With lawmakers now back in Washington, how will Congress answer Trump on Syria?

The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s daily Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

As Congress returns to Capitol Hill and the impeachment debate pushes onward, the other big question is what to do about the situation in northern Syria.

Monday afternoon, President Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions on Turkey over the country’s offensive in Syria, which he said “is endangering civilians and threatening peace, security and stability in the region.” His statement concluded, “I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path.”

The president, however, stood behind his decision to withdraw troops from the Syrian border, tweeting that he “would much rather focus on our Southern Border” than the “7,000-mile-away Border of Syria, presided over by Bashar al-Assad, our enemy.”

The same day, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met to discuss efforts to overturn Trump’s troop withdrawal decision. “Our first order of business was to agree that we must have a bipartisan, bicameral joint resolution to overturn the President’s dangerous decision in Syria immediately,” Pelosi said. There are also currently multiple possible frameworks for Congress to impose its own sanctions on Turkey (CQ paywall). A bipartisan rebuke of the president’s actions is likely to pick up support from the list of Republican lawmakers publicly critical of the decision.

Out in Syria, Turkey’s invasion has progressed, prompting the Syrian army return to the country’s northeast.

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