Lovely, representing september 11th. 3000 lives and if you think about it, that name really got, as you know, alex, it got a lot higher than that indirectly. Directly and indirectly, a lot of people, a lot of great people. So that was a tremendous job everybody did this morning, letting the world know that were ready for anything if we have to be. Were ready for anything, so thank you and i know a lot of you were there and i appreciate you being there very much. We have a problem in our country, its a new problem, its a problem of nobody really thought about too much a few years ago and its called vaping. Especially vaping as it pertains to innocent children. And theyre coming home and theyre saying, mom, i want to vape and the parents dont know too much about it, and nobody knows too much about it, but they do know its causing a lot of problems. And were going to have to do something about it. One of the words and one of the reasons were meeting today is to let you know that its out there and we want to have parents understand that were studying it very carefully. Its, again, very new, and potentially very bad. There have been deaths and there have been a lot of other problems. People think its an easy solution to cigarettes, but its turned out that it has its own difficulties. So im going to ask secretary azar to say a few words and then if i could, acting director of the fda and youve been doing a fantastic job, i want to thank you, and we want to discuss the situation. Because not only is it a problem overall, but a really specifically with respect to children. Were getting some stories that we dont want to hear and we may very well have to do something very, very strong about it. So if i could ask you, mr. Secretary, say a few words. Thank you, mr. President. So we briefed the president and first lady today on, as yet, undisclosed new data that we have from the National Youth tobacco survey. This information shows a continued surging in at less sent usage of ecigarettes. It also shows that the youth are drawn to flavored ecigarettes including mint and menthol. Currently, about eight million adults use these cigarettes, but five million children are using ecigarettes. This is exceptional will i harmful to our children. An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine because of the attractiveness, appealability and to these vaping products. So with the president hes support the food and Drug Administration intends to finalize a guidance document that would commence enforcement to require that all flavors, other than tobacco flavor, would be removed from the market. This would include mint and menthol flavoring, as well as candy flavors, bubble gum flavor, fruit flavor, alcohol flavor, you get the drift. Once the fda would finalize this guidance we would begin enforcement to remove these from the marketplace. We would allow tobacco favoring to remain, manufacturers of the ecigarette products applying for pre spashth pre market approval to make sure theyre set under the Tobacco Control act. Any other products removed from the market would be able to apply under the similar regulatory pathway for approval, but have to meet that standard, but i want to caution that with the president s support, while we would allow the tobacco flavored ecigarettes to remain on the market to be available or adults who are seeking to stop the use of combustible tobacco, if we find that children are being attracted to tobacco flavored ecigarettes, if he find that manufacturers are marketing the tobacco flavored ecigarettes to children or placing them in settings where they get them, we will taken forcement action there, also. Let me turn to the commissioner of the food and Drug Administration for any Additional Details and comments that they have. And thank you. The data gathered by the c. D. C. And are as the secretary described. It shows very concerning, alarming trend of use by children, flavored ecigarette products. The president is directing the fda to take Decisive Action defense this problem and to finalize the plans we have been working on. This would have the effect as the secretary mentions of severely curtailing access to ecigarette products which we believe drives childhood use and help us get a handle on this alarming and concerning trend. And i will say that commissioner sharpless has been working on this very hard, but hes now going to double and triple up. Were looking at very strong rules and regulations. We already have laws as we need them, but we want to get to the bottom of a very unusual situation. Its so new and its become so big so fast and it could be a potential very severe problem. So commissioner, you know what to do. You know what to do. And its something that, frankly, should have been looked into a few years ago in a much more advanced way. It wasnt and we have something that will be very interesting to see what turns up. But youll be able to report back in the fairly near future because youve done a lot of work on this and well see what happens. Fda is on it. Thank you very much. Any questions on this. Mr. President , does the taliban talks completely dead still or is there still a responsibility the talks with the taliban are dead. Jeff. A followup on your decision yesterday with regards to mr. Bolten. What led you to decide to partways . So john is somebody that i actually got along with very well. He made some very big mistakes when he talked about the libyan model for kim jongun, that was not a good statement to make. You take a look at what happened with gadhafi, that was not a good statement to make, and it set us back and frankly, he wanted to do things, not necessarily tougher than me. You know, john is known as a tough guy. Hes so tough he got us into iraq, thats tough. And, but hes somebody that i actually had a very Good Relationship with, but he wasnt getting along with people in the administration that i consider very important and i hope we have left in good stead. Maybe we have, maybe we havent. I have to run the country the an i were running the country. Were doing very well. Were respected around the world again, respected like we havent been in many, many years. You look at iran and look at so many things happening. Iran wants to talk, they all want to talk. Were doing very well with china and you probably saw the numbers that have come out and come out, some of them coming out just todayment, but china and the supply chain is breaking up. The supply chain of china bye was an unbreakable school they had. Companies are moving out and china wants to make a deal. Well have to see whats good for this country. China has been taking hundreds of billions a year out of our country. I read papers from wall street journal, they havent got a clue. Havent got a clue. They dont make excuses for china has been r literally ripping off the United States in the worst matter for years 500 billion dollars pour out of the United States and i hear people, i dont know do these people have any education on anything . Its common sense, maybe more than anything else, but i look at some statements that are made from so many different people and you know, john wasnt in line with what we were doing. And actually, in some cases, he thought it was too tough, what we were doing. Mr. Tough guy. You know, you have to go into iraq. Going into iraq was something he felt very strongly about so were right now in for other 7 trillion into the middle east and i dont say it was his decision. You had the president and you had the other people, also, he was out there, irk tell you and wanting to have them do it and i des agreed with that from the beginning even though i was a civilian and nobody cared. I was out there, i was outspoken about it. I thought it was a terrible mistake. Here we are many, many years later, decades later were still there and acting as police for now. I tell you one thing, were hitting the taliban right now harder than theyve ever been hit. What they did was horrible. When they killed a Great American soldier, when they killed 12 people, innocent people essentially innocent people because if you look, i mean, many of these people were stifelion. You also had a nato soldier in addition to our great soldier, and when they had that stance, i said get them out. I dont want anything to do with this he and i know for a fact they said it was a big mistake that they made and it was. But that was my decision and what were doing now is my decision. So, we have a lot of great people that want that position. A lot of great people want a lot of positions. They want to be a part of this administration. Weve done more in this administration in less than three years than i believe any president. You look at the accomplishments, even today what were doing. You look at what were doing today. These are big things, nobody else would be doing this. Theyre big things, but have we done in the administration, point, whether its regulation cuts, tax cuts, a look at right to try, with these two gentlemen so important, right to try where people are able to use some of the incredible innovations weve developed with the greatest labs and greatest doctors in the world. They can use that instead of being forced and lever to other countries who dont have a clue compared to us. Now the right to try. By the way, a lot of people are being saved and a lot of people for right to try. What weve done with our debt and the military. 718 billion dollars, by the way, its also jobs. Secondarily, but its also jobs. Nobodys done what weve done and were very honored to have done it. Were in good footing. Our country is respected again. Who are your top picks to replace well, i have people that want it very much. A lot more than that who would like to have it, but five people i considered highly qualified. Good people ive gotten to know over the last three years. Well be announcing somebody next week. We have highly qualified people. We were set back badly when john bolton talked about the libyan model. As soon as he mentioned the libyan model it was a disaster. Take a look at what happened to gadhafi with the libyan model and with north korea. I dont blame kim jongun after that and he wanted nothing to do with john bolton. Thats not a question of not being tough, its a question of not smart to Say Something like that. So i wish john the best. We got along well, im sure hell do whatever he can do to spin it his way. John came to see me the night before, in fact, i think a lot of you people were out there waiting for me to get on the helicopter, im sure you have a shot somewhere along the line and he sat right in that chair and i told him, john, if too many people youre not getting along with people and a lot of us, including me, disagree with some of your tactics and some of your ideas and i wish you well, but id like you to submit your resignation and he did that. And i really, i know hes going to do well. I hope hes going to do well and i wish him well. Background checks so i just spoke with senator toomey and senator murphy, and joe manchin, senator joe manchin. Just had a long talk with them just before this meeting. Just hung up and we are working very, very hard together, all of us, and were seeing if we can come up with something acceptable to everybody. Its a subject thats been going on for decades, decades they have been talking about it. So, we are he looking at background checks and putting everything together in a unified way so we can have something thats unified. All of us want to protect our second amendment, its important to all of us. Were now in the meetings tonight. And im going to speak with them tomorrow and i think that progress is being made. I hope so. Are you willing to put background checks on all gun sales . We are going to take a look at a lot of Different Things and we will be reporting back in a short period of time. There are a lot of things under discussion. Some things will never happen and some things can really very much some meaningful things can happen. Its really gun sense when you think about it. And maybe we should call it the gun sense bill, but were having great dialog. Well see what happens. Did you tell your chief of staff to have [inaudible] no, i never did that. I never did that. Thats a hoax with the Fake News Media when they talk about the hurricane and talk about alabama and right from the it was a fake story. While were here and talking about that, i want to congratulate dan bishop last night on an incredible win. He was 17 point behind three weeks ago, the media thought he was going to lose and set to have a significant celebration with their partners from the Democrat Party and dan bishop worked really hard and i worked very hard with him and he made up a 17point lead in a few weeks, and he won a great election last night and also greg murphy, which nobody is reporting, but greg murphy won a great Congressional Election in North Carolina last night and i want to congratulate between dan and greg, what a job they did. We picked up two seats and greg was anticipated to win by two or three points, maybe less, but two or three points and he won by many, many points. I dont know what the final tab is, but he won by a lot. And he campaigned brilliantly and dan campaigned brilliantly so were very happy about that. Thats a tremendous win for the republican party. Okay . Mr. President. Mr. President. Yes. [inaudible] well, we have a policy on venezuela thats a firm policy. Venezuela is really hurting and were trying to help people in a humanitarian way. Thats probably not good in terms of, you know, crushing a terrible regime, but you have people dying. This was a country 15 years ago was one of the wealthiest countries. People are dying, they dont have water, dont have food, medical, nothing. Were trying to help as much as we can. Were also working with colombia and the leader of colombia is a friend of mine and hes doing a really good job. I can tell you that. Were working with colombia, working with brazil, working with other countries on a humanitarian basis. Venezuela is in very sad shape and that shows you about socialism, i mean, that shows you what happened. You take a country so wealthy 15 years ago and today they dont have water and they dont have basic food. So well see what happens. No, i disagreed with john bolton with his attitudes on venezuela, i thought he was way out of line and i think weve proven to be right. Were always watching venezuela very, very closely. [inaudible] i dont want to comment. I dont want to take about it. Mr. President , learned that Companies Making these products will be treated unfairly by taking these products off the market . Theyve become very Rich Companies very fast and the whole thing with vaping, its been very profitable, you know that, i play for companies they hard and thats why im fighting with china, thats why im fighting with other countries. If you look at European Union and if you look at japan and if you look at so many others, including south korea and many others, were constantly dealing with them to make it good for our companies because i do it as jobs, income for our country and jobs. Vaping has become a big business, a giant business in a short period of time. We cant let people get sick or youth, and thats how the first lady got involved. Shes got a son together, and a good young man, shes reading it, were both reading it, a lot of people are dying with vaping and were looking at it very closely. If nothing else, this is going to let people know about it because people will watch what were saying and parents will be a lot tougher with respect to their children. A lot of people think vaping is wonderful and great. Its really not wonderful. Thats one thing we can say definitely, commissioner, its not a wonderful thing, its got big problems. Weve got to find out the extent of the problem. Its so new, so now, but were going to find out. And i hope that parents, that they have children and the children are a certain age, i hope theyre going to be able to make wise decisions maybe placed on what were saying today. But the commissioner and theyre going to be coming back over the next period of time with some strong recommendations. Can you tell us what the timeline is for taking those flavors off the market . It will take several weeks for us to put out the final guidance that would announce the parameters around the policy. And a with fda good guidance practices and then all flavored aside from tobacco flavored ecigarettes. Tobacco flavored manufacturers would have to file for approval for their product and the other flavored manufacturers can at any time also file, but they would be off the market until approved by fda. The Obama Administration had allowed these products to go onto the market in an unregulated way by delaying enforcement, people who are using combustible tobacco would transition to a less harmful form of nicotine delivery through ecigarettes. What weve seen, the data shows that kids are getting access to the products in spite of our best effort of enforcement, retail enforcement, controlling locations, and over 8,000 warning letters to retailers and others, in spite of moving products off shelves, theyve been going at it so we simply have to remove these attractive flavored products from the marketplace until fda approval are you arranging a meeting with iranian president im not looking at anything. Iran was a different country than two and a half years ago. Two and a half years ago they were given a lot of money by president obama, previous to that, 150 billion dollars in cash, actual cash, impressive. But theyre a different country than two and a half years ago nan when i came into office and i do believe that they would like to make a deal, if they dont make a deal they have tremendous difficulty and the sanctions are going to be tougher and tougher. We cannot let iran have a Nuclear Weapon and they never will have a Nuclear Weapon, if theyre thinking about enrichment, they can forget about it because its going to be very dangerous for them to enrich, very, very dangerous. Okay . You can spread the word to iran. Would you consider easing sanctions to let them make a meeting happen . Well see what happens. Well see what happens. I think that iran has potential and north korea, two countries were dealing with right now at a very high level, i think that iran has a tremendous, tremendous potential. Theyre incredible people and were not looking for regime change, we hope that we can make a deal and if we cant make a deal, thats fine, too. Okay . Thats fine, too. But i think they have to make a deal. Theyve never been in this condition. By the way, china is having the worst year now in 57 years, okay, 57. It was 27, 22 and then 27. 57 years, the worst year theyve had. And its only going to get worse so i think theyll want to make a deal, too. Were dealing with them, but theyll want to make a deal, too. Theyre coming sometime in early october and were speaking to them constantly. And they also, they made a couple of moves last night that were pretty good. You saw that, right. Which moves . They were pretty respectful to our people. Youre going to see it because youre one of the people that reported it, your group, but china is china is having to do with tariffs, they took tariffs off a lot and youre happy about that. I think they did the right thing. I think it was good for them. But they took them off yeah, i think it was, i think it was a gesture, okay . But it was a big move. People were shocked. I wasnt shocked. But i deal with them and i know them and i like them and i hope we can do something and with respect to iran, i think they have to do something because they have potential to have an unbelievably great company, but the way its going right now its disintegrating and i dont think they should allow that to happen. North korea has tremendous potential. North korea, between russia, china and south korea, and its an incredible, incredible people. I think that they really will they have they have this truly unbelievable potential and i think theyll want to get to it. Well see what happens. Maybe they do and maybe they dont, well see, but i really believe that north korea would like to see something tremendous happen. This could be one of the most unbelievab unbelievable you look at a country in terms of this could be one of the most unbelievable experiments ever. North korea and i say with iran. Iran could get back to business and do unbelievably well with all of the and just to finish this about vaping, this is a meeting that gets off a little track because you ask us questions about other things, and i think were better off answering them than not, but we are looking at vaping very strongly. Its very dangerous, and children have died. People have died. And the acting commissioner is somebody that expert on it as much as you can be an expert on a brand new subject and were going to have some very strong rules, regulations and more importantly, i think were going to have some very Important Information come out very shortly. Okay . And well be reporting that over the next couple of weeks and i want to thank you, and commissioner, thank you very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, guys. Thanks. Thank you for asking. Thank you. Mr. President. Thank you very much. Were leaving now. Thank you. Keep moving, guys. Cspan2 is live on the senate floor. Lawmakers are getting ready to consider a number of nominations, including the Federal Reserve board member. First round of votes are expected at 12 15 eastern. Youre watching live coverage of the u. S. Senate right here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain of the senate, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Holy god, your goodness extends to all generations. Thank you that you can be found by all who truly seek you. You are our god and we trust your love, wisdom, and power