WH Chief of Staff: Assad Appears to Be Lying About Chemical Weapons Use

On CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was a liar for denying that he used chemical weapons against his people.

He said Assad’s statements, which were reported by CBS’s Charlie Rose, who interviewed Assad in Damascus, were “misleading” and that his claim not to have authorized chemical weapons use “does appear to me to be a lie.”

“What we need is to communicate very clearly what is expected of him,” McDonough said of Assad. 

Assad reportedly told Rose that there was no evidence that chemical weapons were used to attack Syrians in an interview that CBS will reportedly air on Monday.