Trump Praises Turkish Power Grab?
BLITZER: We're back with House Armed Services Committee member John Garamendi. Congressman, I want you to stand by for a moment. We are learning more right now about President Trumps' outreach to the leader of Turkey, who dramatically expanded his authoritarian power in a vote tainted by allegations of serious fraud. Let's go to our senior diplomatic correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. Michelle, the White House says Mr. Trump has no regrets about his congratulatory phone call to President Erdogan. What is the latest?</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this is a complicated relationship. The U.S. needs Turkey's continued help in the fight against ISIS, but it also wants to see a strong democracy there. So, what we are seeing from the administration right now is this odd almost good cop/bad cop dynamic, with President Trump being the only Western leader to call Turkish President Erdogan and congratulate him. But at the same time, the State Department is saying there are some problems here.</s>KOSINSKI (voice-over): Turkish President Recep Erdogan's divisive, razor-thin national referendum win now means he has sweeping powers, but he tells CNN in an exclusive interview he is not a dictator.</s>RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): For a dictatorship to exist, you don't necessarily have to have a presidential system.</s>KOSINSKI: Outside observers, though, suspect a rigged election and that this was more about Erdogan gaining power than improving Turkey's political system. The only Western leader to call Erdogan and congratulate him? Donald Trump. No mention of concerns observers have that ballots were manipulated or illegally counted, that there was intimidation, that the election happened during a state of emergency after last year's coup attempt, during which Erdogan's government fired or suspended more than 100,000 people, including teachers and journalists, and jailed tens of thousands of others. Today, a Trump administration official tells</s>CNN: "The president is aware of all of that. On the other hand, Turkey is a vital NATO ally in the counterterrorism field. If your policy is America first and protecting America, there are times when you're going to be picking from some imperfect options." Still, zero European leaders joined Trump in contacting Erdogan. Others who did congratulate include Hamas, Qatar and Bahrain.</s>WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There are political consequences of this, but I think the president obviously made a decision to continue to reinforce our relationship with Turkey, given the circumstances of facing ISIS on the ground.</s>KOSINSKI: It was the president's own State Department that sounded the alarm about democracy in a statement. "Concerns include observed irregularities on voting day and an uneven playing field. We look to the government of Turkey to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens, commitment to the rule of law and a diverse and free media." Trump, though, has praised strongman leaders like Vladimir Putin. Critics question whether Trump's own business interests in Turkey prevent him pushing back against Erdogan's tactics. Trump admitted in the 2015 interview with Steve Bannon at Breitbart News:</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major, major building in Istanbul that it is a tremendously successful job. It is called Trump Towers. They are incredible people. They have a strong leader.</s>SONER CAGAPTAY, DIRECTOR, TURKISH RESEARCH PROGRAM, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: The message that he congratulated President Erdogan of course will not sit well with the millions of Turks who did not vote for President Erdogan and were very upset that an election that looks like rigged will get a seal of approval from the United States.</s>KOSINSKI: Tonight, the White House continues to defend the phone call, saying that President Trump supports democracy, but he was protecting American interests in this call by focusing on working together. And it should be said that the Obama administration also at times struggled with its relationship. Remember, after the coup attempt, as Erdogan was cracking down with tens of thousands of people affected, the White House at first refused to say they had any problem with it. It was only after constant questioning by reporters that they finally admitted, OK, we have some concerns -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Michelle, thank you, Michelle Kosinski at the State Department. Let's get back to Congressman Garamendi. So, Congressman, the Trump administration seems to be implying that speaking out on this shift towards authoritarianism in Turkey would hurt the overall fight against ISIS. Do you believe this is an either/or situation?</s>GARAMENDI: No, not at all. I do think that the White House is quite correct that Trump is protecting an American interest in Istanbul. Clearly, President Trump has a serious conflict of interest in everything that goes on in Turkey. And this isn't the first example of where he has weighed into Turkish issues that ultimately come to his benefit, and the interview with Bannon is a pretty good example, where he admits his own conflict. This speaks to the larger issue of just who and what is Trump protecting. Now, in the larger sense, Turkey is an extremely important part of the American-NATO system, also extremely important of the fight against ISIS, not without some serious difficulties as to what to do with the Kurds who we support, that is, the Syrian Kurds, in their effort to go after ISIS. The Turks clearly oppose that. And so this conflict has yet to be worked out. And one of the reasons that things seemed to stall in the attack on Raqqa is that this issue between Turkey, the Kurds, the Syrian Kurds and the United States has not yet been worked out.</s>BLITZER: Certainly hasn't. So what message, do you believe, Congressman, President Trump's reaction to this referendum sends to other foreign leaders?</s>GARAMENDI: Well, it sends, don't worry about democracy. You are not going to get anything from the White House about human rights, about democracy, civil liberties, and the rest. Take the Philippines, for example. The president has been very, very quiet about what is gone on in the Philippines with Duterte, and at the same time, Duterte has sent as his personal emissary to the White House Mr. Trump's business partner. These connections are very, very troublesome, because it leads all of us to wonder, just what is the priority? Is it personal business or is it the American business? It's not clear in my mind. These questions are raised multiple times across the entire world. And then the Ivanka Trump issue, receiving two additional trademarks after meeting with Xi at Mar-a-Lago, what is that all about? This woman at the time was a White House aide. She was an employee of the U.S. government, of the American people. Meeting personally with the president of China, and then getting a little goody on the hands like a trademark? These are real serious questions about conflict of interest at the highest level of the American government and, by the way, happens to be the way in which business is conducted in China, or at least was conducted in China, favoritism to the powerful. We can't have that in America. But we're beginning to see that in many, many ways with this White House. And, by the way, we really ought to have the tax returns, so we can know exactly what the conflicts are.</s>BLITZER: John Garamendi, the congressman from California, thanks for joining us.</s>GARAMENDI: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Just ahead: the armada mixup. How did U.S. officials get the location of U.S. warships wrong? And did President Trump oversell it as a show of force aimed at Kim Jong-un? And the president's buy American message, is it resonating at a time when many Americans don't think he is keeping his promises?