Transcripts For CSPAN Natl 20240702

The National Security council also updated the state of the u. S. Economy and the ongoing war between israel and hamas. Good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to start with a word about the horrific news out of lewiston, maine last night where we saw another tragic shooting that has taken at least 18 lives, injured others and left countless people in grief, shock and trauma. As the president said in a statement earlier today, he and the first lady are praying for the victims and their families, for those fighting for their lives and those survivors and Community Members reeling from this latest act of gun violence. And importantly, we continue to urge all residents to heed the warning and guidance of the local officials and federal Law Enforcement that are on the ground to respond. At a state dinner last night, he was informed of the shooting. He stepped out to speak with janet mills as well as senators collins and king and congressman jared goldman. He pledged full federal support in the wake of this horrific tragedy. This morning the president received another briefing on the shooting from senior advisers and he ordered that the u. S. Flag be flown halfstaff at the White House House and all public buildings and grounds out of respect for the victims as well. So, i want to echo the president s sentiments on this tragedy and the epidemic of gun violence in general. This is not normal. We cannot accept this. There have been literally hundreds of Mass Shootings in the last year alone, leaving empty seats at dinner tables across the country and leaving those that survived these heinous acts both physically and mentally scarred. And while we have made progress since the president signed the bipartisan Safer Communities act into law, much more must be done. And the president has been clear that executive action alone is just not enough. As the Vice President , who oversees the newly established office of gun violence and prevention, i know many of you watched it very closely as well, and she said, it does not have to be this way. As our friends in australia have demonstrated. Again. It does not have to be this way. It is within Congress Power to pass legislation that will make our streets safer and communities safer, schools safer. The house has a new speaker who said that hes ready to get to work and to find Common Ground. Now is the time. Now is the time to find Common Ground. Lets Work Together to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Lets Work Together to enact universal background checks and require safe storage of guns and keep guns out of the hand of criminal dollars and dangerous individuals who have no business being armed with a weapon of war. The president will continue to do everything in his power to protect the American People, to protect our communities and to protect our children. And we urge Congressional Republicans to come to the table, to come to the table, if there truly is Common Ground at this time. With that, as you know, im joined today in the Briefing Room wit director of economic counsel, leo brainard lail brainard, to discuss the gop record that you saw this morning and any other Economic News out there. With that, lail, welcome to the Briefing Room for the second time. We thought this might be a good moment to look back to this time last year and recall what the experts were saying about the u. S. Economy. A year ago, the consensus view means that unemployment would need to go up to 4. 5 and the economy would need to stall out in order to get the inflation down to where it is today. The u. S. Growth has been much stronger than the naysayers believed. Unemployment has remained below 4 this entire time. But inflation has fallen in line with that forecast. In fact, today we learned that gdp grew by 4. 9 in the Third Quarter even as cor inflation on core inflation on a quarterly basis fill to 2. 4 , the lowest level in nearly three years. That Strong Economy is a testament to the resilience of American Consumers and American Workers supported by President Bidens plan to grow the economy by growing the middle class. Consumer spending is robust, as americans have rejoined the labor force in record numbers and real wages are up over the last year. President biden vowed to build the economy from the bottom up in the middle out and that is exactly what were seeing in the data. Last weeks survey of Consumer Finances showed that americans median network is 37 higher than it was before the pandemic adjusted for inflation. That is the largest gain in the history of the survey. And the wealth gains were strongest for the bottom half of the Income Distribution and black and hispanic families that have traditionally have not seen as large gains. Just yesterday, the u. A. W. And ford reached a historic tentative agreement that provides a record increase for autoworkers and is a testament to the president s strategy to ensure a strong future for auto manufacturing here in america with good union jobs. That is good news for American Workers and good news for the future of the u. S. Auto industry. So in the data in that agreement, we can see that the president s strategy is yielding real results, even as we continue to work to bring costs down. Thanks. So the president celebrated the gdp report saying that it is the testament of the american consumer. But the report also showed that personal savings dropped by 360 million. Do you have a message to the americans that dipped into the savings before inflation . As i said, what you are seeing is americans are back in the labor force in record numbers, much higher participation than was anticipated, and higher than prepandemic. So they are at work, and that is showing up also in the wealth numbers. If you look at the American Household median wealth, in inflationadjusted terms, it has gone up since before the pandemic. So i think the u. S. Consumer, u. S. Workers, they are absolutely the reason that were seeing this resilience in the economy and they are actually seeing increases in their wealth over the period. What about the americans that are dipping into the savings to afford their lifestyle . I think that, again, because because net wealth is rising, because income is rising because americans are working, that is exactly what we with a tonight what we want to see in the economy. Are you no longer worried in a recession in the near term . I think the data in recent months has all pointed in the same direction. Which is that were seeing strong ongoing growth with inflation coming down. Were seeing unemployment staying below 4 20 months in a row now with inflation coming down. And so, those data, which have been sustained now for a relatively long period of time, suggest that there is ongoing resilience there, and small we are seeing Small Business formation at a record rate. There is a lot of dynamism in the economy people are taking notice of. And you know that the president has historic legislation that is leading to historically high amounts of construction in the manufacturing sector, really leveraging private sector investment. So for all of those reasons, the ability to see the economy continue growing with inflation down, strongest growth and lowest inflation among the g7. Thanks a lot. The gdp number was released. The student loan repayments have begun for tens of millions of americans. Is this a headwind that you see in the u. S. Economy for q4 . What other headwinds do you see for the rest of the year . The consumer was very strong. In the Third Quarter. And we believe that based on the strong job market, that we can continue to see resilience there. But the president has always said that he would like to see Student Debt Relief go forward. Hes continuing to look avenues to look to find avenues to do that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. We have already announced a number of programs that have led to large and significant relief for a large number of americans but he is going to continue working to make sure that the full amount of Student Debt Relief is available over time. And what other headwinds do you see in the Fourth Quarter . Right now, what we see going into the Fourth Quarter is continued ongoing investment on the basis of the Clean Energy Tax credits and the chips program, the infrastructure law. So there should continue to be a lot of private sector interest. We certainly see it in the number. 614 billion in the private sector. In the face of those losses. So i think those will continue to provide uplift for the global economy. There are some soft spots there. So perhaps a little head wind there. To follow the Consumer Spending, do you expect the consume spending to ease in the coming months . I have a followup. There is the possibility that from quarter to quarter, you see some variations. So it is hard to know right now what retail spending is going to look like. And Consumer Spending more broadly. Consumers have good sources of income. Real wages rising and strong employment, and strong participation labor force. But from quarter to quarter, we can see relevant evaluations relative to Business Investment for instance. How do you see the recent spike in the borrowing costs, is that affecting Consumer Spending . Certainly consumers and businesses are taking into account the cost of credit. I think that is a headwind on the economy. Despite that, we have seen really strong gdp, 4. 9 in the Fourth Quarter. The Third Quarter. We think that is because there is strong support on the policy on the investment side of the economy, the president s historic legislation there and his broader plan to grow the economy from the middle out. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming back. Okay. Were moving on. As you know, admiral john kirby is here to share at the top and also take any of your Foreign Policy questions. Admiral . Afternoon, everybody. Let me start i have a couple things that i want to get to. Let me start with the middle east, the president continues to be updated by the National Security team there and continuing to support, were continuing to support israels military, Security Assistance continues to flow to them as needed almost on a daily basis. And obviously were still laser focused on the humanitarian assistance situation and making sure that more food, water and medicine can get in. Since the 21st of this month, some 74 trucks have now gone in. 12 in the last 24 hours. Not enough. More needs to go. We need to see if we can accelerate and increase the flow of humanitarian assistance in. It remains a high focus for him and the National Security team. If you will allow me, i do want to take a couple of minutes to update you on the battlefield situation in ukraine. As we have said publicly, russia launched a new offensive in ukraine in several cities. I spoke about this recently. But this offensive was not a surprise. We have been watching this build and come. We have warned that president putin still plans to concur to conquer ukraine and they need help to defend its thats territory. Just today we announced another package of Security Assistance which includes air defense capabilities, javelin antitank missiles, more Artillery Ammunition and the himars. Thus far, using all these capabilities, the ukrainians have been able to hold off and hold on the defense against this offensive, repelling russian tank columns that have been advancing on them. Since the 11th of october, russia has suffered significant losses in the offensive attempt there, including 125 Armored Vehicles around there and more than a battalions worth of equipment. We expect more russian attacks to come. This is a dynamic conflict. We need to remember russia still maintains some offensive capability and may be able to achieve tactical gains in the couple months. In the coming months. To pursue that on the battlefield, russia continues to show no regard for the lives of its soldiers. We believe they have suffered thousands of casualties some of them on the orders of their own leaders. We have information the Russian Military has been actually executing soldiers that refuse to follow orders. We also have information that russian commanders are threatening to execute entire units if they seek to retreat from Ukraine Ukrainian artillery fire. Forces remain undertrained and underequipped and unprepared for combat as was the case during the failed winter offensive last year, they are using human wave tactics. Just throwing masses of these poorly trained soldiers right into the fight. No proper equipment, no leadership, no resourcing. No support. It is not surprising Russian Forces are suffering from poor morale given these conditions. The attempt at the offensive is a sobering remind theyre president putin is not giving up to take ukraine. As russia continues the brutal assault, we have to support the people in their selfdefense. Because his intentions are clear. You heard the president talk about this last week. He said if the western weapons stopped, ukraine would have a week to live. So, to ensure that we can continue to do that, it is critical that Congress Step up and pass the supplemental requests that the president put forward last week, which included a significant amount of resources for ukraine for the selfdefenses and the humanitarian and economic needs. Is it time now to move forward with that september supplemental with that supplemental funding. Because time is clearly not on our side or the side of ukraine going forward. The president yesterday said he has no confidence in the numbers presented [indiscernible] in gaza. What is he basing that on . How did he reach that conclusion . The Gaza Ministry of health is a front for hamas. It is run by hamas, a terrorist organization. Ive said it myself up here. We cannot take anything coming out of hamas, including the so called ministry of health at face valuable. At face value. Secondly, the president is talking more about humanitarian pause and reviving the Israeli Palestinian peace process. What is prompting this shift . The stone shift . The this tone shift . The president never backed away or never stopped affirming the need for a two state solution. Since coming in office, we have been working on that very hard. I know is it a lofty goal. But he has not stopped working towards that goal. And he believes that when this conflict is over, that still has to be the goal that were driving to, a state for palestinians where they can live in peace and security and justice. That is a strategic longterm goal in a tactical sense, as second blinken said, there should be consideration made for humanitarian pauses. These are localized temporarily, temporary specific pauses on the battlefield so that humanitarian assistance can get in to the people that need it or they, the people can get out of that area in a relative safety. That is what a humanitarian pause is. We think its an idea worth exploring. We want to ask you about the president s lack of confidence about hamas. The president and the white house, you dont dispute that thousands of palestinians, many of them innocent civilians have been killed by israeli strikes, do you . Of course not. We know that the death toll continues to rise in gaza. Of course we know that. What we are saying is we should not rely on numbers put forth by hamas. They say it is more than 7,000. Is there anyway to assess how many it is . The president said it was a pretty dramatic moment in that. You cant take hamas by their word. But it does appear that thousands of palestinians have been killed. Would you agree . We would not dispute that. Let me ask you, is the white house satisfied that israel to this point has obeyed the laws of war . As the president has indicated. Is israel doing enough to this point to protect innocent lives . Were not going to react in real time to events unfolding on the butterfield and every allegation battlefield and every allegation. But you could have an assessment. I didnt say that either. I said were not going react in real time. We have been in constant touch with her israeli counterparts from the very Early Morning hours and there is and added burden on israel to make sure they are doing everything that they can to limit the civilian casualties. And were in constant communication about that. Does the president have faith in the numbers released by the west Bank Ministry that is run by the Palestinian Authority that there has been more than a hundred west Bank Palestinians killed by the president . I have no dispute with the rough numbers coming out of there either. We know there has been quite a bit of violence in the west bank as well. The casualties are nowhere near the numbers that were seeing coming out of gaza. Can i followup on the meeting tomorrow what are the expectations . Will the president join the meeting . What kind of role can the u. S. Expect from china on the war in gaza . That was like seven more questions. Hes looking forward to that discussion. Hes going to be starting out meeting with secretary blinken this afternoon. Then tomorrow at the white house. It is a chance to continue the conversation that jake himself has had with our pch our prc counterparts for many, many months. It is another milestone in the effort to keep the lines of communication open with the prc. It will be an opportunity for mr. Sullivan to address areas of concern that we continue to have with some of the pcr behavior, particularly in the south china sea. But it will also be an opportunity to explore ways in which we can continue to keep the channels open and try to get open the military channel that is still closed. What is chinas role in the conflict . I have no doubt part of the discussion will be about what is going on in the middle east and getting the chinese perspective and we will encourage them to be helpful. John, the Florida Governor said that the state is sending weapons and drones to israel at the request of the consulate in miami. Have you been coordinating on coordinating with the florida government on this, and can states just send weapons and other materials to foreign states . I will certainly let the governor speak to that what florida is doing. It is not illegal for the governor of a state to offer a measure of foreign assistance to another country. There are laws and regulations which govern how the export process is handled. And that is all done through commerce. I could not speak with authority today about whether the governor has checked all of those boxes or not. But is not illegal for a state governor to do that kind of thing. Following up on the question regarding the death toll coming out of hamas health ministry. Do you have any sense you acknowledge that thousands of died in gaza. Do you have any sense of the percentage that are hamas militants versus civilians . I do not. More than [indiscernible] Service Members have been killed. Will the u. S. Respond and be involved in another war in the middle east . You say 30 have been killed . Have been injured. Have been injured. Ill let the pentagon speak to the number of injuries that theyve had. My understanding is that almost all the droops that were injured troops that have been injured are back on duty and some that suffered what we call traumatic brain injury. That is from the concussive effect when the rockets land close by. Sometimes it takes a while for those symptoms to manifest themselves. I would ask you to refer to the pentagon because i suspect that they could change over time. As the president said yesterday, we have troops in iraq and syria on an important mission, going after isis. Still viable mission. It is still a group that poses a threat. And they have in the past come under attack by some of the militia groups. We responded and retaliated pretty aggressively. As the president also said, were going to do what we have to do to protect those troops in our facilities. That is a decision that well make and i can make it in a time of his choosing. Are they attacking places even though they know civilians will likely be killed and are the strikes strategic or targeted enough . I will let them speak to their operations and targeted procedures. Targeting procedures. They have a right and responsibility to go after hamas after what happened on october 7th. And we have said we have obviously had conversations with them about it. And the president said that we need to be careful about causing civilian casualties and to be targeting hamas leaders that minimizes the risk of collateral damage. You mentioned the idea of a humanitarian plaza little earlier. Did the president raise that with the Prime Minister of israel yesterday . I will not go beyond the readout. When you talk about the humanitarian pause, can you tell us what the u. S. Believes that would look like . Would it be a cessation of bombing, a halt in some of the cross border things yesterday that we saw yesterday or today. [indiscernible] the israelis sent tanks over the border very briefly yesterday. Will that be a halt in that . A halt in the bombing . What does it looks like . It is not going to be a satisfying answer. But the answer is it depends. A humanitarian pause is a temporary and local agreement to stop the fighting long enough to do some discrete task. In this case, it would be to get humanitarian assistance in and or to allow people to get out. Hamas are not allowing some people to leave their homes. It could be a matter of hours, a matter of days. It is by definition a short duration and geographically sort of localized area. It could be more than one spot. Thats what i mean. It depends. What we think it is a valuable idea worth looking at to help alleviate the humanitarian suffering gaza. Do you have any response or reaction to Senior Leaders of hamas visiting moscow today . I cannot talk to their travel habits. Or their conversations with the russians. Our message to any other nation around the world is, this is not a time to be supporting hamas ability to continue to kill israelis and it is certainly not a time any nation out there that wants to be involved should look for a way to be involved to help israel defend itself and help get humanitarian assistance in. We will see. Was there any coordination by the Florida Governor with the white house on sending helped sendinh help to israel . Not that im aware of. Can you elaborate on the execution of russian soldiers, how long it has been going on and do you have any idea of how many people and why . It seems they are getting rid of their own soldiers. Im not qualified to answer that last question. Its reprehensible to think you would execute your own soldiers because they did not want to follow orders and now threatening to execute entire units. It is barbaric. But i think it is a symptom of how poorly russias military leaders know they are doing and how bad they have handled this from a military perspective. From the very beginning, we have talked about poor control and poor logistics. They cannot feed their guys in the field, and now theyre willing to shoot for not following orders. It also speaks to the desperation in the manpower crunch. Russia obviously has a bigger military than ukraine and have access to more manpower, but they are in such desperate need to make some kind of progress, particularly in the donetsk area, that they are throwing younger men into the fight who have not been properly trained and have not been properly equipped and certainly are not being properly led. John, the president said if i if iran or the proxies attack u. S. Troops, that we would respond. What is he waiting for exactly . Where is the response . He said he will come on now. Im not going to telegraph punches from the podium. We have responded and retaliated in the past, quite aggressively in fact, back in march, and as the president said, we will not hesitate to protect our troops but we are going to do it at a time of our choosing and a manner of our choosing. And the decision to do it, if we do it is his as commanderinchief and his alone. He issued a warning to the ayatollah this morning. How was that warning delivered . Im not going to get into that. Can you say if there was a phone call or a Certain Party . Was there a message relayed after u. S. Troops were injured . There was a direct message relayed. Thats as far as i will go. Why were the injuries not disclosed until tuesday . I will refer you to the pentagon. The iran foreign minister is in new york this week and the wall street journal reported he partook in two planning meetings in lebanon with hezbollah, the jihad. An hamas leading to october 7. He is the foreign minister of iran and we are the host of the un and we take that responsibility seriously. Do we particularly like the fact that he is on u. S. Soil . No. But unlike a lot of other countries around the world, we take those rules seriously and we allowed him to come in to attend the meetings and we hope, quite frankly, we will take advantage of the opportunity and we hope others take advantage of the opportunity to ask tough questions of him and what his country is doing to support the militia groups and what his country is doing to support hamas and hezbollah. Its an opportunity to make the perspectives and concerns known directly to the Iranian Foreign minister. A pentagon official was alleged to be involved in an iranian government influence operation. There was some discussion about whether she should keep her security clearance and she did. But she is now the chief of staff for the office overseeing hostage negotiations. It is appropriate for someone with these connections to the Iranian Regime to be overseeing rescue operations for americans that are being held by our iranbacked proxies . I will have to revert to the Defense Department for those answers. You said you would encourage china to be helpful in the middle east. Could you elaborate on what you would like to see out of it, do you want them to use their influence with tehran behind thescenes, and separately, you have also called out beijing in the past for providing support for putins war effort in ukraine. What is the Current Assessment on whether that is ongoing or whether it is reaching a level of redline . You did not want to get into it but it was nonlethal aid provided a couple months ago so where does that stand now, and obviously putin went to china a couple weeks ago so there so their alliance seems to be strong. We have not seen any indication that china is willing to provide lethal capabilities to the Russian Military. We have not seen that. As for them being helpful, they are able to have conversations in some places like tehran, that we arent. We will see what he says when he gets here tomorrow. But there is i think it would be irresponsible if we did not try to explore this issue with them and see what their thoughts and perspectives are. Back to the numbers, eight groups including the United Nations that are working in gaza cite the members of the health ministry. Are they wrong to do that . They can make their own decisions about what numbers. The state department has cited those numbers. If the administration that hamas is manipulating the numbers but not before we remember the attack on the hospital and what they did the Gaza Ministry of health put out . They slapped the number 500 on it an hour after the attack. The same ministry of health said it was an israeli airstrike. So we know thats not true. And we have since found out that the numbers are not that high either. It has not gone up to 500. It was at least a couple of hundred a couple hundred and that is terrible, atrocious and sad and we grieve with the families and loved ones affected by that. But the numbers are not reliable. I dont need to tell you how to do your jobs, but if youre going to report casualty figures out of gaza, i would recommend you dont choose numbers put out by an organization that is run by a terrorist organization. Thank you so much. Besides saying that he does not have confidence in the numbers, the president went further to say that innocence will die and it is the price of the war. There has been Harsh Criticism about it. Would the president apologize and does he regret saying something . Whats harsh is the way hamas is using people as human shields and whats harsh is taking a couple hundred hostages and leaving families anxious, waiting and worried to figure out where their loved ones are. Whats harsh is dropping in on a Music Festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people trying to enjoy an afternoon that is what is harsh. That is what is harsh. And being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties and that there likely will be more is being honest because thats what war is. Its brutal. Its ugly. Its messy. Ive said that before. The president also said it yesterday. It doesnt mean we have to like it. It doesnt mean we are dismissing any one of those casualties. Each and everyone is a tragedy in its own right and each and everyone we should try to prevent, and that is why we are in close contact with israeli counterparts to do what we can to help them minimize the risk to civilians that are in harms way. In harms way. It would be helpful if hamas would let them leave. Leave their homes, leave areas, not shelter in tunnels underneath their houses and hospitals, and let them get out of gaza if they want to leave and we know there are thousands waiting to leave gaza at large. Writ large. And hamas is preventing them from doing it, and that is what is harsh. Another question, israel has a dispute now with the un secretarygeneral. I would like to know what is the White House Position on that, because he is revoking visas from the un representatives in the middle of the war, so what is the position of this administration . Can you repeat the first part of that . The israel dispute with the un general secretary. And his revoking visas right now from a un representative in the time of war. What do you think of that . I will let the secretary general speak for his self. For himself. I think President Biden is clear about where we are and i will leave it at that. Can you get more specific on how soon u. S. Lending for israel will lapse . Its difficult to estimate but are we talking days, weeks or months . It is difficult to know. Its driven by the pace of operations and the Security Systems flowing. And the expenditure rate. I would say the same thing about ukraine but i know time is not on our side and the runways getting shorter with every passing week. We need that supplemental funding. My colleague turned 32 in prison today. Any update on his case and is there any concern on the american hostages in gaza and it could distract from his release . There will not be any distraction from getting evan and paul home. That work continues. I wish i had an update and i dont except to say the team has not stopped working on both of them and trying to get them out but we just dont have a negotiation to speak to. No progress to make. But it is very much an active effort and our thoughts continue to be with both families. As you know, the kill list, his family was killed by an israeli strike. His family was told to take refuge in the camper they would be safe and it happened while the chief was reporting live on air. This is coming as reporter as a reporter told al jazeera to tone down the coverage on the war in gaza. Does the president believe the targeting of generalists journalists and family should end . Targeting journalists in any way is not appropriate. I have seen the reporting and certainly our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. That is just horrible but i cannot speak to the circumstances in which that strike occurred. But make no mistake. And we know all of you take great risks, sometimes, and doing that job. In doing that job. Speaking at about al jazeera journalists and the approach of the qatari government asking us to tone down our approach . In the context of do we have some kind of beef with al jazeera . I will let the secretary and their staff speak to this conversation in the region. I wont do that. We recognize al jazeera as a valuable voice and an outlet that has incredible reach, in the region and beyond. It is truly a Global Network and we value the work that you do. Journalists says at least 24 journalists have been killed in gaza trying to cover this story. Are you concerned that israel is trying to silence journalists who are trying to tell both sides of this story, including al jazeera i do not see any indication whatsoever that israels going after journalists in particular because of them trying to tell a story. Ive seen absolutely zero evidence of that. That is an unfounded allegation. Admiral, do you have any update on the progress of the attempts to have hostages freed . None that i can speak to today. The president said yesterday that he has conveyed to the Prime Minister that if there is any way to buy some time to free the hostages, that there should be a humanitarian pause. But if there is no progress, how long should that pause last . It should last as long as we need it to last to get the hostages out. But to kevins question, by definition it is temporary and perhaps localized. You cannot assume all the hostages are in the same place or in the same sense of conditions. Sets of conditions. And while i dont have anything to specifically report out today, i can promise you to your question about progress, i can tell you that we are working on it very hard with our partners in the region and we want to see all the hostages released. I guess what im saying is, does hamas need to show some effort to release more of the hostages in order to justify the humanitarian pause . That gets into negotiating tactics and i will not do that. It would be foolhardy and dangerous if we started negotiating here in public in the Briefing Room about how the hostages how we can work to get them out. We need to keep that in the private diplomatic channels, but the work is ongoing and aggressively so. Hamas recently said that 50 of the hostages have been killed in israeli bombing raids since the conflict began. You talked a lot about the fact that the u. S. Does not trust the numbers coming from hamas, do you have any way to independently verify whether that figure is correct or not . No. On the visit of the Chinese Foreign minister, did you say we can expect the president to drop by on that meeting tomorrow . I dont have anything on the president s calendar to speak to. Anyone who has a beef with kimberly has to go through me first. [laughter] ok. I will consider myself fair warned then. Regarding the two state solution, what is the president s vision on what that would look like and are there any preconditions or contingencies that would be in place . We are not there yet. The idea of a two state solution is not a new idea and its one that President Biden has believed in for a very, very long time throughout his foreignpolicy experience. Getting there has proven difficult. I dont need to tell you that. Obviously, its going to remain a difficult task, but what we hope is that its not illusory and that its not impossible. What that can actually look like once we get folks to the table, all of that would have to come in the future. I cannot possibly begin to describe what the parameters would look like right now. There is a gallup poll that came out a month ago that shows 72 of palestinians are against a two state solution the highest since they started pulling the question. Polling the question. Furthermore, they showed 84 do not have confidence in the current administrations ability to bring about a peace agreement. How do you work with those kinds of numbers . We just keep working toward the goal. Recognize that theres different opinions, but we dont enact policy. We dont pursue the potential and the promise for peace and security in the middle east based on opinion polls. Last question. Thank you. Why did the president believe that recently announced india, middle east, europe economic corridor threatened some players in the middle east . The president said last week twice that the corridor have precipitated Hamas Terrorists against israel. I think you misunderstood. What he said was he believed that the normalization process and the agreement we were trying to reach between israel and saudi arabia for normal is in for normalization which we believe is an important steppingstone to getting to a two state solution was what may have motivated hamas to conduct the attacks. I think you misunderstood what he actually said. Thank you. Has canada shared with you any evidence of allegations against india . I will not talk about intelligence matters. Certainly not from here. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Okay. Colleen, good to see you. About the new speaker. Is the president concern about working with the new speaker given his track record on gun control, abortion and the 2020 election . Upon the speakers election, we invited him today, its actually happening right now, to a bipartisan briefing with leadership and Relevant Committee chairs and Ranking Members, on the president s supplemental National Security package. So that is happening right now and so the speaker is here and he did join that briefing. And the other question, the president was asked about 2020 and the president answered it pretty straightforward. You heard him say that when it came to the 2020 election, that we have more than 60 judges who basically threw those cases out of the court or approved it to not be true. When it came to the accusations that the elections were not real or whatever however they said it in 2020. But also the Trump Administration said 2020 election was the most the safest election we have ever had and you heard that from the Trump Administration. The president also said he understands the constitution. More broadly, as it relates to the speaker, the president has said that once congress and the house conference was able to get their affairs in order after spending 22 days to pick a speaker, in their chaos that we have seen them do the last 22 days, once they figured that out, he would be willing to work with them in good faith to get things done on behalf of the American People, and we have been able to do really big things in a bipartisan way and whether it is the infrastructure law, weve been able to do that to deliver for the American People and the president wants to do that. He wants to continue that progress. Lets not forget in the midterms the American People were clear that they want to continue to see that type of bipartisanship and want us to continue to grow the economy. That is the president s focus and he is willing to take up the speakers words and is now working on Common Ground to make that happen. Is the president confident the house can get the supplemental taken care of . A couple of things there. As we know, we have heard from many republicans even on the supplemental, especially National Security supplemental and how they have seen bipartisan support. That is really important. And i have a couple folks i want to read out, leader mcconnell so the National Security priorities from russia, hamas and china are connected and it requires a worldwide approach. Senate Armed Services Ranking Member rucker wicker roger wicker said he absolutely supports linking ukraine in israel aid and its a solid majority in the house and the senate could to macbook the Senate Appropriations vice chair said each of the four elements are critical. We have seen bipartisan support for the National Security supplemental and obviously it includes ukraine and israel. There is no reason we should not be able to move forward to get that done. Speaker johnsons voting record shows hes opposed strongly opposed to guncontrol safety legislation. What realistically can get done with this speaker . I hear the question. Look what just happened last night, look what happened in maine in a Small Community of 30,000 people and clearly the gunman is still at large. And so it is a dynamic situation on the ground, but as far as we know, 18 people were killed and we should not have weapons of war in our communities, schools or anywhere in the communities. This is gun violence epidemic and the time is now to act and here is the thing, speaker johnson and all of the members on the hill, republicans in congress, they have the ability to stop this. They have the ability to put forth legislation to deal with this issue and they can change this and help save lives. And we are just not going to take its great to hear thoughts and prayers and we obviously want to give the families dealing with this tragedy and the victims that are clearly dealing with the tragedy obviously we want them to make sure they are in our thoughts and prayers but thats not enough. So we were able to do a bipartisan piece of legislation to deal with gun violence, a piece of legislation that is law that we have not seen in 30 years, so there is ways to get there, but executive actions is not enough. Weve got to do more, and just because it may be difficult and hard doesnt mean that we stop fighting and it doesnt mean that the president will stop saying over and over again that we have to stop this gun violence epidemic. Is there any action that the president i dont have anything to read out at this time and theres an office to prevent gun violence which is a Historic Office which the president is very proud of that is being led by the Vice President who is part of that, leading the efforts of that office. But we have to continue to do the work. We have to continue to do the work and it has to be done legislatively. We cannot just continue to do executive actions. The president has signed two dozen of them but we need to do more and sign legislation into law and build on the bipartisan action taken last year. Go ahead. Is the speaker meeting the president today . I dont have anything to read out on the president on the visit with the president. What i can say is the speaker is indeed here and he was getting a briefing with other members of congress on the National Security supplemental funding package, which we believe is an important package and has strong bipartisan support. Was yesterday the first time that the president has ever spoken to mike johnson . Do they have any relationship . I dont have any engagement to list out, but i can say when there was the congressional picnic, congressman johnson was here and i believe there was an event, an lsu event here not too long ago that the president shouted out and obviously congressman johnson because he had attended. I dont have any other specific engagement. Are you willing to give us any sort of read its been in place for a little while now, but what are the meetings like . Are they talking about executive action or potential new legislation or soliciting recommendations . One thing i can say is greg jackson, one of the deputies of the office, he convened as it relates to what happened, the horrific actions of last night, he convened federal agencies and did that this morning to discuss federal resources already deployed and any additional and address any Additional Community needs as people of lewiston work through the unimaginable grief that they may be experiencing, so we are in direct contact with folks on the ground there and that is something that the office is being part of. I dont have any other executive actions. I was just asked about that. But our focus right now is to continue to call on congress to take action. We need to see legislation. And we need to make sure that weapons of war are not in communities. Thats what we are seeing right now. We need to make sure that weapons of war are not in communities. We need to take more action that are common sense gun laws that the American People want to see. The majority of americans want to see this. So it is for House Republicans to listen to their constituents and listen to americans across the country and they can help stop what we are seeing here. They can help save lives. And it is their job to do that at the capitol on the hill. Is the president going to lewiston, maine when things settle down . I dont have anything to share. I dont want to get ahead of the president scheduled. The president s schedule. It is a dynamic situation and i think the priority and focus is to make sure that maine and the local enforcement has the resources that it needs. Thats what the president wants to make sure happens. We have to catch this killer and bring him to justice and that is incredibly important as well so we are with the community on the ground and certainly the president wants to make sure that they have the resources they need in this really critical time. Nancy. What are some of the concrete goals of the office of Gun Violence Reduction . Ao, look, i think having this Historic Office is incredibly important, and making sure it shows how critical we see the epidemic that is happening across the country, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to save lives. Look, one of the things as well that we want to do is make sure we offer any type of emotional or mental assistance. We want to see what other executive actions can be done and we believe legislation is the way to go, but there may be other actions that can be done so we want to make sure we look at that, looking at all the potential options we can do to continue to build on what the president has been able to do, having conversations with communities on the ground, listening to them, and taking advice on what it is further actions that can be taken on the ground. This office is critical at the moment is what we are seeing with the communities really going through this horrific epidemic, and when we see guns being the number 1 killer of children, we have to take action. When you think about the office and what it does, preventing gun violence, its a way for the president to show that hes taking this seriously, and its a way to figure out what else can be done to really stop this epidemic and work with communities on the ground. Is there a timeframe for how long it will take to figure out what should be done before they start aggressively trying to implement . I dont have a timeline. We will see if there is additional executive action, but it is for congress, we have to see law, and we have to see ways for congress to take action on making sure that there arent weapons of war on the street and make sure there is common sense legislation out there that americans want to see, and we have to actually see legislative actions to deal with the issue and build on the partisan Safer Communities act. We need to do that. That is how we are going to deal with the epidemic. This office is going to be there for communities. We will see what else we can be doing from this side of pennsylvania avenue and we are going to do everything we can from here, but really the answer is congress has to act. They have to take action. Go ahead, peter. We would like to ask you very quickly about the new house speaker. Does the president view him as a maga extremist . I would have to let the speaker speak for himself. I think has defined himself as that way, so he is going to have to answer that question for himself, but what we can say is we want to move forward on making sure we get the work done on behalf of the American People and the president is willing to do that in a good faith fashion as we have been able to do that on many bipartisan laws now that the president was able to push through congress with democrats and republicans. Thats what we want to see. I ask that because the president last month when he was speaking in arizona and honoring his late friend john mccain said the extreme agenda referring to members of what he described as the maga republican extremist, the extreme agenda altered american democracy as we know it and does that concern apply given the leading role he played in trying to overturn the election in 2020 . The speaker has spoken to himself publicly about where he sees his views ideologically. Im not going to get ahead of that. And im not going to prejudge what the relationship is going to be like. Now that he is a speaker. Youre willing to relieve that if he acts in good faith . We want to make sure the president wants to make sure that we get the business of the American People done. There is so much to get done and i was just asked about the National Security supplemental. We need to get that done. We need to make sure in 21 days that theres not a shutdown and that is the job of congress. The moment that we are in right now should not be about partisanship. The American People dont want to see that. They want to see us working in a bipartisan way. The president as you know so president that believes in bipartisanship and believes in bringing both sides together and he has done that in the last two years. So he wants to continue that but as far as the speakership, we will see how that goes. Im not going to prejudge with that what that relationship looks like moving forward. You said you dont want to prejudge. [indiscernible] does that break with your message . I will not speak to what the campaign does. I will speak to here and right now speaking for the president in this administration and what i can say is the president this is something that he has said himself, that he wants to work in good faith with whoever they chose to be speaker. And he wants to deliver for the American People and that is something the president has set himself. Said himself. And so that is going to be our focus. That is what we want to get done. There is a lot of work to get done. We have two supplementals, when one is domestic and one is National Security supplemental and we believe they are urgent needs as we speak about the National Security and as we talk about Disaster Relief and childcare. All of these things are important to the American People and that is what the president will focus on. A lot of hands. [laughter] go ahead, john in the back. As it relates to the new speaker, is keeping the government funded a major test for the new speaker . If there is a government shutdown, you essentially say its all the new speakers fault . Im not going to get into hypotheticals. We know that we have 21 days to make sure, and its their job, congress, to make sure the government stays open. They have 21 days to do that, now they have speaker and now they have to make sure that we do that and that it continues and the government stays open and we dont have military or federal employees not getting played during critical programs are out there that the American People need. That needs to continue. We will see what happens. 21 days to get that done as it relates to other priorities that the president has that we believe are bipartisan priorities. I just talked about Disaster Relief and childcare. All of those things are bipartisan has bipartisan support. We believe that things could get done. Im getting pulled by the team here. I will be back tomorrow. One last question. California governor gavin newsom is currently in china and met with the president of china yesterday. Did the white house sanction this trip . I dont have anything to speak to on that trip and i would refer you to the state department and the governors office. I just dont have anything to share. Thank you. See you guys tomorrow. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. We are funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communications. Charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we are just getting started. Tilting 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. Charter communications supports cspan as a plic service along with these other Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next, a hearing on combating financing for terrorists. From the senate banking, housing and urban affairs committee. When assist talked about the nc