I want to say we just spent quite a hit of time inside with the Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, who has been a time. Of mine for a long long before my world of politics. Early into his world of politics, i think. Do we have been friends for a long time. Despite what we read, as far as i am concerned were closer than ever before. The relationship is very good. We are fighting for the same thing, lower taxes, big tax cuts. The biggest tax cuts in the history of our nation. We are fighting for tax reform. Were getting close to tax reform. It will come up in the early to mid part of next year. I think we only have the vote. Were confident we have the votes. We know with the plan is. I believe republicans and democrats are working together right now, working together to do an intermediate plan, a shortterm plan. Because obamacare is a disaster. The rates of gun up, that rims have gone up, the deductibles have gone through the roof. It is terrible. You look at the deductibles, unless you really have a problem you are not going to be able to use them. So we have been working together longer and hard. Were in good shape for the budget, i hope. We hope to be in shape with the largest tax cuts ever passed in these countries that will spur business. You look at other countries, what they have done. When chinas at 15 . When i hear that ireland is going to be reducing their 8 frome rates down to 12. You have other countries reducing. We cannot be a 35 and think were going to be competitive in terms of companies and jobs. So we work on that. I was honored to see a man i have a lot of respect for, James Lee Witt from the Clinton Administration, the head of fema, he gave us a n he gave us a a , and a plus for how we responded to all of their hurricanes, even puerto rico. I really appreciate that, mr. Witt, because it took it out of politics because he was with the Clinton Administration and im sure he remains loyal to the lenten administration. I hope he does. So to finish off, my relationship with this gentleman is outstanding. It has been outstanding. We are working very hard to get the tax cuts. We work very hard to get the health care completed. I will be surprising people with an Economic Development bill later on. I have not even told mitch because i want to focus on tax cuts and other things right now. One of the outspoken elements we discussed at lunch, we got a great justice, just as gorsuch into the United StatesSupreme Court. Hopefully he will be outstanding for many, many years but something people are not talking about a summary judges we have had approved. The it be court of appeals, circuit judges, district judges. We have tremendous right now under review the democrats are holding them up beyond anything beyond comprehension frankly they have terrible, terrible policy. Perhaps they are not even good politicians but they are good at abstraction. I looked at some of these numbers between the judges and i want to say we will set records in terms of the number of judges. If you read the wall street journal, have to give them a little bit of a i wont mention names but a person who has been really a fair person ante an article, wrote editorial in a sense, saying how well we are doing with judges and appointments. I think it is one of the big unsung things of this administration. We have had a lot of legislation passed on the v. A. The judge story is an untold story, nobody wants to talk about it, but when you think about it mitch and i were saying that has consequences 40 years out depending upon the age of the judge, but 40 years out. So numerous judges have been approved. Many, many are in the pipeline. The level of quality is extraordinary. And i just wanted to say were working very closely on that also, im getting really great reviews from those people. In many cases, some scholars that have been studying it. There has never been anything like what we have been able to do together with judges. So with that i would like to have mitch say a few words and if you want a little question and answer we can do that, too. To i very much. I want toell underscore what the president said. We have the same agenda. We have been friends and acquaintances for a long times. We talked frequently. We do not give you read out every time we have a conversation but frequently we talk on the weekends about the issues before us. The budgetpassing which enables tax reform and tax reduction. It comes next and is supplemental to take adequate care of those who have been harmed by the natural disasters weve been afflicted with lately. And of course, the senate has a seems to me ad it lot of people forget we are in the personal business. There are hundred of the president s nominations subject to confirmation in the senate. The house is not in the personnel is this. We are. The single most significant president last thing this president has done to change america is the supplement of neil gorsuch to the Supreme Court but it is not just the Supreme Court. There are vacancies at the there areiscord vacancies at different part levels. Younger, conservative. We say conservative were talking about the kind of people a president is appointing to the court believe the role of a judge is to try to will based upon what the law says. Outcome they hoped the would be. He is not a very good judge or as justice gorsuch, judges do not wear red, they do not wear they wear black. Those are the kind of the president is sending up to the senate to be confirmed. Many of them, as he pointed out, are younger. Will be on the bench for a long time and have a great deal to do with what kind of country were going to have far into the future. Legislatively, obviously the top priority is tax reduction. I think the president and i would both like to see for you today, cant to what some of you may have reported, we are together totally on this agenda to move america forward. Mr. President reform ident, tax mr. President , [indiscernible] congress. E in this would you be ok of tax reform was not passed until next year as opposed to this are . Pres. Trump i would like to see it be done this year. I would really like to see it being done. Numeral go a step further, can edit done a will be a great achievement. Do not forget it took years for the Reagan Administration to get taxes done. Ive been here nine months. Little more than nine months. If you look at obama, clinton, they were not able to get it there. If you look at other administrations come they cannot get it done. President obama after a long time was able to push it through but pushed for something that failed. Badly. Failed were meeting right now, democrat and republican to work on something really special. I really think we have a very good chance and i think mitch feels the same way, of getting the taxes done. Hopefully fairly long before the end of the are, that is what wed like to see. Let me just ask what the president said. The goal is to get it done this calendar year but it is important to remember that obama signed obamacare in march of year two. Of them assigned doddfrank in july of year two. Were going to get this job done and the goal is to get it done by the end of the year. [crosstalk] just to finish up mitch, nine months. So we could have a long way to go. And that is ok. The on health care, and a recent speech is said the only problem i have with Mitch Mcconnell is that should never have happened. Do you still think you failed . President trump must go to the second one of your question with mitch. Careve been doing health for probably seven months, six months of you think about it. Others work to five years. Others were eight euros. This man is going to get it done. Long before anybody else. And i think it is going to be great health care. Its far as tom marino, he was a very early supporter of mine in the great state of pennsylvania. As a great guy. I did see the report. We want to look into the report and take it very seriously. We will have a major announcement probably next week on the drug crisis and on the opioid massive problem and i want to get that absolutely right. This country, and frankly the problem. S a drug the world has a drug problem, but we have it and are going to do something about it. So i will have a major announcement probably next week. We will be looking into that. I would like to ask you, a do for people the plan that steve bannon [indiscernible ] a very goodave relationship with steve bannon. Steve bannon has been my friend for a long time. You may be people looking at im going to save we can talk them out of that because frankly they are great. Maybeitch may do then, with the exception of a very small few, the fantastic relationship deep in the senate and with the people in the congress. I mean, the house of representatives, i have a great relationship with political people. If you read the papers you think i am like on one island and they are like on the other but that is not the way it is. But we have a fantastic relation. I dont think anybody can have much of a higher percentage. But i am friends with most of them. I like and respect them and i think they like and respect me. Just so you understand, the Republican Party is very, very unified. When we get things approved we becausego through hell we have no democratic support. We have nobody. We do not have a vote from the democrats. As an example, massive tax cuts. We may not get me democrats. We may not get any records for massive tax cuts. Were the highest taxed country in the world and yet we may get isdemocrat support and that because they are obstructionists. They want us to do badly but that is not going to happen. Yes, you had. [indiscernible] do you support the law whistleblowers, so mr. Trump were going to look at that very closely. [indiscernible] pres. Trump here is a good man. Have not spoken to him but i will spoke to him and make that decision. If i will make the change, yes. One second, yes. [indiscernible] to mr. Trump were going to be doing that next week. By the way, that is a big step. By the way, people not understanding what you just said. That is a very big statement. A very important step. To get to that step a lot of work has to be done. Timeconsuming work. We will be doing it next week. Ok . President , did you have a chance at your lunch today to discuss the comments mr. Bennett made . What did you make of those . Mr. Mcconnell the goal here is to win elections in november. Back in 2010 and the of we recommended a lot of candidates. The senate. In the reason for that is because they were not able to appeal to a broader electorate in the general election. Theoal is to keep us in majority. The way you do that is not complicated. You have to nominate people who can actually win because winners make policy and losers go home. We changed the Business Model and be 14. We nominated people they could win everywhere. We took the majority of the senate. Cat 1 had one skirmish and be 16, we cap the majority of the senate. I will approach is to support the incumbents and to seek to help nominate people who can actually win in november. That is my approach. That is the way you keep a governing majority. Mr. President , sir, mr. President , sir you criticizedy drug companies, Insurance Companies, you said prices were too high and Insurance Companies ere what is the mr. President the Insurance Companies have made a fortune obamacare. An absolute fortune. When i may be cuts at the end, hundreds of millions of dollars going right into the pockets of the entrance companies. And i am very happy with what i did. Because of that, people are talking. Democrats are talking to republicans. Taking care of our shortterm goal for health care so that people can have Good Health Care without big spikes. You wouldve had massive spikes. You already have. I mean, every year the massive spikes to help get up and ridiculous. I did not talk too much about this today but a priority of mine and you know that is coming up, is the cost of prescription drugs. Were going to get the cost way down, way down. In the other case, with regards to vote you have the drug companies. They contribute massive amounts of money to political people. I dont know, mitch, maybe even to you. I have to tell you, they contribute massive amounts of money. Me . Im not interested in their money. I do not need their money. I will tell you, you have prescription drugs. England, canada, many, many countries, the exact same bill from the exact same company, dr. , same everything, is a tiny fraction of what it cost in the world has taken advantage of us. That will be important. Reporter mr. President. Care,er on health [indiscernible] 70 that you won in november. Now you cut off these payments. Will you ensure those people will have health and coverage to pay that insurance . Pres. Trump we want to get it down so people can go can have Affordable Health care. You look at some states, and alaska, over 200 up. 50 , 70 percent up. Those are some of the states that are doing better. Obamacare is a wreck. We want to get it in those states, the states i did so well in but also in states that i did not win. Thatt to get health care is much more affordable and much Better Health care. That is what we are doing. Let me ask you about tax reform. Thered said the other day were adjustments being made. Gary cohen said there would be g bigger. What exactly is negotiable . For the leader comey you said the top priority is tax reduction. You did not say tax reform. If you could say specifically what tax reform is to both of you . Pres. Trump we are doing minor adjustment. We want to make sure the middle class is the biggest beneficiary of tax cuts. That is what i am sure mitch meant also. We are doing massive tax cuts. We are also doing solidification. Simplification, we if we can do it on one page. In some cases, it may be two pages. We are bringing the categories down. If you included zero because there are zero, we bring it from eight to four. Cuts. Doing the massive i will say this. Wherever i have been. This has been so popular with the people. Now we have to get a couple of additional people to raise their hands. I agree withell the president. It is about both reduction and reform. Thiss been 30 years since kind of effort was undertaken successfully. We are going to succeed this time. The bills, the details of them, will be written by the ways and we approve a budget. And obviously the budget opens the path to tax reform. It is about both. About reform and production. And reduction. Reporter why havent we heard anything [indiscernible] pres. Trump i have written them personal letters. They have been sent or they are going out tomorrow tonight. During theome point period of time called the parents and families. I have done that, traditionally. I felt very, very badly about that. It is the toughest calls i have to make are the calls where this happens. Soldiers are killed. A very difficult thing. It gets to a point where you make four or five of them in a one in one day, that is by far the toughest. The traditional way, if you look at president obama and other president s, most of them did not make calls. A lot of them did not make calls. I like to call when it is appropriate. When i am able to do it. They have made the ultimate sacrifice. Generally, i would say i like to call. I going to be calling them. I want time to pass. I am going to be calling them. I have, since i have been president. In addition, i wrote letters soldiers we to the are talking about. They will be going at today or tomorrow. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Reporter general kelly said last week you believe cuba couldnt stop the attacks against americans. Do you believe that . Believe cubai do is responsible. I do believe that. It is an unusual attack. I do believe cuba is responsible. Roy and alabama has said he believes it should be illegal and that muslims should be barred from serving in the u. S. Congress. What makes you comfortable with someone with those beliefs serving in the u. S. Senate and the same question to you, mr. Leader . Pres. Trump i will be meeting with roy sometime next week. We will talk to him about a lot of different things. I will be meeting with him. He ran a very strong race. The people of alabama, who i like very much. Who i like her much, and they like me, and they like roy. I will report to you then. [indiscernible] travels p on your [indiscernible] i can give youl my position. The blue slip for those of you who are not familiar with it is a custom determined by the chairman of the judiciary committee. It grassley can give you his view of how he views it. I will give you my view. My view is a blue slip on a circuit judge isnt simply a notification of how you are going to vote. To conclude otherwise would have left us in the following position at the beginning of this senate. Democratic senators would have been able to blackball, 62 of the circuit judge nominees. Place toot a tenable land in a senate that deals with the judges with a simple majority. Is that asonal view blue slip on a circuit judge should simply be a notification of how you intend to vote. We could talk blue slips. My attitude is i want capable people going to the courts. In 2012, you tweeted obamas complaints about bs, andans agendas are your words, because he had a full control. You wrote you can never take responsibility. Today he set about the challenges and congress and in washington, i will not blame myself, they are not getting the job done. What is different than van now then than now . Pres. Trump we have nominations pending. We have 180 two approved. If you look at this, the number that he had approved was a 65 and 70 . We have 39 . They are holding up every single nomination. Schumer and the group are holding up every single nomination. They are obstructing. They they are not good politicians. But they are good at obstruction. They are holding up every single nomination. I will tell you, it is not right. They will bring it right out to the end. What they are doing is unfair. You look at bush, you look at obama, clinton, you look at bush original, you have 389 versus 182. These are approval. Clinton, 357 versus 182. You look at president obama, 364 versus 182. These are nominations approved. What they are doing to us. We have unbelievable people in there waiting to be approved. I do believe that mitch is going to start pushing them hard. He can do that. He wants to do that. He also wants to get the judicial nominations through. He wants to get them through fast, too. Reporter could i follow on that . A spirit ofhave cooperation with the Senate Minority leader and the House Minority leader. When it came to this idea for a fix of daca. Every proposal you have put forth and spend a have rejected. Where is this relationship . Pres. Trump i hope to have a relationship. If we dont, we dont. We have races coming up. Think we will probably do very well. If we get taxes approved, we will do unbelievably well. Many of the senators are running massives i won by amounts. Over 20 , sometimes 30 . Democrat inover the some cases. Ill let you know that would like to give you that answer in seven years from now. I hope to be able to. Because i like the concept of a bipartisan. Right now, they are doing nothing but obstructing. Really, if you think about it, they are against major tax cuts that will make our country stronger and more competitive. That is a hard thing to win an election on or do i believe some democrats will be voting for us when it comes to the tax cuts. What about the Economic Development . Be proposingi will an Economic Development bill in the nottoodistant future. Maybe even health care. I think somewhere between or shortly thereafter, i am going to be developing an Economic Development bill that will put us so far ahead of other countries, you will not believe it. Thank you, mr. President. Last week your administrated Administration Made announcements on the ran deal and getting rid of the kind reductions as part of obama care. Has been of criticism leveled at your administration saying all you are doing pres. Trump and a lot of praise. Reporter fair enough. What youre doing is rolling back everything your predecessor accomplished. Is there a single policy of your predecessor that you specifically do not want to touch . Pres. Trump we are very opposite in terms of incentives and incentives for jobs. If you look at what has happened, we have hit a new high in the stock market. 5. 2 trillion up in stock market value. We have the lowest Unemployment Rate in i believe almost 17 years. We are doing well. We are going to be doing immigration work that will be outstanding. We are going to have people coming into our country based on a merit system, not just coming in randomly. They will becoming in based on a merit system where they can help us. I have Companies Moving into this country. Quayside happen with of the Auto Industry with five major plants. We have companies pouring back into this country for the first time in anybodys memory. At ae actually going to be point where we need workers. Our country is going to do so well. The tax cuts are going to be a major part of it. Is there a policy you want to keep in place . Pres. Trump not too many. It is the opposite side of the spectrum. Earlier you said president obama never called families of fallen stories. How can you make that claim . Pres. Trump i dont know that. I was told he did not. A lot of president s dont. They write letters. I do a combination of both. Sometimes, it is a difficult thing to do. I do a combination of both. President obama, i think, probably did sometimes. Maybe sometimes he didnt. I dont know. That is what i was told. All i can do is ask my generals. Other president s did not call. They would write letters. Some president s did not do anything. I like the accommodation when i can, i like the combination of a call and a letter. Reporter if it would help special Counsel Robert Mueller get to the end of the russia investigation pres. Trump i would like to see it end. The russia thing was an excuse. Excuse me. The russian thing was an excuse for the democrats losing an election. It turned out to be one excuse. Today, hillary blamed nigel farage. That was an excuse for the democrats losing an election that frankly they have a big advantage in the electoral college. They should always be able to win in the electoral college. There has been absolutely no collusion. It has been stated they have no collusion. They ought to get to the end of it because the American Public is sick of it. Reporter do you believe your comments affected the ability to receive a fair trial . Can you response pres. Trump i cannot comment on him because i guess he is doing something today. He is also they are setting up sentencing. Im not going to comment on him. I think people have heard the comments in the past. Therter when you laid out deadline for Daca Recipients [indiscernible] pres. Trump they should be able to do something. We need Strong Border security. We want the wall. Reporter [indiscernible] we had a great conversation. We have fema there. As you know, James Lee Witt gave an a . Plus militaryema there, there. We have First Responders there. It is a tragic situation. We are working closely with the representatives from california and we are doing a good job. Reporter [indiscernible] pres. Trump all i can say is it is totally fake news. Just fake. It is made up stuff. It is disgraceful what happens. That happens in the world of politics. Reporter on the wall [indiscernible] our country needs a wall. , you see what is happening there. You see what just happened yesterday with one of their big political leaders. Particularly doing well, when it comes to the thing we have great interest in. Drugs are pouring across our border. We are stopping it. We need a ball a wall to stop it. You know it, i know it, Everybody Knows it. We have to have a wall. That is going to be part of it. Reporter [indiscernible] pres. Trump the puerto rico situation reporter [indiscernible] pres. Trump that is according to the Clinton Administration. Very tough is because of the fact it is an island. It is also tough because, as you know, it was in poor shape before the hurricanes hit. There is electrical grid was destroyed before the hurricanes got there. It was not working. It was in bankruptcy. It owed 9 billion. On top of that, the hurricane came. Wholell have to build a new electrical plant system. We are not talking about generators. Generators,has more i believe, than any place in the world. There are generators all over the place. The fact is there electrical system was in horrible shape before. It even worse shape after. We are working right now, as you know, relief funds were approved by congress. Texas, by the way, that includes florida and it also includes puerto rico, the u. S. Virgin islands, etc. But it was in bad shape before. We have done i will say this, we have done we have delivered tremendous amounts of water. What you have to do is you have to have distribution of the water. We have massive amounts of water. Massivesive amounts of food. They have to distribute the food. They have to do this. They have to distribute the food to the people of the island. What we have done is we have military distributing food. Something that they should not have to be doing. If you look at the governor who is a good man, if you look at the governor of puerto rico, he has said we have done an outstanding job. Most people have said that. Puerto rico is a tough one. How important [indiscernible] pres. Trump i will let mitch the want to talk about that . Leader mcconnell was the question about the 20 week yeah. It is appointed by all our members. We expect to have a vote on it on some point at some point. Reporter there are those believe who will we believe how do you view what the time is to accomplish [indiscernible] pres. Trump i will be going to south korea, to china, to japan, vietnam, for the summit. We have a big economic summit there. I may be going to the philippines, also. We have been invited to the philippines. Look forward to all of them. We have not set the details as of this moment. Reporter [indiscernible] pres. Trump we will take a look that a look at that. Quick thing on an earlier question are you considering firing Robert Mueller . Pres. Trump no, not at all. Iraqi forces were clashing in northern iraq. Are you concerned about a larger [indiscernible] while u. S. Forces are on the ground . Pres. Trump we do not like the fact that they are clashing. We are not taking sides. But we do not like the fact that they are clashing. We have had good relationships with the kurds. We have also been on the inside of iraq, even though we should never have been there in the first place. We are not taking sides in that battle. Reporter in an interview, Hillary Clinton said she did not players kneeling in the nfl was about disrespecting the fly. You fired back [indiscernible] pres. Trump i hope hillary runs. Issue going to run . Hillary, please run again go ahead. Reporter is she right or issue wrong . Ofs. Trump there is plenty time to do knees and lots of other things. When you take any that is why she lost the election. Is that thinking. That is the reason she lost the election. When you go down and take a me take a knee, you are sitting for our national anthem. Your disrespecting our flag and you are disrespecting our country. The nfl should have suspended some of these players for one game. Not fire them. Suspended them for one game. If they did it again, it could have been two games, free games, and then for the season. You would not have people disrespecting our country now. If Hillary Clinton made this sitting downt during the playing of our Great National anthem is not disrespectful, then i fully understand why should not why she did not win. There are a lot of reasons she the factin, including that she was not good at what she did. That is something i had just heard about. In itselfr statement is very disrespectful to our country. Thank you, everybody. It is very disrespectful to our country when they take a me take a knee. It is very disrespectful to our country when they take a knee during the national anthem. Number two, the people of our country are angry at the nfl. All you have to do is look at their ratings in stadiums. You see empty seats where you never saw them before. A lot of people are angry. It is highly disrespectful. Thank you very everybody. Thank you. President , talk about trump care. [indiscernible] announcer tuesday, President Trump highlights his tax reform policy at the heritage president s annual clubs meeting. Coverage at 7 30 p. M. Eastern here on cspan. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, we are live at Jefferson City missouri for the next stop on the cspans 50 capital to work. With a j ashcroft talking about statecision to turn over Voter Commission as well as of the states of butter ideologue. The future of the Affordable Care act with former new york Lieutenant Governor betsy mccoy. Also with us, sean good of. Policy council to talk about his groups efforts to limit government surveillance. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. The Senate IntelligenceCommittee Hears from christophers sharply tuesday on his nomination to be Inspector General of the cia. We will have live coverage of his confirmation hearing at 2 30 p. M. Eastern here on cspan. The cspan bus is traveling across the country. On our 50 capitals toward. We recently stopped in charleston, West Virginia asking folks what is the most important issue in their state . My name is isaiah smith, i am a prelaw major at the university of charleston. I think the most important issue for West Virginia is twofold. I think it is an issue of poverty which ties into our drug epidemic. Lack of jobs, lack of opportunity, it makes the drug epidemic worse. It is a cycle that builds upon itself. My name is christopher, i may Political Science major. Isn of the biggest issues governor just as pushing a road bond for our special election that is going to supposedly pump millions in our infrastructure which sounds nice. But you look at the big picture, it is going to hurt my generation and millennials in the future. It says it will not raise taxes. That it will not be a problem. But if you look down the road, it is going to screw West Virginia longterm. That is not something we need now. And was virginia we have had Economic Times in the past five or six years. Is to our Top Priorities improve our economy and be able to put people back to work. We have taken a great deal of different steps to do that. That is what our priorities are right now. My name is lauren. Im a senior at the university of charleston. I am double majoring in english and clinical science. And Political Science. I did a project on what we consider to be a wellknown issue, are opioid dependency issue. To look at that whether it be from a larger perspective or a more individual perspective. In determining issues that would be more effective for patients. My name is danny jones. Im the mayor of the capital city of West Virginia, charleston. I think the most important issue for us is keeping young people here because if we plan things around youth, then we will have a state that is young and vibrant and exciting. And full of new ideas. I think that continuous involvement is what will make our city safe and great. Voices from the states. On cspan