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Trump and Erdogan Press Conference; Trump Talks Russia Meeting; Trump Meets with President Erdogan. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 16, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in New York, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, you're looking at live pictures coming in from the Roosevelt Room over at the White House. At any moment, we expect to see and hear from the president of the United States.

He's meeting right now with the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We're going to take you there live when the two leaders come to the microphones. They'll be making statements.

We'll see if they'll also answer reporters' questions. They've been meeting today to talk about issues, like the Syrian civil war, the fight against ISIS, the administration's decision to arm Kurds in northern Syria. Lots of sensitive issues on the agenda.

Nothing to see here. That's the basic message from the White House today as they react to the reports that President Trump shared sensitive classified intelligence with Russian officials in the Oval Office last week.

After a short statement about it yesterday, the president's national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster offered much more about it just a little while ago, speaking from the White House briefing room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H.R. MCMASTER, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: It is wholly appropriate for the president to share whatever information he thinks is necessary to advance the security of the American people. That's what he did.

As to your question on had that information been shared previously, I'm not sure about that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did he make that decision though, sir?

MCMASTER: When did he make the decision?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When did he make the decision to share the information? MCMASTER: He made the decision in the context of the -- of the conversation. There are no sensitivities, in terms of me or anybody who's been with the president in many of these engagements. He shares information in a way that is wholly appropriate.

And I should just make -- I should just make maybe the statement here that the president wasn't even aware of where this information came from. He wasn't briefed on the source or method of the information either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is following the reaction over at the White House and our Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance is following all of this from Moscow.

Jim, General McMaster, he was criticized for his very short answer to questions about this explosive report last night. Today, he gave a little bit more detail. But did he fundamentally change the story?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He really did not, Wolf. You heard, during those comments you just played a few moments ago, that General McMaster, the National Security Adviser to the president, described the president's behavior and conduct in that meeting with the Russians as wholly appropriate.

But he did not answer the question, and it was put to him a couple of times, whether the president shared classified information during that meeting with the Russians.

As a matter of fact, just a few moments ago my colleague, Sara Murray, tried to ask that same question of the president as he was sitting down in the Oval Office with Turkish President Erdogan who is in Washington here at the White House for his visit today with the president.

I also tried to ask the president, after President Erdogan was greeted by President Trump at the door that leads into the west wing just about 10 minutes before that Oval Office meeting, the same question, did you share classified information? The president did not answer that question.

And so, Wolf, at this point, it appears the White House is just not going to answer that question. But as we heard during that briefing that General McMaster had with reporters, and only -- we should mention, it only lasted about 11 minutes.

He started the briefing describing the president's and previewing the president's trip that's coming up at the end of the week overseas. The national security adviser tried to put the president's remarks and what he feels is a fair context. And here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCMASTER: Then, the president was emphasizing, we have some common interests here. We have to work together in some critical areas. And we have an area -- we have an area of cooperation with transnational terrorist organizations, ISIS in particularly, and an organization that had already taken down a Russian airliner and murdered over 200 people in October of 2015.

And so, this was the context of the conversation in which it was wholly appropriate to share what the threat was as a basis for common action and coordination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But there was another moment during that briefing, Wolf, where it appears the national security adviser acknowledged that the president did not know where this information came from that he passed on to the Russians.

And so, it does raise this question whether the president was just, sort of, extemporaneously talking to the Russians and then accidently revealed this information.

Of course, you heard McMaster say during that briefing, well, the president has the right. He has the authority to share information with foreign leaders when he sees that to be fit.

But it does raise all sorts of questions, as we head out on this foreign trip with the president overseas to some pretty critical countries, Saudi Arabia, Israel. He's going to be leading with NATO leaders in Brussels, the pope in Rome and also the G7 down in Sicily.

[13:05:06] This question is going to follow him along the way on this trip. The president is going to be asked, you know, are you taking the right precautions when you share information with other foreign leaders? This wasn't even a U.S. ally. Russia is far from it. And the -- and the president felt that he could share this kind of information with the Russians.

But as you heard during that briefing, McMaster saying it was wholly appropriate. But would not answer the ultimate question whether that information was classified -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment. I want to go to Moscow. Matthew, what's the reaction from the kremlin so far to these reports? Because at the heart of this discussion is the president's meeting last week in the Oval Office with the Russian foreign minister as well as the Russian ambassador to the United States.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, of course, it was already a very controversial meeting. Not least because just the day before, President Trump had fired the head of the FBI, James Comey.

And so, the Russians already went into what they regard as a very serious and important first meeting. Sort of shrouded in this controversy which was not, they would argue, of their making and they are deeply frustrated that that controversy continues. We spoke to the kremlin spokesman, (INAUDIBLE) spokesman, in fact,

earlier today and he said this. We absolutely do not want to have any relationship to this nonsense. He refused to talk about it any further, saying we've already said too much on this subject. He even interrupted us as we were making the point and do you confirm what went on in this -- in this meeting? He said, I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

They are irritated. They are frustrated, that this relationship that they thought was going to be transformational. It was going to be pivotal.

They were going to be doing deals on cooperating on international terrorism, for instance, which was a subject matter of those conversations with President Trump and the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to Washington.

And that this was going to be advancing that very problematic relationship between Moscow and Washington. That has not come to pass. Every time they take a step forward and have a meeting, there are two steps backwards as well

And so, yes, they are very frustrated that every time they have a meeting --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Hold on for a second. The president of Turkey and the president of the United States going to the microphones. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a great pleasure to welcome President Erdogan for his first visit to the White House in years. The American and Turkish peoples have been friends and allies for many, many decades. Turkey was a pillar in the cold war against communism. It was a bastion against Soviet expansion. And Turkish courage in war is legendary. That is so true.

Turkish soldiers fought bravely along-side of American soldiers in the Korean War, and we haven't forgotten what they did. In some ways, when we looked at their great bravery in the fight of Korea -- and in Korea, it was just something that our soldiers and our great generals still remember. Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur singled out and praised the exemplary valor of the Turkish soldier, said some of the great soldiers of the world.

Today, we face a new enemy in the fight against terrorism, and again we seek to face this threat together. The Turkish people have faced horrible terrorist attacks in recent years and even recently. We offer our compassion to the victims and we offer our support to the Turkish nation.

We support Turkey in the first fight against Turkey and terror groups like ISIS and the PKK, and ensure they have no safe quarter, the terror groups. We also appreciate Turkey's leadership in seeking an end to the horrific killing in Syria. The Syrian civil war shocks the conscience of the whole world. And all you have to do is look on the front page of the papers today and you'll see exactly what we're talking about. We also support any effort that can be used to reduce the violence in Syria and create the conditions for a peaceful resolution.

President Erdogan and I are also discussing the need to reinvigorate our trade and commercial ties. These are areas where we can build our relationship that will benefit both of our countries. Military equipment was ordered by Turkey and the president, and we've made sure that it gets there quickly.

I look forward to working together with President Erdogan on achieving peace and security in the Middle East, on confronting the shared threats, and on working toward a future of dignity and safety for all of our people.

[13:10:11] Mr. President, thank you for visiting our country and joining us today at the White House. It is a great honor to have you with us. Thank you.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY: Thank you.

(THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Mr. President, my dear friend, distinguished members of the press, at the outset I'd like to wholeheartedly salute you all.

And I would like to take this august opportunity to thank President Trump and his team for the generous hospitality they have shown us upon arrival, not only to my personal self but to the entire members of my delegation.

On behalf of the entire Turkish nation, thank you, Mr. President.

And once again in your presence, I would like to congratulate President Trump for the legendary triumph that he has garnered in the aftermath of the elections.

TRUMP: Thank you (ph).

ERDOGAN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Quite recently, we've had bilateral discussions with President Trump. And we've had the opportunity to focus on the outstanding relations between Turkey and the United States that date back a long time in history, which are very well rooted and which are quite happily reached a level of strategic partnership.

The relations between Turkey and the United States have been erected upon common democratic values and common interests. Keeping our outstanding relations stronger than ever will be very important, not only for our common interests, but also stability of the globe and peace around the world.

The close cooperation that the both of the countries shall demonstrate, especially in the region, which is currently in turmoil, will be very important for the rest of the world. And primarily, we are alongside by each other, as Turkey and the United States, under the roof of the United Nations, NATO and the G- 20.

We have been enjoying a close cooperation in all of these platforms, in all of these fora around the world, and in the future to come, we are going to focus on making sure that we're going to extend (ph) our close cooperation and build on the outstanding (inaudible) that we enjoy.

We are determined to expand our relation. And I believe my current official visit to the United States will mark a historical turn of tide.

Whether it be throughout our bilateral discussions, whether it be the discussions that we shall have between the delegations, I think we are going to enjoy some further gains in terms of the future of our relations.

We seem to agree on expanding our relations in the field of economy, trade, reciprocal investments, energy and defense industry.

It is going to be very important for us to forge a close solidarity and cooperation in the field of fighting terrorism, primarily with Daesh, and all the other terrorist organizations in the region.

And we are committed to fighting all forms of terrorism, without any discrimination whatsoever, that impose a clear and a present threat upon our future.

[13:15:08] There is no place for the terrorist organizations in the future of our region.

Taking YPG and PYD into consideration in the region will never be accepted and it is going to be against a global agreement that we have reached. And we should never allow those groups to manipulate the religious structure and the ethnic structure of the region, making terrorism as a pretext or an excuse.

Those who are willing to turn to (ph) chaos in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya are bound to lose eventually. They will never be able to turn that chaos in that part of the world into an opportunity and the terrorist organizations with blood on their hands are bound to fail.

And as I have previously done so, I have been very frankly communicating our expectations with regard to the centralized (ph) terrorist organization, which we have notified our friends of their involvement in the failed coup of July the 15th in Turkey. And we have taken into consideration the joint steps that we can take forward in Syria and Iraq.

Of course, President Trump's recent election victory has led to the awakening of a new set of aspirations and expectations and hopes in our region. And we know that by the help of the new U.S. administration, these hopes will not be lost in vain. And we find that it was the most necessary answer to be given to the Syrian regime, especially in the aftermath of the recent chemical attacks that took place.

And we know that in terms of keeping up with the principled and committed fight against the terrorist organizations all around the world, we will not repeat the mistakes of the past and we will continue down this path together.

In the restoration and the establishment of stability and security of the region in question, the alliance and the partnership and cooperation between the United States and Turkey is of vital importance.

I hope and pray that both of us will be committed to extending further our cooperation in the future, along with consulting each other more frequently. We are laying the foundation of a new era between the two countries in terms of our relations. I hope and pray that this new administration will bring forth auspicious results for the relations. And I would like to thank President Trump for his very kind and cordial invitation. And I'm looking forward to hosting him in Turkey along with his entire family.

TRUMP: Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. We're going to go to meetings now.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We had a very, very successful meeting with the foreign minister of Russia. Our fight is against ISIS. As General McMaster said -- I thought he said and I know he feels that we had actually a great meeting with the foreign minister.

So, we're going to have a lot of great success over the next coming years. And we want to get as many to help fight terrorism as possible.

And that's one of the beautiful things that's happening with Turkey. The relationship that we have together will be unbeatable.

So thank you all very much. I appreciate it. We're going to meetings.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, so there you heard the president of the United States actually answer a reporter's question following those statements by the president of the U.S. and the president of Turkey, President Erdogan. They both made statements, President Erdogan going on in length, but you heard the president in response to that one question at the very end say that they had a very, very successful meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in the Oval Office last week. It was a great meeting with the foreign minister. It was - and then he promised there would be great success over the next few years in fighting terrorism.

There's a lot to unpack here. Let's get some perspective from our CNN military and diplomatic analyst, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby. He's joining us from Washington, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is with us here in New York, CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh as well.

Well, Gloria, let me get, first of all, your reaction to what we just heard, the president didn't go in length, his national security adviser, General McMaster, did earlier in the day, but the president simply said it was a very successful meeting with the foreign minister of Russia.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And then the president, you know, there were - there were no more questions allowed. And I guarantee you there are a lot more questions that reporters would like to ask the president about just what he told the foreign minister of Russia. Although, and I was hearing you guys before discussing this, I'm sure Russia is upset with the way these things have unraveled. But actually they've had a lot more success here than anyone would have thought. Having a meeting in the Oval Office with the foreign minister and with the ambassador, with the president the United States, who apparently gave some highly classified information to them that they would not have expected that they would - that they would get otherwise, quite frankly. And I think there are a lot of questions that still need to be asked about what specifically the president did tell the foreign minister in the Oval Office, even though General McMaster was careful to point out that the president himself did not know the source of information, but that still does not answer the question about whether he told too much of the classified information to the Russians so they could have reverse engineered it and discovered who the source was on their own.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a very sensitive issue.

You've been doing some reporting, Gloria, on the tensions that seem to be building up inside the White House amongst - among the president's top aides and advisers. What are you learning?

BORGER: Well, I've reported, along with Dan Merica, that Jared Kushner, inside the White House, has not been happy and has expressed frustration with the communications staff starting with the Comey controversy and I presume going forward. And we know there's a lot of - there's a lot of struggling going on always inside this White House, but I think the displeasure has also been on the president's mind about his communication staff.

I also think, in talking to people who talk with the president regularly, it was described to me that the president has lost confidence and this - this source said in just about everybody who's - who is working for him. That he feels under siege. That he's blaming his staff. And he's thinking about next steps. And we all know that the White House has, in fact, been in the process of talking to candidates for press secretary, for example.

And, you know, so I think this is, in many ways, Wolf, more of the same that we've been hearing from a White House that seems to be in constant turmoil since day one and that the president himself has been reaching out to people outside the White House to try and get their advice on what to do.

I will add one thing, which is that his friends outside the White House are now, and I'm hearing this for the first time, seeming to express a little bit of frustration at the president himself. Wondering when, in fact, Donald Trump has to start taking some responsibility himself for some of the way he has handled things, most notably the Comey firing and the most recent episode in the Oval Office with the Russians.

BLITZER: Yes, very significant.

John Kirby, you're a former spokesman for the Pentagon, as well as the State Department. The president said the meeting with the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office, Sergey Lavrov, was very, very successful. He didn't go into any elaboration on the controversy that has erupted. That some classified information could have been compromised as a result of what he told the foreign minister and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, but he did tweet this this morning.

[13:25:17] And let me read these three tweets. He said, "as president, I wanted to share with Russia at an openly scheduled White House meeting, which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety, humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS and terrorism." And then he tweeted a little bit later, "I have been asking Director Comey and others from the beginning of my administration to find the leakers in the intelligence community."

So give us your analysis of what has unfolded now since last night when this story first broke in "The Washington Post."

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: It seems to me like this is justification after the fact. And General McMaster himself in today's briefing sort of just came out and said that the president was, in fact, winging it. He said it was in the context of the conversation. In other words, it wasn't prepared, it wasn't planned, it wasn't researched and discussed inside the inner agency that he would - that he would talk about this sensitive information. And if it was wholly appropriate, as the general says it was, then why was it necessary to call the NSA, to call the CIA after the fact and say, hey, look, we wanted to give you a heads up about what was - what was passed. We just want to check that we - that we understand the full classification of it.

And why would it be necessary to negotiate with "The Washington Post" before they publish their story about what should or should not be in that thing. And then why would you have to then, right afterward, put the national security adviser out into the West Wing garden. So I'm afraid it just doesn't add up. I mean, obviously, there was some sensitive information passed to the Russians. Now, if they want to call that successful, that's fine. We don't know what information it was. But it clearly wasn't information that the - that this nation who gave it to us, intended it to be passed on to another nation, most especially not Russia, which is not acting - actually acting against our interests inside Syria.

BLITZER: John Kirby, stand by.

Nick Paton Walsh, our international correspondent, happens to be in the United States right now. Nick, walk us through how the world -- you're based in Beirut, but you spend a lot of time in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, elsewhere in the region - how's the world viewing what's going on in Washington right now?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think if you view foreign policy as perhaps the one area in which Donald Trump has a series of clever, sober experts to advise him, in General McMaster, in Jim Mattis as well, he hasn't made many glaring mistakes thus far, you perhaps see. But the trouble is, he seems to dip into foreign policy as a distraction from domestic woes. When something isn't going well, for example, we see him perhaps lurch towards the North Korea problem. Here, you've seen him with one of the most important characters he's had to deal with in the closing chapter of the fight against ISIS. Remember, he said nobody tougher against ISIS than he would be.

Now, President Erdogan has said quite clearly that he has a problem with the current U.S. strategy to defeat ISIS because they're trying to encircle their self-declared capital of Raqqa with a force comprising Syrian Kurdish fighters, but also some Syrian rebels too. Now, those Syrian Kurds, Turkey considers to be allied with a terrorist group inside Turkey that they are fighting and they have a massive problem with that plan from the beginning. So the clear agenda in the background here we didn't hear much about, we got signals of, will be President Erdogan trying to persuade Donald Trump to undo over a year's work of U.S. military planning to attack Raqqa.

There's one gift Donald Trump, I'm sure consciously gave to President Erdogan there. He said about the fight against ISIS and the PKK. Now, a bit inside of baseball here, but the PKK is the name of the Turkish Kurdish group the U.S. considers terrorists, but Turkey also considers basically being the mirror image of the Syrian Kurdish group that the U.S. is using to fight ISIS inside of Syria. It's very complicated, the fight for Raqqa is, but it's also the closing chapter in defeating ISIS. And they both agreed, clearly nothing's more important than defeating terror.

BLITZER: Yes, they both agreed but there are some substantive, major differences between the U.S. and Turkey right now on various aspects. President Erdogan of Turkey, he did go out of his way to repeatedly praise President Trump and certainly all of us who know President Trump, I'm sure that was very welcome to him.

WALSH: A legendary triumph at the election. That's the words he must have got the most pleasure from hearing, but also referring to how the possibility of a historical turning point in Turkish/Washington relations. Now, bear in mind, they're always uncomfortable with the Obama administration's approach towards fighting ISIS and really the big ask in that room from President Erdogan will have been to Donald Trump, will you turn your back on about 18 months' worth of American special forces and military planning to fight ISIS inside Raqqa and go along with my plan that's not quite so ready or are you going to tell me you're basically going to be backing my allies in fighting - I'm sorry, my enemies in fighting ISIS.

BLITZER: President Erdogan saying - he expressed hope for a new era in U.S./Turkish relations. We shall see.

[13:30:02] Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much.

John Kirby, Gloria Borger, thanks to you as well.

Still ahead, lots more news unfolding.