00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before I ask my questions, I want to go back to your characterization of USAID and the Democrats' responsibility for what happened with that program.
00:17I think you've heard from virtually every person who has talked today, and we certainly heard this this morning in terms of the Foreign Relations Committee, that if there were improprieties in USAID, then we were on board with addressing those, and we were on board with making changes to make sure that didn't happen again.
00:40But the concern is the wholesale throwing out of the foreign assistance programs for the 0.3% of grants that we agree maybe should never have been made. A number of them are things that never happened.
01:00They've been made up, just like President Trump's reference to transgender mice in his State of the State address. That's not what happened. He was talking about transgenic mice, which are used in cancer experiments, not transgender mice.
01:17So I think we would all be better served if we tried to work together to address the challenges of providing foreign assistance in a way that, as Secretary Rubio has said, and I think most of us have agreed with, makes it more effective and better.
01:37And I'm not sure that the chainsaw that Elon Musk took to USAID makes it better on its face, and we can disagree about that, and I'm sure we will, because we may have different views.
01:53And I, for one, don't appreciate Senator Mullins suggesting that because I may have a different view on how USAID foreign assistance should be operated, that I'm less of a patriot and don't believe in the security of this country.
02:06So, Mr. Chairman, I would hope that we could dispense with the name-calling in the future, and I agree, you've been a great defender of foreign assistance programs.
02:17I feel like I have too, so we should agree on that.
02:20You haven't, I guess the only reason I did this, you've accused this man of killing 15 million people.
02:25I didn't accuse him.
02:26Well.
02:27I think they quoted a report that suggested that because of changes to foreign assistance, that there would be significant numbers of people killed.
02:38I don't blame Senator Rubio for that, I think, but I do blame the policy changes for the devastating impact they will have on people across the world.
02:49And I hope that we can fix those and that we are all committed to doing that.
02:54I'll give you another minute because I interrupted you.
02:57Okay.
02:58Well, let me go back to the question that I asked this morning, Senator Rubio, which has to do with Ukraine.
03:06Because we were talking about sanctions and one of the things you pointed out is that the Trump administration has left in place the sanctions on Russia.
03:16Today, the EU and the UK impose sweeping new sanctions on Russia, including targeting close to 200 vessels in Moscow's shadow fleet.
03:25But we haven't seen our sanctions change to address the changes that Moscow has been able to make in response to the sanctions regime that we've put on.
03:40So the question is, and I asked you this this morning, Senator Graham and Blumenthal have a bill that has 80 Senate sponsors on it that would put in place secondary sanctions on Russia because of its continued failure to come to the negotiating table to really look at how to end the war in Ukraine.
04:06Is this legislation that you or the Trump administration or the White House would support?
04:12Well, it's legislation we're most certainly aware of.
04:15I am not today in a position to tell you we're going to endorse it or support it at this time, and I'll explain why.
04:23We want to continue to play the role where we can speak to both sides of this conflict and get them to the table to end this war once and for all.
04:32The President is fully aware, as he has reminded on numerous occasions, both in posts on social media and in public statements, he fully recognizes that he has options at his disposal.
04:42I can also tell you, and I believe you're personally aware, along with Senator Graham, that we have warned the Russians for the better part of two months that the Senate is working on a package which is far more severe than anything the President could impose under his own authority in many cases.
04:56And that eventually, if progress isn't made, people are going to give us some time to work this out.
05:01But if that didn't work out after a while, there was nothing that was going to happen. This was going to come. So we're aware of that.
05:07Suffice it to say that we are still hopeful, although at the same time realistic, but hopeful with our eyes wide open, that we can reach a point here where we can begin even the process of negotiating this.
05:19We've spent a lot of time on this. We've met with both sides, far more with the Ukrainians than with the Russians.
05:24We've had two technical talks with the Russians in the past, one high-level engagement. The President's spoken to President Putin three times. We've spoken to the Ukrainians far more.
05:33So what we're expecting now, based on the President's phone conversation yesterday and my conversations over the weekend with Mr. Lavrov, is that at some point here fairly soon, maybe in a number of days, maybe this week hopefully,
05:44the Russian side is going to present terms that they would want to see, just broad terms, that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire.
05:52And that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict.
05:59We are hoping that will happen. We believe that the term sheet that the Russians produce will tell us a lot about their true intentions.
06:06If it's a term sheet that's realistic and you can work off of it, that's one thing. If it makes demands that we know are unrealistic, I think that will be indicative.
06:14And what the President will decide to do at that point, I can't speak for him at this moment. I'm not prepared to say.
06:19But I think we all know he is aware of both his authorities to sanction and he is well aware of the fact that this bill is moving in the Senate.
06:25And it's one of the reasons why I asked Senator Graham to join me in Turkey, when we engaged the night you arrived with our Ukrainian partners as well.
06:37I appreciate that. I appreciate the fact that you have talked more to the Ukrainians.
06:42And yet, this morning when we talked about continued assistance to Ukraine, you said that nothing had been done to cut that assistance.
06:51But you have cut energy assistance that's necessary for repairing their grid, electric grid after missile attacks and keeping electricity flowing.
07:00I've visited some of those electric grids, so I know how critical they are.
07:05You've cut assistance to help Ukrainians document, verify and report on war crimes to allow them to one day hold perpetrators accountable.
07:13Again, I've had the opportunity to meet with some of those folks who were in the process of documenting the atrocities that have occurred.
07:23You've cut cost-free cooperation with international bodies that are tracking kidnapped Ukrainian children.
07:28You've cut assistance to strengthen security sector oversight, which is helpful to us as we make sure that the Ukrainians are spending funds that we have provided them appropriately.
07:41So, in my mind, that doesn't mean that this administration has continued assistance to Ukraine.
07:49It means that you've cut assistance to Ukraine in many areas, the ones I just outlined.
07:54And so, again, if we're going to see a dynamic change in these negotiations and to get legitimate peace negotiations going on, then we've got to put more pressure on Russia.
08:09And so far, the administration has not been willing to do that.
08:12Well, I don't agree we haven't put pressure on Russia as we continue to insist upon them coming to the table.
08:17For example, they agreed, albeit less than ideal, direct talks for the first time in three years occurred this weekend in Turkey.
08:25For the first time in multiple years since at least 2022, the Russians have agreed to produce documentation.
08:32Now, it may not lead to anything.
08:33At some point, we may wind up right at the point you're pointing to.
08:36The President is just not prepared to close the door on that yet because he still hopes to achieve peace.
08:40Let me just clarify.
08:41My understanding is that President Trump offered to go to Turkey to meet with President Zelensky and with Vladimir Putin.
08:50President Zelensky went.
08:52Vladimir Putin refused to go and basically dissed the President's willingness to go to meet with them in person.
09:01I think the President...
09:02That was certainly what was reported.
09:03Yeah, but I was on that trip.
09:04I think the President expressed, yes, if there's going to be a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, I'm more than willing to go.
09:10But there wasn't going to be one.
09:11Putin never agreed to a meeting with Zelensky.
09:12Right.
09:13So the President was willing to go, but Vladimir Putin wasn't.
09:16If that...
09:17That, in my mind, means that Putin, while the President may be willing to negotiate and may be willing to sit at the table,
09:25Vladimir Putin is not because it's in his interest, he believes it's in Russia's interest,
09:31to carry this war out as long as possible because he thinks that Russia benefits from that.
09:38And until we change the dynamic, that's what he's going to continue to do.
09:42Well, again, that may very well be what he believes.
09:44At some point, time and his actions will tell.
09:47But I think the President wants to exhaust every opportunity to bring about a peaceful negotiation here,
09:52an end to this conflict as soon as possible.
09:54And I think we should be happy that we have a President that wants to end a war.
09:57And that he's, you know, it's taxing on the patients and it's taken a long time.
10:01But four months has been dedicated to this.
10:03But ultimately, I think it's a good thing that we have a President that's trying to end this war.
10:07He wants to give it every available chance possible and doesn't want to foreclose anything too early.
10:12If there's still a chance to achieve peace, he wants to make that happen.
10:15I'm not disagreeing with that.
10:16I think I agree.
10:17I think we should try and end this war.
10:19I'm just questioning his tactics and whether he's really being successful in the way he's doing this.
10:25Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter for the record a fact sheet that it's called
10:32the PRC Supporting International Assistance as U.S. Withdraws.
10:36It's dated April 29, 2025.
10:38And what it lays out is specific examples of where the PRC has come in
10:43and taken over U.S. assistance programs as we've withdrawn.
10:47Without objection.
