CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Ruben Gallego"

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: President Trump stirring new fears at home and overseas by essentially choosing one ally over another in a war- torn part of the Middle East. These are U.S. forces pulling back from Northern Syria where they have been fighting side by side with Kurdish forces against ISIS. And those Kurdish fighters now feeling back stabbed by the United States President for giving Turkey's President a green light to invade Kurdish controlled areas.

Again this is an ally that's lost some 10,000 fighters helping America defeat ISIS which still is not completely wiped out. Top members of Congress including Republicans say that the U.S. pull back is a mistake. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says it will only benefit Russia, Iran and the Assad regime. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says, once again, President Trump is disserting an ally in a foolish attempt to appease a strong man. And Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego is with me, he served in Iran and is now with me.

[15:35:00]

Thank you so much, sir, for your service to this country and just your knowledge of the region. First and foremost, what is the significance of this immediate move and what are the consequences for our good friends, the Kurds.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Well, there's short term and long-term consequences. The short term is we are potentially destabilizing the whole region. Especially, if Turkey really does move strong against the Kurds in Northern Syria. Long term, it probably will actually serve against our interest because Kurds are now going to try to find a friend. They know that the Shiite militias might be the only allies they have so they might actually align themselves closer to Iran or they actually will get closer to Russia.

So in terms of our footprint, our integrity in that area, it's basically gone. And in the whole scope of it, it makes it more difficult for us to have allies in the future. If allies in the future believe that we're going to cut and run on them like we did with the Kurds, it is going to be very difficult for us to operate in foreign nations or overseas when they believe that at any point we could just give up on them.

BALDWIN: Why, Congressman, do you think the President is just suddenly doing this now?

GALLEGO: I think this is something you've seen in history with this President. He kind of just gets on this whim. He has one phone conversation, maybe, he had a conversation with Erdogan who gave him some bland assurances and he just kind of ordered his men and women apparently to do it. This is not the way to conduct foreign policy.

Number one, you should talk to your advisers. It doesn't mean you have to listen to them, but you should talk to your advisers and actually weigh out what is going to happen. And secondly, this President doesn't really look at the future of this country in foreign policy from a perspective of how this going to affect this country. He looks at how it affects him. And if he believes it's going to affect him in a positive manner then he'll do it. And unfortunately, I think we're seeing that right now.

BALDWIN: But you listen to what the President said and I just want to play everyone this clip. This what the President just said in June about saving the Kurds, convincing the Turkish President not to attack them. This was a couple months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He had a 65,000-man army at the border, and he was going to wipe out the Kurds who helped us with ISIS, we took out the califate. We have 100 percent of the califate. And I called him and I asked him not to do it. They are I guess natural enemies of his or Turkey's. And he hasn't done it. They were lined up to go out and wipe out the people that we just defeated, the ISIS califate with, and I said, you can't do that, you can't do it, and he didn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was just in the end of June.

GALLEGO: Yes.

BALDWIN: What changed in four months?

GALLEGO: Look, you can't tell with this President, and that's the problem. That's actually what's the most destabilizing situation here is that most countries, our allies and our enemies just do not know what we're doing anymore. There's no rhyme or reason to this. We literally asked the Kurds to actually take down the defensive weaponry, their defensive positions and we promised them security versus Turkey. And in the process, once they took down everything, we are now pulling back and basicly putting them up for slaughter, potentially.

This is a very dangerous situation this President has gotten into. And more importantly where is the Secretary of State? Instead of trying to search out for

conspiracy theories against Vice President Biden, he should be out here trying to negotiate an actual exit that brings us both security for us as well as for the Kurds.

BALDWIN: So where is the Secretary of State? To your point also about allies, actually I thought the Republican Senator Ted Cruz had a great point. He tweeted about a lot of this, and he said, other enemies and rivals, Iran, Russia, et cetera, don't abandon their allies. If we want allies to stand with America in the future, we shouldn't either. Honorable nations stand by their friends.

I mean, Congressman Gallego, what message does this send, this sudden pull out, what does this send to our allies?

GALLEGO: I think it certainly sends a message that we are not a trusted ally, that we will be with you for short term gain but not long-term partnership.

BALDWIN: That's so dangerous.

GALLEGO: It's extremely dangerous. We have are as strong nation not just because of a national defense budget, not because we have all the weaponry that we need, because we have strong alliances all over the world. And when we start breaking our trust with those alliances, we become weaker as a nation. And Trump and his administration has certainly weakened us today.

BALDWIN: I just think of our men and women in uniform too, does that put them more so in harm's way? Or I suppose they're --

GALLEGO: Well, absolutely, you always want to have local assistance. When I was in Iraq, I had a lot of help from the Iraqi National Guard and also Iraqi translators. It was their knowledge, their language knowledge, their cultural knowledge that actually helped me stay alive as well as help me be a better Marine out in the field.

You know, we would not have been able as effectively attack and push back on ISIS if the Kurds had not stood up for themselves. When the Iraqi government fell apart, when the Iraqi military fell apart, it was only the Kurds that actually stood strong with the courageous stand at Kobane for example. That was the turning point. And to be honest, outside of Israel, the strongest ally, the most consistent ally that we have had in the Middle East have been the Kurdish people, not even a nation, the Kurdish people --

BALDWIN: Wow.

GALLEGO: -- and we've just lost that.

BALDWIN: Wow. Congressman, thank you very much. Congressman Ruben Gallego, good to see you. Coming up next, we have details on the second whistleblower who has

come forward. Plus, President Trump insists his only motivation for asking Ukraine to investigate the Bidens was fighting corruption.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source