Well this ain’t no good.

White House statement warns of a potential chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime in Syria pic.twitter.com/bIJj4QrrbE — Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) June 27, 2017

Here’s the statement:





Now of course, Putin and Assad continue to deny he ever used a chemical attack so this would be a big deal. I have to imagine that he won’t be like Obama and issue a red line he’s not going to enforce. And that means a LOT of people will be very unhappy with any action Trump takes in the Middle East when he seemed to promise we’d stay out of there during his campaign.







And of course, there’s still the issue of authorization – shouldn’t he seek Congressional approval for this?

UPDATE:

OK, a couple of things.

CENTCOM officials told @BuzzFeedNews they have "no idea” what prompted the White House’s Syria statement tonight https://t.co/BQKoPVyqNZ — Brandon Wall (@Walldo) June 27, 2017

OK.

Five US defense officials reached by BuzzFeed News said they did not know where the potential chemical attack would come from, and were unaware the White House was planning to release its statement. Usually such statements are coordinated across the national security agencies and departments before they are released.

And..

Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but also on Russia & Iran who support him killing his own people. — Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) June 27, 2017

WOW!! Calm down, woman!!!

Nikki Haley had lunch with Trump and Pence at the White House today. https://t.co/yu17cLcJ4H — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 27, 2017

Uh… really? That seems like.. a yuge coincidence.