New York City, New York
KAITLAN COLLINS: Joining us now Samantha Power, the Administrator for the United States Agency for International Aid [U.S. Agency for International Development] and the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Later today, she's going to be delivering a keynote address at the United Nations commemorating World Press Freedom Day, and outlining what her agency plans to do to protect American journalists who are reporting abroad. Thank you for being here.
You know, obviously, Evan Gershkovich is the first name that everyone thinks of – that's what Benjamin Hall was asking Secretary of State Blinken about. You're launching a new program today that will give resources to journalists around the world who are dealing and interacting with these authoritarian governments. How will that work? What could it have done to potentially help someone like an Evan Gershkovich, potentially?
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Well, right now around the world, there are more than 500 journalists who are in detention of some kind. And just in the last year, 67 journalists have been killed while doing their work. This is a growing phenomenon, it’s a growing problem as countries become more repressive, as corrupt actors want to hide what they're doing, they lash out at journalists. And one of the things we realized is that lately, the tactic is to actually bankrupt journalists as well as to detain them. And so what we're launching today is called Reporters Shield, it's an insurance fund that will allow journalists who may not have the means to compete with a repressive government or an oligarch to actually have the insurance and the legal protection that they need in order to fight back and stay in business – stay in the business of holding accountable those actors who are trying to steal and repress their people.
COLLINS: What about in a place like Mexico, where so many reporters have been murdered? The New Yorker just did a fantastic investigative piece on how a member of the media there was killed for exposing what cartels are doing and the level of influence they have over the government.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, in our engagement with every government, we are, of course, encouraging them to have the checks and balances of the legal systems in place. But USAID, the agency I'm privileged to run, provides about $160 million in support for independent media and for journalists around the world, in everything from legal protection to viability given that the again, these journalists that do the work can be driven out of business as well, just by the digital age, and by changing economics. So we recognize the importance as a governance means of having free media doing their work all around the world. And we try to support it as the United States.
COLLINS: Turning to Ukraine, which is one of those places where reporters are doing incredible work telling the story of what's been happening, ever since Russia invaded over a year ago. This new assessment from the Administration saying the casualty figures from Russia's winter offensive is in the 100,000. Obviously, that's casualties, it's not just all killed. They said that number is closer to 20,000. They say that's a clear effort, that what Russia is doing has backfired. Do you – is that how you see it too?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I mean, those are devastating numbers. I mean, 20,000 soldiers killed just since December. I mean, this is a battle that Putin thought he could win in a week or a couple of weeks, just decapitate the government, put in place some allies right there in Kyiv and create greater Russia. That's not happened and the cost for Russia every day of this grinding war just goes up and up and up. But we now are at a crossroads because the Ukrainians, of course, want to take back the territory that has been unjustly taken from them.
We, at USAID, helped Ukraine – as did so many partners around the world – get through the winter, because Putin tried to weaponize winter and actually sort of freeze them into surrender. It didn't work. The Ukrainians stood up. We supported the rebuilding of pipes, the provision of generators, heaters, boilers. We are now through the winter. And the summer is a critical time, of course, for the people of Ukraine.
COLLINS: It is a critical time, but leaked documents recently revealed the Biden Administration is kind of skeptical of whether or not Ukraine actually will be able to retake that territory.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I think you've seen with Ukrainians are capable of throughout this war, I mean, look, just on a map at the geographic size of Russia and Ukraine, look at all the forecasts that the Russian government and many around the world made about Ukraine's prospects for taking any territory back or even holding the territory that they've managed to preserve. All those people who bet against Ukraine had been proven wrong. And the same is likely to happen now. What we do as the United States is just put them in the strongest possible position to succeed, both in terms of growing their democracy, their anti-corruption institutions, their media, their civil society – they're still doing all of that work at the same time they're fighting on the battlefield.
COLLINS: While fighting this war.
And your agency has sent some $12 billion, right, to Ukraine to that figure, to help with that. I want to ask you something that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he's in Israel right now. But he's been asked about what's happening in Ukraine a lot. He had this comment. This is an interaction I should note, during – with a Russian reporter at a press conference in Israel.
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It's probably the strongest comments we've heard from him on supporting Ukraine where, you know, we've seen Republicans waffling on what that support is going to look like, how full fledged it would be. What did you make of hearing that?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, the united front that the United States has shown throughout this conflict has been absolutely critical. I mean, being able to provide more than $16 billion in direct budget support to keep the lights on for the government, as well as the security assistance that gets all the headlines. That is a critical factor in supporting Ukraine and standing up against aggression. And this is an incredibly important set of comments, as has been the bipartisanship on the United States response to this horrific act of aggression, war of aggression from the beginning. So we're encouraged, we look forward to continuing to engage Capitol Hill on further support down the line. But right now, again, we're taking advantage of the big supplemental that was passed in December, to make sure that Ukrainians can defend themselves, take back their territory, on the one hand, that's out of my lane, but also that those who have been displaced, have the humanitarian support. And again, the support for democracy that continues to get stronger even as the bombs fall.
COLLINS: I can't let you go without asking about Sudan. And what you're doing right now, what is your struggle with trying to make sure that people there who rely so much on international aid are able to get that given what's happening with the fighting?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much for asking about – I mean, 16 million people in Sudan were dependent on humanitarian assistance before this horrific civil war conflict between two military camps unfolded. So we have set up a DART, which is a disaster assistance response team. Right now it's operating outside of the country, but we are looking to flood the zone with humanitarian assistance as soon as conditions can allow, and we can do that in different parts of the country already.
COLLINS: When do you think that'll be?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, again, already, health items and food in certain parts of the country is flowing. But, about more than a dozen of our partners have had to shut down their operations. We're hoping that they can start them up. This is where the diplomacy and the humanitarian have to go together because Secretary Blinken's pressure on both military factions to come to a ceasefire gave rise to a little bit of relief in the violence over the weekend, which enabled additional evacuations. But we need a permanent ceasefire so that humanitarian aid can reach people – people in need. Given that so many hospitals have been bombed and people have run out of fuel and food already.
COLLINS: Yeah, the situation has gotten so dire. Administrator, thank you for your time this morning and for joining us here.
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you.