Turkish President Recep Erdogan will visit the White House on Wednesday for a meeting and press conference with President Trump.
During a previous visit in 2017, Erdogan's security detail assaulted peaceful American protestors in the streets of Washington D.C. Erdogan directed the beatings as he stood in front of the Turkish ambassador's residence.
Now, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is calling on the State Department to bar those involved from entering the United States.
"During his last visit to Washington, D.C. in 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's so called 'security detail' brutally attacked peaceful demonstrators outside the Turkish ambassador's residence. At least eleven people were injured throughout the day, including law enforcement personnel who every day defend Americans' constitutional rights and physical safety. The 2017 clashes were not the first time Erdogan's thugs have used authoritarian tactics against Americans citizens while visiting the United States," a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.
In 2016, Erdogan's guards roughed up Turkish journalists outside of a Brooking's Institute conference in Washington D.C. U.S. Secret Service intervened and reminded them they were in America, where that kind of behavior isn't legitimate.
"This behavior is sadly routine for President Erdogan on Turkish soil. It is wrong and disturbing there, and it is an affront to American values and entirely unwelcome here. The Erdogan regime's use of violence against innocent civilians anywhere in inhuman, uncivilized, and unacceptable," the letter continues.
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Cheney is asking for reassurances from the State Department that none of the security guards traveling with Erdogan this week participated in the physical assault of Americans during his 2017 trip. If they get on the plane, she wants reassurance that "any of these people do arrive with President Erdogan will be immediately expelled from the United States."
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