Remarks by President Trump in Meeting with Pastor Andrew Brunson | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Oval Office  •  October 13, 2018  •  2:41 P.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, everybody. This has been a long journey. But for Andrew, it's been a very interesting day. Because as you probably heard, I said a little bit earlier, from a Turkish prison to the White House in 24 hours. That's not bad. (Applause.) Actually -

    And I want to start by saying that Norine was unbelievable. She was calling and calling. She definitely loves you - let me put it that way. (Laughter.) But she was calling and she wanted you out.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Yes.

    THE PRESIDENT: And she was not playing games. Right? And we're very proud of you, Norine. Thank you very much.

    And you are very, very special to all of us. And, you know, we have some of our great leaders right here. You know James. You know Cindy. You know Richard. You know Thom. You know Patrick. You know Mark. And all of these people, and right back here. A whole group of people. They fought so hard for you. They wanted you out.

    And again, we've been negotiating long and hard. We do not pay ransom in this country, at least any longer. We won't pay ransom. Otherwise you have big problems, and lots of things will happen. Lots of bad things will happen.

    But I still - I want to thank President Erdogan. We've been dealing. And we actually - until this, we had a very good relationship. I was actually very surprised that we didn't work this out a couple of months ago. But it started in a different administration, and they were not going to work out anything. And we took it over, we inherited it. And we have, I think at this moment, gotten 19 different people out of various countries that were being held.

    Chairman Kim was really great to us. I think that started the relationship that we have now in North Korea, with three hostages, as you know. Egypt - we had Aya. Aya was, they said, a spy. She was sentenced to 25 years. They told President Obama, "We will not let her out under any circumstances." And they told me, "She'll be in the Oval Office in 24 hours." We all know that. You guys worked on that one too. And many others. Many others.

    So I just want to congratulate you, because you have galvanized this country. I mean, you just take a look this - there's so much interest. And it's your faith, it's your strength, what you've gone through. I know what you've gone through. And I also know that, a period of time ago, we were able to get you from prison to the house.

    And again, I do have to say, it's not an easy situation for Turkey either. They had a lot of difficult situations going on, and I do want to thank President Erdogan for making this possible. You understand what I mean by that.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Yes.

    THE PRESIDENT: It wasn't easy. And wasn't easy for him.

    Most importantly, I want to congratulate you and your family. I'd love to - say a few words. You may want to thank all of these great leaders, because they were really calling me a lot. (Laughter.) They called me too much. I said, "Okay, I know, we're working on it." Right? But they are terrific fans of yours. And right now, the whole world is a fan of yours. The whole world is your fan and your family's fan.

    So maybe you can say a few words. Introduce your family. And it's a great honor to have you back home.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Thank you, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: This is my daughter Jacqueline, my son Blaise. Jacqueline's husband, Kevin. And my oldest son, Jordan. And this is Neil, who's Norine's brother. Of course, Norine is my wife.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's for sure. (Laughter.)

    PASTOR BRUNSON: And we especially want to thank the administration. You really fought for us, unusually so. From the time you took office, I know that you've been engaged, and Secretary of State Pompeo also was very engaged and fought for us. And Vice President Pence, we're very grateful. Mr. Bolton.

    There are a number of people in the Senate. And I can't mention everyone, but I know that Senator Tillis visited me in prison, and so did Senator Shaheen and Senator Graham. And Senator Lankford has been involved from the very beginning.

    So, we're so grateful to so many people in the Congress who stood with us and who prayed for us, and who fought for us.

    So we want to thank you all very much.

    THE PRESIDENT: And I do have to say we did leave out many people in the Senate, many people in the House. You know that, Patrick. Many people have been left out. And we just can't go through all of the names, but it was everybody that wanted this to happen. It was really everybody. The complete Senate. I think we can probably say, Richard, this was bipartisan. Do you agree?

    SENATOR BURR: Yes, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: This wasn't just Republican, right? But honestly, I think if there was ever a bipartisan event, this was it.

    And I do have to thank Vice President Pence. He's doing a terrific job. He felt very, very strongly about this. And Secretary of State Pompeo, I would say we spoke about this at least once a day.

    SECRETARY POMPEO: Yes, sir.

    THE PRESIDENT: We thought we had it done two months ago. Sometimes it doesn't always work out, but that's - I can only tell you that's better than anybody else could have done. And we are so honored to have you.

    And anything final you'd like to say? And then you're going to go and relax and go home, and celebrate, and have a great life, right? I won't ask you whether or not you're going back to Turkey. (Laughter.) I won't ask that question.



    PASTOR BRUNSON: We do love Turkey. We were there for 25 years, and we love the Turkish people.

    THE PRESIDENT: Great. That's very nice.

    MRS. BRUNSON: We pray for their (inaudible).

    THE PRESIDENT: That's very nice.

    MRS. BRUNSON: That's sincere. It's very sincere.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's very nice. And I know you do love the Turkish people. They're great people. I know that. They're great people.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: We would like to pray for you. We pray for you often as a family. My wife and I pray for you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Well, I need it probably more than anybody in this room. (Laughter.) So I would - that would be very nice. Thank you.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Can we pray for you now?

    THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Thank you very much.

    (Pastor Brunson and Mrs. Brunson give a prayer.)

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Could I ask you one question? Who did you vote for? (Laughter.)

    MRS. BRUNSON: You.

    THE PRESIDENT: I knew the answer. I knew the answer.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: I would like to say I sent in an absentee ballot from prison. (Laughter and applause.)

    THE PRESIDENT: It's a little unfair. I knew the answer. I would never do that to myself. That could be too tough.

    Listen, congratulations.

    MRS. BRUNSON: Thank you so much.



    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Great parents. And fantastic children. They were so with you.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: And it is an honor. Well done.

    PASTOR BRUNSON: Thank you very much.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We appreciate. Thank you.

    And again, to President Erdogan, thank you very much. To the people of Turkey, thank you very much. I think this will be a big step in our relationship. We have had a very harsh relationship over the past number of months because of what was happening. And I'm not going to blame fault. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just saying this is a tremendous step toward having the kind of relationship with Turkey - which can be a great relationship - that I know we're going to have.

    So thank you very much. And, President, thank you very much.

    Does anybody have any questions? Would you like to have -

    Q Pastor Brunson, can you tell us a little bit about what your next plans are? What do you plan on doing now that you're back safely?

    PASTOR BRUNSON: We want to spend time with our children especially, and then take some time to pray and see what God wants for the next part of our lives.

    Q Would you be willing to discuss what your treatment was like while you were over there? What was your experience in general while you were detained?

    PASTOR BRUNSON: I think we'll do that in the future. We will probably be doing some interviews. Right now, we just want to especially - this is a time to thank the administration and people in government who supported us. And that's especially what we want to emphasize, is our gratefulness, to say we love this country.

    Last night, we arrived in Germany on a plane that President Trump sent to take us from Turkey. And the Ambassador to Germany met us there at 1:30 in the morning. I couldn't believe it. And he had an American flag to give us that had flown over there and was in Berlin. And I took it and I very naturally just - I kissed it. I love this country, and we pray for this country.

    Phil?

    Q Mr. President, I have a question for you, sir. What do you owe the timing of Pastor Brunson's release? And do you think the disappearance and possible murder of Jamal Khashoggi has anything to do with the timing of this?

    THE PRESIDENT: The timing is a strict coincidence; it really is. It's - I've heard a couple of people say, wow, that's pretty tricky; could there be anything to it. No. Actually, Phil, no. It's a total coincidence. It's interesting. A lot of things happening in a certain part of the world. You know that. You know what else is going on. But there are probably things beyond that. But, no, it's a strict coincidence, Phil.

    Q And I know we're here to celebrate Pastor Brunson. But if I could just follow up on something you said on "60 Minutes."

    THE PRESIDENT: I have a feeling know what it's going to be.

    Q Well, you suggested, sir, that there could be serious repercussions -

    THE PRESIDENT: That's right.