House Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Adam Schiff Thursday cautioned that strike on a Syrian air base not be used as "a military effort to change the regime" of President Bashar al-Assad.
"I fully concur that the regime has to go," the California Democrat told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. "Because as long as Assad is there, that fighting is going to go on, that terrible war is going to go on.
"But this is not something that can be accomplished via the air at a standoff location.
"We can hope that this will deter the regime from using chemical weapons again," Schiff continued. "That is probably the most significant thing you could hope for, as well as a deterrent to other regimes in the future by using chemical weapons."
Schiff said that he was most concerned that Congress was not involved in Trump's decision.
"There are still a lot of issues to be resolved," he told Maddow. "One of them for the Congress is all of this is being done — not just the attack today, but the presence of our troops there — all of this is being done without any congressional vote, any congressional authorization.
"Congress really needs to deal with this."
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