Rufus Gifford

I was, and I was one of the eight people in the room when this infamous moment happened.

It was it's like not knowing someone who someone is in the photo line. You're introduced to them. So you're saying, Mr. President George, this is your host, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. And he was you. You heard the person say that. Yeah, yeah. He's an advanced guy. Yeah, it happens.

That's right. I mean, so George might have thought he didn't know who he was. But I mean, it just that moment didn't exist.

But at some point, this is about something so much bigger. This is about the men and women. I hope that J.D. Vance could say this, not just to the face of Maria Bartiromo, but go to Denmark and say that to the face of the parents of the young men and women who've lost their lives alongside U.S. troops. Say it to them, and then you will have just an ounce of courage, but until then,

It is just shameful. And look, Americans, we need to show a little outrage here. Our partners and allies expect it from us and they deserve better.

Oh, thank you, Rachel. It's important to hear. And very few people have had the perspective that I've had and have had the honor and privilege of serving the United States, of having been to Greenland for nine times, of understanding the political complexity of the Arctic and the relationship between Denmark and Greenland and how important it is.

the United States is to the people both of Denmark and Greenland. So, it is heartbreaking to me and I so appreciate you inviting me on here today to talk a little bit about it.

I so love this conversation because I think it's what matters. American diplomacy, the reason why American diplomacy has been so meaningful over the course of the last 80 years is because of the human relationships that we have built across nations.

The soft power that the United States has exhibited over the course of that time, we have built friendships and loyalty, the likes of which we've never seen before on the world stage.

And what breaks my heart in this, Rachel, is after that video that you posted, which I obviously somewhat spontaneously recorded after the Vance comments, the messages that I've received from Europeans, and not just Danes, because the video did go viral,

And the messages you receive back are so sad because these are countries that absolutely love the United States at our core, that because we have been there for them and they have been there for us. And now we're not just this is the thing. We're not just losing the governments. And that's what I want Americans to know. We're not just losing the prime ministers.

We're not just losing the defense ministers. There's lots of talk about that. The problem is we're losing the trust and respect of the people on the ground, the soldiers who sacrificed and sacrificed proudly alongside young American men and women fighting wars that we asked them to fight.

And when they are disrespected, when their countries are disrespected, those real men and women, they feel disrespected personally as well. And that's been my experience over the course of the last two months. And I speak out, Rachel. because I think our European partners, as I said in the video, deserve better.

But they also have to hear Americans speak out, meaning they have to hear Americans remind the world that we still respect They're sacrificing partnerships. And that's why I do it.

And that's why I'm so grateful to be able to have this conversation, because it is so much more than just the granular actions, which I think you led into this conversation so beautifully, because I agree with every word of it. But we don't talk enough about the human cost, which is happening day after day after day.

Gosh, you know, the answer to that question, there are so many intangible parts of this, right? One of the things that I have learned over the course of my ambassadorship was just how many students studied in the United States. I think their parents are going to think twice about that right now.

How many folks literally would fly to New York in the summer and drive to Los Angeles and experience something more about the United States than I've ever even experienced? They loved us. They still had a great fondness for American leadership dating back to the Marshall Plan and World War II. They carry that with them. And to see it unravel, just those cultural connections, those little things.

You mentioned the economic piece. I actually do think it's important. We spent billions, U.S. companies, billions and billions of dollars of defense contracts. I helped sell to Denmark the F-35 fighter jets. I can tell you the person who is the chief negotiator of that, one of the chief negotiators of that F-35 contract is looking at

right now about getting out of that F-35 contract simply because they are afraid that Donald Trump will hold those military resources hostage if he doesn't get what he wants. And again, that will harm everybody. That will harm an American taxpayer. But again, I believe that the fraying of the human relationship and human trust is something you just can't overstate right now.

It is a very, very important part of this. Americans just simply will be viewed with a degree of skepticism that we have not been viewed with in Europe for the last 80 years. And that's why we have to have this conversation. More Americans need to speak out with clarity and remind the rest of the world that

There's still a heck of a lot of us that believe these values, these extraordinary values that have kept the world peaceful and prosperous for the last 80 years. A lot of us still hold them very, very close to our hearts. And I am certainly one of those.

So grateful to you, Rachel. Thank you.

Hi, all. OK, so to say I'm a bit worked up this morning is an understatement, and that's because of this. Yesterday, the vice president of the United States goes on Fox News and says that Denmark is not a very good ally. Now, I know that a lot of people would know how I feel about this, but I want to tell you why.

And it is in part because, yes, I was the one for a number of years that would go to the prime minister or the foreign minister or the defense minister and ask on behalf of the United States government for them to send their young men and women to Iraq to fight ISIS, to help go remove chemical weapons from Syria, to go fight Ebola in Africa.

I did it every time and every single time they said yes, and they said yes without hesitation, and in part because it was the United States of America, a great ally, asking them to do it. And for them to hear today that now the vice president of the United States is saying that they are not a good ally when they have lost more people per capita, young men and women,

in Afghanistan than any country other than the United States of America. It is just shameful. I have been to these funerals. I've heard stories of young men who've had their legs blown off by IEDs in Afghanistan, of young men who have had to go through numerous surgeries and now live in constant pain because of something that happened to them on the battlefield. For them and their families,

To now hear the vice president talk like this is just heartbreaking. And honestly, Americans, we have to show outrage to our European partners. This is shameful and this is a moral shortcoming. And honestly, look, we understand that the reason he's saying it is because they are not bowing, bending the knee to Trump's authoritarian, imperialistic takeover of Greenland. We get that.