canadian you mentioned being held in north korea? and did the obama administration exercise too much strategic patience? well, i think the obama administration i worked with them with susan rice. they pushed on otto. the problem was the north koreans saw trump winning, won the election. they didn t want to deal with the obama administration. the obama administration set up a hostage office within the state department to talk to the parents of hostages. i think that s the right thing. the main message why i said it s broken is we have to treat the hostage cases with more urgency at higher levels. i will commend the president for getting the hostage out of egypt. i think the state department did the right thing in trying to get otto oh out right away once the knew the condition. that was done president to president.
what happened when your delegation went to pyongyang in september? well, my delegation went and we offered the north koreans humanitarian assistance. we offered to pay through private funds if for remains of some of our soldiers in exchange for otto. the north koreans listened but didn t tell us there was something wrong with him. they didn t tell my chief of staff mickey bergman that he was in a coma. they said we ll let you know and they never did. they were very silent. it was obvious they did the same to the state department. they didn t tell the state department about his condition. i think this is unspeakable what they have done. there is a washington post op-ed in which you write the lesson is america s hostage negotiation strategy is broken. what s the solution and how urgent do you think it is for the three americans and that
they tell you? what was it like for them? for my family, oh, they were very happy to see me. no, but i mean, the time of waiting. great reunion. oh, the waiting the six months that i was in detention, it was pretty rough. kids didn t have a dad and my wife didn t have a husband and i was worried about my job situation during that whole time, and just a lot of black questions on the horizon for me. and for them too. jeffery, on otto s case, you know, when you heard the news that he had been released, hatted come hohad come home and days later died, what thoughts went through your mind. well the first thoughts was for the family and the anguish that they must be experiencing. they definitely need our prayers during this hard time of adjustment for them. and my heart went out to otto, what he must have gone through during the 17 months he was over there. i think at times, there but for the grace of god go i. that could have been me.
this is a rogue pariah regime. they are terrorists. they are brutal.e there is no sense to anything here. they have crossed a line with my son, otto. so, it would be very difficult to look for a lesson here amongst this insanity. tucker: that was the interview last week with fred warmbier. we have a sad and final update on his son, otto. he is of course the american college student in prison for a year in north korea. o otto died this afternoon in a hospital in cincinnati six daysn after his release. he was murdered by the north korean regime. otto s parents, fred and cindyhi warmbier, released a statement.e i want to read part of it to you. it is our sad duty to report that our son otto warmbier has completed his journey home.. it would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that
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