A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, led by Claire McCaskill, called on the Trump Administration to hold the Turkish government and its ambassador accountable for the violent assault on U.S. law enforcement officials and unarmed protestors outside the Turkish Embassy last week.
“In America, this isn’t how we do things—folks get to protest their grievances without fear of being attacked by government thugs,” McCaskill said. “It’s in our Constitution – and if foreign governments and their body guards can’t respect that, they need to be held accountable.”
McCaskill is the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.
“It is wholly unacceptable for President Erdogan to bring his security personnel to our country and allow them to violently assault U.S. law enforcement officials, American citizens and U.S. residents engaged in peaceful demonstrations,” wrote McCaskill and a bipartisan group of Senators to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“It is clear to us that both the Turkish government and its representative in the U.S., Ambassador Serdar Kılıç, bear responsibility for the unjustifiable actions of the Turkish security personnel.”
The senators continued, “We write to you to ensure the United States will take all appropriate steps to hold the Turkish government accountable for this atrocious behavior. We request that you call for Ambassador Kılıç and the Turkish government to provide their commitment to ensure all personnel involved in the assault of the demonstrators will have any claim to immunity waived and be made available for interviews with U.S. law enforcement.”
McCaskill was joined in the letter by Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
