WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Tulsi Gabbard says she met with Syrian President Bashar Assad during a recent trip to the war-torn country.
Appearing on CNN, the Hawaii Democrat says there is no possibility for a viable peace agreement in Syria unless Assad is part of the conversation.
Gabbard says, "Whatever you think about President Assad, the fact is that he is the president of Syria."
Gabbard, a major in the Army National Guard, met last November with Donald Trump shortly after the presidential election. She backed Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.
She says she took the meeting with Trump over concern that a wing of the Republican Party known as the neocons will grow in influence once Trump's in office. She feared that could push the U.S. more deeply into Syria.
