00:00On Iran, I'm not asking you for, like, military secrets here, but can you share a little bit about the
00:10President's thinking on whether or not to strike Iran, who he's talking to, what information he's consuming, and why a
00:16strike might be necessary on a nuclear program he says was obliterated by the last U.S. strike.
00:21Well, there's many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against the – against Iran. The President
00:29had a very successful operation as Commander-in-Chief with Operation Midnight Hammer, as you know, as you just said,
00:36totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities.
00:39The President has always been very clear, though, with respect to Iran or any country around the world, diplomacy is
00:44always his first option, and Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump and with this
00:51administration.
00:52He's talking to many people. Of course, his national security team, first and foremost, and you know who the members
00:58of that team are.
00:59And this is something, obviously, the President takes seriously. He's always thinking about what's in the best interest of the
01:05United States of America, of our military, of the American people, and that's how he makes decisions with respect to
01:11military action of any kind.
01:12And on the flip side of that, he's got the State of the Union speech next week. If he is
01:16going to take military action, does the administration believe it's important to sort of convince the American people,
01:21sell the American people? Will we hear something about that in the State of the Union to make the case
01:25for why something like that might be necessary to risk American lives?
01:28Look, again, I'm not going to engage in a hypothetical. Good try, Garrett. But you can't catch me there.
01:33I will say, with respect to the State of the Union, you'll be hearing more about what is to come
01:37from the President's speech very soon at the appropriate time.
01:39It is going to be a very good and powerful speech, so everyone should tune in.
01:44Seeing enough progress in the Iran talks to let negotiations go a little further, where do things stand after yesterday's
01:50talk?
01:51I think you heard from the administration and the State Department yesterday that there was a little bit of progress
01:56made, but we're still very far apart on some issues.
01:58I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with some more detail in the next couple of
02:04weeks.
02:04And so the President will continue to watch how this plays out. Sure.
02:08I'll follow up on that. Thank you, Caroline. On these Iran talks, I mean, how much time is the President
02:13willing to give it before he is seriously maybe considering military action?
02:17Is he willing to give it that full two weeks? And has he given the Iranian officials a deadline on
02:22when he wants to see a deal?
02:23It's a fair question, Rachel, but I'm not going to set deadlines on behalf of the President of the United
02:27States.
02:27And then just one more on the shutdown. We're now in this partial shutdown over DHS funding.
02:34Has the President personally spoken to the Democratic leaders in Congress?
02:38Can we expect to see them at the White House to try to make a deal on this?
02:41Not to my knowledge. He hasn't had any direct conversation or correspondence with Democrat lawmakers recently.
02:46It doesn't mean he's not willing to. I'm just not aware of any conversations that have taken place.
02:50I do know the White House and the President's representatives have been in direct conversations with both Democrats and Republicans.
02:58But, of course, Democrats are the reason that the Department of Homeland Security is currently shut down.
03:03They have chosen to act against the American people for political reasons.
03:08And now we have FEMA workers, the men and women of the United States Coast Guard,
03:13men and women of TSA who keep our airports moving, who will be working without paychecks
03:18for no good reason other than the Democrats wanting to pick a fight with Donald Trump.
03:22And the President thinks that is irresponsible and despicable.
03:25He wants the government to be open.
03:27We've been engaged in good faith negotiations with the Democrats.
03:31Last night they sent over a counterproposal that, frankly, was very unserious.
03:35And we hope they get serious very soon because Americans are going to be impacted by this.
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