Trump Imposes Sanctions On Turkey Over Syria Offensive.
HARLOW: All right. This morning Republican lawmakers face a crucial choice as the crisis in Syria grows by the minute. Do they trust that the president's new round of sanctions on Turkey will do anything to curb the bloodshed or do they work with Democrats to put forth veto- proof, much stronger sanctions on Turkey? Let's talk about that and a lot more with Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He sits in the House Oversight and Intelligence Committee. Thank you so much for being here on specially on such a busy morning for you. Let's start there. So these sanctions from the White House includes raising steel tariffs. They include some sanctions on high level government officials. They include stopping trade negotiations with Turkey. Is it enough? Because when you look at steel imports, for example, they're down 76 percent in Turkey since a year ago, meaning are these real sanctions with teeth or just a show?</s>REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): They don't look that significant to me. I think that Mr. Erdogan is coming to the White House in November still. I think that should be canceled. I don't think that we should be hosting this authoritarian Leader who's now attacking our allies. I think this is -- this all just rings so hollow after that October 6th phone call where he talked to the Turkish leader and basically gave him a green light to attack our allies.</s>HARLOW: So to that point, here is what Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. could do in terms of sanctions. He said this just on Sunday.</s>STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: We could shut down all U.S. dollar transactions with the entire environment government of Turkey.</s>JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS HOST: Is that something you may do?</s>MNUCHIN: That is something we may do, absolutely.</s>HARLOW: Would that be, Congressman, a more appropriate response at this point in time?</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think something like that would be more appropriate. I think right now these sanctions that the president announced or his administration announced sound hollow to me. You know, what he did was basically endanger national security. There are thousands of ISIS fighters who are now scurrying about in Syria because those Kurdish guards went to the front to fight against the Turkish forces. And so we're endangering national security and we're sending a horrible message to anybody anywhere in the world who would want to help work with us ever again on anything.</s>HARLOW: I want you to talk a moment to listen to something from Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney. She has been very critical last week of the president's decision to pull back in Northern Syria, leading to what we see now from Turkey. But then she said this yesterday that was striking. Here it is.</s>REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): What the Democrats are doing themselves to try to weaken this president is part of this. It was not an accident that the Turks chose this moment to roll across the border. And I think the Democrats have got to pay very careful attention to the damage that they're doing with the impeachment proceedings.</s>HARLOW: She is tying the two together, Congressman, and blaming you guys. What's your response?</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: I strongly disagree with that. I think that, if anything, this phone call that happened on October 6 between Mr. Trump and the Turkish leader needs to potentially be examined. Like what the heck was going on? Why did he reverse course so suddenly? Charitably, his decision to abandon our allies was reckless and rash, but what was really discussed during that phone call? I don't know.</s>HARLOW: Let me ask you one thing before we move on to the impeachment inquiry, which I want to get to. We just had Congressman Eric Swalwell on, your Democratic colleague in the House, and he just told Jim that he does not think that Turkey is an ally today to the United States. Their behavior could change and that could change. But given their actions and position now, they're not an ally. Do you still consider Turkey to be a U.S. ally at this point?</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, they're not acting like an ally right now, Poppy. They're still part of the NATO alliance. But given their recent actions, they're not acting like our NATO allies. And so we have to act accordingly, and I think that measures to show our strong disapproval of what happened are appropriate and I hope are done on a bipartisan basis this week alone.</s>HARLOW: All right. Let's get to the impeachment inquiry. It's a big week. I understand you were not in the testimony from Fiona Hill yesterday. But right after this interview, you are going to question George Kent, the deputy assistant of European and Eurasian affairs. He has been a defender of former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and defended her in multiple accounts. What is the most important thing you hope to learn from George Kent this morning?</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: I hope to learn -- I'm about to go there, and I'm hoping to learn what is his knowledge with regard to the central allegations in the whistleblower complaint, including those allegations Regarded to Yovanovitch. As you alluded earlier, basically, she was forced out of her position by Trump officials. We don't know exactly why. But if she was somehow an obstacle to their pressure campaign on the Ukrainian leaders to meddle in our 2020 election, and he has knowledge of that, we would like to know. But in addition to that, he also has knowledge about Mr. Lutsenko and others in the Ukraine who were just these fake prosecutors, I would say. And, you know, this is a man that the Trump folks like to elude to as somehow the paragon of prosecutors.</s>HARLOW: His time as the deputy chief of the mission Kiev overlap with Lutsenko. So that will be an interesting line of inquiry. Finally, on Thursday you're going to now -- because of the subpoena, you're going to have the E.U. ambassador, Gordon Sondland testify. You said a week ago on this network that you believe that Sondland is at the heart of the president's pressure campaign on Ukraine. What is the number one question that you have for him?</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, in a Wall Street Journal report, apparently he talked to Senator Ron Johnson. And he said that, basically, the reason why Ukrainian aid was being held up was because the Ukrainians had not yet agreed to an investigation of the Bidens, In other words, meddling in our 2020 elections. We would probably like to ask him more about as well as all the other text exchanges he had with others about the allegations of the whistleblower complaint. He knows a lot and we're hoping to learn more from him about the substance and voracity of those allegations in the whistleblower complaint.</s>HARLOW: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, thank you for your time. I'll let you get into that questioning now. We appreciate it.</s>KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.</s>HARLOW: You got it.</s>SCIUTTO: He'll be a fly on the wall in that room.</s>HARLOW: Yes. I wonder if we're going to get the transcripts.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. And listen, there are even some Republicans, of course, calling for that to be released. A buck eye battleground. When the Democratic president candidates face off tonight, the will be fighting to turn Ohio blue again in 2020. Coming up, we will hear from Ohio voters about which way they are leaning now.</s>HARLOW: Also there's new sanctions on Turkey, new trouble for U.S. allies in Syria, the U.S. is scrambling to remove troops from a very serious situation. We'll have a live report from the ground, next.