that's the longest any senator has been at the top of the leadership rung in either political party. senator john thune was elected a few weeks ago to head up the republican majority in the senate in 2025. meanwhile, journalist michael tack ett earvetion bees -- tackett's book is called "the price of power" and subtitled "how mitch mcconnell mastered the senate, changed america and lost his party." the deputy washington bureau chief of the associated press conducted over 50 hours of interviews and was granted access to never-before-released oral histories. announcer: journalist michael tackett with his book this episode of book notes plus with our host, brian lamb. book notes plus is available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.

>> white house national security advisor jake sullivan announced today that the u.s. is close to a possible hostage deal between hamas and israel and, quote, it can get done this week. i'm not making a promise or a prediction, we're going to work to make it happen. he made those comments at today's white house press briefing led by press secretary. karine: these 150 borrowers include almost 85,000 borrowers who attended schools that

cheated and defrauded their students, 61,000 borrowers with total and permanent disabilities. and 6,100 public servant workers. this announcement builds on the historic actions our administration has taken to reduce the burden of student debt. hold bad actors accountable, and fight on behalf of students across the country. today's milestone isn't just a number, it's life changing debt relief for five million people. and their families who now have more breathing room to buy homes, start small businesses, save for retirement, and much more. turning to the latest in california wildfires, president biden and vice president harris convened their team over the weekend to receive the latest updates on the firefighting and how federal resources are supporting the state and local efforts.

they are making prodpres but to be clear, the situation remains extremely active, especially as winds pick up again. these firefighters and other emergency personnel are heroes. many have lost their own homes and belongings and are working day and night to protect communities that remain at risk. hundreds of firefighters from neighboring states, including arizona, oregon, washington, utah, colorado, idaho, new mexico, and texas have also traveled to los angeles to help. amidst the devastation, we are also seeing bright pockets of hope in community as neighbors help neighbors by donating food, clothe, coffee, hygiene products, diapers, formula, and more.

volunteers are working around the clock to organize donations, old and new, and americans across the country are coming together to help those in need. the best of america shines through even in the darkest moments. later this afternoon, the president and the vice president will be briefed by key federal officials. our administration remains laser focused on helping those impacted and we'll continue to use every tool available to support the firefighting efforts. and finally before i turn it over to our national security officer, mr. sullivan, i acknowledge april ryan who has covering the white house for 28 years as of today. thank you for your service and congratulations on this milestone as one of the longest serving white house correspond. the longest serving black white house correspondent, congratulations. we appreciate your tough questions, our back and forth

and persistence in this room. congratulations w that i have our national security advisor jake sullivan to speak more about the foreign policy speech and any other questions. jake: thank you very much. good afternoon, april. congratulations on being the longest serving black white house correspondents. i appreciate your tough questions, but i especially appreciate your easy questions, so if you have any i'll be happy to take them. as karine noted president biden will deliver an address on the state department on the united states position in the world as he hands it off to the incoming administration. the state department, as many of you know, is where president biden delivered his first foreign policy address in february of 2021. it was a very different world then. we were still in the midst of a devastating health and economic crisis. with our alliances fraying and fragile. and our competitors and

adversaries on the march growing stronger. the president spoke at that time about the urgency of meeting the challenges of this world in a period of profound transition and change. the post-cold war era had ended. the united states was in a contest for what comes next. economically, technologically and with respect to values and vision for the world. a time of change in transition like that has brought geopolitical turbulence, technological disruption, the pressures of an energy transition and more. we have had a lot thrown at us. but as we pass the baton to our successor. the president will report with confidence that america is winning that contest for the future. if you look around the world today, and you ask the question, which country is the most dynamic and innovative, the most attractive to partners and friends, the most capable of marshaling solutions to the big challenges we face, who is

leading the world in technology, who's had the strongest economic recovery? the answer to all these questions is clear, indisputable and the same. it's the united states of america. in his address this afternoon you'll hear the president lay this out. and it boils to is a series of simple questions. are our alliances stronger? yes. are our adversaries weaker and under pressure? yes. did we improve our strategic competition in the long-term position in china while stabilizing the relationship so we are not tipping over into conflict? yes. did we begin to reverse a long-term trend and revitalize our defense industrial base and diversify our supply chains for critical goods. yes. did we strengthen the engines of american economic and technological power? yes. did we do all of that while keeping america out of war? yes. the president fundamentally

delivered on his promise to invest in america, including in our manufacturing base to produce the world's most advanced semiconductors, and other strategic technologies. in fact, our cutting-edge technologies, a.i., biotech, quantum, and others are the envy of the world. when the president took office, many of you were writing that china's economy was on track to surpass america's economy by the end of the decade or shortly thereafter. now on currents course and speed they are unlikely to ever surpass us. america's alliances have never been stronger. in europe and asia. nato is bigger, more unified, and our allies are stepping up to pay their fair share. our asian alliances are moreau bust and tightly linked than any point in history. russia tried to conquer ukraine, to wipe it off the map. but thanks to ukrainian bravery and our support, russian forces are bogged down in ukraine at enormous cost with over 700,000

casualties in the war. and ukraine stands free, kyiv stands free, and ukraine will emerge from this war a strong, sovereign nation rooted in the west. this has been made possible by the unity of the alliance president biden built and rallied and massive effort led by the united states on a scale not seen since the second world war to equip a partner with the military capability it needed to defend itself against a brutal invasion by a much bigger neighbor. even as we competed fiercely with china, the president opened deep channels with beijing, including military-to-military channels that help us manage this and keep it from veering with into competition or conflict. we have stood up tour enemies. we built and acted alongside an unprecedented coalition to directly defend israel in the face of iranian aggression. iran is now at the weakest point

since 1979. there's a ceasefire in lebanon and the possibility of a new political future with a new president. russia and iran's lackey in syria, assad, is gone. we are now at a pivotal point in the negotiations for a hostage deal and ceasefire in gaza. the president spoke with prime minister netanyahu yesterday and just got off the phone with the emir of qatar and he'll be speaking soon with president sisi of egypt. we are close to a deal, it can get den this week. i'm not making a promise or prediction but it is there for the taking and we're going to work to make it happen. there are serious and on tboing challenges in the world. the houthis continue to represent a clear and present danger. isis is trying to use the fall of assad to regenerate after years of sustained pressure and the degradation of its networks.

final think there are also important initiatives that the next team should carry forward in our view to have a strong, bipartisan foundation nortd to cement america's position of strength in the world and our current lead in key areas. the work we started to revitalize our defense industrial base, the steps we've taken to protect america's funnational technologies from being used against us by our competitors. the major global infrastructure initiative that provides a long-term alternative to china's bolden road. suffice it to say it's been an action-packed four years. if you take stock of where america stands today, i believe deeply that the incoming administration is starting with a very strong hand. so as we pass the baton, we are doing so thanks to the leadership of president biden and his team from a position of

profound american confidence and capacity when you look around the world there is no other country that has what we have to bring to both the competition we face and the quheadges need to martial the world to help solve. with that, i'd be happy to take your questions. reporter: thanks for doing this, jake. with regard to hostages in gaza. what is it that you've been able to make progress on that makes you feel more confidence? and what do you still need to address to get the feel finalized this week? mr. july van: president biden laid out a framework for a hostage deal and ceasefire last june. that was endorsed by the security council and remains the operative framework for a ceasefire and hostage deal in gaza. this is the deal that the parties right -- parties right now are working off of to try to close. that includes the phases, it includes prisoner exchange for hostage, it incleudz humanitarian assistance once the

guns go quiet, we'd be able to meow trucks more rapidly. since june, we've had multiple efforts to close the deal. we've come close and haven't been able to get across the line. there have been some details particularly around the formulas with respect to prisoner releases, formulas around the exact disposition of israeli forces, and other things along those lines. those details we have been hammering away at week after week, month after month. and now, in the last period, just over the course of the last several weeks, we have accelerated that effort to try to bring this to a close. i was in israel in december and then i was in qatar and egypt. i met with the leaders of all three countries. basically to try to help put this on track to get it across the line. president biden sent mcgirk out to qatar, he's been camped out in qatar, day in, day out, trying to tighten up these details and get this done.

we have coordinated with the incoming administration to present a united message to all the party which is says it is in the american national security interest, regardless of party, regardless of outgoing or incoming administration, to get this deal done as fast as possible. and now we think those details are on the brink of being fully hammered out and the parties are right on the cusp of being able to close this deal. whether or not we go from where we are now to actually closing it, the hours and days ahead will tell. but i believe it is there for the taking and we'll do everything we can to push it across the line. reporter: historians one day will right the -- write the history of the biden foreign policy. probably summarizing it in two or three sentences. what would you say for these two or three sentences? mr. sullivan: we made america stronger, we made our enemies weak eric and we kept out of

war. reporter: i didn't hear you mention afghanistan. how would that be addressed? mr. sullivan: he will address afghanistan in the speech and it was referenced, said we kept america out of war. president biden ended america's longest war after 20 years. it had been passed from president to president, sending american men and women to fight and die in a foreign land. president biden wasn't going to hand that off. he believes history will judge his decision to end that war as being the right decision for the united states that america is better off today that we are not entering now our 25th year of war, of americans fighting and dying, of billions and billions of dollars spent in afghanistan and what we have been able to do instead is refocus that effort and energy and attention on the challenges of the future. now, when you end a war after 20 year, with all the decisions that have piled up other that time, there are going to be challenges and difficulties. and there were challenges and

difficulties in the period of the drawdown. but people predicted once we left afghanistan it would harm our alliances. our alliances are at historic high thaisms predicted that we would have a safe haven in afghanistan for plotting terrorist attacks against the american homeland. terrorism remains a very real concern. but president biden pointed out before he pulled out that it's a more diffuse and metastasized threat, including the kind of homegrown violent extremism we saw on display in new orleans in january. in fact over the course of these four years, we have seen president biden, that was the first terrorist attack that has happened on american soil, that was not connected to afghanistan as far as we know. it was connected to inspiration from isis. so president biden believes that the decision he took has left america in a profoundly stronger position and he'll explain in his speech today why he think that's case.

reporter: can you talk at all about the unified u.s. approach between your administration and the incoming? and 40-plus years ago when president reagan took over, there was a perception that there had been an intention to deny president carter the announcement of u.s. hostages. these are different time, different circumstances. but were there lessons from that? or a different approach to try to avoid that kind of a repeat? what's the unity? mr. sullivan: i don't think that that was primarily the thing on president biden's mine when he directed us to start working intensively with the incoming administration. what's on his mind is we are in a peer of change and transition. we can't having any missed between he cup and the whip in the handoff between our administration and the incoming administration. so he told us. he told me. sit down with your successor as soon as you possibly can, and start working through and mapping out what they need to know, how quay we can work together many this period of transition to put ourselves in

the best position possible. and in fact, we have seen in the context of the middle east, that we have coordinated on common messaging around the ceasefire in lebanon and we are coordinating -- very closely coordinated including with steve wit cough and brett mcgirk around trying to bring this to a close. it's because there's a spirit being brought to this work that says, these are not partisan issues. these are mesh national security issues. it's the kind of spirit president biden has brought to this job from the very beginning that set the politics aside, do what's right for the country and have our team work with the incoming team in that regard. i have to say, our coordination thus far, the engagement we have had, it's been ploftional. professional, it's been deep and subs stanivity. -- substantive. we kiss agree, i'm sure i'll have my share of criticisms just as mike walz had his krit soisms me.

this is not about us seeing things exactly the same way or coming at things from the same perspective. but it is about a shared view that a time of transition is a tame of risk and it is critical that we close ranks as americans to say, no one can take advantage of us but we will try to take advantage of every opportunity available to us in this critical period. reporter: are there any assurances of what's been discussed? are there assurances that the americans who are alive will be released as part of this phase? mr. sullivan: we have been focused on ensuring that all americans ultimately come home. that's part of the objective that president biden set forth. it's part of the phases of this hostage deal that all the americans come home. now, what they are working through and hammering out are the details of the precise sequencing of people coming out over the course of the weeks abmonths of this deal. that's getting hammered out as one of the final details.

a paramount priority for president biden as for the incoming team is ensuring we get all the americans reunited with the families and the remains of those american who was tragically passed away are brought home so they can get the proper burial they deserve. so like i said, the details of how exactly this is going to play out are being hammered out in the end game. i can't report exactly how it will play with each of the americans. reporter: so just real quickly on the gaza hostage situation, how many of the 98 hostages still held are believed to be alive? all 98? mr. sullivan: i have to refer you to the israelis who have been taking the lead in toasms characterizing their best assessment which is combined with our best assessment of the answer to that question. we have a good sense, we believe, with respect to the american but in terms of that broader universe, particularly with israeli hostages they'd be in the best position to answer that question. reporter: i want to ask you another question that has to do with timing and sequencing of

some of the things the administration has been announcing. we've seen oil prices jump stloiflt tightened sanctions. was there any, you know, we've got other things happening now, so new restrictions on a.i. and chips. there are all coming -- that are all coming in the final days of the administration. can you say a word about your thinking about the timing? and also whether you expect from where you sit right now that oil prices will stay high and that american consumers will bear the brunt of that decision. mr. sullivan: remember that when the ukraine war kaikd, started in those early months of 2022, oil prices spiked way above $100. the price environment for us to put advances -- sanctions on russia's oil sector at that time would have meant a significant hit to the american pocketbook and the american consumers. the priers -- the price

environment today is pr foundly different. you said spiked but oil prices today are significantly lower than they have been on average the last few weirs -- last few years. so we have fundamentally a different price environment. that's the reason for why now. president biden was not going to impose sanctions on russia's oil sector if it meant an undue burden on american working families. he does not believe the action he took places such an undue burden on them. he believes, as you project out over the course of 2025, on supply and demand, that the oil market is very well supplied, that oil prices will stabilize in a place that does not impose undue burdens on american consumers and that on the one hand we can hit putin's pocketbook without on the other hand taking too big a back out of the american people's -- too big a whack out of the american people's pocketbook. that was not an opportunity available to us before, but it

is available now. the other point is the new team is setting up for a negotiation. and in a negotiation, you need leverage. part of that leverage has to come from the kind of economic pressure that makes putin see he's going to continue to pay a significant price economically and so this is also in service of an effective diplomatic outcome to produce a just and sustainable peace for the ukraine. reporter: did you coordinate that with the incoming team? mr. sullivan: i won't say we coordinated but we informedded them what we were going to do because we are trying to maintain transparency and share with them the actions we are taking in advantage so -- in advance so they're not surprised by any of them that. also goes for the ample i. diffusion rule. not coordinate bug we are transparent with them about the steps in that regard. we have been working on that issue for going on a year now. it is a complicated question because we're trying to strike the right balance between

ensuring that the frontier of a.i. stays in the united states of america and our close allies while also ensuring the rest of the world can benefit from a.i. and get the hardware that they need to power a.i. applications going forward. so that balance required a huge amount of work and back and forth and many principles, meetings, conversations with the president. it ultimately came together toward the end. we have been telegraphing for some time that this rule was coming. the key for us was making sure we had it in place. we also set up 120-day comment period so that we're not putting the next administration in a position where they immediately have to start moving out. they can take comments and they can make judgments at that point about what the best way forward. is we think this is in a bipartisan spirit the way to best preserve and protect america's lead when it comes to artificial intelligence.

reporter: two questions. why do you believe this ceasefire deal is near, can you offer additional specificity about what has changed? because i feel that we have heard you all express a level of optimism many times at various points over the last several mops. mr. sullivan: i have to go back and check the record about my level of optimism because in fairness to your question, there has been a little bit of a lucy and the football quality where we thought we got really close and then it just didn't happen. but i haven't stood at this podium and said anything optimistic about a hostage deal at quite some time. that's because we haven't been in a position that we are in today. why is that? the gaps have fundamentally narrow and key issues. the formulas over prisoner exchanges. the formulas over how israel's forces will be postured in their pullback in the gaza strip.

the details over how to conduct the humanitarian surge in the wake of the guns going silent. these things now on paper, the gaps between the two sides, are slowly getting removed one by one and issued are closing. i think there's a couple of reasons for why this is happening. the biggest one of which is that israel has achieved its substantial military objectives in gaza and hamas has suffered catastrophic losses, military losses over the course of the conflict. when you put those two factors together, we believe that the time is right to get a deal and to have it close. our hope is that it will happen here in the near term. now, i cannot predict to you that it will. i cannot promise you it will. and you know, if in five days it hasn't happened, i will be the person who is probably least shocked by that. but i think there's a good

chance we can close this and i think because of that good chance we have to use every ounce of our diplomatic effort to tie to get it across the finish line because that would be good for everyone and it's also profoundly in the national interest of this country. reporter: how do you view donald trump's re-election in the context of president biden's foreign policy legacy? and how is it not a rejection by votes of the biden administration's both world view and robust engagement with multilateral institutions which by your own admission has been a cornerstone of president biden's presidency. mr. sullivan: i will leave it to others to judge the reasons for why the election went the way it did. i'm not in a good position to be a political pundit up here. i do not believe that the evidence bears out that foreign policy or questions of multilateral. i were the central driving issue in the outcome of the election. the american people are complex beings.

human beings. we're all complex beings. so we can think one thing abinflation and another thing about alliances. and a vote doesn't mean that it's a rejection of everything president biden has done by any stretch of the administration -- any stretch of the imagination. there'll be time to sort all that out. president trump will make his own decisions about how he wants to pursue his foreign policy. the question for us is, are we putting him in the best possible position where the united states is actually standing with confidence and capacity in the world. and i think if you look at the health of our alliances. look at the fact that we are not bogged down in war. you look at the state of our competitors and adversaries. then you look at these fund. al, ubdz lying sources of strength. i mean, whether it's in manufacturing or it's in technology or the reversal of the slide in our defense industrial base, these are things we can give to the incoming team. what they do with that is fundamentally up to them and

then the american people will judge whether they like that or done like that. we are just going to do the best we can. i think when history judges the baton as we pass it off this hand as we pass it off, i think it will judge that we are leaving things to trump in terms of america's core strengths better than we found them. reporter: what is the greatest geopolitical threat facing the united states right now? mr. sullivan: i think one way of answering that question is to point to the potential for china's aggression not coming years, to point to russia's continuing channel. but i'm going to answer the question in a little bit of a different way. which is, i genuinely believe the most consequential thing happening in the world right now is the scale pace and breathtaking speed with which a.i. is going to transform the

global landscape. it's either going to work for us or it's going to work against us. and in order for it to work for us we have to stay ahead and we have to shape the rules of the road. biden administration put forward the first international set of standards on artificial intelligence, codified by the u.n. general assembly. there's more work to be done on that front. the biden administration made investments to ensure we have the lead in a.i. right now. but if it's china, not the united states, determining the future of a.i. on the planet, i think that is -- the staibs of that are profound. so i hope the new administration, because this shouldn't be a partisan issue at all, sees that challenge and opportunity and seizes it so that it's america making technology work for us rather than adversaries making technology work against us. reporter: when president biden spoke at the state department four years ago he said that american leadership must meet this new moment of advancing authoritarianism including the growing ambitions of china to

rival the united states and the determination of russia to damage and disrupt our democracy. four years later, president biden will be leaving office and handing the reins to a man he's repeatedly characterized as an authoritarian, as a threat to american democracy. how can you say that by president biden's metric his administration has met those goals if he's handing the reins off to someone who he's described in those terms? mr. sullivan: first of all, american democracy includes elections. and there was an election in 2024. president-elect trump won that election. unlike in past circumstances, the outgoing administration was not challenging the democrat cle le yit macy of that victory. president-elect trump won the election. so that's point one. point two, you mentioned china and rush. you know, i'm obviously biased,

but i just think an objective read on the situation from when we come in until today about the position of the united states and the long-term competition with china, if you look at 2021, you look at 2025, we are much better positioned than we were four years ago. and we are supporting our friends and allies in the same way in the indo pacific and europe as well as elsewhere. when you look at what we have rallied to push back against russia's desire to remove a major country from the map in europe, we have said we are going to stand up to russian aggression in a serious way now what comes in the period ahead with respect to america's democratic institutions, the choices of the incoming team, we'll have to see. i can't judge that in advance. all i can say again is what we are giving that team and what there is to be able to work with and that's what the president will reflect on today. reporter: one follow up. a.p. reported recently that the

incoming team under representative walz is asking career civil servants who they voted for in the last election. is that an appropriate question that civil servants should be asked? mr. sullivan: i have in the heard that directly from mike walz or anyone on the incoming team. i'm not going to answer what seems to be speculation in the media. what i will tell you is this, and i mean this from the bottom of my heart. the national security council staff is made up of career professionals, by and large there. as small number of political apintees who will leave when this administration leaves. but the overwhelming majority are career professionals from the defense department, intelligence community, department of homeland security, across the board. these are patriots. they are people dedicated to the national interests of this country. they have served without fear of favor for both republican and democratic administrations and

many have raised their hands to say, i'm ready to stay and keep serving. from my interspective, when we inherited the team from the trump administration, i said i want those patriots. i want those people working for us regardless of their political affiliation. the incoming administration will have to make its own decisions. reporter: going back to a.i. and a couple other questions. as you're saying that it's a huge national security issue, is there concern about how it does not -- a.i. is on the national security front is not accurately depicted or scanning people of color because we're understanding civil rights groups are very upset about that, how it's misidentifying. is that a concern with national security as well? mr. sullivan: yes, it is, of course. if you think about the series of concerns that are raised by the advent of artificial intelligence, they range across economic, military, and social

risks. one of those is bias. and there have been a lot of studies to show that bias is a genuine challenge when it comes to artificial intelligence. and the ways in which that could undermine social cohesion in the united states and globally has national security implications. and terrorism. has national security implications. and is something that we have to contend with. it is part of the president's executive order on artificial intelligence alongside a number of other risks. reporter: and two other questions. one on hate. national security front, where do you see hate going in the next couple of months, next couple of years, as we're seeing the change in administrations and a change in attitude. mr. sullivan: i think hate-feuld violent extremism of multiple stripes is snag when we came into office we saw as a real challenge and as we leave office

we built a lot of tools to tie to prevent and disrupt this kind of violence. and going forward it remains a -- an ongoing threat. it takes many different forms. but i think it's incumbent upon every leader to try to work on a bipartisan basis,en an american basis. to address the root causes of this hate, to try to speak to how we turn our discourse in intersections that reduce the oxygen that is given to it. and that's something that when i leave government, i will personally try to contribute to, to lowering the temperature and to increasing the december degree to which people feel that they have a place and do not need to turn to this kind of violence to express themselves. reporter: and lastly, subsaharan africa has a large pierce piece of national security connected

to it. during the first term of then-president donald trump, africa was not on the page. do you believe that africa needs to be on the forefront for when it comes to national security for the incoming administration? mr. sullivan: absolutely yes. and i will say that in my conversations with my successor, one of the things he's asked a lot of questions about are the investments in infrastructure, physical, digital, energy infrastructure, in africa. the high standard investments we tried to stimulate. and that have gotten bipartisan support from the congress. he's asked a lot of questions about how to carry that forward. so my hope is that in fact just given the sheer significance and stakes at play with respect to the african continent over the coming years, that that is a priority for the incoming administration. i'll take one more. the speaker pro tempore: they are reporting that a hostage deal is imminent and president

trump may get the american hostages on his plane. do you believe the threat by him of -- would push hamas and the israeli government to deliver this? and second what's your reaction to the election of liberal new 3r50eu78 minister, he's a judge on the i.c.g. that opened a case against israel for crimes against humanity and war crimes? mr. sullivan: on the second question, president biden had a good conversation with the new lebanese president. i believe there's a huge opportunity for lebanon to turn this ceasefire and the degradation of hezbollah into a new chapter for lebanon that is brighter and built not on terrorism but on the future. the new president has made his selection of a prime minister. it's up to the parliament in lebanon to take that forward. i'm not going to comment here today on the particular

selection other than to say that we believe the president can steward a new chapter for lebanon and he's making his selections of who will be a good partner for him in that regard. with respect to the question about president trump and his comments, you know, he's talked about all hell to pay. all hell breaking loose. so forth. one thing i would observe is that if you're hamas, all hell has been breaking loose on you for 14 months. the israelis have destroyed their military formations. taken out their top leadership. removed their military capabilities in significant dimensions. so israelis have not been holding pack when it comes to going after hamas. i'm not quite sure what it would mean to add further military pressure to hamas beyond what has already happened. but i do believe the consequence of all that degradation is that we are finally at the