Marco Rubio, José Andrés and more — "Face the Nation" Full Broadcast - Aug. 17, 2025

[0:00] I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington, and this week on Face the Nation, after President [0:05] Trump's Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, we'll go one-on-one with Secretary of State [0:10] Marco Rubio. [0:11] Following the Russian president's warm welcome to Alaska and a three-hour meeting that ended [0:17] abruptly, President Trump adopts Putin's roadmap for ending the war in Ukraine. [0:22] No ceasefire, but negotiations for a lasting peace in the three-and-a-half-year conflict. [0:27] I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great, and it's good when [0:32] two big powers get along. [0:34] But what about the other countries, like Ukraine and its Western allies who are still tightly [0:40] aligned? [0:41] Along with Rubio, we'll hear from Trump's former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona [0:46] Hill, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, and Colorado Democrat Jason Crow. [0:52] Plus, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres will join us following his trip to Gaza. [0:59] It's all just ahead on Face the Nation. [1:18] Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. [1:21] Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders are heading to Washington [1:26] Monday to meet with President Trump to discuss next steps following Mr. Trump's meeting with [1:31] Vladimir Putin. [1:33] The awkward conclusion to Friday's summit yielded no formal agreement, with Vladimir Putin still [1:38] insisting that Ukraine turn over the lands seized by Russia in the war, plus additional [1:44] territory, something that President Zelensky continues to refuse. [1:48] We begin with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended those talks in Anchorage. [1:53] Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary. [1:54] Good morning. [1:56] Thank you. [1:57] Vladimir Putin did not give President Trump the ceasefire he sought. [2:01] And now Putin says the root causes of the conflict have to be resolved in a peace agreement. [2:08] Isn't the root cause the fact that Russia invaded in the first place? [2:11] Well, ultimately, yeah. [2:15] But I mean, what he means by root causes is his long historical complaints that we've [2:18] heard repeatedly. [2:19] This is not a new argument. [2:20] He's been making this for a long time. [2:21] And it's the argument that it's Western encroachment. [2:24] I don't want to get into it. [2:25] It's just so long. [2:26] I mean, what the point of the line is, that all of us, you know, we're not going to focus [2:28] on all of that stuff. [2:29] We're going to focus on this. [2:30] Are they going to stop fighting or not? [2:32] And what it's going to take to stop the fighting. [2:34] And what it's going to take to stop the fighting, if we're being honest and serious here, is [2:37] both sides are going to have to give. [2:39] And both sides should expect to get something from this. [2:41] And that's a very difficult thing to do. [2:43] It's very difficult because Ukraine obviously feels, you know, harmed, and rightfully so, because [2:47] they were invaded. [2:48] And the Russian side, because they feel like they've got momentum in the battlefield and, frankly, don't [2:52] care, don't seem to care very much about how many Russian soldiers die in this [2:55] endeavor. [2:56] They just churned through it. [2:58] So I think what the president deserves a lot of credit for is the amount of time and [3:01] energy that his administration is placing on reaching a peace agreement for a war that's [3:05] not a war that started under him. [3:07] It's half, you know, it's on the other side of the world. [3:09] That said, I mean, it's relevant to us. [3:12] But there are a lot of other issues you could be focused on. [3:14] So tomorrow we'll be meeting with President Zelenskyy. [3:16] We'll be meeting with European leaders. [3:18] We just met with Putin. [3:19] He's dedicated a lot of time and energy because he has made it a priority of his administration [3:23] to stop wars or prevent them. [3:26] And right now this is the biggest war going on in the world. [3:29] It's the biggest war in Europe since World War II. [3:32] We're going to continue to do everything we can to reach an agreement that ends the dying [3:35] and the killing and the suffering that's going on right now. [3:38] Well, you know this well, how long these kind of diplomatic negotiations often take. [3:45] President Trump was telling European leaders what was discussed was Putin demanding control [3:49] of Donetsk, a region in the east that his forces do not fully hold. [3:54] And the U.K. estimates that taking that full area could be as long as another four years. [4:00] Putin also is demanding Russian be an official language in Ukraine and something regarding [4:05] Russian Orthodox churches. [4:07] Did the U.S. accept all of what Putin laid out at that table? [4:13] The United States is not in a position to accept anything or reject anything because [4:17] ultimately it's up to the Ukrainians. [4:18] They're the ones that Russia has to make peace with. [4:20] Well, the president said he did come to some agreements. [4:22] It's up to the Ukrainians to make these conditions. [4:24] Well, the agreements were that we were going to try to do things like, for example, get [4:27] a leader, a leaders meeting. [4:29] We have to make enough progress so that we can sit down President Zelenskyy and President [4:33] Putin in the same place, which is what President Zelenskyy has been asking for, and reach a [4:37] final agreement that ends this war. [4:39] Now there were some concepts and ideas discussed that we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive [4:43] of in that meeting. [4:44] I don't think it's — we're not going to negotiate this in the media. [4:47] I understand that everybody wants to know what happened. [4:49] But ultimately there are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are [4:53] potentials for breakthroughs, that are potentials for progress. [4:56] We'll be discussing that more in depth tomorrow with our European allies, with the Ukrainians [5:00] that are coming over. [5:01] We'll be discussing all of these things, because ultimately we do need to find areas [5:04] where we're making progress and try to begin to narrow the gap between the two sides. [5:09] But there's a reason why this war has been going on for three and a half years, and that [5:12] is when it comes to the big issues here, there are still some big differences between both [5:16] sides. [5:17] Let's see how much progress we can continue to make. [5:19] It's not been easy, but it's something the president's made a priority, peace, and he deserves [5:24] a lot of credit for that. [5:26] Ultimately, if Vladimir Putin is going to be offered land that he has not seized yet, [5:34] but negotiates his way into, doesn't this set a dangerous precedent that the United States [5:39] now accepts this concept that it is okay to seize land by force? [5:45] Well, Putin's already seized land by force, and that in and of itself is not a positive precedent. [5:52] This whole war is a negative precedent. [5:53] Are you demanding a withdrawal? [5:54] Well, again, in order to have a deal here to reach the end of this conflict, both sides [6:02] are going to have to make concessions. [6:03] That's just a fact. [6:04] But does that mean accepting where Russian forces are now? [6:06] No, no, but this is not about accepting. [6:10] This is about what Ukraine can accept and what Russia can accept. [6:12] They both have to accept it. [6:14] Otherwise, there won't be a peace deal. [6:15] Okay? [6:16] If there aren't concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that's called surrender. [6:20] That's called the end of the war through surrender. [6:21] And that's not what we're close to doing because neither side here is on the verge of surrender or anything close to it. [6:26] So in order for there to be a peace deal, this is just a fact. [6:29] We may not like it. [6:30] It may not be pleasant. [6:31] It may be distasteful. [6:33] But in order for there to be an end of the war, there are things Russia wants that it cannot get, [6:37] and there are things Ukraine wants that it's not going to get. [6:39] Both sides are going to have to give up something in order to get to the table, in order to make this happen. [6:44] That's just the way it is, and I mean, the sooner we accept that, that's the reality. [6:48] Now, what those things are is going to be up to both sides. [6:51] There's no conditions that can be imposed on Ukraine. [6:54] They're going to have to accept things, but they're going to have to get things, too. [6:57] And so, for example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. [7:00] They have a right, like every sovereign country does in the world, to enter into security alliances [7:04] with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to the national security. [7:10] That's not an unreasonable request. [7:11] That's something that needs to be worked on. Territories will have to be discussed. [7:14] It's just a fact, and there are things that maybe Russia's holding now that they're going to have to give up. [7:19] Who knows? [7:19] The point is, we need to create a scenario where that becomes possible, and that's why this has been so hard, [7:25] because neither side, up to now, has been willing to give on some of these things. [7:30] But we'll see if that's possible. [7:31] It may not be, but we're going to try, and we're going to do everything we can to try to achieve a peace. [7:35] I understand you can't get into specifics in a public conversation, [7:40] but we're looking at Russian troops and strikes intensifying. [7:44] Did you hear anything from Vladimir Putin that indicated he is willing to make a single concession? [7:49] Well, I think there are a couple of things. I mean, not enough for Ukraine. [7:55] If not, we would be announcing a peace deal this morning, right? [7:57] But certainly there are some things we noticed changes. [8:00] There are some changes that I think are possible. [8:02] I think there are some concepts that were discussed that could potentially lead to something. [8:06] But again, all these things have to be verifiable. [8:08] It isn't real until it's real. [8:09] I mean, one thing is what you say you might be willing to consider. [8:12] Another thing is your willingness to do it, and it always becomes a trade-off in all of this. [8:15] But you talk about the intensifying strikes on the Russian side. [8:19] Yeah, I mean, they're a full-time war machine. [8:21] I mean, that's what's happening. [8:22] The Russian economy has basically been turned into a full-time wartime economy. [8:26] They have a lot of people. It's a big country. [8:29] It's not just large geographically. It has huge populations. [8:32] It continues to churn through people. [8:34] You know, they lost 20,000 Russian soldiers were killed last month in July in this war. [8:39] That just tells you the price they're willing to pay. [8:41] I'm not saying any of this is admirable. I'm saying that this is the reality of the war that we're facing. [8:46] It's become attrition in some ways. It's a meat grinder, and they just have more meat to grind. [8:50] Well, let me ask you about the security that you just mentioned there. [8:54] Because Italy's prime minister says that President Trump revived the idea of security guarantees [8:59] inspired by NATO's Article 5 and a collective security clause that would involve the United States. [9:05] How does that work? Are these U.S. troops, are these U.S. monitors? [9:12] Well, that's what we're going to be working on. That's one of the reasons why. [9:17] You know, I talked yesterday to all the national security advisors, a bunch of them from the different European countries. [9:22] There are European leaders coming here tomorrow, heads of state coming tomorrow, [9:25] along with President Zelensky to discuss this in more detail. [9:29] I mean, the constructs of something like this needs to be built out. [9:32] It's a concept is one thing. The reality, you know, how it's built and how it would work is another. [9:36] But those are the kinds of talks that we're going to be having with them, along with some of the other issues that are at play. [9:41] But that is one of the – if you were to break this thing down, I mean, there are – obviously, there needs to be an agreement on territories [9:47] and where the lines are going to be drawn. That's not going to be very easy. That's going to be tough. [9:51] I think there has to be some discussion about security guarantees for Ukraine because they don't want this war – none of us want to see this war in the future. [9:58] They're a sovereign country. They have a right to have security agreements with other countries and security alliances with other countries. [10:04] And then there's the whole issue of reconstruction. [10:05] Including the United States. [10:06] How do you rebuild the country? [10:07] Well, potentially. Like I said, that's what we're going to be having a conversation about. [10:12] And that's what we're going to be meeting. That's why they're all coming here tomorrow. [10:15] And that's why we've been talking on the phone for the last 48 hours with them. [10:18] And even leading up to it, throughout the week, there were various meetings just to sort of build out some of these ideas. [10:23] So all of these right now are ideas or concepts that require some more specificity. [10:27] We'll need to work with our partners to see what that looks like. [10:30] And I think that's an area where potential progress is real. But that alone won't be enough. [10:34] There's a bunch of other things that have to be worked through here. [10:36] Yeah. Well, Russia claims it has rescued 700,000 children. [10:41] I know you know that the warrant out for Vladimir Putin's arrest is for the state-sponsored abduction of kids. [10:48] I've seen estimates there are something like 30,000 Ukrainian children who have been abducted. [10:53] Is the United States demanding, or at least even just as a statement of goodwill here, that Russia return these children? [11:01] Yeah. I mean, we've repeatedly raised that issue in every forum possible. [11:06] And those have also been, by the way, topics of discussion, not just in our meetings with the Ukrainians, [11:11] but in the negotiations and talks that were going on between Ukraine and Russia. [11:15] At the technical level, these talks were going on in Turkey, as an example, Turkey over the last few months. [11:19] Yeah, nothing so far from the Russians. [11:20] That's been a topic of discussion as well. [11:22] Well, it's unfortunate. Children should be returned to their families. [11:25] On that position, I don't think there's any ambiguity on our side. [11:28] And they shouldn't even be, you know, a bargaining chip in regards to a broader negotiation. [11:32] But it's just one more element of how tragic this war is. After three and a half years, this war is getting worse. [11:37] It's not getting better. You've made the point about the uptick in strikes. [11:41] This is a war. It's going to get worse. It's not going to get better. [11:44] And that's why the president is investing so much time in bringing this to an end. [11:47] And by the way, everyone is begging us to be involved in this. [11:50] The Europeans want us involved. The Ukrainians want us involved. [11:52] Obviously, the Russians want us involved because the president is the only leader in the world. [11:56] If this is possible, he's the only one that can help make it happen. [12:00] Well, he's got the leverage over Vladimir Putin if he wanted to crush his economy or at least do more damage to it. [12:06] But you have held off on those secondary sanctions. [12:09] President Trump told Fox News his advice to President Zelensky is make a deal. [12:14] Russia's a very big power, and they're not. [12:17] You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelensky is going to be bullied into signing something away. [12:26] That's why you have these European leaders coming as backup tomorrow. Can you reassure them? [12:30] No, it isn't. That's not why they're coming as backup. That's not true. [12:32] But that's not true. They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. [12:37] Well, that February Oval Office meeting in front of television cameras where President Zelensky was dressed down. [12:43] Do you know how many meetings we've had since then? [12:45] No, I know. And I was just up in Alaska watching the one with Vladimir Putin where red carpet rolls rolled out. [12:50] No, but it was Zelensky. We've had more meetings. We've had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelensky. [12:57] But that's not true. They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. [13:01] They're coming here tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week. [13:04] There were meetings in the U.K. over the previous weekend. [13:07] And they said President Trump was going to demand a ceasefire. [13:09] The president talked to these leaders as early as Thursday. [13:13] But you said that they're coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied. [13:16] They're not coming here tomorrow. This is such a stupid media narrative that they're coming here tomorrow because Trump is going to bully Zelensky into a bad deal. [13:24] We've been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. [13:28] They're coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. [13:30] We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The president invited them to come. [13:34] But the president told those European leaders last week that he wanted a ceasefire. [13:38] The president went on television, said he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin didn't agree with one. [13:43] He said there would be severe consequences if he didn't agree to one. [13:46] He said he'd walk out in two minutes. He spent three hours talking to Vladimir Putin and he did not get one. [13:52] So there's some mixed messages. [13:53] Because obviously things happened during that meeting. [13:55] Well, because obviously things, look, our goal here is not to stage some production for the world to say, oh, how dramatic he walked out. [14:01] Our goal here is to have a peace agreement, to end this war, okay? [14:05] And obviously we felt, and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks to allow us to move to the next phase. [14:13] If not, we wouldn't be having Zelensky flying all the way over here. [14:16] We wouldn't be having all the Europeans coming all the way over here. [14:18] Now understand, and take with a grain of salt, I'm not saying we're on the verge of a peace deal. [14:22] But I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelensky and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this. [14:31] You talk about the sanctions. [14:32] Look, at the end of the day, if peace is not going to be possible here, and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands. [14:40] The president has that option to then come in and impose new sanctions. [14:43] But if he did this now, the moment the president puts those additional sanctions, that's the end of the talks. [14:48] You've basically locked in at least another year to year and a half of war and death and destruction. [14:53] We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don't want to wind up there. [14:57] We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again. [15:05] That's the goal here. [15:06] We're going to do everything possible to make that happen if it's doable. [15:09] It will require both sides to make concessions. [15:11] It will require both sides to get things they're asking for. [15:14] That's how these deals are made, whether we like it or not. [15:17] Before I let you go quickly, why did the State Department just announce that they're halting visitor visas for all Gazans coming here for medical aid? [15:25] Why would some of these kids, for example, who are coming to hospitals for treatment be a threat? [15:30] Well, first of all, it's not just kids. [15:33] It's a bunch of adults that are accompanying them. [15:35] Second, we had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it. [15:39] And so we're going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted, not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them. [15:47] And by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it. [15:50] There is evidence been presented to us by numerous congressional offices that some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas. [16:01] And so we are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. [16:05] So we need to we're going to pause those visas. [16:07] There was just a small number of them issued to children, but they come with adults accompanying them, obviously. [16:12] And we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas. [16:24] We're not going to be in partnership with groups that have links or sympathies towards Hamas. [16:29] Secretary of State Marco Rubio, we have to leave it there for this morning. [16:32] Thank you for joining us. [16:33] Thank you. [16:34] Face the Nation will be back in one minute. [16:36] Stay with us. [16:37] And we're joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. [16:45] Good to see you in person. [16:47] Before we start talking about Ukraine, I want to pick up on something. [16:50] Since you sit on the Intelligence Committee, the Secretary of State just said that lawmakers had come to the Trump administration with information that they've been granting visas to individuals with ties to Hamas or with organizations with ties to Hamas. [17:05] That's a pretty stunning accusation. [17:08] Israel controls who enters and exits Gaza. [17:11] The United States screens all visas. [17:14] So is there really a blind spot that you are aware of? [17:17] I'm not aware of that, but if that's true, actually, that is concerning. [17:21] That would be a problem. [17:22] I mean, Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. [17:24] They should not be traveling anywhere. [17:26] So if that's happening, it should be stopped immediately. [17:30] And, you know, the Intelligence Committee has a role to play in that. [17:33] But the Intelligence Committee wasn't behind the information presented to the Secretary of State? [17:38] I have not been briefed on that. [17:40] I have no information about it. [17:41] Okay. [17:42] On Ukraine, you know that the U.S. intelligence assessment is that the battlefield is turning in Russia's favor, despite the fact that Putin has to rely on Iran and North Korea to keep this thing going. [17:56] If neither President Biden nor President Trump were ever willing to commit troops, doesn't the Secretary have a point that it has to be hammered out at the negotiating table? [18:07] You know, this absolutely will end at a negotiating table, like most conflicts will. [18:12] But what happened on Friday was a historic embarrassment for the United States. [18:17] There's no other way to put it, right? [18:18] You listen to what Marco Rubio and the President have said. [18:21] They keep on saying they're dedicating time. [18:24] They're making it a priority. [18:25] They're focusing their attention on it. [18:27] In any negotiation, when you're trying to end an armed conflict, there's nothing more important than understanding what motivates your adversary. [18:35] What is making Vladimir Putin tick in this instance? [18:38] Vladimir Putin does not care about the amount of time that we're allocating this. [18:43] Does not care about a B-2 bomber flyover. [18:45] Does not care about a lineup of F-22 fighters rolled out. [18:50] He doesn't care about any of that. [18:51] What Vladimir Putin cares about is basically three things. [18:55] He cares about economic pressure in the form of sanctions. [18:57] He cares about political diplomatic isolation, being a pariah state. [19:01] And he cares about military defeat. [19:03] Those are the three things that will end this conflict. [19:06] If he feels pressure on all of those three fronts. [19:08] And this administration continues to be unwilling to do anything to assert pressure in any of those three areas. [19:15] Well, they have put in place some secondary sanctions, at least on India here. [19:19] And they haven't pulled back. [19:21] They need Congress to help them repeal a lot of these sanctions. [19:24] But bigger picture, in hindsight, do you think the United States to date has been too hesitant to actually help Ukraine win this war? [19:31] President Obama did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine. [19:36] President Biden was criticized for being perhaps too slow in delivery of certain weapons. [19:41] Yeah, there's no doubt. [19:42] As you know, I was one of the members of Congress that on a bipartisan basis pushed really hard in the first two years of this war under the Biden administration to do more, to do more quicker. [19:52] And I was concerned that we were doing just enough to prevent Ukraine from losing and not doing enough to help them win. [19:59] And I do believe that had we done more and we had done it faster and that we were willing to be more aggressive in providing aid and support for Ukraine, [20:07] than they would be in a different position on the battlefield today. [20:10] But compare that to what this administration has done, which has relieved almost all pressure. [20:15] Like, look at what happened on Friday. [20:17] U.S. military personnel in uniform literally were on their hands and knees rolling out a red carpet for the most murderous dictator of the 21st century. [20:27] Somebody who is kidnapped and is holding prisoner tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. [20:32] Somebody who started this whole war, right? [20:35] This both sides-ism that the administration is engaging in, that both sides need to come to the table and negotiate, Ukraine is the victim. [20:42] They are the victim. [20:43] They didn't start this war, Russia did. [20:45] And somehow we keep on acting like Vladimir Putin deserves to be brought out into the open like any other head of state. [20:54] This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy. [20:58] You've served this country in uniform. [21:00] I wonder, since you sit on the Armed Services Committee, how comfortable you would be with the United States giving this whatever the Article 5-like security guarantee would look like. [21:10] Is that something you should see boots on the ground to do? [21:12] I don't think boots on the ground would be the way to go, but certainly the United States has assets and capability that I think are essential to any type of security guarantee. [21:21] I think Europe has to come forward with the forward presence of military, but we can provide intelligence, we can provide economic support, diplomatic support. [21:30] One of the most important things that we can do right now is actually seize Russian assets. [21:35] This would be huge. [21:36] This would be a game-changing thing to put pressure on Vladimir Putin and actually create security guarantees and reconstruction for Ukraine. [21:45] There's over $150 billion of seized Russian assets, and the United States could lead a coalition to seize that money, allocate it towards reconstruction, allocate it towards security, allocate it towards the building of a Ukrainian military that could actually resist Russia going forward, but this administration is unwilling to do it. [22:04] Last administration was too. [22:05] Last administration was too. [22:06] That's right. [22:07] They did agree to the legislation, but on the immigration front, you and your fellow Democratic lawmakers are now trying to challenge the Trump administration's policy that requires notice to be given before you visit an immigration facility. [22:20] You just did visit some. [22:23] What did you see, and how does that compare to the last administration? [22:26] There's an ICE detention center in my district in Aurora, Colorado. [22:29] I have visited that center 10 times now over the last five years, six years, and oversight of federal facilities is one of the most important things that any member of Congress does. [22:42] Air Force bases, military bases, VA hospitals, and ICE detention centers. [22:46] This administration just tripled the budget of ICE, made it the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the United States, bigger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, all others combined. [22:58] And they are putting in roadblocks to prevent oversight, to prevent transparency, because they are trying to hide what they are doing. [23:06] That is unacceptable. [23:07] So we filed a lawsuit to force them to abide by federal law that guarantees us access. [23:13] And we'll see where that heads next. [23:15] Jason Crow, thank you. [23:16] We'll be right back. [23:17] Welcome back to Face the Nation. [23:25] Fiona Hill served as the Senior Director for Russia and European Affairs on the National Security Council during President Trump's first term. [23:32] She joins us now from Waterville, Maine. [23:35] Good morning to you. [23:36] Good morning, Margaret. [23:39] Well, Fiona, you were an advisor during that infamous Helsinki summit in 2018. [23:45] You've spoken about that in the past. [23:47] I wonder what you think about how this Alaska summit compared. [23:51] Well, obviously quite different in many respects. [23:56] Part of it was the fact that they decided to skip the one-on-one meeting and the lunch. [24:02] I mean, these are usually part of the sort of set of summits like this. [24:06] And the press conference obviously was more of an announcement or a set of announcements, presentations by both leaders, much more by President Putin and more of a commentary by President Trump. [24:17] So there wasn't that free-for-all of press questions, which I'm sure was a bit disconcerting for you and others who were present there at Alaska. [24:25] But the optics weren't exactly great, as Congressman Crowe has laid out for the United States and for President Trump again. [24:34] I mean, again, different. [24:35] But although it was presented as perhaps a show of power by being at a U.S. Air Force base with the flight passing of the B-52s and other fighter jets, it did certainly look much more like a show of appreciation for Vladimir Putin. [24:51] And so the optics were really much more favorable to Putin than they were to the United States. [24:56] It really looked like Putin had set the agenda there, the narrative, and in many respects, the tone for the whole summit meeting. [25:02] Well, saying that, you know, the president has a team of advisers around him. [25:09] And in a traditional administration, those advisers would be setting the policy. [25:14] They would be planning the optics, and they would be thinking through that. [25:17] Do you think that the president's team set him up for success here? [25:21] Well, look, it may well have been that one of the demands, because we've heard from Secretary Rubio, which I have to say I think was a very fair assessment of where things are. [25:31] So it may well have been that one of the demands by the Russians to make any progress in moving further forward was to actually have that kind of show of pomp and pageantry that basically marks Putin's reentry into international affairs. [25:45] That maybe the Russians said to them in Moscow, either to Steve Witkoff or to Secretary Rubio or to anybody else, that basically they wanted to have a major U.S.-Russia bilateral summit appearance before they would move on to the nitty-gritty of anything else in Ukraine. [26:00] That's, you know, to give them all the benefit of the doubt there. [26:03] But it all now depends on what comes out of this. [26:06] And I think, again, Secretary Rubio made it very clear that it's not going to be easy. [26:10] He was certainly downplaying any expectations of a major breakthrough, but he did say that there was something that might be possible. [26:16] And I think that's what's going to be the proof of whether this was actually worth all the effort that they went to in Alaska or not. [26:23] And as Congressman Crowe said, there's a pretty high bar here, because what Putin is doing is pretty brutal. [26:30] And he's not showing right now any signs whatsoever of giving anything up. [26:35] Mm-hmm. [26:36] The United Kingdom's defense secretary has said that they would be willing to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to help oversee a ceasefire. [26:44] When you hear these security guarantees being talked about, and the secretary said he is going to negotiate that tomorrow, [26:53] what should we think, you know, what form is that going to take? [26:57] What do you think that should look like? [26:58] Well, look, I think he actually laid this out, and you did, too, in your questions. [27:03] And I think Congressman Crowe's made it very clear as well. [27:06] It has to be a combination of all of the things that we've already heard discussed on the show today. [27:11] You have to be able to have some boots on the ground. [27:16] Congressman Crowe said it doesn't have to be the United States. [27:18] That's actually the case. [27:19] But it actually has to be some commitment from the United States to enable European forces to actually hold that territory [27:27] and to provide some security guarantees for Ukraine. [27:31] The United States is key in terms of its intelligence, in terms of other enabling equipment [27:37] and the information and the data that we would need for all of this to make a security intervention mean something. [27:46] And it's also essential in terms of all kinds of other forms of equipment and defensive weaponry. [27:52] We have already heard, of course, about Ukraine needing all kinds of equipment from javelins in the past [28:00] to patriots now in terms of an integrated air and missile defense system that Ukraine desperately needs. [28:07] So there's a lot there that we all know needs to be done. [28:11] And what we really need to see, I think, in these meetings that will take place on Monday and moving forward [28:16] is a real commitment of the United States to work with Europeans and to work with Ukraine to make this happen. [28:22] Look, this is existential also for European security. [28:25] So minimizing the real role of Europe here, be it the United Kingdom, be it Poland, be it Finland, [28:30] be it France, be it Germany, is not the way to go. [28:33] Europe has to have an equal say in all of this. [28:36] This is about Europe's future and the future of European security, not just about Ukraine's. [28:41] I want to ask you about the dynamic between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. [28:46] You know both men. You've written biographies of Vladimir Putin and, of course, you served under Donald Trump. [28:53] In one of the Fox interviews that President Trump did, he said that he spoke about mail-in voting [29:00] in the United States with Vladimir Putin. [29:02] And during that press address, Putin also claimed that the war wouldn't have happened at all [29:07] if Donald Trump had been president. [29:09] I mean, that's a counterfactual, but that's something Trump often says on the trail. [29:14] Why would those things be discussed at all if this was about Ukraine? [29:19] Exactly. Well, look, this is Vladimir Putin, as usual, trying to manipulate U.S. domestic politics. [29:27] I've seen him do this over and over again, including at Helsinki when he set the president off, [29:32] not in the press conference, but before that, in a whole diatribe against his political enemies [29:37] because Putin deliberately asked him about this. [29:40] So Putin knows that President Trump wants to have an acknowledgment of his self-assertion [29:45] that the war wouldn't have happened had he not – had he been in the presidency. [29:50] And so Putin's giving him something that plays well for President Trump in his own domestic environment. [29:55] It doesn't play well in the international environment, where people know things are much more complicated, [29:59] but it's basically a gift and a concession to President Trump himself. [30:03] And Putin wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system ahead of the midterms. [30:08] So, of course, he's laid into this whole issue of mail-in voting. [30:12] And President Trump asserted in his Fox News interview that there are no countries in the world that allow mail-in voting. [30:19] Well, Russia allows mail-in voting. [30:21] And if everybody wants to go out and look, they can look for themselves. [30:24] In 2020, President Vladimir Putin signed into law Russians being able to vote by mail and also on the Internet. [30:32] And more than 30 other countries also allow some forms of mail-in voting. [30:36] So it's just not true that other countries, including Russia, don't use this. [30:41] It's a pure, blatant piece of manipulation. [30:44] And that's the kind of thing that Putin likes to do. [30:46] And, of course, I don't think you would endorse the outcome of that voting system and that those elections are rigged in Russia, correct? [30:55] Of course. [30:57] And, I mean, basically, Putin wants to see us tie ourselves up in knots between now and the midterms. [31:02] He's trying to sow chaos. [31:03] And he's just basically used his time with President Trump to push that along. [31:08] Again, it's a diversion. [31:09] It's a distraction, really, from the negotiations on Ukraine, because Putin doesn't really want to give anything up. [31:15] He gives up basically something that plays well in the political arena for President Trump [31:20] and something that actually plays very badly for the United States in its own political arena, [31:24] which is the mail-in voting point that he made. [31:27] MS. [31:28] Mm-hmm. [31:29] Fiona Hill, always appreciate your analysis. [31:30] Thank you for joining us today. [31:33] We'll be right back. [31:38] During our trip to Alaska last week for the Trump-Putin summit, we talked with Alaska Republican [31:43] Senator Dan Sullivan about the strategic military importance of Alaska. [31:46] We began by asking about potential offers to Putin to get him to end the war in Ukraine. [31:52] The Telegraph was reporting offering Putin a chance to invest in the natural resources off of Alaska's coast. [32:00] Yeah. [32:01] In the Bering Strait. [32:02] Yeah. [32:03] Are you comfortable with that? [32:04] Well, look, we have plenty of American investors and our allies who want to invest in Alaska's natural resources. [32:12] We're having a boom here. [32:14] We don't need Russian investments. [32:16] We don't need Russian money. [32:18] They're a competitor of ours when it comes to energy and natural resources and critical minerals. [32:23] Mm-hmm. [32:24] So I doubt that's on the table. [32:26] And, you know... [32:27] You'd be upset if it weren't. [32:28] I would not... [32:29] I would not support that. [32:30] Your colleague... [32:31] By the way, just to... [32:32] On that point, though, a contrast. [32:34] You might remember last time I was on your show, we talked about the Biden administration... [32:39] I want to talk about this. [32:40] ...with this great state of ours shutting us down, right? [32:43] Mm-hmm. [32:44] I mean, that was 70 executive orders to shut down, exclusively focused on Alaska, shut down our resource development economy. [32:51] Our own federal government, the Biden administration sanctioned my state more than they sanctioned Iran. [32:56] Mm-hmm. [32:57] What we're seeing with President Trump and his administration is a complete 180 on that. [33:03] Unleashing Alaska's resource potential has been a huge focus of the president since day one. [33:09] So you mentioned how furious you were with the Biden administration for the executive actions. [33:17] They said they were taken to protect natural resources. [33:20] They said land conservation was necessary and the indigenous population here really wanted it. [33:26] You called it a lie. [33:27] I did call it a lie. [33:28] It was a lie. [33:29] And you said it was national security suicide. [33:31] Trump has already reversed this. [33:33] But are you at all concerned that there are short-term benefits to your state financially, [33:39] but longer-term, real damage to the environment here? [33:43] No. [33:44] Look, Alaska has an incredible record of being able to develop our resources and protect the environment. [33:51] You walk around here, you see what a pristine, beautiful environment we have here. [33:55] But we know we need jobs. [33:57] We need natural resource development. [33:59] So we can do both. [34:00] The entire north slope of Alaska, the Inupiat community, across the board was against what [34:06] the Biden administration did, which was lock up the entire National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, [34:12] which was set aside by Congress to develop our resources. [34:16] And then he had the audacity to say, hey, I did this on behalf of the native people. [34:20] That was not true at all. [34:22] It was outrage. [34:24] So for activists or for those concerned about the damage here, you say they just don't know what they're talking about? [34:31] Well, I say a couple of things. [34:33] There's no place on the planet that has higher standards on protecting the environment than us. [34:39] And if we need American energy, why would we go, like the Biden administration did, begging from Iran, Venezuela, [34:46] places that have no environmental standards, when you can get it from America, from American workers, [34:51] with the highest environmental standards any place on the planet? [34:55] And secondly, when you have resource development, particularly in our rural communities, you see life expectancies increasing. [35:04] So in this region, the Arctic is of supreme concern from a national security perspective. [35:12] The ice is melting. [35:14] Yes. [35:15] Majority of scientists attribute that to global warming. [35:18] But the end result is there's a potential for an Arctic area for trade routes. [35:22] Correct. [35:23] Also tapping into the natural resources there. [35:26] How does the United States gain an edge in dominating that? [35:31] Well, look, it's a great question. [35:33] It's really important. [35:34] You're mentioning trade routes that are opening up. [35:36] We've already talked about natural resources, which are huge up in the Arctic. [35:41] And what we need to do is recognize that we're an Arctic nation. [35:44] We're an Arctic nation because of Alaska. [35:48] And, look, this has not always been a priority of previous administrations. [35:54] What we're doing up here, we're rebuilding our military. [35:57] The one big, beautiful bill certainly does it. [35:59] As I mentioned, you know, Alaska exudes military might. [36:03] We're the cornerstone of missile defense, and we're going to be the cornerstone of the president's Golden Dome initiative. [36:08] We are the hub of air combat power. [36:10] You're seeing them flying over here. [36:11] We have over 100 fifth-generation fighters based in Alaska. [36:16] We have a brand-new U.S. Army airborne division up here. [36:20] So we are building out our military, which is great, but also building out our Arctic capabilities. [36:25] And, again, in the one big, beautiful bill, almost $26 billion investment in the Coast Guard, which is the biggest investment in the Coast Guard in American history by far. [36:35] 16 icebreakers coming with that, 22 cutters, 40 helicopters, a bunch of shore-side infrastructure. [36:42] A lot of that's going to be in Alaska to defend the Arctic. [36:45] And we need to defend the Arctic because, as you and I have talked about, the Russians and the Chinese are in our waters and in our airspace all the time, including doing joint operations up here, which is unprecedented. [36:58] I wanted to ask you about that because the war in Ukraine has hurt Russia's finances, made it more dependent on Beijing, including when it comes to exploring up and around the Arctic. [37:10] They had a joint bomber task force. [37:12] Correct. [37:13] Come here. [37:14] Pretty darn close. [37:15] Oh, they were in our aiders, as we call it. [37:18] The air defense identification zone. [37:20] Correct. [37:21] So are you concerned this actually becomes a flashpoint? [37:23] I think this is already becoming a flashpoint. [37:26] I mean, the number of times that the Russians and Chinese are doing joint strategic bomber task forces in our airspace and joint naval task forces in our EEZ, in our waters. [37:40] In the economic zone. [37:41] Yes. [37:42] That's happening on a regular basis now. [37:44] That's unprecedented. [37:45] They don't do joint operations anywhere else on America's borders. [37:50] That's for sure. [37:51] Well, the Republican chair of the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee says there is far more needed for the U.S. military than what has been provided by the White House in their budget. [38:02] We need to do more. [38:03] And we certainly need to keep it above 3 percent of GDP and growing towards 4 or 5 percent of GDP. [38:09] It's a dangerous world right now. [38:11] But this one big, beautiful bill, the Budget Reconciliation Bill, does a lot for our military right now on urgent needs. [38:19] Shipbuilding, as you and I have talked about. [38:22] Our Navy, our ability to build ships is completely atrophied. [38:26] Weapons and ammo systems, the Golden Dome. [38:30] I know you have your own proposal, but has the Pentagon told you what the Golden Dome is? [38:34] I mean, I've been working on this with the Pentagon. [38:37] This is missile defense that is a layered missile defense. [38:42] So what that means is right here, like I said, you have the ground-based missile interceptor, the missile interceptors in Alaska. [38:49] You have all the radar systems in Alaska that protect the whole country in terms of ballistic missiles. [38:55] We have new threats. [38:56] We have hypersonics. [38:57] We have drones. [38:58] We have, heck, even we've seen it here in Alaska, spy balloons. [39:04] What we need to do is upgrade the system with what's called a layered defense, not just the ground-based system here, [39:11] but you work it more with different systems, Aegis Assure, THAAD, and then including space-based systems, [39:19] both for tracking and intercepting. [39:22] And you do that with an open architecture in terms of software to integrate those systems. [39:27] So I am very familiar with what the Golden Dome is doing, and I'm leading the effort in the Senate on it. [39:34] And, by the way, my state is the cornerstone of all the missile defense right now and will continue to be so. [39:41] You can find more from our interview with Dan Sullivan on our website, facethenation.com, and our YouTube page. [39:48] We'll be back in a moment. [39:49] We turn now to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports that the total number of starvation-related deaths has now risen to 250, [40:03] including 110 children, seven of those deaths in the last 24 hours. [40:09] World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres joins us this morning from Jerusalem. [40:13] He visited Gaza late last week. [40:15] Good morning. [40:16] Good morning. [40:18] Good morning. [40:19] It is rare to get a look inside of Gaza. [40:21] The IDF does not allow journalists in to freely report, but they let you in. [40:27] What did you see? [40:28] It was a day trip. [40:31] I was able to go early in the day and leave before sunset. [40:35] And I visit our main, one of our two main kitchens inside Gaza, in Derbala. [40:46] And I was able to visit the few warehouses we have there, the bakery, the kitchens, and spending a day trying to see what else the teams need, [41:00] what else we need to be doing, how we are going to be increasing the hot food and bread that we are producing right now. [41:09] So it was a day, again, to show support, to see on my own and assess the situation of our own kitchens. [41:16] And that's what I have to report about that. [41:20] The U.N. says that there is starvation happening in Gaza. [41:24] Israel's prime minister says there is no starvation. [41:27] What's real? [41:29] Obviously, there is always a gray area, but we are making boxes for children that we know they are in very special needs situation. [41:41] I saw those boxes being made with the name of every one of the children. [41:46] We need to remember that during many weeks, no food was going inside Gaza. [41:52] And this is to two million people. [41:54] So in the places we know we are feeding, we are doing around 200,000 meals a day. [42:01] But this is only 10 percent of the need. [42:04] That's what we are trying to increase. [42:06] I can say that where we are, obviously, people are being fed at the very minimum. [42:14] It's not everything they should be receiving, but at the very least they are receiving a piece of bread and a piece of food. [42:21] But we need much more aid. [42:23] We need to make sure that the aid is never interrupted again. [42:26] We need to make sure that the flow of trucks keeps happening. [42:30] We need to make sure that we have safe roads so those trucks can reach their intended delivery place. [42:38] We need to make sure that all the NGOs that are actively trying to do the best they can to take care of people inside Gaza, and this is beyond food, obviously, medicines, et cetera, et cetera. [42:49] We need to make sure that the aid is massive enough that we don't get to those moments where, in some areas, like in the north, that is still very difficult to reach, that we know that people are desperate for food. [43:03] You mentioned, for many weeks, no food was allowed in. [43:08] That was a government policy. [43:09] There was a blockade for many months. [43:11] That is now lifted officially. [43:14] But, as you say, your organization wants to scale up. [43:18] You're trying to produce one million meals a day in Gaza. [43:22] Can you get the fuel in to do that? [43:24] Can you get the food in? [43:26] Are Israeli officials giving you a green light? [43:29] Well, it's a million because we are an organization that we specialize in emergencies and in food. [43:36] But, obviously, we are requesting that all the NGOs that are participating in feeding are giving more access, including us and other organizations like ANERA, which was one of the organizations we work with, that they've been in Gaza for many, many decades, and many others. [43:54] We need to make sure that everybody has access. [43:56] For that, we need a lot of things. [43:58] The tracks inside Gaza. [44:01] We need to remember that the tracks come from outside Gaza, and there they are put aside. [44:07] And then, we need to reload the tracks that are inside Gaza. [44:10] This takes time. [44:11] We need more tracks inside, so the tracking company can have enough people and enough tracks to have a constant flow. [44:18] I have to report that, yes, I saw a good flow of tracks going in. [44:24] Around 150 to 250 tracks are going in every day. [44:29] But, even, I would say that this is not enough. [44:32] We need to make sure that we massively increase, that we massively make sure that nobody has to be walking for miles to try to reach a place where they can find a plate of food or use a bag of rice. [44:44] We need to make sure, like what Wolfsandra Kitchen does. [44:47] At one moment, we had, you know, 100, 200 kitchen partners. [44:51] We need to make sure that we are cooking where people live. [44:54] We need to make sure that we are feeding them where people are, so that people don't have to be, again, living their neighborhoods, living their tents, and walking for hours back and forth, only to try to bring a little bit of food back home. [45:08] Jose Andres, thank you very much for your time this morning. We'll be right back. [45:13] That's it for us today. Thank you all for watching. Until next week. [45:20] For Face the Nation, I'm Margaret Brennan. [45:22] For Face the Nation, I'm Margaret Brennan.