Transcripts For CSPAN White 20240706

Ceiling talks. This is just over an hour. Karine jeanpierre all right, good afternoon, everyone. Q good afternoon Karine Jeanpierre oh, so nice. Okay. So, a short while ago, as many of you saw for yourselves, President Biden convened cabinet members and agency heads from across his administration for a briefing on the 2023 atlantic hurricane season, a meeting he has convened each year since taking office. The president was also updated on the ongoing wildfires across the nation and federal efforts to reduce wildfire risk in the United States. During the meeting, the president and his team discussed ongoing preparations for these extreme weather events, response plans for when they occur, and resources in place to help communities recover. The president thanked the brave First Responders who work around the clock and put their lives on the line to keep our communities safe, and highlighted how the historic investments that are being made through his invest investing in america agenda will make our communities stronger and more resilient. With that, my colleague, admiral kirby, is here to talk about our ukrai the support that we are we continue to give to ukraine and any other Foreign Policy questions that you all may have. Kirby. John kirby afternoon, everybody. Q afternoon. John kirby laughs. im just not ever going to get used to that. Q they dont say good afternoon to you at the pentagon . John kirby no, its not quite as enthusiastic. laughter. maybe thats just because of me, not because of them. I think this week, as you all have seen, russia has continued to wage just a brutal, completely unprovoked war against ukraine, launching yet more airstrikes and bombarding am ukrainian citiz cities all across the country. In fact, in just this this here month of may, russia has launched 17 Different Air assaults against kyiv, harming civilians, devastating civilian areas, hitting civilian infrastructure. In response, the United States is going to continue to support ukraine, help give them things they need to better defend themselves. And as part of all that effort, weve got an upcoming package here, which will be the 39th drawdown of equipment from the department of defense inventories using president ial drawdown authorities. We will use that package that were announcing today to provide ukraine with additional munitions for Patriot Air Defense systems, which ukraine has been deploying quite effectively, as well as more avenger air defense systems, stinger antiaircraft systems, and ammunition, of course, for the himars, artillery, and antiarmor systems that the United States continues to provide to ukraine. I think as you all saw on full display in hiroshima, at the g7, our allies and partners stand firmly behind us in this effort. And we can continue that su we can continue to expect to see that that support will continue going forward. Thats it. Karine jeanpierre all right. Okay, go ahead, kristen. Q thank you so much. Can you give us your reaction to the chinese fighter jet that conducted what the pentagon described as a, quote, unnecessarily aggressive maneuver over the South China Sea . What are the implications . What are the potential ramifications . And what could the fallout be for the u. S. Chinese relationship . John kirby well, it was unsafe, and it was unprofessional. You heard the pentagon speak to that. And you all saw the video for yourselves. You can see that they forced that rc135 to go through the jet wash of the chinese fighter, which just tells you how close it was several hundred feet. Thats dangerous. And, you know, one of the reasons we want to keep the lines of communication open in fact, one of the reasons why we want to make sure we can get that militarytomilitary military channel back open is so that, you know, we have a way to talk to the to the chinese about incidents, like this one, that could lead to miscalculation and misunderstanding and maybe getting somebody hurt. Q what is the status of trying to reopen those talks, particularly in the wake of, you know, dustup of defense inaudible . John kirby well, right now, unfortunately, the militarytomilitary vehicle is just not open to us. Its one of the reasons why secretary blinken is so eager to get back over to beijing. We want to get back to that spirit of bali. We want to there are lines of communication open, and certainly we have used the diplomatic channel to convey our concerns over this particular intercept, but thats not the same as having miltomil comms and having that available to you, especially when tensions are so high and the risk of miscalculations are also high. Q if i could just ask one on ukraine. There were obviously the drone strikes in moscow. Ukraine has denied that theyre responsible for that. John kirby yeah. Q what is the latest u. S. Assessment . And could this be a sign that ukraines spring counteroffensive has begun . John kirby well, weve seen the ukrainian denial that they had anything to do youre talking about the drone strike on the Apartment Building in moscow . Q moscow, yeah. John kirby so wed refer you to the Ukrainian Government to speak to that. We dont have any specific information that tells us who was responsible, and its not like were going to go out and investigate this. You know, its not that wouldnt be appropriate for us to do. And then, to your second question on the counteroffensive again, i we would let president zelenskyy speak to this. Wherever, whenever the Ukrainian Military is ready to step off here and get started, thats really going to be up to them to talk about and to and to explain. I would just tell you that over just the last few weeks alone, there has been a lot of fighting and a lot of back and forth here. And i think i need to leave it at that. Thank you i just wanted to follow up on china, beyond this incident, my question is will the with that investigation what can we expect with that investigation, will it be made public and then i have a followup. John kirby so just to be clear, theres not an investigation going on. There was forensic analysis done on the material that we recovered from the payload of the spy balloon. That was done by the fbi in quantico, largely. And i dont know the status. I dont know whether theyre complete or or or they still have things theyre theyre sort of looking at. But i wouldnt expect and ive said this before that, you know, were going to lay all that out for the public. This was a espionage piece of equipment, and we want to get a better handle on it, understand it for our own National Security purposes. So i would not expect that we would, you know, lay some sort of public summary of everything weve learned. This was a capability a surveillance capability that we we certainly knew and were tracking that the chinese were trying to develop and to improve. And we we exploited it when it was in the air, and we exploited the material that we recovered. Q okay. And on north korea, in the context of the Spy Satellite that they just launched, can you give us an update on where we are in terms of the u. S. South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group that President Biden and president yoon agreed on under the washington declaration . Is that all set up . Is it operational . And did the Spy Satellite incident kick off any elements of that . John kirby the answer to your second question, as far as i know no, that the spy balloon didnt have an effect on us youre talking about the washington declaration and the Consultative Group q yeah. John kirby with south korea. I dont believe that the spy balloon had anything to do with that. Ill go back if im q Spy Satellite, sorry. John kirby oh, im sorry. Q the Spy Satellite that north korea just launched. John kirby that north korea launched. Q yes. John kirby so, i think my answer still would be would be no. I mean, this was put in place before they decided to try this launch over the weekend. That said, the declaration and the Consultative Group was certainly established as a result of the continued provocations by the dprk over so many, many months here, if not years. And its a way to help improve our ability to be responsive to whatever threats there might be. Now, as for the status of the group, im going to take the question for you. I dont know exactly, like, where they are in the process. I mean, it was announced when president yoon was here, and the teams are have been working on it. Where they are in the timeline, i just dont know. Q and just really quickly, on the diplomatic side of it, i mean, we know that theres this whole extended deterrence push for both south korea and then also japan. And on the diplomatic side of it, youve mentioned and other officials have mentioned that the invitation is open for north korea any time, but has there been any kind of specific push on the diplomatic side to entice them to come back to the negotiation table . John kirby we have been clear and consistent since the beginning of this administration that were willing to sit down with the dprk without preconditions to talk about the denuclearization of the peninsula. Were we make that case all the time. I dont have, like, the last conversation to read out to you, but its its been a consistent message that we have delivered in various ways to the dprk. And to date, theyve yet to take us up on that. Karine jeanpierre go ahead, trevor. Q thank you, john. So, just following up on some of the president s remarks regarding turkey, he said that there would there would be another call or another engagement with erdo . An within in the next next week. Can you do you have any finer detail on when exactly that call is going to happen . And is it fair to say that the main agenda item on that call is a deal where the u. S. Will provide f16s in exchange for turkey agreeing to let sweden into nato . John kirby i dont have an update for you on when that conversation will occur. Certainly, as we get closer to another conversation with president erdogan well keep you informed. And the president has been long supportive of providing f16s to turkey and to helping their air force modernization. Thats something that that hes talked to many, many times. That has not changed, and that is not linked to whether or not turkey accedes to swedens membership in the nato alliance. We also want to see sweden as a nato ally. Very capable military. Were used to operating with them. Theyll lend terrific capabilities to the alliance. We want to see that happen, and the president expressed those concerns as well when he talked to president erdogan over the weekend, congratulating him on his win. But to suggest that theres some sort of linkage there would be would be erroneous. Can you clarify again what is that on the general matter and does ukraine, a country that has been under attack for more than a year not have legitimate rights to protect itself . We dont tell them where to strike, we dont tell them were not to strike. We dont tell them how to conduct their operations. We give them equipment, we give them training, we give them advice and counsel. We even do tabletop exercises with them to help them plan out what they are going to do. But ultimately president zelenskyy and his military commanders to do from a military perspective and decide what they are going to do with equipment that has been provided to them and that they now own. With that said we have been very clear with the ukrainians, privately we have certainly been clear publicly. We do not support attacks inside russia. And we do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside russia. And we certainly dont want to see attacks inside russia that are being propagated, that are being conducted using u. S. Supplied equipment. Do you have implied assurance from zelenskyy not to use the weapons we are providing in russian territory, are you confident . Yes we have gotten that assurance at various levels not just from president zelenskyy but other senior military and defense leaders in ukraine. Thank you john. Elon musk are among several u. S. Executives who recently traveled to china and met with highlevel officials there. Is the administration going to reach out to them given your difficulty in communicating with officials there and also is there any hope with this business level engagement with chinese officials that it might help thaw the u. S. Chinese relations . I dont know of any plans to reach out overtly to these business leaders. Specifically about their trip. Certainly if they choose to share some insight and perspective we would be willing to hear what they learned but it would be up to them to decide whether they want to do that. We are helping represent and facilitate these conversations. We want to see them act accordingly. 2020, accused them of a assault. Does the white house have any reaction to that announcement given the accusations that she has made . Thats really up for her to speak to. Does the white house believe her allegations might have been motivated by her allegiance to our affinity for russia . Difficult to say. I cant get inside her head and speak for her motivations and intentions. The one thing i will say this allegations that her life was at risk by the United States government, absolutely false, baseless. Theres is absolutely nothing to that. European leaders in the ukraine about the potential for a ukraine piece summit. Is that something that President Biden . Weve been talking with ukraine for many months now. We are helping to actualize that, operationalize that. We support moves toward peace, but in order for any proposal no matter who its nominated fop nominated by or put forward by, weve got to have the support of president zelenskyy. What we are focused on is working with our ukrainian counterparts and we will see where that goes. The president has son desha said where and when or even if the russians can be brought to the table, thats got to be president zelenskyys decision. Thats not something the United States is going to litigate on him. He has to be ready to sit down and talk. And the conditions at amenable to him and then you can move forward to whether the russians can be a part of it. Mr. Putin has shown absolutely zero inclination. Eventually, theres going to be negotiated peace, of course. But president zelenskyy gets to determine that. Ukraine has shown no inclination at all. 17 strikes alone let alone other places in the country. This is not the act of a nation that has any serious design on diplomacy right now. Could you give us an update on efforts of the United States making and any other prisoners, u. S. Prisoners in iran. That have been, the potential subject of, potential prisoner swaps or those efforts coming to fruition or advancing in ways that make you all optimistic . All i can tell you is we are working on all of these cases. Thats an unsatisfying answer to you, but i hope you can understand why we would not publicly negotiate here and publicly disclose the conversations we are having here. You are right to say there are wrongfully detained americans and we are working on that. Each and every case is important. Each and everyone is a priority and were doing everything we can. Each case is different and need to be handled differently. What we put for is going put forward is what to be different in terms of its palatability so we are working them all. Are you optimistic on any of those cases . I will say we are working each one very very hard. I dont know i could stand here i dont know that i could stand here and give you terms of optimism. What i am confident about, what we are confident about is we are putting a good faith effort into each and every case because each and every one is important. Quick question about kosovo. Theres been quite a few tensions there over the last few days and the Prime Minister said the u. S. Response is an overreaction. I wonder if you could react to that and secondly, whether the u. S. Feels below voter turnout suggests this may not have been a legitimate election. All parties should take immediate actions to deescalate tensions. We strongly condemn yesterdays attacks against troops and these attacks which injured numerous peacekeepers, absolutely unacceptable. The governor of kosovo should make sure that elected mayors carry out duties outside municipal buildings and withdraw , urge kosovo and refrain from further violence. We want to see this deescalate it and we want to see the violence stopped. Its difficult in any way to look at, think of that as hyperbolic in any way. I just want to, do you mean whenever because they are running out of . I was talking in general about all of their operations. Weve been dictating to them since the beginning of this war where they are going to operate and how they are going to do it. Weve been helping them. Weve been giving them advice. Whether they are defensive or offensive in nature president zelenskyy is the commander in chief. He gets to decide how his troops are going where they are going to fight, whether they are going to go on the offense. Any offense of operation done by any military, the timing is crucially important and thats also one of the things you want to protect as much as you can, your sense of timing so yes, its absolutely up to him. Think its pretty clear that were doing that. Number two is to support our nato allies and we have increased our footprint on the european continent alone and kept them there to make sure we are meeting our commitments and the third one is to avoid world war iii. I think we can all understand that a war that has already escalated way beyond the level of violence. There was no violence justified against ukraine. We can all agree that a war that escalates the on that, the text that is not only not good for our National Security interest, its not good for the graining people. Its not good for the people across europe. Its certainly not good for the russian people. As part of the senses we fed that is part of the thinking since the beginning. We have had that as part of the thinking since the beginning. Additional funding from congress. How does the debt ceiling processed the struggle weve seen vote for additional funding . Weve been doing one about every two weeks or so and this one is consistent with the last third or fourth. We are going to be able to keep that up based on the funding we have available for us throughout the rest of the fiscal year. When we go back to congress and ask for additional appropriations, i dont know the answer to that. Weve got some time to figure that out and i just dont have a date circled on the calendar. As for the debt ceiling, there will be in effect on our ability to support ukraine. Thank you. Two questions. On ukraine, when the American People hear the president say that the United States as long as it takes and we further hear you and the president say decisionmaking as to how long the conflict goes on, when negotiations will be entertained left up to president zelenskyy. Why shouldnt the American People conclude that a crisp critical decisionmaking about our National Security, are in fact being outsourced given over to a foreign leader and set of being made by our president. Decisions are being made by the commanderinchief with support from not only both houses of congress by both parties. On capitol hill, there has been tremendous support for that and i think the American People are smart enough to realize that if we just walk away from this and we let president putin take ukraine, which by the way he has not given up on as a strategic strategic goal, then what next . If you think the cost of blood and treasure is high, think about how high it would be if we walked away from this. Its not the president its not just the president who said as long as it takes. We all want to see this war and and we would love to see it end right now. It could end right now if mr. Putin would do the right thing and pull his troops out. He has shown no indication of being willing to do that. If and when it comes time to talks, president cilla ski can do that president zelenskyy can do that. You think ukrainian people want it to go on for one more day after all of the suffering theyve gone through . We cant just walk away from this. The American People i think understand that. I want to return, i know everyone is thankful you conduct those zoom refrains. Whats puzzling to me, those briefings are not transcribed and the transcripts are not disseminated. And they are on the record so if i could use this opportunity to register my own protest that we should receive transcripts of those briefings. Secondly, you and i had whether china and russia should be considered an evil regime. President reagan described the soviet union as the locust. President bush described them as launching unprovoked wars hundreds of thousands of people are being killed and the president of United States wealth leader of that regime a war criminal, i dont see what it is that prohibits you from calling a spade a spade and saying these are evil regimes. President s, its a criticism that you are probing is a question. He would like to see us put away on these questions and look at the National Security strategy. Look at the National Defense strategy. Take a look at anything the president asked that as commander in chief about russia and china and you will see we are speaking plainly to the American People and to those countries and those leaders about how we view their behavior, their conduct on the world stage and our relationships with them. Were been very honest about that. Weve been very honest about that. [indiscernible] why the test didnt go well . I wouldnt pretend to know specifically what happened. I saw the statement put out about technique cap that technical problems with about technical problems with the second booster. I dont know about that. You know it failed. Frankly, why exactly it failed shouldnt be the major concern right now. The major concern is that each and every one of these launches, whether it fails or succeeds, kim jongun learned and approved and they continue to develop military capabilities. They are a threat to the region which is why we are going to continue to work with allies and partners on holding kim jongun and his regime responsible. Including training and readiness to deal with those threats. Want to ask, does the white house believe . Is there any thought that maybe shes in russia because, is there any concern or thought that she may have been influenced by the russian government . Is a matter of record that mr. Putin and the russian government have tried to interfere, actually did interfere in our elections going back as far as 2016. That is a matter of record. This should come as no surprise to anybody that mr. Putin would show an interest in making it hard for President Biden to win an election and to try to interfere with an ability but whether this particular move by this particular individual is some sort of russian information propaganda campaign, i just dont know. Any information that would link her to Russian Operations . I have not. I want to circle back on russia and what he would say to moscows criticism. Were not going theyre not going to believe anything i have to say. But i will say it again. We have communicated privately to the ukrainians as recently as last week or so that we dont want to see u. S. Supplied equipment, that we dont support attacks inside russia and that we are not want to change our policy about not enabling or encouraging those attacks. Do you think you need to communicate that to the russians . We have made it clear to the ukrainians. We have made it clear publicly. I dont think were going to take it upon ourselves to privately communicate that to the russians. We have been nothing but consistent on this and mr. President b himself, the ukrainians, zelenskyy himself of giving us that they respect those concerns. Just wanted to ask, apparently, President Biden excepted an imitation to go down to brazil. Havent heard any updates since then. Brazils president talked to russia, has the u. S. Brazilian relationship cooled . Is that why President Biden has not set a date to go down . We are comfortable with the u. S. Brazil relationship. We are not going to agree with everything the president says. Thats why we have bilateral relations. Nations can disagree publicly if thats called for. We are very comfortable in the relationship. I dont have anything on the schedule to speak to right now. Last week, microsoft reported statesponsored chinese targeting u. S. Critical infrastructure. Microsoft described as one of the largest espionage campaigns. Do you know what has been targeted and how does the Administration Plan to address this with china . Out of the ask you the ceos again. We saw talking about, this level of representation in china right now, does that send a bad message that there will be no repercussions no matter what china does . These ceos really should be allowed to speak for themselves and for their trouble. Theres never been some sort of fiat by the white house or the u. S. Government that American Business executives cant travel to china and cant conduct business as they feel is appropriate. We view our relationship with china as a competition. We spent a lot of time talking about the security component of that, but theres also an economic component to that. You also heard in hiroshima, these g7 leaders, they have concerns about unfair trade practices. Employment practices, intellectual theft and certainly the potential risks of Outbound Investments in china. They came away from a hiroshima unified about those challenges presented by the prc and about acting according to their own dictates. Every country has got to do it for themselves. Is there a timeline . I dont have a timeline for that. Very quick question on maine bangladesh. Bangladesh government feel less filed cases against noble laureate economist professor mohammed you news, who is also a recipient of the president ial medal of freedom. In the United States announced visit restrictions just ahead of election to support free, fair, and credible election, but bangladesh regime is filing cases. And they are describing that piece of the restrictions announced that this is there and the government, the u. S. Is supporting the election which will be held under Prime Minister sheikh hasina. Where is the Civil Society rubes demanding an election under a neutral caretaker government . Youre going to have to let me reframe to the state department on that one. Other any concerns at all about encroaching chinese influence . You going to have to get back to you on that one. Two questions. At nicaragua and ukraine. At nicaragua. The dictatorship there got continues his persecution of catholics. The latest accusing the Catholic Church in walk of money laundering. Human rights defenders say it is absolutely basis. Baseless. Daniel ortega has imprisoned Bishop Alvarez for decades, expelled 32 nuns from the country, confiscated church buildings, shut down media outlets. Quite simply, what is the white house message to Daniel Ortega . So theres been a dramatic deterioration of respect for democratic principles and human rights including harassment and imprisonment of democratic leaders, members of political opposition parties, faith leaders as you rightly said including from the Catholic Church. This is all unacceptable. We condemn these actions. Weve already taken a number of actions to promote accountability for the regimes actions. Pope francis has put together a Peace Mission to try to end the war in ukraine. It does the white house believe the vatican can help achieve peace there . We believe that there could be many helpful interlocutorys and trying to get a peace proposal. It doesnt have to be any one country or any one entity. We would welcome any and all proposals to try to end this war as quickly and as diplomatically as possible. But as i said earlier, any proposal if its going to be seen as credible and sustainable or enforceable, its got to be supported by president zelenskyy. President zelenskyy has put forward his own 10 point plan for peace. We support that effort. We support their proposal and we are working closely with his team to see if we cant be operationalized and move forward. The center for Artificial Intelligence security issued yesterday a new statement signed by dozen experts warning that it Artificial Intelligence could lead to human extinction. Is this morning something that the National Security Council Takes seriously at this point . We have taken seriously both the promise and the challenges of Artificial Intelligence since coming into office. The National Security council, National Security advisor jake sullivan, certainly the president. As a matter fact, i think you know not long ago the president convened a meeting here at the white house with ceos from various Tech Companies that are involved in either ai research or an actual production of capabilities. There is promise and theres peril. Theres both. And the president wants to see a strong private Public Ownership to get after both promises and the perils and the threats and challenges. We are taking this extremely seriously. You just got rolled over. Thank you for calling me. I have a press freedom question for you and that i have an International Polling matter question for you. On press freedoms, this one was actually teed up for karine. I will repurpose it a bit for you as press office adjacent person. There have been many developments since the first Family International business dealings. There is one committee trying to get fbi files alleging the president bed President Biden to rieps. Theres another irs was a blower who is alleging theres a coverup in the investigation. Amid all of this, there was a Harvard Harris poll this month that found the 53 of the public including a fourth of democrats believe joe biden was involved with his son in an illegal influence peddling scheme. Theres of course evidence that the president interacted with his Relatives Associates from china, mexico, kazakhstan, russia and ukraine. So what do you say to the majority of americans believe that the president president is himself corrupt . Wow. The president has spoken to this and theres nothing to these claims. As for the whistleblower issue that you talked about and the document, i believe the fbi has spoken to that and youre going to have to go to them on that. All right. Lets go. Thank you so much admirable that admiral. We tried to get to as many people. Josh, kick us off. I get to see you like twice in like six days. Its amazing. Lets get back to everyones favorite subject. The debt limit. We cant do enough stories about it. House Speaker Mccarthy has that she appears to propose forming a commission to find ways to address the federal debt. Did this come up in budget talks and does the white house support this idea . Not going to go beyond what director young shared and not want to go in depth is what will theirs as to what was discussed. You have heard us say this many times. We are proud of this agreement, this bipartisan, since agreement that we believe that should get passed out of the house and the senate and the president s desk. It you saw the cbo score where it talked about how its going to reduce the deficit by an additional 1. 2 trillion. This is something the president takes very seriously. 1. 7 trillion that he was able to reduce the deficit in his first two years. He thinks its incredibly important to deal with that issue in a real way which is why he has put policies forward, economic policies forward that deals with the deficit in that way. Im not what to speak to what it is the speaker is trying to do, the commission or whatever he is trying to do. That is a question for him and the path he chooses to take. What i can speak to is what the president has done and what we hope to see in the next day or so. What is President Bidens top domestic priority . Weve always been pretty clear that his Economic Policy is something thats important, especially when he walked into this administration. The economy was on its head because of the Covid Response that was nonexistent with the last demonstration. What the president had to do make sure that we are getting with covid, to make sure that we are dealing with the common as the economy. He put forth along with democrats and also in a bar bipartisan way some historic pieces of legislation that turned the economy around. When you thing about 12. 7 million jobs created, when you thing about unemployment at the lowest that weve seen in 54 years, that has been a top priority for the president. And it continues to be. Talking about climate, theres a lot of action with china. You mentioned high prices. So what is the top priority overall . He is the president of the United States. There are multiple issues, multiple topics that the president has to deal with. He talked about climate, not just about climate. He was about how we foresee the season coming up with the hurricanes, the fires of eve seen across the country. How we are dealing with that in this country in a serious way, protecting lives, protecting communities, thanking the First Responders First Responders. Thats important. Americans care about that across the country. We talked about the bipartisan negotiate budget negotiation which is incredibly important. Were talking about how to deal with the economy for the American People in a way that helps all and also make sure that we do not default. All of those things are important. Why hasnt tiktok been banned yet . As you know, there was a c fius review. Im going to just leave it there. The president thinks its an important issue to deal with, but i just dont have anything else to add beyond that. Congresswoman jaya powell has said shes going to be a no on the debt limit and budget jaya pal has said shes going to be a no on the debt limit and budget deal. What is the white house reaction to this . And how confident are you that this is going to pass the house . The president actually talked about this a little bit right before at the end of his meeting with the cabinet members as he spoke about how we are going to move forward with dealing with these hurricanes and clearly fires a we are going to see this season. The president talked about how he sees the plan is moving forward as it relates to the bipartisan, since budget negotiation. He lands by the time he lands in colorado colorado that he hopes at the house would have moved forward. We believe its going to happen. We believe this bipartisan agreement clearly should get both republican and democratic votes in both thousand and the senate. As it relates to your question about the congress woman, we are not going to speak to any individual member and how they vote. What we can say is that weve had conversations with democratic members across the ideological spectrum and talk about the bill. We had director young here talking about her job. She sees her job being is giving him the information about what came out of this bipartisan agreement. Prevents catastrophic default as youve heard us say. It protects the gains that this president has made over the last two years as a relates to the economy. It protects programs that American Families need to make ends meet. The president was asked a little bit about this the other day. What is messages to skeptical democrats. He said talk to me. And im wondering if you can help fill in some of the blanks. How Many Democrats has he actually spoken to oneonone . The president has been involved in this process throughout. Hes been involved personally involved. We dont read out calls, private conversations. We are very careful about that. Its not just him. Its his team. I will give you a little bit of an update. I gave this rundown yesterday. The outreach that were seen from him and his team, more than 120 calls, oneonone calls with members of congress. That includes calls to all House Democratic leadership, all Committee Ranking members, all try caucus and ideological caucus chair and all appropriation leaders. Eight briefings for the entire house caucus, including one today as well have been reporting which was in person on the hill by the key negotiators who have been closely involved with this process these past several weeks. Six of those briefings were on Energy Policy on appropriations and tanf and snap. Weve also briefed or offered to briefed each of the tricaucuses and ideological caucuses. Can you give us a sense of more than of those of those more than 120 calls that were made, how many of those the president made himself . I dont have specific numbers to lay out of which of these 120 that the president made. But thats, thats a significant amount. 120 oneonone. These are oneonone. Those are the 120 that im talking about. Calls that he and his team have made. As of the president as you know, he was Vice President , he was senator. He takes these conversations and relationships very seriously. He said you folks will be landing at the time that this is passing. What is what what is that going to look like . Well we hear from him tonight . Will he have a war room set up when he lands in case the vote hasnt passed russian mark past . We believe that this is going to happen, get out of the house tonight. The president will have a statement this evening. In what form it would look like, certainly we will let you know. You will hear from president whether it is written or from him directly. Is the president confident enough in passage in the senate that he might spend the weekend outside of washington or will his or will he stay in town this weekend . What i can say to you is that the president is confident or he believes. This is his words, he believes that this is going to get out of the house, is going to get out of the senate. Its going to be at his desk before june 5 and he will get to sign it in behalf of the American People because this is incredibly important to make sure that we do not have a catastrophic situation on our hands as it relates to the economy. This is about protecting almost 8 million jobs. This is about protecting health care. This is about protecting programs that the American People truly need and depend on and so he believes that we are going to get this done. Is someone ok . Someone is coughing. Is it you . Are you ok . Just checking in. I had a chance to do a compare and contrast on the debt limit and snap. I talked to a former new york congressman who was once the head of the Congressional Black Caucus who was in the house when this happened with work requirements for welfare recipients during the clinton years. He said it didnt work then and it wont work now. He said its going to be going to create painandsuffering and this should have been done during the budget process versus now. What do you say to this congressman who was there, who actually, i think Hakeem Jeffries for his seat. What you say to that congressman and others who feel that this is pain and suffering that you are eliciting on those who are the least of these in this nation . That is not how we see this process. We believe that we protected the economic gains that the president made. If you think about the bipartisan infrastructure adulation, the inflation reduction act, for example, it is going to help lower costs for families, health care costs. Its going to help our seniors when it comes to insolent. Capped at 35 bucks. Its going to help seniors and those seniors and those very communities that we are talking about. Energy costs. Those are incredibly important for American Families across the country. Think about the chips and science act. You think about the pact act and our veterans. This is what the president was able to do to protect those types of historic pieces of legislation that has made, that is going to make a difference in american lives. All of those things are important. Veterans affairs, protecting that. Thats important. Anything about creating snap eligibility expansion for veterans, for homeless people, for young people coming out of foster care of all ages, is going to protect, is going to expand that. So there are things in the budget, bipartisan budget agreement that is so important to those everyday people to those hardworking americans. When you negotiate in this way, no one is going to get everything that they want. That is just the reality of negotiating. What the president tried to do is protect the gains that he made, historic gains that he made these last two years and key core Democratic Values that we believe is important to American Families and that is a promise that this president made and thats what we are hoping will move forward as we look at the house and we look at the senate and the president wants to get this done before june 1. Did the white house do a compare and contrast to yesterday understanding republicans that asked and received work requirements during the clinton years . Did the administration look into that to see the successes, Lessons Learned . And also to the congressman who also who was also the former head of oversight, the first black head of oversight and government reform, he questions what efforts, how exhaustive are the efforts to not have this in this moment instead of dealing with it in the budget, putting it in the Budget Discussion moment . Why now . The reason we are in the situation now, if we remember march 9 the president put forth his budget. He was very clear about how he saw the values for showing the value to the American People, how we move forward with our economy. About six or seven weeks later, it took republicans six or seven weeks later to pass the budget on april 26. This is a conversation that we were ready to have weeks ago, but it took some time for republicans to put forth what their budget looks like or what they perceive their values are in showing that to the American People. I want to go back to the workers requirement question that you asked. I mentioned the 21 million americans we we who we protected, the president was able to protect from losing their health care. As Food Assistance that was at risk for nearly one million americans in a put critical supported risk for one million vulnerable children. Thats what the house bill the House Republican bill, thats what it threatened and so these are the beings that the president was able to protect. It is important we believe for americans to not lose their health care. Thats what the president was able to do. The president s assist insistence that the gop proposal for snap is temporary. And the bill includes a major expansion again for veterans, for homeless, for people who are homeless, for former foster youth. All of these things truly matter. And the combined impact of these provisions is that the number of people subject to snap work requirements will likely stay roughly the same and so thats another thing thats important to note. When you look at the tanf policies in the bill, it maintains a states ability to support vulnerable children. Is a president planning a signing ceremony for this if it passes and will he invite the speaker to the white house for that . I dont have any ceremonies or anything to lay out at this time. What the president wants to see, he wants to see this past out of the house. He wants to see this path out of the senate so he can sign it as soon as possible. Last month the president signed an executive order to address current and historical environmental injustices. Could you describe how your support for the Mountain Valley pipeline fits with the president s Environmental Justice agenda . Im glad you asked the question because the permitting reforms in this agreement fully preserved bedrock protections of the clean water act, the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental policy act. It also delivers a key bipartisan priority by exhilarating environmental reviews all while protecting the full scope of those reviews. Thats really important to note. I have some quotes here from organizations who have said the agreement includes an important important down payment. This is a quote from the american clean power association. Payment on muchneeded reforms to improve the efficiency of the permitting process for clean energy projects. The Natural Resource Defense Council said the president stood up to extremist attacks on clean energy and climate investments. Weve seen a long list of support for this agreement and we think thats important. The clean water act. It critically important to what the president is trying to do moving forward. Did Kevin Mccarthy put that pipeline and the deal or did the white house . I think director young was asked this question. I just dont have anything to speak to specifically on what was agreed or discussed. I want to be very careful with that, but what we can say is that we think its important that this bipartisan, common sense piece of legislation loose forward. We think its important for the American People. We think its important to get this done as soon as possible avoiding any catastrophic results for the economy. Were going to be very clear on that. We are steadfast and continue to have conversations. What happens if the debt ceiling bill comes to the president s desk next tuesday, a day after the x date. With the u. S. Technically be in default . We are going to focus on getting this done. Thats what we are going to focus on. We are going to focus on the house, as we believe the house is going to pass and take this out of the house. Its going to go to the senate. Its going to go out of the senate and so we believe that this is going to get done. Have there been any conversations between the president and the Senate Majority leader schumer to try and speeded up in the senate . We are going to leave that process, the mechanics of how this is going to move through the senate up to leader schumer. We are in a short timeframe here and its important to get this done as quickly as possible. The White House Press office, your office continues to prescreen reporters allowed into large indoor events that formerly underpass president s were open to all journalists. Last june, almost a year ago, 73 journalists including reporters from nearly two thirds of the seats in this room signed a letter calling the process and type that a cold to the concept of a free press antithetical to the concept of a free press. The Correspondence Association also lobbied for it to be done away with. I was wondering if you could commit to once and for all doing away with this mysterious prescreening process. I appreciate the question. Every event youve heard from my team, i think youve asked my team this question and they responded to you multiple times about how this process works. Every event is different. No matter what the venue set up, we always credentialed as many reporters in the room as possible. Thats what we tried to do here. I know youve been in many of those events. I know youve had it opportunity to ask the president a question multiple times. And so you can speak to that for yourself as well as the opportunities that you had to be in these events. So weve also been able to substantially increase the number of credentialed press and events on campus as covid has eased. And so that is something that we have been consistent about. That is something that we have done. But can you explain why there is often so many empty seats . There is no restriction. Every event is different. Every event plays to the room that were in. We have expanded credentials over the past several months. You are aware of this. You have experienced this. We have talked to you outside of this Briefing Room multiple times about this and this is something that clearly as covid has waned with taking this very seriously and have taken of the comments in the requests that come from this room and i also want to answer jamess question about the nsc. Hold on. Were going to work through that with the nsc to make sure that you guys have