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Most of official Washington was focused on the impeachment¹ hearings on Capitol Hill today. On the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Trump² held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House. Trump said he was too busy to pay attention to the hearings.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I haven't watched. I haven't watched for one minute because I've been with the president, which is much more important, as far as I'm concerned. This is a sham³ and shouldn't be allowed.

CORNISH: A comment made at a press conference with Erdogan that followed their meeting.

NPR's White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe was there. And Ayesha, how much was the president actually able to ignore what was happening on the Hill today?

AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE⁴: Well, he waited to have his press conference until the hearing had wrapped up, so it seems like it wasn't too far from his mind. But it is true — he was in meetings much of the day. And that, you know, he — but he was asked about this — what was happening on the Hill, about the hearing, at this press conference, which was supposed to be focused on Turkey. And he's — basically said he wanted to find — he still wants to find out the identity of the whistleblower, and he complained about the inspector⁵ general, who allowed the whistleblower plaint to move ahead.

He also even made some news. He announced that tomorrow he will release the transcript⁶ of this call that he held in April with Ukraine's president. This was before that July call that was the subject of the whistleblower complaint.

Ultimately, though, the meeting with Erdogan did give Trump a chance to make the argument that he's focused on the business of being president, that, you know — kind of to be above it a bit. As he said, he said that he would much rather focus on peace in the Middle East, and he thinks that's important.

CORNISH: An unusual move — we saw senators at the White House meeting with Erdogan, as well. What was the reason?

RASCOE: So this is unusual. It seems like he — President Trump — wanted to bring this group of five Republicans, including Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch and Republican Lindsey Graham, to the White House because some of these lawmakers — they've been big critics of Erdogan. And Erdogan's decision to enter northern Syria — it drew bipartisan condemnation⁷ from Congress, but it also has been a real issue for Trump with his own party, with Republicans.

And so this was a chance for Trump to bring these lawmakers to the White House to kind of try to build a bridge with these senators, who he needs right now and who have been critical of his policies towards Turkey, and also to kind of reassure⁸ Erdogan, who Trump says has been an important ally.

CORNISH: So those are the critics. But did Trump himself and Erdogan seem like they were on the same page?

RASCOE: Well, they seemed like they were on — they spoke⁹ the right words. But at the same time, there was this issue of, what is actually going to happen going forward with Syria? And it doesn't seem like they really made concrete steps towards that.

There has been this cease-fire after Turkey conducted this military offensive into northern Syria. A cease-fire has been reached, but the experts I talked to say that there are a lot of questions about whether this cease-fire will actually hold and how this agreement will be implemented¹⁰. And Trump says that he thinks that it will last and that the Kurds are happy about the way things have turned out. But it doesn't seem like that's always b?acked up on the ground.

CORNISH: And Turkey — what's the response there?

RASCOE: And so Turkey — this gave Turkey a chance to really — to drive home some of the points that they want to raise, like the issue of this cleric that lives in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of orchestrating a coup¹¹ against Erdogan, and to make the case that they want him to be extradited. And it gave them a chance to show that they have the backing of the United States.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Ayesha Rascoe.

Thanks so much.

RASCOE: Thank you.

大多数华盛顿官员在关注今天国会山举行的弹劾听证会。而在宾夕法尼亚大道另一侧的白宫，特朗普总统与埃及总统雷杰普·塔伊普·埃尔多安举行了会谈。特朗普表示，他太忙了，没有时间关注听证会。

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唐纳德·特朗普总统：我没看听证会。一分钟都没看，因为我一直和埃及总统在一起，这对我来说更重要。这（弹劾总统调查）就是一场骗局，不应该被允许发生。

柯妮什：这是总统在与埃尔多安会谈后举行的记者会上发表的言论。

NPR新闻驻白宫记者阿伊莎·拉斯科在记者会现场。阿伊莎，总统能在多大程度上无视今天国会山举行的听证会？

阿伊莎·拉斯科连线：在听证会结束之前，他一直在等待召开记者会，因此那似乎离他的脑海不太远。不过他说的是事实，他今天大多数时间都在举行会谈。不过他在记者会被问到了国会山听证会的事情，而这本该是聚焦土耳其的记者会。他回答说，他仍想查明举报人的身份，同时他对总检察长允许举报人的举报继续推进一事进行了控诉。

他甚至还公布了一些消息。他宣布明天将公开他与乌克兰总统在4月进行通话的文字记录。这通电话早于举报人举报的7月通话。

不过从根本上来说，与埃尔多安的会谈确实给了特朗普发表主张的机会，即他将精力集中在总统的任务上，可能不止如此。他说，他更愿意关注中东地区的和平，他认为这相当重要。

柯妮什：我们看到参议员也出席了特朗普与埃尔多安在白宫举行的会谈，这是不同寻常的举动。原因是什么？

拉斯科：这的确是不同寻常的事情。看起来，特朗普总统想让包括参议院外交关系委员会主席吉姆·里施和共和党议员林赛·格雷厄姆在内的5名共和党人参加白宫会谈，原因是这些议员一直是埃尔多安的主要反对者。埃尔多安进入叙利亚北部地区的决定引发了国会两党的谴责，而且这对特朗普所在政党和共和党议员来说也是实际问题。

因此，这对特朗普来说是一个机会，他能将这些议员带到白宫会谈，并试图与这些参议员建立桥梁，他现在需要这些参议员，但他们一直在批评他对土耳其的政策，另外，此举也能让特朗普称为重要盟友的埃尔多安放心。

柯妮什：这些议员是反对者。那特朗普和埃尔多安意见一致吗？

拉斯科：看起来二人似乎意见一致，但问题是，叙利亚局势会走向何方？看起来双方未就这一问题提出具体举措。

土耳其军事进攻叙利亚北部地区之后，该地区实施了停火协议。停火协议确实达成，但接受我采访的专家表示，外界对这一停火协议能否持续以及如何实施存在大量质疑。特朗普表示，他认为该协议能持续下去，库尔德力量也对结果感到满意。但看起来协议并非总能付诸实施。

柯妮什：土耳其有何反应？

拉斯科：这使土耳其有机会了解他们想提出的问题，比如目前生活在宾夕法尼亚州的神职人员费特胡拉·居伦，土耳其指责他策划了反对埃尔多安的政变，土方希望引渡他。这还使土耳其有机会证明，他们拥有美国的支持。

柯妮什：以上是NPR新闻记者阿伊莎·拉斯科带来的报道。

非常感谢。

拉斯科：谢谢。