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Transcript: Fiona Hill on “Face the Nation,” Feb. 25, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill that aired on Feb. 25, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back with former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill. Welcome back.
FIONA HILL: Thanks Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yesterday the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny was handed over to his mother after she had asked for more than a week to have him released, his corpse released. Why do you think Vladimir Putin changed his mind and let it happen?
FIONA HILL: I think he actually realized he’d gone far too far. He was starting to get protests, even from Russian Orthodox priests. I mean, Putin prides himself on being this great religious leader of extolling Christian values. So there were Russian Orthodox priests saying that Putin was worse than Pontius Pilate in the Bible, for denying, you know, the mother, and the family, the body, all kinds of celebrities. And of course, there was quite a bit of revulsion. You know about this as well, because Navalny’s mother, a very brave woman, actually went on to YouTube, which can still be seen inside of Russia as well. And basically pointing out that Putin or the Kremlin, or the prison authorities, were all acting against the law by not handing over the body, they were violating and even there are norms and terms. And I think that really got a reaction, because people will look at the mother, you know, for who she is the actual mother of someone who has died, not a political person until that moment. And I think it was really escalating out of, out of control in terms of the message that the Kremlin was trying to enforce. It was making it a very big deal. The question now will be about the funeral, because of course, what she said very openly was they were blackmailing her to have a secret funeral. So not to have the traditional Russian public viewing of the body, and then a basically a commemoration at the graveside. So it’s going to be a question now about what they allow to happen next.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And well, he created a martyr.
FIONA HILL: He did, he has created a martyr. Absolutely right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: This past week, though, we saw not only the victory in eastern Ukraine, you saw the death, death of Alexei Navalny. You saw Russia take another American prisoner.
FIONA HILL: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because she donated 50 bucks to a Ukrainian charity.
FIONA HILL: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: He seems very emboldened right now.
FIONA HILL: He is and I mean, that’s, you know, really fits into the whole theme of your discussions this morning. Putin thinks that he’s winning, because we’ve blinked, because we don’t seem to have the courage either politically or morally right now, to stand up and support Ukraine in fending, in fending him off, in fending Russia off. He’s also basically a month away for his reanointment, I can’t really call it an election, as the President of Russia, and Putin’s basically saying, you’re going to have me until 2036, because he can have two more six year terms. And I’m so much in control of this situation that I can do, literally whatever I like. He’s trying to intimidate everyone, and to basically remove any sense of hope whatsoever. And, you know, these targeting of, you know, young woman who’s given 50 bucks. I mean, that’s actually fairly ridiculous. But the whole message of it is to say, I mean business, any kind of dissent, no matter how minor, will be punished with the full weight of the step behind it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well we’re in the middle of a election in this country. You worked for Donald Trump, when he was in office. He has continued to call himself a “political dissident.” He actually compared himself to Alexei Navalny.
SOT DONALD TRUMP: It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism.
MARGARET BRENNAN: He’s talking about legal cases against him. He’s talking about Russia quite a lot on the campaign trail again. What’s going on?
FIONA HILL: Well, there’s a couple of things. I mean, first of all, former President Trump has made it very clear that he admires Vladimir Putin. I mean, he continues, you know, to really extol him, despite all of the evidence, you know, to, to the contrary, you know, from what his views should, should be here that Putin is an avowed enemy at this particular point to the United States. I mean, he’s openly declared war on the United States. He’s taking American citizens hostage. It’s not just the young woman who was recently taken, who’s a dual citizen, but it’s also Evan Gershkovich, from The Wall Street Journal. It’s also Paul Whelan, the former Marine who was taken years ago. President Trump actually ought to have a sense of responsibility about American citizens. And instead, you know, what he’s doing in the most brazen, and frankly, shameful fashion, is trying to suggest that the United States is like Putin’s Russia. I mean, since when have we been assassinating our opposition candidates in this country since when have presidents of the United States been wanting to take out political opponents through poisoning, or through imprisoning them in you know, basically the equivalent of Arctic penal colonies. So what President Trump is doing is degrading the United States. I just don’t understand how people don’t call him out for this.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So we hear from Trump supporters at rallies, though, questions about aid to Ukraine. Is what he is talking– is he planting seeds that last, even if Joe Biden wins the election?
FIONA HILL: Of course he is. And he’s also, frankly, parroting the kind of propaganda that we’ve been having coming out of Russia for more than a decade now. I mean, since Russia first made moves against Ukraine, which goes back a considerable period of time, to cut offs of their gas back in 2006, for example, the annexation of Crimea in 2014. President Putin and the Kremlin had been a full on propaganda effort, basically against Ukraine and frankly, President Trump is starting to repeat some of the same things that the Russians have been saying too.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Fiona Hill. It’s always great to talk to you. We hope to have you back again soon. We’ll be right back.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says Americans need to know about “huge amount of misinformation” on election
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