'That is exactly what we are talking about doing – unbelievably small, limited kind of effort,' Kerry said. 'Unbelievably small'

As President Barack Obama kicks off an all-out push for a strike on Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry came under fire on Monday for saying any attack would be “unbelievably small” and suggesting the Syrian ruler still had a week to give up his chemical weapons to avoid a U.S. assault - a remark Kerry’s spokeswoman later attempted to clarify.

The off-key comments came in a joint press conference in London with Britain’s foreign secretary, where Kerry said the strike would be able to harm Assad without putting American troops on the ground and with a “very limited, very targeted, short-term effort.”


“That is exactly what we are talking about doing, unbelievably small, limited kind of effort,” Kerry said.

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The comments, which dismayed even supporters of an attack on Syria, added fuel to the debate as Obama launches a full court press 48-hour media and political blitz to try to sell the plan to a skeptical American public and Congress.

On Monday, Obama will sit down with anchors from six networks, PBS, CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC, for seven- to 10-minute interviews that will air Monday night. On Tuesday, the president will address the nation in a televised address in prime time.

The White House was also expected to continue to reach out to members of Congress through high-profile Cabinet members as well as the vice president and president himself. On Monday afternoon, National Security Adviser Susan Rice was set to hold a public speaking event on Syria at the New America Foundation.

But Kerry’s comments Monday caused even some of the president’s strongest backers for military intervention to call the White House’s outreach a disaster.

( PHOTOS: Protesters target White House on Syria)

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a supporter of robust military action in Syria and an important target of Obama’s outreach efforts to date, took to Twitter to express his frustration with Kerry’s comments.

“Kerry says #Syria strike would be “unbelievably small” - that is unbelievably unhelpful,” McCain tweeted Monday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) strongly favors a strike on Syria, but criticized Kerry’s comments.

“I don’t understand what he means by that,” Rogers said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “This is part of the problem. That’s a very confusing message — certainly a confusing message to me that he would offer that as somebody who believes this is in our national security interest.”

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Rogers said the president has done an “awful job” of explaining foreign policy to the American people and is trying to make up for lost time.

Bill Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard who also supports the resolution before Congress and who said he has tried to advise the administration behind the scenes on convincing conservatives, said Kerry’s comments about “unbelievably small” attack have him concerned.

“I am worried, though, the administration has done such a bad job of making its case,” Kristol said also on “Morning Joe” on Monday. “Now we have the secretary of State saying, ‘Well, we went to Congress, it was so important to go to Congress, for an unbelievably small limited strike.’ Even I can see why reasonable people on the Hill … can say, ‘Is that really better than nothing?’” Kristol said.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), another advocate for intervening in Syria, continued his criticism Monday for how the president has handled the push for intervention, saying he should have been more forceful earlier.

( PHOTOS: Syria: Where politicians stand)

“The president’s failed to make his case. And I think hopefully over the next 48 hours he does that, but he’s definitely failed to,” thus far, Kinzinger said on “Morning Joe.”

Republican strategist Karl Rove called the next two days a last-minute effort by the president after repeated missteps.

“Now the president is going to sort-of engage in two hail Marys, a series of interviews tonight with anchors and a speech to the country,” Rove said Monday on Fox News’s “American Newsroom.

Asked about Kerry’s comments in the White House briefing Monday afternoon, press secretary Jay Carney said there was no mistake from the secretary.

“I don’t think that the phrasing reflects some error,” Carney said. “I think that Secretary Kerry clearly was referring to that in the context of what the United States and the American people have experienced over this past 10 to 12 years, which includes large-scale, long-term … open-ended military engagement with boots on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is the contrast that Secretary Kerry was making.”

Kerry also appeared to leave an out for Assad on Monday, responding to a question about how Assad could avert military action from the U.S.

“He could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week, turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting for that, but he isn’t about to do it,” Kerry said in London.

But the State Department called the remarks more “rhetorical” than an actual offer.

“Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in an e-mail to the press, according to The New York Times. “His point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons, otherwise he would have done so long ago.”

Asked if Kerry was issuing an ultimatum to Assad by Chuck Todd on MSNBC on Monday, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the U.S. has tried diplomacy and Assad has had the option for months.

“The fact of the matter is he’s had an ultimatum here for many months. We’ve made clear, together with many in the international community, that these kinds of weapons that are unacceptable,” Rhodes said. “So as the secretary said, it’s hard to foresee any scenario where he takes any action.”

Russia’s foreign minister reportedly made a similar offer to Syria on Monday. Sergey Lavrov told BBC News that during talks with his Syrian counterpart, Russia asked Syria to put all of its chemical weapons under international control and have them destroyed in an effort to avoid a U.S. strike.

The White House said Monday afternoon it would take a “hard look” at the proposal.

Still, the backlash from backers of intervention comes at a moment when the president can’t afford to lose any allies, as whip counts and public opinion polling continue to show little support for Obama’s plan.

A new CNN/ORC International poll out Monday showed nearly two-thirds of the public against Congress authorizing intervention, with a 59 percent to 39 percent split against a yes vote.

Of the Americans surveyed, 72 percent said airstrikes in Syria would not achieve “significant goals” for the U.S. and 69 percent said the U.S. had no national interest in getting involved in Syria.

On the same day that Obama sits down with the American media, Assad made his own pitch to the American people, as CBS began airing portions of an interview of Assad by Charlie Rose that will air in full on PBS on Monday night. In the interview Assad warned the U.S. to “expect everything” if it launches a strike.

He denied that Syria used chemical weapons against civilians, saying the U.S. has not produced “a single shred of evidence” supporting its claims.

The Syrian strongman also brought up public opinion polling in the U.S. that shows low support among the public for intervention, saying when it votes, Congress should reflect that.

“Congress is elected by the people and represent the people and work for their interests,” Assad said.

Rhodes pointed to Assad’s interview on Monday, calling him a liar and saying it shows further how unlikely to cooperate Assad is.

“You heard him just on the interview today, essentially lying about the fact that he’s used these weapons even though the world can see the proof in those videos that have been airing over the weekend. So we have no expectation that he’ll do anything different than what he’s done the last several months, which is ignore the will of the international community.”