Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan, a self-proclaimed frequent "critic" of president Donald Trump's administration, put his full support behind Friday night's airstrikes in response to Syria's illegal use of chemical weapons.
"I think this administration's actions against Syria were appropriate, and I tend to be a critic of this administration," Brennan told NBC's "Meet the Press."
"But I think the way they handled this was exactly right. It was proportional and it was necessary in order to send that signal."
With President Trump also facing criticism of using the term "mission accomplished," Brennan also submitted his approval of the strikes as "a tactical and surgical success."
"I'm sure this strike, which was a tactical and surgical success, has been a setback to the program," Brennan told NBC host Chuck Todd. "But that doesn't mean that the Syrians cannot recreate the chemical weapons to use once again."
Brennan, who admittedly has "taken issue with a lot of things that Donald Trump has done," also broke from his resistance to the sitting U.S. president by supporting the airstrikes as sending a "clear signal" to Syrian and Russian leadership.
"It sends a clear signal, a political signal, to both Damascus and to Moscow that you cannot do this with impunity," Brennan told Todd about Syria's reported use of chemical weapons. "There will be costs associated with it. And there may have been messages sent to the Russians about this is going to be limited. It's going to be tactical and surgical. The next one may not be."
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