Ohio representative on Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Representative Mike Turner (R-Ohio) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump's Friday meeting in the Oval Office.
"The first thing, obviously, is, you know, we have to realize why this is important and really what was at stake here. I mean, this is important because Ukraine is important. This is about the fight between, you know, authoritarianism and freedom and democracy. This is the Ronald Reagan, you know, evil empire against democracy. So aswe're watching this fight, we have to be concerned about what's crumbling here and what needs to be put back together. I think that's what we all felt in our stomachs and our anxiety as we watched what was at risk here. The second thing is, is really how inappropriate this was for Zelenskyy. I mean, the context is, this was a signing agreement. Zelenskyy had been negotiating with the United States on a minerals deal, an economic deal, as the treasury secretary said. He'd been doing so for weeks. I'd met with him with members of Congress in Munich. He had told us some of the terms that he wanted. He had a successful deal. The United States had conceded. He was flying here under the pretext that he was going to sign this deal. This should have been a win. As he's sitting in the Oval Office, he said, you know, I want, you know, the president to stand with Ukraine. In moments, he was going to be standing with the president of the United States with a win that he had negotiated, and instead of taking that win, he turned it into a debate on American security guarantees during the peace negotiations, instead of taking that win and then from that going forward."
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio)
Brennan said the meeting "went sideways after a Polish reporter in the room asked President Trump about his perceived alignment with Vladimir Putin," which she said that was what Zelenskyy was reacting to, prompting her to ask Turner if he really thinks that "this was all to blow it up, or was it just people are talking past each other," to which Turner responded in part:
"I think fundamentally here, you know again, you don't fly...a quarter across the world for a signing ceremony for a deal with the president of the United States, and turn it into a debate on American security guarantees, on peace negotiations that are unrelated to the mineral deal...the economic deal, that you came to sign...And what you saw was him enter into a very public debate with the President of the United States in the Oval Office of 'I want an American security guarantee as a precondition for peace negotiations'...No president is going to give him as a precondition to peace negotiations."
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Turner, click here.
