During todays white house rethink the National Security council talked about upland a plant visit to to one taiwan. Responded to questions about president covid President Bidens. Mr. Kirby russia has effectively located the ports. We urge russia to meet its commitments under this new plan, including unimpeded exports of goods from the black see to ease the flow of goods elsewhere. We are going to be watching that closely. In ukraine today, Jake Sullivan and tony blinken and mark milley spoke to support to ukraine as the ukrainian people continue to stand up to russia and to inform them about a new 550 Million DollarsSecurity Assistance package at the Biden Administration authorized. This will be the 17th time the Biden Administration is authorized a Security Systems package using president ial Drawdown Authority since President Biden took office and brings it going dollars Drawdown Authority alone in material inSecurity Systems were ukraine just since the invasion began in late february. On taiwan, i know that is on everybodys mind today. I want to reaffirm that the speaker has not confirmed any travel plans and it is for the speaker to do so, and her staff so we will not be commenting or speculating the stops on her trip. We have been clear from the very beginning that she will make her own decisions and that congress is an independent branch of government. The speaker has the right to visit taiwan. The speaker has visited taiwan before without incident. Our world had seen the United States government be very clear, nothing has changed, nothing has changed about our one china policy, which is guided by that taiwan relations act. We have said, repeatedly said, that we oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We have said we do not support taiwan independence. We have said that we expect cross trade differences to be resolved by peaceful means. We have communicated this directly to the highest levels, including in a phone call between President Biden and president xi jinping. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff have also make made this clear to aging and to beijing. Put simply, there is no reason for beijing to turn a potential visit consistent with longstanding u. S. Policy into some sort of crisis for conflict or use it as a pretext to increase military activity in or around taiwan straits. Yet before Speaker Pelosi arrived in the region, china conducted one. This could also include actions in their diplomatic and economic space. Some of these actions would continue concerning trendlines that we have seen in recent years. Some could be of a different spoke scope and scale. We believe escalation serves no one. Beijings actions could have unintended consequences and only certain to increase tensions. Our actions are not frightening and they break no new ground. Nothing about this potential visit, which has precedent, would change the status quo. The world should reject any p. R. C. Effort to use it to do so. We will not take the bait or engage in cigarette a link. Saber rattling. We will continue operating in the seas and the skies of the western pacific as we have for decades. We will defend a free and open indo pacific. We will seek to maintain lines of communication with beijing. All of that is important and all of that is preserving the status quo. We expect to see beijing continue to use inflammatory rhetoric in the coming days. The United States by contrast will act with transparency. We will answer your questions and give you the facts. We are also committed to keeping open minded with beijing. This is what the world expects. We encourage beijing to keep that commitment as well. Mr. Kirby that is a better question for president xi. I think we laid out pretty clearly that if she goes it is not new. It does not change anything. What we would hope from everything we have done and said is that we are being consistent. There is no change. We have not wrapped up the rhetoric. We have not changed our behavior. Everything we have done is consistent with our obligations. Reporter why was the speaker being urged not to go . Mr. Kirby i do not know that she was urged not to go. Reporter the president said the military does not think it is a good idea. Mr. Kirby the speaker makes her own decisions. We provided context and information so that she can make the best decision possible for every step, for every overseas travel. I am not going to get ahead of her or her staff here. I would refer you to the military. We as a National Security team are obligated to make sure she has all the context she needs. We will continue to do that throughout the remainder of her trip for anything she needs. Reporter if the policy is that the president would not encourage or discourage lawmakers on traveling because of the separation, if a senior lawmaker would plan a i think you would see the president be consistent. We provide members of Congress Facts and context. They make their own decisions about where and when they are going to travel. We do the best we can to provide context and information. There is nothing inconsistent about that at all. Has anyone in the administration you should not go . I know the president has not done that but has there been any communication . There have been direct conversations between the speaker and staff before she left. The president did not speak directly with the speaker about this trip. I am not going to diebold the contents of those diebold divulge. Overseas travel is compy consistent with how we did it in the past. Reporter was there a discussion . Given what china had said he would do in response to a trip . Mr. Kirby i am not going to get into the details of the conversation. They were comprehensive discussions about what she wanted to achieve on this trip, where she wanted to go. We provided her the same context and information that we have in the past with respect to her overseas travel. Reporter why did the president bother with this drama from the beginning . Why not call the chinese bluff given as you pointed out there is no change in policy . Mr. Kirby i have been here and i have not seen any drama. I think you are manufacturing it with your question. We have been nothing but clear with the chinese about where we stand on the issues and the one china policy and our support for a free and open indo pacific. Nothing has changed. There is no drama to talk to. It is not without precedent for a speaker to go. It has been done this year and i am certain it will be done in the future. We have no interest of increasing tensions. We have no interest in changing the approach we take as a government. I do not know about the drama that you claim exists. It is quite the contrary here. The point that we have made, i made it again today. Everything here is consistent. There is no reason to use a potential visit to justify or to spark some sort of crisis or conflict. We certainly have no interest in that. There is no justification to use a potential visit as a pretext to conduct what could be escalatory measures. Reporter while she has the right to make her own decision, does he disagree with the decision . You are asking me why i cannot just say we disagree with the visit . Mr. Kirby there has been no discussion by the speaker about what is next on her trip. You are asking me a question that she has somehow already confirmed that she is going to taiwan. I have not seen any such confirmation. I would point you to the speaker and her staff to talk about her itinerary. Number two, our responsibility is to make sure that she and her team have the information they need and we keep the line of communication throughout the trip as we should. It is a requirement. But the speaker and her staff make the decision. You guys seem to be, you seem to presume that we should have stamped the trip with some sort of approval or disapproval. That is not the way this works. Reporter as chico and anna government plane check is she going on up government plane . Mr. Kirby it is common for the speaker to travel on a u. S. Military aircraft. Reporter have people in the administration been in touch with the president . Mr. Kirby i am not aware of any specific communications after that call. Reporter what planning has been done in advance to make sure there will be no fallout . Mr. Kirby i think you can understand part of our responsibility is to travel safely and securely and i can assure you she well. Reporter in terms of the speakers agenda and her motivation for going, which is different from the president s, which he had said publicly the military does not think it is a good idea. What is your sense about her advocacy for democracy in taipei if she were to go there and the impact of that . Mr. Kirby the speaker can speak for herself. Whatever she wants to say on this trip is her prerogative. That is why it was so important for me to make clear what this administrations policy is with respect to the one china policy. As well as not wanting to see tensions resolved with anything but peaceful means. I cannot speak for what Speaker Pelosi may do or say on this trip. Reporter because of the closeness between the speaker and the president , it does raise the question about it she press in a Foreign Policy that may in fact put the president in a bad position. Mr. Kirby the president is comfortable with the position that this administration continues to take, which has longstanding historic precedents. The president is very comfortable with our policy with respect to china and to taiwan. She had an opportunity last week to reaffirm those policies and his views in a direct discussion with president xi. Reporter are the people of taiwan at risk with this visit . It she at risk . Mr. Kirby we do not think there was a reason for anybody to be at risk here. A visit has not been announced and i will not speak for Speaker Pelosi. There is no reason for this to come to blows. As for the potential risk, i think that is the better question put to the prc. We are going to watch this very closely. We are going to make sure she has a safe and secure visit. We urge china too, if she goes, to see this for exactly what it is nothing new, no change to our policy. Certainly not an unprecedented visit by the speaker of the house. Reporter do you feel using language like the United States will not be intimidated right now . Mr. Kirby you said it at the top. They have been out there in recent days with some irresponsible rhetoric. We feel it is important for everybody in the region to understand how seriously we take our security commitments in the indo pacific. There is no reason for this to escalate. There was every reason, given our National Security interest as well as the interests of our allies and partners on any given day, there is every reason for this to not escalate. And for the lines of communication to remain open between washington and beijing. Reporter does the white house currently no weather Speaker Pelosi is planning to go to taiwan . I realize she is not announced anything publicly. Does the white house have knowledge . Mr. Kirby i am not going to talk about the speakers itinerary. I just not going to do that. I want to go back to one other thing. When you talk about or you threaten these kinds of potential operations, military operations exercises and missile launches, it increases the risk of miscalculation. There could be unintended consequences. U. S. Are they at risk . That is where the risk comes in. It is not so much that there might be a direct attack, but it raises the stakes of miscommunication. Reporter why do you think china is reacting the way it is reacted . Mr. Kirby it is difficult to know specifically and you are asking me to get inside their brains. I am not comfortable doing that. The question is better put to president xi and the prc. You have heard chairman millet talk about this. Of increasing aggressiveness by military forces in the region, violations in air and sea space, more aggressive and proximate military exercises. And of course, the rhetoric. This has been going on about four months. You can go back years in terms of chinese coercion and intimidation tactics, even just in a military environment in the south china sea. It has been building. I cannot account for why they have answered the possibility of this visit in the manner in which they have done. I can only account for President Biden and this administration and how we are trying to manage tensions and manage one of the most consequential bilateral relationships in the world. That is by making it clear what we are seeing, sharing it with you, making it clear there is no reason that you should spark a conflict or that they should increase tensions or serve as a pretext for some sort of what they would consider a reaction. If the speaker goes, completely consistent with what has been done in the past and not a statement about any change to american policy with respect to the one china policy. And quite frankly, to our obligations to continue to support taiwans defense. Reporter if she goes to taiwan, how will the white house find out about it . Will you see on television . Mr. Kirby the speaker is finally flying aboard a military aircraft so we will know. Reporter can you talk about the separation of the congress and the white house. If she takes a military aircraft , how do you make the case that we had nothing to do with this at all . Mr. Kirby i did not say we had nothing to do with this at all. From the time she informed us she was going to go overseas, we put the gears in motion as we always do to provide military transportation. Nothing new about that. It is not that we are not involved, but we do not make the decision for the speaker. She makes her own decisions. We give her advice and she makes her own decisions. The president had been long served in the senate, he understands and respects the institutional prerogatives of congress. Reporter i have a quick question about the iranian american. She called on the Biden Administration [indiscernible] is that something the white house is even considering . Mr. Kirby there was somewhat of a limit on what we can say on that. The United States condemns the apparent attempt to harm the iranian activist at her home in new york last week. We commend Law Enforcements response to the threat to her. This is an open criminal investigation so i will defer to Law Enforcement for any further comment. We need to see results of that investigation. We need to reaffirm that it is a First Priority for the Biden Administration to counter the threat posed by iran, including against dissidents living in the United States. Thank you everybody. Sec. Jeanpierre thanks, john. I just have one thing at the top gas prices. We have now been fallen for almost seven straight weeks. Gas prices have dropped . 81 per gallon since their peak in june, as you will see from the chart to my left. That means American Families who with two cars are saving 80 per month. Drivers can find gas for 3. 99 or less. Around half of all gas stations, gas prices have come below 3. 99. President biden is taking historic action to mitigate impacts on American Families. He has released in one Million Barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum reserve, which is a historic action that he is taking. He rallied Global Partners to release millions of barrels of oil. U. S. Oil production is up under President Biden. It is on track to reach a record high. The Treasury Department estimates the historic release of oil by President Biden and International Partners has reduced gas prices by up to . 40 per gallon, as we have shared with you last week. More work remains, but the fact is we are currently experiencing the fastest decline in gas prices in over a decade. Reporter a couple of questions about the president with covid. Where there any additional contacts over the weekend . Sec. Jeanpierre the 17 contacts continue to test negative. That is the update on the first positive test the president had. With this first positive test, there has been six close contacts and those six individuals continue to test negative. He has resumed all the medication that he was on before. Reporter one final question. Can you give us a sense of how he is doing with having to go back into isolation . How is he dealing with being away from the first lady . Sec. Jeanpierre the day is still young, you never know. Making a joke, a funny i will try harder next time to be more funny. He is continuing to work from the residence, i want to share as we all know, the president is fully vaccinated, he is double boosted, he was on treatment for paxlovid. Because of that treatment he has very mild symptoms and he had said with paxlovid there would be a small percentage of people who have a relapse, this is what we saw. He is doing well, you saw him, he said he is fine and he started great. He is looking great. He looks forward to being out there again. He is going to continue, it does not stop him from doing his job and the work of the American People. He is in the white house residence and he will continue to do that as he isolates. Clarification point on that, the president is feeling fine. Can you clarify on whether he has been experiencing minor symptoms . We have not seen any recurring symptoms that was in dr. Oconnors letter on saturday. I spoke to him not too long before coming out to talk to all of you. Some of you have had covid, those symptoms that you have do not go away right away. They linger, those symptoms linger for some time. You can expect that. There is no recurrent symptoms. He is feeling fine. Reporter the cdc guidelines on paxlovid rebound is unclear. Can you clarify what the expectation is on how long a president will continue to isolate . Are we looking at a 10 day test after the rebound positive . What is the diamonds on that . Sec. Jeanpierre he will abide by cdc recommendations so it will be five days. Reporter were you able to get a sense to the president s reaction to senator manchin repeatedly refusing to get behind and endorse reelection of the president . Did you get an reaction to that . I feel like members of his own party are undermining him. Sec. Jeanpierre i saw those interviews. I would not say he was undermined. Senator mentioned was focused on Inflation Reduction Act. He was zeroed in on that and laid out why this will be a benefit for middle class families and why it will lower costs and why it is a historic investment that we have nothing seen in a long time, whether it is Climate Change or just in general as we try to reduce inflation and figure out how do we continue to lower the deficit. From the podium, i cannot dive into any election. The president has been asked this question many times. He intends to run in 2024. That is way off. We are a long ways away from 2024. Our biggest thing is to not be distracted. You saw chips act passed last week which will be a Huge Investment in manufacturing. We have a few things ahead of us that will be important to get that done for the American People. We will stay focused and we will not be distracted. That is how we see things at this time. Reporter to follow up on the covid topic, is it possible that the president is showing he was able to work through his first round of covid and pushed himself too hard . Sec. Jeanpierre no. We were transparent that we were aware that when it comes to paxlovid that there is a small chance of relapse. It is not uncommon, it does happen. Here is the thing, the president according to his doctor had mild symptoms. We do not think that he over exerted himself or made the wrong decision. It was because of how he was doing at the time. We were transparent about what we thought could potentially happen. We also were transparent that if he were to test positive again or have the relapse you would share it which we did and now he is feeling fine. He is doing well, he is doing the business of the American People and he is looking forward to be out here again. Reporter what is it the next step for the white house on inflation reduction . Have you had any signals from senator sinema whether or not she will support it . Sec. Jeanpierre i will not get into detail about any conversations we are having with congressional members. I will say and i have said this before our white house staff and officials continue to be in touch with individuals in the house and offering any Technical Assistance or guidance folks might need there. I will leave it to senator manchin who spoke to that and was asked many questions about senator sinema, i will leave it to him. Reporter i wanted to ask about new york city declaring a Public Health emergency related to monkeypox over the weekend. The administration supports local municipalities. These are their own decisions to make . Karine we see that as their own decisions to make. It is a local jurisdiction. It is for them to figure out what is going on in their community. They know best what is happening on the ground. I do want to add, we have news on the vaccinations i have mentioned. The jamil vaccination announced last thursday. 737,000 vaccinations are out. They are being shipped to areas that really need them. If you think about the 737,000 and the 300,000 we have out, that is one point 5 million doses out in the u. S. This is as we are trying to have an aggressive approach to dealing with monkeypox. We are doing about 80,000 tests per week. That is another important, significant way of making sure that people are getting tested so that they know if they have monkeypox or not and lastly i have talked about this from here already which is the education, the outreach, educating Public Health officials and activists, making sure that they know exactly what to look for and what the treatment is. That continues. Do you have any insight on the president s thinking on the possibility of declaring a National Public emergency on this . I know he will be advised by folks around him. What do you think . Karine when it comes to a Public Health emergency, that is a decision that is made by the secretary becerra. It is not made by the president. We are considering every policy option to help end this outbreak that is urgent and important to us. That is up to secretary becerra to make that decision. Reporter is there a timeline . Karine i would refer you to hhs on that timeline. Reporter i am curious if there is any concern about the president s rebound case. Concern that could set back efforts for people to take or for paxlovid to be prescribed for severe cases. Karine absolutely not. Paxlovid has over 90 of a chance to prevent severe illness if taken early. As we saw, the president had mild symptoms because of paxlovid, because he was fully vaccinated and double boosted. We anticipated that. We said there would be a minimal chance of him having a relapse. Again, the relapse truly is small and the protection of paxlovid easily outweighs that. Again, we encourage americans out there who have not fully vaccinated to do that. Who have not been boosted, to get their booster. The treatment the president received is the same treatment others could receive as well. That is because of the work that this administration and president has done from day one. Reporter i know you are tired of answering questions about 2024. Karine i am never tired reporter and whether he will run. With former President Trump talking about his paperwork and potentially before the midterms, when will President Biden file his paperwork . Wouldnt that nip some of these questions in the bud . Karine the president says he intends to run. I will put that out there. We have some work to do in the next couple of days and weeks that we will focus on. We will not be distracted by what is happening with the former president. That is not our focus. Our focus is as we are talking about the Inflation Reduction Act which is historic. It is incredibly important as we talk about lowering costs of prescription drugs for our seniors, getting some of the energy, lowering costs of energy for families who are sitting around their Kitchen Table to figure out how they will pay for whatever item that is incredibly important to them. This is what that is going to do. We will continue to talk about. We see the Inflation Reduction Act as a down payment, the promise that the president made. We will continue to make sure that we get that over the finish line. Reporter a question about the president s covid case and guidelines. How does relate to travel . Even if you test negative, there are cdc guidelines discouraging you from traveling. Karine travel is different because there are no cdc recommendations on travel for rebound. That does not exist in this case. As far as travel, i do not have anything to share with you right now. The cdc does not have any recommendation for rebound on cases. Reporter is the white house operating under the assumption that when the president tests negative, he will be cleared to return to work and travel . Karine i just mentioned the isolation is five days, he is going to be testing regularly. One of the reasons that we were able to share with you that he tested positive is because of because we upped his testing cadence and his unique role as president , we wanted to make sure that we were keeping an eye on that. That is why we were able to share him testing positive on saturday. We will continue to do that. As far as travel, there is no cdc recommendation. Once we have more, we will let you know. Reporter once he tests negative, he can return to all activities . Karine that is our expectation. We are going to follow the cdc guidance as it relates to isolation. Reporter a last one on the president s schedule. Before he tested negative, you gave us the data of what he was doing. And the meetings he had. We have received nothing today. Can you give us an idea . Karine the day is young. On friday we provided his meetings, he included dealing with the awful flooding in kentucky and providing federal resources, working with the Governor Beshear and senator mcconnell, speaking with members of congress. And meeting with his senior staff. He will be doing a lot of that work virtually as we have done in the past. If the work does not stop, he will continue to do that. He will be meeting senior staff for sure. That is pretty regular on his schedule. If there is anything else to read out, we will be sharing it with you. Reporter his President Biden thinking about pulling his support for the Inflation Reduction Act . Karine no. Reporter he promised it would not raise taxes on anybody who made 40,000 a year or under. But the joint committee on taxation says that is not true. Karine that is incorrect. Reporter the joint committee of taxation which you heralded as an effective body when you were selling the infrastructure package is not to be trusted here . Karine i said it is not correct because i will give you why it is not correct. It is incomplete. The report we are currently seeing is incomplete because it omits the actual benefits that americans would receive when it comes to prescription drugs, when it comes to lowering energy costs like utility bills, it does not include that and we also have some experts, you do not need to trust me, experts that say the exact same. A professor from ucla, many key factors are left out in these tables, including the effect of deficit reduction, the positive effects of the spending on clean energy and benefits from lower drug prices as i stated. At the center for american process, republicans do not mention that the analysis includes an imputation of Corporate Taxes and the 15 minimum on corporations with less than 1 billion of profit to income groups and it does not include the major provisions of that benefit people including the tax cuts and drug savings. Reporter a professors budget model says this Inflation Reduction Act will increase inflation in 2024. Does the president worry about that . Karine we agree with senator manchin and disagree with penn wharton, as do a number of qualified experts. It is quite ironic that Congressional Republicans are complaining or have false outrage on this Inflation Reduction Act that is actually going to do something and help the American People lower costs when they have offered nothing to do that. What they have offered is to increase taxes, on americans making less than 100,000 a year. And what they have introduced is sunsetting medicare and sunsetting Social Security after five years and that is how they want to deal with how to help the American People. We are doing the complete opposite. Reporter one more. It has been three days since the chinese official threatened to murder Speaker Pelosi. Where is the president coming out to respond to say do not do that . Karine kirby was just out here talking about i have not seen those reports written reports. Reporter they said they would shoot down her plane. Karine there is no need for this type of saber rattling, it is unnecessary. The president has been clear that there is no change in the one china policy. We continue to support the taiwan relations act every what we are seeing and talking about to be clear the speaker has not , confirmed that she is going to taiwan and it has not been confirmed. The history of this, of congressional members going to taiwan, is not uncommon. It is something that has happened in the past. Nothing has changed and the president has made that clear. Thank you. Reporter to push back on the inflation budget act. Pharma is running ads that allowing medicare to negotiate some prescription drugs will result in a money coming out of the medicare system and research and development perhaps being crippled. There is also the National Association of manufacturers of who say the 15 minimum Corporate Tax is a tax on the manufacturing because it would target the accelerated depreciation that many factory owners use to pay for equipment. Is the president confident that the bill will neither affect the Medicare Program and the way that drugs are developed in this country, or increase his goals of domestic manufacturing . Karine there are 57 corporations in this country who make tens of billions of dollars who are paying zero dollars when it comes to taxes. This bill will fix that tax loophole and make the tax bill tax code fairer. When you think of the 300 billion that will go toward the deficit, making sure we continue to bring down the deficit, 1. 7 trillion we saw last year, that is going to save costs. That will save costs for the American People and that is so critical and important, especially as we are talking about inflation and high costs. As it relates to medicare, i want to say aarp, an Advocacy Group for seniors, has endorsed this piece of legislation. While the limit of costs of medicines cap of pocket expenses to 2000 a year for people on medicare, it will limit that which is so important for many seniors. This will also strengthen medicare by reducing its expenses. That will save taxpayers money and fight inflation. If you ask a family and you say to them what are some of the costs you want us to bring down . What are the things that hit your pocketbook . They will say prescription drugs. One of those things is prescription drugs. This is a historic investment that will be a game changer for families every that is incredibly important and that is what the president cares about and how the president wants to support this legislation. Reporter about the president s covid case. Is there any discussion about getting him clear the virus faster . Putting him back on paxlovid . Getting more fluids, sleeping more . Karine i do not have anything more than what the physician shared today and the last couple of days to all of you how he is feeling. He is feeling fine doing great. , we heard from him directly say that. And we expected with paxlovid to be a relapse. It is not unusual, it is common. We shared with you during his bout with covid, this is not unusual. He is feeling fine. We will continue to share and update from his physician. You will get one tomorrow. We are going to continue with what the doctor lays out and take his word for it. Reporter what about the president signing the bill, will he will work and travel . Karine we will have something on that for you soon. Reporter have you received an official answer from russia on his offer . Karine we have talked about this, as you know, we want to see Brittney Griner home, paul whelan home, they are wrongfully detained. We have put forward a substantial offer. We want to have a good faith conversation on that. We want to make sure that we get this done as soon as possible. What we have heard if you have heard from my colleagues is in bad faith, it is not a serious counter offer that was made which we do not see as a serious counter offer. We are not going to negotiate from here, will not get into any specific details. As you can see, from the substantial offer, as you can hear from secretary blinken and as you have heard from this president , we are taking this seriously and this is a top of mind for this president and we want to see them come home. Reporter one more on the president s case. Is there a physician letter that says no reemergence of symptoms, but lingering symptoms. Help us understand. Karine no recurring symptoms meaning like if you look at his original letter, there is nothing severe. He feels fine. He feels good. As we know when all of us have had covid, you do have a lingering cough. You do have a little bit of lingering sniffles. That is not uncommon. That is not will be are talking about. Reporter he is not 100 symptomfree, he does not have a fever return or Something Like that. Karine we went into this if he had a fever or not, he never had a fever. I want to be clear. It was elevated, but it was never a fever. Remember we talked about fatigue, aches, that he was feeling, discomfort. That has not occurred. All of us have had covid before. Not all of us, but many of us. I can speak for myself, there are dry coughs, a sniffle. Reporter are you saying he or you . Karine i am saying that all of us have had covid, many of us, and they tend to be lingering symptoms of that is what i am talking about. Reporter is the president still experiencing some things related to his covid . Karine as we know, you have known him for some time, he tends to have a dry cough. That is not unusual. He tends to have a dry cough. Which you have all heard before. I want to be clear on that too. Reporter he is working and calling. I do not believe you have talked about him getting extra rest or taking time away from work. Has he also had blocks of time where he is not doing anything so that he can rest . Karine he has been working eight plus hours a day. A schedule he continues to keep. Instead of the oval office, he is doing it in the white house residence. Reporter in saudi arabia there could be an announcement on oil, from opec. Is the white house expecting an increase . Karine i will leave that to opec plus. We are not a member, i would leave them to answer that, whenever they are going to come out of the meeting this week. Reporter the president has given no indication. He made comments in saudi arabia about potential good news an consumers feeling good . Karine i leave that to opec plus. Reporter in terms of how we count the president s days when he will be out of isolation, was saturday day zero . Or was it day one . Karine i believe we shared that it is on saturday. What we shared was basically what it is. I will take one more question. I have called on you before. Reporter voters in kansas tomorrow will be the first in the country to overturn roe v. Wade and the opportunity to vote on abortionrelated ballot measures. Is the white house seeing this as a vote that would have broader political significance in the midterms . Karine if it passes, tomorrows vote in kansas could lead to another state eliminating the right to choose and eviscerating access to health care. Republican governors are imposing extreme laws, banning a womans right to choose. Many do not allow exceptions for even rape or incest. And many republicans are calling for a national ban on abortion. President biden has made this clear that the only way to secure a womans right to choose is for congress to restore the protections of roe and federal law. The majority of americans support that, a womans right to choose. Congress must act. It is also the American People who need to make sure that their voices are heard. Thank you. See you tomorrow. [indiscernible] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] hello, welcome to Washington Post live. I am coauthor of the early 202 newslett