Fox News "Fox News Sunday" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Van Hollen

Interview

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Joining me now, Democratic senator, Chris Van Hollen, who has written that bill, along with Republican Lindsey Graham. Senator, you just heard Secretary Esper talking about the fact that the president has ordered him to pull U.S. troops, all of the U.S. troops, out of Northern Syria, basically to leave the Kurds on their own, and that we understand that they have made a deal -- cut a deal, the Kurds have, with Assad's forces in Syria and the Russians, and they're going to go them for protection against the Turks. Your reaction?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-MD: Well, Chris, what we're seeing on the ground right now is absolutely sickening. It's absolutely shameful that President Trump allowed Turkey to begin killing the Syrian Kurds who are our allies in the fight against ISIS. And that's why you have this big, bipartisan uproar. You have ISIS right now being the big winner, because the Syrian Kurds were our most effective partner in going after ISIS. Now, they're going to have a comeback. That's what Secretary Mattis, former secretary of defense, just said. You just heard the current secretary of defense essentially say the Trump administration is doing nothing. They're asking Turkey, oh please, please stop what you're doing. That is nothing, so that's why you're going to see a strong bipartisan response from the Congress. First of all, we want to insist that President Trump actually step up and do something. He said he was going to destroy the Turkish economy if Erdogan did this kind of thing, and yet, he's doing absolutely nothing. If fact, this administration sided with Russia and opposed a resolution at the United Nations Security Council, a statement condemning Turkey's actions. So Congress is going to first call upon the president to do the right thing, but we since we can't count on that, we will have this bipartisan legislation that will impose very stiff sanctions on Turkey until they stop their aggression and withdraw their forces.

WALLACE: Now, Treasury secretary, Mnuchin, on Friday, said that President Trump had authorized him, not that he had imposed, but authorized him at some point to impose tough sanctions on -- against Turkey. Here is the secretary of this treasury.

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STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don't have to use them, but we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to.

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WALLACE: So I guess the question is, when are they going to do that?

VAN HOLLEN: For God sakes, what are they waiting for, right? People are being killed right now. Our Syrian Kurdish allies are being killed right now. It looks like many of the ISIS detainees, there are about 10,000 fighters, are now possibly going to be able to escape. There are reports this morning that ISIS sympathizers have already escaped, thousands of them. And here, you have Secretary Mnuchin saying, oh, well, we'll think about it. Maybe we'll do something. President Trump tweeting that he's going to destroy their economy. They look ridiculous right now. So that's why it's important that the Congress move forward on this front. I don't know what this administration's waiting for. All they're doing is talking while people are being killed.

WALLACE: So let's talk about you and Lindsay Graham. A pretty staunch Democrat and a very staunch Republican are writing, putting together your own set of sanctions. But as we say, while this is going on, and I understand, you're -- the Congress comes back from recess tomorrow, the Kurds are being slaughtered. As you say, ISIS supporters and fighters are leaving. Have you gotten a commitment form Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, one, that he is going to take this up and, two, schedule it for a quick vote? Because the longer you wait, the longer the Turks are there to do their worst in Northern Syria.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, you're right, Chris. We believe momentum is building for the Congress to act, since this president has shown a total unwillingness to do something in the face of this slaughter. You're already seeing bipartisan movement in the Senate, the bill you discussed. You're also seeing bipartisan legislation in the House coming together. So the key is to act quickly. As you say, time is of the essence. But you know, when Congress wants to act quickly, it can. So the Senate could take this bill up, pass it, send it to the House and then send it to the president's deck. The president who said he wanted to "destroy the Turkish economy if they did this kind of thing." And so, we need to move very quickly, because --

WALLACE: But have you gotten any commitment from Mitch McConnell that they are going to move quickly?

VAN HOLLEN: To my knowledge, Mitch McConnell has not yet committed to that, which is why it's very important that members of the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, call upon him to do that. I do understand that, in the House, you have a strong bipartisan group also pushing for sanctions, because everyday that it goes on, ISIS s the winner. I mean, these are the guys who pose the biggest terrorist threat to the United States in the world. They're celebrating what's happening here. And so, I do believe Congress will muster the bipartisan will to do something quickly.

WALLACE: I want to ask you two quick questions, in the time we have left, about the other big story in Washington, which is impeachment. You have now, since the Zelensky phone call rough transcript was released, you have now called for -- supported the House impeachment inquiry. From what you have seen so far, do you believe that there is sufficient evidence that the president should be removed from office?

VAN HOLLEN: Well Chris, what we've seen from this president, in that transcript and other actions, is a president who was abusing his power, using the power of the office of the presidency to try to get a foreign government, the Ukraine, to interfere on his behalf in an American election. And the evidence is also mounting that he withheld vital U.S. military assistance to Ukraine that they need to stop Russian aggression. In my view, that is an impeachable offense, but -- but, the hearings will have to collect the evidence and the president and the White House will have an opportunity to put forward any exculpatory evidence they want. So, I won't reach any final conclusion until all the evidence is in, but the evidence that is in is very damming of the president's actions.

WALLACE: And finally --

VAN HOLLEN: So, and the fact that they refuse -- the fact, Chris, that they refused to present the information, you asked the Secretary about documents about the Ukraine arms sales, the fact that they refused to present more information suggests that they don't have any exculpatory evidence.

WALLACE: And very briefly, even if all 47 Democrats were in the Senate to vote to remove the president, you would still need 20 Republicans to get to the super majority of 67. At this point, and again, briefly, do you see any chance that 20 Republicans are going to jump ship, Senate Republicans, jump ship on the president and vote to remove him?

VAN HOLLEN: Chris, I'm not going to prejudge anything, because there's still a lot of evidence to come in. The evidence about this Administration withholding very important military assistance to Ukraine, while the president tried, through is lawyer Giuliani and others to try to get Ukraine to interfere on President Trump's behalf in an election, as that evidence comes in I hope people will take a very close look at it and ask themselves, what would they have been doing and saying if President Obama had done something like that.

WALLACE: Senator Van Hollen, thank you. Thanks for your time today.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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