Ric Grenell on Kash Patel’s Confirmation and the Freeing of Six Hostages from Venezuela

[Music] Rick grenell such a pleasure to have you back on American thought leaders thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure to be here well just a few minutes before we're doing this interview our mutual friend cash Patel someone who was when you were acting dni he was your Deputy has become confirmed as the FBI director what's your reaction I got a little emotional I got to tell you we've been living through this the last couple of months uh I couldn't be more proud I think he is going to crush it I think the American people are going to be safer because cash Patel is the FBI director it's going to get us back to the basics he's going to make sure that the FBI is looking at crimes not doing all this tangential stuff but really looking at crimes and trying to solve crimes and getting an FBI force that is uh filled with common sense focused on the right issues not going to Catholic Church meetings uh not trying to go after parents but really going after uh the fentanyl crisis murderers all of the really traditional crimes that are spiking that have been going up in the last you know four or five years cash is going to focus on that and thank God he's there you know I was very happy uh the all 81 episodes that we did on Cash's Corner together were requested basically as part of the confirmation process I'm sure Adam Shi watch one of them no and and I was very happy they did they didn't probably know that we fact checked all of them we don't we don't publish things that aren't factual of course opinion is opinion but but so I I was happy that that was in the record somewhere with someone I remember hearing that and and I thought you know if a whole bunch of democratic staffers or Democratic senators were having to watch all of Cash's Corners over the last you know years they're really going to learn something uh because that was an amazing series with cash and I don't think people understand just how passionate he was about uh really fighting the the the good fight even when he wasn't in government he he didn't go out and make a ton of money he really just concentrated on the fight at hand and trying to you know go after those who were trying to do cancel culture and he wrote an amazing book government gangsters and I I I just think that he's got a lot of passion that the American people are now going to benefit from you know when people were asking me that the most I did a bunch of hits on this and he's really kind of probably of all the people around probably the most apolitical I don't I mean I don't know you you know a lot of these people better than I do but he you know he's one of these people that one of these people that actually wants to apply the law for sure I mean look he's been a prosecutor and a public defender tell me who in government has been on both sides and and traditionally you know public defenders are those people who are altruistic and and they they help people who are in trouble uh maybe defend people who are guilty but but talk about what their rights are and get them to a place where they feel like they went through a good judicial process and then as a prosecutor it's the other side it's going after people who you think are guilty and they're saying no I'm innocent and so you've got to prove it he has literally come from both sides I can't think of someone better for the FBI than that but I get that you know he doesn't look like all the other FBI directors and so it's a little bit annoying to me when I look at all of the people before him and who they were and how they just overwhelmingly got confirmed and then you you come to cash somebody who is again doesn't look like the others doesn't have a background like the others and somehow you know he squeaks through with 51 uh I think that we need to get back to the point where Democrats look at Republicans and say you know you're qualified there was an election I I might not have selected you if if our side won but if you're qualified that's what the Senate is supposed to do and we've gotten to the point now where Republicans are more times than not supporting the Democratic candidates who are qualified even though we don't like their policies they're qualified and so we have a lot of senators who go out and actually vote for Democrats who are qualified when they're up for cabinet jobs we don't get that same CR courtesy the Democrats are literally wholeheartedly altogether unified in lockstep Step voting against every single Republican and to me that's the problem of Washington we talk a lot about you know how do we get to the point where we don't do political partisanship well look at the Senate process it it's actually very troubling to the people who live outside of Washington who are normal everyday hardworking Americans we expect there to be uh people who are more thoughtful about this process you know it's interesting I'm curious what you think I mean there were a few exceptions I think Brook Rollins got a few Democratic votes if I'm not mistaken people got a few right and and and so forth but it's actually interesting as you started talk answering this question you know I was earlier I was kind of reminded of your frankly you know skills in diplomacy it's one of the things I really appreciate about you you know back in Trump 45 you went out and you did some amazing work in Serbia changed some changed some Minds I don't know yeah I I would love to I someday we'll we'll get we'll get the whole story but just most recently um you were you went down to Venezuela and you know I remember seeing the photo I I texted you I was like what's the story behind this I so can are you able to talk about that now sure sure um six you six uh hostages six Americans held uh in prison as hostages uh we got six home uh there's about six or seven more that are still there and so we've still got work to do uh I spent the day going down to Caracus uh met with uh Maduro met with him one-on-one tried to uh have a conversation where we would have a different relationship with him uh look we're very cleare eyed about the venez in government and Maduro but Donald Trump is somebody who doesn't want to do regime change and he is somebody who wants to do everything that we can to make the American people stronger more prosperous and so that's what we're focused on right now and so I went down for the day and uh tried to through diplomatic means get the Venezuelans to pay for planes that would come up to the United States to take their uh citizens who are in our country illegally who crossed the southern border illegally they didn't wait in line they didn't do what uh proper immigration rules tell them to do but they jumped over the border and they were here illegally so we found these individuals and said look you broke the law you got to go back to your home country but we would like Venezuela to pay for it and so I went down to ask them to start sending planes uh that were empty from from Caracus land in El Paso Texas where we have a lot of the individuals and we would load those planes with illegal immigrants and send them back now a lot of those individuals I think we're up to about 250 were members of a gang called trende or AGA and we at in the state department and the US government just abbreviated TDA and so we had 250 individuals roughly that were classified as TDA gang members and that was important to us to have them go out first to be able to board a Venezuelan plane that they're paying for and go back to Caracus and and live there and the Venezuelan government can decide do they release them do they put them in prison whatever they decide our goal was to get him out of the United States and at the same time uh I looked at Mr Maduro and I said we'd like to have uh our hostages home and I I want to bring home six today so we had long conversations uh there was a solid hard no in the beginning and uh he asked me if I would uh stay the night and we could talk about it tomorrow and have dinner with him that night and I said sir I'm leaving in an hour and a half I'm boarding my Air Force plane uh where Americans are there waiting for me me and I'm going to go back to the plane and I hope that you can look this list over and deliver six we waited we we were told go back and wait uh we waited about 2 and 1 half hours I was sweating it out uh there were some people on the plane that were like I think we should go I don't think we're going to get anybody and I said no I was in the meeting I'm confident we're going to get somebody and lo and behold after about 2 and 1/2 hours uh all these cars pulled up and there were uh Americans getting out of of the cars they won in the back of a car and there there was about 10 cars but in six of them were individual Americans and I saw from across the tarmac I could see what was happening and the lights were shining on me it was getting dark I couldn't quite see everything and so I started to walk closer so that I could see the the commotion that was going on my team said no no no don't go over there um these are you you know dangerous people and and you shouldn't go and I was like we're here I got the Air Force plane behind me I got a lot of Air Force personnel with me I'm going to walk over and when I got there I could see that our men our American brothers were their Shackled their their feet Shackled their chain their hands Chained and they had black hoods over their heads and it really made me angry to look and see Americans in that situation so I went all the way up and uh I got a moment where I was standing in front of one of them they pulled the black hood off his head and I could see it in his eyes that he was very afraid didn't know what was happening he would later tell me that he um he didn't know if he was going to get shot if he didn't know if he was going to another prison he didn't know what was happening he didn't even know he was at the airport and I got to look at him in that moment after the black hood came off and I could see his uh in in his eyes he was really distraught and I said I'm an American Diplomat I'm here sent by Donald Trump I'm here to take you home get on the plane and he was bursting into tears hugged me it was probably the greatest day of my 25-year career to be able to be there and see Humanity in such a low place and to be so excited have their their situation changed in an instant from what they thought and we got on the plane and I have to tell you um it was pretty emotional to hear them and I'm not an emotional person in my career I'm pretty tough I'm I'm somebody who don't doesn't carry the emotions into my job if you know me personally I'm a softy but uh in those moments I tried to really be without emotion and I was on the plane and you know these guys they have have nothing everything was taken from them they've been in prison in a foreign country and one individual said something to me that I will never forget for as long as I live he looked at me and he said you know Mr Ambassador I have nothing my young guy I hope to have something someday but I right now I have nothing and for the rest of my life whatever I have is yours and I realized in that moment that he was so distraught and he didn't have any hope and they all all every single one of them said Donald Trump was going to come get us and I knew it one guy said I wrote on my cell in prison every day Donald Trump for president Donald Trump for President we got on the plane and I of course had to call the president I I got him on the phone and I said Mr President we have six Americans coming home he was ecstatic and every one of them said Mr President I want you to know I knew I knew if you won you would come get us I knew it and we were cheering for you from prison and the night that you won and the prison was talking about it Donald Trump was elected president I knew I was going to get out eventually now you think about that that is hope around the world and I think that's what Donald Trump for the last four years when we thought things were were terrible when the cancel culture was was at us and and we thought our country was changed forever Donald Trump never gave up they tried to get him twice they tried to take him out but we're here Republicans now are in charge of Washington you see what's happening with Doge I couldn't be more excited I think we went through the valley and we are now on the Mountaintop and now we have a responsibility to deliver for the American people now the tough work begins and so we got to keep up with the president you know I I am tired I am exhausted already but uh we got to keep up with the president you're the presidential Envoy for special Miss missions I guess this was mission number one what what what what other missions are planned here well I think we got a whole bunch of stuff on our plate we're not done with Venezuela I think we've got uh more to do and and what do you think Mr Maduro believes he got out of making that well look he I'll be honest with you he he had a long list of asks mhm and and I said look we're not here to give you anything uh what I am here to do though is to tell you that I came here to Caracus I'm now sitting in your Palace I'm sitting here asking you to do things and you have cameras all around you're going to use this moment you're going to tell people that I'm here that alone is a gift that alone is me showing you that we need to talk about a different relationship and so we didn't give him anything and it's funny that you ask that because I had forgotten on the plane another one of the uh hostages that was freed after we were in the air for about an hour he said you know I have to I have a question for you did you trade anybody or any money for me and I said no we didn't do anything we went no American had been here at a high level in in a very long time we came down and we asked and I said Donald Trump want you to do this and Donald Trump's credibility is what got you out and he was relieved he said thank God I I didn't want to be traded for criminals I didn't want to be traded for money and these guys are innocent they they should have never been locked up yeah I mean it's tough when you think we think about the whole situation with trying to get the last hostages out of uh I guess Gaza Gaza right yeah these are diff these are difficult issues uh we've got a great hostage negotiator in Adam bowler amazing and he's going to be doing great great things um but as a diplomat I have to say that when you're at a table and you're negotiating the reason we're successful is not because we can talk through it better than other people it's not because we're convincing in any way there's one reason why Donald Trump's ambassadors are able to do these things it's because of Donald Trump it's because he has a credible threat it's not just uh a threat of military action it's a threat of tariffs it's a threat of you know economic sanctions it's a it's a credible threat it's why we we say there needs to be a credible threat we don't just say there needs to be a threat Joe Biden had kind of a loose threat that was no wasn't credible and the people who were diplomats trying to negotiate for all of these hostages or peace agreements the other side knew that it was an empty threat that it wasn't going to be credible it wasn't going to be powerful and so we're lucky I'm lucky to be able to be an ambassador doing peace agreements doing diplomacy with someone like Donald Trump at the top it's a lot easier so you know you're the new president of Kennedy Center right and it's it's just very interesting the day we're interviewing today two things first of all the Shen Yun show is back at Kennedy Center opening night or opening day um go on until the second uh but and there was actually a bomb threat uh and so first of all how is it that while you're this Envoy for special missions you're also now the president of Kennedy Center and and you know what do you make of this well first of all it doesn't surprise anyone if you work for Donald Trump you're going to have multiple hats and you got to work hard and so uh right now I'm the interim president and the president but I won't be there for a very long time I came in to kind of clean up the problems um and the Kennedy Center has a lot of problems the woman who was the president before me was getting paid $1.3 million a year she had zero cash on hand and zero in reserves the employees of which there's roughly 300 the employees are being paid from the debt reserves that should not be touched because they got a balloon payment coming up in 2030 so the financial situation is is terrible and if you look at the Deferred maintenance and the the status of the building it's in really dire shape and and we haven't had the money to actually do the proper maintenance and so the building is suffering so you look at the financial situation you look at the building you look at the overpaid individuals and it we were literally on a crash course and so president Trump is a businessman he knows know how to fix things and I love the fact that he cares so much about a place like the Kennedy Center in Washington DC which should be the premier Center in the nation's capital for Arts right it shouldn't have any budget problems but it's got such budget problems it's asking for $45 million a year from Congress from the American people and so president Trump's position is look if you're an Arts institution and you're asking for public dollars then you've got to give the public what they want you should do big Blockbuster musicals you should do traditional Nutcracker at uh Christmas time you should do the big art things that appeal to the masses by the way that's great for the bottom line as well MH well yeah and exactly how uh shenyun plays out so it's actually kind very fitting that that this is the show that's opening right now but what do you make of this bomb threat I mean look we live in this world now where people who don't like something are resorting to chaos uh we've lived through cancel culture de banking um all sorts of stuff uh you know opinions became uh misinformation disinformation and and that's crazy you know to to have an opinion and then just to be canceled for it because it's disinformation uh I I think has always been the problem so we've got to fix this I thought JD Vance's speech at the Munich security conference was really uh shot across the bow to our Western allies to say don't cancel people for speech we're the West we we are to defend speech and we should be United on it but anyone who's traveled to Europe knows that they have really gone backwards when it comes to freedom freedom of speech and Western values uh they're they're investing in China uh in dramatic ways and I think president Trump has said look I warned you on Russia you didn't listen to me had the nordstream 2 Pipeline and you were engaging with Russia now you're doing the same thing with China and so we we clearly have to be able to say to our friends in Europe of which we have many you got to do better yeah you of course you were the ambassador to Germany and so you you have a lot of thoughts about how things that work over there you were we had an election in Germany on Sunday that's right and so you know this was at a very I guess appointed time that the vice president was speaking at the security forum do some the the many of the people listening didn't think it was particularly diplomatic of him I don't know what your thoughts are of who of of the vice president and look I was in the room um I think there's two views of diplomacy um first of all JD was incredibly nice and he wasn't rude at all but uh I believe that diplomacy should be blunt and it should be transparent and if you truly are trying to solve problems you want that too and you appreciate that too the seat warmers the people who just love the accoutrements of being an embassador of big staff and and sitting in restaurants and drinking wine and it's what uh Anthony blinkin called culinary diplomacy which is crazy the idea that that uh he kept saying every negotiation starts with a good meal and I was like no no no every negotiation starts with a good idea not a good meal and we have to move move away from that uh I think stale form of elitism and that's what it is a lot of people enjoy being an ambassador because of all of the things that come with it and I think that when you're an ambassador what Donald Trump thinks is when you're an American ambassador you represent the American people they pay for your salary they pay for your Embassy they pay for your residents overseas you have a responsibility to defend America we have too many of our ambassadors who if you're the Ambassador say to Poland that you go over and you spend your two three years talking about how great Poland is as the US ambassador you take pictures around Poland you say you should come visit this is an amazing place you get all these accolades from from people saying you know you're amazing look the people who are going to talk about how amazing Poland is are the Polish ambassadors the American ambassadors go over there and they have a job to do which is to make America stronger the American people safer and so you run an office over there for the American people not for the the polls and I was very clear on that in Germany I was there not to uh make Germany better I was there to make America better and so I was going to fight for the American people by the way I had a lot of friends there uh a lot of people want a straight talking transparent Ambassador as long as you're not rude you know me I'm a I'm a blunt talker but uh I'm never rude mhm so we I recently had on the show uh another friend actually the staff director of the CCC Congressional executive Commission on China and I talked to him about the vice president's speech and what he saw in it immediately even though this wasn't mentioned a lot you suggested it I think a little bit earlier was that the subtext of getting Europe to carry its own way waight the defense side for example is that there's actually going to be a pivot to Asia or there's an active pivot to Asia right and I don't know how you how you read that look I I think for me the subtitle was really uh the elites can't be trying to control things for the betterment of them you've really got to have free speech for everyone you've got to include everyone you got to come back to Western values and you got to be the West and inherent in that is a warning don't go over and make the same mistake that you did with Russia and with Iran in China and look I could argue if we had more time I could argue that the Europeans policies on nordstream 2 and and R and the weakness they had on Russia caused the war in Ukraine and when they tried to get around our sanctions in Iran and they tried to create a mechanism to go around what we believed was a threat from the Iranian regime they helped create a a pocket of money for the Iranian regime they gave the Iranian regime Aid and comfort and the Biden Administration came in and gave him hundreds of billions of dollars and caused the war in Gaza so I think that bad weak policies lead to Wars and that's what we're trying to avoid so peace through strength is what's happening I like the idea of peace through strength but I think too many people think peace through strength is a celebration of the Pentagon peace through strength is a celebration of the state department I've worked at the state department for 12 years I love the place but when you talk about peace through strength it means that the diplomats won it means we didn't have to fire a shot because we had tough diplomacy you get that tough diplomacy when people are focused on representing the American ideals and have a president like Donald Trump uh well Rick this has been a great conversation a final thought as we finish three tiers for cash Patel well Carell such a pleasure to have you on again nice to see you good to see you [Music]