00:00President Trump pardoned the former Honduran president after he was convicted of track traffic
00:05roughly 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, cocaine that contributes
00:10to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans year after year.
00:15President and his cabinet authorized a military operation to capture Nicolas Maduro in order to arrest
00:20him for virtually the same crime.
00:23So yes or no, because I have a bunch of questions.
00:25To the best of your knowledge, was Hernandez convicted of trafficking approximately
00:30400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
00:33I'm not involved in the pardon process.
00:35I can tell you that the president—
00:36No, I'm just asking if he—
00:37Yeah, but I don't do yes or no.
00:38I don't play games.
00:39This is not a game show.
00:40No, he was—
00:41Okay, so I'm just going to tell you—
00:42So I can answer your question because I know where you're getting at, but go ahead and ask—
00:44He was convicted.
00:45I know—
00:46The president felt that he was unfairly treated.
00:48I can't—
00:49But I can't—
00:50I can't give you much insight because I'm not involved in the pardon process.
00:52But would you not concede?
00:54Can you not under—
00:55Can you understand how the American people and how the world are clearly going to be frustrated
01:00by—
01:00By the hypocrisy of this, when one man is convicted and pardoned and another man captured and
01:05how—
01:05That undermines United States credibility on the world stage?
01:07But the difference is that—
01:09Again, I can't opine on—
01:10He was involved in the specifics of his case because I wasn't involved in the pardon,
01:12but he was not a sitting office holder.
01:14He was not even the—
01:15The president of Honduras when that decision was made, either to convict him—
01:18No.
01:19The difference between him and Nicolas…
01:20He was actively engaged in narco-trafficking.
01:22It was an ongoing endeavor.
01:23I—
01:24I think it does—
01:25undermine our credibility.
01:26But I'm going to move on to some foreign policy decision-making here because—
01:30despite the fact that you famously or infamously have numerous jobs—
01:35in the administration, your secretary of state, your national security advisor—
01:40It is increasingly unclear who's actually directing U.S. foreign policy under president—
01:45President Trump.
01:46We have a special envoy—
01:47Special envoy Whitcoff.
01:48He's reportedly conducted Russia—
01:50Ukraine talks in Switzerland beyond your awareness.
01:53He and Jared Kushner have been described—
01:55as managing the president's Gaza plan.
01:57Meanwhile, Ambassador Barak is leading on—
02:00Syria policy—
02:01while Special envoy Bulos is appearing to lead on our Africa policy.
02:05So, I have to ask you—
02:07I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask you—
02:10Are you the lead for U.S. government on foreign policy?
02:13Well—
02:14No.
02:15The lead on U.S. foreign policy—
02:15He's named Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States.
02:17On the individuals you've described, these are very valuable—
02:20teams, we have an—
02:21If I can answer, because I think it's important.
02:23It's a legitimate question.
02:25I have the distinction, but I think both the benefit of being the National Security Advisor
02:29and the Secretary of State—
02:30As National Security Advisor, my job is to coordinate the interagency function of National Security—
02:35and that involves foreign policy.
02:36So, I speak to Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner in the—
02:40In the case of Gaza, and now Russia, probably 10 times a day—
02:43Do you outrank him?
02:44We have multiple meetings and coordination—
02:45All of it is—
02:46We build a team, we gather facts, we present options and then we—
02:50What?
02:52What?
02:54What?
02:56What?
02:58What?
02:59What?
03:01What?
03:02What?
03:06What?
03:07What?
03:11portfolio but in every one of these portfolios we have a team approach to
03:14this which is the way the system is supposed
03:16to work it's not the way it's always worked you have had in the past tensions
03:19between the National Security Council
03:21that became operational in the Department of State
03:23in this particular case there's not much conflict between the
03:26two because it's the same person and we basically the what we basically try to do
03:30in
03:31every one of these unique missions is we create a consensus team around it and
03:35then we present the president
03:36options together options it's the president's decision nobody else's
03:39there's no overruling here
03:41the president makes the decision
03:42don't our job is to present them options
03:43shouldn't they report to you shouldn't there be a line
03:46of command and a line of transparency they report to me every day where does
03:49the buck stop but they report to me every
03:51every day in terms of keeping me apprised of what's happening I give advice I give in
03:54some cases direction they involve
03:56heavily for example the special envoys rely almost exclusively on State Department
04:01personnel to assist them in all of their efforts for example on the Board of Peace we help them
04:06position the entire gathering last week and all the work that's going to happen now on every one of
04:11these issues it's not though it's not linear no single individual other than the
04:15president has the ability
04:16to dictate our foreign policy our job is to come to a consensus view on the best way
04:20forward
04:21there are disputes those are presented to the president and he makes the decision
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