CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Mike Turner (R)

Interview

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BURNETT: Tonight, a scathing allegation from a Republican congressman. You heard the panel just mention it.

Well, the headline is Putin is manipulating the president of the United States. And the person who wrote that is a Republican, Will Hurd from Texas. In "The New York Times," he wrote, quote: Over the course of my career as an undercover officer and CIA, I saw Russians manipulate many people. I never thought I would see the day when an American president would be one of them.

Republican Congressman Mike Turner joins me. He serves in the House Intelligence Committee, along with Congressman Hurd. Obviously, they both have been intimately involved in the investigation that went on there into Russian meddling in the election.

Congressman, do you agree with your colleague, Mr. Hurd?

REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO: Well, I think what's important here -- and I don't agree -- I think is that the American public is certainly disappointed in the president's performance with Putin. I certainly, as you spoke, there were certainly times when we were disappointed in Obama's performance after he had met, for example, Medvedev in Russia, came out of a private meeting and afterwards, the open mic caught saying, you know, we'll tell Vlad, you know, basically we can strike a better deal once the election is over. I'll have greater flexibility are the words that he used.

BURNETT: Right.

TURNER: So, it's not -- you know, it's an -- yes, so, it's an issue of, you know, I think that what we expect as Americans, especially under this time when the Department of Justice had just indicted several Russians and the Russian government for meddling in our elections. I mean, we have the nerve agent attack in London.

BURNETT: So --

TURNER: We have still the occupation in Ukraine, that President Trump needed to stand strong. And in this, he did not, and, of course, that's incredibly disappointing. BURNETT: So, but you're saying you don't agree with manipulate. You

don't agree with what Clapper saying, Panetta saying, your former colleague Charlie Dent is saying, they're all saying after Helsinki, they're now wondering does Putin have anything on the president. You think they go too far and you think Will Hurd goes too far when he says --

TURNER: Yes.

BURNETT: -- Putin is manipulating Trump?

TURNER: Right. I think it's an exaggeration. I think it's very consistent with what we've seen from this administration, though, and the inconsistency in their responses or reaction on the foreign stage and in foreign policy. We saw it certainly with Prime Minister May in the U.K. where at one point, he's criticizing her over the E.U., and the next point, he's embracing what she's doing. So, I think certainly there's a degree of inexperience.

But the more important thing I think, which gives us a warning of the upcoming announcement of the upcoming summit --

BURNETT: Yes.

TURNER: -- is that there was no real plan for this summit. We had no idea what the president's goals were, what the United States was trying to achieve. And so, coming out of that, I think we were all, you know, kind of shocked with the demeanor that the president had, but it largely comes from lack of planning, lack of goals, lack of strategy.

Hopefully, if the new summit as announced goes forward, we'll have a clear understanding of what is the subject matter, why are we doing this, what does the president want to achieve?

BURNETT: Right. I mean, because let's be honest. It's embarrassing. The Russians are leaking. And they clearly had an agenda for what they wanted out of it and they're saying these things came up, right?

We don't have anything to counter it with because, well, the president didn't let anyone else in the room. And on the second meeting that you talked about -- I mean, what I think so many people find so hard to understand, Congressman, and I'm sure on some level you share this shock, that the president's top intelligence aide, the director of national intelligence, right, his chief intelligence officer, Dan Coats, had no idea that the president invited Putin to Washington, right?

[19:45:15] I just have to play this moment again because I can't -- every time I hear it, I sort of am stunned. Let me play it.

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BURNETT: Congressman Turner, we learned tonight Coats spoke to the White House before this panel, 45 minutes before he had a conversation with them. They did not tell him about this. I mean, is this acceptable?

TURNER: Right. And I think we all have criticism of how this administration has used Twitter, people being fired over Twitter, as I recall. So I think this is not presidential to be making announcements like this over Twitter in that format anyway.

Now, the director of national intelligence does report to the president, not the other way around. So, I'm less concerned that he didn't get the memo, really than the treating of cabinet members in that matter. That certainly is embarrassing. And it certainly shows.

What my greater concern is, is that there's not strategic work happening to plan the summit. I mean, you would think that all of his top cabinet members on national security issues would be pulled together and help formulate what's the strategy, what are the plans were, what are the goals, before the announcement of a summit happens. And I think that not having been completed certainly puts us in grave concern over what might happen next.

BURNETT: All right. Congressman Turner, I appreciate your time tonight. Thanks, sir.

TURNER: Thank you. Thank you.

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