Ex-Obama Aide Roils Morning Joe: Obama’s Fuzzy Syria Red Line Could Bite Us in Ukraine

One might argue that Jonathan Lemire was too feisty to answer his questions.

Tuesday is Morning Joe, Lemire asked Hagar Chemali — who had been Obama’s Syria specialist on the National Security Council — how the US might respond if reports of the Russian use of chemical weapons in Ukraine are confirmed. She replied:

“I had the terrible experience of dealing with Syria at The [Obama]White House during the Famous Red line comment made [by Obama]. And the problem with that is that’s something that It could happen to us right now. Because dictators all over the world, including President Putin, are going to think to themselves, well, you made that red line for Syria’s President Assad, and when it was confirmed that he used chemical weapons against his people, you didn’t do anything at all.”

Chemali also dismissed the significance of Biden’s statement about making a proportionate response to a Russian use of chemical weapons:

“I wouldn’t expect that to hold Putin back, based on how he saw the United States not enforce that red line in Syria back in 2013.”

Let’s review Chemali’s blistering take on her days as an aide in the Obama-Biden administration:

• Handling Syria for Obama was a “bad experience.”
• Obama’s comment about drawing a redline on the use of chemical weapons in Syria is “infamous.”
• That comment “could come back to bite us” in Ukraine, because when chemical weapons were used, Obama “didn’t do anything at all.”
• Biden’s current threat to respond to a Russian use of chemical weapons in Ukraine is unlikely to deter Putin, given Obama’s failure to enforce the redline in 2013.

Kaboom!

As soon as Chemali finished, Mika Brzezinski stepped in and, without commenting on the broadside that Chemali had just leveled against the Obama-Biden administration, abruptly changed the subject!

FanDuel odds of Chemali being invited back on Morning Joe anytime soon?

On Morning Joe, the talk of Obama’s fuzzy red line was sponsored in part by Clear Choice.

Here’s the transcript.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
4/12/22
7:12 am ET

JONATHAN LEMIRE: I want to get you on the idea of chemical weapons. We don’t know yet, it’s unconfirmed, this report from the Azov Battalion that they were used. But talk to us, drawing from your experience and what you know of government. The US, the West: a proportional response. There is a difference, as horrible as all chemical weapons are, there is a difference between a phosphorous attack, and using sarin gas on a civilian population. What sort of calculations will the US make in order to respond in kind? 

HAGAR CHEMALI: I, I had the bad experience of having handled Syria at the [Obama] White House when the infamous red line comment was made [by Obama]. 

And the problem with that is that’s something that could come to bite us now.There are dictators around the globe, which includes President Putin, are going to think to themselves, well, you made that red line for Syria’s President Assad, and You didn’t do any thing when you found out that he had used chemical weapons to attack his people. Except for the work that he did with Russians to demolish some of their chemical arms inside Syria. However, he used those chemical arms as well.

It’s the kind of response President Putin understands. 

When President Biden spoke out a few weeks back, I was thinking that. He said that it would be proportionate, however, and that NATO would find it out. That kind of uncertainty and vague communication is helpful when dealing with dictators. 

I have no idea what to do with it. Based on the fact that Putin saw America not enforcing that red line in Syria in 2013, I don’t think that Putin would be held back. 

The type of proportionate reaction, however, is what I see. I do not believe we should be militarily engaging.