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Transcript: Rachel Goldberg-Polin on “Face the Nation,” April 7, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son 23-year-old Hersh has been taken hostage by Hamas, that aired on April 7, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Parties are gathering in Cairo today to restart negotiations to release the more than 130 hostages being held by Hamas. Rachel Goldberg-polin’s 23-year-old son Hersh is one of those taken by Hamas six months ago, and she joins us from New York. Welcome to Face The Nation, I cannot imagine how painful the last six months have been for you. The 184 days that your son has been away from you. But I know you’ve been on a mission. You met with the Pope, you’ve been to the UN, you have been to the White House, and tomorrow you will be back at the White House. What are you expecting to hear?
RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN: Well, you know, this is such a painful, staggeringly indescribable odyssey that we are on. And as you said, you can’t imagine. I often say, “oh, I also can’t imagine what we’re going through.” And yes, we are going to be returning to Washington tomorrow, to have meetings with different people in the administration. And we really want to understand what is happening to ensure that these people- and remember Margaret, we have eight American citizens who have been held for 184 days. And we are feeling extreme desperation, despair. And we’ve had wonderful access and sympathy, and open doors and lots of hugs from everyone in the U.S. government. But this is a very binary situation. We want our people back, period. And that’s what we’re going to be talking tomorrow about is what is actually going to be happening, what leverage, what levers need to be pulled in order to make this happen, because six months is actually a complete failure on everybody’s part. And I actually include myself in that as a parent, that I have not been able to save my son. And I don’t know- I think that- you’re a parent, anyone who is a parent can appreciate our job is to keep our children safe. And when they get in a situation when they’re not safe, our job is to save them. And I feel that I have failed. And I feel that our governments have failed. And I feel that all the parties at the table have failed to get these 133 souls back home.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have said in the past, you wish the mothers could be at the negotiating table. I also read you said Israeli leaders are not thinking straight because they’re speaking from a place of guilt-ridden trauma. And you’ve asked the Jewish communities around the world to press the men in power. What are you asking people at home to do to help you?
RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN: Well, there are so many different things that can be done. You know, there’s advocacy really that needs to be done so that people around the world understand, who is this cohort of hostages that are being held? I think there’s so much noise and anger and hatred in the world that people are forgetting that there are so- there’s a representation of all different types of people being held. You know, we still have eight Muslim Arabs being held in this hostage cohort. We have seven Thai Buddhists being held. We have two black African Christians being held. We have people from Nepal and people from Mexico and people from Germany and people from France, people from all over the world. This is not just one homogenous group of people that is being held. And I think that that kind of gets lost in all the noise. I think talking to your leaders, wherever you are in the world, certainly your local elected leaders in America, writing to the White House. Again, the Biden administration has been wonderful and very supportive, but we have one goal. We need these people home.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We wish you our best. And we are watching your advocacy, and we’ll continue asking questions about your son and the others.
President Biden has given the OK to lift restrictions that will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Sunday. The move is a significant change to U.S. policy in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The easing of restrictions would allow Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia. The move also comes as some 10,000 North Korean troops were sent to Kursk near Ukraine’s northern border to help Russian forces retake territory.
The White House National Security Council declined to comment to CBS News.
The U.S. decision could help Ukraine at a moment when Russian forces appear to be making gains and could put Kyiv in a better negotiating position when and if peace talks happen.
It also comes as Mr. Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Trump has pledged to limit American support for Ukraine and ending the war as soon as possible.
In an interview with Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through “diplomatic means.”
He said he is certain that the war will end “sooner” than it otherwise would have once Mr. Trump becomes president.
“It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House. This is their approach, their promise to their citizens,” Zelenskyy said.
February 2025 would mark the third year of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine with Russia’s troops gaining ground in recent months.
For several months, Zelenskyy and many of his Western supporters have been requesting to use U.S. weapons to hit Russian military targets far from its border, saying the U.S. ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
Some congressional Republicans have urged Mr. Biden to loosen the rules on how Ukraine can use U.S.-provided weapons.
contributed to this report.
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Ohio governor, other leaders condemn neo-Nazi march in Columbus: “Your hate isn’t welcome in our city”
Leaders in Ohio condemned a group of neo-Nazis parading around part of Columbus carrying flags with swastikas on Saturday afternoon.
Columbus public safety dispatchers told CBS affiliate WBNS on Saturday that they received multiple 911 calls around 1:30 p.m. about a group of individuals marching in the city’s Short North.
Video sent to the station showed nearly a dozen people wearing black pants, shirts and head coverings and red masks covering their mouths marching down the street. Three of the people were carrying black flags with red swastikas.
It was not immediately clear who was in the group.
Hours after the incident, Mayor Andrew Ginther released a statement saying the city rejects the “cowardly display” and that it “stands squarely against hatred and bigotry.”
“We will not allow any of our neighbors to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship and whom they love,” Ginther said in his statement shared on X.
The city’s attorney, Zach Klein, said in a statement on X that those involved in the neo-Nazi march should “take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never come back. Your hate isn’t welcome in our city.”
“This is not who we are, and we will not tolerate or normalize this disgusting ideology in any form,” he added.
Gov. Mike DeWine said in his own statement that the people involved in the incident were “spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews.”
“There is no place in this State for hate, bigotry, antisemitism or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it,” he said.
Columbus Division of Police Sgt. Joseph Albert told WNBS that there were no arrests made, although he noted that many of the individuals were detained but later released.
Columbus, Ohio’s largest city, is located roughly 45 minutes from Springfield, where the Columbus Dispatch reported that neo-Nazis marched through the streets this summer as the city became the focal point of false claims about Haitian immigrants in the presidential election.
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