Kerry and Hagel traveled to Capitol Hill to make the administration’s case. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Kerry, House leaders make case

Top congressional leaders including House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed President Barack Obama’s proposed military strikes against Syria, but that still doesn’t mean they will help the White House get the votes.

A flurry of support for Obama’s plans came after he hosted congressional leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Tuesday morning, with Boehner telling reporters that a military response to Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons “is something that the United States as a country needs to do.”


Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel traveled to Capitol Hill to make the administration’s case before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The world knows “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Assad’s regime was behind last month’s chemical weapons attacks, and it ’s up to the United States to step in, Kerry said at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

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Kerry stressed that the administration’s involvement will be limited. “Let me be clear,” he said, “President Obama is not asking America to go to war … he is asking only for the power to make clear that the United States means what we say.” Hagel echoed Kerry in his testimony: “The word of the United States must mean something.”

Action by the Senate may not be too far behind. The committee is making steady bipartisan progress toward drafting a resolution on Syria, which could be completed Tuesday night or early Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said ahead of the hearing.

“There is a push to have a markup not hastily, not one that is not thoughtful, but to have a markup very soon, so that members have an opportunity to see it before they come back,” he said, suggesting that the Senate could likely act before the House.

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Earlier Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) expressed support for the plan, but the GOP leaders didn’t commit to helping to secure enough votes to pass a use-of-force resolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime that remains unpopular among both the American public and rank-and-file members of both parties.

“Understanding that there are differing opinions on both sides of the aisle, it is up to President Obama to make the case to Congress and to the American people that this is the right course of action, and I hope he is successful in that endeavor,” Cantor said in a statement.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck also said it was up to the White House to build the necessary support on Capitol Hill. “Everyone understands that it is an uphill battle to pass a resolution, and the speaker expects the White House to provide answers to members’ questions and take the lead on any whipping effort,” Buck said.

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But some key Republicans still aren’t on board.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who attended the meeting with Obama, left his options open. “While we are learning more about his plans, Congress and our constituents would all benefit from knowing more about what it is he thinks needs to be done — and can be accomplished — in Syria and the region.”

And Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the third-ranking House Republican, is “weighing the information and intelligence presented to him,” a spokesman said.

While in the White House meeting, though, none of 16 members who met with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry — including McConnell and McCarthy — voiced opposition to them about the administration’s Syria plan, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said afterward.

“I didn’t hear anybody in that room tell the president that they were going to oppose him,” said Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee.

Engel said Obama urged the members of Congress to help him sell the plan to both their colleagues and the public.

“The president said that if we agree with him, to go out and be part of the team and sell this, and I agree with him,” Engel said. “It’s very important, the immediate step is we need an affirmative vote in both houses of Congress but I think we also need an affirmative vote for the American people. The American people need to be convinced.”

Boehner cited the need to stop the use of chemical weapons as a reason to support Obama.

“The use of these weapons has to be responded to and only the United States has the capability and the capacity to stop Assad and to warn others around the world that this type of behavior is not to be tolerated,” Boehner told reporters.

Obama said at the beginning of the meeting that he expects Congress will approve military action against Assad’s regime.

“I am,” Obama said after being asked if he’s confident the White House will win the upcoming vote.

Obama’s comments — before a Tuesday morning with key congressional leaders — were his first public remarks since announcing Saturday he was asking for Congress to vote on the Syria question. The White House is continuing its full court press Tuesday on Capitol Hill as well, where senior administration officials will give a classified briefing to lawmakers.

The president hit on two concerns that lawmakers have expressed — the possibility of whether the United States would be dragged into the Syrian civil war and if there’s a long-term military strategy.

“This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan,” Obama said while sitting between Boehner and Pelosi. “This is a limited, proportional step that will send a clear message not only to the Assad regime but also to other countries that may be interested in testing some of these international norms, that there are consequences.

Pelosi, speaking after the meeting, said the American people “need to hear more” from Obama about the Syrian action. She acknowledged that constituents in her San Francisco district oppose Syrian intervention but said deterring chemical weapons use is in the national security interests of the United States.

Asked whether the Syrian resolution will pass the House, Pelosi said leaders will have to educate members as opposed to whipping for their vote.

“It’s not a discussion of whipping, it’s a question of discussion,” she said. “Do they want to ignore the fact that this humanitarian disaster took place or not?”

The other members of Congress who spoke following the meeting with Obama stressed, as did Obama, the limited nature of any Syria offensive and the necessity of selling their colleagues on the Syria vote.

“When other people hear the case, they will support him too,” Engel said. He added that Obama discussed an attack that “has some teeth.”

Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the lead Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said bombing Syria “will hurt Assad right now. … It will make him weaker.”

Obama emphasized strengthening the Syria opposition while attacking Assad — the same point made Monday by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) after they sat with the president in the Oval Office.

“It gives us the ability to degrade Assad’s capabilities when it comes to chemical weapons, it also fits into a broader strategy that we have to make sure that we can bring about over time the kind of strengthening of the opposition and the diplomatic and economic and political pressure required so that ultimately we have a transition that can bring peace and stability not only to Syria but to the region,” he said.

Obama stressed that asking Congress for the use-of-force authorization on Syria will strengthen what he described as an inevitable U.S.-led action.

“I would not be going to Congress if I wasn’t serious about consultation and believing that by shaping the authorization to make sure we accomplish the mission, we will be more effective,” Obama said. “So long that we are accomplishing what we needs to be accomplished, which is to send a clear message to Assad.”

Along with providing more help for the Syrian rebels, McCain and Graham pressed Obama to sell the Syrian intervention to the American public. To that end, Obama on Tuesday pressed the argument that Syria’s chemical weapons use is a threat to the United States and its allies because of the possibility of transmitting not only chemical but nuclear weapons to other nations and rogue groups.

”That poses a serious national security threat to the United States and to the region, and as a consequence Assad and Syria needs to be held accountable,” Obama said. “We recognize that there are certain weapons that when used, can … can end up being transmitted to non-state actors and can end up posing a risk to allies and friends of ours like Israel, like Jordan, like Turkey and unless we hold them to account also sends a message that international norms on issues like nuclear proliferation don’t mean much.”

The Tuesday meeting at the White House brought together leaders of both chambers, as well as the top Republican and Democratic members of the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, did not attend.

While Obama faces much skepticism from Congress for his Syria plan, the bipartisan group invited to the White House Tuesday does not include anyone publicly opposed to intervention.

Jonathan Allen and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report