On this “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” broadcast, moderated by Margaret Brennan:
- Rep. Mike Waltz, incoming Trump administration national security adviser
- Brett McGurk, the White House National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa
- Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina
- Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia
- Save the Children president and CEO Janti Soeripto
- Anthony Salvanto, CBS News director of elections and surveys
Click here to browse full transcripts of “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m Margaret Brennan, and this is Face the Nation.
The cease-fire is in place. The prisoner swap is under way. Is this the beginning of the end of the devastating war in Gaza? Phase one of this fragile deal is unfolding just hours before America begins its own handover of presidential power.
Change is coming to Washington. And despite the expected pomp and pageantry, the challenges facing our 47th president are numerous and sobering.
We will talk about the immediate ones with the incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Tim Kaine will also join us.
Is the cease-fire deal the beginning of a new way forward for peace in the Middle East? We will talk with a key Biden negotiator of the truce and explore the humanitarian crisis facing the youngest victims of the war in Gaza – just ahead on Face the Nation.
Good morning. As we come on the air, there is good news to report. We are awaiting official word that the first three hostages have safely crossed the border out of Gaza and are back home in Israel. But what you are seeing here now are the crowds awaiting their return.
They are, and CBS can confirm, in the custody of the Red Cross.
We begin today with our Elizabeth Palmer reporting from Jerusalem – Liz.
ELIZABETH PALMER: The day began with a tense delay, as Hamas failed to identify the hostages it was going to release and then Israel launched fresh attacks on Gaza.
Then, suddenly, at 11:15 local time, the cease-fire fell into place.
(Begin VT)
ELIZABETH PALMER (voice-over): The first three hostages released by Hamas were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza to begin their journey home, Romi Gonen, who was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher, both seized from their kibbutz, Kfar Aza.
That was 471 days ago, when, on October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists abducted or killed more than 1,000 people in Southern Israel. Within hours, Israel’s military was bombing Gaza. Fifteen months later, it’s too soon to say the war has ended, but it is on pause.
Hamas and some of its supporters were celebrating the cease-fire as a victory. As part of the deal, Israel is supposed to release almost 100 Palestinian prisoners from jail later today.
Mohammad El-Halabi is expected to be one of them. His family in Gaza is waiting anxiously.
(RIHAL SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ELIZABETH PALMER: “He was arrested when I was only 3 years old,” says his daughter,” Rihal (sp?), “and I’m now 12.”
There are scars on both sides. Noa Argamani, a former hostage abducted at the Nova Festival, was rescued after eight terrifying months.
NOA ARGAMANI (Former Hostage): I lived in a fear every single day. I didn’t want the guarders to suddenly lose control and kill me. All the terrorists was armed with many weapons, knife and grenade. I lived in a war zone. Every second felt like the last second of my life.
ELIZABETH PALMER: So much could go wrong with this complex deal. For a start, it has to hold for months if all the hostages are to be freed. And it depends on two parties with internal rifts, Israel’s government, whose right wing is fiercely opposed to the cease-fire, and Hamas, which has a weakened and divided leadership.
GERSHON BASKIN (Israeli Hostage Negotiator): And there’s no reason why they should trust each other.
ELIZABETH PALMER: Gershon Baskin is a former hostage negotiator.
So there will be breaches?
GERSHON BASKIN: Definitely.
ELIZABETH PALMER: Is there a mechanism to deal with the inevitable accusations and breaches and hiccups?
GERSHON BASKIN: This time around, there is. It’s called Donald Trump.
ELIZABETH PALMER: Everyone who wants this deal to hold is pinning hopes on Washington’s authority. That includes Gazans who are hungry and desperate for aid to arrive and the hostages’ families, who want their loved ones back, alive or dead.
(End VT)
MARGARET BRENNAN: We are joined now by Congressman Mike Waltz. He’s the incoming national security adviser to president-elect Donald Trump.
Good to have you here.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ (R-Florida) (Incoming U.S. National Security Adviser): Good to be with you. Thanks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I understand, just yesterday, you were meeting with the families of some of the hostages being held in Gaza, at least three Americans assessed to still be alive and in captivity.
One of them might not be released until phase two, when male soldiers are released and Israeli troops withdraw. Will the Trump team see this through to completion?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Well, remember, the terms of the deal that we finally have come to was inherited in many ways from the Biden administration.
So it was actually the Biden negotiators that were at the table, and the – the other side was dealing with them, but kind of looking to us, particularly Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy.
And one of the things that we inherited was this framework of women, the elderly and the sick coming out first. The – one of the Americans is an Israeli soldier. He – that means he’ll come out in the second phase, but we will get him out, period.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Edan Alexander.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: And I – Edan Alexander.
And I am convinced, Margaret, that this deal would have never happened had President Trump not been elected, the Trump effect, so to speak. And the families believe that. They were effusive in their thanks for him and the – – the TRUTH that he put out that put Hamas on notice that there will be consequences if they don’t let our people go.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There is also obviously the party Israel here…
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: … that feels some pressure to get this done. One far right member of the Netanyahu government resigned. Another this morning said he will bring down the Netanyahu government if it does not return to fighting in a way that leads Israel to taking over the entire Gaza Strip.
Does Mr. Trump support annexation of the West Bank and Gaza?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Well – excuse me – very different things.
What we’re talking about here is making sure that Hamas is destroyed as a terrorist organization. Hamas is no different than ISIS or al Qaeda or any of the worst of the worst that has so brutalized the Middle East over the years.
And what we have made clear to Bibi Netanyahu, to his government – and I want the Israeli people to hear me loud and clear – if Hamas reneges on this deal, if Hamas backs out, moves the goalposts, what have you, we will support Israel in doing what it has to do, number one, and, number two, Hamas will never govern Gaza.
That is completely unacceptable, because they’ve made their intention clear, which is to destroy Israel and to have future October 7’s. So I understand the concern. But, at the end of the day, Prime Minister Netanyahu supported this deal. He agreed we needed to get those hostages out.
And within the next 24 hours, we will see – we will see three women coming out alive and hugging their families. And had we not entered this, these people would have died, Margaret. I mean, these conditions that they were in – by the way, they’ve been held now longer than the hostages in 1979 in the Iranian hostage crisis.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: They were being brutalized, raped, tortured. It was horrific.
But now we’re going to have a Reagan moment. We are going to have President Trump being sworn in as hostages are coming out alive, and that’s something we should all celebrate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You’ve also said, though, that you want to build on this to eventually get peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, normalization.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: That’s right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The price of that is recognition of a Palestinian state, according to Saudi Arabia.
Does Mr. Trump support a two-state solution? Hamas doesn’t want two states. The far right in Israel doesn’t want two states.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Does Mr. Trump?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Well, President Trump’s plan in his first term, his plan for the Middle East and his plan for Israel and Palestine had a pathway to a two-state, with all kinds of very important qualifiers that had to be in place beforehand, stop radicalizing the next generation of Palestinian youth, very specifics – components of that plan in terms of how things would be divided up.
But I do think we can get to the next round of the Abraham Accords. We – I do think we can expand it, and that will be between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will be tremendous. That has been a main goal of the Netanyahu government now for years.
And, Margaret, I can tell you, for President Trump, if – in a short amount of time, if we’re talking about infrastructure projects, ports, rails, fiber, data center, if we’re talking about all of those things, these historic animosities will become smaller and smaller and smaller, and that is the piece that he seeks and that only he can lead.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, Mr. Huckabee, the possible future ambassador to Israel, is wrong when he says that Mr. Trump does not believe in a two- state solution in the future?
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Well, I have spoken to…
MARGARET BRENNAN: He said that yesterday on FOX.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Yes.
No, I have spoken to him. And it’s – it’s, how do we eventually get there, right? And what we eventually want is the Abraham Accords and that next round, right? And there is a lot of room. Both can be true. We are going to protect Israel. We are going to make sure that they are defended.
But, eventually, we’re going to come to some accommodation that Saudi Arabia is comfortable in entering into that deal.
MARGARET BRENNAN: To lead to a Palestinian state? That’s what they’re asking.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Well, we’ll see exactly…
MARGARET BRENNAN: A process.
(CROSSTALK)
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: … what that looks like. That process is going to – is going to be long.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: And what – you know, what was so interesting about the first administration was that we shifted the dynamics.
We brought Israel and the Arab states together because of their mutual concern about Iran and its hegemonic aggression, and what the ayatollahs intend – intended to do. We sat the Palestinian issue aside for a bit…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: And that is what – I think the framework we’ll get back to.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s a lot to get to.
So I want to ask you what we should expect in terms of executive actions in these early days from Mr. Trump.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE WALTZ: Oh, well, look, we’re going to have his campaign promises that he promised to the American people right out there on the table, in terms of border, in terms of energy, in terms of taking on this kind of DEI, woke culture that has infected so many parts of our federal government, including our military, returning us to a meritocracy.
He’s got a lot in front of him. I’m excited to be a part of it. I can’t emphasize enough though, Margaret, on the border, the American people gave him a clear mandate, lock down our border, deport the worst of the worst, take on the cartels. We cannot have a situation where we have paramilitary gangs that are shooting down aircraft with…
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