National security adviser Jake Sullivan dodged a question over the weekend about whether the Biden administration’s negotiations with Qatar — to secure the release of U.S. citizens being held by Hamas terrorists inside Gaza — could endanger Americans around the world.
NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked Sullivan during a Sunday interview on “Meet The Press” about whether he had “any concern that the U.S. so publicly negotiating a hostage release sends a message that Americans are willing to negotiate with terrorists, even if indirectly, and that that could ultimately put the lives of other Americans at risk on the world stage?”
Welker’s question comes after the Biden administration paid $6 billion to Iran to secure the release of five U.S. citizens that were being unlawfully detained by the Islamic Republic.
“Look, we’ve been in the business since the beginning of the Biden administration – and President Biden has taken a leadership role in this – in taking steps to bring home Americans who are unjustly detained or being held hostage overseas,” he said. “And we’ve been willing to make hard decisions to do that because as the president said, he has no higher priority than to bring Americans home. When the United States had one policy or another, people were taking Americans hostage.”
“So from our perspective, this isn’t about precedent. It isn’t about policy,” he claimed. “It’s about a simple principle: if there’s an American citizen being held overseas, we are going to do everything in our power – using diplomacy, using influence, using leverage – to be able to get those people home safely to their families. That is the commitment of President Biden.”
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