WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as "a very good friend" and said the tentative cease-fire in northeastern Syria was "holding very well," before inviting several Republican senators who have been critical of Turkey to join him at a White House meeting with the Turkish leader Wednesday.
"We're having a very good discussion," Trump told reporters as Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, James Risch of Idaho, Rick Scott of Florida and Joni Ernst of Iowa sat on couches before him and Erdogan in the Oval Office.
"The purpose of this meeting is to have an American civics lesson with our Turkish friends," said Graham, who last month called on Trump to "stand up to Erdogan" and called him a "thug."
Erdogan's visit comes amid smoldering tensions over Turkey's offensive against U.S.-allied Syrian Kurds after Trump announced last month he would withdraw U.S. troops from the region, a move that has engendered bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.
But Trump rebuffed lawmakers who had called on him to cancel the invitation, saying Erdogan has lived up to an Oct. 17 agreement negotiated with Vice President Mike Pence to limit Turkey's incursion into Syria and allow it to create a long-coveted buffer zone at least 20 miles deep inside Syria. Turkey's military operations have displaced an estimated 100,000 people in northern Syria from their homes, according to the United Nations.
"I want to thank the president for the job they've done," Trump told reporters earlier Wednesday as he welcomed Erdogan to the White House. He added that the Syrian Kurds, longtime partners with the United States in fighting the Islamic State in the region, "seem very satisfied" with the cease-fire deal.
"The president and I are very good friends. We have been for a long time - almost from Day 1," Trump said. "I understand the problems that they've had - including many people from Turkey being killed, in the area that we're talking about. And he has to do something about that also. It's not a one-way street."
The bilateral meeting came as House Democrats staged their first public hearing in the impeachment probe over Trump's conduct in a phone call with the leader of Ukraine over the summer. In the Oval Office, the president said he was not watching the hearings, which he called a "witch hunt" and a "hoax."
"There's nothing there," Trump said.
The two leaders were expected to discuss the security situation in the region, as well as efforts to put relations on a better track after Turkey purchased a sophisticated Russian missile-defense system, the S-400. U.S. law mandates sanctions for such purchases from an "adversary," and the administration already has cut Turkey's participation in the international consortium building the new F-35 fighter jet.
Senior administration officials said that an offer to circumvent those punishments and also implement a new $100 billion trade deal - both of which Trump had offered Erdogan last month in a failed effort to prevent the Turkish military operation in Syria - were still possible if Turkey complies with the cease-fire agreement and the situation in northeastern Syria stabilizes.
"We think we can bring trade up very quickly," Trump said. Erdogan, in brief remarks through an interpreter, thanked Trump but did not offer details of his goals of the meeting, citing a joint news conference with the two leaders later in the day.
Graham, a Trump confidant, initially had criticized Trump's decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria - about 1,000 troops - as "the biggest mistake of his presidency." But he later congratulated the president on the cease-fire deal, and Trump's subsequent agreement to leave about 600 troops in northeastern Syria.
Ernst and Scott said in advance of the meeting that they planned to confront Erdogan on Turkey's purchase of the S-400 missile systems.
"I want to make sure he understands that we're gonna have to implement sanctions," said Scott, a vocal critic of Erdogan. "The president doesn't have a choice. And that's not gonna be good for Turkey."
Trump has held off on imposing congressionally-mandated sanctions on Turkey for the S-400 purchase, while canceling its participation in the F-35 program. Administration officials, citing Turkey's importance as a NATO and regional ally, have said Trump would propose a workaround that would allow Turkey to keep the S-400s as long as it does not deploy them, and purchase F-35s.
"I project that we will work something out," Trump said at the meeting with the Senators.
Last month, an overwhelming House majority voted to impose separate sanctions on Erdogan's regime for its assault on Syria.
Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., have proposed a similar sanctions package as have Graham and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., but neither bill has been scheduled for a floor vote.
Several Democratic senators joined Van Hollen in calling Trump's decision to host Erdogan at the White House as "absolutely shameful" and some Republicans voiced similar, if more muted, concerns.
"This is an unfortunate time, in my opinion, for the visit," Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, said in an interview Wednesday. "I would like Turkey to adopt appropriate human rights and democratic principles, to reject the purchase of Russian military system and to be a more reliable member of NATO."
In a statement issued Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he "shared my colleagues' uneasiness at seeing President Erdogan honored at the White House."
But, he said, “I urge this body to remain clear-eyed about our nation’s vital interests in the Middle East and the fact that advancing them will mean strengthening our relationship with this NATO ally, not weakening it further.”