In-town pool report #5- quotes

Couldn’t hear all of the gaggle, but some quotes below. Thanks for the assist from Julian at the Boston Globe.

On criticism from the pope-

“Very important that the Pope understands very, very important… nice not to say it— Iran killed 42,000 people that were totally unarmed. They were protestors. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If they did, every country, including Italy, where he’s stationed, every single country in the world would be in trouble. So we're doing very well with respect to that, having to do with the whole situation on Iran, the blockade is amazing. It's holding up very strong, very powerfully. And I think we're making a lot of progress in that. But the Pope has to understand Iran, very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. The world would be in great danger.”

Would you meet with the pope to even out your differences? “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Recent talk with Modi, he called it a “very good talk.” “He’s doing great.”

Are you considering extending the ceasefire with Iran?

“Maybe it'll happen before that. I'm not sure it needs to be extended.”

“Iran wants to make a deal, and we're dealing very nicely with them… and they're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago.”

Confident Hezbollah can stick to the ceasefire?

“I think they will. I think it's going to be, actually, it's very exciting because it's 48 years. We're going to be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu, as you know, and the President of Lebanon. And I had a great talk with both of them today. They're going to be having a ceasefire, and that'll include Hezbollah. And I think, I think it could be number 10 for me.”

On Ukraine- “Ukraine is moving along. I wish they could get along, frankly, a lot of people are dying in Ukraine. We'll see what happens. There's things happening there. We're focused, we're focused so much right now on Iran.”

“The stock market is good. The oil prices are coming down, and it's looking very good that we're going to make a deal with Iran, and it's going to be a good deal. It's going to be a deal with no nuclear weapons.”

Next in person round of negotiations on the war?

“Probably, maybe over the weekend.”

“The blockade has been incredible. It’s held.”

“Now they have a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable.”

On the 20-year minimum to stop enriching uranium, final sticking point?

“We haven’t agreed to any… what we have is, we have a statement, very, very powerful statement that they will not have, beyond 20 years, that they will not have nuclear weapons.”

On next attorney general- Todd Blanche is “doing a very good job.”

On the ceasefire and gas prices- “If there’s no deal, the fighting resumes.”

“They’re not very high… the gas prices have come down very much over the last 3, 4 days.

“If you look at the stock market’s up, everything's doing really well. And the big thing we have to do, we have to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. Because if they do, you want to talk about problems, you’d have problems.”

If he regrets clashing with the Pope- “No, no I have to do what's right.”

“I have nothing against the Pope, his brother is MAGA all the way, I like his brother.”

“The Pope made a statement, he says Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

“I have a right to disagree with the pope.”

“The Pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree.”

“This is the real world.”

On Israel/Lebanon ceasefire- “They’re all agreeing, it’s a very nice little package for about a week.”

On Bishops saying the Pope is preaching the Gospel- “I want him to preach the Gospel, I’m all about the Gospel. But I also know that you cannot let a certain country, which is a very mean-spirited country, have a nuclear weapon.”

“I’m all about the Gospel. I’m about it as much as anybody can be.”

You’re willing to extend the ceasefire?- “If I needed to, I would.”

On FLOTUS’ Epstein announcement/ speaking up now because- “It bothered her that the fake news was being fake news. That’s all. She just wanted to clarify.”

Are you still interested in acquiring Iranian oil? “Well, we’ll see. We have a very good relationship with Iran right now, as hard as it is to believe.”

On potential deal with Iran/ extending ceasefire- “If we’re close to a deal, would I extend? Yeah, I would do that. But we’re close to a deal.”

On China trip next month- “I have a great relationship, as you know, with President Xi and I look forward to being there. We have a very special relationship.”

Would you ever go to Pakistan to seal the deal yourself?- “I would, I would go to Pakistan, yeah. Pakistan has been great, they’ve been so great. Islamabad, I’ll be— I might go. Yeah. If the deal is signed in Islamabad, I might go… I might go, they want me.”

Do you think there should be a public hearing for more of these Epstein survivors?- “I’m okay with it but I understand that the women didn’t want to go under oath, that’s what I heard. That the women, or the victims or whatever, they refused to go under oath. Which was a little surprising. So, Melania felt strongly about it because she was accused of, that I met her through Epstein but it turned out to be totally false.”

That should be it from me!

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Alex Gangitano

Reporter, White House | POLITICO