The following is a transcript of an interview with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 10, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Jake, good to have you here.
JAKE SULLIVAN: Thanks for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So we know President Biden and President elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday. There are a lot of fires around the world. What is it that President Biden wants to deliver in terms of a focus and message?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, the first and most important message will be that President Biden is committed to the peaceful transfer of power and to a responsible handoff from one president to the next, which is in the best tradition of our country and has been for the last 240 years. And then they will go through the top issues, both domestic and foreign policy issues. Including what is happening in Europe and Asia and the Middle East. And the President will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand and and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these- these issues when he takes office.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, let’s go to Ukraine, because we just heard from Senator Hagerty that world view from that portion of the Republican Party right now. We know the war is expanding there. The North Korean troops seem to have entered the fight. You have all these adversaries all-in on Russia winning there. What can you do in the remaining 70 days to sort of change what’s happening on the ground, or Trump-proof the strategy, so to speak?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, look, our approach remains the same as it’s been for the last two and a half years, which is to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield, so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. And it should be up to Ukraine to decide, for its own sovereignty and its own territorial integrity, when and how it goes to the negotiating table. It should be up to the United States and a coalition of nations that we have built to continue to supply Ukraine with the means to defend itself against brutal Russian aggression.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve got like, what, $6 billion in money left that’s already–
JAKE SULLIVAN: –And President Biden made clear when President Zelensky was here in Washington a couple of months ago that we would spend all of the resources that were provided to us by the Congress on time and in full. Meaning that by January 20, we will have sent the full amount of resources and aid to Ukraine the Congress has authorized. And of course, President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe. And ultimately, as the Japanese Prime Minister said, If we walk away from Ukraine in Europe, the question about America’s commitment to our allies in Asia will grow.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you mean President Biden is going to ask Congress to pass more money for Ukraine before he leaves office?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Look, I’m not here to put forward a specific legislative proposal. President Biden will make the case that we do need ongoing resources for Ukraine beyond the end of his term, because the threat to Ukraine will remain no matter what exactly happens on the battlefield or at the negotiating table, and the United States should not walk away from its commitment, either to Ukraine or to 50 nations that we have rallied in defense of Ukraine in both Europe and Asia.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So U.S. intelligence assessed that Russia favored Donald Trump in this election, that Russia interfered in a fairly dramatic and visible fashion with these fake videos. What consequence are they going to pay, if any, for doing that?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, first, let’s not forget that we are currently helping Ukraine fight Russia in Ukraine in the most dramatic and full throated way one could- could imagine. So we are already doing a substantial number of things to impose costs on Russia. We have also passed the most sweeping sanctions on Russia that we have seen against a major economy in the world–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Hagerty was saying it’s- Russia’s doing fine even with those sanctions.
JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, first of all, you can see in many different ways, whether it’s inflation in Russia, whether it’s their ability over time to actually grow their economy, their technology, their capacity to invest in new sources of energy going down the line, that the picture for Russia looks increasingly bleak as time goes on, and that the sanctions are biting, they have not stopped, obviously, Russia from being able to carry out its military operations in Ukraine today, but they have painted a darker picture for Ukraine- for Russia tomorrow.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you know what Russia is giving North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in exchange for the men he is sending to fight on the battlefield in Ukraine?
JAKE SULLIVAN: We don’t know for sure, and frankly, I think Vladimir Putin doesn’t know for sure. I think he probably hasn’t decided exactly what he’s going to do for North Korea on a going forward basis. But I will tell you this, Kim Jong Un expects that he’s going to get something significant, probably in the form of military and technology support from Russia–
MARGARET BRENNAN: For its nuclear program?
JAKE SULLIVAN: And that’s a distinct possibility. I can’t say exactly what will happen, but we have already heard the Russians come out and say that North Korea’s nuclear program should be looked at differently today than it was five or ten years ago. So the concern about the relationship between Russia and North Korea, in both directions, is very real and something that all of the nations of the free world need to pay attention to.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So Prime Minister Netanyahu said he spoke to Donald Trump three times in the past few days. The Israeli President Isaac Herzog is coming to the White House. That was just announced. What makes you think in these final days of the Biden administration that Benjamin Netanyahu would agree to peace in Gaza or agree to peace in Lebanon and not hold on to that political capital for the new president?
JAKE SULLIVAN: Prime Minister Netanyahu will make his decisions, and he’ll speak to his decisions. Here’s what I see. First in Gaza, it really, today, is not Israel that is standing in the way of a cease fire and hostage deal. It is Hamas. Israel has said it’s prepared to do a temporary cease fire for a number of hostages and then try to build on that to get all of the hostages home–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you know what–
JAKE SULLIVAN: –Hamas has said no
MARGARET BRENNAN: –Senator Hagerty was talking about on that with Hamas?
JAKE SULLIVAN: I don’t know about the particular statement he made. What I will tell you is, whatever Hamas is saying publicly, what they are communicating to the mediators is no, we will not do a cease fire and hostage deal at this time. So what we need to do is get the rest of the world to continue to increase pressure on Hamas to come to the table, to do a deal in Gaza, because the Israeli government has said it’s prepared to take a temporary step in that direction. And then when it comes to Lebanon, we have been actively engaged in discussions with the Israeli government. Those should remain behind closed doors, but we do believe that at some point the Israeli government wants to do a deal that gets its citizens back home. I don’t think it’s doing that deal for American politics. I think it’s doing that deal to try to secure Israel, and I expect that in the coming weeks, we will see progress in that direction.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Will you hold Israel to account? Because the Secretaries of State and Defense have sent letters saying that they’re not allowing in aid to the degree they should, and that there are possibly forced displacements from Northern Gaza. On this program, you have said that was essentially a red line.
JAKE SULLIVAN: So basically what you have seen from Secretary Austin and Secretary Blinken is a letter to their Israeli counterparts that says, here is a set of steps we expect you to take, and we are going to measure you against the progress you are making towards those steps. This week, we will make our judgments about what kind of progress they have made. And then Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, the President will make judgments about what we do in response, and I’m not going to get ahead of that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Very quickly, President Xi and President Biden will be in the same place at these summits in the next few days. Will the President confront him about this pervasive and massive hacking of telecom companies known as ‘Salt Typhoon?’
JAKE SULLIVAN: President Biden, every time he sees his Chinese counterpart, President Xi, speaks to him about cyber-enabled espionage, about cyber attacks–
MARGARET BRENNAN: This is a significant attack.
JAKE SULLIVAN: Yes, it is. It is an absolutely significant attack. It’s something that the FBI, our Department of Homeland Security, our entire national security enterprise is digging into in a big way. And of course, it will be on the agenda between every American official and every Chinese official in the weeks ahead.
MARGARET BRENNAN
Jake Sullivan, a lot happening in the world. Thank you for coming in and talking to us. We’ll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation.
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