Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday hit back at the current Secretary’s declaration that the U.S. “didn’t give Turkey a green light” to launch a military offensive on U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Northeast Syria after President Trump withdrew forces from the region.

Speaking at an event at the University of Michigan, Mrs. Clinton said it was surprising “the President of the United States basically gave them a green light to do whatever they chose to do.”

The current Secretary Mike Pompeo on Wednesday night said in an interview with “PBS News Hour” that the U.S. explicitly “didn’t give Turkey a green light.”

“It became very clear that there were American soldiers that were going to be at risk, and the President made a decision to put them in a place where they were out of harm’s way. That’s what we’ve done,” Mr. Pompeo continued.

The former first lady, however, told an audience that “everyone knew” that withdrawing U.S. troops would lead the Turks to launch a military assault into Syria “with the purpose of trying to, in their view, contain and quell the Kurds — who have been our allies in the fight against ISIS.”

“This has been brewing for a long time,” she added.

Scores of lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, have joined in condemning the Trump administration’s move that came just days before Turkey launched its military offensive.

Mrs. Clinton suggested that rather than pulling back the troops who have largely played a peacekeeping and training role in the region since the demise of the ISIS caliphate, the U.S. should have called a meeting with NATO allies — of which Turkey is a member — and hold talks with Ankara.

“These Kurds have been with us, they have fought with Americans we have supported their efforts … so let’s figure out how we’re going to deal with this,” she said.

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