Tommy Pigott Joins The Show To Talk Government Shutdown

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hammer and Nigel.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
You believe these characters are WEIRDO.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Find him? Is Nigel Jason Hammer right over there with
a very special and familiar guest on the hotline.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
No stranger to this program, although the title is a
little different. He's now the principal deputy spokesperson with the
State Department. Tommy Piggott joins us. Tommy, good to have
you back. How are you.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I'm doing well, Thanks for having me on. It's been
a while. Great to be back on the show.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Your job affected at all by government shutdown that's happening
right now.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Tommy, Well, naturally it is the State Department's affected. Naturally,
there are people that are furloughed, and our ability to
be proactive, quite frankly, it is sometimes hurt by this,
our ability to host events or reach out. Of course,
we're doing everything we can to maintain our critical functions
here at the State's Department, to maintain those services that
we have to maintain. We're doing everything we possibly can,

(00:55):
but of course it's affected. It's affected by the sense
that we're not able to do a lot of that
proactive diplomacy. And I think the contrast that we're seeing
from President Trump's leadership and really the conflicts he stopped
that the foreign policy that he has put in places
that's been yielding so many results. The contrasts we have
there into what democrats Congressional democrats, and the fact that

(01:16):
they oppose that Congressional resolution, I mean the continued resolution.
Excuse me. It really is quite the contrast I think
between the two.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
So what does this shutdown mean for the talks in
the Israeli Palestinian War, Because it feels like there was
some real progress there. There was some optimism that maybe
some sort of agreement could be made. There was a
lot of chatter of that, but then the government shutdown
took place. Do those talks end or what happens here?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, we're continuing those critical missions, We're continuing trying to
have those talks. We're continuing also trying to get to
that peace agreement. I mean the fact that President Trump
announcing that historic peace plan that he put in place
and then a few hours later having the shutdown talk.
I think it also shows I mean, to be quite frank,
as secretaries in the past have said, Secretary John Kerry,

(02:08):
secretaries under previous administrations have talked about the damage that
shutdowns due to our foreign policy. The message that descends,
and I do think it's quite ironic for all the criticism,
misplaced criticism that people have leveled at a President Trump
saying that somehow he's undermining confidence in our foreign policy.
First of all, nothing could be further from the truth.
But a shutdown undermines that confidence in our foreign policy.

(02:30):
If anything, a shutdown has that effect on how other
countries view our foreign policy. So these critical missions are continuing,
and thank goodness, we have President Trump in office who's
able to command the respects of leaders on the world stage,
who's able to bring parties together. But there can be
no doubt that shutdown, of course affects how other countries
view our nation and critics of our administration, of President

(02:53):
Trump's administration, of course, all of us serving under him
only have to look to previous comments from Democrat secretaries
of state to show that this affec confidence and the
government and really does do damage tower viewed internationally. And thankful,
thankfully again, President Trump is our president and able to
bring people together and command such respect on the world stage.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
And Tommy, let's be clear, this shutdown is a direct
result of the Democrats. So this is a Democrats shutdown,
is it not.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean there are facts here. I mean there's
a continuing resolution that is supported by President Trump. There's
a continued resolution that was passed by the House, and
there's a continuing resolution that was blocked by the Democrats.
This is a Democrat led shutdown. That is a fact.
That is just the facts of the matter, and they're
shutting this down for unnamed reasons. I mean, the Vice

(03:38):
President spoke so eloquently to that just the other day,
just yesterday, so I mean he really laid it all
out there. So there are real consequences to how our
country is viewed on the international stage, and it's unclear
why this is even happening. I mean, we should have
this continuing resolution. The administration supports a continuing resolution, and
President Trump stands ready to sign resolution so that we

(04:01):
can put this behind this and get back to work
to actually solving conflicts and putting America first. Even though
President Trump continues to you that to this day, it's
just this is one of those things that is standing
in the way and making it harder to do that.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
And Tommy, just so our audience is clear, there might
be some folks listening that don't follow this kind of
stuff as closely as we all do. Let's just say
somebody tries to attack the United States or there's a
world situation that takes place right now. Just because there's
a government shutdown doesn't mean that leaders of the United
States and the US military are unavailable. Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
That's correct. So we're talking about critical missions continuing. We're
also seeing, for example, passport services and consular services, which
are our services the State Department provides, Those are also continuing.
So we are doing everything possible to make sure that
we are continuing critical missions here at the State Department.
And I know that's the posture during a shutdown across
the government, to make sure that we are continuing these

(04:57):
critical services. There are opportunities that will be missed from
a proactice standpoint, though, and that's just the fact of
the matter, the fact that you have so many people furlough.
There are less people today at the State Department than
there were when the government was open. There are less
events that are happening, there's less proactive diplomacy that is happening,
there's less trying to move the ball forward in so
many different areas of the world, and a lot of

(05:18):
work is happening at the State Department behind the scenes.
Of course, there are the main issues that get the
new news coverage every single day, but lots of times
even those issues are the results of day in and
day out proactive diplomacy, the hard work of people out
here at the State Department, and during a shutdown, a
lot of that work has to come to a stop.
So we're continuing the critical missions, We're continuing the critical

(05:40):
services we have to provide here that the American people
need us to provide. But there is damage being done
because of that lack of proactive diplomacy, because of the shutdown.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, you talked about the image of the United States
on the world stage. We're speaking with Principal Deputy Spokesperson
Tommy Piggott of the State Department. I'm wondering your thoughts,
just generally speaking, your analysis of what Donald Trump's speech
at the UN at the UN and how it was
perceived on a world stage.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, it was very powerful. I think it was basically
a wake up call for the free world. It was
a wake up call for the free world, and it
was a call to action for the free world. He
identified key policies that have done such damage to our countries,
and they've been self destructive policies because there have been
policies that have been put in place by a lot
of countries in Europe and by the previous administration. Then

(06:31):
Trump coming in thankfully and reversing so many of those
dangerous policies when it comes to climate extremism, when it
comes to the open borders, solving those problems. The fact
that we have zero illegal immigration, illegal immigrants crossing the
border four months in a row. I mean, that is
the type of success of this leadership. But the speech
called out the failures across the Western world and really

(06:52):
was a call to action to defend our values. I
think it was meeting this moment and the fact that
it was received extremely well by leaders across the world,
and it was received with respect, respect that President Trump commands.
So these were hard truths that have we said. This
was a frank conversation with countries around the world. But
countries understand what President Trump is saying. They respect him,

(07:13):
they respect his leadership. And all you have to see
is all the countries that are working with President Trump
to solve problems to see that respect in action. So
the speech was really a powerful speech, I think a
historic speech outlining the way forward and some of the
problems that we need to solve and policies that we
need to stop as a Western world in order to
really meet the challenges of the twenty first century.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Tommy, before we let you go here, do you have
an update, because I think this story went very much underreported.
The American who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan, wrongfully detained
in Afghanistan. I know the Trump administration, the State Department,
they were working really hard to get this guy out
of there. Do we have an update.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
I don't have an update for you here, but what
I can say is our highest priority here at the
State's Department is the safety and security of the American people,
both at home and abroad. And I can also say
point you to that recent executive order, for example, that
President Trump signed about giving new authorities new abilities to
hold country's accountable who wrongfully attained Americans. We have been
continually working to bring Americans home. We've brought a series

(08:17):
of Americans home who have been wrongfully and unjustly detained,
and we will not stop working until we see every
American who's wrongfully attained brought home. That's the commitment from
this administration. We've been working every day to live up
to it, and every single day working to provide the
tools and another diplomacy necessary to achieve that goal.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Tommy Pikett, the principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department. Tommy,
thank you so much for the updates and clarifying things
for us. And let's have this conversation again sometime for sure.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Thank you for having me on all right

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Matt Behar standing by in the WIBC Traffic Center