Pelosi: Trump Had 'Meltdown' Over House Vote on Syria

A White House meeting between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders to discuss the situation with Turkey and Syria broke up amid insults and arguments, Democratic leaders said.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump appeared to be “shaken” by the fact that 129 GOP lawmakers voted earlier in the day for a resolution rebuking the president for withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria and had a “meltdown,” prompting her and other Democratic leaders to leave.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump, who has come under intense criticism even from allies over his decisions on Syria, called Pelosi “a third-rate politician” and hurled other insults in a “nasty diatribe.”

Republicans countered the Pelosi and Schumer stormed out the meeting for political reasons.

“She storms out of another meeting trying to make it unproductive,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said. “Unfortunately the speaker tries to make everything political.”

He said the meeting did get heated on both sides. While he didn’t dispute Schumer’s characterization of what Trump said about Pelosi, he called the speaker’s behavior “just unbecoming.”

The meeting included the congressional leaders of both parties as well as the chairmen and ranking members of key committees with oversight of foreign affairs and the military. Several other Democrats who were at the Wednesday meeting remained after Pelosi and Schumer left.

Trump is facing sharp criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum for his sudden move last week to allow Turkey to proceed with a military operation in northern Syria and pull American forces from the area. The withdrawal left exposed Kurdish fighters who had fought for several years alongside American troops against Islamic State and are now under attack from the Turkish military.

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution rebuking Trump for that decision.

Some of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate also denounced the action. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called the president’s decision an “utter national security disaster in the making.”

Trump insisted the U.S. shouldn’t get involved in any conflict between Turkey and Syria.

“Lindsey Graham would like to stay in the Middle East for the next thousand years with thousands of soldiers fighting other people’s wars,” Trump said.

Pelosi said the current House impeachment inquiry of Trump didn’t come up at the meeting.