Leon Panetta on the Trump Impeachment Inquiry

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: How does Putin gain from all of this now?

LEON PANETTA, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, I don’t think there’s any question that the one individual who is enjoying this most of all is Vladimir Putin. His whole goal is to destabilize the United States of America. That’s been their primary mission for a number of years. And to see what is going on in this country, going back to the 2016 election, what they try to do, and what is happening today. Only, I think, affirms for Putin the fact that the United States has been weakened by those efforts. Look, Putin is the one who planted the idea in President Trump’s head and Rudy Giuliani basically picked it up, that it was not Russia that was involved in the 2016 intelligence attack on our country and on our election institutions, it was the Ukraine. And that phony conspiracy theory, which has been debunked time and time again, is something that both Rudy Giuliani and President Trump grabbed ahold pursuant to Putin’s urging. And they continued to try to prove that somehow that was the case. And so, they’re doing Putin’s bidding. What they’re doing is ultimately weakening the Ukraine. The president, in withholding military aid to the Ukraine, to give them the help they need in order to confront Russian interference withheld that aid in order to force them to investigate a political opponent in this country.

AMANPOUR: And very — sorry.

PANETTA: Those are the facts.

AMANPOUR: Sorry. I just wanted to ask you another question because it’s about Syria and the president is now saying that they’re all going to be withdrawing the U.S. forces and that, you know, who knows what Turkey might do. Because we know that Turkey wants to remove the Kurdish allies of the U.S. from that border area. Trump tweets, “It’s time for us to get out of these ridiculous endless wars. Many of them tribal. Bring our soldiers home. We’ll fight to where it’s our benefit and only fight to win.” What are your thoughts? Obviously, people want to end endless wars. But what are your thoughts about American allies on the ground who look like now they’re being left to the mercy of either Assad on one side or Erdogan on the other side?

PANETTA: I’m afraid this is another example of the president’s failed foreign policy. What he’s doing is put a knife in the backs of our allies, the Kurds, who worked with us to fight against ISIS and destroy the caliphate there. And what we’re now doing is abandoning them, putting a knife in their back. And essentially handing Syria over to ISIS, Russia and Iran. It is the worst of all worlds what this president is doing.