00:00But as regards to Israel, the warrants against Netanyahu, because the president has mentioned that, obviously.
00:04Yeah, we think it's an illegit- Israel's also not an enemy.
00:06But today, as Netanyahu, tomorrow it'll be an American.
00:09So, again, it's not about the individuals, it's about their claim of jurisdiction over countries that are not members of
00:16the treaty.
00:16If we wanted to be under their jurisdiction, we would have joined.
00:21We didn't join. We're not a member.
00:22There are questions today about the future of the Republican Party.
00:25You have in the past said that if Vice President J.D. Vance runs anywhere.
00:29I don't know why you're wasting your time talking.
00:30I'm not going to talk about 2028 any longer.
00:34I'm just not going to talk about 2028 anymore.
00:37But I'm just asking you about a comment you've made.
00:38And I'm just telling you that, okay, here's my answer. You ready?
00:40I'm not going to discuss 2028.
00:42I'm not going to discuss it in any form or fashion.
00:44But thank you. But I'm not going to talk about it.
00:46But why discuss it months ago and not today? I'm just curious.
00:48Because I have that choice. I can make it.
00:50There's things that we're not going to talk about it anymore.
00:52You can make a choice about if you want to run for president or not.
00:55That's what you're saying?
00:56I can make a choice if I told you I'm not going to answer that question.
00:58You can ask it eight different ways, but you're not going to get it.
01:00Okay, 2032.
01:01Not even. I'm not going to talk about it.
01:04So you can ask me, but I'm not going to answer it because I'm not going to talk about it
01:07anymore.
01:07Secretary McRae.
01:08This is not a question about the election.
01:10Okay, sure. I always say that and then ask about it.
01:13There was a huge amount of public opinion polling around the election.
01:16And across the board, it showed that voters are very concerned about corruption in the government.
01:20There have been some instances of credible allegations of corruption in U.S. officials dealing overseas and diplomacy.
01:29Obviously, the case study will be Ambassador Guilfoyle.
01:32Okay.
01:32So my question is, are you concerned that Americans might believe that American diplomacy is infected with corruption, self-dealing,
01:39self-enrichment?
01:40Do you think that perception is out there?
01:42I don't know that perception.
01:43Do you think it's a reality?
01:44No, I don't know if that perception is out there or not.
01:46I can tell you at the Department of State, and I made this very clear from the very beginning.
01:50There have been multiple things that have been sent out to make this very clear about what the ethical standards
01:54we expect everyone to abide by.
01:56And we're going to continue to reiterate that.
01:57And that precedes whatever happened in Greece and anywhere else.
02:01We have a process for addressing those things, and we take that very seriously.
02:05So I can't opine about all the story.
02:08I don't know which other ones you're discussing.
02:09But I can tell you that we have repeatedly within the Department of State – and we haven't done it
02:13because we're suspicious of anybody.
02:15We just want to remind everybody that at the end of the day, we work for the American people.
02:18We work for the government of the United States on behalf of the American people.
02:22And everything we do in our roles has to be about furthering the interest of the United States of America,
02:28not the interest of any individual.
02:30That's the standard we've set from day one.
02:31That's the standard we try to follow every single day.
02:34And if someone doesn't meet that standard, we have a process to address that.
02:37Do you think the Department is living up to that standard and U.S. officials are living up to that
02:40standard?
02:40If it's not, we'll take it very seriously.
02:42If we ever come across instances or evidence that someone has not lived up to that standard, we have processes
02:47and laws in place to address it.
02:49We won't tolerate it, I can tell you that.
02:50Do you feel Ambassador Guilfoyle is the exception here?
02:52Well, I'm not going to comment on individual cases.
02:54She's no longer the ambassador, and she's no longer with us.
02:57Do you think there are other – do you think everything is clean and otherwise?
03:02Well, if I ever came across an instance where I had a well-founded suspicion or the department did that
03:06someone was doing something they shouldn't be doing,
03:08we will address it very promptly and perhaps have addressed it very promptly.
03:11But we have a process for doing that.
03:13We don't do it at press conferences.
03:14We do it through the process that we have of identifying a problem, confirming whether it's real,
03:19and then we also have an inspector general process as well internally.
03:22So – but we take this very seriously, and we won't tolerate any exception to the rule.
03:26Secretary, regarding the talks this week in Abu Dhabi, I spoke earlier today with your European Union counterpart, Kasia Kalas,
03:34who said that from her view, Russia has not shown that it's willing to negotiate –
03:39Yeah, but that was – didn't you just ask me the same thing?
03:41Sorry.
03:42Okay.
03:42Yeah, I've told you, guys.
03:43I mean, it's not easy to get – that's why this war has gone on for almost five years.
03:46Yeah.
03:47We're going to continue to do what we can.
03:49You're asking me to guarantee you an outcome.
03:50I can't do that.
03:51It's not – the United States is not a combatant in that war, okay?
03:54It's the Russians that are fighting that war, and it's Ukraine that was invaded and is being attacked and being
03:58fought against.
03:59So all we can do is serve as a facilitator of the talks and do what we can from the
04:05capacity that we have
04:06to inject ideas into those discussions in the hopes of arriving at a solution that's diplomatic in nature.
04:12That's all we can do, and that's what we're going to continue to try to do.
04:15But in the end, it's not the United States war.
04:17We're not combatants in that war.
04:18And so we are doing everything we can to bring that war to an end.
04:21But in the end, it takes the combatants to agree.
04:24But we'll do everything we can because we think it's important.
04:26The president's made it a priority, even though it's a war that's not America's war.
04:31So, Secretary, on Haiti, I just wanted to ask what the discussions on Haiti were.
04:36Is there any concrete steps or path forwards that you –
04:39Yeah, look –
04:40Transitional government even votes for –
04:43In Haiti, yeah.
04:44So, yeah, we want to have – I mean, there's scheduled to be national elections in Haiti.
04:48Obviously, there are challenges, security challenges to it as well.
04:50That's the reality.
04:51The gangs still control large portions of Port-au-Prince as an example.
04:55I could tell you that on that issue, the Canadians deserve a lot of credit.
04:58They've really stepped up.
04:59They've been a big catalyst in the work that's been done.
05:01Obviously, the United States has been very involved with them as well in this UN mission.
05:05I think the – with the gang suppression force, it's starting to gain momentum.
05:08It's up to 2,000 with another 3,000 or 4,000 been pledged.
05:12So, you're starting to see momentum in the training as well, the police force in Haiti and improving their professionalism.
05:18But, you know, it's a difficult challenge.
05:20And I would say if the gang suppression force effort doesn't work, then we're out of ideas.
05:25So, we have to make it work.
05:26There really is no other option.
05:27There's no plan B here anymore.
05:28So, the effort – the Kenyan-led effort sort of just wasn't doing enough.
05:32This new process is what replaced it.
05:35And it has to work because if it doesn't, I don't know what other alternative there is at this point.
05:40So, we'll just continue to encourage – and we raise it at all these G7s for these countries to step
05:45up and donate money to the account necessary to make this effort successful.
05:49What's the timeline on ramping up the number of troops deployed in the GSF?
05:54And do you think that the timeline on the elections is appropriate just given the security situation?
05:58Well, look, ultimately, the elections – you can't have elections of gangs control, you know, large portions of the city.
06:04People will say it's not a legitimate and credible election because if a significant percentage of the population can't go
06:11to a voting place because it happens to be controlled by a gang, it makes it very difficult.
06:15So, stability is important for elections to be credible.
06:18That's why, you know, they're – like, in Ukraine, they haven't had an election in a long time either because
06:23they're in the middle of a war, right?
06:24So, our point is that we'd like to see elections in Haiti, but, you know, before you can make real
06:29progress on an election in Haiti, you've got to do more to push back the gangs so that people can
06:34actually go vote and not get killed or decapitated.
