CNN "Erin Burnett Out Front" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Mark Amodei"

Interview

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(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Romney is not the only Republican who has been critical of the president's actions in Syria, 129 House Republicans broke with Trump and voted to condemn the Syria troop withdrawal. One of them is OUTFRONT now, Republican Congressman Mark Amodei of Nevada.

And I appreciate your time, Congressman. Thanks so much for coming on the show tonight.

You heard the president and you heard Senator Romney. Who do you think has the more accurate description of the cease-fire?

REP. MARK AMODEI (R-NV): Well, I think that the cease-fire question will continue to bear out in the next few days. It happened really fast. So no disrespect to either one of them, but I think the desire to categorize it at this point in time when we haven't seen things fully play out, although we've seen quite a bit is something that quite frankly, everybody is kind of jockeying for what they think is their best foot forward on it.

BURNETT: So, let me ask you obviously in what we saw happen before the cease-fire, right? Tens of thousands of children displaced, ISIS fighters released from jail. I mean, a lot happened in a little amount of time. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, I'm sure you saw this today, Congressman, took issue with the president today and his actions with the cease-fire.

He tweeted: It doesn't appear that the cease-fire signals change in Erdogan's goal. He still plans to rid area of Kurds and create security zone, but is giving Kurds an ultimatum. They can leave voluntarily or leave dead.

And a senior Turkish official tells CNN, we got exactly what we wanted.

Is that -- is that victory looks like? Are you or do you think they're all jumping the gun?

AMODEI: Well, let me put it to you this way, they're jumping the gun to some extent, but I'll tell you, it's not a great start, that's for certain. The stuff that we do know are objective facts and are not things which lead you to think that this is kind of what everybody had in mind in terms of a troop withdrawal and everything would be fine and we -- you know, and the Kurds will be fine.

We know that is not all the case so far. So let's see where it ends up in another 72 hours because I think 72 hours will get you a lot of the way through this, what's going on over there.

BURNETT: What do you say to the president who obviously, by pulling out U.S. troops created this situation we're in? You obviously voted to condemn his decision yesterday.

AMODEI: Well, and listen, I guess the thing is if your standard is perfection in this business which everybody, you know, kind of adopts, it's like, well, that's good, but guess what? We very seldom get perfection, and this wasn't a perfect -- this wasn't a perfect action as far as what's going on with the Kurds over there and what the Turks are doing.

BURNETT: The acting White House chief of staff today, Congressman, Mick Mulvaney is now walking back a comment he made earlier today and I just wanted to play the exchange that he had with Jonathan Karl, the reporter, when he was at the White House podium so you can hear the full exchange. Here it is, sir.

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JONATHAN KARL, REPORTER: So the demand for an investigation into the Democrats was part of the reason that he wanted to withhold funding to Ukraine?

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about --

KARL: To be clear, what you just described is a quid pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happened as well.

MULVANEY: We do -- we do that all of the time with foreign policy.

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BURNETT: Congressman Mulvaney now has put out a statement which "The Wall Street Journal" reports the president personally approved where he said there was absolutely no quid pro quo.

I know, sir, that you were a former federal prosecutor and you said you support congressional oversight of the House Democrats impeachment inquiry, when you hear what Mick Mulvaney said today, does it bolster Democrats' case against the president?

AMODEI: Well, I think it certainly makes them excited to want to talk to Mick a little bit more. Obviously, the challenge is, in your previous guest had said, the challenge is to get at the truth.

[19:50:01]

So Mick has said some stuff there that when you add some context to it, it's like we'll see where it goes. But it's certainly fair game in terms of saying, hey, how does this fit into the overall thing with the folks in Ukraine?

BURNETT: How much more do you think you need to hear to make a decision on this?

AMODEI: Well, you know, Erin, fair question there, and I appreciate that. I think the difference between finding fact and deciding what to do as a result of what you find before that process is complete.

And I know there are different missions in terms of versus the media, versus I as a member of the Congress and what I have to do to vote. But I can tell you that people should expect open-mindedness, and they should expect fairness, and they should expect transparency. And so, while that's not in abundant supply on either side right now,

ultimately that's what it's going to be what it comes down to. Your job is to, what are the facts and what are the rules, and apply one to the other and see where we end up.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Congressman. I appreciate your time.

AMODEI: Yes, ma'am.

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