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Ambassador Warren Stevens, thank you for joining GB News today on a solemn day for so many Americans and Britons as we recall those terror attacks on the 11th of September 2001
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What did 9-11 mean to you? Well, I think everyone who was alive then remembers where they were on 9-11
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And certainly being in my former life in the financial services industry
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just knew the sheer numbers of people that worked in the towers
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and what the loss of life was even going to be. We just knew it was going to be horrific
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It was disbelief, really. I mean, I couldn't fathom. I couldn't fathom when I saw that the first plane had hit World Trade Center
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I just couldn't fathom how the pilot did it, never dreaming. It was intentional
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And you were there the day before in New York? We were there on September 10th and came home that night and the weather was awful
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Sat on the runway three hours. And when our friend and neighbor called us about a plane that hit the World Trade Center
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I assumed it had to do with the bad weather. And when we turned on the television, it was a bluebird day and you just couldn't believe it
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And are there any lessons we can draw from those attacks today? Well, the lessons of 9-11, goodness
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I think from our standpoint we have to be ever vigilant There are clearly people in the world who don like America don like the West don like our ideals and they want to do us serious harm
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And so we just have to be on guard all the time about that
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And I think, you know, that's something I've learned. not something I've learned but I've learned since I've been here is how closely our intelligence
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agencies work together it's really really impressive and essential and so you know I
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think that's that goes a long way towards keeping not only the UK and US but our allies safe too
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We're speaking in Grosvenor Square, central London at the memorial to the 67 Britons who died in those attacks
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I don't want to be drawn into politics, but it's your first interview as the ambassador to the UK
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What do you want to do with this role? It really is a special relationship between our two countries
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And I'm going to do everything I can to strengthen that relationship
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I talk frequently with members of the government. I want to help the UK become the best ally it can possibly be and strengthen and grow its economy
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And that's really what I'm focused on. Britons are shocked here by the senseless killing of the political influencer Charlie Kirk
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What should the response be? Should the political rhetoric be dialed down both in the US and in the U I think the political rhetoric ought to be dialed down everywhere
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I knew Charlie. And if we're not going to be allowed to debate ideas on a college campus openly and freely
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then where are we going to be able to do that? And so, Harriet and I feel for his family, his now widow, and their two children, and his whole family
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It's just a senseless killing. And it will not stifle free speech
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Someone else will pick up that mantle. That's just essential. It's an essential right in both of our countries
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Are there any lessons we can learn in the UK about the importance of freedom of speech, that it should be protected
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there's been people arrested, of course, in the UK for messages left on social media
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We're concerned about that. But, you know, we've experienced censorship in the US as well
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And I think the prime minister seems to be understanding maybe some of these things are going a little too far
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Looking forward to next week's state visit by President Trump to the UK. The second such visit
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accorded to him personally. What are you expecting from the state visit
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Well, the president has a very close relationship with the royal family, and he is honored to have
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this second state visit And I suspect there be specific things that come out of it as it relates to UK US trade deals or trade or initiatives And the discussions have been ongoing about that for many weeks and months And I don know if anything specific will be
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announced, but we're very close to some things. And I feel like the state visit is just going to
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be great. It is a visible reminder to the world of the special relationship. And I think
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as I said, it's a great honor. And finally, on the special relationship
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is it a real thing? You are the physical embodiment of that as the US ambassador to the UK. It is
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mocked by others, though. Does it matter? What is it all about, this special relationship
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Well, it's a very real thing. Last night I went to attend the event marking the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain at the RAF Museum
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And it was as an amateur historian of World War Two, you know, even before the U.S. was officially in the war, Americans were flying and dying for the for the RAF and and people from other countries were too
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So there is no relationship like this. I mean, we we like to say France was our first ally
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which is true, but the UK is our most important ally. And that's still the case
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Ambassador Warren Stevens, thank you for joining us today on GB News. Thank you
