Nick Schifrin:
Yes, the readout went out of its way to say that President Trump raised the issue of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russian forces since the beginning of this war.
The statement reads — quote — “President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home.”
But here’s the thing. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce today confirmed for the first time that the State Department cut off the funding for an outside program that was tracking those children. Bruce did confirm that the data for that program still exists, despite some Democratic lawmakers’ concern that the data had been deleted.
But the bottom line is, the organizers of that program always believed that they were conducting a search-and-rescue mission for all of those children who were trapped inside Russia. And unless Secretary of State Rubio brings back that funding and brings it back soon, frankly, that effort that they have been doing for the last few years, that effort will die.