Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday claimed that ISIS “has been defeated,” just hours after four Americans were killed in an attack in Syria that ISIS later claimed. Early Wednesday, a suicide bomber in the Syrian town of Manbij reportedly killed 16 people at a local restaurant, including two U.S. troops, one Department of Defense civilian, and one contractor supporting DOD work. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, Pence told the Global Chiefs of Mission conference that “The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated,” and made no mention of the suicide bombing during his talk. Pence also backed Trump’s controversial decision to pull out of the war-torn nation, arguing that “Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we’re now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners and we’re bringing our troops home.” A White House official later told CNN that “The White House hadn’t publicly confirmed the deaths at the time he spoke.”
