The White House must call the Tuesday chemical attack in Syria a "war crime," and the Syrian president must be prosecuted for it, Sen. Tim Kaine said Wednesday.
"The administration has to bluntly, vigorously, continuously call out the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad, which are helped in immeasurable ways by the Russians and the Iranians," the Virginia Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"I think the administration's decision to try to cozy up to Russia means that they're are not willing to call a humanitarian war crime exactly what it is," he said.
"We should be prosecuting Bashar al-Assad for war crimes in the Hague," Kaine added, referring to the international court in the Netherlands. "We should be doing a lot more than we're doing. The administration won't even call a war crime a war crime."
As of Wednesday morning, the death toll in the attack was at 72, while activists and rescue workers were finding survivors near the site of the attack.
"We have to see, from the Trump administration, the willingness to call out atrocities," the senator said Wednesday morning, during an appearance on CNN's "New Day."
The senator blasted Trump's response to the attacks, in which he blamed President Barack Obama's "weakness and irresolution."
"That statement of President Trump's is rich. He is president now… When President Trump was just Donald J. Trump, he was urging President Obama not to do anything in Syria. He is the president now. He has to put on his big boy pants and own up to the job," Kaine said.
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