Drew Angerer/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke out Thursday about how she would respond to Tuesday’s chemical attack in Syria, promoting U.S. action to prevent further attacks with civilian casualties.

Speaking at the Women in the World summit in New York City, Clinton said that the U.S. “should have been more willing to confront [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad],” before Russia got involved in the country’s civil war and with Iran’s participation limited to ground-based assistance.

“Assad had an air force and that air force is the cause of most of the civilian deaths as we’ve seen over the years and as we saw again in the last few days,” said Clinton. “I really believe we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them.”

Earlier Thursday, a U.S. official told ABC News that White House and Pentagon are having ongoing discussions about possibly taking military action against Syria.

The death toll from the Tuesday attack has climbed to at least 86 civilians, including 30 children and 20 women, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Donald Trump said “something should happen” when asked if Assad should leave power.

“I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity,” said Trump. “[Assad] is there and I guess he’s running things, so something should happen.”

Clinton, Trump’s rival in last year’s election, alluded Thursday to a 2012 plan she worked on as secretary of state to transition away from Assad’s rule, saying she had reached an agreement with the Russian foreign minister.

“It lasted about 24 hours because basically Assad said, ‘I’m not going anywhere,'” said Clinton, who described the Syrian president as “dug-in” and a “prisoner of his family’s expectations.”

“We’ve got to try to change the dynamic,” added Clinton.

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