0 could -- go back to texas -- >> i'm not in texas, there you go. >> i'm single, i don't do any of those things, i don't know what my issue is, i'm sure i'll hear about it on twitter. >> i have a theory one living in a mess, my husband, he knows he's incredibly messy, have one person in the relationship that's ocd and cleanly and you can make it work. >> it's all about meeting the match. here is "america reports." >> john: good luck to lawrence, thank you. severe storms plaguing millions across the country, devastating tornadoes ripping through the southeast yesterday killing at least seven people. >> sandra: a tough situation there. a brief break from the torrential downpours, dangerous mudslides, but they are back in full force now in california forcing thousands out of their homes, leaving some neighborhoods completely unrecognizable. fox weather all over the map coming up. >> john: kick off "america reports" with a live look at the white house briefing room, the former atlanta mayor now the senior adviser for public engagement speaking to the press corps as pressure mounts to explain what president biden knew and when he knew it about the classified documents found in his home and private office. hello, john roberts in washington. sandra, welcome to friday. >> sandra: and there were some fireworks yesterday, a lot of challenges from media, we will get back in there as soon as karine jean-pierre starts to take questions. any moment now we are awaiting the briefing of where the press secretary is likely to be challenged on what we are still learning here, after the attorney general just yesterday about this time named that special counsel to investigate and learned more documents were found in the president's garage where he keeps his corvette. >> john: new york post asking, did anybody vet this guy? house republicans wondering the same thing. >> this is wreckless, it's dangerous, it's, irresponsible. >> his lawyers found them while they were moving documents. now, that alone does not make sense. how many people hire high priced lawyers to move their furniture. >> this is a serious issue about national security and whether classified information has fallen into hands of people obviously outside of our intelligence community. >> sandra: all right, a lot of members of congress sounding off. fox team coverage, karl rove is standing by. lucas at the white house, how much of this classified material has so far been found? >> good afternoon, sandra. three different batches of classified material has just been found. the latter two discovered in one of president biden's delaware homes. just a short time ago the press briefing set to begin and president biden hosted his japanese counterpart. but this exchange of peter doocy got everyone's attention. >> classified material next to your corvette? what were you thinking? >> let me -- by the way, my corvette is in a locked garage, ok, it's not like they are sitting on the street. >> material was in a locked garage. >> yes, as well as my corvette. >> that corvette, biden's prized 1967 stingray, a gift from his father as a wedding present. his father owned a chevy dealership at the time. stand robert hur from maryland to lead the new special probe into biden's handling of classified material. remains justice department policy a sitting president ask not be charged with a crime. however, they want it investigated after a similar probe to investigate former president trump in november 2nd weeks after biden's first classified documents were found. >> i strongly believe the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. but under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter. >> president biden is expected to depart soon for his home in wilmington, the same place where the classified documents were found, leading some to wonder why he's returning to a potential crime scene, guys. >> sandra: lucas tomlinson, thank you. >> john: easy, there's a beautiful sports car there. karl rove, former deputy chief of staff and fox news contributor. what triggered the initial search for the documents at the beginning of november, who had access to the documents in joe biden's office and residence and why did he hang on to the documents in the first place instead of turning them over to the national archives like you are supposed to? >> that's a big question. it's pretty explicit. the presidential records act of 1978 covers the president and everybody else in the white house, including the vice president. and it says none of the documents created during your time at the white house are your personal property. they are the property of the u.s. government. i would also add one other question, which is why did it take so long to figure out the documents are missing, because there is a thing called the office of records administration inside the white house that keeps a log of all the documents that go to the president and keeps documents that are circulated, classified documents that are circulated elsewhere in the white house. so, that then turns over that record of all those documents to the national archives and records administration and the question is why in 2017 did nara not say wait a minute, we have shown there are some documents that were in the vice president's records but we don't see them in the records that he turned over to us. so, you know, maybe that is why they eventually sent a lawyer to look for them, nara popped up and said wait a minute, you know, 3, 4 years after you left the white house the former vice president apparently has not returned all the documents he received when he was in office. i don't know. but lots of questions to be answered. >> john: nara seemed to know right away what president trump had not turned over to them, why didn't they know after five years what joe biden had not turned over to them. karine jean-pierre at the briefing yesterday didn't have a lot of answers to the sort of questions from the press corps. listen here. >> i would refer to department of justice or my colleagues in the counsel's office but again, i'm just not going to go beyond what the president said. i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. i'm not going to go beyond what the president said. again, i'm not going to go into the particulars or the specifics of what the department of justice did. again, ongoing process, it's being reviewed, don't have more to share. again -- >> it wasn't because -- >> an ongoing process is occurring. >> john: a lot of complaints from the press corps assembled about a lack of transparency from a white house that had promised it. >> yeah, and look, they have had several months to prepare for this moment and you can't tell me ron klain and the geniuses around him and the white house didn't say it's going to be a problem when it emerges we better be ready. if you have the press secretary unable to comment, you better have somebody able to comment. whether it's an outside lawyer or another member of the staff or somebody from the counsel's office to help answer the questions because what we know from these -- from when these kinds of things happen, when the white house is engulfed in scandals, the more information you give the earlier you give it the better off you are. and it did not help the white house yesterday. looked like it was stone walling on an issue at the top of a lot of people's minds. >> john: the fact the president did not seem to know anything about these documents, including what was there, or what was in them, has prompted some democrats to suggest well, maybe somebody put the documents there. listen to hank johnson, congressman from georgia. >> i'm suspicious of the timing of it. i'm also aware of the fact that things can be planted on people. places and things can be planted. things can be planted in places and then discovered conveniently. >> john: seemed to get a little confused about what was going on there, but there are some people who have posited if they were planted, it was democrats to stop joe biden from running in 2024. >> members of the georgian delegation, space lasers starting fires, and now hank johnson saying people are sneaking into the locked garage in wilmington and hide documents and then the penn biden center and take classified documents there. what kind of lunacy is that. no, who took them. did the vice president of the united states, then former vice president joe biden or did a member of his staff, also question, did he rely upon that material in order to write his book. he writes a memoir about being vice president, some have to do with ukraine, he was in charge of the administration of ukrainian policy to helping ukraine to fight corruption, did he draw on these documents involving the united states, or united kingdom, china and ukraine and other places in writing his memoir. and in which case he should have remembered that he was using classified documents and again, going back to that september "60 minutes" interview, he'll have a lot to explain having said it was irresponsible for trump to handling documents and he was as well. >> john: and developing ukraine policy, his son was getting paid tens of thousands of dollars every month. wall street journal had some interesting observations, nobody in america will buy the claim the attorney general is not deeply involved or politics at play. if mr. trump is exonerated, half the country will lose the wig, likewise, biden, the other half. it's wrapped up in politics. >> absolutely. this complicates life for the democrats but also complicates life for the republicans and their lives were already complicated enough with president trump, when he took boxes and boxes to mar-a-lago. now the democrats understand how it feels when their president has taken maybe not boxes and not the same volume but two different places, locked garage in wilmington next to his corvette, and the penp biden center. very unusual the university of pennsylvania was very particular in how it answered the question of chinese money, they said penn bi biden center did not solicit money from china. but that's not the question. there are $54 million given by chinese interests to the university of pennsylvania between 2014 and 2019, was any of that money used to underwrite the penn biden center in washington, d.c. and a million dollar a year salary to former vice president joe biden. very interesting question along the process. >> soliciting language was very specific. you know, with that, say something with karine jean-pierre -- >> on ukraine, yeah, absolutely. this is one of the more astonishing moments, the vice president biden goes to ukraine and openly criticized by ngos in ukraine over not being the fact that he's there lecturing them, when the son is engaged in corruption that is endemic, and if you have a problem with the regime and whether it's warsaw or kyiv and you want to show, go hire an american. i used to be on the board for international broadcasting overseeing radio free europe and liberty and watched this carefully in the decades after the fall of the communist empire and his son is over there training in the kind of routine corruption that is in this region and he is criticized by ukrainian groups for not being aware of it. >> karl, griet to have -- great to have you on. >> sandra: dip into the white house now, karine jean-pierre is at the microphone, a big day yesterday. a lot of questions from reporters are expected. dip in, listen here. >> heard from mayor lancebottoms, the president will travel to atlanta, georgia and deliver a sermon at ebenezer baptist church and money, will join reverend al sharpton and the national action network at their martin luther king, jr. day breakfast where he will deliver the keynote address. on tuesday, prime minister of the netherlands to the white house to further deepen the historic ties between our two nations. as strong nato allies and global partners. reaffirm the shared efforts for trans atlantic security and economic prosperity. after that bilateral meeting, welcome the golden state warriors to the white house to celebrate 2022 nba championship. and next friday the president will welcome bipartisan mayors attending the u.s. conference of mayors meeting into the white house. the president will deliver remarks celebrating the achievements of the past 18 months and focusing on the bipartisan work that needs to be done to implement these and other historic pieces of legislative victories at the level -- at the local level to make a difference in people's lives across the country. with that, chris, kick us off. >> sure. question, speaker mccarthy has invited the president to deliver the state of the union on february 7th, just went out. is that the date the president plans to give the state of the union? >> we have received speaker mccarthy's kind invitation and the president has accepted it. and looks forward to delivering the state of the union address on tuesday, february 17th of 2023. >> february 7th. >> my god, i'm so sorry, guys. tuesday, february 7, 2023, we appreciate the kind invitation by speaker mccarthy. >> and debt limit deal, is the president going to cut spending as part of the debt limit deal? >> as you've heard us say before, we will not be doing any negotiation over the debt ceiling, but broadly speaking, at the start of this new congress, we are reaching out to all the members through the office of leg affairs, making sure -- making sure we have those connections with new members as i just stated. and like in the past, i've said this before and say it again, there's been a bipartisan cooperation when it comes to the debt ceiling and that's how it should be. that's how we should continue. it's not, and should not be a political football. this is not political gamemanship and this should be done without conditions and that's how we see the process moving forward. >> and negotiating, you will not negotiate anything about expanding -- >> what we are saying is this should be done without conditions. in the past we have seen this -- we have seen both republicans and democrats come together to deal with this issue. it is one of the basic items that congress has to deal with, and it should be done without conditions. so there is going to be -- there is going to be no negotiation over it. this is something that must get done. >> and the president agree with the treasury secretary the debt ceiling should be eliminated? >> again, i've spoken to this before. that is not -- no one is talking about eliminating the debt ceiling or the debt limit, it's not what we are talking about right now. congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without conditions. so that is not the discussion we are having. >> have white house officials been interviewed by counsel or justice department involving the -- >> what i'll say from here, any questions that you may have about the review, about the process, i would refer you to the department of justice and also refer you to my colleagues over at the white house counsel, i'm not going to get into specifics from here. >> aside from the special counsel, aside from the review, question about process on classified documents and handling, i think there is some confusion and even in this room. what is the process to make sure classified documents are not accidentally or intentionally taken when a president or vice president leaves office, and what's the protocol for this sort of, you know, a self-review system? >> on the process and how that works, i would certainly refer you to the white house counsel's office. they would know that, they can walk you through that. my colleagues there. and i know many of you have been -- have been in touch with my colleagues in the last 24 hours, and direct touch and answering many of your questions, i would refer you to them on the specific process so that they will certainly guide you in the right way. >> as far as you know, is it ever ok for classified documents to be mixed with personal? >> what i can say, look, what i can say is what the president has said before, what i have said multiple times, we take this very seriously. the president takes classified information, classified documents very seriously. but look, you know, i've said this before, we have addressed this issue multiple times at length, and we have been operating with the department of justice and now the same with the special counsel's office to be prudent here and make sure that we are consistent. i would refer you anything that is related to this, as it relates to the review or my colleagues at the white house counsel office and we see it as the best way to move forward, we want to respect the process, and so that's what i'm going to do, refer you to the department of justice. >> you are confident he followed behalf protocol was in place. >> again, this is something that he takes very seriously, the president, when it comes to classified documents, when it comes to classified information. i'm not going to go into any specifics from here. if you have any questions, anything further that's related to the review, i refer you to the department of justice or my colleagues over at the white house counsel's office who i know many of you who i'm staring at right now have been in close touch. >> follow up on the state of the union, i believe it was the president suggested he has spoken with speaker mccarthy. is there any plans for them to meet in person before february? >> they spoke and i think we shared that with all of you the day that speaker mccarthy became speaker. you heard, saw a statement from the president and the first lady congratulating kevin mccarthy becoming speaker and then the next day, i believe it was, that was on a friday i believe the next day, a saturday, the president had a direct conversation. he connected with speaker mccarthy and congratulated him in person. >> no plans yet -- >> i don't have a scheduled meeting to share with you at this time. >> i want to follow up on a few things from yesterday. when was the president informed about the appointment of a special counsel, how and by whom? >> specifics on that -- what i can tell you. we were not given a head's up. i was asked that question yesterday. we did not know that the announcement was going to come yesterday until after it happened so i can clear the deck there and let you know. anything else specific to when the president knew or anything related to this, i would refer you to the white house counsel's office. many of you i'm looking at right now have been in close touch with my colleague there, i would continue to refer you to the colleague at the white house counsel's office. >> one of the things they confirmed, bob bauer is the president's personal attorney handling some of this. given that the justice department cited the personal counsel as having made this initial outreach to national archives and has been in touch with justice department, is that the person who these questions should be directed to? why the white house counsel? >> i will say this again. i would -- whatever the white house counsel, my colleague told you in your conversation, i know you guys just spoke or connected earlier today. i would ask them that question, and anything related to the review i would refer you to the department of justice. >> and regarding the extraordinary measures the treasury secretary announced a little while ago and advance notice to congress, there is a policy that requires her to give advance notice of those plans? >> you would have to reach out to the department of treasury on how that process works. what i can say is just so that everyone knows, folks watching, the debt limit is projected to be reached on thursday, january 19th. at that point, treasury will begin to take extraordinary measures to prevent default. secretary yellen did not name a specific x date, if you will, the day treasury would no longer be able to pay the government's obligations, but quoting from the secretary's letter it's unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early june. that does not mean that congress should not wait until then to raise the debt ceiling as we have been saying over and over again. the sooner congress acts, the better since even the prospect of not raising the debt ceiling will have damage, the full faith and the credit of our nation and again, we are going to continue to encourage congress to act. but as far as the steps and how this all works, i would refer you to the department of the treasury. >> six days to the 19th. a few years ago, about ten days beforehand. >> i understand. i would refer you to the department of treasury. >> nothing to it being announced today made the situation -- >> i would refer you to the department of treasury and just to be very clear here, ed, we have -- i've been in here almost every day since we got back from mexico city standing here taking your questions at length so we are not avoiding anything here and you've heard from the president at least twice and we have put forth multiple statements from the white house counsel's office. so that suggestion i just disagree with. go ahead, kristin. >> thank you so much. does the who us and the president agree to fully cooperate with the special counsel investigation? >> we have said we are going to continue to fully cooperate. we have been. the president's lawyers and team has been fully cooperating with the department of justice and we are certainly -- they are certainly going to do that with the special counsel. >> and so by that reasoning, would the president agree to sit for an on the record in-person interview? >> i'm not going to get into specifics or what's going to happen, that is a hypothetical. what i will say is we have addressed this multiple times at length, and we are going to continue the president's team is going to fully cooperate with the department of justice and we respect that process and that's what we are going to do. >> the president has said he hopes to speak about this soon. when can people expect to hear from him? >> that is -- that something that i can't -- i don't have a magic wand here. i don't know when that's going to happen. what i can say is his team is going to fully cooperate with the department of justice. and let's not forget, the president said during the campaign that when it comes to the department of justice independence, he respects that. and that is something that he had said was incredibly important to make sure that they had their independence. that's why we say we are going to make sure that they have their independence and that's why i'm saying that we are going to refer to department of justice. >> and let me just ask you a big picture request he here. does the white house broadly speaking have an obligation to share not just with the national archives but with the american people when the existence of classified information is found in a private location? >> again, there is a process in this. >> not necessarily in this instance, but is it the policy of the white house that they should share that information, not just with the national archives, but with the american people. >> so, i'll say this, kristin. we have been transparent in the last couple of days, and remember, an ongoing process and have spoken when appropriate. we have shared, i've been here almost every day, but wednesday, yesterday and today taking your questions on this. the white house counsel has put out a very extensive multiple statements on this as well, and you all, i know, you all have been talking, many of you here have been talking to my colleague in the white house counsel. so the actions that we took were right actions that his team took in dealing with the department of justice and also the archives. look, i have -- i have -- >> you have answered questions when the press has broken and the news -- >> because it's an ongoing process, because again, it is an ongoing process. there is a process here, the department of justice is independent. we respect that process. but again, i have taken questions, i can take two questions to 100 questions, i have answered your questions as almost every day on this issue and again, anything else that you may have, anything that's related to the review i would refer you to the department of justice. >> one last question, i know you have to move on here. but the president campaigned on the argument that he would restore confidence. we know he's in the process of deciding whether to officially announce he's running for re-election. does this episode undercut that argument, that he would restore confidence because here we have in the headlines that he is now under investigation. >> he's restored independence in the department of justice. that's what we are doing here. when we are saying we are going to refer you to the department of justice, that is restoring independence as it relates to issues like this and that is important to the president, and it's been consistent. what i am saying about investigations has been consistent for the last two years. i've heard me over and over again when it comes to a legal issue or matter like this, we have always referred to the department of justice. so there's nothing here, different here. we have said we wanted to restore the independence of the department of justice, that is what you are seeing. and this has been done in a transparent way when it realities to how this was dealt with with the department of justice, and the archives. the president takes this very, very seriously. any other questions that you may have about this particular issue, about the review, i would refer you to the department of justice. you guys have been in touch with my colleagues at the white house counsel office and i would suggest that you continue to reach out. go ahead, steven. >> that point about the disclosures when appropriate. you describe a process but it sort of feels like a strategy. communication strategy to protect the president from political damage. was it the hope and expectation here that this would have remained a private matter and not have been subject to public disclosure? >> steven, that's your version of the case. i've been very clear here and i've answered that question multiple times in different versions, right, in the last couple of days. look, i want to be very clear. there is a process here, we are going to respect the process. this is all part of the department of justice process and we are cooperating fully. we are cooperating fully in this process. and again, the president believes that the justice department and its independence needed to be restored, that's what you've seen under this administration the last two years, and i want to be consistent in what i'm saying, i want to be prudent in what i'm saying when i say that we are going to defer any questions related to this to the department of justice and any other items that you have, if you don't want to talk to the department of justice, you are free to talk to the white house counsel office, i know you guys have been in touch with my colleagues there. >> we have done both. let me just ask you, often times in the careers of white house press secretaries there are a time when asked what they knew and when they knew it. were you or any member of your staff involved in the crafting of the strategy when the disclosure should be made in advance of cbs news breaking the story on monday evening? >> no. >> did you have a question? >> a couple questions. you have a vision of how high the debt limit should be raised? >> i don't have a position on that. what i can say more broadly -- what i am saying is that more broadly speaking, not going to get into the specifics of that, what i can say is we believe when it comes to the debt limit has been done in a bipartisan way over the years, and decades, and it should be done in a bipartisan way and it should be done without conditions. that is important here. and so we are going to continue to encourage and ask congress to take action and that's where we are going to lever it at this time. we are not going to do negotiation, and it should be done without conditions. >> make calls to congress -- or entirely for congress -- >> i've said our office of leg affairs has been touch with the new congress to make sure they know the appropriate people to reach out on the office of leg affairs and so we are going to continue -- we are always having conversations with members of congress, the president has multiple conversations with members of congress, a lot of long time friends who are over on the other side of pennsylvania, and so that is something that continues. but, when it comes to this, when it comes to the debt limit, it should be done without conditions, it was done under the last president three times in a bipartisan way, and so this should continue. >> quickly on the cpi data yesterday, good result there, that comes on the heels of the jobs data which was pretty strong. kind of jazzed about that, it seems on tv in the last 24 hours or so. is it fair to say the white house is thinking this is what a soft landing could look like or are you not getting that far? >> what we can say -- i'll say that, and you've heard from many of my colleagues who are economists working on this issue, pushing for the president's economic plan. it just goes back to the president's economic plan, and we see it as it's working, right. the vision that the president has for this country, when you think about when he came in, he passed the american rescue plan, you think about all the other historic pieces of legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, i talked multiple times at the top about the inflation reduction act. look, it is -- it matters what the vision of a president is and him acting out on it. and that's what you saw. when you see inflation down for six months, that -- that matters, right. that's because of the president's economic plan. annual inflation down 6.5% from where it was this summer, just this summer, 9.1%, gas prices down by more than a buck 70 from its peak, all of this matters, and so that's how we are seeing this. we are seeing it as the president's economic plan is indeed working. we are going to continue to put the american families and american people first and work on this issue you hear us talk about all the time, his number one economic issue is bringing down inflation, that's why the inflation reduction act, what i talked about when you think about healthcare and think about medicare and negotiating those prices, when you think about what we announce in georgia, 2500 jobs are created because of the inflation reduction act, all of that, all of that matters and all of that is important and o more broadly speaking about the president's economic plan. look, we believe we continue to be in this transition of stable and steady growth, and i think that's what we believe that's what the numbers continues to show as you talk about the jobs report that we saw recently and as you talk, as we talk about the cpi data. >> calling it a soft landing. >> i'm just saying we are in this transition of -- transition to stable and steady growth and we believe that the economic -- the president's economic policies that he's put forward in the past two years, we see that working. >> thanks. u.s. attorney was looking into this for several weeks before, in touch with -- >> looking into what exactly. >> classified documents. >> he was in touch with president biden's counsel. i wanted to know, was the -- was president biden, was the white house surprised that along with merrick garland that they decided that more investigation was needed and a special counsel was appointed. >> what i can tell you is we were not given a head's up, that attorney general garland was going to make his announcement yesterday on the special counsel, that is something that we learned like many of you watching the news. i'm not going to get into anything further from that. i can't speak to this person who you just mentioned who has been, i don't know, having conversations or make comments about this, i'm not going to get into that, i'm not going to give reactions from here. what i can tell you is again, i'm going to refer you to the white house counsel office and talk to my colleagues on any particular questions that you may have that's related to this process and if it's something that you want to know specifically about the review, i would refer you to the department of justice. >> president biden did say, god willing he hoped to be able to say more soon. seemed like he was thinking the investigation would end soon. was he surprised? >> again, i'm just not going to go beyond what the president said. i will say this is that we are -- we are going to continue to fully cooperate as i've said. we have talked about this at length. we have had multiple statements on this. and again, want to be prudent here, i'm going to be consistent here, any questions that you may have about this process i would refer you to the white house counsel. >> another topic, i wanted to ask about the administration's appeal of the sutherland springs mass shooting case. does it concern the administration that some gun control advocates are concerned or worried about the appeal by the doj and that that appeal undercuts biden's own stance on background checks and also that the nra is essentially applauding the doj's move? >> so look, when it comes to issues like this, legal issues, that is something that the department of justice deals with. again, they are independent so i would refer you to them on their decision. the president continues to be committed on making sure that we address an issue that is affecting families across the country, communities across the country, which is gun violence. it was so critical when he signed the bipartisan piece of legislation on gun violence this past summer and he's going to continue to call for the ban of assault weapons, working with congress to make that happen. and let's not forget, the first year and a half of this administration we put forward more executive actions than any other president on dealing with this issue, on dealing with protecting our communities, protecting families dealing with gun violence and that is -- that call that he has, especially the call to action from congress, is going to continue and it's not going to stop. go to the back. >> i have two questions on the meeting with the prime minister, but just briefly on the documents, we have seen online propaganda from those seeking to take advantage from this revelation. >> who is seeking to take advantage? >> online propaganda from adversaries seeking to take advantage of the revelation of the classified documents. i wonder if you can share with us whether the administration is anticipating any kind of national security implications from this fallout. are you hearing any kind of intelligence and are you doing anything to deter those threats. >> again, i'm just not going to talk about any intelligence from here. i would certainly -- anything that's related to this, i would refer you to department of justice and also refer you to my colleagues at the white house counsel. i'm just not going to go into anything, any -- especially national security affairs and so i would refer you to them. >> probably follow up with the national -- ok. >> that would be great. >> i know we are waiting for a readout, but tell us whether the leaders spoke about semiconductors and japan will limit controls to chinese access to semiconductors and whether he has urged president biden if he would be open to joining ctppp. >> this is not an option we are exploring, i think we said that before. we are focused on the ippf, indo-pacific framework and economic ties with 13 partners, many are tpp partners, so that is going to be our focus. that has not changed. as it relates, i don't want to get ahead of the conversation, they are having a dialogue, the byline is occurring, but they will discuss china, russia, and missile programs, and focus on what they can get done together in 2023. japan holds in the g7 presidency and has just taken a nonpermanent seat on the u.n. security council. while we are hosting apec and seeking -- the prime minister arrived at the white house as you know, i believe my colleague laid out what came out of that, after consulting closely with us and regional partners and i expect the president and the prime minister will debrief on the consultations. again, don't want to get ahead -- we will have a readout for you, they are having the conversations currently, and we'll share that. >> dig a little deeper, we really have not heard much about this framework since it was launched last year. so at this point it seems like the administration still believes this is the best offer the u.s. can give to counter chinese trade clout, am i understanding this correctly? >> so as you said, it was announced in tokyo this past may, and japan was a critical partner as you know, in helping us to build support, particularly among southeast asian countries. so, that is important, again, japan has been a critical partner in this. they represent 40% of the world gdp and we are united in our belief much of our success in coming decades will depend on how well governments harness innovation, so that is part of it. we have to see how it works through, especially the transformations afoot in the clean energy, digital, technology sector, while fortifying our economies against threats from fragile supply chains to corruption to tax havens. we expect to achieve high standard commitments that will deepen our economic engagements in the region and make good progress in text-based negotiations this year. japan played a very big role when you think about it represents the 40% of the world gdp, and so look, this, again, an important partnership, this is a framework that we are incredibly committed to, and we appreciate japan's partnership in this. >> thanks, karine. ask you about the u.s. chamber of commerce. u.s. chamber of commerce embraced president biden in 2020 and now the president of the u.s. chamber says the businesses it represents are fed up with the government making it harder to do business and adding new rules and regulations. do you have any response? >> yes, i do. first thing, the president's first two years in office have been the best for job creation in history, when you think about 10.5, nearly 10.5 million jobs created. manufacturing and small businesses are on the rise and we are seeing progress in the fight against global inflation. so, that's the first piece to just lay out there. the second, look, i don't think that it's all of the chamber's presidents have said that. she also called out polarization and gridlock and called for permitting reform, immigration reform, improving childcare, improving climate resilience and funding law enforcement. so those are all areas where the president has called for congress to act, and we also agree with the chamber that congress must address the debt limit and we can "not play chicken with the true faith and credit of the united states." and lastly, let me just say as i think everyone is aware, the last two years showed historic bipartisan progress for the american people. i've talked about during this press briefing those pieces of legislation, historic pieces of legislation, including on rebuilding our infrastructure. and investing in american manufacturing. so the president's plans on infrastructure next generation research, clean energy and manufacturing are strongly supported by business community. again, you know, we do outreach to different communities what we talk about these important pieces of legislation, we talk about the president's economic plan, but he also believes big corporations should pay their fair share and the american public believes they should be doing this. >> also she said government overreach, when regulations are driven by ideological agendas imposed on businesses without transparency, accountability or clarity, government is not working. will there be changes in the government working? >> our administration is leveraging every available tool to advance the president's ambitious agenda for the country and to deliver the american people. that's the president's primary goal. when he came into the administration and it continues to be the case, he wanted to make sure he is delivering for the american people, delivering for american families, making sure that we are building an economy from the bottom up, middle out and that's what you are seeing. i was just asked about the inflation data, the cpi data and the jobs report. we are seeing, while there is still more work to do, we are seeing the president's economic policy is actually working. ok. go ahead, alex in the back. >> earlier this week you discussed the situation in florida, 350 cuban migrants landing in key west. i believe you said it was political ploy on the part of governor desantis to deploy the national guard. his office has said that the coast guard requested help patrolling the waters off florida. can you just kind of discuss your understanding of the situation in florida and how that understanding was involved? >> yep, i'm happy to repeat what i said, which is governor desantis has made a mockery of the system and he has consistently and constantly, as many of you have reported, has done political stunt, has not helped to address the issue but has instead decided to put the lives of migrants who are coming here for a better life at risk, and that's what we have seen from this governor. look, when it comes to the coast guard and customs and border protection, they are deploying additional personnel and resources to florida to quickly process individuals and place them in removal proceedings. i would note the migrants from cuba who arrived in florida over a week ago were processed and moved out of the state by border patrol within days. at the national park that you mentioned, it reopened just this past sunday. the president has expanded safe, orderly, legal pathways for migration, including for cubans and we continue to urge individuals to use those instead of risking their lives at the hands of human smugglers and you heard that directly from the president just a couple days ago on the world stage in mexico city. i'm going to try and call folks -- go ahead. >> called on you earlier. >> you several times referred people to the white house counsel for questions about the process and the review. would you bring richard sauber here or someone to answer in is a formal capacity? >> the white house counsel office has provided information on this this week as appropriate. again, i think i just said this, i've said it multiple times during this briefing that i know in the last 24 hours my colleagues at the white house counsel office has been in touch with many of you and answered a lot of your questions. and so that will continue. you reach out to them and they will certainly engage. and so i'm going to leave it there, but again, anything that is related to this review i would send you to department of justice. again, if there is something specific to this that you want from us, i would refer you to the white house counsel office. >> is the white house concerned that this investigation is going to overshadow what you were trying to do right now, what your message is right now? >> look, our message is very clear, and it will continue to be just that. and you've seen it. that's why, when i started the briefing i laid out all of the -- all of the kind of progress that we have made. just this week alone, when you think about the inflation reduction act, when you think about how it's going to lower cost for american families, when you think about the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, just recently as you all some of you were there in kentucky where you saw bipartisanship talking about a bridge that has for decades, for decades presidents have talked about fixing that bridge and this president, because of the bipartisanship he was able to bring together got that done. and look, we are not going to stop talking about how we are going to deliver for the american people. i actually think and we actually believe there are people who are watching, the american people watching want to hear that, they want to hear what i just laid out at the beginning of the briefing. they want to know how this president, how this administration, how the federal government is delivering for them. so again, we are going to have those conversations, you will hear from me speaking about that, you heard from the president yesterday talking about the cpi data and how important it was to see inflation go down in six months, and how we are seeing record low unemployment in 50 years. that is conversation and that work is going to continue. thanks, everybody. have a great weekend. >> sandra: all right, there you have it. karine jean-pierre taking some questions at the white house, not offering a lot of new information, john. >> john: yeah, not taking a question from peter doocy, who you heard at the end there trying to get a question in. it was peter doocy who questioned the president yesterday about what he was thinking, keeping those classified documents in the garage alongside his corvette. that's when the president said well, the car was in a locked garage, and it's not like the documents were out there in the street. but according to national security policy, they don't see any difference between that, whether it's a locked garage or out on the street, if it's not in a secure facility where classified documents, top secret documents are supposed to be kept, then that's not right. and this idea, too, that the white house voted yesterday that the documents, trying to remember the exact language, were unintentionally misplaced or something misplaced, that does not fly either because that is still mishandling classified documents. so that may be for the court of public opinion, thinking the president, not charging a sitting president with a crime will be the overarching policy here, and maybe they are just trying to the best of their ability say there's nothing to see here. but clearly there is something to see. >> sandra: that being said, the press secretary said over and over again very similar to what she offered yesterday that the president takes things very seriously when it comes to classified documents. one would then wonder how they ended up in his garage and will the white house release a visitor log, who would have had access to the documents in his garage is a huge question. but reporters clearly in the room are pushing the white house for more transparency. a sliver of what we just heard and heard it over and over again. karine jean-pierre a second ago. >> we have been transparent in the last couple of days, and remember, an ongoing process and we have spoken when it is appropriate. >> sandra: things we don't know at this point, john, what triggered the search for the documents, who has access to the documents both at the office and joe biden's private residence, and did he hold on to these documents after leaving office. there was a pretty good question from a reporter in the room a minute ago about bringing the president's attorney into the briefing room to take questions since she continues to refer everyone to the white house counsel, obviously as well as to the justice department for answers. >> john: yeah, i mean, it's very rare that the white house counsel ever goes before the press. they like to stay as anonymous as possible. more on the briefing and why he didn't get a question, peter doocy is live at the white house. she passed you over today. >> i don't know why, if i would have had an opportunity to ask a question the first one i have on my sheet was why is president biden going to wilmington today. isn't that a potential criminal scene. we are not getting a ton of new information today about the president's knowledge of this probe, about his thoughts on the probe, everything is being referred to either the private lawyer bob bauer or to the special counsel, richard sauber, the special counsel at the white house, basically the president's government lawyer. and karine jean-pierre said today she was not involved in any of the decisions about when to go public, about how to go public with any of this. and so seems like -- and today there were more questions about other topics besides the documents, growing document scandal, i think we can call it a scandal at this point, and so it's unclear how much more there is going to be -- how much more new information we are going to get from this white house about any of this other than they take it seriously. and that they are going to cooperate. john. >> sandra: peter, looking through my notes, they did offer this but i believe we have already heard this on the record from the white house, she said the white house and confirmed the white house was not given a head's up before the announcement of special counsel yesterday. she continued to reiterate the president takes this very seriously and that he will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation. she was then asked, will the president agree to sit for an on the record interview, she said she would not address hypotheticals is what we heard. >> right. but if they are going to fully cooperate and somebody from the doj or special counsel's office said we need an interview with the president, then the answer would be yes, that they would be submitting to an interview, subjecting the president to a special counselor's questions. something else that did not come up today and something that we will probably learn as this develops, when white house officials say the search is complete, that is the search by the president's private attorney, bob bauer. it's unclear the special counsel is going to be satisfied by that. there is a possibility they are going to want to go in and look for themselves in wilmington, at the offices the president had access to, so that could be another new wrinkle. but if they are going to fully cooperate, then they got to let them in. back to you. >> john: we'll see if they allow robert hur and his team to go in and see if there is anything they might have overlooked. peter, thank you. >> sandra: peter will keep us posted from there. bring back karl rove. you were listening to this with us. who had access to the documents, once they were at the office, once they are at the home, where's the log of the visitors to that house, who would have had access, was there somebody in the garage maintaining the corvette, for example, that had access to the documents. >> lots of questions. who took the documents out of the obama-biden white house, who had access to them, who put them in the garage, did the current president use them in compiling his white house memoir. this was an attempt by the white house press secretary to stone wall politely. she said speak to the department of justice, they will say there's an undergoing investigation, we don't comment or the white house general counsel's office, like one by one, you make a phone call, wait for a phone call back, ask your question, maybe get an answer, maybe not. but it's never on television and it's never in a comprehensive fashion. it strikes me highly unlikely they take a member of the white house counsel and put them in the briefing room, have them go through what they knew and didn't know and answer questions. that's the way to put it behind them but they are not going to do that if karine jean-pierre's behavior is any indication at all. >> john: thank you, we will stay in touch with you and get your expertise on this. you've been there, you know what goes on behind closed doors at the white house. >> thank you. >> john: new at 2:00, deadly storms across the country, devastating floods in california, powerful tornadoes in the south. wicked weather and we are live on the ground with the latest on the destruction. you've been asking for him for so long, and brian kilmeade will be here along with shannon bream and former fbi special agent nicole parker on the biden document scandal and why she left the fbi. all that and more coming up as "america reports" rolls on to hour two. don't you go away.