President Trump Greets and Welcomes Marc Fogel Back to The United States

Thank you very much. So beautiful. Look how nice. Be careful. It could be a little bit slippery. Yeah, yeah. That would be it. Somebody else Very special. Very special. Very fair. Very, very fair.

Is it a Russian prisoner?

We're going to announce it tomorrow. Very.

Mr. President, why did you not use the government plane to go pick up.

Save the government money. How much? A lot. We save the government a lot of money.

She's a bit in shock, but I think she's probably. If I win, we're going to do it. My thanks is for you, your administration and these amazing people that have brought me home. And I just will spend the rest of my life and death to you and the. I'm so excited. So good.

Thank you very welcome. Speaker.

Pleasure to meet you.

Christmas cards.

And you know what? I got about 10 cards.

One of them. Oh, wow, that's very nice.

My lawyer snuck.

I know. I asked them how they got in there.

Yes, hello.

Congressman Mark Fogel.

Pleasure to meet you, sir.

M. This is your coat, right? Yeah.

And it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Squirrel Hill.

Hey.

I had a Steeler hat on when I got off the phone. I don't know where it is, but, you know, it's great to meet another Pittsburgh.

Your mom came to our house.

She told me that I just talked to Vicki and I know she was there. And I mean, I'm a proud Pittsburgher.

Mark, Guy rushing caller.

Another good to see you. You've been an absolute star for me and my family and again.

And.

Like I said, for me to articulate all this in this particular time after what I've been through, and it's not the three and a half years, but the last six days has been.

You weren't sure.

I know they came and pulled me out and I had a mask on. I couldn't see where I was going. And they were moving me. There was a point. I think it was today. I can't remember what day it is, but they brought me my clothes.

Let's get you out of the cold.

I'm not one bit of cold. I came from Russia.

Welcome back, brother.

And you know What? Of the 10 letters, I got one from you as well. And I had that in a scrapbook I was keeping. And they took that scrapbook from me today and I want it back. I want those journals back in that scrapbook. Your picture was in it. And as they were, you know, giving me the shakedown, they're looking through it and I have the picture of you and my mom. Oh, that's. And you should have seen these guys. Well, their, their eyes lit up like in, like, who's this? I said, that's my.

Care2.

Thank the bottom of my heart for every ounce of my energies. I thank you and I will for the rest of my life grateful to.

Have you on.

Mr. Walter. No, I felt so bad. Now stop it. Stay warm.

It's so cold in Russia.

Yeah, yeah, a little cold.

Everybody knows Mark, he's become a very famous guy and he's a very happy guy tonight. It's just a real honor, an honor to have you at the White House.

I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now. And I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. The senators and representatives that pass legislation in my honor to get me home are the heroes. I am in awe of what they all did. My family has been a force. I think my 95 year old mother is probably the most dynamic 95 year old on earth right now. And I am so indebted to so many people. I think I remember a Churchill quote that he said when the RAF was fighting the liftoff. And he said that never have so many owed so much to so few. And I put myself fortunately and unfortunately into that category. And I said, never has one owed so much to so many. That this superorganism of people that came to my support and the love that I was given sustained me for three and a half years in a prison that had me in hospitals for more than 100 days. I was given more than 400 injections in that time. And knowing I had the support of my fellow pencil Pennsylvanians, my family, my friends, it was so overwhelming that it brought me to my knees and it brought me to tears. But it was, it was my energy, it was my being that kept me going that whole time. And I will forever be indebted. President Trump to Steve over there. What a dynamic man this guy is. When I met him, the energy, the can do attitude just exudes from his body. And when he smiled at me and introduced me and I got the feel for what has happened, you know, it's not just me, it's everybody and Secretary Rubio, who met my son a while back, I'm a middle class school teacher who's now in a dream world.

We're going to show you the Lincoln Bedroom. It's a very special, special place. Appropriate for tonight. Very appropriate and.

Thank you all. And I love our country and I'm So happy to be back here.

And.

I wish I could articulate it better.

You've done beautifully. And he's got a great mother. And when I saw the mother at a rally, she said, if you win, will you get my son out? And I promise she's 95 years old. And I said, we'll get him out. And we got him out pretty quickly.

She told me that. Exactly.

I remember she made quite an impression.

And you also did. And I'm in awe of what you've done and your team.

It's great to have you back. Gonna have a great life.

Mr. Vincent, could you speak directly to President Putin about.

Well, I don't want to say that. I just want to say that I appreciate very much what they did in letting Mark go home, and I appreciate Steve Woodcock, the job he did. And Marco behind the scenes was unbelievable, and so many of these people were unbelievable. They represent him. They're from his area, and we just wanted to get him back home. I had to get him back home because I would have big trouble with his mother. And we're going to take him for a little tour of the Lincoln Bedroom, which nobody gets to see. And it's very special. You want to see it?

I would love to. And I also should make mention that President Putin was very generous and statesmanlike in granting me a pardon. I mean, what were the terms of this deal, Mr. President?

Very fair. Very, very fair. Very reasonable. Not like deals you've seen over the years. They were very fair, and I think that's going to lead. And we're. Somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of. But we wanted to get this done. Very important. And Steve wanted to actually fly over and get Mark and get him home properly, because it could be a pretty tough trip.

So is this the beginning of a deal, sir? Is this. Is this the start?

I think there's goodwill in terms of the war. You know, a million and a half soldiers, young people have been killed.

I've met many of them.

Yeah. And it's. It's a terrible thing going on, so we want to get that done. I think this could be the very important element. You could be a big part of it, actually, because it could be a big, important part of getting the war over with Ukraine. And we appreciate President Putin's what he did. He was able to pull it off for you, right? He was able to pull it off, we think. And you're here, I'll be here. So it was great. And we'll tell you a little bit more about it tomorrow. But I think we've made great progress on the war also getting the war. I want to get the war ended. That war should not have been. It would have never happened if I was president. It would not have happened. And it did happen. And now you have all blown up cities and dead people, so many dead people. Should have never, ever happened. And you could be a big catalyst for just this evening. It's a very important evening for ending that war. And I think they all want to see it ended.

Does that mean you can't change your. How does it change your perspective on Putin and your attitude?

Well, I don't want to get into that. I only can say this. We got a man home whose mother and family wanted him desperately, whose state wanted him. He's become a big symbol, and it's an honor to have played a small role in that. And I just. I want to tell you, these people, they all played a role, and we got him home, and he's healthy. He looks good, actually, to me. You look damn good, I'll tell you that.

I think when expectations are low, maybe that helps a little bit.

Can you tell us about the conditions.

In the prison that you were in, sir? You know, I think I need a little bit of time to sort of digest all of that. There were times when it was extremely trying. There were times when I could manage it, but I think I need some more time to, you know, process.

It wasn't easy, right? It wasn't easy.

Every second, every minute, every day had a challenge.

But you're in good shape. And we compare that to what we saw two days ago. Come home. They were very, very ill. Those people are very ill. They were treated really badly.

Mr. President, your predecessor left you almost $4 billion in unused aid for Ukraine to Ukraine. Are you going to use those money?

Are you going to send weapons to Ukraine? Should have had this gentleman out a long time ago. You know, we did it in two and a half weeks. He had four years to do it. He should have had Mark out a lot earlier. It's a shame. It's a shame.

It was very.

Should have never had the war to start off with. Should have never had that war. Would have never happened if I was. But he should have had him back three and a half years ago. So it was. It was too bad. But he didn't do it. But we did it. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. Come on.

Mr. President, are reciprocal tariffs still coming tomorrow, or are you waiting until you meet?

We'll see what happens. Have you spoken with President G?