Scott Audette/Reuters
Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, infamous for her secret rendezvous with Syria President Bashar al-Assad in January, has condemned the U.S. military’s airstrikes on a Syrian air field. In a statement released late Thursday, Gabbard accused President Trump of recklessness, saying he’d taken “the advice of war hawks and escalated our illegal regime change war to overthrow the Syrian government.” “This escalation is short-sighted and will lead to more dead civilians, more refugees, the strengthening of al Qaeda, and other terrorists, and a possible nuclear war between the United States and Russia,” she said. She went on to express doubt over whether the Syrian government was responsible for this week’s chemical attack in Idlib province, in which dozens of civilians were killed. Gabbard warned that “if President Assad is indeed guilty,” the airstrikes could jeopardize any possible prosecution of Assad’s regime, since they were conducted “without waiting for the collection of evidence from the scene of the chemical poisoning.” Gabbard has repeatedly defended Assad and claims any removal of Assad would be illegal. She remains under scrutiny over her initially undisclosed trip to Damascus, where she only later admitted to having met personally with Assad, saying she was attempting to find political resolution to the conflict.