Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt believes President Barack Obama is playing politics in his handling of the Syria crisis.
"When you lay it all out and you lay out what his possible motives may have been, it seems more and more likely that the only objective here has been to make politics out of this," Hurt told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"I hate to say that because I cannot think of a more treasonous accusation to make against a president, but honestly, what is the purpose here?"
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Hurt said Obama wanted to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad for his regime's use of chemical weapons against Syria's rebel forces, "but what he has wound up doing in the course of five days was ensuring that no matter what, he will stay in power."
He said Syria's sudden agreement to comply with Russia's offer of brokering a deal to remove its chemical weapons "has been a great PR boon ... for Assad ... Now he looks like some sort of statesman in Syria."
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