During Tuesday’s State Department press briefing, Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott answered questions about the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.
00:00I wanted to ask your response of reports that there were back channel talks that led to the release of Edan Alexander with a Hamas official reaching out to the former leader of Arab Americans for Trump.
00:15Can you speak to that report and any details about how the release came to be?
00:21MR. So I'm not going to comment on private diplomatic conversations. But what I will say and reiterate is that this shows that when President Trump says he will never leave an American behind, he means it. This is the direct result of American leadership, as I said earlier, and again, shows the fact that President Trump is forever working for the safety and security of the American people as his Secretary Rubio. But I'm not going to discuss or – good details of private diplomatic conversations.
00:46You're not denying it?
00:47MR. Again, whether or not that or did not happen, I'm not going to talk about private diplomatic conversations, whether or not they did or did not happen.
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