CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript "Interview with Sen. Chris Murphy"

Interview

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Joining me now to discuss, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Take a listen to what President Trump said today.

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TRUMP: Where is an agreement that said we have to stay in the Middle East for the rest of humanity, for the rest of civilization, to protect the Kurds? And we have protected them. We have taken very good care of them. And I hope they are going to watch over ISIS.

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TAPPER: Certainly, it's true that the U.S. was never supposed to be in the region forever.

What's your reaction to what the president is saying?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, first of all, the president has dramatically increased the number of American troops that are in the Middle East, so nobody should get away with him trying to pretend that he is the great military withdrawer from the region.

In fact, we have thousands more troops in the Middle East, many of them guarding Saudi Arabia, than we did before the president took office.

Second, this idea that the Kurds are better off, it's just absolutely nonsense. Yes, sure, we didn't guarantee the Kurds' safety for the next 1,000 years, but we absolutely told them that, if they fought ISIS on our behalf, that we would protect them from a Turkish invasion.

We not only convinced them to fight with us, but then we convinced them to take down their defenses against the Turks because we would protect them.

This is an outright double-cross. And there is no way that the president can spin it any other way.

TAPPER: What do you make of the plans to -- for the U.S. to leave a contingency force to protect Syrian oil fields from ISIS?

MURPHY: Well, they're clearly making this up as they go along every single day.

And there's two issues with this new plan to leave a couple hundred behind to guard the oil fields. First of all, if we're prepared to guard the oil fields from the Turks, then why weren't we prepared to guard Kurdish homes from the Turks?

I mean, that looks just incredibly unsavory. And now the idea that we're going to somehow nationalize these oil fields and take the revenue ourselves and share some of it with the Kurds, that's absolutely disastrous.

Second, the Kurds aren't fighting ISIS right now. The Kurds are fighting the Turks. The Kurds are trying to survive this onslaught from an invading army.

So, the idea that we're going to ask the Kurds to protect the oil fields from ISIS just belies the fight that they're actually in today. And if what the president is saying is that U.S. troops are now going to be directly fighting ISIS, that's not what the plan has been for the last several years.

We have been there as advisers to the Kurds as they take the fight to ISIS. So if the president is now suggesting we're going to do that fighting directly, then there's going to be many more U.S. casualties than anyone ever imagined.

TAPPER: Senator Mitt Romney last week, after this news was announced, called for hearings to figure out why this decision was made, how this decision was made.

[16:40:06] Republicans control the Senate. And Mitt Romney notwithstanding, have you heard of any of your colleagues, including the chairman of your committee, showing any eagerness to figure out why this happened?

MURPHY: Well, so, we have some success to report.

We have a hearing scheduled for tomorrow in the Foreign Relations Committee in which we're going to hear from the president's special envoy to Syria. Now, Jim Jeffrey is not the secretary of state, nor is he the national security adviser, but he has been tasked with overseeing Syria policy for the past year.

And he will hopefully be able to provide us with some -- with some answers about why we engaged in this unconscionable decision to abandon the Kurds and what our plans are going forward.

TAPPER: President Trump referred to what the Turks are doing at the border as the -- quote -- "ultimate solution."

And he also said this. Take a listen.

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TRUMP: In all fairness, they have had a legitimate problem with it. They had terrorists. They had a lot of people in there that they couldn't have. They have suffered a lot of loss of lives also. And they had to have it cleaned out.

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TAPPER: "They had to have it cleaned out," referring to the Turks committing ethnic cleansing, I suppose? I don't -- I'm not exactly sure what exactly -- how he would describe it.

But when you hear terms like ultimate solution, or had to have it cleaned out, what do you make of that? And are any Republicans in the Senate, other than Mitt Romney, upset about this?

MURPHY: Yes, that certainly sounds like an invitation for the Turks to ethnically cleanse Northeast Syria.

And it's just an absolute abomination that the president of the United States would talk that way, especially as we have watched videos of Turkish soldiers murdering in cold blood defenseless Kurds.

I think Republicans need to be focused on using the enormous leverage that they have over the president right now to get him to change his mind. Republicans are talking about sanctioning Turkey, which, frankly, is a get-out-of-jail-free card for Republicans who right now should be telling the president that he has got to change his mind and take a tougher line with the Turks.

Only the president of the United States can save the Kurds. No congressional sanctions bill can do that. And so that's where our focus needs to be. And, by the way, Trump has to listen to Republicans right now, because

they are protecting him from his list of unethical behaviors in Ukraine right now, protecting him from this impeachment inquiry. They have huge leverage, and they should use it.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thank you so much for your time, sir. Appreciate it.

MURPHY: Thanks.

TAPPER: President Trump claims he has no idea who he is, but a look at the private Instagram page for one of Rudy Giuliani's recently indicted associates tells a quite different story.

Stay with us.

[16:45:00]

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