Intel: Elizabeth Warren’s first 2020 interview shows Democrats in bind over Syria

President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement last month that he’s withdrawing US troops from Syria was met with a strong bipartisan rebuke from Congress. But several notable Democrats were silent — including those with presidential aspirations. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the first Democrat to formally take steps to run against Trump in 2020, became the first presidential aspirant to address Syria on Wednesday. And she partially agrees with him on the military withdrawal. 

“I think it is right to get our troops out of Syria,” Warren said in an interview on MSNBC as she simultaneously endorsed a US withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Everybody who kept saying ‘no, no, no, you can’t do that’ in the defense establishment needs to explain what they think winning in those wars looks like and where the metrics are.”

Why it matters: Warren’s remarks echo Trump’s defense of his Syria withdrawal. They also illustrate a dilemma for Democrats hoping to woo the party's progressive base, which views US military intervention with skepticism despite disdain for the president.

“The idea that the way we’re going to do that is just to continue to keep troops and more troops forever and ever in that part of the world, it’s not working,” said Warren, who sits on the Armed Services Committee.