Preclearance saved those defendant jurisdictions literally billions of dollars over the course of the time that preclearance was in effect. Why . Because without preclearance, they would have been subject to litigation. In the end when they good afternoon. Still working on that i see. Well get better. Yesterday three u. S. Service members and one partner nation member were killed while providing assistance to Counter Terror operations. As many of you are aware u. S. Forces are in the country to provide training and security assistance. In their effort to counter violent extremist organizations. Additionally two u. S. Service members were injured and evacuated in stable condition to germany. Names are being with hheld at h time. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the Fallen Service member whose made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the freedoms we hold so dear. The president also visited las vegas yesterday to offer his support to the incredible people there. He met with Law Enforcement first responders, the medical trauma team, all of whom did incredible work under dire circumstances and visited with survivors and their families. The president was deeply touched by the spirit of the people in las vegas. In one particularly stirring moment at the hospital, the president met 28yearold Thomas Gunderson who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the leg. After being shot thomas drug himself behind a row of bleachers and began worrying that he may bleed out. But two young women rushed to his side. One tied a belt around his leg to stop the bleeding. Others rallied a group of men to carry him to safety. He suffered a torn muscle in his calf making it difficult to stand. But when the president and the first lady walked into his room at the hospital, he endured the pain and rose to his feet. When asked why he did it, thomas said i will never lie down when the president of this great country comes to shake my hand. The las vegas strong hash tag that has swept across in recent days could not be more fitting. The Vice President will be traveling to florida, the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico. He will might be survivors, and personally assess the recovery effort. The federal government continues to provide much needed personnel and supplies to puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. Puerto ricos governor recently said the president and the administration, every time weve asked them to execute, theyve executed quickly. That has been and will continue to be our goal. This unprecedented relief effort should make it very clear we will not rest or stop until all of our people are safe, secure and set on a clear path toward building the very Bright Future they deserve. And with that i will take your questions. Jill. I want to start off with does the support legislation that would ban or regulate. [inaudible] our focus as weve said has been on healing and uniting the country. The investigation still continues to be in very early stages. We know that both members of both parties in multiple organizations are planning to take a look at bump stocks and related devices. We would like to be a part of that conversation and would like to see a clear understanding of the facts and would like to see impact from policymakers. Were expect hearings and other important fact finding efforts on that and we want to be part of that discussion. Were certainly open to that moving forward. Anything about the president s thinking . Were open to that moving forward but we want to be part of that conversation as it takes place in the coming days and week. Daca today has the deadline. Is there any thinking about the deadline because so many people did not submit their application . Ill keep you posted on any announcements. Right now the president s position has been that hes called on congress to come up with a permanent solution and a fix to this process to have responsible Immigration Reform and wed like to see that be a part of it. Maggie. Asking for cuts in the level of immigration going to be part of what the white house seeks in a daca fix . Were going to roll out the specific principles that wed like to see in that responsible Immigration Reform very soon. Probably in the very short future. And well let you know when we do that. You can see all the details on that day when its there. A couple questions on puerto rico if i can. The president said that the debt in puerto rico is going to be wiped out. Director mulvaney cleared that up a little bit saying he wasnt we shouldnt take the president word for word on that. Can you just button it down from the podium whether or not the president will take action or push for legislation to forgive any of the debt that puerto rico currently has . Right now the primary focus is to provide relief to puerto rico and support in the rebuilding effort. While were still dealing with the immediate disaster, it isnt inappropriate to focus on the difficulties that puerto rico was dealing with before the storm. Theres a process for how to deal with puerto ricos debt. It will have to go through that process to have a lasting recovery and growth. This is a process that was put in place and set up under obama. That has a board of advisers that deals with that debt and it will go through that process as we move forward. Matthew. Im going to try to jump around. Im wondering if theres any concern in the white house that the president s frequent use of the term fake news to describe mainstream outlets muddies the water a little bit and makes it harder for citizens to identify the actual fake news that the Intelligence Agency has said countries like russia used to interfere in the last election . I think that the president has a great frustration with the fact that a lot of times you have inaccurate information thats being presented as factual. A lot of times you have opinions that are being presented as news and theyre not. And i think that is a real concern and something that certainly should be looked at. Difference between erroneous reports or reporting that he finds offensive and the type of fake news that we saw pushed during the election by russian intelligence . Does he see a distinction there . We see a problem with any stories that are inaccurate or untruthful being presented to the american fepeople as facts. Im sorry, can you say that . [inaudible] the president routinely meets with senators and house members and this wasnt anything beyond that. They talked about a number of issues. Obviously senator cotton has been somebody the president has worked with regularly since taking office. Were going to continue to do that. If we have further information well let you know. [inaudible]. I think both of those top ic were discussed. Does the president have an open attitude about other methods of gun control that have long been debated or is the White House Open to what you just described and being willing to be a part of that conversation limited to one on bump stock . The president is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. That hasnt changed. This is a president who wants to look at i think at this point in the process, i think we all need to take a step back. We had one of the most horrific tragedies thats ever taken place on u. S. Soil and before we can run out and Start Talking about the prevention for Something Like that to happen again, which we all certainly want to do, we have to determine what caused it. We havent gotten that far down the road. Thats something that Law Enforceme enforcement agencies are all working day in, day out to do. We want to help support that effort in any way possible. Again, i think that this administrations position is extremely clear. We would take any step we could to prevent this from happening again. Bump stock is what youre open to having a conversation about and thats it for the moment . Thats something were certainly open to having that conversation. At this point, again, i dont think that we want to go out and start having and making rash decisions when were still in an open investigation. Wed like to get more facts about what we can do. This is a president whos very committed to doing every single thing he can every single day to protect american lives, whether thats securing the border, whether thats defeating isis, whether thats containing north korea, and whether thats looking at leg late tiff fixes that may be necessary to help protect american lives. Thats something the president and the administration are committed to doing and looking at and being a part of that conversation every single day. I want to talk about the Iran Nuclear Deal. October 15th deadline coming up. I want to make it clear for the people that dont know its a little more complicated because theres also the review act that congress enacted last year. So im just curious given that the president has previously said this deal was an embarrassment, does it make sense to presume he will not choose to recertified or mighty decide to strengthen sanctions and sort of stay in the deal that way . Whats your thought . The president has as he said made a decision on this and hell make that announcement at the appropriate time. The main focus that he has had has been a comprehensive strategy on how to deal with iran. That is what he wanted his team to put in place and i think you will see that announced in short order and that will be a comprehensive strategy with a unified team behind him supporting that effort. His voices im imaging in the room on that. Even though theyll move forward as one, theres been some debate. Is it fair to say that . The president s team has presented a united strategy that the National Security team all stands behind and supports. And the president will make that announcement soon. Since the briefing began the nra has put out a statement as it relates to bump stocks, their position on bump stocks. They write that they believe that devices that allow semi automatic rifles to function as fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulation. Does that change the administrations point of view . After all the president has been a big supporter of the nra and the nra has also been a big supporter of the president. As i said a few minutes ago, we welcome certainly that and a conversation on that. That hasnt changed. Its something were very open to. Again, we want to be part of the conversation on that moving forward. Going back to puerto rico, you said that with the debt, theres a process in place and that the process will play out. Does that mean the president s comments have been simply wiping away the debt thats no longer on the table . The president wants that to go through that process and thats the stage we are. Chuck schumer now or at least is scheduled to have a News Conference about the state and local Tax Deductions being wiped off the books, how they should stay on the books. Theres currently one republican senator, seven republicans at least in the house who want that to stay as a part of the tax framework. The president talked about red lines. Is he up for negotiation on salt or is it something for him that is a red line . The president has laid out his priorities and the framework of what he wants to see in this tax relief package. I think one of the big things you have to look at is most americans dont actually itemize deductions. 80 goes to six figure tax filers. The fact is it isnt fair and it doesnt make sense for working americans to subsidize the wealthy in a few states. Were moving forward with the framework we laid out. Yesterday the administration asked for 13 billion to help storm victims. Will some of that go towards helping puerto rico rebuild its power grid which was in pretty dire straits before this storm . There was a large portion of that that will go to femas Disaster Relief fund. That will be determined at the appropriate time which parts of those will go to which efforts. So i direct you to fema on the specifics of what that would look like. Why did the president tweet this morning that hed like to see the Senate Intelligence committee investigate news outlets and i guess the quest to go after fake news . Does he value the First Amendment as much as he values the Second Amendment . Absolutely. The president is an incredible advocate of the First Amendment, but with the First Amendment, you have hold on. I allowed you to finish. With the First Amendment with those freedoms also come responsibilities. And you have a responsibility to tell the truth, to be accurate. I think right now when weve seen recent information that says that only 5 of Media Coverage has been positive about this president and this administration, while at the same time you have the stock market and Economic Confidence at an alltime high, isis is on the run, unemployment at the lowest its been in 17 years, weve cut regulations at a historic pa historic pace, were fixing the v. A. , youve only found 5 of our time to focus on those big issues and those frankly those are the issues they care about. Want a lot of the things you cover. Not a lot of the petty palace intrigue you spend your time on. I think we need to move towards certainly a more fair, more accurate and frankly a more responsible news media for the American People. If i can followup on that. Im going to try to get to everybody. Very quickly, Congress Investigate [inaudible] no. Your question, Governor Brown in california just signed a sanctuary state statute and im interested in what effort the administration will make to block the move and whether this signifies that the Administration Efforts to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions has failed given that california has more than 12 of the nations population and it will now be an entire state under the sanctuary designation. Look, we are spending every day we can trying to find the best way forward. The president will be laying out his responsible immigration plan over the next week. And i hope that california will pushback on their governors i think irresponsible decision moving forward. My second question was a follow up to jims. Im going to try to get to everybody today. Is the president upset that his secretary of state didnt deny calling him a moron in the public remarks yesterday . Look, as the secretary of state said, this is a petty ridiculous accusation and frankly i think its beneath the secretary of state to weigh in on every rumor out there. His spokes person, however, did come out and clarified that the secretary of state had never used those words. What is your response that the president has undercut the secretary of state . I think its the premise of that question is absolutely ridiculous. The president cant undercut his own cabinet. Hes the leader of the cabinet. He sets the tone and he sets the agenda and i think that question makes no sense because of that. Two questions. First, let me followup on that kevins question earlier about the iran agreement. We know that discertified does not mean a complete cut and it would still keep the u. S. In the negotiating procedure. On the other hand, a clean break such as that advocated by former ambassador john bolton would completely separate the u. S. From any agreement with iran. Ambassador bolton proposed that, reportedly has been unable to talk to the president about it. Is the clean break advocated by him still on the table . As i told kevin, the president is going to make an announcement about the decision that hes made on a comprehensive strategy that his team supports well do that in the coming days. Im not going to get ahead of that announcement. John, im going to try to get to everybody. I had two. Everybody has two. If thats the case that were setting, somebody can say i have 12 questions on the front end and i never get to going to anybody else. Ill economic ba to you if we can. We now know that secretary price was essentially let go for his private jet travel and we know that i think in close proximity to his firing secretary perry took private jets. We know that Kellyanne Conway has went along for one of secretary prices rides. Now the president has spent 17 weekends at taxpayer expense either at maralago at the cost of 180,000 an hour for air force one and will take the plane to a fundraise ner North Carolina this weekend. Is he not setting the tone to tell his cabinet members that this kind of over yus use is ok ill start with North Carolina. My knowing is a political event will be reimbursed. The president is translator first class rate that secretary price made . Ill have to check on that. The president is in a very different position. Hes not allowed to travel in a different way other than in a secure airplane as air force one. He could stay here and work. The president certainly hasnt been there every weekend and every weekend that hes traveling no matter where he is the president is working. Hes hosted foreign leaders on several of those trips. Which has led to some great accomplishments. Theyve led certainly to putting further pressure unprecedented pressure on north korea in large part because of the Relationship Development that youre attacking for. This is a president that is committed to helping move his agenda forward and certainly i think that those weekends have been very successful in doing that. I wont ask about the president s tweet this morning about the Senate Intelligence committee. Is he frustrated with how long the investigation into alleged Russian Election interference is taking . I think more importantly than the president being frustrated, i think the American People are frustrated. The Senate Intel Committee told us yesterday that after nearly nine months of investigation that included more than 100 interviews, over more than 250 hours, 4,000 pages of transcripts, 100,000 pages of documents, interviewing officials in the Intelligence Community who wrote the report on Russian Election meddling, interviewing obama officials, in talking to every Trump Campaign official theyve requested its literally found zero evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia. I think that the American People would like them to focus on some other things. I know that we certainly have said this all along and were glad that as they continue this process theyre coming to the same conclusion. On the kurdish vote last week im wondering the investigate ares what message is the white house and the u. S. Government sending to them now by not backing them in their desire for independence . Look, weve been clear and consistent on that. It hasnt changed and were not going to weigh in any further than we already have. Does President Trump believe the Senate Intelligence committee should investigate American Media organizations . I dont know that thats the case, but i do think that we should call on all media to a higher standard and certainly i think i weighed in very clearly what our position is when jim asked the question earlier. Intelligence committee looking into the Fake News Networks in our country . Look, i think you have a lot of responsibility and a lot of times false narratives create a bad environment, certainly arent helpful to the American People. And you have a responsibility to provide and report fair and accurate details. When we dont, thats i think troubling for all of us. You said several times that the white house wants to be part of the conversation on bump stocks. The president said well be talking about gun laws as time goes by. You also suggested i think that the time to talk about that is after the investigation has gotten to another stage or wrapped up . If not now, when is it appropriate to start having this conversation about policy . I havent said that the investigation has to be fully complete before conversations can take place. But i think we have to be careful that before we go out and try to talk about things that prevented something we need to know what caused it in the first place. Were not there yet. Were still in that process. We certainly want to, again, look at every way that we can prevent anything even remotely close to this from ever happening again. And we want to be part of that process. We hope to. Just ask one question just to clarify the white houses position on these bump fire stocks. This morning in a couple of Television InterviewsKellyanne Conway suggested that the atf in 2010 made a decision that these bump stocks were firearms parts and not firearms themselves and couldnt be regulated under the existing law. Is it the white houses view that that was the wrong decision on the part of the atf . Im not aware of kellyannes comments, so id have to look at that before i weighed in. Id want to have all the information in front of me before i can answer that. Again i think the bigger point we are were open to having that conversation. We want to be part of it moving forward. There are two las vegas questions. One, is the consideration considering overriding the 2010 . Like i just said, i think thats something we should look at. Were very open to it. We want to have that conversation and move forward in the process. A congresswoman from las vegas said she personally delivered a letter to a member of the white house staff yesterday inviting the president to meet with the Gun Violence Task force. Did the president see it . Is he going to say yes . Im not sure if he saw the letter but i think we certainly would be open to having a meeting with a number of different organizations and people that will be involved in this process. Do you know if he got the letter . Again, id have to check before i could comment. The president had even preliminary conversations with congressional leaders about bump stock and did he talk with any of the rescuers in las vegas about these devices . I know the conversation came up in the very early stages with some of the members that were traveling yesterday, but nothing definitive opening up that conversation. Like ive said, several times today, thats a discussion that we welcome and that we want to be a part of. Over the last couple days the president has used the word hate and cruelty. Youre saying youre talking, youre having conversations on Different Things that relate to las vegas. What is the conversation when it comes to the issue of youve not talked about it yet. Youve not classified it. Talking to people from both sides of the aisle, theyre saying theres no unsettled definition of heroism. Weve seen timothy mcva ey. Under all circumstances weve seen so far, people who are intimidated, scared, ambushed, military style in a planned thought out effort to be, whether political or not, they were terroredized. Is this administration willing to start having conversations about other things . Was this terror, domestic terror . I think thats something for the Law Enforcement communities to define and identify. I think the bigger thing that this administration certainly has been focused on is the prevention. And looking at how we can stop things like this from ever happening again. I dont care how you label it. Its something that should never take place in this country. This president is committed to looking for ways to prevent it. What about that ive limited everybody to one question today. What does this white house believe the president went there, was very controversial. Actually, it wasnt controversial. It was widely praised even by a democrat governor. I think its sad the mayor of san juan made that a political statement instead of focusing on the relief efforts. The president invited her to be part of that conversation. He specifically asked in the meeting where many were present including a couple dozen other mayors who were very happy with the recovery efforts. The governor, the congresswoman, he opens the floor up for discussion and she actually made zero comments. To me that would have been the time and the place that she should have weighed in and asked for what she needed and laid out what she was asking for for san juan. She didnt. Instead she chose to wait until the president left and then criticized him on tv which i think is the wrong thing for her to do for her constituents and i hope next time shes given the opportunity shell take it. Youre being very clear the president is open to conversations about bump stocks and regulation go gun control. Does he want to lead that conversation . Will he get out and use the president ial platform to push for more regulation for example on bump stock . Law enforcement officials have said were used. I think light now the president s position have been to lead on effort to unite our country. Weve had a country in mourning. We saw what kind of leader this president wants to be by what he did yesterday. He went in. He met with the Law Enforcement officials. He met with the medical teams. He met with the survivors of that horrific tragedy. Obviously this president wants to be a leader. I think hes demonstrated that. I think hell continue to do that in this process. If you want me to get down into the weeds on specific policy, i dont think were there yet. Right now we want to lead the effort on bringing our country together and offering comfort to those that have been hurt over the last several days. Again, im going to take this as the last one. Some talk some of the Iran Nuclear Deal [inaudible] im not sure about the Nobel Peace Prize process. Certainly not as it pertains to that. I think weve been very clear what our position is on the deal. That hasnt changed because some people may receive an award. Thanks, guys. Have a good day. The Supreme Court heard a case dealing with legislative districts in wisconsin after a lower court concluded that states republican drawn map constituted republican gerrymandering. You can hear the argument tomorrow. And an interview with former first Lady Michelle obama. Shes interviewed by tv create or Shonda Rhimes host on cspan saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3, saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, Sonoma State University professor laura watt discusses the evolution of the park system. This was not a case of setting aside an already natural landscape and leaving it alone which is what we tend to think of when we think of park protection. What he was doing was making nature out of what at the time was mostly old sheeps meadows. There actually is a big grassy area in