let's bring in Heather now are the acting Undersecretary of State for
public diplomacy and public affairs and she used to work with us here on Fox and
Friends hey Heather it's so good to see you
good morning Ainsley great to see all of you thank you all right so let's set the
stage for Singapore what can we expect well this administration has made more
progress in the past eight weeks then we have then the government has in the past
eight years in getting North Korea to denuclearize so this is a tremendous
step in the right direction under president Trump's leadership and now
secretary Pompeo is as well so as we look ahead to the next to the the summit
meeting that's set to take place in Singapore you can expect a lot of
planning there a lot of logistics that are involved in planning that we
secretary Pompeo set sort of the expectations that we have for North
Korea to denuclearize he made our expectations very well-known in his
talks with Kim jong-un and so between now and then just a lot of conversations
about how those meetings will go down so there's a story out today that says that
apparently it sounds like the North Koreans are removing some of the extra
buildings at some of their testing sites over there and it's you know it's
unclear to the the person who wrote this story why they're doing it I bet you
know more about that than whoever wrote the news story
well it's something I actually can't confirm at this time we watched those
situations very carefully the overall United States government does we think
that they are they've certainly Kim jong-un has pledged to do the right
thing others have said that they would
denuclearize that's what we are pushing for we are going for that our
expectations are clear in the administration policy is well known by
the North Koreans well the former CIA director John
Brennan thinks your chance or the president's chance or secretary pompeius
chance of actually getting North Korea to denuclearize is very very low listen
to what he had to say okay I hope that a summit meeting is going to result in a
deal equation of the Korean Peninsula what are the odds I think they're
probably you know less than 0.1% than 0.1% so he's predicting 99.9% failure in
this outcome yeah look here's what I can say we are committed
to doing this the North Koreans have made some good faith calls it was
certainly a good faith effort in letting are releasing our American prisoners
earlier this week we were tremendously proud to bring those folks home look we
are realistic and clear-eyed about this but it doesn't mean that we aren't going
to make every effort and every attempt to fulfill president Trump's policy of
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula we're a long way from that but we're
certainly going to make all of our efforts and the sanctions are not going
to come off until they do that right absolutely not this administration came
in very early on and designed the maximum pressure campaign on North Korea
we were joined by many other countries around the world to put sanctions on
North Korea and also other entities to try to get them to force them to
denuclearize we have seen those sanctions working we believe that that
is what has brought them to the table our allies back us on that and are in
agreement with us on that so we're pushing it in the right direction but
those sanctions will not come off until denuclearization happens well a couple
of days ago you were with Mike Pompeo and I know we're kind of kidding you
know we saw the the still images but what was it like on the ground with Kim
jong-un yeah so so first let me start off by telling you a little bit about
what it was like when our American prisoners came on the plane and try to
picture this guys in North Korea we're at the Pyongyang Airport and these three
men are walking onto a plane that says United States of America across that
plane how incredible just that taste of freedom they walked on board we each got
an opportunity to take a look at them to shake their hands and say welcome home
even though we were still on North Korean soil they were then under the
appropriate the protection of the United States of America they said to us there
they looked us right in the eyes and said god Bless America and we are so
proud to be Americans we all cheered up we all choked up it was an incredible
moment so I mean that really for me as an American and for someone who
represents the State Department in this administration was the highlight of the
week the entire reason we did go there though was to set the table for
president Trump's meeting with Kim jong-un later next month and
so the secretary secretary Pompeo made a tremendous amount of progress in
planning for that meeting I was not in the meeting with him along with Kim
jong-un there was just one other u.s. official but we believe we made some
progress on that front Heather are there any demands we've made
up front that the North Koreans have not agreed to yet or haven't haven't said is
it possible you know we're still in the planning stages here but we've made it
very clear complete irreversible verifiable denuclearization we've made
that clear all along that that is our goal and many other countries around the
world completely back us up in that way Heather as far as those hostages are
concerned what are they what were they like do they have family members here do
they have kids and did you find out what was in that note that one of them handed
to Mike Pompeo yes so I read that I understand that a psalm was handed to to
vice president pence I've not seen it myself so I'm not familiar with what
exactly is in that but these are men of faith and that was very important to
them they do have families here in the United States the United States citizens
I know my consular affairs colleagues have the opportunity to give those
family members a call and let them know that they're American prisoners their
family members now the freed Americans as I like to call them we're on their
way home can you imagine getting that phone call from the United States
government saying hey we have your dad we have your husband we have your
brother so we reached out to them I know that some of those families were on
their way to Washington DC to be reunited there now private citizens so
I'm not going to be able to talk about what's ahead for them but I know they're
certainly glad to be reunited with their families and back home on safe ground
did they mention to you about their treatment I did not ask them personally
about that as you have to imagine it's an extremely sensitive situation when
they're coming on board the plane a sunlight was something that some of them
had not even had exposure to so our goal was to just give them their space give
them their space and they spent time with our State Department and White
House doctors also psychiatrists so they were the main points of contact with
these men on the flights home so that they could take care of them we didn't
want to pro but I'm sure some of those conversations will be had in the coming
days their treatment what they experienced and what their goals are for
the future what a week I mean between the hostages
and then a couple days earlier it was pulling the plug on the Iran deal of
course now the sanctions kick back they snap back but we really need the help of
our European allies because if they just pretend yeah it's business as usual then
this thing is not going to work well and that's the entire reason that President
Trump made the decision to pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal the Iranian
nuclear deal only dealt with one small part some would call it significant but
one part of Iran's bad behavior and that is its interest in a nuclear program
forgetting about all the bad activities that Iran is involved with all around
the world we see the news we watch the news carefully out of Syria where Iran
it's Revolutionary Guard Corp and also Hezbollah are attacking our ally Israel
they are doing lots of bad things around the world we see Iran backing the Houthi
rebels in Yemen shooting missiles and rockets into into Saudi Arabia are close
strategic partner they're doing lots of bad things around the world that the
United States intends to hold them to account for now our next step is to talk
with our European allies and others to say let's look at Iran through the
totality of his bad acts and not just through a one narrow slice the nuclear
deal well Heather Nancy Pelosi not surprisingly does not agree listen to
what she says okay deal without the agreement Iran was on the path to have a
nuclear weapon in one or two years so to those who keep saying this is important
for us to stop them from getting a weapon way down the road you have just
given them license to go forward in a year or two we take an oath to protect
and defend that is our first responsibility I do not think the
president is honoring that oath by what he did
so she says the bomb is more likely now well look we have seen Iran lie and lie
again they have not been good actors and all of this you just saw the documents
that Israel was able to obtain out of Iran the United States has taken a look
at those documents we believe those to be authentic we've seen that regime lie
in the past so we certainly would have questions
about its commitment to the nuclear deal all right then on Monday another another
historic thing is happening checking off all these boxes the US Embassy in
Jerusalem is set to open what are your comments on that yes so this is
something that the president president Trump talked about on the campaign trail
the importance of opening an embassy in Jerusalem we are pleased that our Deputy
Secretary of State John Sullivan will be leading the delegation secretary
minuchin will be there as well as Jared and Ivanka Trump are joining there as
well so we're very proud and pleased a president Trump's accomplishment in
doing this it's something he promised and now something that he is fulfilling
well it's something a lot of presidents have promised but this is the first time
it's actually happened heather Nauert who once upon a time was our news anchor
and she'd get up at 2 o'clock in the morning and now she's a big shot at the
State Department and she never goes to sleep that's right thank you so much and
it's just I just have to tell you it is such an honor to be a part of this State
Department and this administration and it makes it all worthwhile when you can
be oh and I could be just a small part of helping to bring these Americans home
I can't tell you guys I mean this has made this career change for me entirely
worth it what a meaningful experience very cool and happy Mother's Day I thank
you thank you look forward to seeing my family all
right take care all right you
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