← Videos · Foreign Policy & Defense

State Department Briefing, May 6, 2025: 47 Americans Freed, Houthi Capitulation and NATO Spending

May 6, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:39:25

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Spokesperson Tammy Bruce led the State Department briefing on May 6, 2025. She announced that Secretary Rubio had joined President Trump in welcoming home Ksenia Karelina, who was wrongfully detained in Russia for over a year, and said that in his first hundred days the president had secured the release of 47 unjustly held Americans — no administration, she said, has worked so hard or so quickly to bring home Americans imprisoned abroad, as stated at the briefing.

Bruce reported on the president’s Oval Office meeting that day with the Canadian prime minister, noting Prime Minister Carney’s stated intention to increase Canada’s defense spending. She said nine years ago most NATO allies were nowhere near 2 percent defense spending, and that 18 countries had announced increases since the November election.

She then relayed the president’s announcement that the Houthis had “capitulated” following the administration’s strikes: in the president’s words, the Houthis said they do not want to fight anymore and will not be blowing up ships, and the U.S. would honor that and stop the bombings. She quoted Secretary Rubio’s explanation that it was always a freedom-of-navigation issue. In follow-up questions, Houthi denials were put to her; Bruce responded that the basis for whom to take seriously is the President of the United States, Ambassador Witkoff, and Secretary Rubio, and that the administration looks to actions, not words, as stated at the briefing.

Why it matters

The briefing records three of the administration’s signature first-hundred-days claims from the State podium — detainee releases, the Houthi ceasefire announcement, and allied defense-spending movement — on the day each was fresh news.

Scoreboard watch

The Houthi capitulation announcement relayed at this briefing — that the group would stop attacking ships and U.S. bombing would stop — is a checkable scoreboard claim, as is the figure of 47 Americans freed in the first hundred days.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Department of State Press Briefing - May 6, 2025”, 2025-05-06 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-06). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.