Rep. Gabbard and Syrian Kurdish leader make for odd State of the Union pair
The 2020 presidential contender will be joined by a leader of the US-backed Syrian Kurds for President Trump’s big speech.
A US-backed Kurdish group fighting to stop the US withdrawal from Syria has scored an unlikely invite to tonight’s State of the Union address from a congresswoman well known for her stance against American interventionism.
In a statement this afternoon, longshot 2020 presidential contender Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, announced that she had invited Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) co-president Ilham Ahmed to President Donald Trump’s address. Gabbard called Ahmed “a leader in the battle against ISIS in Syria.” ISIS is an abbreviation for the Islamic State.
The two women could make for awkward seatmates in the House chamber.
The Kurdish leader has used a two-week tour of Washington to push the United States to stand by the Pentagon-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and continue its military involvement in Syria. Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran who stirred controversy two years ago by visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, tweeted last month that she wanted US troops to leave the war-torn country “ASAP.”
