An inside look at negotiations to free the Oct. 7 hostages

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Welcome back to the Takeout. One of

[0:02] President Biden's former senior national

[0:05] security advisers is sharing a

[0:07] behindthe-scenes look at negotiations,

[0:10] fraud negotiations to free hostages

[0:12] taken by Hamas October 7th, 2023. The

[0:15] book aptly titled Brink: Inside the Race

[0:18] to Free the October 7th hostages. Here's

[0:21] part of my conversation with its author,

[0:23] Brett McGherk. Brett, I want to start at

[0:25] the end of the book and I want to get

[0:27] your appraisal for my audience's

[0:28] benefit. what you learned about in your

[0:31] dealings with Steve Whit, who is not

[0:34] well known to most Americans, but is

[0:36] crucial to how the president, President

[0:38] Trump, deals with a lot of foreign

[0:40] policy issues and negotiations.

[0:41] >> Yeah.

[0:42] >> What are your impressions of him?

[0:44] >> Yeah, Major Steve, he's such a he's such

[0:46] a character and I tried to I tried to

[0:48] bring all the characters in this uh

[0:50] story to life. Um,

[0:54] if I could just back up a little bit

[0:55] real quick. I mean, Steve came into it

[0:57] because in October of 2024, the kind of

[1:00] whole landscape changed. So, the leader

[1:01] of Hamas is killed, the leader of

[1:03] Hezbollah's killed, Hisba cuts a deal,

[1:05] we stopped another missile attack. It's

[1:07] finally lined up now to go back to the

[1:08] deal

[1:10] and you could kind of sense that moment.

[1:13] And then Trump wins the election.

[1:16] >> And I've been through past presidential

[1:18] transitions. I knew in a transition, the

[1:20] outgoing president, the power starts to

[1:22] wayne. Everybody wants to know what the

[1:23] new president's going to say. So,

[1:26] uh, I called Jared Kushner a couple days

[1:28] after the election. I said, you know, I

[1:30] didn't know Jared that well, but I'd

[1:32] known him from his dealings in the

[1:33] Middle East with the Middle East file.

[1:36] And I said, you know, Jared, here's the

[1:38] situation. I think if we have a chance

[1:41] by the time new president comes in to

[1:44] have a ceasefire in Gaza, hostages

[1:46] coming out. It's kind of lined up. But

[1:48] only if we're working together, you

[1:50] know, can we do that?

[1:51] >> There has to be cohesion. It just

[1:53] >> Israelis have to know that. Hamas has to

[1:55] know that.

[1:56] >> Hamas,

[1:56] >> everyone needs to know that,

[1:58] >> right? Um,

[2:00] so Jared agreed. He said somebody would

[2:03] be coming in to take the Middle East

[2:05] file. He didn't he didn't name Wickoff

[2:06] yet. And then when when Trump and Biden

[2:10] met in the Oval Office couple days after

[2:12] this, they met oneonone. And on this

[2:14] issue, what the president told me,

[2:16] Biden, uh, they agreed to work together.

[2:18] And shortly after that, I met Steve

[2:20] Wickoff. It's all in the BR. It's in

[2:22] Brink in the book. Kind of laid this

[2:24] out. Uh it's an incredible moment. I'm

[2:27] up in the Capitol in a secure room with

[2:29] Steve Wickoff, my incoming successor,

[2:32] and Jake Sullivan, the National Security

[2:33] Adviser, and his incoming successor,

[2:35] Mike Waltz. Uh and we're kind of laying

[2:38] out where things stand.

[2:41] JD Vance makes an appearance in that

[2:43] that meeting.

[2:45] >> He asked what we're talking about and we

[2:47] said the Middle East. He said, "Uh,

[2:48] that's my cue to leave.

[2:51] But we laid it out and Steve, that's the

[2:52] first time I met Steve

[2:55] and I can't use all the language here,

[2:56] use some colorful language, but he said,

[2:57] "Look, I don't care about politics.

[2:59] Let's let's work together, get this

[3:00] done, save lives."

[3:02] >> And then we started talking every single

[3:04] day

[3:06] and uh he came out in January.

[3:11] You know, there's a detailed agreement

[3:12] negotiated over months. We had kind of

[3:13] two issues left to bridge. One was the

[3:16] the ratio of the prisoners to be

[3:18] released for each certain category of

[3:20] hostage. Hamas put this like outrageous

[3:21] new demand on the table and another was

[3:24] a map of where Israeli forces would be

[3:25] during the ceasefire and we're kind of

[3:28] is it going to be a thousand uh meter

[3:30] perimeter 500. So we had to bridge that.

[3:33] Um

[3:35] and uh if you read this book you get

[3:37] that you get a sense of you know he just

[3:39] wants to get the deal and was driving

[3:41] everybody towards it. And at one point,

[3:44] I mean, it's a remarkable historical

[3:46] moment looking back. I mean, Steve goes

[3:48] to Israel to see Netanyahu.

[3:50] I'm in Doha because we have the Israelis

[3:53] on one floor, Hamas on another. That's

[3:55] kind of how we're working out all these

[3:56] details.

[3:57] >> And I call into that same meeting uh

[3:59] with the Isra from the Israeli compound

[4:03] >> and he's sitting next to Netanyahu,

[4:05] >> Steve Woodoff.

[4:07] >> And we kind of look here's here's what

[4:08] we need to get this deal done. And um

[4:12] and I say in the book, you know, without

[4:14] that cooperation, without Steve's again

[4:17] being above politics,

[4:19] we would not have gotten that that deal.

[4:21] >> Trump wants this. This is what you got

[4:23] to agree to. BB, I know it's not

[4:25] perfect, but this is the moment. And

[4:26] we're not going to lose this moment over

[4:29] these comparatively smaller issues. And

[4:34] if you want Trump to

[4:36] >> bring down the hammer, I can get him on

[4:37] the phone.

[4:38] >> Get him on the phone.

[4:38] >> More or less. I'm recreating that.

[4:41] >> Yeah. And um

[4:42] >> and that seems vital to this entire

[4:44] thing coming together.

[4:45] >> So we had worked out issue after issue

[4:47] after issue

[4:49] and

[4:51] we're down to these final moments and

[4:53] yeah that was a key that was a key

[4:54] moment and um

[4:58] but even after that we read the book

[5:00] it's just a number of things happened

[5:03] even between then and just a few days

[5:04] before we finally closed it. Um

[5:09] but you know Steve came at this without

[5:10] any uh he knew a lot of the leaders in

[5:13] the Middle East from his you know

[5:14] business dealings. Um but he had not

[5:17] handled something like this.

[5:20] >> Um

[5:22] and at one point I mean he he made the

[5:24] the analogy of selling a building. You

[5:26] know I got to look the guy in the eye

[5:28] and just kind of what what does it take

[5:30] to get the parties together? I uh

[5:36] you know watching him now deal with

[5:37] Ukraine and Iran and I I've had the Iran

[5:40] file as you know for years. It's one of

[5:41] the most and there's a chapter in Brink

[5:43] where I'm with the Iranians. You get a

[5:45] feel for what it's like to negotiate

[5:46] with those guys. Uh these are really

[5:48] complicated complicated issues. Um but

[5:51] no, I I am grateful for Steve's

[5:53] partnership in that in that critical

[5:55] juncture and uh couldn't have done it

[5:56] without him.

[5:58] >> Here is our quick and ever so friendly

[5:59] reminder. The Takeout is available as a

[6:01] podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and

[6:04] everywhere else. You can find each show

[6:06] there and our long- form interviews

[6:08] including my full conversation with

[6:10] Brett Mcgurt.