Investigation. The latest suspect is in court at this moment. This is a bit complicated. Heres a stab at the explanation. Robert mueller is accusing this guy, alex vanderschwan who is the son of an oligarch that is close to putin with lying to federal investigators about his contacts with the former trump advise eric gates. Now gates and the former Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort, were indicted for Money Laundering and conspiracy and all kinds of things tied to their pro russia lobbying in ukraine. The thinking here, the lawyer gets a plea dale and gates gets a plea deal in an attempt to get to manafort, the top of the food chain. Generally speaking, work around the perimeter to get to the center. Peeling the onion. Licks to the tootsie pop center. You understand the point. This is the latest in a string of charges from Robert Mueller. Last week Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 13 russian nationals and three Russian Companies charged with setting up an elaborate plot to influence American Voters among other things. The special counsel is looking to moscows meddling in the 2016 election and also on a separate track, possible collusion with members of the president s campaign and separately whether the president has obstructed justice along the way. President trump and the russian president Vladimir Putin have repeatedly denied the claims. More on his case in just a moment with Catherine Herridge. All of this comes as the president tweeted this morning i have been much tougher on russia than obama. Just look at the facts. Total fake news. We looked at the facts. Thats not true. Lawmakers in the house and the Senate Overwhelmingly passed voted to slap more sanctions against moscow back in july. The senate voted 982. The house voted 4193. Sanctions on the russians. Do it said everyone except the white house. The white house did not implement them. Missed the deadline last month saying they were not needed. That was before the indictment of the 13 plus the 6 in russia. Do they need it now . As of yesterday, President Trump had still not publicly called out the russians. Had still not publicly expressed that something needed to be done about russian entinterference a to this moment still has not. The president said russia had been punished and it was time to move on. People dont realize, russia has been heavily sanctioned. They were sanctioned at a very high level. That took place very recently. Its not time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken. Shepard has that time now changed . We dont yet know. Hopefully well find out. The president went on to say its an asset to be on good terms with moscow, not a liability. A question today maybe for Sarah Sanders and the members of the press corps, are we on good terms with the russians now . That all of the president s security officials, all of them have said among other things that there is evidence that the russians interfered with our election, did so to help trump and to hurt clinton. Are we still on good terms . We also have heard from those same security heads, the same investigators, the same personnel, the same special counsels office that theyre all working to interfere with our elections. They are now and they are for 2018. We have team fox coverage with chief intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge live in working on the. First, lets get to the white house with john roberts . The room. Hello, john. Hi, shep. The latest charged filed by the special counsels office are in the outer orbit of the Russian Investigation to use your met nor, the candy coating of the blow pop, my wifes favorite. This appears to be related to the investigation and business dealings that Paul Manafort and rick gates had in ukraine, the firm that the russian was employed by. Mueller is charging him with making false statements about the last time he had contact with rick gates and deleting emails. President trump weighing in on the Russian Investigation pointing fingers at the Obama Administration saying during the 2016 election, then president obama didnt pay much attention to what was going on with russia, down playing the idea that anybody could rig the American Election system because donald trump says he thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win and department want to rock the boat. President trump also insisting today that hes much tougher on russia than president obama is, even though, shep, as you pointed out he did not put into effect the sanctions that congress had passed. President trump referring to have a constructive relationship with russia. Shep . Shepard whats the latest on an improving background check as mentioned by Sarah Sanders . The one thing that the president can get behind is the bill put forth by senators cornyn and murphy. It requires states or giving states incentives to upload information to the database to get more federal agencies involved in uploading information to the database. Basically, shep, all it really does is tries to make more efficient laws that are already on the books. Some people would argue this should be happening anyways. You dont need a congressional intervention to make that happen. This doesnt go any distance down the road to what some people are wanting and thats more restrictions on the sales of assaulttype weapons and a lot of people that say when it comes to Mental Health, you need better checks and balances with that as well as the fact that the fbi dropped the ball here and not passing on the tip that it got back in january. The president for his part tomorrow will hold a listening session with the High School Students and teachers. We dont know if any teacher from Stoneman Douglas high school. Thursday, the president will meet with local and state officials to talk about School Shootings and what can be done about it, shep. Shepard this morning the president tweeted about a Washington Post front page story where a woman and not for the first time accuses the president of kissing her forcibly on the 24th floor outside their offices. The president said it was in the lobby. The basics of it remain the same. Yeah, the woman is rachel crooks. This was an indent that was alleged to occur in 2006 in an elevator at the trump tower. She claims the president forcibly kissed her for about two minutes. That prompted President Trump to tweet this morning a woman i dont know and to the best of my knowledge is on the front page of the fake Washington Post. He said i kissed her two years ago . Never happened. Would who would do this with security cameras. Shepard john roberts, thanks. A lot happening here. Its eight minutes past 3 00. At 3 30 in washington, right there at the white house, theres the medal of valor ceremony. This news conference, the White House Press briefing was to begin at 2 00, which would have gave us a lot of time with a day an a lot of news. But now that time window, its shrinking every minute and they still havent come out. The medal of valor ceremony begins at 3 30 in the east room. So well see what we have for a briefing today. Waiting for Sarah Sanders. Now more on the latest criminal charges and the special counsels Russian Investigation. Catherine herridge is with us, our National Security correspondent in washington. Katherine, theyre working and the perimeter to get to the center. Is that a Fair Assessment of whats happening here . Yeah, based on the two pages which are what we can say right now, the federal Court Hearing has begun and the lawyer at the heart of this was not taking reporters questions as he entered the building. Court to Court Records make public this morning, the lawyer was the target of a special counsel investigation. The Court Records said the lawyer lied about his contacts with rick gates along with Paul Manafort. The 31page, 12 count indictment focused on working with the ukraine. Gates who is in court at this hour, worked on the report for a ukrainian politics. After meeting in office, she was prosecuted for fraud and other crimes that were politically motivated. They wanted ukraine to be closer to nato and europe. The lawyer will plead guilty, which will be a violation of lying to the feds. Shepard what could this mean for gates and manafort . We dont want to speculate too far. But they question whether a guilty plea from the lawyer will increase pressure on gates to cut some kind of deal with the special counsel and then flip against manafort who was candidate Trumps Campaign chairman for a number of months. On fox this morning, a white house spokesman said the lawyer is so many steps removed from the mandate, that was investigating co ordinance with the campaign and officials. This has to do with an attorney representing one of the officials that has been indicted. Has nothing to do with actions related to this president. Were waiting for a read out of that Court Hearing right now. The thing that has my attention in the two pages that were released, they talk about documents and conversations in september of 2016. That is just two months before the election. What we know now based on the reporting, it was at the height of the russian dossier being circulated to the state department and media organizations. Thanks, catherine. Youre welcome. Shepard were waiting for the White House Briefing. We have a lot, the push on gun control and the white house reaction coming up from the fox news deck on this tuesday afternoon. Mvo with everything that is going on around us and in the nation, we need to work together. We need to do it more often to help people that need help. Ill stand by you. Fvo hes encouraged other people to look around and notice one another and take the time for each other. Thats his gift. Ill stand by you. Can start in the colon constiand may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. Only Phillips Colon Health has this unique combination of probiotics. It provides fourinone symptom defense. Its your daily probiotic. Ein the 2018 lexus es,y system plus, standard. And the es hybrid. Take advantage of special president s day offers now through the 28th, on the 2018 es 350. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. And not yet. But soon enough. For now, lets bring in ken thomas, White House Reporter for the associated press. The list is long today, ken. What tops it . We havent had a briefing for a while. Theres a lot of questions. One, what is the white house reaction to some of the mueller moves that weve seen the last day. Two, what is the status of john kelly. How does the president view the chief of staff. Also, how does the president view the work of his fbi director, christopher wray. Theres been criticism from floridas governor on his handling of the Florida Shooting and any number of other issues that will be discussed. Shepard john roberts often gets the first question. I dont know where he is going. Of all the Big Questions right now, what would you most like to have the answer to . I think we want to find out as much as we can about where john kelly stands right now. The white house chief of staff. We thought he was going to come out to the Briefing Room last week hours before shepard we heard it behind the scenes. Why never reported it. Sadly the School Shooting happened. Thats right. This will be the first opportunity for the white house to publicly talk about the job of the chief of staff. Were very interested in his standing. Were also interested in where the president might be going in response to this Florida Shooting. The white house officials told us over the weekend that the president would be supportive of some type of heightened background checks. We want to know how much does the president want to lean into this issue. Shepard theres a certain curiosity level on russia sanctions and why theres been no admonition, no public rebuke. Nothing. Because you look at the totality of it, when the special prosecutor said they meddled, when all of the president s investigators, everyone hes appointed, they all say yes, russia did this and theres no response. Makes you wonder why is there no response . Thats not the normal course of events, you know. Thats right. Some of the president s critics say that he has not been forceful here. Hes not responded and made clear that this is unacceptable behavior by the russians. We saw about a month ago, the Treasury Department put out a lengthy list of russian oligarchs and politicians and other leaders that are flourished during putins time. We want to know the Treasury Department suggested there could be sanctions based on that list but we havent seen anything. Its been widely reported that Vladimir Putin has taken billions from the russian people that his rich friends, the oligarchs run everything in russian. Theyre al billionaires now because they took the money from the state. Its the kind of information that we could give the russian people that would be i dont know some tit for tat. Heres the real on your system there, russian people. What do you think with an election coming up . We havent done anything that we know about. Right. Steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary suggested that we could see some sort of sanctions that would be a followon to this list, that the list was the first step in that process. But we still havent seen that. I think the mueller findings last week ratchets up the pressure on this administration to take some type of action that would show russia that we mean business. Shepard what do all of those tweets over the weekend signal to you about the white house and the way the president was feeling about situations . Initially they said they were happy with the findings and happy from the state from rod rosen steen. The tweets would indicate otherwise. They seemed to be defensive in their nature. The president felt like he hadnt been given a fair shake in how this news was relayed in the media. Well be asking Sarah Huckabee sanders more about that as well. Shepard ken, look forward to it. Thanks as always. Obviously still waiting for that to begin. Its almost 19 minutes past 3 00 at the white house, this is the east room where the medal of honor ceremony medal of valor. What will happen, some First Responders that have come in and proved what heros they are will come in and get honored for all that they have done for you and me and america. So thats going to happen which leaves 10 minutes for the White House Briefing. Well see what happens. Todays criminal charge in the Russian Investigation is painting a picture of the investigation. Analysts say if you read between the lines, you can get a good idea where Robert Mueller may be headed. Thats what they say. Like they would have predicted the one that got charged this morning or somebody named papadopoulos. At any rate, a political reporter with a few takeaways so far we believe coming up. You know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Shepard theres the medal of valor ceremony that will happen on the righthand side of the screen. That begins in seven minutes. Seven minutes from now. On the lefthand side of the screen, that is the White House Briefing and that begins an hour an 23 minutes ago until it was rescheduled for 23 minutes ago and then scheduled for 33 minutes ago but it isnt. Not yet. More now on the mueller investigation. The special counsel charged a lawyer today with lying about his contacts with the former trump aide rick gates. This comes after 13 russian nationals were charged and three Russian Companies with meddling in the 2016 election. Lets go to Jonathan Swan now for axios. Great to be here. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Shepard in the grand scheme of things, where is this investigation based on your report something. Theres two parts to the investigation. We often forget about the second part, the criminal side and the Counter Intelligence side. What we hear about day to day in washington and look at our own fault as washington reporters, the limits of our sources. Weve taken to people that have spoken with mueller. So we get their perspective. The mueller team is not leaking. But theres this other part of the investigation to which you pointed this out in your intro. We dont have much visibility. So we see these revelations with 13 russian names. You havent seen a single one of them mentioned or teased or forecast in the press. Nobody talked about george papadopoulos. So we can see the white house interviews seem to be coming towards an end. But i much point out, a later end than trumps lawyers suggested. We dont know because theres a Counter Intelligence dimension that we dont have enough visibility into. Shepard theres this russian meddling part. Theres a collusion part that presumably we dont know much about and a Money Laundering part. Yes . Yes. When i talked to ty cobb about this late last year, he said our part of the investigation, the white house part, that will be done by the end of january. Of course, thats not true. But what he said to me, he said if you put aside they couldnt call them the manafort silo and the flynn silo. He said those two silos, i can see them continuing on another year or so. As for our portion, nothing to see here. The white house part is done. We know thats not true. Just last week were told that mueller spent about 20 hours plus with steve bannon, muellers team and then we still havent had an interview with the president of the united states. So it seems theres still a ways to go on that side of things. Shepard the russian lawyer about a minute ago pleaded guilty. As expected this is a live shot for viewers outside the courthouse there, the federal courthouse. Were expecting him to come out and well see them then. It had been reported that rick gates would also plead. Its as if theres this lawyer, rick gates and Paul Manafort. Is it part of one thing . Again, this is the limits of reporting. We need to be very careful with what is a fact that is established and what is not. We know that hes been indicted because we read the indictment today. We dont have a full picture of what happened with rick gates. The Los Angeles Times reported that he flipped and was going to testify against manafort. As far as i can tell, theres not been a lot of corroboration and i havent been able to personally corroborate it. Shepard inside the white house what is the mood in there based on the things that have happened . Well, it shifts by the day. The mood is sort of trickled down mood. Its not trickle down economics. Its trickle down mood. A lot of it defends on how trump is feeling. He and his lawyers felt jubilant when they first came out because it was horah, vindication, no evidence of collusion. But President Trump has spend a weekend watching television and point have been pointing out on television and in other venues that actually tpd on everything and we cant claim any sort of final vindication on any part of this. This is just one section of the investigation. Trump himself sees all of this through his own lens. Hes never actually grappled with the idea that russia has been trying to infiltrate and intervene in the american electorate system. He sees it as an attack on himself. So he finds it impossible to separate these two things. Shepard very interesting. Thanks, jonathan. Thanks for having me. Shepard were not sure what the situation is with whats going on at the white house. We can only know what they tell us. What they have told us, just hasnt happened. Our john roberts says they believe that the press secretary will come out there in just a minute. We know that this medal of valor ceremony will begin in 1 1 2 minutes. These things happen on time. Well have to see. President trump has called the former Massachusetts Governor mitt romney dumb, one of the worst candidates in the history of republican politics all in one tweet. Now hes endorsing him because washington is weird. Now Sarah Sanders. Our country celebrated valentines day. A deranged murderer killed 17 people in Stoneman Douglas high school. The president and the first lady spent time with the victims that were recovering, thanked the doctors for the work and praised the Law Enforcement and First Responders. Here at the white house, the victims and families have been in our thoughts and prayers. Our broken hearts are filled with gratitude as we heard the story of incredible heroism. 15yearold Anthony Bourges was shot five times as he used his body as a shield for classmates. Hes in recovery. Thank you for your courage. Aaron feis shielded students from a hail of gun fire selfishly giving his own life to save others. Teacher scott bible was barricaded in his classroom but opened his door to let students run in. That cost scott his life but saved others. Numerous other teachers sheltered students in their classrooms. Tomorrow we will be hosting parents, teachers and students here at the white house to discuss efforts to ensure safety at our schools. Members of the Parkland Community will be attending as well as individuals that have been impacted by past School Shootings including sandy hook and columbine. Thursday we will have local officials including members of local Law Enforcement to continue that conversation. As the president has said, its the right of every american child to grow up in a safe community. That begins in americas neighborhoods where the brave men and women of Law Enforcement have the president s full support and it extends to our schools where teachers across our nation invest their lives in our students. No parent should have to wonder if a child will return home from school at the end of the day. The president has expressed his support to look at the federal background system and we will look at ways to secure our schools. As youre aware of later today, right now, in the east room the president will award the medical of valor to 12 Public Safety officers. They include officers, emergency medical personnel and firefighters and the president looks forward to recognizing them for risking their lives to protect american citizens and communities. The honorees are individuals that have exhibited exceptional courage regardless of personal safety to save or protect human life. With that, i will take your questions. Does the president now acknowledge what the special counsel indictments made clear, which is that russians not only tried to meddle but interfere and influence the 2016 election . Absolutely and the president has acknowledged that multiple times before. He did it in the transition, a press conference in poland and acknowledged it for a third time at a press event in poland. Hes stated several times, one of the places where you guys seem to get confused and seems to happen regularly, the president hasnt said that russia didnt medal. He said it didnt have an impact and it wasnt with help from the Trump Campaign. Its very clear that russia meddled in the election and didnt have an impact on the election and its very clear that the President Campaign didnt collude with the russians in any way for this process to take place. If thats the case, why hasnt the president implemented the sanction which Congress Passed last year . Look, frankly thats not completely accurate. Look, this president has been tougher on russian but the sanctions theres a process that has to take place. And were going through that process. That law also says that the country has to violate something for the sanctions to go into place and that hasnt necessarily happened. The president has been tough on russia. He pushed through 700 billion to build our military. Hes helped export energy to eastern europe. Russia is not excited about that. Hes upheld sanctions that the Obama Administration put in place. Hes upheld those. Hes closed three Diplomatic Properties in the united states. Hes taken a number of actions against russia and put pressure on them. He helped arm the ukrainians, a number of places that obama was too weak and refused to take and put pressure on where this president has. Im sure you will first, a clarification from some of the president s tweets. The president doesnt think that the fbi failed to stop the parkland shooter because it was too involved with the russia investigation, does he . I think he was speaking not necessarily that that is the cause. We all have to be aware the cause of this is that of a deranged individual that made a decision to take the lives of 17 other people. That is the responsibility of the shooter. Certainly not the responsibility of anybody else. Dishe mistweet when he said that . He said this is not acceptable. Theyre spending too much time to prove russian collusion. Hes making the point that we would like our fbi agencies to not be focused on something that is clearly a hoax in terms of investigating the Trump Campaign and its involvement you agree the evidence is that there the russians interfered i said the Trump Campaign the investigation is about what russia did and raises the question that the president agrees the National Security adviser says the evidence is uncontrovertible. What is the president going to do about it . What is he specifically doing about the fact that russia interfered with our election and has every intention of doing it again . What is he doing about it . The department of Homeland Security, Kirsten Nielson met with a number of stakeholders and looking at the best ways forward. Everybody wants to blame this on the trump administration. Lets not forget this happened under the Obama Administration it happened a year ago. What has he done about it . We spent a lot of time working on super security, focusing on protecting the fairness on our elections. As i just said the department of Homeland Security met with state and local officials just over the last several weeks along with election vendors to make sure that our election system is secure. Last week they melt with state and private officials on how best to secure the election system from foreign interference. Were not the only targets and were working with our allies on the daily basis to make sure that were following best practices. This has been a topic of conversation with multiple foreign heads of state. President trump and the administration have made it clear that interference in our elections will have consequences and we will continue to impose last week, we called out russia by name. The first time youve seen Something Like that taking place. Well continue to do that. He doesnt even called out putin. He criticized obama, he criticized the fbi. He didnt even criticize Vladimir Putin. He has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. Hes imposed sanctions, rebuilt our military. Hes done a number of things to be tough on russia. Last week, there was an incident that will be reported in the coming days in another way that this president was tough on russia. Last week the board of governor, rick scott, called for the fbi directors resignation. The governor and the president were together over the weekend or last week. Did the did Governor Scott talk to him about that and more importantly, what does the president think he tweeted about this, but what does he think about the director should the director go . What are the consequences of missing the tip on the shooter . Im not sure if it came up in the private conversations with the governor and the president. Id have to get back to you. In terms of the inaction of the fbi that is currently being reviewed and investigated and i cant speak to it at this point. I believe its internally. At this point, theres not a lot i can say. But i do feel and i believe that were looking at one action could be taken and certainly what actions can be taken to prevent that. No changes in that. Weve answered the question a number of times and i dont have anything new. What you said before about the event tomorrow, you mentioned who was coming. What is the topic exactly . Is it Mental Health, guns . What are they going to be talking about with the parents and the students . Its a wide range of issues. You have a number of people that have unfortunately been through horrific tragedy like the one that we saw in parkland florida last week as well as some that hope they never have to go through that. Well have a number of parents and teachers and students from schools in the local area as well. This is a listening session to see what can be done better, what the actual concerns of the students are, what they would like to see one of the things the president wants to do is makes sure he sits down with people from all fronts. Unfortunately when horrific tragedies like this happen, everybody wants a quick and simple answer. There isnt one. Theres not a quick and simple answer. We want to make sure that were addressing the problem and we want to make sure that were meeting and talking with as many people that are not only affected but play a role in this process as possible. Thats why hes sitting down with the parents, the teachers and the students and sit down with state and local Law Enforcement officials and then hes going to sit down with the nations governors and bring those conversations together and look for the best path forward and do everything we can from a state, local and federal level to make sure incidences like this does happen again. Thank you. The president and the assault weapons ban, what are his positions on that . We havent closed the door on any front. Thats what the next several days and weeks will be, to have conversations and see what this process looks like and see what areas we can help make changes to and in what places we can do better. Specifically i know background checks are something that the president is supportive of making more efficient and looking at better ways to improve that process. Were going to continue to look at a number of other factors as well. Thanks, sarah. In the aftermath of the indictment that was handed down by special counsel bob muellers office friday, the president tweeted quite a bit and tweeted quite a bit over the weekend. He was critical of the fbi, critical of democrats, critical of the Ranking Member of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff and critical of his predecessor but not critical of russia or the russian president , Vladimir Putin. I didnt get if a sense of outrage and what the president put out there in his tweets that hes angered that russia tried to interfere in the u. S. President ial election he called out russia by name in his official statement that went out shortly after those indictments came down. He called them bad actors and called out russia. That was the first reaction of the president. I would disagree with the premise of your question. Hes been extremely tough on russia in a number of different ways and were going to continue to do that. Angered by this or outrainfalled by the fact that russia interfered . Our system . Hes angered that anybody would meddle in our system. Again, its important to remember that we are looking forward to on figuring out the best ways to make sure that that doesnt happen again. Three weeks. We have a lot of House Keeping to do. First, you mentioned background checks and conceal carry reprosty. I havent spoken with him about that. I know he spoke with senator cornyn friday. Hes generally supportive of that. Were going to continue those conversations. Last week there was news by private travel with different senators and using federal resources. Do both of them have the confidence of the president . I have no reason to believe otherwise. If somebody no longer has the confidence of the president , you will know. Finally, the chief of staff on friday issued the memo on security clearances. Those with interrupt secure clearances by the end of this week would lose their classified information. What do you know about Jared Kushner . Can you talk about whether or not how he will do his senior job in the white house if he doesnt have access to classified information . I can tell you that no decision within the memo will impact anything that Jared Kushner is working on, in terms of specifics does he not need i cant answer whether somebody has security clearance or not. I can tell you that nothing that has taken place will effect the valuable work that jared is doing. He continues and will continue to be a valued member of the team and will continue to do the important work that hes been focused on with the last year. John . Sarah, you mentioned a deranged individual took the lives of 17 people at park land. Thats after a deranged individual took dozens of lives in las vegas in which the president offered some support for banning bump stocks which have fallen by the wayside. Preceded by a deranged video et cetera, et cetera. Other than a bill for Government Agencies to do what theyre supposed to do, does the president have any ideas, any ideas at all on how to address this or is he starting from scratch . I can tell you the president supports not having the use of bump stocks and we expect further action on that in the coming days. He ordered the department of justice and the atf to review the regulation of bump stocks. My understanding is that review has been completed and movement will take place on that shortly. The president when it comes to that is committed to ensuring that those devices are will again im not going to get ahead of the announcement. The president doesnt support the use of those accessories. And on the broader problem, deranged individuals killing people indiscriminately, does he have any idea thats part of the conversations if he has to listen to a bunch of people and he does havent any ideas of his own, that suggests he doesnt have any ideas. Youre taking any words can you explain i was trying to before you interrupted me. The president is very focused on mental illness, working with the health and Human Services department to determine the best path forward on that and what is available and allowed under the law. Something that we take seriously and something we want to address and were working hand and hand with the federal government and state and local Law Enforcement officials on what we legally can do. Unfortunately we cant flip a switch. Theres a process. Were a law and order country. The president is trying to do everything he can under his capacity to address these concerns and certain little when it comes to mental illness. Would the president consider granting mr. Kushner a full clearance even if the background check suggested its not aware of any red flags. Its irresponsible to suggest that without having seen any individuals file. And secondly, i havent spoken to the president about whether or not that would be necessary. But again, as said, mr. Kushners work that he has done will not be impacted. He will continue to do the work hes done the last year. Has it ever overruled im not aware. Former speaker gingrich put forward a proposal that hes promoting and training teachers and administrators to use firearms and having more people with firearms in schools. Is that in the range of ideas that the president is open to and if you can explain more about how the president and how the white house is going to run this process in terms of taking in ideas from everybody and having listening sessions. I havent spoken with him about peopler gingrichs plans. Were going to take in a lot of information from individuals that have been affected, specifically by School Shootings as well as those that hope they never have to be in that situation and talking to state and local Law Enforcement officials, state and local elected officials on what were legally allowed to do and what areas that we feel like we can help with that moving forward. David . What does the president think about secretary shulkins handling of the travel . What does the president think about that . This still has the theres a 97page Inspector General report. Until theres a secondary review that takes place, i cant comment. Does the president believe there should be an age limit for those that buy an ar15 . The shooter was a teenager when he bought one. Theres laws in plates that restrict that. In terms of whether or not we make that federal policy, that hasnt been determined. Thats something is that something certainly something on the table for us to discuss and we expect to come up the next couple weeks. Over the weekend, he tweeted about his National Security adviser, h. R. Mcmaster suggesting that he seemed to forget to say that russia didnt impact the outcome of the election. Does he have confidence in him to do his job. He has confidence to general mcmaster. I spoke to him about that answer. He said that he liked the Generals Office but thought that addendum would be helpful to add. Thanks very much. Shepard the addendum would have mad it inaccurate. Well get to john roberts in a moment. A couple things they talked about at the beginning, the russia report, the indictment. Sarah sanders went on to say that we know from the russian indictment that there was no collusion. That is not true. The collusion according to fox news reporting is a separate investigation and there was no mention of that. It wasnt what this indictment was about. This indictment was about russian meddling. This indictment was about the russians. This indictment wasnt about meddling. This indictment wasnt about collusion. There was no ruling on collusion. Thats an open matter. As far as impact on the election goes, that too is an open question. The white house is trying to say that it is incontrovertible that russian meddling had no impact on the election. Thats not true. Its an open matter. What they did, they staged rallies, set up advertisement. They moved people from one place to another. Its obvious that advertising is something that has an impact or campaigns wouldnt pay millions of dollars for it. Theres that matter. Theres one more at the end talking about explaining collusion is a separate matter. And then theres Jared Kushner. Last week on friday the chief of staff, kelly, put out a statement that by this friday everyone that doesnt have a permanent security clearance and we believe theres more than 100 of those, everybody that doesnt have one, will need to have one to continue to work in the white house. Its our understanding that Jared Kushner, the president s soninlaw, in charge of so many things, doesnt have a permanent security clearance. Sarah sanders said that it was improper to say theres red flags in his background, but its been at least since last january, so 13 months. Still no permanent security clearance. John roberts at the white house, this matter of permanent security clearance is for people that working at the white house, sounds like its not a big deal. It is. Its a very big deal. Exactly what kelly said was that anybody that was continuing to work with an interim security clearance and didnt have a full one would have that interim security clearance revoked that means they couldnt handle classified information, which could in the harshest of circumstances render their situation moot. Then you get this churn of new people coming into the white house and they have to go through the security clearances unless you here people and detail them over that already have security clearances. But theres a number of people that work in very important positions in the white house, not the least of which is Jared Kushner, who do not have these permanent security clearances and could come under the edict that general kelly issue last week. I thought your question about the crisis in schools was really good. Did you learn anything from her answer . The one thing we learned, one piece of news, and i felt shep like i had to push her a little harder today because they were relies on talking points. The one thing we did find out, there is going to be an action on bump stocks and it was a bump stock that allowed the shooter in las vegas to fire off so many rounds in quick succession. It takes a normal semiautomatic rifle and turns it into an almost automatic. So that is something that is going to happen. We dont know if he will bansupport banning bump stocks or limiting or controlling their sales. You had to push the white house because the president the white house said, the president is going to listen to a bunch of ideas. Thats fine. You should be listening to ideas. If youre president , you should also have some of your own. We didnt learn much from her other than the fact that they support the idea that they have to have greater facilities to deal with people with Mental Health problems which seem to be at the root of these shootings. Shepard the medal of honor ceremony has begun. The president said he will have meetings next week to talk about this crisis. My producers are telling me hes not offered up any independent ideas. The white house has led to us believe the president will make news in this medal of valor ceremony. We shall see. Lets listen. The key in all of these efforts, as i said in my remarks, the day after this shooting is that we cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make a difference. We must move passed cliches and debates and focus on evidencebased solutions and security measures this actually work. Make it easier for men and women of Law Enforcement to protect our children and protect our safety. In the aftermath of this evil massacre, our spirits have been lifted by the accounts of bravery. At the Stoneman Douglas high school, coaches, teachers, students, law enforsment officers and others that have shown us that the forces of love and courage are always stronger than the forces of evil and hate. Its this truth that brings us together today. The 12 patriots come from many places and serve in many different roles. They all share one thing in common when faced with danger, they each put the lives of others before their own. Very brave people that im standing with today. Here with us are lieutenant William Buchanan and emergency medical technician sean oceanbyne. Where are you two guys . Thats what i thought. Good looking guys. Thats good. They were both off duty near elizabethton in the great state of tennessee. It is a great state. When they saw a smoldering car with a passenger trapped inside, they braved smoke, fire and the danger of explosion to rescue the man, and they saved his life. People thought it would be impossible to save his life. William, sean, thank you very much. Great job. [applause] fire engineer, stephen gunn is also here. He was on the scene of a fire started by an arsonist in phoenix, arizona. As flames ungulfed the home, he charged inside to save an unconscious man. Within seconds, his helmet began to melt and his skin began to burn. Not good. But he carried the man out before the house collapsed. Thats by second. Engineer gunn, i understand you keep your melted helmet as a reminder of that day. Now you will have a symbol of our nations gratitude to go alongside of that very charred helmet. Something much prettier than the helmet. Beautiful medal. Thanks very much. Thank you. [applause] on a february evening in california, Patrol Officer david poyagen from Redondo Beach received a call that people were drowning in the ocean. Four people that had been fishing along the sea wall were swept into the ocean but raging waves. A rough day. The officer jumped into the dark icy water and helped get the three survivors on a rock while the captain went back former help. On top of the rock was a rough stay for all of them. Each time waves crashed over the rock, they were all tossed back into the water. But again and again, the officer rescued them until more help arrived and saved the lives of those three people. Officer poyagen, a job welldone. Thank you. [applause] when a gunman began firing at the employees of excel industries, and heston kansas, chief Douglas Schrader charged into the building without any backup whatsoever. He closed in on the shooter, dodging bullets and firing back until he stopped the killer cold. Chief schrader, you saved a lot of lives. Thank god you were there. Thank you, chief. [applause] thank you. Officer andrew hopsonsburger jr. Thats a very important junior, isnt it . Youre very proud of your father. He was patrolling the parking lot of antigua high school in wisconsin during the schools junior prom when he heard a burst of gun fire. Within 19 seconds, he found the shooter and took him down before he was about to kill four innocent students. Andrew, incredible job. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] finally, when terrorist attacked defensive employees of the San Bernardino department of public health, six of the heros with us today chased them down and put an end to their sinister ram papag rampage, which was going to get a lot worse. During the attack, officer nicholas was shot in the leg, but he continued to fight back despite a really horrific wound. Today were fortunate to honor him and the rest of that amazing team. Corporal rafael, detective bruce southworth, deputy sean wallen, detective brian overa and investigator chad johnson. Thank you all very much. Thats great. [applause]