The Congressional Democratic leadership said President Trump belittled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and had a meltdown during their meeting at the White House.
Speaking with reporters in the White House driveway on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticized Trump's order to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, therefore making it easier for the Turkish military to invade and occupy the region.
"I asked the president what his plan was to contain ISIS, and he did not really have one," Schumer said. "He said that the Turks and the Syrians will guard the ISIS prisoners. I said, is there any intelligence evidence that the Turks and the Syrians will have the same interests that the Kurds or we did in guarding ISIS? And the Secretary of Defense...said we don’t have that evidence."
"I would also say one other thing. It was insulting, particularly to the Speaker. She kept her cool completely. But he called her a third rate politician, and he said that there are communists involved. And you guys might like that. This was not a dialogue," he continued. "It was sort of a diatribe, a nasty diatribe, not focus on the facts."
"You gonna hear the president say that we walked out. We were offended deeply by his treatment of the Speaker of the House of Representatives...I have served with six presidents, I have been in many, many meanings like this, never have I seen a president treat so disrespectfully a coequal branch of the government of the United States," House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) added.
Their comments came as the House voted 354-60 to oppose Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria.