out-of-town pool report #9a - quotes

From the president’s tarmac gaggle after joking “a lot of people want to see me try” to fight Evander Holyfield.

Asked if he spoke to Darline Graham about Russia sanctions named for her brother:

“She thinks — everyone thinks I did the right thing because we're able to get a great person back. You know, we have the person that is called hostage or prisoner or whatever it is, but he's now just landed, and you couldn't have done that if you did what foolish people wanted me to do.”

What’s next with the war?

“We want to also settle the war, but we also want to keep it the way it is because Russia has not been involved very much, certainly in a very minimal way with respect to Iran.”

Trilateral meeting on Ukraine?

“I can't tell you that because it's not just about that. That's about denuclearization. So it's not just about that. But we have a lot of steps. But I think it's the closest I've seen. You see what I see. You saw the. You saw as an example, President Zelensky today. I think it's the closest I've seen to maybe working out.”

On most recent talk w Putin:

“We talked mostly the hostage, and he was very good on it. You know, we got a hostage. He didn't ask for anything back, like you know, normally with Biden or Obama, they end up giving back a fortune. He was very good about that. I asked him if he could. We could have Stephen Hubbard back. Been there a long time. His son has been campaigning to get his father back, which is beautiful.”

Are you negotiating with the Iranians at this point?

“No, I think we're not negotiating with. We are going to have something one way or the other that'll happen fairly soon. Most people seem to think it's after the election, and we're going to see what happens. But I will say this: what we've done with Iran is amazing. We've taken out their military and their navy, their air force, their everything. They have no money. You know what? They have one thing: inflation. They've got the worst inflation any country has seen for 50 years.”

Good night.

Arthur Delaney
Reporter | HuffPost