was in the context of do we go after [Syrian President Bashar] Assad or do we go after ISIS — can we do both? And her answer was basically we need to do both, and now for the first time we have a political process at the United Nations that ought to bring about an end to both,” Schiff said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“And I think she’s right.”

“The first step has got to be sitting around the table and agreeing on a process to get to the end result,” he added.

Clinton made the comment at Saturday night’s Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire.

She also said ISIS was using Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump in recruitment videos to bolster their ranks.

Schiff said President Obama should establish a no-fly zone in Syria in order to change the dynamic of the escalating civil war, which has recently invited Russian involvement.

“But I do think the administration out to reexamine the idea of establishing safe zones. I think they ought to put that front and center in this U.N. negotiation, because I do think it has the potential of really changing the battlefield conditions, and they have been stalemated for too long,” he said.

He said “while the broad outlines about what the president wants to do are the right ones, it’s not going fast enough. The pace is not going fast enough.”

Obama has opposed implementing a no-fly zone, saying it would further entangle U.S. involvement in the conflict that has left more than 250,000 dead since 2011.