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SFGATE: Analysis: Romney raises troubling theory about Trump and Turkey

Analysis: Romney raises troubling theory about Trump and Turkey
Published on October 18, 2019 at 03:34AM by Aaron Blake, The Washington Post

Sen. Mitt Romney delivered perhaps the most thorough Republican rebuke of President Donald Trump's Syria withdrawal Thursday, calling Trump's abandonment of the Kurds there "a bloodstain on the annals of American history."

But while that line will get a lot of play, there's something else Romney said that shouldn't escape notice. He also floated a theory about how Trump arrived at the decision: that he got bullied into it by Turkey and that he backed down.

"It's been . . . suggested that Turkey may have called America's bluff, telling the president they are coming no matter what we did," said Romney, a Utah Republican. "If that's so, we should know it. For it would tell us a great deal about how we should deal with Turkey, now and in the future."

Romney then returned to the idea that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have given Trump an ultimatum that was met with acquiescence.

"Are we so weak and inept diplomatically that Turkey forced the hand of the United States of America? Turkey?!" Romney said. "I believe that it's imperative that public hearings are held to answer these questions, and I hope the Senate is able to conduct those hearings next week."

To be clear, there have been suggestions that perhaps Trump got rolled by Erdogan, who has been pitching the idea that Turkey could take over the fight against ISIS in northern Syria for a long time. The possibility that Trump gave away the farm because Erdogan was particularly convincing or because of something else - Trump's business interests in Turkey, his desire for Middle East withdrawals, etc. - is a well-trafficked theory among Trump's opponents.

But here is a U.S. senator - and a Republican one - suggesting not just that Trump got out-negotiated but that he basically got told what was going to happen and ran away. Romney is entertaining the...

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