CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Syria Intervention

Interview

On the phone with me now, Dayton, Ohio, Republican Congressman Mike Turner.

Congressman, thank you for joining us. You are not convinced that a strike against Syria is the way to go. Why is that?

REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO (via phone): Well, Don, I returned last week to Washington to receive a briefing from the administration. And I tell you, the difference to what they're saying publicly and in classified breechings is really not all that different. It is clear that the administration does not have a strategy. We do not know who we are for. We don't have a great understanding of the risks. They have an unexplainable policy with the president's imaginary red line with respect to chemical weapons they acknowledge had been used in this conflict.

And more importantly, the president has shown no leadership in trying to offset sequestration. The automatic egregious cuts happening to the military and we're in the imposition of those the president had tens of thousands of furloughing over 12,000 people in my city alone were furloughed.

LEMON: Let's stick with Syria here. When you -- you said the president, you don't understand the strategy going in. What are the alternatives offered by members of congress? Have you offered an alternative to the president?

TURNER: Well Don, first, on the issue of sequestration, it is related to Syria. It is not a diversion. It is an issue of the president not fully funded military trying to draw us in to the conflict. The president hasn't done the homework, with respect to the use of chemical weapons, the president specific knowledge of this happening in the past galvanizing the international community and so the American public. He needs to explain clearly how this is in our national interest. He says it is not his imaginary red line; it is the international community's red line. But he's not engaged the international community in a way that there is an international Syrian response. This is a president who is, with it until there's a crisis and then draws us in to a conflict but I don't think the American public supports.

LEMON: Yes. I understand that. But my question was, have you offered any alternatives, any other solutions than the military strike?

TURNER: Well, I think the solution is the president, you know, the Congress can't do foreign policy. The president needs to show leadership and engage the international community in this. This is not one where you just drag the military in to a conflict, especially after he's underfunded it with sequestration and I think he's having problems asking the community just as he is with his support in Congress because he has an unexplainable policy. Now chemical weapons used before. We know that over 100,000 people have died and just now turning to the case and should have been making the case and certainly working on when's obviously a devastating conflict that's happening in Syria.

LEMON: You saw those video clips that came out yesterday, very disturbing, really hard to watch. Did that have any influence on you or do you think it will on lawmakers in Washington?

TURNER: I think certainly this is a devastated tragedy. And you see the affects here of Assad's brutal regime and killing its own people. You know, certainly we have known for a while, 100,000 people have been killed.

But the president needs to bring this to an issue of an international community. This is not one where you watch a video and then you pull up, you know, battleships and began to engage in the conflict, make your case of what is our national interest. And at this point he has no strategy that you clearly tell us who are we for in this conflict? We don't know what the geo political views are. Is there someone else pro U.S.? It would be pro our allies? We don't have any context other than the president declaring this a crisis.

LEMON: Ohio congressman, Mike Turner, we appreciate your time on a Sunday evening. Thank you, sir.

TURNER: Don, thank you.

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