00:00I have a question. So Trump is supposed to talk with President Zelensky today, and I'm just curious, you know, where does the U.S. stand in terms of negotiation? Is the U.S. still open to walking away from negotiations? Are you guys committed to seeing it through?
00:13Yeah, well, look, I'd say we're more than open to walking away. The president's supposed to talk to President Putin of Russia and President Zelensky as well, and I'm sure he'll talk to a number of world leaders today because he always does that.
00:25But, you know, look, the president's been very clear. This is not the United States is not going to spin its wheels here. We want to see outcomes.
00:32And the first major outcome that we wanted to see, which we were glad about, is that we wanted the Russians and the Ukrainians to put a real peace proposal on the table.
00:38What would you need to do in order to stop fighting? That happened.
00:42The second thing is they needed to agree to direct talks with one another. These sides hadn't talked in years. We thought that was a disgrace. That has now happened.
00:48But now, you know, the talks have been proceeding for a little while. We realize there's a bit of an impasse here.
00:52And I think the president's going to say to President Putin, look, are you serious? Are you real about this?
00:57Because the proposal from the United States has always been, look, there are a lot of economic benefits to thawing relations between Russia and the rest of the world.
01:06But you're not going to get those benefits. You can keep on killing a lot of innocent people.
01:09So if you're willing to stop the killing, the United States is willing to be a partner for peace.
01:13That's been the proposal to the Russians, to the Ukrainians, and frankly, to nations and other hotspots around the world.
01:19I won't prejudge the president's conversation. I actually was just on the phone with him.
01:22I know he's looking forward to it, and I wish him all the best.
01:25I think he's the right guy to negotiate for the country, and I'm excited about it.
