The whole town is alive. Its going to be even better when we win a world series here. Dont jinx it. Thank you. We will celebrate. Good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington, which is celebrating. But were awaiting the president s Press Conference with italys president on a day when mr. Trump is already refusing to accept blame for turkeys incursion into syria despite the call with turkeys president , saying its not our problem, we are not a policing agent, his words. I wish them a lot of luck. If russia wants to get involved with syria, thats really up to them. They have a problem with turkey, they have a problem at the border, its not our border. We shouldnt be losing lives over it. The president will meet later today with Speaker Pelosi and other bipartisan leaders at the white house about the crisis in syria which now has russia taking the upper hand and americas allies, syrian kurds,
fleeing for safety. Even as the president repeatedly today attacks pelosi for the expanding Impeachment Inquiry. Paul ryan would never have issued a subpoena. I dont say right or wrong. He have wouldnt have done it. He has too much respect for the country. Nancy pelosi hands them out like cook cookies. Shes created a phony witch hunt. This is an open and shut simple days. Theyre desperate because they know theyre going to lose the election. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is at the white house. And we have two experts on Foreign Policy and on the Inner Workings of washington, bob corker, former tennessee senator, former Foreign Relations committee chairman, and leon panetta, former Secretary Of Defense, cia director, and former white house Chief Of Staff to president clinton. Senator corker, as the foreimerForeign Relations chairman, we have ambassadors confirmed from your committee post, and they are saying the politics that has infected the State Department has now become so per vasive that several of them have resigned and are now testifying. Now we have a situation where the president is saying we have no responsibility for what is happening in Northern Syria to our allies. What is your reaction . Andrea, its a totally unavoidable humanitarian crisis. Its hard to believe that the president would engage in such a precipitous, i would call sloppy telephone conversation with another head of a country and create the catastrophe that is there now. In essence, he gave them the green light, and now through some modest sanctions is pushing back. Im sure even the turkish people are wondering what he was thinking. And so here we have a situation where allies, the kurds, who
have lost 11,000 lives, are now in the process of being slaughtered. We have Hundreds Of Thousands of people that are being displaced. We have villages without water. All of this was totally unavoidable. Now we have pompeo and pence going to turkey. They have no bargaining chips. Weve given up control of a third of the country that has hydrocarbons. We had the kurds working with us, now theyre not. We would have been a much better place to negotiate a political resolution that would have been satisfactory, that would have been avoiding we would have avoided the killing of kurds who have been working with us for five years. And again, threw it out on the ground with a sloppy, precipitous phone call that is going to end up killing a lot of people. And can you understand why the president is under such influence from president erdogan who now says, hes been quoted
both ways but he at least initially said to press people today that he would not even meet with the Vice President , pence, and the Secretary Of State is also going, supposedly going this afternoon, this major delegation going to try to persuade him for a ceasefire. Hes saying no ceasefire, he wouldnt even meet with the Vice President. If he does end up doing that, it does seem as though there is an incredible amount of arrogance on the part of turkey right now. Well, i think, again, i dont have a lot of respect for erdogan. I cant imagine how President Trump has much faith in what he would do. What is happening here has been told to the president by Secretary Mattis and so many others, this is exactly what would happen if we left precipitously. It is happening, people are dying. And i guess theyre in an arrogant place, if you will, because they felt like they were given a green light by our president when he received
pushback in our country by letting down the partners that weve had for many years. Hes gotten political blowback. So this is a feelgood mission. I hope something good comes out of it. It leaves us in a place where the only thing we have left is to really counter strongly a nato ally. But i still dont think i still do not think, now that the genie is out of the bottle, much good is going to come of this. So im disappointed for our country, it diminishes the character of our country. Its also a tremendous strategic error after years of working to get to this place. Andrea, we never anticipated being there photographforever. There was a way down the road of leaving but leaving in such a way that we didnt create such chaos and harm to people who have been our friends for so many years. In addition to that chaos, what about the isis fighters who are now not being guarded, some have escaped already from prison, and the president saying, some would say cavalierly, let them go back to europe . Its hard for me to understand how a president could have such disregard for things that over time will come back to haunt us. In idlib, we still have al qaeda there. Theres still isis to be dealt with. Again, were so close to that being finished. But even that aside, the chaos weve left behind, its just hard to explain. And not caring about the relationships that weve had, not caring what happens to other parts of world. We have to remember that we do these things and memoriand memories are short, but we have involvement
overseas to protect people back home, to prevent isis from doing things to us like they did in september 2001. Sometimes people forget that, we have short memories, but thats why we do things on the ground. It was at such low cost to us, a huge cost to the kurds, that weve thrown under the bus. And very difficult to explain. And i dont know how any leader could have made this type of decision, especially over a phone call, an undisciplined phone call that has now wreaked havoc, has caused havoc to occur in that part of the world. By the way, by cleaning out a swath of Northern Syria the way that they are, the way turkey says they are, this is basically genocide. Its Ethnic Cleansing. This is the home of the kurds. And then forcibly putting 2
million syrians back in that place, again, its Ethnic Cleansing that is taking place. Senator, i want to ask you about ambassador yovanovitch, ambassador kent, or Assistant Secretary kent, and others who have now testified about Smear Campaigns against the ambassador, about political interference, a Shadow Campaign and diplomacy by Rudy Giuliani, and another phone call, the phone call with ukraines president. Does inviting another country to interfere in our election, not just him but also then the president inviting china to do the same, should that be an Impeachable Offense . So andrea, im not a senator anymore and i realize that, but i think that all senators and i realize im not one should realize theyre going to end up being the jury if there is an impeachment trial. And if i were a senator, i certainly would not be saying
anything, i would be observing closely. Obviously the president does many inappropriate things. But since youre not a senator im sorry, andrea since youre not a senator i dont know, andrea, im going to still have that code of conduct myself. There may be a point where i Say Something that might make some small difference. But right now im watching. Obviously some of the hearings, many of the hearings, all the hearings right now are closed, so im only hearing leaked comments that are being made. But obviously, like everyone else in our country, im paying attention. There may be some point when i want to Say Something. But right now im observing. In terms of what has happened to the State Department from the president s own acknowledgement, he asked Rudy Giuliani to intervene. What about the pressure to remove a Sitting Ambassador who was confirmed by the senate, by your former committee, you were one of the people confirming her, and leading that
confirmation, what about taking people out like that, recalling them under pressure from the president and the Secretary Of State, to permit Rudy Giuliani and these associates of his who are now under indictment . Well, you know again, you know, i havent heard the testimony directly. Im reading what has happened. Obviously if someone was pressured to be taken out for some nefarious reason, that obviously is something thats incredibly inappropriate and shouldnt be taking place. But andrea, i want to hear all this, i want to see the facts. And at some point i may be more willing to make a forthcoming comment. Understood. If you will. But i just dont want to do that right now. I want to be a little more thoughtful than responding on a daily basis. But i can understand why you would ask. And of course the notes, the notes, the rough transcript of the president s confidentiversa
himself was that he said the ambassador was a bad person. But well leave it there. Thank you so much for leaving it there. And hope to hear more from you in the feature. Thank you, sir. And now turning to former Defense Secretary leon panetta, as a former Secretary Of Defense and cia director, your reactions to the situation were now in with the syrian kurds being removed or running or under attack, being killed, and what Senator Corker himself said is amounting to genocide. I think that this is the single most disastrous Foreign Policy blunder by a president of the United States in recent history. With one decision, he has betrayed our allies, the kurds, who fought and died alongside of us. He has given a green light to
turkey to invade syria. He has withdrawn our forces from syria and basically given syria to russia, to iran, and to assad. And at the same time, opened up the opportunity for isis to reorganize itself and again become a threat to the United States and to europe. Every part of this decision has weakened the United States. But most importantly, it has undercut our credibility in the world. There isnt an ally that weve around the world that doesnt as a result of what the president did now distrust us and worry about whether or not we will stand by our word. Turkey is a nato ally. And there is no mechanism that i am aware of for reducing somebody from nato. A country can quit nato. But they have at least 50
tactical nukes at the nato base on turkish land. Do we have any ability to control or protect those Nuclear Weapons, or does erdogan have control over whether we try to remove them . No, were the ones that the United States is defending that supply of Nuclear Weapons that are located in turkey. And im sure we will continue to do so. I think the bigger issue is going to be, as the situation deteriorates, and as turkey continues the aggression into syria and goes after the kurds, how long are we going to maintain our presence in turkey . I think that has to be a serious question that the United States is going to have to face. There are jordanian troops there, there were french and british troops in that area as well. There was no warning to them when the president made his decision on the phone call that day, as well as the people next door in jordan and israel, who is concerned about iran, the saudis are concerned about iran. Basically he has empowered iran and russia in that region and is asking for a ceasefire which would leave them in control of what was a kurdish area. The president of the United States, you know, just this morning again has said that somehow this is not the United States business. And yesterday talked about the fact that somehow were 7,000 miles away from that area. Thats what the isolationists used to argue priori to world wr ii, that somehow the oceans would protect us from nazi germany. The reality is that al qaeda, even though they were 7,000 miles away, found a way to attack us on 9 11. The president ought to be aware
of that fact. And as a result that have, i think its incredibly important that the United States recognize that we are if were going to be leaders in the world, we have to be able to take a stand with regard to russia. What were doing now is handing syria to russia, to establish a base in that area. Russian soldiers are making fun of the United States having pulled out yesterday. Thats a disgrace. We ought to be ashamed of having pulled out and allowed the russians to go into that area. And now allowing iran to establish a base in syria. Weve taken the position, this president has taken the position that iran should be prevented from extending its influence in the middle east. And yet we are handing syria to iran. And they are trying to expand
the Persian Empire from beirut to damascus to tehran. And weve just given them a license to be able to do that. The president also does not seem to be talking about the fact that the turkishbacked militias went after u. S. Positions as recently as yesterday. We had to scramble apaches and some fighter jets to try to give them some air cover. What is the availability of other u. S. Forces in the region . Ive never ive never in my over 50 years of public life seen a president who does not speak out to the need to protect our forces abroad. This president hasnt said a word about the importance of protecting american lives in that region. He pulled back a few of these
troops. The rest have kind of been in many ways abandoned there. We still have to be able to successfully withdraw them frlgt ar from that area. But they are now in harms way. Obviously the turks almost bombed near those positions a few days ago, so theyre vulnerable. And this president ought to be taking every step necessary to make sure that our Men And Women In Uniform are protected. And he is not speaking to that, and that concerns me. And one of your successors, the Secretary Of Defense, is saying that hes not going to comply with subpoenas or with requests, i should say, from the house investigating committee, the Impeachment Inquiry. The acting Chief Of StaffMick Mulvaney and other top officials. What do you think their obligation should be with this ongoing committee . Well, you know, there is an Impeachment Inquiry going on. And thats important. It is a power thats provided by the constitution of the United States, to hold the president of the United States accountable. And it is important for people to cooperate with that inquiry. Whether youre a democrat or republican, we ought to be able to find the truth. Thats what an Impeachment Inquiry is all about. But when they resist cooperating, when they resist subpoenas, all theyre doing is sending a message to the country that theres something to hide and they dont want to be truthful with the congress in this inquiry. That in and of itself can become an article of impeachment. Leon panetta, thank you very much, on a very tough day in washington. Thank you for joining us. Lets go to nbcs Kelly Odonnell. Were awaiting from the joint news conference, but we certainly heard from the president today. Now theres more and more testimony, Mike Mckinley, former top adviser to mike pompeo, an ambassador to three different countries, is up there testifying. We understand that the politics of the State Department have now become something that he could not continue to participate in, or at least observe, so he quit on friday. Reporter andrea, i would imagine that the impeachment issues related to things like that, where you have firsthand accounts from people who have served this administration, some of the president s closest allies, in the case of secretary pompeo, or inside the white house, with the former nsc official who have all given testimony behind closed doors, that paints a picture of a white house that does use influence with political agenda items that are important to the president
in places where official government lanes should have been open and free of that. Expect questions on that today. And certainly picking up on your conve