Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20191017 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 October 17, 2019

The bus. Today also saw a large bipartisan majority in the house vote to condemn President Trumps actions in syria and saw the Senate Majority leader, a republican, call that action, quote, a mistake. And this meeting which democrats walked out of capped a day of contradictory and misleading statements on the crisis from the president even as secretary of state pompeo and Vice President pence are getting ready to travel to turkey to try and get turkey to stop what theyre doing. The president seems to have already undercut that effort. Oh, and in addition to all that, more bad news for tv lawyer and ukraine biden dirt finder Rudy Giuliani. Another of his associates has been arrested and another ukraine witness went before congress. Theres also tonight new reporting that ties the acting white house chief of staff to the ukraine affair and the president made some statements contradicting claims, including his own, that this had anything to do with actual corruption in ukraine. Corruption he said today was all about the 2016 election, Hillary Clintons server, and president obama, not really anything to do with corruption in ukraine. Well touch on all of that tonight. But we begin with the white house meeting on turkey and syria and the president ial meltdown. Speaker pelosi says it produced. She attributed the president s behavior in part to the house vote against him earlier today. He was shaken up by it, and thats why we couldnt continue in the meeting because he was just not relating to the reality of it. What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown, sad to say. The white house denies this, saying in a statement that the president was, and i quote, measured, factual and decisive. As for majority leader mcconnell when asked about his perceptions of the meeting, he merely said, and i quote, i didnt make any observations in the meeting. I dont have any to make now. Well, he may not have made any observations, but it is noticeable and notable that the president s top ally in the senate is not trying to refute Speaker Pelosis account. The president s sudden decision to pull special forces troops from their positions in Northern Syria may have green lit the invasion by turkey, the killing of kurds, the escape of isis prisoners and a land grab by syrias dictator Bashar Al Assad and his backers, russia and iran. Quoting now from this letter to erdogan, quote, lets work out a good deal. You dont want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and i dont want to be responsible for destroying the turkish economy, and i will. The letter is dated the ninth of this month. That is the same day that turkish troops went into Northern Syria and kurds began being slaughters. Shortly thereafter, isis fighters began escaping kurdish custody. The president was asked about all of that today. Even after all you have seen, isis prisoners freed, all the humanitarian disaster, you dont have any regret for giving erdogan the green light to invade. I didnt give him a green light. Thats the same thing as you just you know, when you make a Statement Like that, its so deceptive. Just the opposite of a green light. The opposite of a green light, which i guess would be a red light or red line, a stern warning not to invade perhaps or a decision not to pull the small number of american troops who were holding back the turks from invading and attacking the kurds, our allies in the fight against isis. But the president didnt draw a line in the sand, red or otherwise. In fact, in that same press conference today, he said he expected the turks to invade. President erdogans decision didnt surprise me because hes wanted to do that for a long time. Hes been building up troops on the border with syria for a long time as you know. So he expected the turks would invade. He sees the troops building up on the border for a long time, and he decides to suddenly and without much warning remove the one obstacle to it, u. S. Special forces who have been living with and fighting with and training the kurds. Doesnt that seem like a pretty clear example of what a green light would look like . If this was all unexpected if this was all as expected, i should say, then why the threatening letter . Why the push for economic sanctions on what is, after all, a nato ally . Why send the Vice President and secretary of state to turkey tonight if this is all going to plan and is strategically brilliant . Why the apparent rage at the meeting this afternoon . One answer is simple. The president didnt see this coming or didnt care what happened there. What sure seems to be the case if you listen to the way he describes our kurdish allies. You have to say it. Nobody wants to say it. Were making the kurds look like theyre angels. We paid a lot of money to the kurds, tremendous amounts of money. Weve given them massive fortunes, and you know what . Its wonderful. They fought with us, but we paid a lot for them to fight with us. They fought isis and about 11,000 kurds were killed in that fight. In addition to that, on top of the casting the kurds aside, the president also repeated his allegation that the kurds have intentionally released isis fighters from prisons, an allegation he has offered no proof of. Just so you understand, we were the ones that captured isis. People let some go. They opened a couple of doors to make us look as bad as possible. This claim has been called false by a Senior Pentagon official who tells cnn the president , quote, falsely claiming that the sdf kurds are letting isis prisoners out of prison is wrong because theyre the people that defeated isis, wrong because they are currently risking their lives to defend our forces, and wrong because they are fighting a force that intends to eliminate their people because we greenlighted their operation. Earlier i spoke with senator bob menendez, the ranking democrat on the Senate Foreign relations committee, who was in that meeting with the president. Senator menendez, you heard Speaker Pelosi say that the president had a, quote, meltdown, her words. Majority leader schumer said he was very nasty, his word. You, yourself, tweeted listening to the president made you feel deeply concerned for the country. Can you talk about what happened in the meeting, what you saw . Well, from the moment the president came in, i would describe him as belligerent. He smacked down a series of files on the table and said, well, you all asked for this meeting. I reluctantly gave it to you. And Speaker Pelosi said, well, with all due respect, mr. President , we didnt ask for a meeting with you. We asked for a briefing to understand the consequences of the actions you took. And then he said, well, then lets end the meeting. She said while im here as the speaker, i have an obligation to tell you that the house just voted 350someodd to i forget exactly what the amount was, but it was an overwhelming bipartisan vote, to disapprove the actions that you took in syria. And then he got that devolved into thats nothing but a hit job on the republicans. And she said, well, many republicans joined us. And then he called Speaker Pelosi a thirdrate politician. He said that the kurds were nothing but communists and all of us democrats who were seated there must be happy with that, you know, suggesting that we all subscribe to this view of being communists. And then, you know, it just it was belligerent and something i have never seen in 27 years here in congress and serving under four different president s. Ive never seen a moment like this. Thats not how these meetings usually go . No. Well, not with other president s, and ive had president s from clinton to bush to obama and now trump. I was in the white house with president bush when he was president. We might have disagreements, but, it was never disagreeable and always respectful, and there was exchanges of views. As i said to the president when i stayed after the speaker left and several others left, mr. President , everybody here loves country. Nobody here loves it more than another. But we can have a disagreement as is evidenced by the fact that the house overwhelmingly with republicans voted to disagree with you. Youre the commander in chief, but i disagree with what you did, and heres what im concerned about the consequences, the reconstituting of isis. I said i dont know if the military people tell you, but your Inspector General at the department of defense says theres still 14,000 to 18,000 isis fighters in syria. If the 10,000 have been detained get unleashed and are freed, youre talking about a potential fighting force of up to 30,000. Thats a clear and present danger to the United States. Youve opened up a land bridge for iran to bring serious weaponry and to potentially attack our ally the state of israel. Thats a huge risk. And, you know, at the end of the day, youve changed the political dynamics of the region with just one stroke, i said. And your sanctions on turkey have been absolutely nothing. The turkish stock market went up the next day. So, you know, this is how did he respond to that . He he basically started saying that, number one, you know, well, we can destroy turkeys economy, but you dont want to drive turkey into the russians, which, of course, turkey has already been with the russians. Theyve been buying the s400 from the russians which is sanctionable under u. S. Law. Hes also just given russia a huge victory in syria. Theyve been supporting and propping up the regime as well as iran to the point you made earlier. Absolutely. Look, the big winners, as i suggested to him, the big winners are iran, russia, and even turkey in this regard. And so this letter that he handed out to all of us at the beginning, which if he hadnt handed it out himself, i would have thought was not a real letter, but basically this is the letter he wrote to erdogan in turkey . This is the letter he wrote to erdogan in turkey, which he gave out to everybody member who was there. Basically it strikes me as a letter to cover your backside, because what he unleashed he now cannot recall. Its to try to respond to the incredible criticism. Its an incredible letter the way its written. Yeah. Ive read it. It does not i mean its not the kind of letter i thought a president of the United States would send to, you know, the president of turkey. It just it does not read as i mean at one point i think it sort of ends with, dont be a tough guy. Dont be a fool. Ill call you later. Yeah, thats how it ends. And it just its just to me, it was to be able to first of all, the letter is just an incredible letter the way its dictated, but it sounds like its definitely dictated directly from him the way he thinks and speaks. And secondly, it was to try to, you know, cover himself for what was unleashed with the turks going ahead and invading into Northern Syria and the consequences that flow thereafter. I want to ask you about Something Else which sounds incredible. Were told by a democratic source familiar with the meeting that senator schumer read a quote from former defense secretary james mattis, who said, quote, in this case if we dont keep the pressure on, then isis will resurge. Its absolutely a given they will come back, and that the president replied, according to this source, by calling mattis, quote, the worlds most overrated general, end quote, and continued, you know why . He wasnt tough enough. I captured isis. Mattis said it would take two years. I captured them in one month. Is that accurate . That is accurate, and he further called general mattis weak. All of what you said is exactly as it transpired. What do you make of that . This is why i tweeted after spending an hour with the president , im concerned for the nation and for our fight against isis. I think the president has no is out of touch with reality. I think he has no concept of what he has unleashed, and i dont think he understands the consequences. He suggested, well, theyre 7,000 miles away. Why should we fight there . And another colleague reminded him that on september 11th, they traveled over 7,000 miles and had one of the worst, you know, tragedies in our countrys history in an act of terrorism. I dont think he understands at all what is at stake here, and thats why it worries me. I had never seen this in all of the years that ive served in a National Security post on the senate and house Foreign Relations committee, and i think he has no grasp of it. I think he has no grasp of what hes unleashed in the region beyond syria. I dont think he understands how hes empowered iran, a country that hes supposedly battling on their nuclear program. He has empowered iran. He has empowered turkey, who has not been a good nato ally in this regard and is creating a whole other series of issues. And hes given russia a major role in the middle east that it never had, always aspired to have, and now many countries in the region are recalibrating and thinking about who do i align myself and what do i do . I guess just finally, you know, what is your sense of what is going on with the president . You said he has lost touch. Hes obviously angered his own party with what hes done in syria. He is making egregious, you know, false, uninformed comments. Hes also obviously under pressure from impeachment. Is he able to handle this pressure . Well, what i saw is not the cool, calm hand of someone who holds the nuclear code to the country. I did not see a person in control, and the belligerence, the demeanor, the lack of temperament is is not what id want to see in the president of the United States whether they be a democrat or republican. Senator menendez, i appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Much more ahead tonight including a new photo from inside the white house meeting. Later, more on the syria crisis from a democratic senator who is also a wounded iraq war veteran. With advil, you have power over pain, so the whole world looks different. The unbeatable strength of advil. 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Because life can take you almost anywhere, tmobile is with you. No signal goes farther or is more reliable in keeping you connected. Perhaps not unexpectedly, President Trump is trying to get mileage from the democratic walkout of the syria meeting at the white house with the words Nancy Pelosis unhinge the meltdown the president tweeted out an official white house photo. This photo of the session showing the speaker standing up and pointing her finger in the direction of the president as his team bracketed him. The president has a hardtoread look on his face. You can judge for yourself. It is meant as an insult. Normally we wouldnt actually show this photograph because it was taken by an official white house photographer and there was no pool reporters present who could actually vouch for the accuracy of what was happening in that moment. But were showing it to you because moments after the president posted his tweet, the speaker made the photo the cover on her official twitter page and now is using it for her own purposes. Joining us now to discuss all the latest on the meeting, the larger syrian crisis, david axelrod, jen psaki, a cnn political commentator and cnn legal analyst carrie cordero. David, this photo that the president tweeted out at todays meeting, its clearly trying to cast Speaker Pelosi as the one having the meltdown, which is the word she used to describe the president s behaviors. I mean i dont know, what do you make of this whole meeting . Is it the democrats simply trying to make hay out of a meeting that went badly, or is it reason for real concern . Look, you know, were talking about the meeting. The subject of the meeting is what should really concern people. Donald trump spent, you know, a lifetime in business. His practice was to abrogate contracts and agreements. Now hes raised that to the level of National Policy in the world, american policy in the world. Whats happened over the last ten days is truly horrifying. Thats why they were there, to talk about this policy. You know, i think he is i think hes losing it. I mean i think hes feeling the pressure of this impeachment. But, you know, not only to diss the speaker, i mean youd expect that from him. But general mattis . You know, one of the most decorated military men of his generation. Who, by the way, he made a lot of political hay out of calling him mad dog mattis. He would announce him in front of rallies. He would praise him to the heavens. It is just yet another example of there is nobody who this president will not throw under the bus as soon as they leave the room. But, you know, there was such the implications for the military here are really profound. I think weve read about what the special forces there felt about their removal, essentially having to abandon their kurdish allies. And that sends a reverberating force around the military. But to diss mattis now adds to it. He is estranging himself from every institution of government, from all of our allies in the world, and it is a horrifying situation. Carrie, President Trump opened his meeting with congressional leaders today bragging about his, quote, nasty letter to erdogan. It seems like hes proud of this letter. Theres certainly a lot of people who, when they first saw this letter, they thought it was a joke. Th

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