Scheduled for later this hour with the australian Prime Minister, scott morrison, where he will likely face even more questions about the whistleblower complaint concerning the president s communication with a foreign leader that reportedly involves a promise and ukraine. Again, did he ask ukraine to investigate a political opponent, joe biden . Did he threaten to withhold military aid because of it . Did he do none of the above . The Washington Post first broke this story and the whistleblower complaint is made by an intelligence official and it is now caught in limbo. The intelligence communitys Inspector General has called the complaint urgent and credible. The acting director of National Intelligence, though, is refusing to hand it over to congress, because he says it was out of his jurisdiction. Related or unrelated, we now have confirmation directly from President Trumps personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that he, at least, did ask ukraine, apparently, to investigate former Vice President joe biden, but pulling a classic giuliani, we can call it, he first denied it and then admitted it in the same interview. Did you ask the ukraine to investigate joe biden . No. Actually, i didnt. I asked the ukraine to investigate the allegations that there was interference in the election of 2016 by the ukrainians for the benefit of hillary clinton, for which there already is a you never asked anything about hunter biden . You never asked anything about joe biden and his role in the the only thing i asked about joe biden is to get to the bottom of how it was usenko, who was appointed would so you did ask ukraine to look into joe biden . Of course i did you just said you didnt a classic giuliani. Add to that cnn confirms the white house and the Justice Department were directly involved in keeping the whistleblower complaint from congress. There is a lot going on here. And theres a lot more to come this hour, so first lets get over to cnns indicacaitlikaitl. Shooeps shes at the white house. Kaitlan, the president is speak to reporters in the oval office. Were going to get that tape. But you have some of the reporting of whats going on there. Reporter the president is addressing this complaint in the oval office. He says he believes that this whistleblower is partisan, though moments later he admitted he does not know what the identity of the whistleblower is. We should factor in, when the president and his attorney general Rudy Giuliani im interrupting you for only one reason. Were actually going to go to the tape now. President trump in the oval office. It was an honor of you and australia, okay. Thank you very much. So we have a lot of things to talk about. Were talking trade, were talking military. Weve been great allies for a long time. Theres no Better Partnership and weve developed on a personal basis a tremendous friendship and that helps, that helps a lot. But well be meeting after this and having some very serious discussions about many things. I do want to, if i may intercede for just a second, we have just sanctioned the Iranian National banks. That is their central Banking System and its going to be at the highest level of sanctions. So that just took place. And a couple of other things, we have our secretary of treasury here, steve mnuchin, if you want to say just a word, steve, before we begin. Mr. President , as you instructed me, we are continuing the maximum pressure campaign. This is the last remaining source of funds of both the central bank of iran as well as the National Development fund, which is their Sovereign Wealth Fund will be cut off from our Banking System. So this will mean no more funds going to the irgc to fund terror. And this is on top of our Oil Sanctions and our Financial Institution sanctions. Thank you mr. President. This is very big. Weve now cut off all source of funds to iran. Goes all the way up to the very top . Right to the top. Supreme leader . Right to the top. Okay . Yes. Right to the top. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. So were dealing with many nations. Were dealing with some of the neighbors to saudi arabia and of course, were dealing with saudi arabia. Saudi arabia is very much involved from the standpoint of what were doing and what theyre doing and were working together with other. Were also working on the cost of this whole endeavor. And saudi arabia has been very generous. We want to see if it works out and if it works out, thats great. And if it doesnt work out, thats great. In the end, it always works out. Thats the way it is. It always works out. So youll be seeing certain things happening, but a very major factor is what we did. These are the highest sanctions ever imposed on a country. Weve never done it to this level. And its too bad, whats happening with iran. Its going to hell. Doing poorly. They are practically broke. They are broke. And they could they could solve the problem very easily. All they have to do is stop with the terror. They have been the number one, as you know, scott, very well, number one country worldwide of terror between sponsoring it and doing it themselves. And we cant have it. They have a tremendous potential. They have an incredible potential. I can speak on behalf of australia, too, in the sense that we would like to see them very well. We were discussing it before. The Prime Minister and myself, we want to see them do well, but it looks to me like with whats happening, maybe they want to keep going at it. And when they go at it with us, theres no way they win. No way they win, in any way, or in any capacity. So, we wanted to let you know about that. And thats the way it is. And thank you all very much. Were going to spend a lot of time with australia today. Today is our a very special day for the United States, because were honoring a great ally and a great friend. Thank you. Thank you. Scott, would you like to Say Something . Its a tremendous honor for australiane nesns for us to be with President Trump and the first lady. It recognizes not just the great relationship that the president and i have been able to forge so early, but this goes back a long way, this relationship. As the president often says, there have been a lot of battles, and battles is whats happened in the fields of conflict, but were battling continuously for a prosperous and a free world. And weve never lost. Well, weve been doing great and well keep doing great because well keep this partnership together. And its a partnership where we both carry our own weight. As i said outside, we look to america, but we dont leave it to america. Prime minister, the president said he spoke for australia on iran. Does he . Well, he was saying that we both would like to see a properous iran. We would like to see the people of iran we would like to see the people right across the world to be able to benefit from properous economies doing well. This is why the australia and the United States have always worked so closely together. Thats what we want for our own people and for everyone. And weve been speaking a lot about this subject, the two of us. I think we have very similar views on the subject. Do you want to address this whistleblower story, sir . Dupe to address this whistleblower story. What story . The whistleblower its a ridiculous story. Its a partisan whistleblower. Shouldnt even have information. I have had conversations with many leaders. Theyre always appropriate. I think scott can tell you that. Always appropriate, at the highest level, always appropriate. And anything i do, i fight for this country. I fight so strongly for this country. Its just another political hack job. Thats all it is. On that point, did you discuss joe biden, his son, or his family with the it doesnt matter what i discuss, but i will say this. Somebody ought to look into joe bidens statement, because it was disgraceful where he talked about billions of dollars that hes not giving to a certain country unless a certain prosecutor is taken off the case. So somebody ought to look into that. And you wouldnt, because hes a democrat. And the fake news doesnt look into things like that. Its a disgrace. But i had a great conversation with numerous people, i dont even know exactly who youre talking about, but i had a great conversation with numerous people, numerous leaders, and i always look for the conversation thats going to help the United States the most. Thats very important. Mr. President , do you know the identity i dont know the identity of the whistleblower, i just hear its a partisan person, meaning it comes out from another party. But i dont have any idea. But i can say that it was a totally appropriate conversation. It was actually a beautiful conversation. And this is no different than, you know, the press has had a very bad week with Justice Kavanaugh and all of those ridiculous charges and all of the mistakes made at the New York Times and other places. Youve had a very bad week. And this will be better than all of them. This is another one. So keep so keep so keep playing it up, because youre going to look really bad when it falls. You know, i guess im about 220 and ill keep it that way. Did you mention joe biden during the conversation i dont want to talk about any conversation other than to say other than to say great conversation, totally appropriate conversation. Couldnt have been better. And keep asking questions and build it up as big as possible so you can have a bigger downfall. Will you be asking australia to do more when it comes to china . Well, were talking about china all the time, and scott has very strong opinions on china. And i think i would let him maybe express those opinions. Maybe youll do it right now. Youre not going to get a better audience than this. We have a comprehensive Strategic Partnership with china, we work with china, but as weve spoken many times, we need to ensure that as countries develop and realize their potential, they come on to a whole new level. And that means there cant be special rules around that. And we have a great relationship with china. Chinas growth has been great for australia, but we need to make sure we all compete on the same Playing Field and this is something that the United States and australia have been very consistent on. That we need to have move into this new world, where economies are changing, china is a big economy. Not as big as the United States, but its a big economy. And that means weve all got to get on the same page with how the rules work. And thats what were working to achieve. I will say this. Were making a lot of progress with china. Theyre having a very bad year. Worst year in 57 years. The tariffs are coming into us. Were taking in billions and billions of dollars of tariffs. Theyre devaluing their currency, which means the tariffs are not costing out probably anything or much else. Theyre also adding a lot of money into their economy. Theyre pouring money into their economy, but were taking in many billions of dollars at some point in the not too distant future, it will be at over 100 billion. Weve never taken in 100 cents from china, it was always the other way around. With that, theyve lost over 3 million jobs there, their supply chain is crashing. And they have a lot of problems. And i can tell you, they want to make a deal. Th that i can tell you. They want to make a deal. So well see what happens. Are you prepared for military action against iran, mr. President . Always prepared. Theres never been a country more prepared. Theres never been a country more prepared. Look, i spent 1. 5 trillion and were spending another 738 billion now, but i spent 1. 7 trillion rebuilding our military. We have the finest ships, the finest planes, the finest everything, and actually, scott, if australia, they purchased a lot of great stuff from the United States. Some of the best military equipment that you have . We have the greatest missiles in the world, rockets in the world, jet fighters in the world, planes in the world, ships, and we have under construction a number of the most powerful submarine s ever built and theyre getting very close to completion. We have the largest ship in the world right now, the president gerald ford, the aircraft carrier. The largest ship ever built. And it just flew over it yesterday, actually. Its massive and beautiful. We have the greatest and i have to say this, when i got here, scott, it was a different world. It was a different world. We were very depleted. And i actually saw one of the related Networks Today saying how strongly and good and how well weve done with isis. I defeated the caliphate. When i came, the caliphate was all over the place. I defeated the caliphate, isis. And now we have thousands of prisoners of war, isis fighters that are prisoners of war, and were asking the countries from which they came, scott, from europe, were asking them to take back these prisoners of war. And this they can try them, do what they want. So far, theyve refused. And at some point, im going to have to say, im sorry, you either take them back or were going to let them go at your border. But they came out from germany, they came out from france. We captured them, did everyone a big favor. Weve taken over the caliphate 100 . I was thinking about getting out when it was at 96 or 97 , but they were all over the place and we did it, we did it in record time. It was a total caliphate victory and now i want the countries to take back the captured isis fighters. And if they dont take them back, were going to probably put them at the border and then theyll have to capture them again. Because the United States is not going to have thousands and thousands of people that weve captured, stationed at Guantanamo Bay, held captive at Guantanamo Bay for the next 50 years and us spending billions and billions of dollars. Weve done europe a tremendous favor. They mostly come out of europe. And weve done them a tremendous favor. And the United States is not going to pay the cost of thousands and thousands of isis fighter prisoners in Guantanamo Bay or someplace else. We wont do it. So they have to make their decision. Otherwise, were releasing them at the border. Go ahead. Next. Would you be ready to name your National Security team on iran today and what do you expect to hear from them . I have a great new person. You hear robert obrien. A lot of people wanted robert very badly. Look, i had 10, 12 people that i thought were fantastic for the job. I think robert hes a great friend of australia. A great friend of australia. Scott was telling me, he was very happy with the choice. Robert is going to be outstanding. He just picked a deputy who was in the administration. You all know him. You know who the deputy is. I guess they have to announce that separately. But hes fantastic. And essentially, hes already on the job. But, you know, he did a tremendous job as hostage negotiator. We are we have a tremendous record. Nobody comes close to our record with hostages. Are you going to be discussing options for iran today with your team . Sure. Sure. But also with secretary of defense, secretary of state, were discussing with everybody. And, you know, material move today was the central bank of iran. Mr. President , are you moving toward a military conflict and would you expect that . Would you australia to join any military action . We havent discussed that. Well be discussing that later, but we havent discussed that yet. Mr. President , would you consider 50 tariffs or even 100 tariffs on china . Im not going to get into that. Right now china is paying 30 on 250 billion. That starts in another couple of weeks. As you know, president xi called through his top people and they have a 70th anniversary, a very important day for them, and it happens to be october 1st, which is the exact date of the increase in the tariff. And they asked us out of respect, would i delay the tariff a little bit. I said, how about if i move it forward . How about if i move it forward a little bit, because they didnt want it to fall on the same day . Its exactly october 1st. I said, let me move it up a couple of weeks, they said, no, no, could you so out of respect for president xi, who i do have Great Respect for, i moved it back two weeks. But right now its 25 . It goes up to 30 on october 15th, okay . Mr. President , have you read no, i havent. Ill just tell you, it is everybodys read it. They laugh at it. You havent read it . Its another media disaster. The media has lost so much credibility in this country. Our media has become the laughingstock of the world. When you look at what they did to Justice Kavanaugh and so many other things last week, i think this is one of the worst weeks in the history of the fake news media. You have been wrong on so many things. And this one will be, i wouldnt say it will top the list, because i think you cant do worse than some of the stories you missed over the last week or two, but the media of our country is laughed at all over the world now. Youre a joke. Okay, what else . Mr. President , has the Prime Minister when you talk about the conversation that you which conversation . Well, which well, figure it out youre supposed to be the media. Figure it out. Which conversation . July 25th, with the president of i really dont know. I dont know. Mr. Trump, [ inaudible ] . So were doing a great program. Vice president pence is very much involved and we have a tremendous space program. If you look at our facilities, they were virtually closed up. There was crab grass growing on the run ways and now theyre vital and were doing were going to mars. Were stopping at the moon. The moon is actually a launching pad. Thats why were stopping at the moon. I said, hey, weve already done the moon, thats no exciting. They said, no, sir, its a launching pad for mars. So well be doing the moon, but well really be doing mars. And were making tremendous progress. In addition, rich people like to send up rocket ships, so between bezos and elon musk and others, were leasing them our launch facilities, which you cant get. There are no launch facilities like this. This is big stuff. So were leasing in texas and florida. Were leasing them our facilities, so they can send up whatever they want to send up. Its okay with us. And theyve actually done very well. Theyve said theyve had great success, but rich people in this country, i dont know about your country, but they like building rocket ships and sending them up and its okay with us. Say it . Will australia well, ill let it. I think scott and i would rather take a pass. Would you like to be on there im not sure, but i think he and i will take a pass. But there are a lot of people that want to go up. And i have Great Respect for the astronauts. Thats an incredible mr. President how important is that . Say it again. Do you want to buy more missiles from australia and how important is that industry . Well, australias Mineral Industry is massive. Its far bigger than that. Very few very few countries have anything approaching what australia has in terms of mineral wealth. And youve really taken advantage of it and youve done it in a very environmentally important way. That business can get out of control a little bit, from the standpoint of environment. And you have really approached it in an environment aally sensitive way. Coal, as an example. Youre the leader of safety in coal digging. And weve actually studied it, because were doing a lot of coal. And you have very you almost have no you know, you used to have a thing, black lung disease, and in australia, you almost dont have it anymore. You have all of the dust down and you know, they become wet mines, basically. A very technologically advanced industry in australia. All of our industries are, from the robotics thats involved in the production and all the way through. But that critical mineral space, these are the things well be talking about, because australia has a Wonderful Partnership with the United States, not just militarily, and not just strategically, but also economically. And thats going to be a big part of this conversation we have today. And environmentally, i have to say. And environmentally. The things that theyve done environmentally with digging. Digging is you know, when you talk minerals, its about digging. And what youve been able to do with environment with the environment, having to do with taking minerals out of the ground, including and, you know, i would say, even especially, because youre leading on coal, i will tell you, i sent a whole crew over. Because your record is so good in terms of illnesses from digging, better than anybody in the world. So were going to catch you on that, okay . Have you invited the president to australia and how do you introduce him to the term well talk about that over dinner tonight. He has another term for it here in washington, i understand. But we have talked about whether theyll take in the president s cup later in the year, which is a great tournament. The president knows a lot more about golf than he does and he certainly swings a club way better than i do. But hes got a busy year coming up next year. Hes going to do great there. But if he has the opportunity, if mrs. Trump has the opportunity, it will be a great spectacle down in australia this year. Interestingly, the pga tour invited me to go. And i would love to do it. Well have to see what the schedule is. But i would love to do it. Its a very exciting tournament. Nothing more exciting. And having it at in australia, where you have so many great golfers, greg norman is a friend of mine and a great friend of yours, i know. And i think hell be here tonight. The first lady has done an incredible job tonight. Well have it for either the first time or certainly one of the few times in the rose garden. And its going to be. I watched yesterday the rehearsal. And she was out there and its going to be incredible. Tonight will be a beautiful night and the only thing that can dampen it will be rain and were not expecting any rain. But if it rains, we head over to the state room and well be just fine. But we really expect i hope youll able to see it tonight for a little while. Probably, you will. We sort of make sure that you do. Its beautiful. How critical is it that you build a coalition to address iran, irans provocations . And does that start today . I always like a coalition. Sometimes you find that people have made a lot of money that you would want in the coalition. Theyve made a lot of money with iran, which is, when president obama made that deal, not only was it a bad deal, but the United States didnt mar take in a business sense. And other countries, germany, france, russia, many other countries made a lot of money with iran. And we didnt make money with iran, which that was just one of the many bad parts about the deal. Everyone else is making money and were not. So well see what happens. Look, the United States is in a class by itself. We have the most powerful military in the world, by far. Theres nobody close. As you know, weve spent tremendous and hopefully, and we pray to god we never have to use it, but weve totally renovated and bought new nuclear and the rest of our military is all brandnew. The nuclear now is at a level that its never been before and i can only tell you because i know the problems of nuclear, i know the damages that, i know what happens, and i want to tell you, we all hope and scott hopes and we all pray that we never have to use nuclear, but theres nobody that has anywhere close to what we have. Well, you thiunger will be very exciting. I look forward to it. Well be there. Youll be there. And for you, its a much longer trip. It is a bit, yeah. But we look forward to it. We have a big message for unga. And i very much i havent been back to new york in a long time. I see that our parttime mayor will be now going back to new york, so theyll be able to work a little bit harder. But he dropped out of the president ial race a little while ago. Too bad, he had tremendous potential. He only had one real asset. You know what it was . Height. Other than that, he had nothing going. Okay, what else . Will be discussing military action in iran and whats the strategy . Well, i think the United States has taken a very measured and calibrated approach to date. And the thing about our partnership is we all listened to whatever requests are made and australia always considers them and in our National Interests and we have good conversations about these things, but the thing is, both of us, we never get ahead of ourselves on these things. You take this one step at a time. And we keep talking to each other, thats what weve always done, and well keep doing that. We have such an open line of communication. I appreciate the fact that the president and i talk about these things even when were not together and well keep doing that and take these things one step at a time. The easiest thing for me to do, and maybe its even a natural instinct, maybe i have to hold myself back, i remember during the debates when running against hillary and the democrats and the media, i view them all the same. I view that partnership very much the same. But when i was running, everybody said, okh, hes going to get into war, hes going to employ blow everybody up, hes going to get into war, the easiest thing i could do would be, go ahead, fellas, go do it. And that would be a very bad day for iran. Thats the easiest thing i could do. Its so easy. And for all of those that say, oh, they should do it, it shows weakness. Actually, in my opinion, it shows strength. Because the easiest thing i could do, okay, go ahead. Knock out 15 different major things in iran. I could do that and all set to go. Its all set to go. But im not looking to do that, if i can. I think ive changed a lot of minds. People are very surprised and many people are extremely happy. Many people are thrilled. And many people are saying, oh, i wish youd, you know, hit the hell out of them. Well, lets see what happens. But it will take place in one minute. I could do it right here in front of you. And that would be it. And then you would have a nice, big story to report. And i think it shows far more strength to do it the way were doing it and again, whether its next week or two weeks or three weeks, it doesnt make nip difference, whether its now or in three weeks, doesnt make nip difference. But i think the strong person approach and the thing that does show strength would be showing a little bit of restraint. Much easier to do it the other way. Its much easier. And iran knows if they misbehave, theyre on borrowed time. Theyre not doing well, i would love to see them do great. I would love to see them do great. But theyre not doing well. Theyre doing very poorly. Theyre doing far worse than theyve ever had before. Theyre having riots in their streets and a lot of problems in iran right now. They could solve it very quickly. The easiest thing for me to do would be to say, okay, lets do it. Very easy for me to do. But it is interesting, when i was campaigning, everyone here thought that i was going to be like it would be one day, but what i have done is ive defeated isis, ive rebuilt our military to a level that its never been before. Spent a lot of money. The budgets are not so hard to fix for me, but when youre spending 1. 5 trillion so far, now another 738 million billion on the military, but think of it, 1. 5 trillion. And we have the greatest in the world. But i think restraint is a good thing. I think its a good thing. Can we get your reaction to Justin Trudeau . Peace in afghanistan . Yeah, well, we were thinking about having a meeting. I didnt like the idea that they couldnt produce a ceasefire. I wasnt in favor of that. I said, no, if they cant produce a ceasefire, why are we bothering . And they thought that it was a sign of strength to kill 12 people, wound others, badly wound some others. And one of those 12 people was a young man, a young soldier from puerto rico, from our country. And when i heard that, i said, i dont want to deal with them anymore. We have hit in afghanistan, we have hit the taliban harder than theyve ever been hit in the entire 19 years of war. They have been hit harder. Its come back to me through absolutely impeccable sources that theyre saying, wow, we made a mistake with this guy. They made a mistake. I was totally willing to have a meeting. Ill meet with anybody. I think meetings are good. I think meetings are good. Theres no such thing as, oh, gee worst that happens, it doesnt work out. Thats okay. Even then you get to know your opposition. Dont forget, im looking at them like theyre looking at me. You get to know your opposition. You can see if theyre real. Sometimes you develop a relationship, like we do, but sometimes you develop and many times you wont. But you get to know your opposition. I think the best thing thats happened in this country is the fact that at least for three years, the fact that i have a very Good Relationship with kim jongun. I think thats a positive. His country has tremendous potential. He knows that. But our country has been playing around for 50 years and getting nothing. And we have a relationship. Theres never been a relationship with them. Well see what happens. It might work out, it might not work out. Im not saying it will. But in the meantime, he hasnt been testing in nuclear. Youve had no Nuclear Tests since for a long time. And he has been doing some shortrange missiles, but so does every other country do shortrange missiles. Every country is doing them theyre pretty standard fare. But, no, i will tell you that weve never had a country so strong. Were just a couple of points away from a new stock market alltime high. And i think weve done it over 112 times. Theres a certain number, whatever it may be. I dont want to be specific, because if i give you the wrong number, well have breaking news, it will be on every newspaper that i said, i said 112 and it was actually 111 and it will be breaking news. Theyll give me a pinocchio, but let me just tell you, the country has never been in this position, we have the Strongest Military weve ever had. And now after we rebuilt it, we have a rebuilt military. Its a great thing. And some of our friends are doing the same thing. I can tell you, australias military is unbelievable. I saw the order that they put in for some of our most sophisticated equipment. And i said, thats really great, what youre doing. Theyve really upped it. And i want to congratulate you. You have really done a job on your military. We have. Up to 2 of gdp next year, in the middle of a 200 billion upgrade. Biggest increase in our defense as a share of gdp since the second world war. Yeah. Mr. President in the election campaign, is it right that the United States is prosecuting its australian founder, Julian Assange . Thats a question i havent heard in a long time. Ill leave that for you to determine. On china, is it just a trade issue or do you see china as a strategic threat in the United States . Well, obviously, china is a threat to the world in a sense, because theyre building a military faster than anybody. And frankly, their using u. S. Money. Presiden president s before me have allowed china to take out 500 billion a year, and its really more than that. Theyve allowed china to steal our intellectual property and property rights. And im not doing that. And we actually very close to having a deal. You know, were very close. We had intellectual property. All of the tough things were negotiated. And then at the last moment, scott, they said, we cannot agree to this. I said, thats all right, were charging you 25 tariffs. And then its going up. And it will continue to go up. And frankly, were making so many hundreds of the numbers that were taking in to our treasury. And you see it, because sometimes youll see, look at the good reports, look at the great reports that came out two days ago on retailing, on numbers that nobody believes. I think a lot of it, were taking hundreds of millions potentially over a short period of time. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of money is coming in from china that never came in before. So china wants to make a deal. I think we want to make a deal. Well see what happens. But i view china in many different ways. But right now, im thinking about trade. But, you know, trade equals military. Because if we allow china to take 500 billion out of the hide of the United States, that money goes into military and other things. Mr. President , your reaction to Justin Trudeau, if he can survive this controversy . I was hoping that i wouldnt be asked it. It had to be you that asked me that question. I was surprised. And i was more surprised when i saw the number of times. And ive always had a Good Relationship with justin. I just dont know what to tell you. I was surprised by it, actually. Mr. President , the last [ inaudible ] was described by the president as a man of steel. How do you describe i would say a man of titanium. You know, titanium is much tougher than steel. Hes a man of titanium. Believe me, i have to deal with this guy. Hes not easy. You might think hes a nice guy, okay. Hes a man of real, real strength. And a great guy. And his wife is lovely and i want to thank you and melania for the work. And i hope youre going to be able to see, because melania has shes worked very hard for australia. Yes, she has. And youve done its so beautiful. And it will be so different. And we look up to the skies and hope its not going to rain, because if it is, thats okay, too, because that will work out, also. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. There is nothing. Its nothing. Theres nothing. What does mr. Morrison think of his its a great honor to be here. Tremendous honor to be here. Press, lets go. Come on. Right now. Thank you. Do you mind finishing the question . Thank you very much, everybody. Press, lets go its finished all right, so the press conference with the president of the United States before the press conference with the president of the United States is set to happen in a few minutes from now, if you can even believe it. President trump hitting on ukraine, iran, space, and of course, the whistleblower report. I want to bring in Kaitlan Collins on this, as we were discussing, and i had to cut you off, kaitlan, this is my, i guess, take. You could consider that a neither confirm nor deny situation, when asked about ukraine and the whistleblower report. And did he actually the ukrainian president about biden, but i did not hear him say he did not ask about joe biden. Reporter no, there wasnt a denial in there. And the president made a few interesting comments. One, he alleged that this whistleblower was partisan before admitting he does not know the identity of this whistleblower. He said that there are people in the white house who have read that complaint, but he personally has not read that complaint. He did not say exactly which staff it was that had been involved in that. But cnn reporting showed that the white house had been involved in that decision to block that complaint from going to congress. The other thing the president said, kate, is that he doesnt know what this complaint stemmed from. What communication it was, whether it was a conversation he had with the ukrainian president , that caused that, because he was asked specifically about that july 25th phone call that he had, the last time we know that they spoke. And he said, i really dont know if thats what it is that stemmed this. Of course, that was a conversation that we revealed two different readouts from the ukrainians and from the white house. The ukrainian one referencing the president talking about corruption investigations with the government, but the overall thing that you saw there from the president in the oval office was he defended his conversations with World Leaders and he said his conversations are always appropriate, even though he said he doesnt know which one it is that this complaint stemmed from. But, kate, he also said that he believes joe biden is someone who should be looked into. He referred reporters to his statement, without clarifying which statement it is that he believed that reporters should look at, but the president was making that clear. And thats really been the whole sentiment here, is did the president imply to the ukrainians that they should investigate joe biden, open up an investigation into him in order to get that military funding, that aid funding that is supposed to protect ukraine from russia. And the president made clear that he thinks an investigation into joe biden something that would be appropriate, without detailing if thats exactly what he said to the president. And of course, the president is going to face more questions on this when he holds a press conference just in a matter of minutes. Its almost funny, but yet extremely serious at the same time. I mean, the double speak and the nonspeak that we just heard in that press conference. I mean, its basically, i know nothing, yet, i know everything. And if youre having deja vu, you are not alone, because he directly said, somebody ought to look into that on joe biden. And all i could hear was, russia, are you listening . Like, thats all i was hearing in that. Kaitlan, thank you so much. Again, we could be hearing from the president we will be hearing from the president as he is set to hold a press conference with the australian Prime Minister in a few short minutes. What more will we learn . We will find out together. So we do know one thing. That Rudy Giuliani did ask ukrainian officials to investigate joe biden. That is at least according to Rudy Giuliani, the president s personal attorney. And President Trump did just say, ill reiterate one more time, that someone should look into it. But what exactly happened with the biasdens in ukraine, are yo asking . Cnns Senior International correspondent Alex Marquardt has more on that. Alex, what are you large . Reporter kate, it was really interesting to see the president there say, someone should look into joe biden and not deny, that is the Crucial Point there, did not deny that he talked about joe biden with president zelensky of ukraine. Now, biden, for his part, does not deny his role in what has essentially been built up as a conspiracy by President Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. And this all goes back to 2016, when the u. S. And joe biden among many others were calling for the firing of the thenprosecutor general. That prosecutor general had been looking into one of ukraines biggest oil companies, hunter biden, the then Vice President s son sat on the board of that oil company. The prosecutor general was then fired. But not because he was looking into that oil company, but because he was part he was a target of a widespread anticorruption campaign. There were anticorruption activists in ukraine. There were anticorruption activists outside of ukraine. A number of countries, including the United States, that wanted to see this prosecutor general fired, because of his lack of action on corruption. For not looking into embezzlement. So the Obama Administration wanted to see this guy gone. President oba Vice President biden was the point man for the administration on ukraine, and he has openly said we withheld 1 billion in loan guarantees in order to see this prosecutor general gone. He was then fired. And we and one of his successors spoke out about this conspiracy, if you will, back in may. He said, i do not want ukraine to again be the subject of u. S. President ial elections. Hunter biden did not violate any ukrainian laws, at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing. Now, this allegation by the president and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is now being investigated by no fewer than three house committees. And they the three chairman of these committees also put out a statement saying that for nearly two years, the president and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, appeared to have acted outside legitimate Law Enforcement and diplomatic channels to coerce the Ukrainian Government into pursuing two politically motivated investigations under the guise of anticorruption activities. So, kate, this is a conspiracy that has now really taken on some very realworld consequences, and may, may lie, at least in part, at the heart of this whistleblower complaint. Kate . The dots are not connected, and thats an important thing to keep in mind. And still important is what youre doing, though, is laying out the facts as they are known. Complicated . Yes. But isnt every conspiracy . Thats kind of how they begin and end. Thank you so much, alex. I really appreciate it. Joining me right now is the former communications chief for u. S. National intelligence, sean turner. Thank you so much, sean. I want to reiterate what i was just talking about with alex for a second. One thing that is worth repeating is that the reporting at this moment is that this whistleblower complaint has to do with a promise from President Trump to a foreign leader and it involves ukraine. But there is no reporting connecting the dots to what the president is is saying here, that and what alex was just kind of Fact Checking is that he wants joe biden investigated for his the bidens investigated for things in ukraine. What do the president s comments, though, today, do to this investigation and the back and forth now between in between basically the director of National Intelligence and congress over this whistleblower report in limbo . Yeah, well, you know, in that interview or that press conference, i think that the president , he didnt help himself here. Look, there are a couple of things that stood out to me. When the president was asked very directly whether or not he de discussed joe biden or joe bidens son with the ukrainian president , he did not deny that. What he said is, it doesnt matter what i said. And i think thats very telling. Because it does matter what he said. So we have a situation where the president is not denying this. So lets assume for a second that the president did mention joe biden to the ukrainian president and that he does believe, as he said, that joe biden should be investigated. Well, that matters for two reasons. The first reason is that the yu ukrainians understand that if the president is linking military aid to their efforts to investigate joe biden, they understand that they cant go out and do this investigation and then call the president up and say, mr. President , we did the investigation, we didnt find anything. They understand that they have to find something. He cant say theres nothing there, so now please put that check in the mail. Thats the first thing. It would be kind of baked in in terms of what the outcome should be in order to make the president happy. The second reason is that for any Foreign Government to conduct an investigation involving a u. S. Person, that government necessarily has to reach into the United States. So here you have a situation in which the president of the United States is telling a Foreign Government to do an investigation of a u. S. Person and he knows that in order to do that, that Foreign Government has to engage in intelligence collection activities, because no one is going to sit down and participate in an investigation by ukrainian officials. So, so in either case, this is particularly troubling and inappropriate and disturbing on the part of the president. But again, we dont know the facts here, but the president did not deny this. So thats very telling. Like, im not going to confirm, im not going to deny. But thing that does stick out in my head, though, at the minimum, we know that the president loves to fight three things, the quote unquote deep state, which includes the intelligence community, loves to fight with the media, and he loves to fight democrats, especially a democrat named house intelligence chairman adam schiff. So in some strange way, no matter what the facts are, damning or exonerating, this seems like a fight that the president is almost looking forward to having. Shawn, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. So whats the next move then for House Democrats who are trying to get this whistleblower report . The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee now is saying that he is ready to go to court to get this whistleblowers complaint if it doesnt show up. A member of that very Important Committee joins me next. This is mia. This is mias pulse. With pressure rising, and racing. This is also mias pulse. That her doctor keeps in check, so she can find balance. 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The Inspector General who first flagged it called it credible, called it urgent just met behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee yesterday. Joining me now is one of the lawmakers who was in that closed door meeting with the Inspector General, congressman jim himes of connecticut. Thank you for joining me. Hi, kate. I dont know if you had a chance to listen to the Inspector General just now, but when asked if the president spoke to a foreign leader in ukraine and what they spoke about, President Trump said it doesnt matter what they spoke about. The president has the right to negotiate with foreign leaders. The president is the declassifying authority. That means the president can say, i dont consider this classified anymore, im going to give it to you. What the president cannot do is do something that is corrupt. Were speculating here because we dont know the facts, but if the president somehow first of all, of course ilts inappropriate to discuss your potential foreign leader with him. What would be highly illegal is, hey, if you do this, then im d going to make sure you get that. That is the textbook definition of corruption, and this isnt scotland with air force guys saying there is corruption, this is corruption that has g geostrategic implications. If the president is mad at the ukraine because they dont hold up their end of the bargain, then that makes for a less stable situation abroad. Again, i will say the rofrt i reporting does not connect the dots between anything with the biden, any ask about the bidens and the whistleblower complaint. But the president on complaint, the president also today called the whistleblower partisan and called the complaint a political hack job. But then also acknowledged that he doesnt know the persons identity. Did you get any impression from the Inspector General yesterday when you met that the whistleblower was motivated at all by politics . I dont want to get into the specifics of what happened in the meeting yesterday, but let me characterize two things. Number one, the Inspector General, his testimony to us yesterday was beyond careful. He absolutely refused to talk about the substance, as has been reported in the press, and he was beyond careful. Look, hes a smart individual. He knows that doing the right thing, coming to the congress and saying, im seeing an unprecedented effort to stop my ability to convey this whistleblowers complaint to the congress, which is, at least in the memory of most people around here, unprecedented. He was clearly conscious of the fact that he could not say or do anything that would be outside the bounds of his authority. And he characterized the whistleblower as having done everything by the book. So there was no implication that there was anything partisan here. Now, of course, look, that doesnt matter to donald trump. Donald trump lives in an alternate reality why anybody who opposes him is a democrat, is a socialist, has bad motives. So what the president says and the reality are radically, radically different. Also noting this Inspector General was assigned by President Trump, and you could say his credibility is on the line or that the question presi questioning his credibility because he called it urgent and credible, this complaint, and the president calls it a political hack job. Regardless, i know the Inspector General didnt go into detail in the complaint and you cant talk about it, but what is your reaction just on its face, the fresh reporting overnight, and i feel like were five steps in front of it already, though, that the complaint involves a promise President Trump made to a foreign leader and has something to do with ukraine . That, of course, points to your first question to me. What would make this corrupt would be as opposed to inappropriate. Donald trump talking to a foreign leader about his political opponents is inappropriate. What would make it corrupt and illegal would be if there had been some trade, some quid pro quo, some promise. Lets hash toit out here. This is all press reporting. The Inspector General yesterday was studious about not getting into details. Youre not going to go into detail and i respect that very much. But how does what we heard the president say today, the press reports that are out there, and your impressions from your meeting yesterday, what does that mean for the questions you then have for the acting director of National Intelligence next week . Well, he needs to come before us and do two things. Number one, explain why hes taken this unprecedented and illegal step. Lets be very clear, there is nothing in the statute, the whistleblower statute, that gives the director of National Intelligence the right to approve the conveyance of a complaint to congress. Its not there. He does not have that authority. So hes broken the law. He needs to explain himself on that. And then he needs to tell us the substance of the complaint. Because again, none of us know whats in there. It may be nothing. This press speculation may be nothing, but heres why this is important, kate. Our entire structure of protecting whistleblowers is at stake. Right now there is a whistleblower out there who is thinking, oh, my god, this process got shortcircuited. My career might suffer, i might be in danger. And the problem with that is if whistleblowers think that way, misbehavior in a very, very dangerous world, the intelligence world, wont go reported, or it will get reported the way Edward Snowden took his space to the public, by blowing important secrets. That is not a good outcome. That is a very interesting perspective in this. Congressman, many more questions. Not for today, though. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. The press conference with President Trump should begin very shortly. Well be right back. From the couldnt be prouders to the wait did we just winners. Everyone uses their phone differently. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. Now you can share it between lines. Mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. Its a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you buy a new samsung note. Click, call or visit a store today. Juul record. They took 12. 8 billion from big tobacco. Juul marketed mango, mint, and menthol flavors, addicting kids to nicotine. Five million kids now using ecigarettes. The fda said juul ignored the law with Misleading Health claims. 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