Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / WOR White House Correspondent Jon Decker interview

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WOR White House Correspondent Jon Decker interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we talked earlier about that great escape and anchor
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a Turkey, the President slipping out catering door, getting in
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a catering truck and taking a military plane when the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: press thought he was on Air Force one and he
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't even there. It must be all the buzz in Washington.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: So let's talk to John Dekker right now, woor White
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: House and Washington correspondent and host of the podcast The
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: White House Briefing Room with John Decker, which can be
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: found on the iHeartRadio app. So walk us through this, John.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's quite a story and it starts with what they
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: believe was a serious Iranian threat.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Well, that's right. So this is reporting done exclusively by
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: the Washington Post, no pushback from the White House, so
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: you have to imagine what is contained in that A
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: very lengthy story is accurate. As you mentioned, the President
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: was in NATO, as was I, for the NATO summit
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: in Ankora, Turkey, and on the flight back, as you know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the President put out a social media post indicating that
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: he would not be taking the same plane that he
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: arrived in, that new plane that was gifted to the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: United States by Katar. Instead, the President wrote on social media,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: he'd be taking the old Air Force one back. But
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: as this story plays out, that was not the case.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: There was still concern about some sort of an attack
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: coming potentially from Iran. After all, those Iranian missiles do
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: have the ability to travel as far as Acrea, a
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: pretty easily twenty five hundred mile range. Ankara only one
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: thousand miles from Tehran, so you can imagine the concern
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: by the Secret Service. And as you pointed out, Larry,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: there was essentially an effort that was successful to transfer
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: the president from the plane that the press was traveling
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: on that Air Force one old plane to a different
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: plane entirely, and that's how the President got from Ankora,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Turkey to the UK. Pretty remarkable in terms of what
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: was done by the Secret Service to protect the president.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Absolutely remarkable. Have you been able to talk to any
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: other members of the press corps about how they didn't
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: know at all that the president was up there? Tell me,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: first of all, how that works. How would you not
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: know he was on the plane?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Well, there are oftentimes when I'll be traveling on Air
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Force one today and what typically happens is we are
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: there for when the President arrives from the White House.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: On Marine one, we see Marine one land, we see
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the President get off Marine one, walk from the helicopter
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to air Force one, walk up the steps of air
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Force one, and then we immediately walk up the backsteps
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: of air Force one. And there can be instances where
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: we do not see the President the entire flight. He
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: does not come back and talk to us, So nothing
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: would appear to be out of the ordinary in terms
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: of what happened in Turkey. The fact that you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: this is exactly what happened. The press saw the President
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: go up the steps of air Force one. The press
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: traveling to the UK went up the back steps of
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: air Force one. They didn't see the President during that flight,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: and nothing unusual. And then when we get off air
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Force one, we wait for the President to walk down
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: the steps to de plane, to walk down the steps
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of air Force one. And that's exactly what happened in
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the UK. So you know, look, it's easy to do.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I think the difficult part was, you know, the catering truck,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, getting the President transferred to that catering
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: truck which is lifted up and then lifted down, and
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: then getting the president from there aboard the new plane
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: which flew to the UK.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: So that is a very very serious situation based on
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: a credible threat against the President's life and everyone on
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Air Force one accompanying him by the Iranians. But then
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: I have to do a pivot and shift back to
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: the reflecting pool. John Decker. Okay, And apparently the President,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: who's been draged, kicking and screaming, finally went to truth
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: social acknowledged that the blue lining peeled, the water purification
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: failed to prevent the algae, that it wasn't slashed by vandals.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: There was no video approof But then after saying all
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: that with his post, he's still on the case of
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: David Hearn, the former Olympian. Could you explain that I can't?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: You know, the President did put out that social media
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: post saying that maybe some of the problems associated with
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: the reflecting pool were caused by the shoddy work by
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the contractor that still doing work to repair the work
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: that they originally did. But the President still will not
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: give up in claiming that vandalism was responsible for some
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: of the damage to the reflecting pool and pointing his
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: finger at this former olympian. And as you know, the
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: US Attorney's Office in Washington, d C, led by Jeanine Piro,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: has dropped all charges against that individual associated with the allegations,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: the original allegations that he was responsible for alleged vandalism
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: on the reflecting pool.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: You said you were flying today on Air Force One.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I hope you get a chance to talk to the
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: president because you know about the story in New Jersey
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: where six six hundred non citizens were found on the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: voting roles. Now they've found seventy five thousand non citizens
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: who were on jury duty and they weren't supposed to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: be on jury duty. And one of the places where
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: they get those names are from the voting roles, which
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: there's a call now for some bigger investigations in state
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: in New Jersey. I'm not sure if this is made
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: national news yet. It just really happened yesterday. I hope
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you get a chance to ask the president about it.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: I did not see that. I'm glad you told me
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: about that, and hopefully, yeah, we'll have a few opportunities
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: to ask the President some questions. It's a trip the
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: President is making on hopefully the new Air Force One.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I'll give you a full report what that's like on Thursday,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Larry and Curtis. But we're traveling to Ohio for what's
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: called the Patriot Games. The President is going to be
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: attending them, and then we'll fly back to the White House.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Arrived back around ten o'clock this evening. But no, I
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: did not know about that story, and that's I think
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: a very newsworthy story given what we know already has
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: happened in the state of New Jersey. And that's just
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: one state. You know, there could be other states that
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: have had similar situations where individuals who are not citizens
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: were on the voting roles. And I'm certain that other
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: states are doing exactly what New Jersey did to see
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: indeed whether or not that was the case with their
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: respective state.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: John deakular President, has worked very hard to put together
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: that coalition of twenty seven nations, which includes countries like Israel, Turkey, Sirias,
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: Saudi Arabia to bring peace to Gaza, and he outlined
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: how negotiations had gone well in Cairo with Hamas, representatives
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: of Hamas and representatives of this peace committee, and that
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: we were moving forward. Next step would be to put
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: in place a interim government so that Hamas can turn
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: over the governing of their area and Israel their area
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: and the Gaza and Bibe Natanielle was reserved. Then all
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: of a sudden on Sunday he announces, no, we're not
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: for this, We're not leaving Guaza and those weapons have
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: got to be turned over by Hamas. Now I gotta
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: believe the President is like saying, bebe what the hell
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: are you doing? It takes a lot to get twenty
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: seven nations together to agree on anything. Why are you
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: throwing a monkey wrench into this.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Well, you're leaving just one thing out of the equation,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and that is yes, you're right. Sunday the Prime Minister
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: of Israel said, we're not agreeing to this peace proposal
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: that the President announced too much fanfare just two weeks ago.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: But you also did not have Bayen fully from Hamas.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: And as the President often says Curtis, it takes two
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to tango. So Hamas is saying we're not handing over
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: our weapons until Israel withdraws from Gaza, and Israel is
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: saying we're not withdrawing from Gaza unless and until Hamas
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: gives up all of their weapons, and so no meeting
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: of the minds and as a result, that peace plan,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: that peace proposal for right now at least essentially is dead.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: It's not going forward.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the peace proposal for Iran for a second,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: because it seems like Iran keeps changing the goalpost, keeps
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: moving it back a little bit further. They feel like
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: they have a deal, and then they don't have a deal.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And the President came out interestingly and said, well, the
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: straight up Hormuz is already open, Uh? Is it open?
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Well? No?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I mean if your definition, uh, is are a few
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: cargo ships getting through on a daily basis the Straight
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: of Hormuz? The answer to that question is yes. But
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: is it the over one hundred cargo ships and oil
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: tankers that went through the Straight of Hormuz every day
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: before this conflict began? Then the answer is no. And
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: you know, I think that you know that is really
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the definition of the straight of Forrmus being open is
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the ability for any ship, any cargo ship, any oil
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: tanker to get through the straight without any fear of
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: any attack coming from Iran, without having to pay any
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: tolls or fees.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: And that's not the case as things stand right now.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: So economically it seems the President feels he can squeeze
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: the Iranians because they don't have enough money to be
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: able to maintain themselves. Somehow, some way, they continue to
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: do it like the Cubans doing Cuba. We thought they'd
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: be collapsed. Is what is the President hoping is going
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: to happen there now with this shift, Just that.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: You know that there will be such a collapse economically
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: financially in Iran that they will capitulate, they will come
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: to the bargaining table. But you know, you have to
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: factor in a few things here. First of all, Iran
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: now over the course of five months, does not depend
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: solely on the strait of removes to get their oil
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: out to market. They can deliver that oil over land.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Now that's one thing. The other thing is they have
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: two countries that can sustain Iran while they're going through
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: this economic crisis. One is Russia and the other is China.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And as long as those two countries continue to help
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: out Iran, it's going to be very difficult, I think,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to see Iran capitulate fully to come to the negotiating
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: table to end this conflict on terms that the President wants.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: John Decker, White House and Washington correspondent for wlbarr and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: host of the podcast The White House Briefing Room with
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: John Decker. You can find that on the iHeartRadio app.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot. John enjoyed the trip on Air Force
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: one Oh.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Laurie, Thanks Curtis, and thanks for telling
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: me about that New Jersey story. Really appreciate that.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Sure, I can't wait to hear the answer.