WH Briefing Room: Ukraine Conflict Update: Trump, Putin, Zelensky & Fed Controversy

This Briefing provides an in-depth look at the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including key interactions between Presidents Trump, Putin, and Zelensky and the complexities of negotiating a lasting peace. Jon Decker also covers domestic U.S. issues, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s recent controversies and allegations of mortgage fraud. Stay informed on both global tensions and political dynamics shaping today’s headlines. Like and Subscribe now on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Thursday August
and twenty. First, I'm John Dekker. President Trump had no
public appearances Wednesday, but he took to social media calling
on a Biden appointed feg Governor Lisa Cook to resign.
We'll get to that in a moment. First, I want
to talk about Russia and Ukraine. Russia appears to be

(00:28):
in no RUSSI to enter into formal peace talks with Ukraine,
and the likelihood is very slim, at least right now,
of any summit taking place anytime soon between Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenski. And that's where
we start today talking about where things stand as it

(00:51):
relates to a potential bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenski.
Let's take a step back think about what's happened in
less than a week. Last Friday, President Trump met with
President Putin. Unprecedented that meeting in Alaska. I was there
covering it, and it seemed to be setting towards some

(01:13):
sort of an agreement, an agreement to move the ball
forward to hopefully have a meeting that could lead to
a ceasefire or an end to the war, and that
was the hope. And on Monday, this past Monday, President
Trump met with President Zelenski in the Oval Office. I

(01:34):
was also there for that. I happened to be in
the pool that day, so I was in the Oval
Office when the President met with President Zelenski. I think
a feeling of optimism came out of that particular meeting.
And then in the afternoon, the President met not only
with President Zelenski, he also met with seven European leaders
who cut their August plans short to come to the

(01:57):
White House to meet with the President, to meet with
President Zelensky, to get everybody all on the same page
so that hopefully there could be an agreement from the
West in dealing with Russia about what comes next, What
comes next, as far as security guarantees, what comes next,

(02:18):
as far as a potential meeting involving President Zelenski and
President Putin. Now, following those recent meetings that the President
had with both President Putin and President Zelensky the White
House Monday and Tuesday, really expressing a lot of optimism
that a meeting between these two warring leaders could soon happen.

(02:42):
But despite that optimism, challenges clearly remain in terms of
getting Putin and Zelenski in the same room to discuss
next steps in trying to reach a piece deal. Putin
has never viewed Zelenski as aequal, and Russian media over
the course of the past three years they've called Zelenski

(03:04):
an illegitimate leader. Now, in addition to that, Putin has
said that a meeting between the two leaders should come
at the end of the peace process. So that doesn't
sound like what the President heard from President Putin in Anchorage,
Alaska on Friday. The President seemed optimistic at that time

(03:25):
that the ball was being moved forward to reach the
point where potentially Putin and Zelensky would soon meet, And
the President also spoke about this potential trilateral summit in
which President Trump would serve as the mediator in a
meeting between President Putin and President Zelenski. Now, Trump says

(03:49):
he started the process of setting up this meeting between
those two leaders. It would mark the first time that
Putin and Zelensky have been in the same room since
Russi invaded Ukraine in February of twenty twenty two, and
a little bit of trivia. The last time that Putin
and Zelenski were in the same room. It was in

(04:09):
twenty nineteen in Paris. Now, the problem in terms of
getting just to a meeting is, as the President has
said on many occasions, and he's right when he says this,
it takes two to tango. Now, President Zelenski on Monday,
when he was in the Oval Office and I was
in the Oval Office just feet away from him, when

(04:31):
he said, I'll meet with President Putin anytime, any place.
The meeting would be good for potentially ending the war.
The meeting would be good towards getting to a peace. Now,
on Wednesday, some cold water was thrown on this idea
of a potential meeting between Putin and Zelenski. And the

(04:56):
person who threw that cold water on the idea it
was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. He's the same individual
who was right by President Putin's side when he met
with President Trump in Anchorage, Alaska. He's a trust to aid.
So when he speaks, you really have to pay attention.

(05:16):
He speaks on behalf of the Russian government. He doesn't freelance.
He speaks knowing full well that what he said and
what he says is approved by President Vladimir Putin. So
on Wednesday, Lavrov played down the likelihood of a summit
between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine from occurring anytime soon.

(05:38):
He said on Wednesday that the agreement that came out
of President Trump's meeting with President Putin last Friday in Anchorage,
Alaska wasn't an agreement to have Putin soon meet with Zelenski. Instead,

(05:58):
it was the kremlinarly accepting to raise the level of
its representation at talks with Ukraine. In fact, Lavrov, who
was one of those two top Russian officials who participated
in the Alaska talks alongside Putin last week, put out
a statement, and in that statement he said, we will
safeguard our legitimate interests in a firm and harsh manner. Seriously,

(06:24):
discussing issues of ensuring security without the Russian Federation is
a utopia and a path to nowhere. And what he's
referring to is what the US and our European allies
are trying to figure out, and that is security guarantees
that would be put in place should he still be

(06:45):
reached that would give comfort to Ukraine and comfort to
President Zelenski. That an attack on Ukraine by Russia will
not happen anytime in the future. The Europeans have spoken
of putting European boots on the ground, thousands of European
troops from the UK from Germany, from France, and they

(07:08):
obviously still need to work that out with their respective populations,
because I don't think anybody is in favor of the
idea of putting their country's troops on foreign soil. But
even if you get past that, the security guarantees appear
to also involve the United States, not American boots on

(07:29):
the ground. The President has ruled that out, He's ruled
that out definitively. But instead the idea that America would
provide air support to a European ground force. It could
include warplanes, it could include air defense systems, It could
even include surveillance drones. Now the Pentagon could deploy aircraft

(07:51):
outside Ukraine to protect those European troops. In fact, a
wax planes, surveillance planes. They don't need to fly in
Ukraine in airspace. They can fly in airspace adjacent to Ukraine.
They could fly, for instance, in the airspace of Romania
or in the airspace of Poland, which of course, are

(08:14):
two countries that are also members of the NATO Defense Alliance.
So those are some options that are being discussed. But
while those options are being discussed, Russia essentially has said,
you can talk all you want, but the message is
we're not going to go for it. We're not going

(08:35):
to go for the security guarantees that you're coming up with.
What comes next is Secretary at State Mark Arubio. He's
also the interim National Security Advisor. He's going to be
meeting Thursday with his counterparts and they will be discussing
what a senior administration official told me was sensitive diplomatic conversations. Specifically,

(08:56):
the talks will determine what the security guarantees could look
like before a potential meeting between President Zelenski and President Putin. Now,
that security guarantee, it could encompass a wide range of issues.
It could include that air support that I just mentioned.
It could comprise a pledge of US assistance in terms

(09:20):
of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, all the support missions in Ukraine. Now,
European leaders have been seeking what they call Article five
like protections for Ukraine. That's a reference to a commitment
in NATO's charter that an attack on one member of
the NATO Defense Alliance is considered an attack on all

(09:42):
of them. And such a commitment could mean that if
European Allies send troops to Ukraine and they are attacked,
then the US would send troops as well. But that
is something that President Trump has already ruled out. He
said that in a call that he made to Fox
and Friends earlier in the week. He said there will
be no American boots on the ground. Now. It's most

(10:05):
interesting in terms of what Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday,
that idea that Russia must have a say and how
any security guarantees for Ukraine would be enacted. That contradicts
what the Trump administration had asserted that President Putin agreed
to at that summit in Alaska. So that obviously needs

(10:29):
to be worked out. And I think the optimism that
was expressed by President Trump on Monday, and I felt
that optimism I was there. I thought things are moving
in the right direction. But that optimism right now is
tempered by reality. And now let's talk about a domestic
issue that certainly got a lot of attention on Wednesday.
President Trump said he's considering firing Lisa Cook. She's a

(10:51):
Biden appointed Federal Reserve governor. If she doesn't resign now.
All of this is because one of President Trump's housing
officials has accused her of mortgage fraud. We're talking about
Bill Poulty. He's the leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
He has alleged on social media that Lisa Cook submitted

(11:13):
what he called fraudulent information on a pair of mortgage applications.
And the President took to social media in response to
what Bill Poulty had posted on social media, and he wrote,
must resign now, three exclamation points now. As for Cook,
she said late Wednesday that she learned from the media

(11:35):
that Poulty was making a criminal referral to the Department
of Justice based on a mortgage application from four years
ago before she joined the Fed. She put out a
statement she said, I have no intention of being bullied
to step down from my position because of some questions
raised in a tweet. I do intend to take any

(11:56):
questions about my financial history seriously as a member of
the Federal Reserve, and so I'm gathering the accurate information
to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts. Now.
The only way for President Trump to fire a FED
governor is for cause. That's not only according to a
nineteen thirty five law, it's also according to what the

(12:18):
Supreme Court ruled within the past year. Now that standard
has generally been interpreted to mean dereliction of duty or malfeasance.
And just because you make an allegation doesn't mean that
the person is guilty of the crime that you're accused of.
So we'll have to wait and see how all of
this plays itself out. In the meantime, it's pretty clear

(12:40):
the President is not happy with the actions or inactions
taken by the Federal Reserve as it relates to interest rates,
and the next time that the Fed meets, presume that
they may lower interest rates based upon those revised jobs
numbers that we saw in August. We'll have to wait
and see if indeed that happens, But the President has
made a pretty clear that as far as FAG Governor

(13:02):
Jerome Powell is concerned, his term officially comes to an
end in May twenty twenty six, he has no intention
of reappointing him, and the President already looking for a
replacement for Jerome Powell. As far as the President's schedule
for Thursday. No public events right now are on the
President's schedule. There is an event at three pm in

(13:24):
the Oval Office right now, it's closed press. It's listed
as the President signing executive orders. That could open up,
and I hope it does open up. That will give
an opportunity to those in the pool on Thursday to
ask questions of the President concerning the latest on these
two big issues of the war in Ukraine, and also
his intentions about whether or not he intends to actually

(13:49):
fire Lisa Cook. That would be pretty dramatic if indeed
that happens. That's the White House Briefing Room for Thursday,
August the twenty first. I'm John Decker. Have a good