The following is the full transcript of an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 17, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who attended those talks in Anchorage. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: Good morning. Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Vladimir Putin did not give President Trump the ceasefire he sought. And now Putin says the root causes of the conflict have to be resolved in a peace agreement. Isn’t the root cause the fact that Russia invaded in the first place?

SEC. RUBIO: Well, ultimately, yeah. But I mean, what he means by root causes is this long historical complaints that we’ve heard repeatedly. This is not a new argument, he’s been making this for a long time, and it’s the argument that it’s Western encroachment. I don’t want to get into- it’s just so long. But the bottom line is that all of- you know, we’re not going to focus on all of that stuff. We’re going to focus on this: are they going to stop fighting or not? And what it’s going to take to stop the fighting. And what it’s going to take to stop the fighting, if we’re being honest and serious here, is both sides are going to have to give, and both sides should expect to get something from this. And that’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s very difficult because Ukraine obviously feels, you know, harmed, and rightfully so, because they were invaded. And the Russian side, because they feel like they got momentum in the battlefield, and frankly, don’t care, don’t seem to care very much about how many Russian soldiers die in this endeavor. They just churn through it. So I think what the President deserves a lot of credit for is the amount of time and energy that his administration is placing on reaching a peace agreement for a war that’s not a war that started under him. It’s half, you know, it’s on the other side of the world. That said, I mean, it’s relevant to us. But there are a lot of other issues he could be focused on. So tomorrow, we’ll be meeting with President Zelenskyy. We’ll be meeting with European leaders. We just met with Putin. He’s dedicated a lot of time and energy because he has made it a priority of his administration to stop or end war- stop wars or prevent them. And right now, this is the biggest war going on in the world. It’s the biggest war in Europe since World War Two. We’re going to continue to do everything we can to reach an agreement that ends the dying and the killing and the suffering that’s going on right now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know this well, how long these kind of diplomatic negotiations often take. President Trump was telling European leaders what was discussed was Putin demanding control of Donetsk, a region in the east that his forces do not fully hold, and the UK estimates that taking that full area could be as long as another four years. Putin also is demanding Russian be an official language in Ukraine, and something regarding Russian Orthodox churches. Did the U.S. accept all of what Putin laid out at that table?

SEC. RUBIO: The United States is not in a position to accept anything or reject anything, because ultimately, it’s up to the Ukrainians. They’re the ones that Russia has to make peace with, Ukraine with Russia–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Well, the President said he did come to some agreement–

SEC. RUBIO: –It’s up to the Ukrainians to make these conditions. Well, the agreements were that we were going to try to do things like, for example, get a leader- a leaders meeting. We have to make enough progress so that we can sit down President Zelenskyy and President Zelenskyy and President Putin in the same place, which is what President Zelenskyy has been asking for, and reach a final agreement that ends this war. Now, there were some concepts and ideas discussed that we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive of in that meeting. I don’t think it’s- we’re not going to negotiate this in the media. I understand that everybody wants to know what happened. But ultimately, there are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potentials for progress. We’ll be discussing that more in depth tomorrow, with our European allies, with the Ukrainians that are coming over. We’ll be discussing all of these things, because ultimately, we do need to find areas where we’re making progress and try to begin to narrow the gap between the two sides. But there’s a reason why this war has been going on for three and a half years, and that is, when it comes to the big issues here, there are still some big differences between both sides. Let’s see how much progress we can continue to make. It’s- it’s- it’s not been easy, but it’s something the President’s made a priority. Peace. And he deserves a lot of credit for that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But ultimately, if- if Vladimir Putin is going to be offered land that he has not seized yet, but negotiates his way into, doesn’t this set a dangerous precedent that the United States now accepts this concept that it is okay to seize land by force?

SEC. RUBIO: Well, Putin has already seized land by force, and that, in and of itself, is not a positive precedent. This whole war is a negative precedent–

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Are you demanding withdrawal?–

SEC. RUBIO: –precedent. Well, again, here’s the- in order to have a deal here to end- to reach the end of this conflict, both sides are going to have to make concessions. That’s just the facts–

[CROSSTALK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: But does that mean accepting–

SEC. RUBIO: –in any negotiation–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –where Russian forces are now?

SEC. RUBIO: No, no, but, if- But this is not about acceptance. This is about what Ukraine can accept. And what Russia can accept. They both have to accept it, otherwise there won’t be a peace deal. Okay. If there aren’t concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that’s called surrender. That’s called the end of the war through surrender. And that’s not what we’re close to doing, because neither side here is on the verge of surrender or anything close to it. So in order for there to be a peace deal, this is just a fact, we may not like it, it may not be pleasant, it may be distasteful, but in order for there to be an end of the war, there are things Russia wants that it cannot get, and there are things Ukraine wants that it’s not going to get. Both sides are going to have to give up something in order to get to the table, in order to make this happen. That’s- that’s just the way it is. And I mean, the sooner we accept that, that’s the reality. Now, what those things are is going to be up to both sides. There’s no conditions that can be imposed on Ukraine. They’re going to have to accept things, but they’re going to have to get things too. And so, for example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. They have a right, like every sovereign country does in the world, to have- to enter into security alliances with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to their national security. That’s not an unreasonable request. That’s something needs to be worked on. Territories will have to be discussed. It’s just a fact, and there are things that maybe Russia is holding now that they’re going to have to give up. Who knows? The point is, we need to create a scenario where that becomes possible, and that’s why this has been so hard, because neither side, up to now, has been willing to give on some of these things. But we’ll see if that’s possible. It may not be, but we’re going to try, and we’re going to do everything we can to try to achieve a peace.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I understand you, you can’t get into specifics in a public conversation, but we’re looking at Russian troops and strikes intensifying. Did you hear anything from Vladimir Putin that indicated he is willing to make a single concession?

SEC. RUBIO: Well, I think there are a couple. I mean, there were- not enough for Ukraine, if not we would be announcing a peace deal this morning, right? But- but certainly, there are some things we notice changes. There are some changes that I think are possible. I think there’s some concepts that were discussed that could potentially lead to something. But again, all these things have to be verifiable. We- it isn’t real until it’s real. I mean, you- one thing is what you say you might be willing to consider, another thing is your willingness to do it. And it always becomes a trade off in all of this. But you talk about the intensifying strikes on the Russian side, yeah, I mean, they’re a full-time war machine. I mean, that’s what’s happening. The Russian economy has basically been turned into a full-time wartime economy. They have a lot of people. It’s a big country. It’s not just large geographically. It has huge populations. It continues to churn through people. You know, they lost- 20,000 Russian soldiers were killed last month, in July, in this war. That just tells you the price they’re willing to pay. Not saying any of this is admirable, I’m saying that this is the reality of the war that we’re facing. It’s become attrition, in some ways. It’s a meat grinder, and they just have more meat to grind.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, let me ask you about the security bit you just mentioned there, because Italy’s Prime Minister says that President Trump revived the idea of security guarantees inspired by NATO’s Article Five and a collective security clause that would involve the United States. How does that work? Are these U.S. troops? Are these U.S. monitors?

SEC. RUBIO: Well, what we’re going to be working on. That’s why- that’s one of the reasons why, you know, I talked yesterday to all the national security advisors, a bunch of them from the different European countries, or European leaders coming here tomorrow, heads of state coming tomorrow, along with President Zelenskyy, to discuss this in more detail. I mean, the constructs of something like this needs to be built out once it- concept is one thing. The reality, you know, how it’s built and how it would work, is another. But those are the kinds of talks that we’re going to be having with them, along with some of the other issues that are at play. But, that-that is one of the-if you were to break this thing down, I mean, there are, obviously, there needs to be an agreement on territories and where the lines are going to be drawn. That’s not going to be very easy. That’s going to be tough. I think there has to be some discussion about security guarantees for Ukraine, because they don’t want this war to–none of us want to see this war in the future. They’re a sovereign country. They have a right to have security agreements with other countries and security alliances with other countries. And then there’s the whole issue of reconstruction–

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Including the United States?–

SEC. RUBIO: — How do you rebuild the country? Well, potentially, like I said, that’s what we’re going to be having a conversation about, and that’s what we’re going to be meeting. That’s why they’re all coming here tomorrow, and-and that’s why we’ve been talking on the phone for the last 48 hours with them, and even leading up to it throughout the week there were various meetings just to sort of build out some of these ideas. So all of these right now are ideas, they are concepts that require some more specificity. We’ll need to work with our partners to see what that looks like. And I think that’s an area where potential progress is real, but that alone won’t be enough. There’s a bunch of other things that have to be worked through here.

MARGARET BRENNAN Yea, well, Russia claims it has rescued 700,000 children. I know you know that the warrant out for Vladimir Putin’s arrest is for the state-sponsored abduction of kids. I’ve seen estimates there are something like 30,000 Ukrainian children who have been abducted. Is the United States demanding, or at least, even just as a statement of goodwill here, that Russia return these children?

SEC. RUBIO: Yeah, I mean, we’ve repeatedly raised that issue on- in every forum possible, and those have also been, by the way, topics of discussion, not just in our meetings with the Ukrainians, but in the negotiations and talks that were going on between Ukraine and Russia at the technical level. These talks were going on in Turkey, as an example. Turkey over the last few months–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Yeah, nothing so far from the Russians —

SEC. RUBIO: –that’s been a topic of discussion as well —

SEC. RUBIO: Well, it’s unfortunate. Children should be returned to their families. We- on that position, I don’t think there’s any ambiguity on our side. And they shouldn’t even be, you know, a bargaining chip in regards to a broader negotiation. But it’s just one more element of how tragic this war is. After three and a half years, this war is getting worse. It’s not getting better. You’ve made the point about the uptick in strikes. This is a war. It’s going to get worse. It’s not going to get better, and that’s why the President is investing so much time in bringing this to an end. And, by the way, everyone is begging us to be involved in this. The Europeans want us involved. The Ukrainians want us involved. Obviously, the Russians want us involved because the President is the only leader in the world- if this is possible, he’s the only one that can help make it happen.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he’s got the leverage over Vladimir Putin if he wanted to crush his economy or at least do more damage to it, but you have held off on those secondary sanctions. President Trump told Fox News his advice to President Zelenskyy is make a deal, Russia’s a very big power and they’re not. You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelenskyy is going to be bullied into signing something away. That’s why you have these European leaders coming as back up tomorrow. Can you reassure them?

SEC. RUBIO: No, it isn’t. That’s not why they’re coming as back- that’s not true. No but that’s not, why, that’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming- in fact —

[CROSSTALK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well that February Oval Office meeting in front of television cameras, where President Zelenskyy was dressed down —

SEC. RUBIO: — Do you know how many meetings we’ve had since then?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, no, I know. And I was just up in Alaska —

SEC. RUBIO: Yeah, but we’ve had a bunch of meetings since then.

MARGARET BRENNAN: — watching the one with Vladimir Putin where a red carpet was rolled out for the Russian leader. It was very different–

SEC. RUBIO: — No, but it wasn’t Zelenskyy. We’ve had more meetings, we’ve had, we’ve had, we’ve had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenskyy. So that, but that’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week. There were meetings in the UK over the following, the previous weekend —

MARGARET BRENNAN: — And they said the President Trump was going to demand a ceasefire —

SEC. RUBIO: — The President’s talked to these leaders as early as Thursday. No, no, but you said that they’re coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming here tomorrow- this is such a stupid media narrative that they’re coming here tomorrow because the- Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal. We’ve been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The President invited them to come.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the President told those European leaders last week that he wanted a cease fire. The President went on television, said he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin didn’t agree with him. He said there would be severe consequences if he didn’t agree to one. He said he’d walk out in two minutes. He spent three hours talking to Vladimir Putin, and he did not get one,so–

SEC. RUBIO: –Because obviously something, things happen during that meeting, well, because obviously things,look our goal here is not to stage some production for the world to say, oh how dramatic he walked out. Our goal here is to have a peace agreement to end this war. Okay? And obviously we felt, and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks to allow us to move to the next phase. If not, we wouldn’t be having Zelenskyy flying all the way over here. We wouldn’t be having all the Europeans coming all the way over here. Now understand, and take with a grain of salt, I’m not saying we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelenskyy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this. You talk about the sanctions. Look, at the end of the day, if peace is not going to be possible here, and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands, the President has that option to then come in and impose new sanctions. But if he did this now, the moment the President puts those additional sanctions, that’s the end of the talks. You’ve basically locked in at least another year to year and a half of war and death and destruction. We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there. We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again. That’s the goal here. We’re going to do everything possible to make that happen if it’s doable. It will require both sides to make concessions. It will require both sides to get things they’re asking for. That’s how these deals are made, whether we like it or not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I let you go, quickly, why did the State Department just announced that they’re halting visitor visas for all Gazans coming here for medical aid? Why would some of these kids, for example, who are coming to hospitals for treatment be a threat?

SEC. RUBIO: Well, first of all, it’s not just kids, it’s a bunch of adults that are accompanying them. Second, we had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it, and so we’re going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted, not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them. And by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it. There is evidence, it’s been presented to us by numerous congressional offices, that some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas. And so we are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. So we need to- we’re going to pause those visas. There was just a small number of them issued to children, but they come with adults accompanying them, obviously, and we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the- to the process of acquiring those visas. We’re not going to be in partnership with groups that have links or sympathies towards Hamas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. We have to leave it there for this morning. Thank you for joining us.

SEC. RUBIO: Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: ‘Face the Nation’ will be back in one minute. Stay with us.

The following is the transcript of an interview with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, which was on taped Aug. 14, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska, and aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 17. The transcript of the first part of the interview was published on Friday.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator.

SEN. DAN SULLIVAN: Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for joining us in your home state.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Welcome to Alaska. The father of the U.S. Air Force called Alaska the most strategic place in the world. That’s a quote by Billy Mitchell that I use a lot. And now you see why.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well — very strategic. And I want to talk to you about a lot of things specific to the state–

SEN. SULLIVAN: Good.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —but this is the focus of the world right now—

SEN. SULLIVAN: It is.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —because of who’s coming here.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So from your perspective, you’re a supporter of Ukraine—

SEN. SULLIVAN: I have been.

MARGARET BRENNAN: —what does a successful Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, summit look like?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, I think the President and his team need to be commended. You know, they have put a lot of effort and energy in peace, with regard to Ukraine and Russia, like they’re doing all around the world, you know, they’re they’re making a lot of headway on peace, whether it’s the Azerbaijan-Armenia issues, Iran-Israel, Pakistan-India, they’re putting a lot of energy into bringing peace to different parts of the world, but they put the most energy into this.

So, look, I think a successful outcome would be, as you know, a com- negotiating peace is very complex, very difficult. Even this kind of high level diplomacy has risks for everybody, including the president and his team. The different elements of a peace agreement, starting with the ceasefire, then you would have territorial issues, concessions or not, then you have security guarantees. But I think this is a place-setting exercise that the administration believes that if they can get a ceasefire, then you would do the other elements that I talked about, the much more complex elements, with Zelenskyy, with our European and NATO allies. So I think the President is going to assess Putin’s seriousness on a ceasefire. And if he assesses that, that he’s serious, and Putin agrees to a ceasefire, then I think that would be success. Then you move on to the other elements for round two. So this is really preliminary, and I would call it, you know, an exercise in place-setting for the real negotiations.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, watch for the ceasefire, and judge success based off of that. Well, the Kremlin has announced there’s going to be this joint press conference. The White House says, we’ll see, the president said maybe, maybe not. Vladimir Putin is being brought in from the cold. He’s been isolated by the world for a reason. Do you think that this is rewarding bad behavior, by giving him this spotlight on the American soil?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Look, two things on that. Vladimir Putin is coming to negotiate with Trump because of the sanctions. I mean, don’t take it from me. Listen to our European allies who are definitive on that. The reason Putin is even doing this is because of the threat of serious secondary sanctions. So I think that that is important. And, you know, in terms of American soil, look, I actually think Alaska is the appropriate place. Putin understands one thing, as you know, Margaret, strength and power. And my state exudes strength and power with a huge military here. By the way, we’re having a giant military exercise going on right now. I hope Vladimir Putin sees a lot of that military power in the next couple of days. Unleashing American energy, which the President is doing. That’s the weapon that Putin fears probably more than anything, when we can compete with them.

And then this is also, you know, a place that demonstrates a huge element of American power and strength, which is our allies. We have allies doing military exercises up here as we speak, the president has been doing a great job with our European allies. Gotten NATO to get to 5%, coordinating with them all week. So I think those are really important. And then finally, you know, as an Alaskan. I think it’s important, from the perspective of reminding the Russians that we are quite good negotiators, including the president of the United States. You know, last time we had a big deal with Russia in America, about my state, we got this great state for two cents an acre, $7.2 million, probably the deal of the century. And I think the Russians- I think the Russians probably have to remember that too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, exactly. Don’t you think for Vladimir Putin, who, you know, allegedly wants to reconstitute the Russian Empire, that maybe has a little bit of a different meaning for him, arriving here?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, I think he has no- I mean, who knows what they think about Alaska, but I know what Alaskans think about Russia. And you know, we’re a strong state, like I said. We have enormous power right here. And so again, I think for all these reasons, this is going to be a really important summit.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So- he is an indicted war criminal, for a very specific crime of kidnapping Ukrainian children. He’s bombed hospitals in Syria. He’s massacred people, ordered them at least, he’s- he’s murdered many of his own people. He’s used chemical weapons on British soil. That’s why he’s under this kind of pressure and U.S. sanctions. Really, are you pleased that he’s this close to home?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Look, like I said, I mean the- the part about—

MARGARET BRENNAN: You don’t think it normalizes that, that it forgives that, that it brings him back into the fold by giving him that photo op that makes him look so powerful?

SEN. SULLIVAN: You know, peace is difficult, right? We’ve had high level discussions with Reagan in Gorbachev, with Stalin, with Mao Zedong. I mean, this is what diplomacy is about, when you try to end wars. And it’s- the way you end wars is, you discuss them with the leaders of these countries. Look, I’m no fan of Vladimir Putin. I don’t trust anything he says. The key is, when I think what the president has done when you’re dealing with a dictator, is show up with strength, and that’s what the president’s done. Putin is coming to the negotiating tables because he’s threatened by these sanctions. The president is rebuilding our military, rebuilding our energy sector, which is critical, critical to my state, and very importantly, as I already mentioned, coordinating really closely with one of the greatest strengths we have, and that’s our allies. We are an ally rich nation. Putin is ally poor, and that’s a huge strength of ours.

So all of these things, I think, you focus on the strength, get Putin to a ceasefire, and move forward with Ukraine, Zelenskyy, our European allies, in terms of the more complicated elements of a peace negotiation. But it starts with this. Starts with a ceasefire. And look, if President Trump assesses Putin is not being honest, you’ve seen, you know, a lot of frustration from the president recently saying, hey, I have these good discussions with Putin, then he’s out bombing, you know, hospitals and nursing homes. If he assesses that he’s not serious, then, as the president said, there’ll be severe consequences. And I think that’s the kind of pressure we need to keep on to try to get to what everybody wants, which is an end of this war.

END PART ONE

MARGARET BRENNAN: So if there’s no ceasefire Friday, the Republican leader in the Senate is going to put that sanctions bill to a vote finally?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, I don’t know what the Republican Leader John Thune is going to do I know I’m a–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Would you like him to?

SEN. SULLIVAN: — I’m an original cosponsor of that sanctions bill. I think what we’ve been doing right now, Lindsey Graham has been leading the charge, doing a great job, which is coordinating with the White House, but the President has already threatened sanctions against India. I think soon they should be threatening sanctions against China. They’re a huge secondary buyer as well–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Even as those negotiations over trade deals are ongoing?

SEN. SULLIVAN: I mean, I- look, I think with regard to buying oil and propping up the Putin war machine, the answer is yes, but we are trying to coordinate, and I think we’re doing a good job with Leader Thune and Lindsey Graham on that sanctions bill, which has over 80 cosponsors. And look, there might be a time when the White House needs that, there’s as you know, ongoing litigation over the tariffs, and having Congress pass legislation with regard to the tariffs makes that much more stronger from a legal perspective. But I think continuing to coordinate with the White House and when and how to do that with our leadership at this moment is the right approach.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So the President has also spoken about the opportunities that might exist from a business perspective with Russia. The Telegraph was reporting offering Putin a chance to invest in the natural resources off of Alaska’s coast in the Bering Strait. Are you comfortable with that?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, we have plenty of American investors and our allies who want to invest in Alaska’s natural resources. We’re having a boom here. We don’t need Russian investments. We don’t need Russian money. They’re a competitor of ours when it comes to energy and natural resources and critical minerals. So I doubt that’s on the table. And you know, I would not–

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’d be upset if–

SEN SULLIVAN: –I would not, I would not support that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Your colleague–

SEN. SULLIVAN: By the way, just on that point, though, a contrast, you might remember the last time I was on your show, we talked about the Biden administration–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –I want to talk about this.

SEN. SULLIVAN: With this great state of ours, shutting us down, right? I mean, that was 70 executive orders to shut down, exclusively focused on Alaska, shut down our resource development economy. As I mentioned when I was on your show last year. You know, the- our own federal government, the Biden administration, sanctioned my state more than they sanctioned Iran. What we’re seeing with President Trump and his administration is a complete

180 on that, unleashing Alaska’s resource potential has been a huge focus of the president since day one. He literally issued an executive order on day one. So, you know, we’re getting a lot of support from this administration, great support on our economy, jobs and resource development. It’s a breath of fresh air relative to the Biden administration, and I think we’re going to see continued focus on that from this White House.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve been pushing the Trump administration to invest in a project here. The state has a lot of fossil fuels, a lot of natural resources. The project’s from the North Slope of Alaska, and it would bring natural gas, perhaps even to Asia, to Japan.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump announced it as a joint venture, but the FT is reporting no Asian partners have made an equity investment or entered supply contracts. What’s the reality check? Where is this particular project?

SEN. SULLIVAN: So this is the big Alaska LNG Project that we’ve been working on for many, many years. It is a hugely strategic project. We have more natural gas on the North Slope than probably anywhere in the whole world. We’ve been working on a pipeline and an LNG facility right around here to ship that out. Alaska was the first place to ship LNG anywhere. We started exporting LNG to Japan in the late 1960s.

SEN. SULLIVAN: So right now, the Trump administration, the president and his cabinet have been pushing this project in their trade negotiation agreements. We’ve gotten great support from them. There’s not–

MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s not a done deal.

SEN. SULLIVAN: It’s not a done deal yet, because we are- on the private sector side, we’re working on what’s called the FEED work, the front-end engineering and design that’s going to be done in a few months. And that’s when we’re going to go to these countries and go to the companies in Korea, in Japan, in Taiwan, all very interested, and say, hey, here are the off-take agreements we want you to sign. The President and his team have been working closely with the private sector on this, so we’re making more progress on this, Margaret, than we’ve ever made before. This can be great for Alaskans. Great for our military here. But as you mentioned, this is great for our Asian allies, the Koreans, the Japanese, some of whom are still getting Russian oil and gas. The Taiwanese are all very interested. I’ve been over those- these countries a number of times to press this project. But we’ve made more project- we’ve made more progress on this project with the Trump administration than we ever have. So I’m very bullish on this. And by the way, this will be a game changer, hugely strategic for our allies, for our military, for Alaskans. Estimates of this would create about 20,000 jobs. This is a game-changer strategically, and I’m really appreciative the President spent so much time pressing this project, and we’ve made good progress.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you mentioned how furious you were with the Biden administration for the executive actions they said they were taking to protect natural resources. They said land conservation was necessary, and the indigenous population here really wanted it. You called it a lie.

SEN. SULLIVAN: I did call it a lie. It was a lie.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you said it was national security suicide. Trump has already reversed this. But are you at all concerned that there are short-term benefits to your state financially, but longer-term real damage to the environment here?

SEN. SULLIVAN: No. Look, Alaska has an incredible record of being able to develop our resources and protect the environment. You walk around here, you see what a pristine, beautiful environment we have here. We love that more than the Biden administration EPA or President Biden himself did. We love that part of our state. But we know we need jobs, we need natural resource development, so we can do both. And here’s the thing I did call the president, President Biden, out for lying because the entire North Slope of Alaska, the Inupiat community across the board, was against what the Biden administration did, which was lock up the entire National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska- which was set aside by Congress to develop our resources. And then he had the audacity to say, hey, I did this on behalf of the native people. That was not true at all. It was a outrage. President Trump has reversed all that. The One Big Beautiful Bill, when we talk about the energy component of that legislation, it’s almost all unleashing Alaska. So we’re excited right now and- but we have a great record of being able to do both, develop natural resources and protect the environment here, and that’s what the people of Alaska want.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So- so for activists, or for those concerned about the damage here, you say they just don’t know what they’re talking about?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, I say- well, a couple things. A, we have the highest standards on the environment in a place in the world. I used to be the Commissioner of Natural resources and Energy- in charge of that. There’s no place on the planet that has higher standards on protecting the environment than us. And if we need American energy, why would we go- like the Biden administration did, begging from Iran, Venezuela, places that have no environmental standards when you can get it from America, from American workers with the highest environmental standards any place on the planet. And secondly- and this is something I really try to emphasize- I emphasized it with Secretary Kennedy when he was in town here a couple of weeks ago. You know, when you have resource development, particularly in our rural communities, you see life expectancies increases- increasing. On the North Slope of Alaska, when we started developing our resources, where most of the resources are, you had Inupiat native populations that had very low life expectancies. In 25 years, they increased their life expectancy by almost 13, 14, 15 years more than any other place in the country during that period, because they got good jobs, because they got hospitals, because they got clinics, because they got flushing toilets and running water. So when we’re talking about resource development, it’s not just the economy and jobs, it’s people living longer in my state, and that’s as important as it gets.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So I want to ask you a little bit more about national security, and then talk a little bit more local, if we could. So in this region, the Arctic is of supreme concern from a national security perspective. The ice is melting–

SEN. SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Majority of scientists attribute that to global warming, but the end result is there’s a potential for an Arctic area for trade routes–

SEN. SULLIVAN: –Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –also tapping into the natural resources there. How does the United States gain an edge in dominating that?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, look, it’s a great question. It’s really important. You’re mentioning trade routes that are opening up. We’ve already talked about natural resources, which are huge up in the Arctic. And what we need to do is recognize that we’re an Arctic nation. We’re an Arctic nation because of Alaska. And look, this has not always been a priority of previous administrations. When I first got to the Senate, I remember holding up the Biden- or, I’m sorry, the Obama administration Arctic strategy with the Secretary of Defense slamming it down on the dais and saying, Mr. Secretary, this is a joke. We have a huge national interest in the Arctic that we need to protect. It’s not some parochial issue for Alaska’s senator. This is about national security up here. So it is–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –They were trying, I remember back then they were trying for more ice cutters- Icebreakers and all of that–

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, it’s finally start- well, it’s finally starting to happen. What we’re doing up here, we’re rebuilding our military, the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ certainly does it. As I mentioned, you know, Alaska exudes military might. We’re the cornerstone of missile defense, and we’re going to be the cornerstone of the President’s Golden Dome initiative. We are the hub of air combat power. You’re seeing them flying over here. We have over 100 fifth generation fighters based in Alaska. We have a brand new US Army Airborne Division up here. So we are building out our military, which is great, but also building out our Arctic capabilities. Just three days ago, we commissioned finally an Icebreaker in Juneau, Alaska–

MARGARET BRENNAN: I saw that.

SEN. SULLIVAN: That’s going to be home ported in Alaska. Can you imagine that, Margaret? Putting an Icebreaker where the ice is makes sense, but it’s never happened until last Sunday. President Trump and his team have been a huge proponent of this. And again, in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,’ one of the untold stories of that bill–

MARGARET BRENNAN: $9 billion in it for Icebreakers.

SEN. SULIVAN: Well, 20- almost $26 billion investment in the Coast Guard, which is the biggest investment in the Coast Guard in American history, by far. 16 Icebreakers coming with that, 22 cutters, 40 helicopters, a bunch of shore side infrastructure, a lot of that’s going to be in Alaska to defend the Arctic. And we need to defend the Arctic, because, as you and I have talked about, the Russians and the Chinese are in our waters and in our airspace all the time, including doing joint operations up here, which is unprecedented.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I wanted to ask you about that, because the war in Ukraine has hurt Russia’s finances, made them more dependent on Beijing, including when it comes to exploring up and around the Arctic. They had a joint Bomber Task Force.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Correct–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –come here pretty darn close.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Oh, they were in our ADIZ, as they as we call it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Air Defense Identification Zone.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, are you concerned this actually becomes a flashpoint?

SEN. SULLIVAN: I think this is already becoming a flashpoint. I mean the number of times that the Russians and Chinese are doing joint strategic bomber task forces in our airspace and joint naval task forces in our EEZ- in our waters–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –economic zone.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Yes, that’s happening on a regular basis now. That’s unprecedented. They don’t do joint operations anywhere else on America’s borders, that’s for sure. So again, it’s the reason we need to build up, not just our military forces, but our infrastructure. And the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ I got a provision in to start reopening the Adak Navy military base. It was out on the Aleutian island chain. We’re going to get a strategic Arctic port built in Nome, Alaska- in western Alaska. So, we need the infrastructure to project power, and we are getting that from this administration- and the Congress. A lot of this is bipartisan.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the Republican Chair of the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee says there is far more needed for the US military than what has been provided by the White House in their budget.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Again, 150 billion in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, 25 billion for the Coast Guard, which is part of our military. But I want to- you know, I’m someone who is a strong advocate for a strong military, particularly up here. And we need to do more, and we certainly need to keep it above 3% of GDP and growing towards four or 5% of GDP. It’s a dangerous world right now, but this One Big, Beautiful Bill, the budget reconciliation bill, does a lot for our military right now. On urgent needs. Ship building, as you and I have talked about, our Navy, our ability to build ships is completely atrophied. Weapons, ammo systems, the Golden Dome. There’s a lot in this One Big, Beautiful Bill that–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you know what that is? Have they actually briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee? I know you have your own proposal, but has the Pentagon told you what the Golden Dome is?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Absolutely. Alright. I mean, I’ve been working on this with the Pentagon. This is missile defense that is a layered missile defense. So what that means is, right here, like I said, you have the ground-based missile interceptor, the missile interceptors in Alaska. You have all the radar systems in Alaska that protect the whole country. In terms of ballistic missiles, we have new threats. We have hypersonics, we have drones. We have, heck, even we’ve seen it here in Alaska, spy balloons. What we need to do is upgrade the system with what’s called a layered defense, not just the ground based system here, but you work it more with different systems, Aegis Ashore, THADD and then including space based systems, both for tracking and intercepting, and you do that with the open architecture in terms of software to integrate those systems. So I am very familiar with what the Golden Dome is doing, and I’m leading the effort in the Senate on it. And by the way, my state is the cornerstone of all the missile defense right now and will continue to be so.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m being told that we are running out of time. But I do need to ask you, when you’re talking about the big, One, Big, Beautiful Bill, the tax and spending–

SEN. SULLIVAN: You smile every time you say that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Republican tax and spend bill that just passed, Alaska got a lot of special treatment–

SEN. SULLIVAN: Alaska did very well.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And your colleague, Senator Lisa Murkowski, acknowledged that, she said the bill wasn’t good enough for the rest of the nation. You said you had a dark night of the soul at one point.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Yeah, I did.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You almost didn’t vote for this.

SEN. SULLIVAN: No, I had a dark night of soul because I had been working on a provision in that bill–

MARGRET BRENNAN: The Medicaid costs paid for by the federal government–

SEN. SULLIVAN: The Medicaid FMAP as we call it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SEN. SULLIVAN: And that had the support of the White House, support of all the Republicans, something I’ve been working on for almost 10 years. Alaska gets a very low match in terms of Medicaid, one of the lowest in the country, which I think makes no sense. So this changes the formula to help states like mine that have very high health care costs. So that was in the bill, and Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats literally challenged every single good provision in that bill dealing with Alaska. And I mean every provision. Schumer definitely made himself clear that he was the anti-Alaska senator in the Senate. Everything- we fought him. We beat him back on almost everything. They won. Chuck Schumer stripped out a Medicaid increase for Alaska. It was tough on me, because I’ve been working on that for a long time. We pivoted. We got the Rural Health Care Transformation fund and increased–

MARGARET BRENNAN: You got exemptions for Alaska Natives for new Medicaid and SNAP or food stamps. Work requirements waived for indigenous people. Alaska gets a larger share of rural hospital funds. Why shouldn’t people living in other states get those same considerations?

SEN. SULLIVAN: Well, we have unique challenges up here. Come on up to Alaska–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Or it was a tight vote.

SEN. SULLIVAN: It’s a– What’s that?

MARGARET BRENNAN: And it was a tight vote. Well, Alaska had a lot of leverage here.

SEN. SULLIVAN: It’s called- It’s called good legislating.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But what about the rest of the country? You acknowledge there are flaws?

SEN. SULLIVAN: I’m first and foremost the Senator for Alaska. But I care about the rest of the country too, which is why I focus a lot on energy, a lot on our national security, a lot on border security. I care a lot about the border security in the southern part of America. So you know, all senators do that. They take care of their own state. They legislate to help their constituents. My constituents have unique needs, but we also bring a lot to the table for our great country. Like I said, we’re protecting the whole country in terms of missile defense right now, we have a huge military up here that we love, that is protecting our interests in the North Pacific, in the Arctic, and we are unleashing American energy, which, of course, helps Alaska but helps America. When Alaska is doing well on energy issues, on critical mineral issues, that helps my constituents but helps the country. And that’s again, why I’m so appreciative of the President and his team on recognizing that. The Biden guys, all they wanted to do was shut us down, close off our state. That didn’t help anybody. All that helped was the Russians and the Iranians and the Venezuelans.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, thank you for your time.

SEN. SULLIVAN: Margaret, great to be here, and welcome to Alaska again. We’re glad you’re here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you.

The following is the transcript of an interview with Fiona Hill, former senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 17, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. Fiona Hill served as the Senior Director for Russia and European Affairs on the National Security Council during President Trump’s first term. She joins us now from Waterville, Maine. Good morning to you.

FIONA HILL: Good morning, Margaret.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Fiona, you were an advisor during that infamous Helsinki summit in 2018. You’ve spoken about that in the past. I wonder what you think about how this Alaska summit compared?

HILL: Well, obviously quite different in many respects. Part of it was the fact that they decided to skip the one-on-one meeting and the lunch. I mean, these are usually part of the sort of set of summits like this. And the press conference, obviously, was more of an announcement, or a set of announcements- presentations by both leaders. Much more by President Putin, and more of a commentary by President Trump. So there wasn’t that free-for-all of press questions, which I’m sure was a bit disconcerting for you and others who were present there, at Alaska. But the optics weren’t exactly great, as Congressman crow has laid out for the United States and for President Trump, again, I mean, again, different, but although it was presented as perhaps a show of power by being at a US Air Force base with the fight passing of the B-52s and other fighter jets, it did certainly look much more like a show of appreciation for Vladimir Putin. And so, the optics were really much more favorable to Putin than they were to the United States. It really looked like Putin had set the agenda there, the narrative and, in many respects, the tone for the whole summit meeting.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, saying that, you know, the President has a team of advisers around him, and in a traditional administration, those advisers would be setting the policy, they would be planning the optics, and they would be thinking through that. Do you think that the President’s team set him up for success here?

HILL: Well, look, it may well have been that one of the demands, because we’ve heard from Secretary Rubio, which I have to say, I think was a very fair assessment of where things are. So it may well have been that one of the demands by the Russians to make any progress in moving further forward was to actually have that kind of show of pomp and pageantry, that basically marks Putin’s re-entry into international affairs. Maybe the Russians said to them in Moscow, either to Steve Witkoff or to Secretary Rubio, or to anybody else, that basically they wanted to have a major US-Russia, bilateral summit appearance before they would move on to the nitty-gritty of anything else in Ukraine. That’s to give them- them all the benefit of the doubt there. But, it all now depends on what comes out of this. And I think again, Secretary Rubio made it very clear that it’s not going to be easy. He was certainly downplaying any expectations of a major breakthrough. But he did say that there was something that might be possible. I think that’s what’s going to be the proof of whether this was actually worth all the effort that they went to in Alaska or not. And as Congressman Crow said, there’s a pretty high bar here, because what Putin is doing is pretty brutal, and he’s not showing, right now, any signs whatsoever of giving anything up.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: The United Kingdom’s Defense Secretary has said that they would be willing to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to help oversee a ceasefire. When you hear these security guarantees being talked about, and the Secretary said he is going to negotiate that tomorrow, what should we think- what form is that going to take? What do you think that should look like?

HILL: Well, look, I think he actually laid this out, and you did too in your questions. And I think Congressman Crow made it very clear as well. It has to be a combination of all of the things that we’ve already heard discussed on the show today. You have to be able to have some boots on the ground. Congressman Crow that it doesn’t have to be the United States. That’s actually the case. But, it actually has to be some commitment from the United States to enable European forces to actually hold that territory and to provide some security guarantees for Ukraine. The United States is key in terms of its intelligence, in terms of enabling equipment, and the information and the data that we would need for all of this to make a security intervention mean something. And it’s also essential in terms of all kinds of other forms of equipment and defensive weaponry. We’ve already heard, of course, about Ukraine needing all kinds of equipment, from javelins in the past, to patriots, now, in terms of an integrated missile defense system that Ukraine desperately needs. So there’s a lot there that we all know needs to be done, and what we really need to see, I think, in these meetings that will take place on Monday and moving forward, is a real commitment to the United States, to work with Europeans, and to work with Ukraine to make this happen. Look, this is existential, also for European security. So, minimizing the real role of Europe here, be it the United Kingdom, be it Poland, be it Finland, be it France, be it Germany, is not the way to go. Europe has to have an equal say in all of this. This is about Europe’s future and the future of European security, not just about Ukraine’s.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about the dynamic between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. You know both men. You’ve written biographies of Vladimir Putin, and of course, you served under Donald Trump. In one of the FOX interviews that President Trump did, he said that he spoke about mail-in voting in the United States with Vladimir Putin, and during that press address, Putin also claimed that the war wouldn’t have happened at all if Donald Trump had been President. I mean, that’s a counterfactual, but that something Trump often says on the- on the trail, why would those things be discussed at all if this was about Ukraine?

HILL: Exactly. Well, look, this is Vladimir Putin, as usual, trying to manipulate U.S. domestic politics. I’ve seen him do this over and over again, including at Helsinki when he set the president off, not in the press conference, but before that, in a whole diatribe against his political enemies, because Putin deliberately asked him about this. So Putin knows that President Trump wants to have an acknowledgement of his self-assertion that the war wouldn’t have happened had he not- had he been in the presidency. And so, Putin is giving him something that plays well for President Trump in his own domestic environment. It doesn’t play well in the international environment, where people know things are much more complicated, but it’s basically a gift and a concession to President Trump himself. And Putin wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system ahead of the midterms. So, of course, he’s led into this whole issue of mail-in voting. And President Trump asserted in his Fox News interview that there are no countries in the world that allow mail-in voting. Well, Russia allows mail-in voting, and if everybody wants to go out and look, they can look for themselves. In 2020, President Vladimir Putin signed into law Russians being able to vote by mail and also on the internet. And more than 30 other countries also allow some forms of mail-in voting. So, it’s just not true that other countries, including Russia, don’t use this. It’s a pure, blatant piece of manipulation, and that’s the kind of thing that Putin likes to do.

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MARGARET BRENNAN: And, of course, I don’t think you would endorse the outcome of that voting system and that those elections are rigged in Russia. Correct?

HILL: Of course. And I mean, basically, Putin wants to see us tie ourselves up in knots between now and the midterms. He’s trying to sow chaos, and he’s just basically used his time with President Trump to push that along. It’s, again, it’s a diversion, it’s a distraction, really, from the negotiations on Ukraine, because Putin doesn’t really want to give anything up, so he gives up, basically, something that plays well in the political arena for President Trump and something that actually plays very badly for the United States in its own political arena, which is the mail-in voting point that he made.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Fiona Hill, always appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us today. We’ll be right back.

José Andrés on what he saw on a recent trip to Gaza

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan on the Trump-Putin summit, sanctions and more

Face the Nation Page 2: Hill, Sullivan, Andrés

▶ Watch Video: 8/17: Face the Nation

On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado

of Colorado Fiona Hill , former senior director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council

, former senior director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska

of Alaska José Andrés, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen

Click here to browse full transcripts from 2025 of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan in Washington.

And this week on Face the Nation: After President Trump’s Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, we will go one-on-one with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Following the Russian president’s warm welcome to Alaska and a three-hour meeting that ended abruptly, President Trump adopts Putin’s road map for ending the war in Ukraine, no cease-fire, but negotiations for a lasting peace in the 3.5-year conflict.

(Begin VT)

DONALD TRUMP (President of the United States): I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great. And it’s good when two big powers get along.

(End VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: But what about the other countries, like Ukraine and its Western allies, who are still tightly aligned?

Along with Rubio, we will hear from Trump’s former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill, Alaska Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, and Colorado Democrat Jason Crow.

Plus, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres will join us following his trip to Gaza.

It’s all just ahead on Face the Nation.

Good morning, and welcome to Face the Nation.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders are heading to Washington Monday to meet with President Trump to discuss next steps following Mr. Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin. The awkward conclusion to Friday’s summit yielded no formal agreement, with Vladimir Putin still insisting that Ukraine turn over the lands seized by Russia in the war, plus additional territory, something that President Zelenskyy continues to refuse.

We begin with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended those talks in Anchorage.

Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.

MARCO RUBIO (U.S. Secretary of State): Good morning. Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Vladimir Putin did not give President Trump the cease- fire he sought. And now Putin says the root causes of the conflict have to be resolved in a peace agreement.

Isn’t the root cause the fact that Russia invaded in the first place?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, ultimately, yes.

But, I mean, what he means by root causes is this long historical complaints that we’ve heard repeatedly. This is not a new argument. He’s been making this for a long time. And it’s the argument that it’s Western encroachment. I don’t want to get into – it’s just so long.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: But the bottom line is that all of – you know, we’re not going to focus on all of that stuff. We’re going to focus on this, are they going to stop fighting or not, and what it’s going to take to stop the fighting.

And what it’s going to take to stop the fighting, if we’re being honest and serious here, is, both sides are going to have to give, and both sides should expect to get something from this. And that’s a very difficult thing to do. It’s very difficult, because Ukraine obviously feels, you know, harmed, and rightfully so, because they were invaded, and the Russian side, because they feel like they have got momentum in the battlefield, and frankly, don’t care, don’t seem to care very much about how many Russian soldiers die in this endeavor.

They just churn through it. So I think what the president deserves a lot of credit for is the amount of time and energy that his administration is placing on reaching a peace agreement for a war that’s not a war that started under him. It’s half – you know, it’s on the other side of the world.

That said, I mean, it’s relevant to us. But there are a lot of other issues he could be focused on.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: So, tomorrow, we’ll be meeting with President Zelenskyy. We’ll be meeting with European leaders. We just met with Putin. He’s dedicated a lot of time and energy because he has made it a priority of his administration to stop or end war, stop wars or prevent them.

And, right now, this is the biggest war going on in the world. It’s the biggest war in Europe since World War II. We’re going to continue to do everything we can to reach an agreement that ends the dying and the killing and the suffering that’s going on right now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.

You know this well, how long these kind of diplomatic negotiations often take. President Trump was telling European leaders what was discussed was Putin demanding control of Donetsk, a region in the east that his forces do not fully hold. And the U.K. estimates that taking that full area could be as long as another four years.

Putin also is demanding Russian be an official language in Ukraine and something regarding Russian Orthodox churches. Did the U.S. accept all of what Putin laid out at that table?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: The United States is not in a position to accept anything or reject anything, because, ultimately, it’s up to the Ukrainians. They’re the ones that Russia has to make peace with, and Ukraine with Russia.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the president said he did come to some agreements.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: It’s up to the Ukrainians to make these conditions.

Well, the agreements were that we were going to try to do things like, for example, get a leader – a leaders meeting. We have to make enough progress so that we can sit down President Zelenskyy and President Zelenskyy and President Putin in the same place, which is what President Zelenskyy has been asking for, and reach a final agreement that ends this war.

Now, there were some concepts and ideas discussed that we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive of in that meeting. I don’t think it’s – we’re not going to negotiate this in the media. I understand that everybody wants to know what happened.

But, ultimately, there are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potentials for progress. We’ll be discussing that more in depth tomorrow with our European allies, with the Ukrainians that are coming over. We’ll be discussing all of these things, because, ultimately, we do need to find areas where we’re making progress and try to begin to narrow the gap between the two sides.

But there’s a reason why this war has been going on for 3.5 years. And that is, when it comes to the big issues here, there are still some big differences between both sides. Let’s see how much progress we can continue to make. It’s – it’s – it’s not been easy, but it’s something the president has made a priority, peace.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: And he deserves a lot of credit for that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But, ultimately, if – if Vladimir Putin is going to be offered land that he has not seized yet, but negotiates his way into, doesn’t this set a dangerous precedent that the United States now accepts this concept that it is OK to seize land by force?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, Putin has already seized land by force, and that, in and of itself, is not a positive precedent. This whole war is a negative president – precedent.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you demanding withdrawal?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, again, here’s the – in order to have a deal here to end – to reach the end of this conflict, both sides are going to have to make concessions. That’s just a fact.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But does that mean accepting…

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: In any negotiation, if…

MARGARET BRENNAN: … where Russian forces are now?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: No, no, but, if – but this is not about acceptance. This is about what Ukraine can accept and what Russia can accept. They both have to accept it. Otherwise, there won’t be a peace deal, OK?

If there aren’t concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that’s called surrender. That’s called the end of the war through surrender. And that’s not what we’re close to doing, because neither side here is on the verge of surrender or anything close to it.

So, in order for there to be a peace deal – this is just a fact. We may not like it, it may not be pleasant, it may be distasteful, but in order for there to be an end of the war, there are things Russia wants that it cannot get, and there are things Ukraine wants that it’s not going to get.

Both sides are going to have to give up something in order to get to the table in order to make this happen. That’s – that’s just the way it is. And, I mean, the sooner we accept that, that’s the reality.

Now, what those things are is going to be up to both sides. There’s no conditions that can be imposed on Ukraine. They’re going to have to accept things, but they’re going to have to get things too. And so, for example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. They have a right, like every sovereign country does in the world, to have – to enter into security alliances with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to their national security.

That’s not an unreasonable request. That’s something that needs to be worked on. Territories will have to be discussed. It’s just a fact. And there are things that maybe Russia is holding now that they’re going to have to give up. Who knows?

The point is, we need to create a scenario where that becomes possible. And that’s why this has been so hard, because neither side, up to now, has been willing to give on some of these things. But we’ll see if that’s possible. It may not be, but we’re going to try, and we’re going to do everything we can to try to achieve a peace.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I understand you – you can’t get into specifics in a public conversation, but we’re looking at Russian troops and strikes intensifying. Did you hear anything from Vladimir Putin that indicated he is willing to make a single concession?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, I think there are a couple. I mean, there were not enough for Ukraine. If not, we would be announcing a peace deal this morning, right?

But – but, certainly, there are some things we notice, changes. There are some changes that I think are possible. I think there’s some concepts that were discussed that could potentially lead to something. But, again, all these things have to be verifiable. We – it isn’t real until it’s real.

I mean, you – one thing is what you say you might be willing to consider. Another thing is your willingness to do it. And it always becomes a tradeoff in all of this. But you talk about the intensifying strikes on the Russian side. Yes, I mean, they’re a full-time war machine. I mean, that’s what’s happening. The Russian economy has basically been turned into a full-time wartime economy.

They have a lot of people. It’s a big country. It’s not just large geographically. It has huge populations. It continues to churn through people. You know, they lost – 20,000 Russian soldiers were killed last month in July in this war. That just tells you the price they’re willing to pay.

Not saying any of this is admirable. I’m saying that this is the reality of the war that we’re facing. It’s become attrition in some ways. It’s a meat grinder, and they just have more meat to grind.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, let me ask you about the security bit you just mentioned there, because Italy’s prime minister says that President Trump revived the idea of security guarantees inspired by NATO’s Article 5 and a collective security clause that would involve the United States.

How does that work?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Yes, I mean…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are these U.S. troops? Are these U.S. monitors?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, that’s what we’re going to be working on. Well, that’s what we’re going to be working on.

That’s why – that’s one of the reasons why, you know, I talked yesterday to all the national security advisers, a bunch of them from the different European countries. There are European leaders coming here tomorrow, heads of state coming tomorrow, along with President Zelenskyy, to discuss this in more detail.

I mean, the constructs of something like this needs to be built out. Once thing – it’s – a concept is one thing. The reality, you know, how it’s built and how it would work, is another. But those are the kinds of talks that we’re going to be having with them, along with some of the other issues that are at play.

But that – that is one of the – if you were to break this thing down, I mean, there are – obviously, there needs to be an agreement on territories and where the lines are going to be drawn. That’s not going to be very easy. That’s going to be tough. I think there has to be some discussion about security guarantees for Ukraine, because they don’t want this war to – none of us want to see this war in the future.

They’re a sovereign country. They have a right to have security agreements with other countries and security alliances with other countries. And then there’s the whole issue of reconstruction.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Including United States?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: How do you rebuild the country?

Well, potentially. Like I said, that’s what we’re going to be having a conversation about, and that’s what we’re going to be meeting – that’s why they’re all coming here tomorrow. And that’s why we’ve been talking on the phone for the last 48 hours with them.

And even leading up to it, throughout the week, there were various meetings just to sort of build out some of these ideas. So all of these right now are ideas. They are concepts that require some more specificity. We’ll need to work with our partners to see what that looks like.

And I think that’s an area where potential progress is real, but that alone won’t be enough. There’s a bunch of other things that have to be worked through here.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. Well, Russia claims it has rescued 700,000 children. I know you know that the warrant out for Vladimir Putin’s arrest is for the state-sponsored abduction of kids.

I have seen estimates there are something like 30,000 Ukrainian children who have been abducted. Is the United States demanding, or at least, even just as a statement of goodwill here, that Russia return these children?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Yes, I mean, we’ve repeatedly raised that issue on – in every forum possible.

And those have also been, by the way, topics of discussion, not just in our meetings with the Ukrainians, but in the negotiations and talks that were going on between Ukraine and Russia at the technical level. These talks were going on in Turkey, as an example, Turkey, over the last few months.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, and nothing so far from the Russians.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: That’s been a topic of discussion as well.

Well, it’s unfortunate. Children should be returned to their families. We – – on that position, I don’t think there’s any ambiguity on our side. And they shouldn’t even be, you know, a bargaining chip in regards to a broader negotiation.

But it’s just one more element of how tragic this war is. After 3.5 years, this war is getting worse. It’s not getting better. You’ve made the point about the uptick in strikes. This is a war. It’s going to get worse. It’s not going to get better. And that’s why the president is investing so much time in bringing this to an end.

And, by the way, everyone is begging us to be involved in this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: The Europeans want us involved. The Ukrainians want us involved. Obviously, the Russians want us involved, because the president is the only leader in the world – if this is possible, he’s the only one that can help make it happen.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, he’s got the leverage over Vladimir Putin if he wanted to crush his economy or at least do more damage to it.

But you have held off on those secondary sanctions. President Trump told Fox News his advice to President Zelenskyy is: “Make a deal. Russia’s a very big power and they’re not.”

You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelenskyy is going to be bullied into signing something away. That’s why you have these European leaders coming as back up tomorrow. Can you reassure them?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: No, it isn’t. That’s not why they’re coming as back – that’s not true. No, but that’s not – why would – that’s not true.

They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming – in fact, they’re coming here tomorrow because…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that February Oval Office meeting in front of television cameras, where President Zelenskyy was dressed down…

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Do you know how many meetings we’ve had since then?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, no, I know. And I was just up in Alaska…

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Yes, but we’ve had a bunch of meetings since then.

MARGARET BRENNAN: … watching the one with Vladimir Putin, where a red carpet was rolled out for the Russian leader.

It was very different.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: No, but with Zelenskyy – we’ve had more meetings – – we’ve had – we’ve had – we’ve had one meeting with Putin and like a dozen meetings with Zelenskyy.

So, that – but that’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re coming here tomorrow because we’ve been working with the Europeans. We talked to them last week. There were meetings in the U.K. over the following – the previous weekend.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And they said President Trump was going to demand a cease-fire.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: The president’s talked to these leaders as early as Thursday.

No, no, but you said that they’re coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re not coming here tomorrow – this is such a stupid media narrative that they’re coming here tomorrow because the – Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal.

We’ve been working with these people for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come. We invited them to come. The president invited them to come.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the president told those European leaders last week that he wanted a cease-fire. The president went on television, said he would walk out of the meeting if Vladimir Putin didn’t agree with on – he said there would be severe consequences if he didn’t agree to one. He said he’d walk out in two minutes.

He spent three hours talking to Vladimir Putin, and he did not get one. So, there’s some mixed messages.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Because, obviously, something – things happened during that meeting.

Well, because obviously things – look, our goal here is not to stage some production, for the world to say, oh, how dramatic. He walked out. Our goal here is to have a peace agreement, to end this war, OK? And, obviously, we felt, and I agreed, that there was enough progress, not a lot of progress, but enough progress made in those talks to allow us to move to the next phase.

If not, we wouldn’t be having Zelenskyy flying all the way over here. We wouldn’t be having all the Europeans coming all the way over here. Now, understand, and take with a grain of salt, I’m not saying we’re on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow-up meeting with Zelenskyy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this.

You talk about the sanctions. Look, at the end of the day, if peace is not going to be possible here, and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands. The president has that option to then come in and impose new sanctions.

But if he did this now – the moment the president puts those additional sanctions, that’s the end of the talks. You’ve basically locked in at least another year to year-and-a-half of war and death and destruction. We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there.

We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war, so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again. That’s the goal here. We’re going to do everything possible to make that happen, if it’s doable.

It will require both sides to make concessions. It will require both sides to get things they’re asking for. That’s how these deals are made, whether we like it or not.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Before I let you go, quickly, why did the State Department just announce that they’re halting visitor visas for all Gazans coming here for medical aid? Why would some of these kids, for example, who are coming to hospitals for treatment be a threat?

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Well, first of all, it’s not just kids. It’s a bunch of adults that are accompanying them.

Second, we had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it. And so we’re going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted, not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them, and, by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it.

There is evidence been presented to us by numerous congressional offices that some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas. And so we are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas.

So we need to – we’re going to pause those visas. There was just a small number of them issued to children, but they come with adults accompanying them, obviously. And we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the – to the process of acquiring those visas.

We’re not going to be in partnership with groups that have links or sympathies towards Hamas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, we have to leave it there for this morning. Thank you for joining us.

SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO: Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in one minute. Stay with us.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow.

Good to see you in person.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW (D-Colorado): Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Before we start talking about Ukraine, I want to pick up on something, since you sit on the Intelligence Committee.

The secretary of state just said that lawmakers had come to the Trump administration with information that they have been granting visas to individuals with ties to Hamas or with organizations with ties to Hamas. That’s a pretty stunning accusation. Israel controls who enters and exits Gaza.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The United States screens all visas. So is there really a blind spot that you are aware of?

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: I’m not aware of that. But, if that’s true, actually, that is concerning. That would be a problem. I mean, Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. They should not be traveling anywhere. So, if that’s happening, it should be stopped immediately. And the Intelligence Committee has a role to play in that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But the Intelligence Committee wasn’t behind the information presented to the secretary of state?

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: I have not been briefed on that. I have no information about it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.

On Ukraine, you know that the U.S. intelligence assessment is that the battlefield is turning in Russia’s favor, despite the fact that Putin has to rely on Iran and North Korea to keep this thing going. If neither President Biden nor President Trump were ever willing to commit troops, doesn’t the secretary have a point that it has to be hammered out at the negotiating table?

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: You know, this absolutely will end at a negotiating table, like most conflicts will.

But what happened on Friday was a historic embarrassment for the United States. There’s no other way to put it, right? You listen to what Marco Rubio and the president have said. They keep on saying they’re dedicating time. They’re making it a priority. They’re focusing their attention on it.

In any negotiation, when you’re trying to end an armed conflict, there’s nothing more important than understanding what motivates your adversary. What is making Vladimir Putin tick in this instance? Vladimir Putin does not care about the amount of time that we’re nego – we’re allocating to this, does not care about a B-2 bomber flyover, does not care about a lineup of F-22 fighters rolled out.

He doesn’t care about any of that. What Vladimir Putin cares about is basically three things. He cares about economic pressure in the form of sanctions. He cares about political, diplomatic isolation, being a pariah state. And he cares about military defeat. Those are the three things that will end this conflict, if he feels pressure on all of those three fronts.

And this administration continues to be unwilling to do anything to assert pressure in any of those three areas.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they have put in place some secondary sanctions, at least on India here. And they haven’t pulled back. They would need Congress to help them repeal a lot of these sanctions.

But bigger picture, in hindsight, do you think the United States to date has been too hesitant to actually help Ukraine win this war? President Obama did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine. President Biden was criticized for being perhaps too slow in delivery of certain weapons.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Yes, there’s no doubt.

As you know, I was one of the members of Congress that on a bipartisan basis pushed really hard in the first two years of this war under the Biden administration to do more, to do more quicker. And I was concerned that we were doing just enough to prevent Ukraine from losing and not doing enough to help them win.

And I do believe that, had we done more, and we had done – done it faster, and that we were willing to be more aggressive in providing aid and support for Ukraine, then they would be in a different position on the battlefield today.

But compare that to what this administration has done, which has relieved almost all pressure. Like, look at what happened on Friday.

U.S. military personnel in uniform literally were on their hands and knees rolling out a red carpet for the most murderous dictator of the 21st century, somebody who has kidnapped and is holding prisoner tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, somebody who started this whole war, right?

This both-sides-ism that the administration is engaging in, that both sides need to come to the table and negotiate, Ukraine is the victim. They are the victim. They didn’t start this war. Russia did. And somehow we keep on acting like Vladimir Putin deserves to be brought out into the open like any other head of state.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have served this country in uniform.

I wonder, since you sit on the Armed Services Committee, how comfortable you would be with the United States giving this, whatever the Article 5- like security guarantee would look like. Is that something you should see boots on the ground to do?

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: I don’t think boots on the ground would be the way to go, but, certainly, the United States has assets and capability that I think are essential to any type of security guarantee.

I think Europe has to come forward with the forward presence of military, but we can provide intelligence. We can provide economic support, diplomatic support. One of the most important things that we can do right now is actually seize Russian assets. This would be huge. This would be a game-changing thing that would put pressure on Vladimir Putin and actually create security guarantees and reconstruction for Ukraine.

There’s over $150 billion of seized Russian assets. And the United States could lead a coalition to seize that money…

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: … allocate it towards reconstruction, allocate it towards security, allocate it towards the building of a Ukrainian military that could actually resist Russia going forward. But this administration is unwilling to do it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The last administration was too.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: That’s right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: They did agree to the legislation.

But on the immigration front, you and your fellow Democratic lawmakers are now trying to challenge the Trump administration’s policy that requires notice to be given before you visit an immigration facility. You just did visit some. What did you see? And how does that compare to the last administration?

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Well, there’s an ICE detention center in my district in Aurora, Colorado. I have visited that center 10 times now over the last five years, six years.

And oversight of federal facilities is one of the most important things that any member of Congress does, Air Force bases, military bases, VA hospitals, and ICE detention centers. This administration just tripled the budget of ICE, made it the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the United States, bigger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, all others combined.

And they are putting in roadblocks to prevent oversight, to prevent transparency because they are trying to hide what they are doing. That is unacceptable. So we filed a lawsuit to force them to abide by federal law that guarantees us access.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes. And we will see where that heads next.

Jason Crow, thank you.

We will be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be right back. Stay with us.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION.

Fiona Hill served as the senior director for Russia and European affairs on the National Security Council during President Trump’s first term. She joins us now from Waterville, Maine.

Good morning to you.

FIONA HILL (Former NSC Senior Director, European and Russian Affairs): Good morning, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Fiona, you were an advisor during that infamous Helsinki summit in 2018. You’ve spoke about that in the past. I wonder what you think about how this Alaska summit compared.

FIONA HILL: Well, obviously quite different in – in many respects. Part of it was the fact that they decided to skip the one-on-one meeting and the lunch. I mean these are usually part of this sort of set of summits like this. And the press conference, obviously, was more of an announcement or a set of announcements. Presentations by both leaders, much more by President Putin, and more of a commentary by President Trump. So, there wasn’t that free for all of press questions, which I’m sure was a bit disconcerting for you and others who were present there at Alaska.

But the optics weren’t exactly great, as Congressman Crow has laid out, for the United States and for President Trump again. I mean, again, different. But although it was presented as perhaps a show of power by being at a U.S. Air Force Base with the flight passing of the B-52s and the fighter jets, it did certainly looked much more like a show of appreciation for Vladimir Putin. And so the optics were really much more favorable to Putin than they were to the United States. It really looked like Putin set the agenda there, the narrative, and in many respects the tone for the whole summit meeting.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, saying that, you know, the president has a team of advisors around him. In a traditional administration, those advisors would be setting the policy, they would be planning the optics, and they would be thinking through that.

Do you think that the president’s team set him up for success here?

FIONA HILL: Well, look, it may well have been that one of the demands, because we’ve heard from Secretary Rubio, which, I have to say, I think was a very fair assessment of where things are. So, it may well have been that one of the demands by the Russians to make any progress in moving further forward was to actually have that kind of show of pomp and pageantry that is – basically marks Putin’s re-entry into international affairs. Maybe the Russians said to them in Moscow, either to Steve Witkoff or to Secretary Rubio or to anybody else that basically they wanted to have a – a major U.S./Russia bilateral summit appearance before they would move on to the nitty-gritty of anything else in Ukraine. That’s, you know, to give them all the benefit of the doubt there.

But it all now depends on what comes out of this. And I think, again, Secretary Rubio made it very clear that it’s not going to be easy. He was certainly downplaying any expectations of a major breakthrough, but he did say that it was something that might be possible. And I think that’s what’s going to be the proof of whether this was actually worth all the effort that they went to in Alaska or not.

And as Congressman Crow said, there’s a pretty high bar here because what Putin is doing is pretty brutal. And he’s not showing right now any signs whatsoever of giving anything up.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The United Kingdom’s defense secretary has said that they would be willing to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to help oversee a ceasefire. When you hear these security guarantees being talked about, and the secretary said he is going to negotiate that tomorrow, what should we think – you know, what form is that going to take? What do you think that should look like?

FIONA HILL: Well, look, I think he actually let this out, and you did too in your questions. And I think Congressman Crow has made it very clear as well, it has to be a combination of all of the things that we’ve already heard discussed on the show today. You have to be able to have some boots on the ground. Congressman Crow said it doesn’t have to be the United States. That’s actually the case. But it actually has to be some commitment from the United States to enable European forces to actually hold that territory and to provide some security guarantees for Ukraine.

The United States is key in terms of its intelligence, in terms of enabling equipment and the information of the data that we would need for all of this to make a security intervention mean something. And it’s also essential in terms of all kinds of other forms of equipment and defensive weaponry. We’ve already heard, of course, about Ukraine needing all kinds of equipment, from javelins in the past, to patriots, now in terms of an integrated missile defense system that Ukraine desperately needs. So, there’s a lot there that we all know needs to be done.

And what we really need to see, I think, in these meetings that will take place on Monday and moving forward, is a real commitment to the United States to work with Europeans and to work with Ukraine to make this happen.

Look, this is existential also for European security. So, minimizing the role of Europe here, be it the United Kingdom, be it Poland, be it Finland, be it France, be it Germany, is not the way to go. Europe has to have an equal say in all of this. This is about Europe’s future and the future of European security, not just about Ukraine’s.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about the dynamic between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. You know both men. You’ve written biographies of Vladimir Putin and, of course, you served under Donald Trump. In one of the Fox interviews that President Trump did, he said that he spoke about mail- in voting in the United States with Vladimir Putin. And during that press address, Putin also claimed that the war wouldn’t have happened at all if Donald Trump had been pretty. I mean that’s a counter factual, but that’s something Trump often says on the – on the trail. Why would those things be discussed at all if this was about Ukraine?

FIONA HILL: Exactly. Well, look, this is Vladimir Putin, as usual, trying to manipulate U.S. domestic politics. I’ve seen him do this over and over again, including at Helsinki when he set the president off, not in the press conference, but before that, in a whole diatribe against his political enemies because Putin deliberately asked him about this.

So, Putin knows that President Trump wants to have an acknowledgment of his self-assertion, that the war wouldn’t have happened had he not – had he been in the presidency. And so Putin’s giving him something that plays well for President Trump and his own domestic environment. It doesn’t play well in the international environment where people know things are much more complicated but it’s basically gifting a concession to President Trump himself.

And Putin wants to sow chaos in the American electoral system ahead of the midterms. So, of course, he’s laid into this whole issue of mail-in voting. And President Trump asserted in his Fox News interview that there were no countries in the world that allow mail-in voting. Well, Russia allows mail- in voting. And if everybody wants to go out and look, they can look for themselves. In 2020, President Vladimir Putin signed into law Russians being able to vote by mail and also on the internet. And more than 30 other countries also allow some forms of mail-in voting. So, it’s just not true that other countries, including Russia, don’t use this. It’s a pure blatant piece of manipulation, and that’s the kind of thing that Putin likes to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And, of course, I don’t think you would endorse the outcome of that voting system and those elections are rigged in Russia, correct?

FIONA HILL: Of course.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

FIONA HILL: And, I mean, basically Putin wants to see us tie ourselves up in knots between now and the midterms. He’s trying to sew chaos. And he’s just better used his time with President Trump to push that along.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

FIONA HILL: It’s – again, it’s a diversion. It’s a distraction really from the negotiations on Ukraine because Putin doesn’t really want to give anything up. So, he gives up basically something that plays well in the political arena for President Trump and something that actually plays very badly for the United States in its own political arena, which is the mail- in voting point that he made.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Fiona Hill, always appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us today.

We’ll be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: During our trip to Alaska last week for the Trump/Putin summit, we talked with Alaskan Republican Senator Dan Sullivan about the strategic military importance of Alaska. We began by asking about potential offers to Putin to get him to end the war in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: “The Telegraph” was reporting offering Putin a chance to invest in the natural resources off of Alaska’s coast, in the Bearing Strait.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN (R-AK): Yes. Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you comfortable with that?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Well, look, we have plenty of America investors and our allies who want to invest in Alaska’s natural resources. We’re having a boom here. We don’t need Russian investments. We don’t need Russian money. They’re a competitor of ours when it comes to energy and natural resources and critical minerals. So, I doubt that’s on the table. And, you know, I would not –

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’d be upset if there was?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: I would not – I would not support that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Your colleague –

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: And by the way, just to – on that point though, a contrast. You might remember last time I was on your show we talked about the Biden administration –

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk about this.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: With this great state of ours.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Shutting us down, right? I mean that was 70 executive orders to shut down, exclusively focused on Alaska, shut down our resource development economy. Our own federal government, the Biden administration, sanctioned my state more than they sanctioned Iran. What we’re seeing with President Trump in his administration is a complete 180 on that. Unleashing Alaska’s resource potential has been a huge focus of the president since day one.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you mentioned how furious you were with the Biden administration for the executive actions they said they were taking to protect natural resources.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: They said land conservation was necessary, and the indigenous population here really wanted it.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Right. Right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You called it a lie.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: I did call it a lie. It was a lie.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And you said it was national security suicide. Trump has already reversed this.

But are you at all concerned that there are short-term benefits to your state financially, but longer term real damage to the environment here?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: No. Look, Alaska has an incredible record of being able to develop our resources and protect the environment. You walk around here, you see what a pristine, beautiful environment we have here. But we know we need jobs. We need natural resource development. So, we can do both. The entire north slope of Alaska, the Nupiet (ph) community, across the board was against what the Biden administration did, which was lock up the entire natural petroleum reserve of Alaska, which was set aside by Congress to develop our resources. And then he had the audacity to say, hey, I did this on behalf of the native people. That was not true at all. It was an outrage.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So – so, for activists or for those concerned about the damage here –

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You say they just don’t know what they’re talking about?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Well, I say – well, a couple things. There’s no place on the planet that has higher standards on protecting the environment than us. And if we need American energy, why would we go, like the Biden administration did, begging from Iran, Venezuela, places that have no environmental standards, when you can get it from America, from American workers, with the highest environmental standards any place on the planet. And secondly, when you have resource development, particularly in our rural communities, you see life expectancies increases – increasing.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, in this region –

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Arctic is of supreme concern from a national security perspective.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The ice is melting.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Majority of scientists attribute that to global warming, but the end result is there’s a potential for an Arctic area for trade routes.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Also tapping into the natural resources there.

How does the United States gain an edge in – in dominating that?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Well, look, it’s a great question. It’s really important. You’re mentioning trade routes that are opening up. We’ve already talked about natural resources, which are huge, up in the Arctic. And what we need to do is recognize that we’re an Arctic nation. We’re an Arctic nation because of Alaska.

And, look, this has not always been a priority of previous administrations. What we’re doing up here, we’re rebuilding our military. The one big, beautiful bill certainly does it. As I mentioned, you know, Alaska exudes military might. We’re the cornerstone of missile defense, and we’re going to be the cornerstone of the president’s golden dome initiative. We are the hub of air combat power. You’re seeing them flying over here. We have over 100 fifth generation fighters based in Alaska. We have a brand-new U.S. Army airborne division up here. So, we are building out our military, which is great, but also building out our Arctic capabilities.

And again, in the one big, beautiful bill, almost $26 billion investment in the Coast Guard, which is the biggest investment in the Coast Guard in American history by far, 16 icebreakers coming with that, 22 cutters, 40 helicopters, a bunch of shore side infrastructure, a lot of that’s going to be in Alaska to defend the Arctic. And we need to defend the Arctic because, as you and I have talked about, the Russians and the Chinese are in our waters and in our airspace all the time, including doing joint operations up here, which is unprecedented.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I wanted to ask you about that because the war in Ukraine has hurt Russia’s finances –

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Made them more dependent on Beijing, including when it comes to exploring up and around the Arctic.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: They had a joint bomber task force come here –

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Pretty darn close.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Oh, they were in our ADIZs, as they – as we call it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The Air Defense Identification Zone.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Correct.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, are you concerned this actually becomes a flashpoint?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: I think this is already becoming a flash point. I mean the number of times that the Russians and Chinese are doing joint strategic bomber task forces in our airspace and joint naval task forces in our EEZ, in our waters, they’re –

MARGARET BRENNAN: Economic Zone?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Yes. That’s happening on a regular basis now, that’s unprecedented. They don’t do joint operations anywhere else on America’s borders. That’s for sure.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the Republican chair of the Armed Services Committee and the Appropriations Committee says there is far more needed for the U.S. military than what has been provided by the White House and their budget.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: We need to do more and we certainly need to keep it above 3 percent of GDP and growing towards 4 or 5 percent of GDP. It’s a dangerous world right now.

But this one big, beautiful bill, the budget reconciliation bill does a lot for our military right now on urgent needs. Shipbuilding. As we have talked about, our Navy, our ability to build ships is completely atrophied. Weapons and ammo systems. The golden dome.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I know you have your own proposal.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: Absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But has the Pentagon told you what the golden dome is?

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: All right, I mean, I’ve been working on this with the Pentagon. This is missile defense that is a layered missile defense. So, what that means is, right here, like I said, you have the ground-based missile interceptor – the missile interceptors in Alaska. You have all the radar systems in Alaska that protect the whole country in terms of ballistic missiles.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: We have new threats. We have hypersonics. We have drones. We have, heck, even we’ve seen it here in Alaska, spy balloons. What we need to do is upgrade the system with what’s called a layered defense. Not just the ground-based system here, but you work it more with different systems, Aegis Ashore, THAD, and then including space-based systems, both for tracking and intercepting. And you to do that with an open architecture in terms of software to integrate those systems. So, I am very familiar with what the golden dome is doing and I’m leading the effort in the Senate on it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.

SENATOR DAN SULLIVAN: And, by the way, my state is the cornerstone of all the missile defense right now and will continue to be so.

(END VT)

MARGARET BRENNAN: You can find more from our interview with Dan Sullivan on our website, facethenation.com and our YouTube page.

We’ll be back in a moment.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza where the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports that the total number of starvation- related deaths has now risen to 250, including 110 children. Seven of those deaths in the last 24 hours.

World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres joins us this morning from Jerusalem. He visited Gaza late last week.

Good morning.

JOSE ANDRES (Founder, World Central Kitchen): Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It is rare to get a look inside of Gaza. The IDF does not allow journalists in to freely report. But they let you in. What did you see?

JOSE ANDRES: It was a day trip. I was able to go early in the day and leave before sunset. And I visit our main – one of our two main kitchens inside Gaza in Derbala (ph). And I was able to visit the few warehouses we have there, the bakery, the kitchens. And I spending a day trying to see what else the teams need, what else we need to be doing, how we are going to be increasing the hot food and bread we are producing right now. So, it was a day again to show support, to see on my own and assess the situation of our own kitchens. And – and that’s how – what I have to report with that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The U.N. says that there is starvation happening in Gaza. Israel’s prime minister says there is no starvation. What’s real?

JOSE ANDRES: Obviously, there is always a gray area. But we are making boxes for children that we know they are in very special need situation. I saw those boxes be made with the name of every one of the children. We need to remember that during many weeks no food was going inside Gaza. And this is to 2 million people.

So, in the places we know we’re feeding, we are doing around 200,000 meals a day, but this is only 10 percent of the need. That’s why we are trying to increase.

I can say that where we are, obviously people are – are – are being fed. At the very minimum. It’s not everything they should be receiving, but at the very least they are receiving a piece of bread and a piece of food.

But we need much more aid. We need to make sure that the aid is never interrupted again. We need to make sure that the flow of trucks keeps happening. We need to make sure that we have safe roads so those trucks can reach their intended delivery place. We need to make sure that all the NGOs that are actively trying to do the best they can to take care of people inside Gaza, and this is beyond food, obviously medicine, et cetera, et cetera, we need to make sure that the aid is massive enough that we don’t get to those moments where in some areas, like in the north, that these are still very difficult to reach, that we know that people are desperate for food.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned for many weeks no food was allowed in. That was a government policy. There was a blockade for many months. That is now lifted officially.

But as you say, your organization wants to scale up. You are trying to produce 1 million meals a day in Gaza. Can you get the fuel in to do that? Can you get the food in? Are Israeli officials giving you a green light?

JOSE ANDRES: Well, it’s a million because we – we are an organization that we specialize in emergencies and in food. But really we are requesting that all the NGOs that are participating in feeding are giving more access, including us, and other organizations, like Anera (ph), which was one of the organizations we work with that they have been in Gaza for many, many decades, and many others. We need to make sure that everybody has access. For that we need a lot of things. The trucks inside Gaza. We need to remember that the trucks come from outside Gaza. And they are – they are put aside. And then we need to reload the trucks that are inside Gaza. This takes time. We need more trucks inside. So, the trucking company can have enough people and enough trucks to have a constant flow.

I have to report that as I saw a good flow of trucks going in, around 150 to 250 trucks are going in every day. But even I would say that this is not enough. We need to make sure that we massively increase, that we massively make sure that nobody has to be walking for miles to try to reach a place where they can find a plate of food or use a bag of rice. We need to make sure like what World Central Kitchen does. At one moment we had, you know, 100 to 200 kitchen partners. We need to make sure that we are cooking where people live. We need to make sure that we are feeding them where people are so the people don’t have to be again leaving their neighborhoods, leaving their tents and walking for hours back and forth only to try to bring a little bit of food back home.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Jose Andres, thank you very much for your time this morning.

We’ll be right back.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s it for us today. Thank you all for watching. Until next week. For FACE THE NATION, I’m Margaret Brennan.

(ANNOUNCEMENTS)

The following is the transcript of an interview with Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 10, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Good morning, and welcome to “Face The Nation.” President Trump has decided to bring Vladimir Putin in from the cold, ending isolation of the Russian leader and accused war criminal. His hope is to persuade Putin to finally do the thing he’s refused: end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two leaders will meet in Alaska, another part of the former Russian Empire. With the future of European security on the line, Western leaders rushed to get their word in, sending top advisers to meet with Vice President Vance in the United Kingdom, and they are planning to convene top diplomats tomorrow. In the meantime, President Trump is sending his envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Ukraine, as President Zelenskyy says his country will not simply “gift” territory to Russia. We begin this morning with Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova. Good to have you back here, Ambassador.

AMB. MARKAROVA: Good morning America, and thank you for having me.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, President Zelenskyy has made clear he’s not just going to give away land to Russia. Kyiv has to be part of the negotiations, and he has said a ceasefire needs to happen first. Do you expect a ceasefire this week?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, that’s something that all Ukraine prays for President Trump to be effective and to have great results. And as you know, since the discussions here with President Trump, Ukraine agreed to full ceasefire, to partial ceasefires, to any type of ceasefires. Because again, let’s remind everyone, Ukraine did not start this war. Putin started this war in 2014, he continued with full fledged invasion in 2022, and it’s Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian defenders on the front lines, Ukrainian children who suffer every day. So yes, we want Putin to stop, and we really are hopeful that this push from President Trump, and the sanction packages which are on the table, and secondary sanctions which are already implemented against those who help Russia, will convince President Putin that this is time for him to finally stop his aggression.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But President Trump did blow past that deadline to put more sanctions on Russia and instead offered this meeting. We know that the White House says it’s a one-on-one with Vladimir Putin at Putin’s request, but that the president’s open to some sort of trilateral meeting with President Zelenskyy. Is there anything being planned to bring Ukraine to the table?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, Margaret, I can say sometimes diplomacy requires different formats, different meetings, and again, we appreciate President Trump, not only pushing for the end of this war, but as you saw, Vice President Vance has been in Europe, negotiating, discussing, having this very constructive meetings with our delegation, but also European leaders. Now, with regard to President Zelenskyy, he has been, since day one of this horrible aggression, committed to peace, and we have shown that he is ready to be anywhere to- to advance the agenda of peace. So if needed, President Zelenskyy, of course, will be present at the meetings. We have been very open about it, but let’s see how this will go.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But he’s not planning to be in Alaska on Friday?

AMB. MARKAROVA: If he will be planning to do that, we’ll be there, but–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah. But you’re waiting for that. We do know that Envoy Keith Kellogg is being sent to Kyiv to speak with the Ukrainian government. So is- is- what is his role here? Is he going to be sort of conveying messages back and forth? What is it that needs to be negotiated in Kyiv right now?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, Special Envoy Kellogg has been a very important part of U.S. team that works with us on a regular basis. Because, again, I mean, we’re all focused on the upcoming summit, but there is so much more that we do together. The investment deal that, not only we signed, but we are actually developing that strategic opportunity to cooperate between our countries on economic front, the weapons provision from the United States, but also buying American weapons and producing together, you know, big drone deal and other deals that our presidents discussed together. So there is a lot on our bilateral U.S.-Ukraine agenda, which, of course, all is at this moment, related to horrible war. But not only. So, we are always glad to see Keith Kellogg in- in Kyiv.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But what we know from our reporting is that Envoy Witkoff, Steve Wirkoff, went to Moscow. He was described- described to him was a Russian idea for some kind of settlement of the war, and it included carving up parts of Ukraine. Then on Friday, President Trump spoke publicly about what had happened, and he said, President Zelenskyy has to get everything he needs ready because, quote, “he’s going to have to get ready to sign something, and I think he’s working hard to get that done.” What is he going to sign? What has been proposed?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Special Envoy Witkoff is a special envoy on Russia, and he works with- with that counterpart, and we work with the Vice President, with Secretary Rubio, with Special Envoy Kellogg, and with all teams, Secretary Bessent and others on everything on our bilateral agenda. Now, President Zelenskyy has been very clear: Ukraine is committed to peace. We will be very constructive in all of our discussions. At the same time, we have to, again, acknowledge the facts. You know, it’s Russia that attacked us. It’s Russia that illegally occupied Crimea and other territories since 2022. We do have the main Bible of the country, the constitution of Ukraine, which clearly lists in Article 133 that Ukraine comprises of and- and says what is it comprised of. Now we all understand the reality on the ground, and we are ready to discuss, you know, how to end this war. And that’s why ceasefire, as- as- as- as a- as a step, has always been so important to stop the killing, something that President Trump has put on the table as early as February. So let’s stop the- the killings, and let’s get to diplomacy. That’s something Ukraine always was ready to do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re pointing to your constitution because your point is, the president can’t just give away land. It has to actually go and be considered because of how your constitution–

AMB. MARKAROVA: President of any country is a guarantor of the constitution.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Vladimir Putin’s constitution, though, now has these areas he’s annexed from your country in his constitution.

AMB. MARKAROVA: Yes. Everyone knows. And 142 countries at the UN clearly voted that that was illegal, unprovoked move on his part, and the court, as early as March 2022, international court, has actually told Russia to stop the so-called special military operation and get out from Ukrainian territory.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Russia holds about 22% of Ukrainian territory, I believe, at this point. Is your concern that at this negotiating table in Alaska, Vladimir Putin is going to try to talk his way into further land seizures?

AMB. MARKAROVA: Well, President Putin lied in 2022 that he was not going to attack Ukraine. Then he lied a number of times since 2022 that it wasn’t him who bombed Mariupol maternity hospital, or it wasn’t him who abducts and kills, kidnaps, Ukrainian children and everything else. Now I’m positive that President Trump and everyone here in the United States, and we’re so grateful to American people for all the support. They understand that the implications of how this war will end is so much bigger than just about Ukraine. It is existential for us. But the concept of buffer zones, or whatever, you know, the- this outdated, old concepts from the previous century, they do not work anymore. The front line in east and south of Ukraine is the front line between evil and good. And the question is, when that front line is going to be. Is it going to be on our territory? Is it going to be on our borders? Or is it going to be in Europe and everywhere, where it will affect Europe, U.S., and other. So, you know, we just have to- it’s not just about land. It’s about the principles and values. And judging by the recent decisions, including the sanctions on India for supporting Russia war machine, including on those sanctions that have been prepared, I am confident that U.S. will be coming from the position of strength, you know, peace through strength, and that will allow us, together, to find a solution to stop Russia’s aggression.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador Markarova, thank you for your time today. We’ll be right back.