MODERATOR: Distinguished guests, please welcome the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accompanied by Acting Special Presidential Envoy Dustin Stewart and Senior Advisor Adam Boehler. (Applause.)
MR STEWART: It's great to see everybody up here again in a different room, but that doesn't look like we lost too many people. Again, I just want to thank everybody for joining us today again, former hostages and detainees, families, advocates, partners from the Hill, partners from everywhere. We greatly appreciate this. For the second part of our event today, we're going to do the flag-raising piece. And at this time, I'd like to introduce Mr. Adam Boehler. (Applause.)
MR BOEHLER: Great to see everybody here. I think many of you know that when the President asked me if there was any job that I thought that I wanted to focus on, I told him that this was the only one I would look at. Because I think there's nothing more important for this country than for everyone to know that if they're abroad and they're taken that the country has their back. And this president, President Trump, has made it a critical priority of his and his administration to do that. And he's built a cabinet that's focused on that, with one of them here, Kash Patel, who has his own specific experience in this area.
You saw what the President said yesterday to Hamas, where he made it abundantly clear that taking U.S. citizens - or any citizens - wrongfully is not appropriate and it will be answered in the toughest way possible. I've worked directly with the President, directly with Secretary Rubio, Mike Waltz, and others, Kash, to make sure that our policies are 100 percent focused on returning people home. And this President has no qualms about using action when it's necessary, and we will all back him up in that.
So it's starting a new era - I do believe it is new - where we're saying that it is not acceptable in any case to hold American citizens abroad wrongfully. (Applause.) So I think you'll see some announcements in coming days. And the President will continue to push until all of our Americans, dead or alive, are returned.
So let me give you Kash Patel, who I'm excited for his remarks. (Applause.)
