McCain: administration rhetoric "partially to blame" for Idlib chemical attack

US Senator John McCain said comments made by people in President Donald Trump’s administration are 'partially to blame' for encouraging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s apparent use of chemical weapons on his people last week. 

McCain responded to remarks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, including comments that the Syrian people would determine Assad’s fate, and that removing him from power isn’t a top priority.

“I think it (the White House) probably was partially to blame," McCain told CBS.

McCain was responding to comments Tillerson has made that seemed to indicate that last week’s US missile strike on a Syrian airbase in response to the deadly gas attack were as far as Trump’s administration might go for now. 

“Well, I think what the president did was an excellent first step, and it was a reversal of the last eight years,” McCain said.