Vice President JD Vance holds a press briefing at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.
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NewsTranscript
00:00So, uh, we're having a good time.
00:03I know.
00:03I don't care how you're supposed to feel.
00:05I'm just a little bit nervous.
00:07You're welcome.
00:08You can come.
00:09I'm definitely going to sit here.
00:10I'm going to sit here.
00:11I'm going to sit here.
00:12Good evening.
00:13Good evening.
00:13I'm going to sit here.
00:14I'm going to sit here.
00:15I'm going to sit here.
00:16OK.
00:17Ready to go?
00:18Yeah.
00:18That's fine.
00:19Ready to go?
00:19That's fine.
00:20We're good.
00:20We're good.
00:21Yeah.
00:21OK.
00:22Cool.
00:23All right.
00:23Thank you so much.
00:24Thank you so much.
00:26Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Vox Program's
00:29congratulations to Andy.
00:52Please, please, at ease.
00:53Have a seat.
00:55We're going to be talking for a long time.
00:56I heard you guys love speeches, so I've got about 90 minutes
00:59to prepare remarks here.
01:01I want to thank you all for being here.
01:04USA!
01:04USA!
01:05USA!
01:05USA!
01:06USA!
01:06USA!
01:07USA!
01:07USA!
01:08USA!
01:08USA!
01:09USA!
01:09USA!
01:10So I want to thank our guardians, our airmen,
01:14and everyone else for the warm reception
01:16in a very, very cold place.
01:18I think it's probably the coldest place I've ever been.
01:20But you guys managed to do a great job,
01:21despite the weather.
01:22I want to bring a message for President Trump.
01:25He's grateful for your service, grateful for what
01:27you do up here, and just wanted me to tell you
01:29that he's proud of you, and he thinks about you.
01:31And of course, the same is true for everybody
01:33that's flanking me up here.
01:35We're thrilled to be here, because the mission
01:36that you guys do is so important for the United States.
01:39It's important for our national security.
01:41And today, everybody that I met, to a person,
01:45was professional, was kind, was knowledgeable,
01:48and was dedicated to our country.
01:50You're a great credit to the United States of America,
01:52even though you are very, very far from home.
01:55I met some Texans and some Floridians today,
01:57and I thought to myself, man, you guys
01:59have really signed up for tough duty here in Greenland.
02:02But it's a beautiful place.
02:03It's a striking place, a very harsh place
02:05the colonel showed me around, but a very beautiful place.
02:09Even right now, I guess we're still,
02:12at least here in Greenland, in the heart of what is winter.
02:15Because winter, I guess, lasts about nine months
02:17here in Greenland.
02:18So I want to thank our reporters for following us
02:20around today and covering what we're doing.
02:22We'll take some questions from the reporters.
02:24But before we did that, I wanted to give
02:26some of my special guests an opportunity to say a few words.
02:29So we, of course, are thrilled to be
02:31joined by Juliette, our national security advisor's wife,
02:35and by my wife, our second lady, Usha.
02:37And flanking me here on my left is Chris Ryder,
02:40secretary of energy, Mike Walter, national security
02:43advisor, and my dear friend, Senator Mike Lee,
02:45from the great state of Utah, who I joked earlier,
02:47I told Mike I'd give a ride to Utah,
02:49and we ended up in Greenland.
02:51But I want to, because each of them care about this territory
02:57and care about the mission of the American military
03:00here in Greenland, for various reasons,
03:03touching each of the areas that they focus on,
03:06I thought it would be worth hearing from each of them
03:08for a little while.
03:09So Chris, if you would say a few words
03:11about the importance of energy.
03:13Thanks, Chris.
03:14Here we are.
03:14I will.
03:16Echo the vice president's comments
03:18to thank you for your service to our country.
03:20Wherever it is, whatever it takes.
03:23And I think we see right here in this beautiful air
03:25base in the high Arctic what energy can do.
03:29We can make a tough, high Arctic environment a beautiful place
03:33to live, a comfortable place to live,
03:35all sorts of scientific instrumentation,
03:38military mission to monitor what's going on in the world.
03:41None of this was possible not long ago.
03:44President Trump was elected to re-energize America,
03:49to take the beauty that you've seen up here
03:51and make that a thing of pride and ambition again.
03:55Not shaming of energy, not trying
03:58to stop its growth and its prosperity,
04:01but to re-energize it.
04:03So energy makes the world a beautiful place to live.
04:06It makes us comfortable and have long, opportunity-rich lives.
04:10I'm thrilled and proud to be part of this administration
04:12with President Trump and Vice President Vance.
04:15Thank you all for your service.
04:17I'm honored to be here.
04:18Thank you, Chris.
04:25I guess when we flew in, it did look a little bit like Utah
04:27in the wintertime.
04:28Only there are substantial portions of this land
04:33that are always covered in ice, and it doesn't change.
04:36I really enjoyed talking to a number of you
04:39a little while ago as you were telling me that when you're
04:41deployed here, you're deployed here for a year,
04:44a year without your family, without your spouse,
04:47without your children.
04:49That is emblematic of so many of the sacrifices
04:51that so many of our armed services personnel make.
04:55And my conversations with our airmen and guardians
04:59this afternoon reminded me of the fact
05:01that the American people are indeed in good hands.
05:05They're in your hands.
05:06What you do here makes us safer.
05:09And when we're going about our business, our day-to-day lives
05:12at home, we don't have to worry about the things
05:16that you worry about because you're doing it for us.
05:19Thank you so much for that.
05:21And I look forward to learning more about what you do here
05:26and about the future of the United States
05:28and its interaction with this amazing land
05:32in this part of the world.
05:40Thank you, Mr. Vice President, and I just
05:42wanted to take a minute and thank you
05:43all, to the airmen and women, to the guardians who
05:48are keeping us safe day in and day out.
05:51You are continuing a tradition, a tradition,
05:54of the US military's presence in Greenland
05:57since World War II, the 1951 Defense Treaty.
06:01And President Trump is absolutely serious
06:05with the Vice President and with his team
06:07about the Arctic and the security
06:10that the Arctic brings and that you
06:12bring to the Western Hemisphere.
06:14This is about shipping lanes.
06:16This is about energy.
06:18This is about fisheries.
06:21And of course, it's about your mission,
06:23which is keeping us safe and monitoring space,
06:28monitoring our adversaries, and making sure
06:31the American people can sleep safely in their homes
06:36day in and day out.
06:36So thank you for roughing it.
06:39Thank you for being without your families.
06:41I bet every one of you are going to pick somewhere
06:44in, I don't know, Florida or the Bahamas
06:46or something for your next duty station, I would think.
06:50But this is also, I mean, what an incredible adventure.
06:53I have yet to meet a veteran.
06:56My wife is a veteran.
06:58I am as well.
06:59And of course, the Vice President,
07:02I have yet to meet a veteran that says, wow,
07:03I regret my time in service.
07:06Instead, they cherish it the rest of their lives.
07:09So appreciate this moment and this adventure that it is.
07:14And the American people, thank you.
07:17President Trump thanks you.
07:18And I know the Vice President and the Second Lady
07:22thanks you as well.
07:23And it's just really an honor to be with you today.
07:25Thanks so much.
07:32So thank you, Mike.
07:33And let me say just a couple of other things.
07:35And then we'll take some questions from the reporters.
07:37So number one, I think a lot of Americans
07:39wonder, why does Greenland matter so much?
07:41Why does the mission of this base
07:43matter so much to the American people?
07:46And I learned a lot about that today myself.
07:48Of course, you can read about it in a book.
07:49But I saw it up close and personal.
07:51And if God forbid, to my fellow Americans,
07:54if a missile was fired from an enemy country or an enemy
07:57submarine into the United States,
07:59it is the people here before us who
08:01would give notice to our brave men and women
08:04further south in the United States
08:06to let people know what was coming,
08:09and God willing, to try to shoot it down and prepare for it.
08:11That's one of the things that we do
08:13at installations like this.
08:16We know that Russia and China and other nations
08:19are taking an extraordinary interest in Arctic passageways,
08:23in Arctic naval routes, and indeed,
08:25in the minerals of the Arctic territories.
08:28We need to ensure that America is leading in the Arctic.
08:31Because we know that if America doesn't,
08:33other nations will fill the gap where we fall behind.
08:37So what you guys do is so critically important.
08:40I think a lot of Americans, certainly I,
08:43didn't realize it fully until President Trump started
08:46talking about the importance of our Arctic mission,
08:48about building upon it, and ensuring
08:50that America can lead in the Arctic for the next generation.
08:54And now I want to talk about, of course, the interaction
08:57and what Denmark, I think, has done.
09:01And sometimes in partnership with us, but let's be honest,
09:04what Denmark, over the last 20 years,
09:06has failed to do in some cases.
09:08Because we know that, unfortunately, this place,
09:12this base, this surrounding area,
09:14is less secure than it was 30, 40 years ago,
09:19because some of our allies haven't kept up.
09:22As China and Russia have taken greater and greater interest
09:25in Greenland, in this base, in the activities
09:28of the brave Americans right here,
09:30we know that too often our allies in Europe
09:32have not kept pace.
09:34They haven't kept pace with military spending.
09:36And Denmark has not kept pace in devoting the resources
09:39necessary to keep this base, to keep our troops,
09:43and in my view, to keep the people of Greenland
09:45safe from a lot of very aggressive incursions
09:48from Russia, from China, and from other nations.
09:51Now President Trump, as he says all the time,
09:53and as a lot of people recognize,
09:55is a president of peace.
09:57We want to have good relationships with everybody.
09:59That includes even, to the extent possible,
10:02the Chinese and the Russians.
10:03But part of having good relations
10:05is showing your strength when you have to.
10:08And unfortunately, the story of Greenland
10:10over the past 20 years when it comes to security
10:13is that we've under-invested in the infrastructure,
10:16we've under-invested in the security architecture,
10:19and we've under-invested in the brave men and women
10:22who are doing a very hard job, as Mike said,
10:24to keep all of us safe.
10:26That has to change.
10:29Now, when I pointed out a couple of weeks ago
10:32that in some ways, with all due respect
10:34to our Danish allies, they had not kept pace.
10:37There was a lot of criticism from Denmark,
10:39a lot of attacks at the Trump administration,
10:41at the president, at me, at others in our administration
10:45for saying the obvious, which is that Denmark
10:47hasn't done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.
10:51And one of the things I heard was,
10:53well, what about the many Danes who lost their lives
10:56in the world of terror fighting alongside the United States?
10:59Well, look, we obviously honor the sacrifice
11:01of our Danish friends in the war on terror 20 years ago,
11:05just as, for example, the French honor the sacrifice
11:08of Americans in Normandy 80 years ago.
11:12But recognizing that there are important
11:14security partnerships in the past
11:16does not mean that we can't have disagreements
11:19with allies in the present about how to preserve
11:22our shared security for the future.
11:24And that's what this is about.
11:26There is no amount of bullying,
11:28no amount of obfuscating, no amount of confusing the issue.
11:32Our message to Denmark is very simple.
11:35You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland.
11:38You have underinvested in the people of Greenland,
11:41and you have underinvested in the security architecture
11:44of this incredible, beautiful landmass
11:46filled with incredible people.
11:48That has to change.
11:49And because it hasn't changed,
11:51this is why President Trump's policy in Greenland
11:54is what it is.
11:55It's consistent with the first Trump administration,
11:57where you saw significant investments in Arctic security,
12:00and it will continue over the next four years
12:02under President Trump's leadership.
12:04And let me, finally, before I kick it over to the media,
12:06make one comment about the people of Greenland.
12:11The colonel here, the base commander,
12:12who came here first as a second lieutenant,
12:15and I guess, Colonel, this is your second duty station here,
12:18and we're proud of you and proud of all of you guys
12:20who are serving and helping keep us safe.
12:23You know, I heard a lot about the respect
12:25that our American troops show
12:27for the local Greenlandic population,
12:29the way that we make and create shelter
12:32for hunters and dog slithers,
12:34the way that we found ways to turn over
12:36traditional tribal land to some of the local populations
12:40in order to ensure that they're able to live
12:42in accordance with their values.
12:44We respect, as the president said
12:46in his State of the Union address,
12:48we respect the self-determination of Greenlandic,
12:51Greenlanders, excuse me.
12:53We believe in the self-determination
12:55of the population of the people of Greenland.
12:58And our argument is very simple.
13:00It is not with the people of Greenland,
13:02who I think are incredible
13:04and have an incredible opportunity here.
13:06Our argument really is with the leadership of Denmark,
13:11which is under-invested in Greenland
13:13and under-invested in security architecture.
13:15That simply must change.
13:17It is the policy of the United States that that will change,
13:19and I'm proud to be able to stand here
13:21with so many brave Americans
13:23to better understand the security mission
13:25and better understand what you guys do each and every day.
13:27For that, I'm grateful.
13:29For your service, I'm even more grateful.
13:31I love you guys.
13:32I'm proud of you guys,
13:33and President Trump stands behind you
13:35and will for the remainder of his administration.
13:37Thank you all.
13:38God bless you.
13:38God bless you.
13:50I don't know if you guys have your hands up.
13:51Whoever can go first.
13:52Red scarf, go first.
13:53No, sure.
13:55Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
13:56Do you have any plans?
13:58Are there plans to expand the U.S.'s military presence
14:00in Greenland beyond this base?
14:03Well, are there immediate plans
14:04to expand our military presence?
14:06No, but are there general objectives
14:11that we want to accomplish
14:12that will certainly require us investing more resources,
14:15investing in additional military icebreakers,
14:20investing in additional naval ships
14:22that will have a greater presence in Greenland?
14:24Absolutely, and we know that's necessary
14:26because we know, as Mike talked about
14:28and certainly I talked about,
14:30there has been an expansion of the security footprint
14:33and the security interest of Russia and China.
14:36They're doing what they believe is in their interest.
14:38The United States must do what I know is in our interest,
14:42which is to make sure that Greenland is safe.
14:44If Greenland doesn't have self-determination,
14:47if the people of Greenland have their future controlled
14:50by the Chinese Communist Party,
14:52it's not gonna make their lives better off,
14:54and most importantly,
14:55it's gonna make American and world national security,
14:58world security, much, much weaker.
15:01We can't, in some ways, need to wake up.
15:05We need to wake up from a failed 40-year consensus
15:08that said that we could ignore
15:09the encroachment of powerful countries
15:12as they expand their ambitions.
15:14We can't just bury our head in the sand,
15:16or in Greenland, bury our head in the snow,
15:18and pretend that the Chinese are not interested
15:21in this very large land mass.
15:23We know that they are.
15:24They've taken steps to put Greenland
15:26in ridiculous debt traps
15:27to invest and exploit the resources here,
15:30and we know that they're sending
15:31a lot of military resources here.
15:33Yes, over the medium term,
15:36the United States will meet that challenge.
15:38We will put our own resources here.
15:40We already have a lot of great resources here,
15:42but we know we're gonna have to do more
15:45to counter some of the nations
15:46that we know that we're competitive with.
15:49Sure.
15:50Thank you so much, Mr. Vice President,
15:53and the President said today
15:55that we have to have Greenland.
15:57By being here today, are you also conveying that message
16:01that the U.S. is very serious
16:04in its desire to acquire Greenland?
16:06Well, the President said we have to have Greenland,
16:10and I think that we do have to be more serious
16:13about the security of Greenland.
16:14We can't just ignore this place.
16:15We can't just ignore the President's desires,
16:18but most importantly, we can't ignore what I said earlier,
16:21which is the Russian and Chinese encroachment in Greenland.
16:25We have to do more,
16:26and what the President said
16:27in his State of the Union address,
16:28and he was very clear about this,
16:30is we respect the self-determination
16:32of the people of Greenland,
16:34but my argument, again, to them is
16:36I think that you'd be a lot better
16:38coming under the United States security umbrella
16:41than you have been under Denmark's security umbrella,
16:43because what Denmark's security umbrella has meant
16:46is effectively they've passed it all off
16:48to brave Americans and hoped that we would pick up the tab.
16:51We're simply saying to the people of Greenland,
16:53when the President says we've got to have Greenland,
16:55he's saying this island is not safe.
16:58A lot of people are interested in it.
17:00A lot of people are making a play.
17:02We know that America cares about the security of this island
17:06for the sake of the people of Greenland,
17:09but also for the sake of the national security interests
17:11of the United States of America.
17:12So our message is very simple.
17:15Yes, the people of Greenland
17:16are gonna have self-determination.
17:18We hope that they choose to partner with the United States
17:22because we're the only nation on Earth
17:24that will respect their sovereignty
17:26and respect their security,
17:28because their security is very much our security
17:31as these brave Americans show.
17:35John Parkinson with ABC News.
17:37Thanks for bringing us along on this historic trip.
17:40I wanted to ask you about last week's news with the Atlantic.
17:43We've had a couple questions on Greenland.
17:44I feel like you've answered that.
17:46But I did want to ask,
17:47did you express your concerns to the President
17:50that you were opposed to the Houthi strike?
17:53And also, what did you mean when you asked
17:55or when you said in that thread
17:57that the President wasn't aware
17:59that his directions for Yemen
18:00were inconsistent with his message on Europe?
18:03Well, I didn't quite say that.
18:04I think that's a slight bit misunderstanding
18:07of what I said.
18:07But we've talked, of course, in the American media
18:10about Signalgate, as I called it, for the past week.
18:13And here's what I told the President
18:15and the entire national security team,
18:17is that yes, it is in the interest
18:19of the United States of America to preserve navigation.
18:22Yes, it is in the interest of the United States
18:25to kill terrorists who are preventing navigation
18:29in the Red Sea.
18:30But we gotta make sure that we do it right.
18:31We have to be careful.
18:32We have to make sure the timing is right.
18:34And of course, what that leak revealed,
18:36I think, is a private communication
18:38between the President's senior advisors
18:40about how best to prepare the American people
18:43for what we all thought we had to do,
18:44about the right timing of when we should do something,
18:47and of course, surfacing the strategic questions
18:50that we needed to decide and brief the President on
18:53so that he could ultimately make the decision
18:55about what we would do.
18:56What I saw in that signal chat,
18:58and of course, what I've seen
18:59in the President's senior national security team,
19:01is that sometimes we all agree
19:03and sometimes we all disagree,
19:05but it's important that we all have
19:06an honest conversation amongst ourselves
19:09and with the President of the United States
19:10about what we think is the best interest
19:12of the national security of the United States of America.
19:15I support the President's decision to strike the Houthis.
19:19I've always supported the President's decision
19:21to strike the Houthis,
19:22and I support the national security team
19:24having the argument about how best
19:26to serve the American people.
19:28Go ahead.
19:29In your security briefing today,
19:31did you see specific threats coming
19:33from China and Russia,
19:35things that you did not know about before?
19:37Are we talking battleships, icebreakers,
19:39any type of military equipment, or is it economic?
19:42Well, I don't wanna get too specific,
19:44but yes, we know that the Chinese
19:47are very, very interested in this island.
19:49We've seen some of the economic pressures
19:51that they've tried to place on Greenland.
19:54We know that they're increasingly engaging
19:57in military training and military interests.
20:00Certainly, they've started to describe themselves
20:03as a near-Arctic power,
20:05and part of that is justifying taking a further interest
20:08in Greenland and some of the surrounding territories.
20:11So we've seen very strong evidence
20:13that both the Chinese and the Russians
20:15are interested in Greenland.
20:17And why would they be interested in Greenland?
20:19It's a beautiful place.
20:20It has incredible people.
20:22Its geographic placement makes it very important
20:25for the national security of the United States,
20:27but for world security.
20:29What we have to recognize is that if the Chinese
20:32and the Russians are gonna pursue their national interests,
20:35we need a president who's gonna pursue
20:36the American national interests,
20:38and that means ensuring that Greenland is safe.
20:42When can we expect an update on the internal investigation
20:45into that Signal Chat leak?
20:47Has that investigation concluded, and what are the findings?
20:51I think we'll get an update soon.
20:53Look, we take it very seriously.
20:54We all accept that a journalist
20:56should not have been invited into the chat,
20:59and members of the administration,
21:00including my dear friend Mike,
21:01have taken responsibility for it.
21:03But I find the American media's obsession
21:06with this issue very, very interesting,
21:08because I happen to remember about four years ago
21:11when American military leadership made a catastrophic error
21:16that got 13 innocent Americans killed in Afghanistan
21:20and had about $80 billion of military equipment
21:22turned over to one of the worst terrorist organizations
21:25in the world.
21:26And for years, the American media ran cover,
21:30ran cover for a Biden administration
21:32that refused to fire any generals
21:33or even launch an internal investigation
21:37that was meaningful and substantive about what happened.
21:39And now, the same American media
21:42that covered for the Biden administration
21:43after the untimely death and the unnecessary death
21:47of 13 brave Americans is really, really interested
21:50in forcing the president of the United States
21:53to fire someone because of a Signal Chat,
21:56because of a Signal Chat.
21:57That is not honest behavior from the American media.
22:01And if you think you're gonna force
22:02the president of the United States to fire anybody,
22:05you've got another thing coming.
22:06President Trump has said it on Monday, on Tuesday,
22:09on Wednesday, on Thursday,
22:11and I'm the vice president saying it here on Friday,
22:13we are standing behind our entire national security team.
22:18Can I just ask you about-
22:19Yeah, go ahead.
22:20The tariffs.
22:22There's been some retaliation,
22:24some signals at least in the media
22:26that Canada's gonna respond,
22:27some of these others are gonna respond
22:29to the president's tariffs.
22:30What's your message for Americans
22:32that are gonna see costs increase
22:34on auto manufacturing, new cars, that kind of thing?
22:37Is it buy America, or what's the message
22:40going forward there?
22:42Well, let me say a couple things.
22:44First of all, for the Canadians,
22:46and we have many dear friends in Canada,
22:48and of course, we love the Canadian people,
22:50but the Canadian leadership threatening retaliatory tariffs
22:53against the United States,
22:55as President Trump often says,
22:56they just don't have the cards.
22:58There is no way that Canada can win a trade war
23:01with the United States.
23:02What President Trump has said
23:03is that he wants to level the playing field.
23:06For decades, Canadian leadership
23:09has forced American farmers and American manufacturers
23:12to play by an unfair set of rules.
23:14All President Trump has said
23:15is that we're done playing by an unfair set of rules.
23:18If you're gonna do something to our industries,
23:20then we're gonna do something back to your industries.
23:22That's how you protect American manufacturing,
23:24and that's how you protect American jobs.
23:27Now, what I'd say to the American people is,
23:29look, the President ran on this,
23:31and he said very clearly that we're done
23:34being the piggy bank of the entire world.
23:37For 40 years, in the same way that our European friends,
23:40I think, have neglected international security,
23:43for 40 years, a lot of our friends all over the world
23:45have used America as a piggy bank.
23:47They have used us to absorb
23:50all of their excess economic production.
23:53What does that mean for Americans?
23:54For Americans, that's meant manufacturing jobs declining.
23:57That's meant middle-class wages going down.
23:59That's meant whole towns
24:01that have been hollowed out by empty factories,
24:04and that means an America that is less safe
24:06because our manufacturing isn't as powerful now
24:08as it was 30 years ago.
24:10I've got all these brave Americans in front of me
24:12and a few behind me, too.
24:14We want to send, if God forbid,
24:16we have to send Americans to war,
24:18we want them to have weapons,
24:20the best weapons in the world
24:22that are manufactured in America and not in China.
24:25The way you do that is to rebuild
24:27the American manufacturing sector.
24:29The days of America being the piggy bank of the world,
24:31the days of closed factories,
24:33the days of people not being able to get a middle-class job
24:36in this country, they're over.
24:38And yes, that means we're gonna have to fight back
24:40even against some of our friends
24:41and their unfair economic practices,
24:43but the long-term consequence of this
24:45is gonna be higher wages, more manufacturing,
24:49and more economic security for the American people.
24:51We'll take a couple more questions.
24:53On Russia, has the U.S. agreed to those conditions
24:56that the Kremlin said were needed for that truce
24:58in the Black Sea?
24:59It included lifting sanctions imposed on Russian banks.
25:02Trump said this week that he was still looking at it.
25:04Well, there are a couple of different statements
25:06that are floating around out there,
25:07and some of them, I think, are mistranslations,
25:09and some of them are not totally clear
25:11what is even being asked for,
25:13but the President has said, and he's right,
25:16that I think we feel very good about where things are.
25:19We trust, but verify.
25:21We make sure that what we're seeing from one party
25:24is met by the other party, and vice versa,
25:26but I think that we've made an incredible amount of progress.
25:29We have to remember that this war started
25:31under Joe Biden's administration.
25:33It has led to an unbelievable amount
25:35of death and destruction,
25:36and for the first time in almost four years,
25:39thanks to President Trump's leadership,
25:40we have an opportunity to really achieve
25:43a peaceful settlement.
25:44The President's gonna fight every single day
25:46to make sure that happens,
25:47and of course, we'll keep you guys updated
25:49as we continue to make progress.
25:50I do think, if you look at what we've talked about,
25:53we've obviously got this energy infrastructure ceasefire.
25:57We've got a Black Sea commercial ceasefire
25:59that I think is almost done,
26:01and once we get there,
26:02we'll work on the next stage of the ceasefire.
26:05Yeah.
26:05The President has previously not ruled out military force
26:09when he's talking about taking over Greenland,
26:12but your rhetoric today is more about encouraging
26:15the Greenlandic people to vote for independence.
26:17Do you think the rhetoric has changed about that,
26:19or what's your message there?
26:21No, I don't think it's changed at all.
26:22Look, the President said clearly he doesn't think
26:24that military force is going to be necessary,
26:27but he absolutely believes that Greenland
26:29is an important part of the security,
26:31not just of the United States,
26:32but of the world, and of course,
26:34the people of Greenland, too.
26:35It's very simple.
26:36I think the President's been very consistent here
26:39from his State of the Union,
26:40from his inaugural address,
26:42and every public statement that he's made.
26:44This territory, Greenland,
26:47really matters for the security of the United States.
26:49It's extremely vulnerable right now,
26:52and if the people of Greenland were willing
26:54to partner with the United States,
26:55and I think that they ultimately will partner
26:58with the United States,
26:59we could make them much more secure,
27:01we could do a lot more protection,
27:03and I think they'd fare a lot better economically as well.
27:05This has to happen,
27:07and the reason it has to happen,
27:08I hate to say it,
27:09is because our friends in Denmark have not done their job
27:13in keeping this area safe.
27:15They just haven't done it.
27:16It's very simple.
27:18For all of our friends in the American media
27:20who attack the administration for pointing out the obvious,
27:24what is the alternative?
27:26To give up the North Atlantic?
27:28To give up the Arctic?
27:29To China, to Russia, and to other regimes
27:32that don't have the best interests
27:33of the American people at heart?
27:34We have no other option.
27:37We need to take a significant position in Greenland
27:40to keep the people here safe,
27:42and to keep our own country safe, too.
27:44We'll just do one or two more.
27:46Yeah?
27:47Trump said this week the U.S. would go
27:48as far as we have to go to acquire Greenland,
27:51and that same thing, that question,
27:53are there plans that have been drafted
27:54to use military force to take over Greenland?
27:57Well, what the president has said
27:59is that we need to have more of a position in Greenland.
28:04We need it, again, for the safety of the American people,
28:07and what we think is gonna happen
28:09is that the Greenlanders are gonna choose,
28:12through self-determination,
28:13to become independent of Denmark,
28:15and then we're gonna have conversations
28:17with the people of Greenland from there.
28:18So, I think that talking about anything
28:21too far in the future is way too premature.
28:24We do not think that military force
28:27is ever going to be necessary.
28:29We think this makes sense,
28:30and because we think the people of Greenland
28:32are rational and good,
28:34we think we're gonna be able to cut a deal,
28:35Donald Trump style, to ensure the security
28:38of this territory, but also the United States of America.
28:41I'll do one more question.
28:43Can you talk about economic interests,
28:45how the U.S. could develop Greenland more economically?
28:48Could you speak a little bit more about that?
28:50I know Secretary Wright is here.
28:51Have you guys spoken about energy?
28:54Senator Lee is here as well.
28:56Just wondering what those discussions look like.
28:57My point, actually, is that other countries
29:00have explicitly gone after Greenland,
29:02and I think with a mind towards economic exploitation.
29:06Sometimes asking Greenland to get itself
29:09into terrible economic debt traps
29:11that would make the people of Greenland
29:13not self-determined and sovereign,
29:15but to mortgage their future to hostile foreign countries
29:18that don't have their best interests at heart.
29:20That is not what the United States of America wants to do.
29:23What we wanna do is to protect the security
29:25of this territory because it matters for us,
29:28and it matters for the people who live here.
29:29All right, guys, thank you all.
29:30Let me just say one more final word to the guardians,
29:33the airmen, the other service members gathered here.
29:37From the bottom of my heart,
29:38it is incredible to be a vice president
29:41who has served just as our NSA Mike Waltz has served,
29:45to know the sacrifice that comes along with it,
29:47and to see that there are still incredible
29:50young Americans willing to put on the uniform
29:52and serve this country.
29:53You make America a better place,
29:55and you make an honor to serve as your vice president.
29:57God bless you guys.
29:58Thanks for having me.