https://www.axios.com/erdogan-turkey-kurds-movie-oval-office-trump-gop-senators-b9acd411-19f3-4de6-9003-0525a43114bd.html"An Oval Office meeting yesterday with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took a dark turn when Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and made the group watch a propaganda video that depicted the leader of the primarily-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist, according to three sources familiar with the meeting."
"Erdoğan's video "was unpersuasive," according to a source who was in the room. It depicted members of the YPG (the U.S.-allied People's Protection Units) and the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which the State Department has designated as a terrorist group).
After the film concluded, according to the source, Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Erdoğan:
"Well, do you want me to go get the Kurds to make one about what you've done?" Erdoğan got into a heated back-and-forth with Graham over Turkey's recent invasion of Syria, according to four sources familiar with the meeting. A source in the room said Erdoğan took exception to Graham using the word "invasion" and that Graham also rebutted Erdoğan when he claimed that Turkey had fought ISIS."
" Sen. Ted Cruz said in a statement that he "made clear to President Erdoğan that so long as Turkey continues to procure or deploy the S-400 air defense system from Russia, the U.S. will not sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey." All the senators in the room, including Joni Ernst and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch, were unified on the S-400 point.
Sen. Rick Scott pressed Erdoğan on "why Turkey should enjoy the protections of NATO when they're cozying up to Russia," according to another source familiar with the meeting."
