Earnest: Republicans ‘Goading the President’ to ‘Engage in a Proxy War with Russia’ in Syria

"That is the focus of our efforts there. And there certainly is an ample rhetoric that we see from Republican critics, essentially goading the president, to try to engage in a proxy war with Russia. They say that assertively because they think maybe that makes them look tough, but I think they are having a very hard time articulating why that would be in the clear national security interests of the United States of America.”