VP Pool report #12 departure and fuller quotes

AF2 is rolling at 2:12 pm CT and wheels up at 2:17.

On Iran:

"...we came into the situation with maximum leverage and maximum strength. Their nuclear program was destroyed, their conventional military was destroyed, and you've got some people within the Iranian system who are saying, you know, what we want to change our relationship with the United States. We want to turn over a new leaf, and the President said, "Okay, we will sit down at the table and negotiate and see if the smart people in that system can take over from the crazy people.' Well, here's the basic deal that we cut the basic deal that we cut was we'll lift our blockade if you stop shooting at ships, but if you shoot at ships, we are going to punch back, and we're going to punch back harder than ever before. That was the deal. They said they would stop shooting at ships, and what happened 24 hours ago, they started shooting at ships again. Now they were good, they were well behaved for about a week, but then they start shooting at ships. so the deal is very simple. If they shoot at ships, we're going to knock the hell out of them, and it's that simple. And that's the basic way it's going to work."

"Now, the President maintains a lot of options. I'm obviously not going to tell you exactly what's going to happen tonight, but the President has said to them very simply, the Strait of Hormuz is going to be open. That means oil and gas is going to flow to the American people. That's why we see gas prices starting to come down. That's why we see the oil prices so low, is because the President said that crucial artery, through which we ship a lot of the world's energy, that artery has got to remain open, and that is what the Iranians have to know. If they try to close it down, there's going to be response for the American military. It's that simple. That's the deal. They can either follow it, or they can have exactly what happened to them last night. It's just going to keep on happening until they open up that lane and stop shooting at ships."

More on 2020 election/Milwaukee

"I came here to talk about the fraud against our prenatal program for our young moms, and some guy sends me a letter, the mayor of Milwaukee, and says we don't do any election fraud, we don't do any election fraud, we don't do any election fraud, and my response to that is, you know what, it kind of reminds me of, like a couple weeks ago, I get home to the Naval Observatory, the nicest public housing anywhere in the United States of America, and my six year old greets me, and I love my little boy, but he's a little mischievous, and he gives me a big hug. He says, 'Daddy, I'm glad you're home. I didn't steal any of the cookies. I said, 'Huh, that's interesting that you volunteered that when I wasn't even talking about that. Well, of course, he stole the cookies. So, when I hear a guy protesting out of nowhere, I did not do any election fraud. I did not do any election fraud. It makes me wonder, why is that guy protesting so aggressively? It's a little odd, I The second thing I'll say is, look, there's, of course, this big debate about how much election fraud happens in the United States of America. You guys know my views. We're not going to settle this here. First of all, any election fraud is too much election fraud in the world's greatest and oldest constitutional republic, you and number two, if Democrats want us to stop talking about election fraud, I make them a simple deal: pass the Save America Act and get voter ID, and we'll stop talking about election fraud. We are the only advanced democracy anywhere in the entire world that doesn't require you to show a voter ID to vote. It's simple, just give us election integrity laws, give us voter ID, and then we will have the confidence to say the American people, there's no cheating. But when they say number one, we don't want voter ID, and number two, there's not that much cheating in our elections"

Commenting on Graham Platner:

"People look at the fundraising numbers, they read the media stories, you know, they read the scandals, particularly in Maine. If you're into political scandals, might I recommend a Google search on Graham Platner? But we ought to remember that this is not Red Team versus Blue Team, this is about whether the American people get wise and honest political leadership or whether they are represented by a bunch of crazy people in their Congress."

Haley Bull

Senior White House Correspondent

m: XXX-XXX-XXXX

e: [EMAIL ADDRESS]

scrippsnews.com