Pentagon chief: Need to speak with Turkish counterpart to understand Erdogan base comments

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Monday he needed to speak with his Turkish counterpart to understand how serious President Tayyip Erdogan was when he said he could shut down Incirlik air base, which hosts U.S. nuclear warheads.

"It has not been brought up to me before. The first I heard of it was reading it in the papers as you just mentioned and so I need to talk to my defense counterpart to understand what they really mean and how serious they are," Esper told reporters.