Flooding Disaster: 85 Americans Missing After China-Nepal Floods

I've been searching for him for the past three or four days without getting any sleep. I believe there are many other families like mine who are suffering. They were just telling my sister about the amazing time that they had in Nepal and China and how blessed they felt to be on the pilgrimage. So what we're trying to do is just provide equipment, money for search and rescue, also looking at anything we can do for the displaced people. Yeah, 85 Americans still missing after Wednesday's devastating floods along the Nepal-China border left nearly 800 dead. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the second hour of The Big Weekend Show. Search and rescue crews are still looking for over 3,000 people. The floodwaters swept away homes, roads, and bridges, destroying entire communities. President Trump calls it a terrible disaster, saying the U.S. is ready to provide Nepal with any help it needs. The State Department has already committed over $3 million worth of humanitarian assistance. Joining us now for tonight's big close-up is State Department Spokesperson Tommy Piggott. Mr. Piggott, thank you for joining us tonight. I know that a lot of Americans either have family there. I think I read that 40,000 Americans traveled to that area on into Tibet during the climbing season, which starts in September, so I know this is even beyond the most tragic part of people with family members there. It's probably disrupting some people's plans and lives. I'd love for you to let us know where you think we are on this. The real question here is, how much cooperation are we getting from China as well? It seems like they would have the first opportunity to go in and help. Well, a few points here. First, I can say as of 5 p.m. this evening that we have 85 Americans approximately unaccounted for currently. We have now seen 11 Americans be safely evacuated and currently have no confirmed deaths of U.S. citizens at this time. We at the State Department have activated, as you said, $3.6 million in humanitarian assistance, including life-saving food assistance that will be able to reach up to 10,000 flood-affected households for three months. So we're activating that assistance. We're also working with local authorities. We've surged consular assistance to this area to make sure that we're able to provide 24-7 support to Americans that need it out of our embassies in Beijing and Kathmandu. We remain committed to coordinating with local authorities on the whereabouts of Americans, as well as coordinating with the government of Nepal in terms of delivering the humanitarian assistance, and also responding to any requests that they may make. Our highest priority at the State Department is to support the American people, is the safety and security of the American people, and we are working 24-7 to live up to that commitment. Mr. Pickett, Mollye here. Thank you so much for being with us. You know, devastating situation, a lot of people holding out hope that perhaps their family members are still alive, and one of the great challenges there on the ground is the expertise to be able to get from place to place right now, the equipment. How is the U.S. working with other nations to ensure that these searches and rescues can continue? Well, that is up to the close coordination we have with the Nepali government. As the president said, we are in close coordination with the government of Nepal and are ready to respond to any requests that they may make. Part of that $3.6 million in assistance that I mentioned will go towards rehabilitating roads as well as specialized transport options in order to reach those hard-to-reach areas in this remote area. This is an area that is hard to reach at the best of times, but that is made even more so based off the devastation that we have seen following these floods. We also have a disaster area response advisor that is on the ground currently that is helping to advise on how best to see this assistance be deployed. And I can say as of today, our assistance from the United States has reached hundreds of people with life-saving humanitarian aid as we're responding to this devastating flood. Tommy David here. Always good to have you on to talk about these issues. Shifting gears, the U.S. will now get a majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelans' oil reserves. The president says this will significantly reduce gas prices for Americans. And of course, that is of interest to just about everybody out there. But how will this be carried out? Coordination between the administration, between, of course, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the security front, as well as on the business front with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Well, this, as the president said, is the largest deal on oil in the history of the world. A majority stake in up to 65 billion dollars, 65 billion barrels, excuse me, of oil reserves. This is a massive promise kept from the president, who talked about the fact that we are going to have secure oil reserves, we're going to lower gas prices, and that's exactly what this deal is going to accomplish. While at the same time, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, leading to up to 100 billion dollars of investment in the Venezuelan economy, many high-paying jobs, as well as money to fund the reconstruction of the Venezuelan economy. So this is truly a win-win-win, a win for the American people, a win for the Venezuelan people. And it's truly a Trump deal, the best dealmaker we've ever had as president, to lower gas prices for the American people, get secure supply reserves in our own hemisphere, while at the same time helping to lead to investment in the Venezuelan economy and improving our relations with the Venezuelan economy. Just think where we were a year ago when we had this illegitimate Maduro in Venezuela, and think of where we are now that was only possible because of President Trump. Tell me, I want to go to a similar topic here when we go south into the southern hemisphere, South America. This is the war on narco-terrorism. So U.S. Southern Command and the DEA have been partnering with Ecuadorian authorities to dismantle transnational drug trafficking networks. New videos show South Com taking down a vessel as part of the operations. So far they've confiscated drugs, weapons, and communication devices. I know that the Secretary of War has put one of his closest special advisors, Eric Garrissey, on this. I know that there are a lot of wins down in the southern hemisphere and even Central America when it comes to using South Com to basically disrupt these cartels. Can you tell us how this is affecting us here in the states, in the lower 48? Is this helping our immigration? Is it getting drugs off the streets? What are these efforts doing for our sovereignty and our security? Well the fentanyl crisis, the fentanyl crisis that's driving overdoses in the United States is one of the most pressing national security threats that we face as a country and President Trump is addressing it head on. Of course we have seen the decisive action President Trump has taken that has led to lower drug flows overseas, the decisive actions he's taken. We can also see the diplomatic efforts here to work with our partners in our hemisphere to disrupt this trade at every single step, working to combat these cartels, designate these cartels as what they are, which is terrorists, which opens up a huge range of tools. The Secretary of State has been multiple times within our own hemisphere, within our neighborhood, talking with our partners in our neighborhood, leading to better cooperation so that we're attacking these insidious people at every single step to stop them from poisoning the American people. And of course, as you mentioned, this also affects our border. This also contributes to a secure border because the cartels, what they were doing is using the flow of mass migration to get drugs into this country, to get criminals into this country. And so what the President does by securing the border, by implementing policies that combat the cartels, by ending mass migration, he is hurting the only people that benefit from mass migration, which are criminals, which are terrorists, which are the cartels. So he is stopping these cartels from poisoning the American people. We have unprecedented diplomatic efforts around our hemisphere to combat these cartels. And that means more American lives are being saved. Tommy, I want to turn to this now. The State Department is putting a freeze on visa appointments as it rolls out a new training initiative. The Trump administration is also proposing a $103,000 fee on employers filing H-1B petitions. Tommy, from a fellow Tommy, you know, I love to hear any kind of a crackdown on things of this nature. But I do have to ask, and when it comes to this fee, I mean, that's great, but there are plenty of employers that will pay this fee and they will still replace American workers and applicants. What's your response to that? And you know, how should we feel about it as those that are really wanting to make sure that American workers get the first crack at these jobs? Well, that's exactly the point there. The last point that's driving our visa policy in general is making sure that we put Americans first and making sure that American workers have the opportunities of investment in this country. As the president has pointed to, we have seen trillions of dollars pouring into the United States from investment because of this president, and we want to make sure American workers are able to take advantage of that. So what we're saying here and what's driving our policies here when it comes to these visas is saying, if a company has a demonstrated need that they need a specialized skill to train Americans to facilitate an investment, we will work with them on that. However, we want to make sure that American workers have the ability to prosper from these investments, and that's exactly the policies we're putting in place. So we'll continue to examine these policies. We'll continue to look for ways to make sure that we're putting the American people first. But that is our enduring commitment here, to make sure that we're letting American workers prosper, prosper from this investment. And I think in general, when we look at visa policies, we talk about just the border we just talked about a few moments ago. Visa policy is border security because it's who we're letting into our country legally. And the revocations we have seen from the State Department are sending a clear signal backed up by action, that if you break the law, if you break the terms of your visa, if you undermine our national security, there will be consequences. So we're acting on that every single day. And that's why we've seen over 175,000 visas be revoked since the beginning of this administration. Tommy, Tommy Pigott, thank you so much for joining us. State Department spokesperson. Got one more question for you before I let you go. Do you know if your boss, Secretary Rubio, saw all the memes that go around, did he see the Dolly Parton meme, where he may have to take the stage and sing some of her songs? I know he sees these memes. I don't know if he's seen that one. Of course, we're all missing Dolly Parton. I've been listening to 9to5 quite a bit this week. Really a great song. Even the great Marco Rubio can't take her spot. That's for sure. Tommy Pigott, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me on. Yes, sir. All right, with that, I'll bring it out to the table. Tommy, let's just pick up where you just left off. I think that's probably the topic that a lot of people want to hear about. You know, H-1B visas, that requires a certain level of education in its specific infrastructure or specific jobs in specific sectors. And I guess the president is kind of cracking down a little bit on how people get those and how long they can stay. But like you said, those are the jobs that Americans should be competing for. Yeah, I would like to see just further limitations on how many foreign workers we're bringing in, just in general. I don't care if they're highly skilled or they're low skilled. I would just like Americans in general to be first up to take these jobs. And if they need the training to do so, that's great. We should invest in that as well. I like to see, by the way, I give the administration a lot of credit for the work that they are doing on this. I think they've heard the American people loud and clear. They've heard graduates loud and clear that went and got these jobs, that they were promised that when they got this education that they would have a job in a high-paying industry and only to be replaced by a foreign worker on one of these visas. So I don't think it's quite enough yet, but we're working in that direction and I have to give credit where credit's due for that progress. They will work backwards. We talked to them about the cartels and the things happening down in South Com. You know, I feel like that is an unsung victory. I've learned more about it in the recent weeks, about some of the work we're doing down there. The Democrats' best retort was they didn't like the fact that we blew up the drug runners without a trial. But it seems like there's a lot of good wins down there where we're working kind of quietly. Yeah, and that's really been part of the history of the DEA over the decades. You rarely ever hear about the work they do. These are some of the best trained warriors that we have out there. And for decades, including people that I know that have retired now have fought this. Ecuador is especially dangerous because of one geographic location and its government. The fact that they've now also lost Colombia with Otero being put in office and Petro out means that you've moved away from this socialist left corruption a little bit more to the right. So the DEA is going to have to expand their operations. And I think just as always, they do the job, they get it done. But we need stable governments down there. And that's what things like good deals with Venezuela and really getting some of these governments back on the right side does, is it allows for a more stable environment in the Americas. Yeah. And it shows what good leadership we have, even from the department where you got Coast Guard, you got military assets, DEA, so much of our government working down there and doing it so well. Molly, another place, you know, we just talked to the State Department spokesperson. What's happening with this, it was originally called an earthquake. Now they're saying it was an ice cap breaking off. But what's happening there in Nepal is it's a big tragedy. It reminds us, a lot of us probably, of the floods in North Carolina and just what real devastation can come. We've got 85 Americans unaccounted for, and it sounds like, I guess, China's playing friendly and helping out, but it's hard to tell. Yeah. A lot of nations around the world are pulling together on this one because there are people from all around the globe that are missing there in Nepal, including our allies. Our allies, people from the UK, from Australia, are missing there. And as you mentioned, the cusp of the climbing season, Nepal is gorgeous, mountainous, these beautiful rivers. And that's part of why this disaster was so big. But I think Tommy Piggott really talked throughout the course of all of his answers about the America First efforts that are underway on all of those topics, including this in Nepal, to prioritize Americans, where they are, to find them, to bring them home if possible, and to be part of the rescue operation overall. And of course, State Department being a big part of the lead for the Venezuela deal to get oil coming to our country to help us out. If you're wondering if this administration can walk and chew gum at the same time, I'd say they're probably walking, chewing gum, jumping rope, doing a lot of things at the same time. We just covered four big stories there with some winds.