Center. Put that package on the floor, you can find this in all of our washington journal discussions online. Take you live to the white house for the daily briefing. The president unveiled a legislative outline for rebuilding infrastructure in america. The six doctors follow. Funds toion in federal spur at least 1. 5 trillion in Infrastructure Investment with partners of the state, local, tribal, and private levels. New investments will be made in rural america, which has been left behind for too long. Regulatory barriers that needlessly get in the way of Infrastructure Projects will be removed, permitting for Infrastructure Projects will be streamlined and shortened. Americas workforce will be supported and strengthened. , as of the president said many times we will build new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across the land. We will do it with american heart, hands, and grit. The president released his fiscal year 2019 budget, which is three of the president s most important priorities. Rebuilding our military and funding for the men and women in uniform. Growing the american economy, and ending waste. We look forward to working with congress to achieve these priorities and ensure the safety and security of the United States for generations to come. Mick mulvaney will be answering questions on the budget immediately following todays briefing. I encourage you all to stick around for that. Save your budget questions for him. I would like to add a congratulations to the u. S. Olympic team, off to a great start. We look forward to snowboarders Jamie Anderson and merger guard bringing back their medals. With that, we take your questions. Rob porters first wife spoke with the fbi as part of his clearance process on january 25, 2017, during which he says she laid out all of the allegations and provided the fbi with photographs, they were the turning point in his termination last week. Anytime between january 25 of last year and last wednesday, did the fbi make anyone here at the white house, whether a councils office, or anyone else, did the fbi make anybody aware of the allegations raised against porter . We learned of the situation involving rob porter last tuesday evening. Within 24 hours, and his resignation has been accepted and announced. We announced a transition was going to happen. The president and the administration take Domestic Violence seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated. The president supports victims and believes everybody should be treated fairly and with due process. We have addressed this extensively, and have nothing more to add. The allegations would make him the prime candidate for anckmail, which would lead irresponsible person at the fbi to come to the white house to this person will likely never get a permanent security clearance. Was that concern ever raised . Sec. Sanders as i know, last week we let the process play out. It was ongoing and hadnt been completed. Beyond that, i dont have anything to add. What have we heard the president say what you heard right now that he takes Domestic Violence seriously . Sec. Sanders i spoke with the president and those are his words. Y has a he said that . He has the opportunity. Sec. Sanders it is my job to speak on behalf of the president. He relayed the message to me and i am relaying it to you. Do you believe rob porters accusers . Sec. Sanders i believe the president and the administration take the mystic violence very and believe all allegations need to be thoroughly investigated. Above all, the president supports victims of Domestic Violence and believes everybody should be treated fairly. That doesnt answer the question. Sec. Sanders i am not going to go beyond that. Does the president was rob porter well . Does he believe he wants them to have a great career . Seansec. Sanders i think the president hopes all americans can be successful in whatever they do. If they have had any issues in the past, i am not confirming or denying, the president wants success for all americans. Thats why he was elected in hopes the best for all american citizens. What about the president s tweaked over the weekend, peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. It seems like the president was believing mr. Porter, as opposed to his alleged victims. Why did he say that . Why is he seemingly defending mr. Porter publicly . Is it because he has faced his own allegations . Is there sensitivity there . Said,anders as i just the president and the entire administration take Domestic Violence seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated thoroughly. He certainly suppose the victims of Domestic Violence and believes everyone should be treated fairly and with due process. He is saying there should be a due process that should be followed and look at. Being on theust a wrong side of things . Sec. Sanders i dont think the president being supporting due process for any allegation is not tone deaf. I think it is allowing things to be investigated. A mere allegation should not be the determining factor. It is not taking a side on any specific issue, he is talking about mere allegations should be the determining factor for any individual. There should be due process, i think anybody here if they were accused of something i am not finished. What i am saying is anybody here, if they were accused of something, would want the opportunity to go through due process. The Vice President said he was appalled by the allegations. Why has he not used this as an opportunity to Say Something like that . Why does he have to speak through you . Sec. Sanders the president has been a clear multiple times through myself and others within the administration that we condemn Domestic Violence in all forms. Why has he not said it . Sec. Sanders i am the spokesperson for the president , i am saying it to you right now. Why doesnt he say it. Sec. Sanders i am not sure how i can be more clear. The ad the president has he wishes porter well and believes people should have due process, but he hasnt addressed the victims at all. Sec. Sanders if you were paying attention, you would understand the opposite. He dictated that statement to me. I am not sure how that is not the president speaking on that. Does the white house have a rule on policy regarding how long an employee is permitted to operate with his interim security clearance . Sec. Sanders we are not going to get into the details of how the clearance process works. Last week, we went further than we have before due to extenuating circumstances. Theres nothing further to add. This is a process that doesnt operate within the white house. It is handled by our Law Enforcement and intelligence community. That process, its the same process that has been used for decades in previous administrations. We are relying on that process at this point. I think it is up to the same Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies to determine if changes need to be made to their process. Can you say whether the white house is beginning to examine or review cases of a saboteur operating under an interim clearance . I am not going to get into the details of the process beyond what we have said. I can tell you that we rely on the same process that has been used for decades. If changes are thought to be made, that would be the Law Enforcement and intelligence communities that run that process, not the white house. There is something that can be looked at in light of this. Do you have more information for us on the mystic trauma . Sec. Sanders the president spoke with her. Andnd that it is an ongoing active investigation. I cant say the president has spoken to her within the last hour. The president has a history of defending men who have been accused of Sexual Assault and erasmus and harassment. Does the white house like to say that he believes them . Sec. Sanders i think the president , like i said, above Everything Else he supports the victim of any type of Domestic Violence. The president also supports due process. I dont have anything further to add. There were photos of her with a black daily mail published them wednesday morning. Statementhouse had a wednesday afternoon, 12 hours after these photos were already published and out. Why was the white house saying that porter after these photos have circulated . Sen. Sanders the comments were made by members of the white house and were based on our personal experience. We can only speak to the interaction we personally had. Why are highlevel aides allowed to work with classified information without permanent security . Sen. Sanders the fbi and other communities, they make that determination. Thats not something thats decided by the white house. Can you guarantee you are protecting last protecting classified information . Sec. Sanders i think we are doing and taking every step we can to protect classified information. Concern with such classified information, theres plenty leaked out of the hills, leaked out of other communities well beyond the white house walls. This room. You are the guys the public classified information. That doesnt come from this white house. We take every caution for far possible to protect national security. They are protecting the citizens of this country, its why we spend every single day doing anything we can to do that. Is publicly putting out classified information, its members of the press, not the white house. The white house says there were things that everyone could have done have you identified anything specific . What about your process you dont has the white house i did find anything you could have done better . Sen. Sanders we are looking up and internally and agree there are things we could have done that her. We are going to continue to look at the process and the role we all played and how we can do it better. Come toevery day we work and how we can do a better job than the day before. We keep doing that every cigar morning we come to work. We are going to do our debt best to make everyday better than the last. There were some things we could have done better and we are certainly going to look at every single instance in every single thing we do, how we can do a better than the day before. When the initial story came out, wednesday morning photos come out. The chiefernoon of staff john Kelly Asquith and 40 minutes can you explain that . Repeat what io said earlier, this involved a situation involving rob porter. We announced a transition was going to happen and within hours it did. In terms of timeline i dont have anything else to add. I can to you that a conversation took place within 40 minutes and i dont have anything else to add. Repeatedly byold the fbi, by others in the white house, on these accusations and didnt do these things. Can you explain why no action was taken . Allegations that have been reported are not accurate . Accurate. You say the president takes to mastic violence seriously. Moving forward, what will he do to raise awareness . Often what will be new and different as it relates to combating . Individuals in the nomination we had thatne process completed we will make that personnel announcement. We are in the process of doing that. Infrastructures about jobs, job creation. Jobs,ou talk about these either going to be kind lines to who can and who wont be . Problem ral structural projects, a lot of se jobs sen. Sanders a lot of those jobs were never completed or started. We were expecting a different result. I wanted to get you to clarify something. Its about the white House Counsel. Are you saying the white House Counsel never learned until last tuesday that there was any allegation of any sort at any level against rob porter . Amaga to get into the specific details, but we learned about the extent of the situation. Who is we . The white house general. Has he learned at any time before last tuesday when the story was broken by the daily mail that there was any allegation of any sort leveled by any person against rob porter . I can tell you that the process for the background is ongoing. The white house has not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check. To brief questions is the followup. s status as mcgann counsel right now . Ethic it was the same two weeks ago, two months ago, a year ago. Indications to see it differently. He wastor corker said reconsidering and would probably reverse his decision and not already theion area republican primary is in the process of the state. What he tried to persuade it, or just led or let it urge him to go back to tennessee . As always i cant way on any anyifics cant way in on specifics. Ill take one last question. Demonstration said the National Debt is a crisis, not just for the nation but for every citizen. The president said the National Debt is a crisis, not just for the nation but for every citizen. If the National Debt is the crisis, why hit the gas pedal . The president and one of the Top Priorities to be the president s first year in office was to pass the tax cuts. It has been a major focus on the economy. The president also knows what of the most important jobs he has is protecting this country. Infrastructure focusing on the Opioid Crisis and a border wall. At the same time the budget reduces the deficit by over 3 trillion. It puts the country on a path of restoring the discipline. And talk to director mulvaney who would be happy to go into more details. Does the president come in and do a press conference with us . Supreme Court JusticeRuth Bader Ginsburg joined the ceo on ceo and president of the Constitution Center jeffrey rosen. At 6 p. M. S live eastern on cspan. Then remarks from Chuck Schumer budgetgration, the 2019 and senate leadership. He spoke at the university of louisville mcconnell center, which was created by mitch mcconnell, a you can watch senator schumers comments tonight at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Tonight come on the communicators, from the Consumer Electronics show in las vegas, Technology Industry leaders discuss their latest to latest developments in Artificial Intelligence. Those are all using technologies such as machine figure out what movie you want to watch and what movie you like to listen to. What music you like to listen to. System is not a person theyre marking things as spam or not, but a computer as computer algorithm. You can haveand Artificial Intelligence powering self driving cars. They use business and machine learning. Watch the communicators tonight at eight eastern tonight on cspan two. Tuesday morning, we are live in little rock arkansas on the cspan 50 capital tour. Asa hutchison will be our guests on the bus starting at 9 a. M. Eastern. Testimony from cia director. Ark director mike pompeo he will be joined by National Intelligence director dan tell and National Director mike rogers. They will be speaking before the Senate Intelligence committee cspan3. Day at also tomorrow, mick mulvaney, director of the office of budget and management speaking live tuesdaynate on cspan. Earlier today the National Portrait gallery unveiled the official portraits of former president barack obama and former first Lady Michelle obama. The artists were honored for their work a