Rep. Turner says Rubio's explanation was "absolutely not" sufficient about Ukraine Starlink slowdown

[0:00] And we're joined now by Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner. [0:03] Good morning, and thanks for being here in person. [0:06] A lot to get to with you, but let's start on politics. [0:09] Ohio has been reliably Republican, but you've got a competitive gubernatorial race and Senate race in Minnesota, in Iowa, in Michigan, and in Maine. [0:19] Republicans have been positioning themselves as independent of the president on some issues. [0:25] Take a listen. [0:25] When Trump is right, I'll work with him. [0:29] When he's wrong, I'll stand up for Minnesota. [0:32] We need to lower gas prices in this country. [0:34] We need to lower diesel prices, but I don't think we need to be making a deal with Russia to do it. [0:37] Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. [0:41] We need to end this tariff war now. [0:44] I agree that the president did not have a good plan. [0:48] He should have anticipated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. [0:56] I know you've been endorsed by President Trump. [0:58] You did appear at a rally with him, but do you feel it would help to create some distance like they did? [1:05] Well, as you know, I don't run with the president. [1:07] I don't run from the president. [1:08] It's one of the reasons why you have me on this show, because of the fact that I have my own agenda. [1:14] And I think what's important, as your pollster has indicated, he's talking of trends. [1:21] What's most important as he ended his presentation, as Anthony said, this is about who gets out to vote. [1:27] And everybody needs to get out and vote. [1:29] You know, Margaret, my very first race, I won by 244 votes out of 44,000. [1:34] It's really, really important as to who gets out and votes. [1:38] So my message would be to everyone is to get out and vote. [1:41] And also, when they go to the polls, they need to make sure that they vote in every race. [1:45] It's amazing the number of drop-offs that people have. [1:48] As they go down the ballot, people need to vote in every race, and they need to get out and vote. [1:52] But clearly, those candidates felt they needed to say that. [1:56] Fox had a poll this week showing 6 in 10 respondents were extremely concerned about government corruption. [2:01] AP had one that said 6 in 10 adults believe Trump is illegally profiting from the presidency, or at least doing something unethical. [2:09] Your local paper, the Columbus Dispatch, wrote it could not endorse the Republican Senate candidate because of the abject failure, this is a quote, [2:16] of Republicans in Congress to stop visible corruption and abuse of power by the Trump administration. [2:21] It referred to Republicans as almost entirely spineless. [2:25] How do you counter those perceptions? [2:28] Do you feel you need to? [2:29] No, of course, Columbus is not my local paper. [2:34] You're Dayton, but it is still talking about the Senate race and talking about the perception that Congress has not pushed back on the president. [2:41] Right. [2:41] Well, I think Congress has pushed back, and certainly I have pushed back. [2:45] And in my community, I'm seen as part of the integral economic development team, the local economic development team of my community. [2:54] And the aspect of what people are doing or are not doing with respect to this administration is, I think, an individual candidates issue. [3:03] And people vote for individual candidates. [3:05] They don't vote for a team. [3:07] They don't vote for a slate. [3:08] And I think that's why individual candidates are talking about their individual records, as I do. [3:14] People look in my community. [3:15] They see me as a job creator. [3:18] They see me as someone. [3:19] Margaret, if you came to my community and we took a drive along my community and I showed you my accomplishments, you'd see things at my local base where we've doubled the jobs both inside and outside the fence, the VA where we've created senior housing. [3:36] And, like, my opponent wouldn't be able to get out of the driveway of her house. [3:39] Those are the kind of things that people look to for the individual candidates. [3:43] But the president is central here. [3:45] The president is telling people, vote like he is on the ballot. [3:49] Well, that's the president. [3:50] That's not the individual candidates. [3:51] He thinks he's doing candidates like you some good when he says things like that and comes out and rallies in Ohio. [3:58] Well, he came to a rally in my community, as he said in the community when he was there, campaigning for the top of the ticket. [4:05] When he came to my community, he actually came when he was speaking of my record, that he was committing to sign legislation to restore the Delphi's salary pensioners who had their pensions taken away into the Obama administration. [4:20] He committed to sign that legislation to restore those pensions that I had been working on for over a decade. [4:27] That makes over 5,000 people in my community restore their pensions. [4:31] I've been working on paychecks and pensions, and that's the type of thing that makes a difference in my community. [4:35] Well, let's talk about some of those things, which, because that hasn't passed yet, some of those things could get gunked up in the lame duck because of what I'm about to ask you about. [4:41] It's currently a bill pending that the president has committed to sign. [4:44] Okay. [4:45] If it can get to his desk. [4:46] I want to ask you about Elon Musk's SpaceX technology. [4:50] Starlink, Ukraine, uses it for communication. [4:52] They use it to control their drones. [4:54] Secretary Rubio said no one at the White House ordered it to be slowed down this week so that drones couldn't use it. [5:00] But effectively, that was the outcome. [5:02] Here is how Secretary Rubio explained it last night. [5:06] We had nothing to do with it. [5:07] The United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. [5:12] It sort of happened. [5:13] But my understanding is it's been restored. [5:17] Is it sort of happened sufficient explanation for you and others on the Armed Services Committee? [5:22] Absolutely not. [5:23] I mean, this is something where there needs to be an investigation. [5:26] There needs to be a congressional investigation. [5:28] I mean, this is one of those things where we see that policies occur, where sometimes there's breaks in weapon systems that are supposed to be sent to Ukraine that doesn't happen, [5:40] where monies don't arrive, where intelligence gets broken, where then later that we find unnamed people in the Pentagon perhaps break it. [5:53] There needs to be an investigation. [5:54] We need to find out who these people are because lives are at risk and lives are lost over these things. [5:59] And even today, you know, the Institute for the Study of War reports today, and Zelensky reports that, you know, perhaps it's spotty. [6:06] There are areas where it's restored. [6:08] It's been throttled back. [6:09] And there are areas where perhaps it is not. [6:11] People's lives are at risk. [6:12] And this is within Ukraine. [6:14] This is areas where they're trying to defend themselves. [6:16] This is essential to the United States' support of Ukraine in defending real aggressive attacks by Russia within Ukraine, and this needs to be restored. [6:25] But Elon Musk, who owns this company, and Starlink is a commercial enterprise, Elon Musk publicly opposes President Zelensky. [6:34] He posted on social media he doesn't want Starlink used for offensive military action. [6:39] I know Secretary Rubio said it had been restored. [6:42] But this is within Ukraine. [6:44] This is defending Ukraine against aggression within Ukraine. [6:47] Exactly. [6:47] But it is just they're all pointing at each other, saying, no, DOD is in charge. [6:52] No, Elon Musk's in charge. [6:54] I don't know. [6:54] It just sort of happened. [6:55] But the policy decision has been made that Star Shield will be utilized for the purposes of Ukraine defending itself against Russian aggression. [7:02] Star Shield. [7:03] Star Shield. [7:03] Which is the U.S. military contract. [7:04] Which is within its territory. [7:05] And it has, by everybody's reports, been broken in its ability to be able to be accessed. [7:13] And there should be an investigation as to why. [7:14] And it should be completely restored. [7:15] The president, there were a series of actions, not just the diesel waivers, these actions in regard to Ukraine's ability to defend itself. [7:24] And then you saw him waive, or at least pause for a period of time, the sanctions that you voted should be in place under the Lindsey Graham bill. [7:35] They were supposed to punish buyers of Russian oil. [7:38] He said, don't implement them. [7:41] Will you encourage him to reverse course? [7:43] Okay, there's two separate things here. [7:44] The sanctions under the Lindsey Graham bill, this weekend, there was a deadline for the president to either waive or to impose sanctions upon, there are three categories, the individuals in the Russian government, Russia itself, and individuals doing business, governments doing business with Russia. [8:08] The president had those three categories, impose them, or waive them, or waive them in part. [8:15] I would encourage the president to do so. [8:18] That bill being in place is, and the president has signed it, is important. [8:22] It's a legacy of Lindsey Graham. [8:24] It's important that it's in place. [8:25] The president now has that authority. [8:26] He has waived it. [8:27] He has, in that waiver that he signed, a continuing opportunity to now, and that Secretary Rubio has confirmed, [8:35] to continue daily the opportunity to waive in part, or not waive in part, in other words, to institute those sanctions. [8:44] I would encourage him to do so. [8:46] Does that mean you would withhold your vote for some of his agenda items in the lame duck, as we've had other representatives, Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike McCall, suggest they would do? [8:56] Well, I think it depends, as we go through this process of discussion as to what, I don't think there's any, you know, brinksmanship that needs to have to occur on this. [9:05] I think there are discussions that need to occur on these waivers. [9:09] Some of those waivers should not be absolute, because, for example, you know, the biggest offender of this, and Zelensky needs to come to the table loudly, [9:18] the EU is the fourth largest offender of purchasing energy from Russia, and the France is one of them. [9:27] A quarter of a billion dollars they purchased of energy from Russia just in August. [9:35] Okay. [9:36] We have to leave it there. [9:37] Congressman, thank you.