Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed about Impeachment Investigation Developments.
CAMEROTA: America's top diplomat in Ukraine, Ambassador Bill Taylor, testified before House committees on Tuesday for nearly ten hours. In his explosive testimony, Ambassador Taylor explained, quote, "In August and September of this year, I became increasingly concerned that our relationship with Ukraine was being fundamentally undermined by an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making and by the withholding of vital security assistance for domestic political reasons." Joining us now to talk about this and more is Democratic Senator Chris Coons. He's a member of the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees. Good morning, Senator.</s>SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Good morning, Alisyn. Always good to be on with you.</s>CAMEROTA: Great to have you. So I know that all this happened on the House side. You're on the Senate side. But now that his opening statement, his 15-page opening statement, has been made public, do you think that all of the pretty jaw-dropping revelations that Ambassador Taylor made will change anything on the Senate side? Particularly among your Republican colleagues?</s>COONS: Well, Alisyn, that's hard to know. But anyone who paid attention to Ambassador Taylor's testimony yesterday has got to sit up and pay attention. Bill Taylor is well-regarded as a career diplomat, not someone who is known to have any publicly-identified political leanings. And that he came forward, in spite of the open opposition of the leadership of the State Department, to testify forcefully and clearly for hours that there was a politically-motivated, inappropriate quid pro quo behind the holding back of badly-needed military assistance to Ukraine, an ally of the United States that faces years of persistent, aggressive undermining of their security by Russian-backed separatist militia in the Donbass. That really is shocking. This is as strong a piece of evidence as I've heard so far in the House inquiry. And I think it lends further support to the idea that the House inquiry is appropriate and should be proceeding.</s>CAMEROTA: Speaking of Russia, I want to ask you about this Vladimir Putin/President Erdogan of Turkey meeting yesterday, where they basically awarded themselves control of the area in Syria that U.S. troops had formerly been patrolling last week or two weeks ago. What is the upshot of all of this to you?</s>COONS: Well, Alisyn, yesterday in the Foreign Relations Committee, we had Ambassador Jeffrey in front of us, who is the special envoy for Syria, and the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey. He tried valiantly to do his job and to defend this abrupt reversal of America's position. But in his written testimony, he said our core national security interests in Syria are preventing Iran from maintaining or expanding its foothold; securing the defeat of ISIS; and making sure there's a resolution to the Syria civil war that reflects America's priorities and values. On all three fronts, this tragic, ill-informed mistake by our president weakens the United States' position. We've lost our seat at the table for any future negotiations. We've lost the trust of the Kurds and any other fighting force that might stand alongside us in difficult conflicts in the future. And most critically, we've emboldened ISIS. At least a hundred hardened ISIS fighters have escaped. And having control over the roughly 10,000 who are still in detention is an uncertain prospect going forward. So I frankly think this very large area, frankly, almost the size of Delaware, that is -- has been lost to Kurdish control and is now being jointly patrolled by Russians and Turks, is an area that has millions of people in it and could very soon be the scene of ethnic cleansing. I'm gravely concerned, Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: Did you find it surprising what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did yesterday? He introduced this joint resolution condemning this act. And as you know, he's been reluctant to condemn things in the past about President Trump. And saying that President Trump should rescind the invitation to Erdogan to come to the White House, which I think was planned for November. Did that surprise you?</s>COONS: That's right. Alisyn, it does surprise me, because Majority Leader McConnell has been so reticent to ever criticize President Trump's action. And I think both the editorial that Majority Leader McConnell published this past weekend that was very forceful, and this resolution on the floor suggests that there is broad bipartisan opposition. I'll remind you, back in January of this year, 70 senators, myself included, joined a resolution of the Senate that was led by Majority Leader McConnell that expressed our strong opposition to a precipitous withdrawal from Syria. And former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a widely-respected, decorated, four-star Marine Corps general, resigned in protest when President Trump tried to pull the same maneuver last December. He was well-informed in advance of how strongly senators, both Republican and Democrat, feel about this. And yet our president went ahead and did it anyway while we were on recess. I'm encouraged that Majority Leader McConnell is stepping forward with this resolution.</s>CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the 2020 race. Of course, you support your fellow Delawarean, Joe Biden. I want to ask you about his fundraising, though, which has been lackluster. compared to some of his rivals. So here's for the third quarter. He raised --