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Trump on Turkey's Incursion in Syria, "Not Our Problem"; Trump Welcomes Italian President to White House. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired October 16, 2019 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson. This is CONNECT THE WORLD.

U.S. president Donald Trump has been speaking with his Italian counterpart. He's made some stinging comments during a -- during that meeting about

Syria. He says about Turkey's incursion, "It's not our problem." That is a direct quote.

He went on to say all U.S. troops have left the Syrian border. He's making these comments in the Oval Office and they are ongoing. I want to bring in

our correspondents and analysts on this to make some sense of what we've just heard and the wider Turkey-Syrian story. We may talk impeachment as

well.

Joe Johns, live at the White House, CNN legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig joining us from New York. We've got our

senior political analyst David Gergen, a former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald

Reagan and Bill Clinton.

We are well served.

Joe, your thoughts on what we're hearing from the U.S. president in the Oval Office as we speak.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's consistent with what we've heard from the president before and, quite frankly, a bit

defiant of some of his colleagues in the Republican Party on Capitol Hill, who say the United States went the wrong direction on Syria.

Let me read you a couple of the other comments as they have come to us. This is the president speaking here in the White House in the presence of

the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella.

Now he said, also, if Turkey were to go into Syria, it's between Turkey and Syria. The president saying that's not our problem.

He says of the United States, we are not a policing agent. Time for us to go home, the president also acknowledging that the United States will be

speaking to Iran about this matter. Certainly consistent with what the president has said before, even on the campaign trail in 2016, the notion

of ending the endless wars, if you will.

So once again, President Trump speaking out on this issue, which has sort of riven Washington, even as the impeachment goes on.

Also important to say, tomorrow we do expect a bill to be introduced in the United States Senate that would expand the sanctions essentially that the

administration has already put on Turkey for its behavior with regard to the Syrian border and the Kurds. Becky, back to you.

ANDERSON: Stephen Collinson has just joined us as well.

It's lines like "It's not our problem," Stephen, that will quite frankly astonish and appall many people in this region where we are, this is the

Gulf, the wider Middle East and people beyond. These comments may be consistent.

But is it clear to the White House how damaging they are to America's reputation?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, you have the national security angle and the political angle. Mike Pence, the vice president,

and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, are just about to get on a plane to go to Turkey to demand a cease-fire in this region.

And the president now has yet again completely undermined them. He's saying we don't really care what happens. That gives them even less

leverage than they had before.

Obviously Turkey has moved into Syria. Russia has moved into some of these areas where the U.S. special forces were in northeastern Syria. They had

very slim leverage to start with. This makes their mission even more impossible.

And it makes it look even more like a face-saving attempt to try and put some after the fact rationality on the president's sudden decision to pull

those special forces back from the Syria-Turkish border.

[11:05:00]

COLLINSON: On the terms of the politics there, I mean, the president is trying to turn this away from a story about the U.S. deserting its Kurdish

allies and leaving them to die and creating a humanitarian crisis and making this back into his political narrative.

It's language which a substantial minority of Americans may well identify with. They're very tired of these Middle Eastern wars. They're not

necessarily completely au fait with all the details, the difficult ethnic and strategic questions in that area. So the president is trying to

project protect his political flank.

When it comes to a question of why the U.S. national interests and the president's political interests, we know exactly how he normally comes down

on that equation.

ANDERSON: David, you have seen presidents come and go. In fact, you worked in most -- many of their administrations. So our viewers might be

under the impression you've seen it all and heard it all before, have you?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: We haven't seen this before, not in a long time. There have been times when the United States has signaled

that it might help and we failed to do so in a shameful way.

To go way back to President Eisenhower, it looked like when the Hungarians had a revolt, that we would come to their aid and would free up Eastern

Europe. And we failed to do that.

But I do think this is what President Trump is doing here now is both startling in the eyes of many Americans, shameful. It's a retreat from the

general proposition that we all have an interest in starting with America in a stable world order. If one country invades another country, we try to

put a stop to that through the U.N. That's what's happened here. Turkey has invaded Syria.

So at that level, just the simple level of stability, we've had, we felt we had an obligation. But in this case, we have even more of an obligation

because we fought alongside the Kurds. They did a lot of what we needed to get done, 11,000 of them got killed. They thought we were a strong partner

and we've betrayed them.

We've put a knife in their backs just when they needed it and we've opened the door for the Russians coming in now, for Assad to grow, for the

Iranians to grow in there. All the wrong guys are winning as a result of this.

So you see a rebellion in the Republican ranks on Capitol Hill. And they will come forward in a bipartisan way with sanctions. But I'm afraid the

horse is out of the barn. The sanctions may be a palliative but they don't solve the problem.

ANDERSON: And I expect this region will say this whole sort of operation since last week, when the telephone call came and Turkey decided to start

this military operation, playing into the Turkish president's hands in that sort of very nationalistic way.

The question is being asked whether he really cares about the relationship with NATO, whether he cares about his relationship with Europe. Because as

you rightly point out, perhaps the relationship with President Putin -- let's bring in Stephen again.

Elie, I will come to you.

ANDERSON: Just how important has it been that we've witnessed over the past week what I have to say in this region we have been witnessing for

some time, the increasing importance and strategic clout that Russia has at this point.

COLLINSON: I go back to the Obama administration and when Russia first became involved in Syria. President Obama made remarks to the effect of,

well, they're going to get pulled down into a quagmire. That's not the way it's worked out.

Russia has been able to reinforce its role in the Middle East. This is part of Vladimir Putin's wider project, you know, re-creating lost Russian

influence that ebbed away after the Soviet Union fell after the Cold War.

You know, this is yet another example of Russia moving into a vacuum where the United States has decided it doesn't want to play a leadership role.

This does get to an underlying theme of American foreign policy and politics right now and that is exactly what kind of role should the United

States play.

The Trump theory of America first is that the United States doesn't need to be involved in all these areas around the world. Its strength is best

preserved by not getting sucked into these areas.

But let's look at this situation particularly. It's not as if there were 100,000 U.S. troops in Syria like there once were in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a small detachment of special forces that was working successfully alongside the Kurds not just to keep that region stable but to keep ISIS

from resurging.

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COLLINSON: So you know, the president, to make a political point, has blown up that entire operation which was a limited successful operation.

For many people it's a blueprint of how the U.S. should extend its influence in the years going forward and in the aftermath of those big land

wars it fought disastrously over the last decade.

ANDERSON: Yes. And we are just looking at pictures here, which, you know, really tell the story. It's these pictures that Donald Trump -- what's

going on in these images that Donald Trump is saying is not our problem.

There are people losing their lives on the Syrian side of that order.

Elie, Trump's foreign policy front and center, not just with regard to Turkey, but it's at the very heart of this impeachment inquiry over the

Ukraine controversy. Republicans are not backing down from their efforts to stonewall this inquiry.

Have a look at the top names in the Trump administration who are refusing to comply with these subpoenas or requests.

How long can they keep this up?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So the ball really is in Adam Schiff's court now. We're seeing a stonewall from the administration.

And the question is how is Adam Schiff going to respond?

He really only has two viable options. One is to get into the courts, to challenge these, to seek court orders, requiring these individuals to

comply with the subpoenas. The good news is they'll probably win eventually if they go that route for House Democrats.

The bad news for House Democrats is that it takes time and probably time that they don't have, given the political realities of an election being

less -- just over a year away. So the core route is that's may be where the administration is hoping it goes if the strategy is to drag their feet.

The other option is to work around the people who are not responding and say, you're going to clam up, you're going to refuse to give us evidence,

we'll build based off the evidence we do have. The call between Trump and Zelensky, the texts between the State Department officials. The testimony

they're getting from the career diplomatic professionals.

We're seeing that testimony come in throughout this week. And I think it's really bolstering the case. So I would go with option number two. I would

make this case the best I could if I was in their position. The people who are going to obstruct, they can obstruct. Maybe there will be an article

of impeachment for obstruction on top of everything else.

ANDERSON: I want to take a very short break, gentlemen. Thank you for the time being. Stick around, I'm going to pay for this. Won't be long.

Folks, right after this.

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ANDERSON: In the last few minutes, Donald Trump has had some pretty stark words to say about Turkey's operation in Syria.

Quote, "It is not our problem." That's 250,000 refugees, not our problem, he says.

Hundreds of people dead, not our problem, he says.

ISIS reemerging, not our problem, he says.

Annoying his allies, not a problem, he says.

His own party going against him, not our problem, he says.

All that as U.S. vice president Mike Pence is set to board a plane later today bound for Turkey for a meeting with the president Recep Tayyip

Erdogan. Let's bring in CNN's Arwa Damon and Fred Pleitgen who is in Moscow.

Stephen Collinson and David Gergen also still with us.

Not our problem he says about what is going on in Syria as a result of this Turkish operation invasion, incursion, call it what you will.

How is that going to go down on the ground, Arwa?

DAMON: Well, I mean, look, Becky, the issue I think is not with the U.S. necessarily just saying not our problem and what that means. It's that no

one knows exactly how real that statement is because American foreign policy is so schizophrenic these days.

If key players in the region actually knew that the U.S. was going to begin to pull back from its involvement, that it was going to beginning to alter

its foreign policy in the region, then they could make adjustments accordingly.

Right now all they're being told is, well, the president of the United States really isn't in the mood to deal with you right now, so right now

you're not his problem. But at the same time, all these other moves are going to be undertaken by the United States.

So no one knows how to react to this. Aside from the fact that the notion that the war on ISIS is not America's problem, is not everyone's problem,

is mind-boggling. It defies logic because ISIS is not an entity that stays neatly confined inside one specific area. It is a rabid ideology that has

not been defeated.

And we have to go back very briefly and remember how ISIS became ISIS. It's because, at every step along the way since 2004 in all of its previous

incarnations, it was declared defeated when it wasn't. And its ideology was able to survive and thrive in chaos.

That chaos is exactly what we have right now. And every single observer of the region, every single expert on the region will tell you, brace

yourselves. ISIS is coming back.

ANDERSON: Turkey at present, experts in this region, says, Fred, is acting like an ally of the Russians -- let's get to Donald Trump. We're going to

listen to what he says.

TRUMP: -- and will be meeting also, who is here right now with us. And he is going to be joining the meeting. We have a lot of great people over

there. We'll see.

In the meantime, our soldiers are not in harm's way -- as they shouldn't be -- as two countries fight over land that has nothing to do with us.

And the Kurds are much safer right now, but the Kurds know how to fight. And, as I said, they're not angels. They're not angels, if you take a

look. You have to go back and take a look. But they fought with us. We paid a lot of money for them to fight with us and that's OK. They did well

when they fought with us; they didn't do so well when they didn't fight with us.

When I refused to allow the Americans, a year and a half ago, to fight with the Kurds against Iraq, I said, "Wait a minute, this country, stupidly,

just spent a fortune on fighting for, with, around Iraq." Nobody knows how they spent it. But they spent -- actually, we're in the Middle East now

for $8 trillion, if you can believe that stupidity. But, in Iraq, we're in for probably $5.5 trillion. So they're telling me, "Wait a minute, we just

spent $5.5 trillion fighting in Iraq and with Iraq. And now we're supposed to spend money to fight with the Kurds against Iraq." I said, "No, thank

you."

So what happens is, when I said we're not going to fight with the Kurds, the Kurds left. They didn't want to fight against Iraq, which right now

isn't the greatest fighting force in the world. That happened twice.

[11:20:00]

TRUMP: The Kurds, actually, are pulling back substantially from Turkey. And Syria is pulling in. Syria probably will have a partner of Russia --

whoever they may have. I wish them all a lot of luck. You know, Russia was involved in Afghanistan. Used to be called the Soviet Union. Now it's

called Russia for a reason, because they lost so much money in Afghanistan, that they had to downsize. A very big downsizing.

So, if Russia wants to get involved with the -- with Syria, that's really up to them. They have a problem with Turkey, they have a problem at a

border. It's not our border. We shouldn't be losing lives over it.

But again, we only had 28 soldiers. It was 26, 28. I got all different numbers. It ends up being 28 -- between the 26, 28. Two people and

they're fully accounted for.

So, that's the story. It's very simple. And we're watching and we're negotiating and we're trying to get Turkey to do the right thing, because

we'd like to stop wars regardless. Whether Americans are in or whether they're not in, we want to see wars stopped. That's a very important

thing. On a humanitarian basis, we want to see that happen.

Steve?

QUESTION: How confident are you that Mike Pence will be able to arrange a ceasefire?

TRUMP: Why don't you go and take this?

INTERPRETER: Yes.

TRUMP: Yes, please.

INTERPRETER: The answer was --

TRUMP: I'll let you go.

INTERPRETER: -- "No, not at all." Excuse me.

SERGIO MATTARELLA, ITALIAN PRESIDENT: (Speaking Italian.)

INTERPRETER: (Speaking Italian.)

TRUMP: So I view the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be, for the United States, strategically brilliant. Our soldiers are out of there.

Our soldiers are totally safe. They've got to work it out. Maybe they can do it without fighting. Syria is protecting the Kurds. That's good.

We are -- and, by the way, every player hates ISIS. Everybody we're talking about. Syria more than us. Russia more than us. They've done a

big number on Russia. And we're over there fighting ISIS, but they're over there fighting ISIS, too. They can handle it and they should handle it.

We can fight our own battles on our own territories.

But you have a lot of countries over there that hate ISIS as much as we do; in some cases, probably more. So they can take care of ISIS. We have them

captured. The United States captured them. Some were released just for effect -- to make us look a little bit like, "Oh, gee, we've got to get

right back in there." But you have a lot of countries over there that have power and that hate ISIS very much, as much as we do.

So I think we're in a very strategically good position. I know the fake news doesn't make it look that way, but we have -- we've removed all of

our, as we said, 50 soldiers, but much less than 50 soldiers. They're now in a very -- very safe location, heading into an even safer location.

And we will help negotiate. We have tremendously powerful sanctions. Our country has become economically much more powerful than, frankly, it ever

was. We've picked up trillions and trillions of in worth. The market was up big yesterday. It's going to be up big today, it looks like. The trade

deal with China, just having to do with what we've done with the financial services, with banks, with the farmers, has been incredible -- far greater

than anyone ever thought.

[11:25:00]

TRUMP: I agree, it hasn't been papered yet, but it's being papered. But, in the meantime, as you know and as we've said many times, China has

already started buying. They want to buy. They want to make a deal. They really have to make a deal. Their economy has been hurt very badly by what

we've done and by the tariffs that we've charged.

And we've taken in tremendous amounts of tariffs. A small portion of them we've given to the farmer, which -- the farmers -- which has more than made

up for what they've lost.

Go ahead.

And because of the newfound economic power of the United States, because of the fact that we've made so many trillions -- many, many trillions of in

worth of the United States -- I call it the "newfound economic power" -- if my opponent would've won, China would right now be the most powerful

nation, economically, in the world. And, right now, they're not even close. And if we're smart, they never will get close. But it depends on

who sits in this chair.

But the United States has tremendous economic power. Far more power than playing around with having a few soldiers shooting each other at the

border. I mean, you have a few soldiers back and forth, killing each other at the border. The power we have with sanctions and tariffs is far greater

than what we're talking about.

With that being said, our military has been completely rebuilt. Much of the equipment has already been delivered. We spent two and a half trillion

rebuilding it over the last three years. And our military power is at the highest level and our economic power is at the highest level. But I'd

always rather use economic power before I use military power, because people aren't getting killed with economic power. OK?

QUESTION: Mr. President, you're scheduled to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today. How do you expect that meeting to go?

[11:30:00]

MATTARELLA (through translator): Before the members of the press introduce topics that have already been discussed this morning, President Trump was

talking about the possible implementation of tariffs on European products following the whole Airbus affair. Of course, that's a topic that we will

certainly be discussing this morning and I do hope that we can come up with a cooperative-based approach and a frank discussion, so we can avoid

retaliation between the two parties.

Italy and I -- myself, personally -- have always felt that it's better to talk things through to find a common solution, to find some sort of

understanding for one another's stances. Because the alternative to that would be tariffs followed by retaliation, followed by further tariffs. And

we also have to understand that we are waiting for a solution of the Boeing affair, as well.

So, of course, within the spirit of the Atlantic Alliance, within the spirit of the friendship we've always had, I do feel it would be best to

discuss these things and understand one another.

TRUMP: Well, in theory, there can't be retaliation because this was an award that we got because of the fact that the European Union took

advantage of past Presidents and this was an award that we got for the unfair treatment given to the United States by the European Union. So

there should be no retaliation.

This was getting us even because $7.5 billion worth of things happened -- bad things happened, unfair things happened -- to the United States by the

European Union. So this was just getting us back to even. And nobody else but me would've gotten that $7.5 billion back for the taxpayers of the

United States.

QUESTION: Mr. President, I'm sure you saw reports that John Bolton said that Rudy Giuliani was like a hand grenade the way he was acting. And are

you concerned that Bolton could be called to testify in your impeachment inquiry?

TRUMP: Look, John Bolton -- I got along well with him. Some people didn't; some people didn't like John Bolton. I actually got along with him

pretty well. It just didn't work out. I don't know that he got along with Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani was seeking out corruption and what happens mostly in the 2016 election, because there was tremendous corruption in the 2016

election. I think even you would admit that. The election was -- it was disgraceful what happened and what happened to me and what happened to the

Republicans. And that continues with Nancy Pelosi and with Schiff. Adam Schiff got caught making up statements that he said I said, that I didn't

say -- which is fraud. I mean, it's purely fraudulent. So it continues.

So, Rudy was a great prosecutor. He was the best mayor in the history of the city of New York, as far as I can see. I think he's pretty much

acknowledged -- what he did for crime and everything else. And when he saw what was going on with our election of 2016 -- the election I won, but the

election that was absolutely corrupted by things that took place in government. Now, we'll see what happens. The IG report is going to come

out soon and we'll see what happens.

I think people -- I know nothing about it, in terms of the report. I'm waiting for the report like everybody else. But I predict you will see

things that you don't even believe, the level of corruption -- whether it's Comey; whether it's Strzok and his lover, Page; whether it's so many other

people -- McCabe; whether it's President Obama himself. Let's see whether or not it's President Obama. Let's see whether or not they put that in.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE.)

TRUMP: Wait a minute. Let's see whether or not.

So, Rudy saw that. And I can tell you, Rudy Giuliani -- because was very, very incensed at the horrible things that he saw, as are many people, OK?

And many Republicans. And the Republicans have been treated very unfairly by the Democrats. I'll say this: Paul Ryan would never issue a subpoena.

I don't say right or wrong. He wouldn't do it. He had too much respect for our country. Nancy Pelosi hands them out like cookies. Everybody -- I

don't even know these people. And for the most part, people like that are test- -- I don't even know who they are. I never even heard of some of

them, most of them.

But I have all these people testifying. And then they leak out. They don't say the goods parts; they only say the bad parts. We're not allowed

to representation. We're not allowed to lawyers. We're not allowed to have anything. The Democrats are treating the Republicans very, very

badly. Fortunately, we have a lot of good, strong, smart Republicans. But they never dealt, Jon, with the Democrats the way the Democrats deal.

[11:35:00]

TRUMP: And the Republicans won't forget it because what they're doing, what the Democrats are doing to this nation is a disgrace.

What they have done -- the disrespect that they've shown to the presidency -- and it'll happen to them. Because if the Republicans have the House,

which I think they will -- because of impeachment, I think -- because of this nonsense impeachment. It's based on a perfect phone conversation --

an absolutely perfect phone conversation with the president of Ukraine.

A friend of mine, who's a top lawyer, read it. He said, "This is perfect. You didn't say." Did you know this was going to happen?

I actually thought it was going to happen. There were many people listening to that conversation, because when I speak to a leader -- like,

if I speak to the president of Italy, if I speak to anybody -- I know that there are many intelligence people on the line. I know that, I mean, with

my understanding and knowledge. I don't know exactly who, but I assume there are many people.

Fortunately, they had transcribers, stenographers -- people that do this for a living -- on the line because we have an exact copy of the report, of

the call.

So the call was put out immediately when I started hearing about the whistleblower. Well, the whistleblower's report was totally wrong. The

whistleblower didn't know what he was talking about, or was given false information, or it was even worse than that. Now, all of a sudden, Schiff

doesn't want to talk to the whistleblower. Now, all of a sudden, quid pro quo doesn't matter because now they see, in the call, there was no quid pro

quo.

So, with Rudy, Rudy was seeking out corruption. And I think there's nothing wrong seeking out corruption.

Did you have -- Steve?

QUESTION: But should Rudy have registered as a foreign lobbyist, though?

That's the question here.

TRUMP: I don't know what he did. I -- I don't know. That's up to him.

QUESTION: He had clients and he was talking to you.

TRUMP: That, you have to ask -- excuse me, no. You have to ask Rudy those questions. don't ask me. But Rudy was one of many people that was

incensed at the corruption that took place during that election. Pure corruption.

For instance, I still ask the FBI: Where is the server?

How come the FBI never got the server from the DNC?

Where is the server?

I want to see the server. Let's see what's on the server. So, the server, they say, is held by a company whose primary ownership individual is from

Ukraine. I'd like to see the server. I think it's very important for this country to see the server. Nobody wants to see it. The media never wants

to see it. But I'll tell you, Republicans want to see it.

So, Republicans aren't treated well. And here's the problem: I think we're going to take the House, based on what's happening with the

impeachment stuff. And the Republicans can do the same thing in reverse if they ever have -- and I hope it's going to be a long time, because nobody

has done a better job with the economy, with our military, with -- I've rebuilt the military. Our economy is the best it's ever been. We have

numbers that just came out where, not including taxes, the median household income for the average American has increased $5,000 in a very short time

since I've been President. Nobody has ever heard of numbers like that.

So, people want to find out: Why was it so corrupt during that election?

And I want to find out more than anybody else.

Steve, go ahead.

QUESTION: One of the things that has been exposed by this Turkey situation is that as many as 50 nuclear weapons are at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.

How confident are you of those weapons' safety?

TRUMP: We're confident and we have a great -- a great air base there, a very powerful air base. That air base alone can take any place. It's a

large, powerful air base.

And, you know, Turkey -- just so people remember -- Turkey is a NATO member. We're supposed to get along with our NATO members and Turkey is a

NATO member. Do people want us to start shooting at a NATO member?

That would be a first. And that's all involved having to do with NATO.

Yes.

QUESTION: Mr. President, you're going to be seeing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today. How do you anticipate that conversation?

TRUMP: Well, I'd say this: I think that she's done this country a tremendous disservice. She's created a phony witch hunt -- another one.

The first one failed. They're all failing. This one is just absolutely crazy. All you have to do is read the transcript of the call. Read the

transcript. This is a open and shut, simple case. They're desperate because they know they're going to lose the election. They're desperate to

do something because they know they're going to lose the election.

This administration has created the strongest economy in the history of our country. We have the greatest stock market. We had -- over 100 times, we

broke the record for stock market. People's -- if you look at people's stocks, their 401(k)s; if you look at anything you want to look at, they're

far better off now than they probably ever have been in this country. Record stock markets. And don't forget, stock market is not just rich

people; it's all people. Because all people own in the stock markets.

[11:40:00]

TRUMP: The New York Stock Exchange, all of them -- they're at record highs. Nobody has ever done what we've done.

So, they're playing games. They figure they can't win the election, so maybe we can find some ground. "We'll get somebody that Trump never met

and maybe they'll say something bad about Trump. And if they do really bad, maybe it can stick a little bit." I don't think it's going to work.

They've treated the Republican Party with great disrespect.

OK, thank you very much.

QUESTION: Mr. President, how was your meeting with the Dunn family yesterday?

TRUMP: My meeting with the family was really -- it was beautiful, in a certain way. They did not want to meet with the person in question. But

we had a very good meeting. They're very nice people. And we met with the full group. It was four people, actually, as you -- you know how it's all

broken up. And the meeting took place right here at about 6 o'clock last night and it was very sad, to be honest. She lost and they lost, their

son. I believe it was going down the wrong way, because that happens in Europe. You go to Europe and the roads are opposite. And it's very tough.

If you're from the United States, you do make that decision to make a right turn where you're supposed to make a left turn. The roads are opposite.

And she said that's what happened. That happens to a lot of people, by the way. But she said that's what happened. She was in the room right out

there. We met right here, in these -- this area. And I offered to bring the person in question in and they weren't ready for it. But I did offer.

I spoke with Boris. He asked me if I'd do that and I did it. Unfortunately, they wanted to meet with her and unfortunately when we had

everybody together, they decided not to meet. Perhaps they had lawyers involved by that time. I don't know exactly. I know the people were

lovely. They were very nice. And they were, you know, desperately sad.

QUESTION: And, sir, did you suggest that the family had indicated at one point that they were interested in meeting with her?

TRUMP: I thought they were. Based on what I saw, they wanted to meet. But now they say they only want to meet if they're in the UK. And that'll

be up to them. But I did meet the family and I expressed condolences on behalf of our country.

Thank you very much, everybody.

QUESTION: Mr. President, because you're winning so much with the WTO, because you're growing the biggest economy --

TRUMP: Wait, there's a great question I'm being asked. This is maybe the greatest question I've been asked in a long time. Please put those mikes

over here. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Because you're winning with the WTO, because you're growing the biggest economy the world, are you willing to give Italy a break on

tariffs?

TRUMP: We are looking at Italy very strongly. And, as you know, the seven and a half is to be divided the way we say. We've divided it up. Italy

has got a problem with the way we've divided it up because they said they had much less to do with it and Germany had more to do with it and France

had more to do with it, as an example. So we are going to look at that very strongly. Ambassador Lighthizer is here. We're going to look at it

very strongly.

OK?

Thank you. Good question. I love that question.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

ANDERSON: That is Donald Trump in a wide ranging almost half-hour question and answer session touching on trade, a U.S. diplomat killing a British

teenager, impeachment but saving his harshest words for Syria.

"It's not our problem," the words of the U.S. president on what is going on in Syria. Adding that "the Kurds are not angels" but somewhat oddly he

said they are much safer now. The U.S. president also said U.S. soldiers are out of there, they're safe. They, those on the ground, can work it on

their own.

Maybe Syrians protecting Kurds. That's good, he said.

He went on to say we are in a strategically good position, even if it doesn't look that way. This all ahead of his vice president's trip to

Turkey to see the president there in an effort to reset, one assumes. Good luck with that. After this.

You couldn't be better served than by the panel I have standing by for you. Sam Kiley is with me here in Abu Dhabi, Stephen Collinson is in Washington.

Ed Luce is U.S. editor of the "Financial Times," he is with us with his insight and analysis. I'm going to get back to all of you in a moment.

Going to take a quick break. Back after this.

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ANDERSON: Welcome back. If you're just joining us, we have just witnessed an extraordinary question and answer session with president Donald Trump as

we wait for the U.S. president to hold his official press conference with the Italian president. And the room is set up for that. Let's just

consider what we have just heard.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said that the Kurds are much safer now and says what's going on in Syria is not our problem. That is despite

the recent decision to pull U.S. forces out of northern Syria, giving Turkey the green light to move on those Kurdish forces that helped American

troops defeat ISIS.

I've got a panel for you here. Sam Kiley with me, Arwa Damon is on the Turkish-Syrian border. Stephen Collinson is in Washington. And Ed Luce,

U.S. national editor for the "Financial Times."

I'll start with you, Arwa, because you're on the ground. You've been listening to what the U.S. president said. Your thoughts, if you will.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's shocking, Becky.

The notion, first of all, that the Kurds are safer now, compared to what?

Right now the Kurds have had to bend the knee back to Damascus to be able to stop what they thought, from their perspective, was going to be a

massive Turkish onslaught. They've had to bend the knee to a regime they've tried to distance themselves from, although they did maintain

something of a relationship with it. And President Trump also went on to say the Kurds know how to fight and, as I said, they're not angels.

The level of hypocrisy is quite spectacular. If the U.S. is going to start deciding not to ally itself or just to turn away from anyone who is not an

angel, there's plenty of other countries that America is in bed with that should also be taken under consideration.

But I think at the core of this, it's actually very heartbreaking to hear these kinds of words coming out from the White House and all that it is in

theory meant to be standing for. I think it sends a dangerous message on multiple fronts, one that allegiances with America don't mean much.

Secondly that the U.S. does not necessarily stand for all the principles it used to stand for, it will cherry-pick when it wants to, when it chooses to

and that the world's leader in theory can be completely and totally sidelined by one individual. It sends a frightening message.

ANDERSON: Ed, your thoughts.

ED LUCE, "FINANCIAL TIMES": I'd agree with that. It's heartbreaking and it must be particularly heartbreaking if you're there on the ground seeing

what's happening to the Kurds. To hear such words from the American president.

I mean, it's an extraordinary reputation of his own policy, too, which is to send the vice president, Mike Pence, and the secretary of state, Mike

Pompeo, second and third most senior people in the administration to Turkey.

[11:50:00]

LUCE: Ostensibly to persuade President Erdogan to have a cease-fire or a pause. He just undercut them. He just sabotaged their flight before it

took off by saying it's not our problem, you know, the Kurds are no angels. These people have been fighting forever anyway and we've wasted enough

money. They're safer now.

It's the most extraordinary -- we've seen this before from Trump, that he pretends to do one thing, in this case to be in favor of a humanitarian

pause in -- by the Turkish military -- and does another. But this is a really egregious example. And I agree that, what does America's word mean?

Does it have any loyalty to anybody?

ANDERSON: Sam, you're on the ground with me here in Abu Dhabi. You've spent weeks, months in Syria, in and out of Turkey.

When you hear these words from the U.S. president who went on to say we're in a strategically good position, even if it doesn't look that way, what's

your response?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there are two things going on here. I think that Donald Trump, what certainly other

leaders around the world need to learn to do is to filter out the gobbledy gook and look for the nuggets of what he's really talking about.

He's been signaling since the end of last year that he wants out of northern Syria. It would have therefore been incumbent on those nations

like the Europeans who had a lot more flesh in the game in the form of jihadis to get more involved. Because at any stage, as one general put it,

they were one tweet away from strategic failure.

So there's an effort there that's not been put in by other world leaders to deal with what has become the strategic problem with America, which is they

are evolving or they have become unreliable allies.

So strategically, this is a disaster for the United States and, of course, a catastrophe for the Kurds. But it's one that could have been mitigated

by some smart thinking in other countries around the world. A lot of other countries have just left it to Donald Trump.

ANDERSON: Including in European capitals of course?

KILEY: Absolutely European capitals are in extreme danger from another influx threatened of refugees, 3.6 million refugees in Turkey, threatening

to be dumped on Europeans. That's not a new threat. They could have been more greatly involved.

ANDERSON: What is also not new, Stephen, is the increasing strategic influence and importance of Russia in this Middle East region. I was

interested to hear what the president, Stephen, said of Russia. He said it's not called the Soviet Union anymore for a reason because they lost so

much money in Afghanistan. They had so many issues.

COLLINSON: Well, Becky, you know, when you watch one of those Oval Office news conferences with the president, you go into this kind of alternative

reality bubble, where bad factors pile upon illogical fact, misrepresentations, misreadings of history.

And basically as Sam said, a lot of it is gobbledy gook. But I think people should think about this around the world is when they talk about

what is the U.S. going to do, what is the White House policy, what you saw there is exactly what is driving U.S. foreign policy.

It's whatever the president, who has a very rudimentary knowledge of strategy, history, of frankly what's going on right now on the ground in

northeast Syria, it's what he says it is when he says it.

That's why you have Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo flying across to Turkey to try to fix this retrospectively and they're completely undercut before they

go. It's a non-strategic, -- in many ways I think you have to say an ignorant approach to the world. But the U.S. president has a great deal of

power.

What you saw there was probably what was going on in the call with Erdogan and projecting it forward in the next year before Trump faces reelection.

You have to think what other massive strategic blunders he could walk the United States into.

ANDERSON: Ed, I want to give you the last word. Where does this all go?

We've got 90 seconds.

LUCE: I think it continues to go in a very bad direction on the ground in northeast Syria. In terms of the politics here, clearly that mission by

Pompeo and Pence, a sort of operation save face mission, has been sabotaged.

It was directed at the hawkish Republicans, which is most of the Republicans, who, unlike on Ukraine and other issues, have rebelled over

this. Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, et cetera.

And he shot that down. So I think the degree to which Trump is provoking a backlash here from the national security establishment, including within

his own party, should not be underestimated.

[11:55:00]

LUCE: This is a very, very dangerous strategy for Trump -- if he can call it a strategy -- for Trump to be pursuing.

ANDERSON: I'm going to have to leave it there. We are out of time. To all of you thank you so much for joining us.

"It's not our problem." Words from Donald Trump. You wonder if possibly they'll come back to haunt him. We're just moments away from hearing from

the American president again.

He'll be speaking alongside the Italian president in a formal news conference this time. You see the press gathering there at the White

House. No doubt lots of news to come. This after all, is Donald Trump.

I'm Becky Anderson, that was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you for watching wherever you are in the world.

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RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: 5 o'clock pm in London. Europe's trading day is over. In New York, it's noon and a very busy middle of the week. This is

Wednesday so far.

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