00:00...castles, the home of Churchill, and this house has been sitting here since the 17th century.
00:09So, welcome, we're delighted to have you.
00:12And, in a sense, this is an indication of the long-standing bonds that exist between our two countries.
00:21I know that you personally have spent lots of time in the United Kingdom,
00:26and you know that I've spent lots of time in the US, and I'm very, very fond of the country.
00:33Our bilateral relations are in a wonderful place, having struck our economic prosperity deal,
00:41and working hard on a new technology partnership, which will be very, very exciting indeed.
00:48Today, of course, we will be discussing the developing situation in the Middle East,
00:56and in Gaza, which is of great concern, and, of course, the ongoing war in Ukraine,
01:04and our desire to see that come to an end.
01:08And I'm sure we'll be reflecting on other issues of global interest and concern.
01:13But welcome to my home here in the wonderful county of Kent.
01:21It's good to be here.
01:22Well, thank you so much for having me, Mr. Foreign Secretary.
01:25It's good to see you all, and good to see your team here.
01:28As you said, this is a very special relationship between our two countries,
01:30and I think me being here is just another part of that.
01:33So, we've already, in the brief time that we've been here, my kids have fallen asleep on your floor.
01:39We've gone fishing in the lake outside, and, unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught a fish,
01:47but the Foreign Secretary did not.
01:49I'm sorry.
01:50I'm sorry.
01:51It is great to be here in Kent again.
01:53My wife and I love this section, this area of the U.K.
01:55We actually were here a couple of years ago.
01:57We went to Dover and to the Cathedral of Canterbury, so we love this country.
02:01We certainly love this part of the country, and so it's great to be here.
02:05As David said, we have a lot to discuss.
02:08There's a lot going on in the world, of course, the situation in the Middle East, the situation with Ukraine and Russia.
02:13There's a lot of news there and a lot of things to update each other on.
02:16I believe that we're going to talk about our economic partnerships, both in technology,
02:20but also the broader shared economic relationship that we have, and we're so thrilled about that.
02:25But just on a personal note, I have to say that I really have become a good friend,
02:30and David has become a good friend of mine, and so it's great to spend some time here with him and his family.
02:35On the trip over here, my three-year-old daughter in particular kept on asking if she was going to get to hang out with Maya.
02:40The answer, happily, was yes, and you've been a very, very gracious host to me and the whole family,
02:46so we're very grateful to that.
02:47And to the people of England, I really love this country, and in particular, having never been to this beautiful house before
02:55and seen the surrounding area, I just say that the people who built it,
02:59the people who sustained it, I think, really love the human spirit, and being here lifts up the human spirit.
03:06And so I feel, from one vice president to the people of England, thank you for having such a beautiful place,
03:11for foreigners like me to come and talk about the issues of the day, because we really appreciate it,
03:15and we're really thrilled to be here.
03:17So to David and your team, thank you so very much.
03:20Absolutely.
03:21Did you catch a fish, sir?
03:22I caught a few, actually.
03:24Yeah, I don't want to brag, but we did okay.
03:26Can you speak to how you became such good friends?
03:28Well, you know, David, I guess when you were in opposition, right, and I had just gotten elected to the United States Senate,
03:35obviously we come from sort of different political spectrums, but he was kind enough to make time on a visit to D.C.
03:42We got to know each other a little bit then and just kept on seeing each other,
03:44and our families enjoy each other's company very much, which always helps.
03:48But we just, we care about this relationship, and we care about the fact that though we're separated by an ocean,
03:54and I guess as Churchill said by a common language, that we have a lot in common, and there's a lot to do and a lot to work on together.
04:03David once said to me, this was probably a couple of years ago, that there's this feeling that the world is in a state of incredible tension.
04:11And I certainly felt that a couple of years ago. I think the President of the United States over the last six, seven months has done a lot to lower that tension,
04:19but there's a lot that the United Kingdom and the United States can do, I think, to bring greater peace and greater stability to the world.
04:24And so we share that conviction, and that's made it easy for us to spend time together and work on the issues of the day.
04:30Mr. Vice President, some big issues in the Middle East.
04:33What do you make of the U.K.'s decision to recognize the state of Palestine? Do you think that's a bad decision?
04:38Well, it's one of the things that we're going to talk about. Obviously, the United Kingdom is going to make its decision.
04:42We have no plans to recognize a Palestinian state.
04:45I don't know what it would mean to really recognize a Palestinian state, given the lack of a functional government there.
04:51What the President has made very clear is our two goals are very simple right now vis-Ã -vis the situation in Israel and Gaza.
04:57Number one, it's we want to make it so that Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again,
05:03and we think that has to come through the eradication of Hamas.
05:05Second, the President has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,
05:11so we want to make sure that we solve that problem.
05:13I think all of us can work on how to solve that problem.
05:15Obviously, it's not an easy problem to solve, or it would have already been dealt with,
05:19but we share, I think, that focus and that goal.
05:22We may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we'll talk about that today.
05:26Mr. Vice President?
05:27What do you make of President Trump's comments last week about you, the likely frontrunner in 2020?
05:34I don't want to talk about lowly things like politics in this grand house.
05:37Come on.
05:38Look, I think my view on the politics of 2028 is I'm not really focused even on the election in 2026,
05:44much less one, two years after that.
05:47And if we do a good job for the American people, the politics will take care of itself,
05:50so I'm going to try to do a good job for the American people,
05:52just as David's trying to do a good job for the people of the U.K.
05:55Mr. Vice President, was the President given a heads-up about Israel's intention to occupy Gaza City?
06:01I'm not going to speak to private conversations between the Israeli government and our government.
06:05I think the President, obviously, has been very clear about his goals,
06:08about what he wants to accomplish in the Middle East, and he's going to keep on doing that.
06:11The President, as you know, speaks to these issues commonly.
06:14I'm sure that he'll talk at some point to the media about his response to what's happened
06:19or what was announced earlier today in Gaza, but our goals are very clear.
06:22We want to make it so that Hamas can't attack innocent people.
06:25We want to solve humanitarian problems in Gaza.
06:27We're working incredibly hard, the President and the entire team, to make sure that happens.
06:32I mean, we've been in constant negotiations and conversations, even the last 24 hours,
06:37about how to get more aid into Gaza, about how to solve that humanitarian problem,
06:41and also how to get Hamas to a position where they can't continue to threaten the citizens and the civilians of Israel.
06:47So there's a lot of work to do there.
06:49There's a lot of common objectives here.
06:51There is some, I think, disagreement about how exactly to accomplish those common objectives.
06:55But look, it's a tough situation.
06:57Of course we're not going to know exactly how to solve a very complicated problem.
07:01As the President has said himself, people in some ways have been fighting for thousands of years.
07:05If it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already.
07:08Mr. President, you've expressed some concerns in the past about free speech in the United Kingdom and Europe and broadly.
07:15Do you bring any kind of a message to the Foreign Secretary today on that subject?
07:18Well, I'd say there is I've raised concerns about free speech in the United States of America.
07:22I think the entire collective West, the transatlantic relationship, our NATO allies,
07:27certainly the United States under the Biden administration,
07:30got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse array of opinions.
07:35And so that's been my view.
07:37Obviously, I've raised some criticism and concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic.
07:41But the thing that I'd say to the people of England or to anybody else, to David,
07:44is many of the things that I worry most about were happening in the United States from 2020 to 2024.
07:51I just don't want other countries to follow us down what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration.
07:56So in the spirit of having a good conversation and recognizing the Secretary has a lot of things to do,
08:04unless you want to say anything else.
08:07Okay.
08:07Thank you all so much.
08:09Good to see you all.
08:12Can I just ask just one more question?
08:13Just one to the Foreign Secretary.
08:15The Foreign Secretary, yes.
08:16I'm done answering questions.
08:18Foreign Secretary, the U.K. has taken a different tack on the situation in Palestine and the United States.
08:25Do you feel that your friendship with the Vice President might help, you know, have a discussion about ceasefire in Gaza?
08:32You know, Prime Minister Starmer is either meeting or discussing these issues with President Trump on a weekly basis.
08:43And I am doing the same with Secretary of State Rubio or Vice President Vance.
08:50And the truth is what we all want to see is a ceasefire.
08:52What we all want to see are the hostages come out.
08:57And we are hugely concerned by the humanitarian suffering that we're seeing in Gaza particularly.
09:05So it is bringing back to an end that we want to see.
09:09I am concerned about what is developing in Gaza at this time and the recent decision by the Cabinet.
09:21And hugely concerned, as I think a lot of Israeli people are, about the impact particularly on the hostages.
09:28And we'll be able to discuss these issues in the hours ahead.
09:32Thank you very much.
09:55President of Manchester University not quite as good yet, and so we enjoy that political
10:02debate and discussion particularly. But you know, there are areas where there are actually
10:10joint concern. We both have a joint concern about outcomes for working people. That is
10:18the truth of it.
10:19And we have also discussed issues like irregular and illegal migration, and how we deal with
10:28those issues. So there are commonalities, and then there are differences. And that is the
10:34joy of living in democracies like ours.
10:38Thank you very much, Seymour.
10:40Thank you, Chris.
10:43I caught my finger.
10:45Thank you very much.
10:47Thank you very much.
10:48Good.
10:49As the president says, in the press conference, not to say her.
10:52Please, please.
10:53Please, please.
10:54The president says her.
10:55He doesn't.
10:56He doesn't.
10:57He doesn't.
10:59Thanks a lot.
11:01We're in the press conference, not to say the word.
11:05Please, please, please.
11:06This is a great committee, this is a great committee.
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