The White House stated on Wednesday that “all options are on the table” as a response to the suspected chemical weapons assault in Syria despite President Donald Trump’s tweet threatening to send a barrage of missiles targeting Syrian forces.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave a statement saying that a final decision hasn’t been made on the U.S. response.
“We have a number of options and all of those options are still on the table,” Sanders told reporters. “The President has a number of options at his disposal and a number remain on the table.”
Meanwhile, Trump blamed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and his ally Russian President Vladimir Putin for the suspected chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians over the weekend where 49 people were killed and more than 500 injured.
Trump said that it’s “an atrocious attack” and added that he’ll decide on a response soon.
“Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart’!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
Reuters reported that before Trump’s tweet, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, said that if there was a U.S. missile attack, Russian air defenses would shoot them down and target the launching sites.
Sanders also added that Trump’s tweets do not represent a national security risk.
She also said that Trump’s tweet doesn’t reveal any plans, adding that the President is still deciding on a timetable.
Sanders refused to say if there are any specific plans for the White House to receive congressional approval for a strike in Syria.
“The administration will follow whatever laws and regulations are necessary for any actions that we take,” Sanders said. “Because we haven’t laid out any specific actions we plan to take I can’t tell you exactly what needs we would have to go to Congress with.”
When pressed about Trump’s tweet Sanders blamed special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation for the current bad relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Trump later tweeted that the “bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all-Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama.”
Sanders also added that President Donald Trump continues to deny any collusion between his campaign and Russia.
“At the same time, [the Russia probe] hampered the ability to do so, as well as the bad actions that Russia has taken including meddling in the election among other things, but tying the President to that has created a lot of unnecessary problems,” she said.
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