Fox's Ari Fleischer agrees with Trump that the Kurds in Syria “are no angels”
Fleischer: “Well, he's right. I mean, in this region of the world there are no angels. The American people certainly don't know who's on the side of angels.”
Published
Citation From the October 16 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom
SANDRA SMITH (CO-ANCHOR): We are just getting a read-out from the meeting that is happening in the White House right now. The president is obviously talking about Syria right now. He just said the Kurds and Turks may fight, and mentioned that there are no angels -- they are no angels, by the way. This coming from the president inside the White House just a few moments ago. Your reaction to that.
ARI FLEISCHER (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, he's right. I mean, in this region of the world there are no angels. The American people certainly don't know who's on the side of angels. But I do think the president made a blunder in that phone call with President Erdogan. I think it would have been far better for the United States to stay there, to say in that phone call, you cannot invade, do not invade, and we will keep our troops there. It was the right thing substantively to do. But the president's got the politics of this one right. The American people don't know who the Kurds are, they don't know which side they're on, they don't know if the Turks are friends with the Syrians or friends with the Turks. And they don't know any of the initials that Jennifer Griffin just reported about what's going on in Syria with the different groups there. So it's hard to get the American people to say we should be in Syria when the American people don't even know whose side it was on.
SMITH: But Ari, let me read further here. The president also just said if Turkey goes into Syria, it is between Turkey and Syria, it's not our problem, said the president.
FLEISCHER: Yeah. And that's why I think politically he's going to be on fine ground despite all the blow-up that he has gotten from people in Washington, including my opposition to what he did. And I knew that because I believe we should have stood with the Kurds. I do think there is merit in America's word when we give it abroad and you stand by our allies. But I think I'm on a lonely platform here. I think most of the American people are exactly where the president is. It's between Turkey and the Kurds.