| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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President's Vision for Peace
00:10:53
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unidentified
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And we're asking Congress to take more care and be more deliberative and to do a little bit more work organizing the nature of our federal government. | |
| And Doge has been a spotlight, if nothing else. | ||
| Would you say that the Congress should be doing the work that Doge is currently doing? | ||
|
unidentified
|
As a general rule, oversight is the responsibility of Congress. | |
| You know, their job is to pass laws that say what government does and then make sure that the executive branch does those things. | ||
| For a long time, we've had a very unhealthy relationship where Congress says we're going to pass a law, empower an agency to do something, and then we're going to look away. | ||
| We're not going to pay attention. | ||
| And if something ever goes wrong, if there's ever a scandal, if a goal is not met, then we're going to blame the agency. | ||
| And this sort of spotlight is stripping away that negative relationship that we've had in the past and allowing Congress to say, wait a minute, we actually don't understand how all these agencies operate. | ||
| Our guest website is CEI.org. | ||
| And if you want to see what he referenced as far as the free to prosper effort that they have, the message they have towards Congress when it comes to regulation issues, you can find that on their website. | ||
| Jason in Texas, Independent Line, you're up first for our guest, Kent Lastman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you for taking my call. | |
| We're going to leave this to take you live to the White House, where President Trump is welcoming detained U.S. teacher Mark Fogel, who was released from a Russian prison after four years. | ||
| You're watching live coverage on C-SPAN. | ||
| And I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. | ||
| And President Trump is a hero. | ||
| These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. | ||
| The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. | ||
| I am in awe of what they all did. | ||
| My family has been a force. | ||
| I think my 95-year-old mother is probably the most dynamic 95-year-old on earth right now. | ||
| And I am so indebted to so many people. | ||
| I think I remember a Churchill quote that he said when the RAF was fighting the liftoff. | ||
| He said that never have so many owed so much to so few. | ||
| And I put myself fortunately and unfortunately into that category. | ||
| And I said, never has one owed so much to so many that this super organism of people that came to my support and the love that I was given to sustain me for three and a half years in a prison that had me in hospitals for more than 100 days. | ||
| I was given more than 400 injections in that time. | ||
| And knowing I had the support of my fellow Pennsylvanians, my family, my friends, it was so overwhelming that it brought me to my knees and it brought me to tears, | ||
| but it was my energy, it was my being that kept me going that whole time and I will forever be indebted to President Trump to Steve over there. | ||
| What a dynamic man this guy is. | ||
| That's true. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When I met him, the energy, the can-do attitude just exudes from his body. | |
| And when he smiled at me and introduced me and I got the feel for what has happened. | ||
| You know, it's not just me it's, it's everybody. | ||
| And and Secretary Rubio, who met my son a while back. | ||
| I I'm I'm a middle-class school teacher who's now in a a dream world. | ||
| We're going to show you the Lincoln bedroom. | ||
| It's a very special, special place, appropriate for tonight, very appropriate, and thank you all, and I love our country and I'm so happy to be back here. | ||
| And I wish I could articulate it better. | ||
| You've done beautifully and he's got a great mother. | ||
| And when I saw the mother at a rally, she said, will you, if you win, will you get my son out? | ||
| And I promise she's 95 years old. | ||
| And I said we'll get him out. | ||
| And we got him out pretty quickly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She told me that that exact, exact words. | |
| She made quite an impression and you also did, and I'm in awe of what you've done and your team. | ||
| It's great to have you back and have a great life. | ||
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unidentified
|
Yes, did you speak directly to President Putin about? | |
| Well, I don't want to say that, I just want to say that I appreciate very much what they did in letting Mark go home, and I appreciate Steve Woodcoff. | ||
| The job he did and Marco behind the scenes was unbelievable, and so many of these people were unbelievable. | ||
| They, they represent him, they're from his area and we we just wanted to get him back home. | ||
| I had to get him back home because I would have had big trouble with his mother and we're going to take him for a little tour of the Lincoln Bedroom, which nobody gets to see and it's very special. | ||
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unidentified
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You want to see it, I would love to, and I I also should make mention that that President Putin was very generous and statesmanlike in granting me a pardon. | |
| I mean, what were the terms of this deal, mr. President? | ||
| Very fair very, very fair, very reasonable, not like deals you've seen over the years. | ||
| They were very fair and I think that's going to lead and we're somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of, but we wanted to get this done, very important and Steve wanted to actually fly over and get Mark and get him home properly, because it could be a pretty tough trip. | ||
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unidentified
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So is this the beginning of a deal, sir? | |
| Is this the? | ||
| Is this the start? | ||
| I think there's goodwill in terms of the war. | ||
| You know, a million and a half soldiers, young people, have been killed. | ||
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unidentified
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I've met many of them yeah, and it's it's a terrible thing going on. | |
| So we want to get that done, I think. | ||
| I think this could be the very important element. | ||
| You could be a big part of it actually, because it could be a big, important part of getting the war over with Ukraine, and we appreciate President Putin's what he, what he did. | ||
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unidentified
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He was able to pull it off for you, right? | |
| He was able to pull it off, we think and you're here, so it was great. | ||
| We'll tell you a little bit more about it tomorrow. | ||
| But I think we've made great progress on the war also. | ||
| Getting the war. | ||
| I want to get the war ended. | ||
| That war should not have been. | ||
| It would have never happened if I was president. | ||
| It would not have happened. | ||
| And it did happen. | ||
| And now you have all blown-up cities and dead people. | ||
| So many dead people should have never ever happened. | ||
| And you could be a big catalyst for just this evening. | ||
| It's a very important evening for ending that war. | ||
| And I think they all want to see it ended. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does that mean you gave public understanding about Ukraine? | |
| How does it change your perspective on Putin and your attitude? | ||
| Well, I don't want to get into that. | ||
| I only can say this. | ||
| We got a man home whose mother and family wanted him desperately, whose state wanted him. | ||
| He's become a big symbol. | ||
| And it's an honor to have played a small role in that. | ||
| And I just want to tell you these people, they all played a role. | ||
| And we got him home. | ||
| And he's healthy. | ||
| It looks good, actually. | ||
| To me, you look damn good. | ||
| I'll tell you that. | ||
|
unidentified
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I think when expectations are low, maybe that helps a little bit. | |
| Can you tell us about the conditions of the prison that you were in, sir? | ||
| You know, I think I need a little bit of time to sort of digest all of that. | ||
| There were times when it was extremely trying. | ||
| There were times when I could manage it. | ||
| But I think I need some more time to, you know, it wasn't easy, right? | ||
| That wasn't easy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Every second, every minute, every day had a challenge. | |
| But you're in good shape. | ||
| I mean, compared that to what we saw two days ago come home. | ||
| They were very, very ill. | ||
| Those people are very ill. | ||
| They were treated really badly. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. President, your predecessor left you almost $4 billion in unused aid for Ukraine, to Ukraine. | |
| Are you going to use this money? | ||
| Are you going to have to do this? | ||
| But my predecessor should have had this gentleman out a long time ago. | ||
| You know, we did it in two and a half weeks. | ||
| He had four years to do it. | ||
| He should have had mark out a lot earlier. | ||
| It's a shame. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a shame. | |
| He should have never had the war to start off with. | ||
| That war would have never happened if I was president. | ||
| But he should have had him back three and a half years ago. | ||
| So it was too bad, but he didn't do it. | ||
| But we did it. | ||
| Thank you all very much. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Come on. | |
| Mr. President, are our typical tariffs still come in tomorrow, or are you waiting until you need negotiations? | ||
| We'll see what happens. | ||
| Can you speak with President G? | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||