USA: Nauert struggles through first press briefing as State Dep. Spokesperson

SOT, Journalist (English): "Don’t worry. You’re nowhere near the record time of flipping through that book. Plenty of your predecessors have."

SOT, Heather Nauert, Spokesperson for United States Department of State (English): "Okay. Thank you, Matt. You’re referring to the missing human rights lawyer, is that correct? Okay. Pardon me. So we are aware that Chinese authorities formally charged the human rights lawyer, Jiang Tianyong, with subversion of state power, who has been held in detention for six months so far. We consider this to be another troubling sign of China’s crackdown on lawyers and human rights activists in general, so we call on the government to immediately release and drop charges against him, and for Chinese authorities to allow him to return to his family. Secretary Tillerson talked about this over the weekend. He said the United States views the protection of human rights as a fundamental duty of all countries, and we urge the Chinese Government to respect universal rights and fundamental freedoms of all of its citizens.

SOT, Journalist (English): "And the labor activists?"

SOT, Heather Nauert, Spokesperson for United States Department of State (English): "The – oh, I’m sorry, the labor activists then – hold on. We have a few issues here right now in that nation."

SOT, Heather Nauert, Spokesperson for United States Department of State (English): "Okay. So the question is about North Korea and -"

SOT, Journalist (English): "North Korea and Russia, and then I have one more on China afterwards."

SOT, Heather Nauert, Spokesperson for United States Department of State (English): "Okay. Hold on. Give me a moment here. Here we go. Okay. So we have seen reports about Russia apparently making up for China sanctions on North Korea. I think that’s what you’re talking about. So we are asking Russia to join us in showing North Korea that the only path to a secure, economically prosperous future is to abandon its unlawful programs that endanger international peace and security. We continue to call upon all countries around the world – not just Russia, many others – to fully implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and we also call on countries to use whatever bilateral leverage they have to convince the DPRK to abandon its destructive path. The U.S. has consider – continued to have many conversations with countries around the world, where you may not think have an interest in North Korea, but do and we’ve called upon them to do what they can to hold North Korea’s feet to the fire and to implement sanctions and follow through with them."

Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Heather Nauert held a press briefing in Washington D.C, Tuesday. It was her first one since formally accepting the role on April 24.

The former journalist struggled to answer questions related to foreign policy and took long pauses to refer to her binder, at one point asking the audience of press to "bear with me, please."

The spokesperson said that US President Donald Trump has wanted to "begin a reengagement process with Russia" in order to "look for areas where we can cooperate together". She concluded, however, that "in areas where we do not see eye-to-eye with Russia we will continue to stand up for our interests and our values and the values of our partners."

Nauert was a Fox News anchor before joining the US President Donald Trump's administration, where most recently she was co-host for the morning show 'Fox & Friends', reportedly of the president's favourites.