Secretary sean spicer our word of the day is control. I kind of wanted to spin political correctness. This behavior is crazy. He needs to get a grip on it. I think the tweeting is illadvised. I would hope the president would rethink this. If the president is incapable of self discipline the fundamental problem is the president s character. President trump is making it clear he that wont answer calls from his own party to control his nonstop need to tweet. All of this days ahead of anticipated testimony in the history of modern day politics. James comey set to testify under oath before the Senate Intelligence committee thursday. Lets start with kelly out of london. What do we know . Well, officials are not yet officially calling this a terror attack. They say they are investigating in that along those lines based on the fact that this attacker said this is for syria also based on the fact that this happened at notre dame cathedral, one of the most popular Tourist Attractions in paris and because the target was a police officer. They say at this point they dont have any other indication of a motive behind this or any indication that this attacker is tied to any sort of extremist groups. They are still trying to tie all of that together. They also say that it is up to the prosecutor at this point to determine motive and whether or not this is terrorism linked. All of this started around 10 30 eastern time, about 4 30 in the afternoon in paris. There were crowds outside the cathedral. People inside were told to stay put. Witnesses heard at least two gun shots outside. Here is what one witness told us. We were about to actually go into the notre dame and we heard the gunshot so we ran the other direction. Did you feel scared generally in paris . Not until that. You didnt know what was happening. We were at the front and people were running towards us. We didnt know what the cause was. This afternoon the interior minister in france said the man came from behind the Police Officers and pulled a hammer out of his backpack and hit the officer. We are told the injuries are not serious injuries to the officers. One of his partners shot the attacker. Its not clear how many times but we understand he was wounded and taken to the hospital. They believe the attacker is an algerian student based on an i. D. That they foupd on him but are trying to verify that i. D. Card and his identity. They havent released a name yet. They say it looks as though he acted alone. The situation now under control. They also say interestingly that along with that hammer he had kitchen knives in his backpack. A reminder that we are coinuing to wait on the whi house ess briefing. This as we getew reporting from Hallie Jackson that the war room in the white house is not coming together. And reporting from robert costa that the president plans to tweet during james comeys testimony on thursday. Lets go right to Hallie Jackson who is in that White House Press briefing room. What happened . It never took off at least according to one Administration Source when you are talking about this inhouse Crisis Management center a source close to the administration tells me there is no war room. It is not happening. Expect the administration this week to shunt questions off to outside counsel led by mark kasowitz. The expectation is that will likely change. A person involved with that effort is telling me they are working to stand up their team, organize that this week. They are expected to be based here in washington out of the Law Firm Offices as the comey testimony is happening. The expectation right now is that will come from these outside legal experts that are working with the president. I am told that the president has consulted with the outside legal team about the strategy and planning for how to respond and contain any potential fallout from that very highly anticipated testimony coming down on thursday. Is he going to be live tweeting this . Is the president going to be live tweeting james comeys testimony . I spoke with bob costa over at the post earlier this morning and he said the president is not going to be putting down the phone. There is the expectation that if he wants to tweet he is going to tweet. That shouldnt be surprising. It is what we have seen from the president virtually the entire administration. The president has long said he is his own best messenger on this kind of thing so it wouldnt be out of the realm of the ordinary to see the president do his own messaging. Lets bring in jake sherman. The Senate Intelligence committee, do you have any idea what questions they will be asking and do we know if he is going to be producing those memos that he wrote about his conversations with the president , james comey . So the Intelligence Community is pretty tight lipped. We know he will be asked about them and will talk about them. I think this is going to be a very backward looki ing hearing they will try to talk about what happened in the conversations with the president perhaps, what happened during the 2016 election. This is political theater probably like we have never seen before on capitol hill. The chief investigative correspondent with yahoo news. We know that donald trump isnt going to do the war room inside the white house as was initially reported. It will be shuttled off to his outside legal team. Your new reporting says that a number of legal firms to represent donald trump in the russia investigation. Part of the reason was that they were worried they werent going to get paid. That was one concern that was expressed. I think more was would they listen to would the president listen to any outside legal advice . That was a big one that looms over everything related to the pru Trump White House and goes directly to the tweeting question. The fact that the president believes he is his own best messenger may be the case but he is his worse messenger because it is arguably true that much of the mess he is in now and the focus on his russia investigation consuming everything is because of selfinflicted wounds by the president s own tweets starting with accusing his predecessor of illegally wire tapping him. The comments he made about comeys firing and blaming it on the Deputy Attorney general when it was his idea to begin with. So much of this are selfinflicted wounds by the president through his tweeting. If he is really going to be tweeting during the comey testimony thats a sign that he really is unwilling to listen. These tight flight legal law firms and lawyers, some of the most prestigious names in the washington Legal Community who turned him down had good reason to do so. Stick with us as we await this press briefing. We want to bring in former democratic congressman from tennessee. And republican strategy. Susan, starting with you. President might be live tweeting not listening to his legal team presumably. Law offices didntan to represent him. What would your advice be . To do your job, mr. President. Not be watching television. Not tweeting. It also shows we know that is not going to happen. What do you do . You cant do if you are the white house there is nothing you can do. He is going to do it. The problem is also we have seen these hearings go on for hours and we know that question after question is usually peel the onion back kind of question. The fact that donald trump will probably be responding to every answer instead of seeing how this is going to play out in totality is also going to be a big problem towards a lot of his legal strategy because you know the way the questions will be asked. I want to throw some cold water on this live tweeting thing. We have heard that the president will be live tweeting an event certainly during democratic debates when feeling like he needed to bring attention back. He wouldnt really do it. He retweeted a few people. We will see if he actually does it but certainly a bold headline from bob costa. Trump today on his twitter because thats where we are hearing from mostly was saying how Mainstream Media are the ones trying to push him off twitter. Mainstream media reports on his tweets. These are the only president ial statements we have. These are a lot of times the only words we get from the president himself. Is it Mainstream Media telling him to stop using twitter or should it be his advisers . This is how Mainstream Media is attracting higher ratings. Loving it is editorializing what we are doing. We are reporting. It is great press. Im not saying you like what he tweets or not. The Mainstream Media is not the problem. The person crit kzed was Kellyanne Conways husband. Its apparent from what reporting suggests and law firms in washington that he was reaching out to create a war room. Whether reporting is true or not it appears people are reluctant. We have heard from his own cabinet official whose are concerned. People suggest there is a problem here. The key is not us or the people in the press. The real question is whether or not this is enabling him to do his job better. If he does tweet tomorrow, thursday, whatever during comeys testimony i think Mainstream Media will actually appreciate it because it will give them a greater hook to talk about it. It will not help him govern, legislate and perhaps thats a good point. His folks on the hill and folks in the senate and house and in the senate are having a big problem with his tweets. That is going to effect how he is able to do his job, how to get legislation through. If they dont feel that they can trust him all the way through passing a piece of legislation versus dropping a tweet on the 75 yard line or deciding he doesnt like something when he initially signs off on it like going back to the original travel n. Like where does the president stand . Is this a ban . Do you think jeff session i would imagine he did not. We are talking about getting legislative agenda done. What are capitol hill republicans saying about their ability to get things done . We have only got a handful of days left on the legislative calendar . I am literally feet from the house floor. Members of congress are coming back into town and being asked about every tweet, every key stroke that donald trump makes. The president is not only tweeting about russia. He is saying things about legislation that are just not true. There is no tax plan coming through congress right now. His tax plan is nowhere. He said he wanted to add dollars to health care. The exact opposite message that every republican member of congress has been running on for the last couple of years. As his team tries and kind of tries to get this done this is a his tweets get in the way of getting anything done between now and august. Thats the traditional benchmark. We are six months away from a campaign season. Next year every member of the house is up for reelection. This is a big period of time in which they are willing to get something done. There is a lot of speculation about whether the gop will split open. Look at bob corker. He was golfing with the president over the weekend and then he comes back and he says i dont think tweets are productive. Is bob corker saying one thing to the press . Is this the same thing he is saying to the president onhe golf course or are they cope stettic behind the scenes . That is how donald trump was during the campaign. Mitch mcconnell has said it would be helpful if you stop tweeting. This is kind of the back drop to his entire presidency when we try to get the play book out in the morning we wait to see what the president is going to say and what the reaction is on capitol hill. I know all top leadership aides are hitting themselves in the head. This is infrastructure week. In a normal washington the president would be talking about infrastructure every single day. The house and senate would be passing bills talking about infrastructure while the president lays groundwork for a bigger package. Comey is famous for a number of times he has testified in front of congress most notably back in 2013 when he was talking about the standoff. Should we expect there to be a revelation like that or is there too much anticipation . I think the expectations are so high here. Its going to be a little difficult for comey to fully live up to them. He is known 2007 when he gave that riveting testimony about the hospital scene and how he stood up to block them from getting ailing john ashcroft. Lets go back to why we are so focussed on this. We have read about one brief excerpt from his memo about the meeting with the president when the president asked him if there was some way he could back off or let go of the investigation in mhaelynn. That raised the specter of obstruction of justice. Of course, we need to hear the conte context. We need to hear what led up to that comment, what followed it, what the president s tone was. Was it a stray one off or part of a broader effort by him to pressure comey . It may be that it wasnt much more than that one line in which case i think a lot of people will be disappointed. While it raises the specter of obstruction if there is not more to it probably not enough to make a legal case. We have to see and hear everything comey has to say about this. Two days from now. Cant wait. Jake sherman, former tennessee congressman thank you everyone. Harold and susan you are sticking around a little while longer. We are awaiting on this White House Press briefing. So far the podium is empty. 25yearold federal contractor allegedly stole a secret and sent it to the press. It is what the document shows that is casting another cloud on the 2016 election. Thats next. Over here over here no dog barking whoever threw it has to go get it. Not me somebody will get it. dog barking anyone can dream. Making it a reality is the hard part. From the b2 to the upcoming b21, Northrop Grumman stealth bombers give america an advantage in a turbulent world. And were looking for a few dreamers to join us. [vo] what made secretariat the grwho ever lived . E of course he was strong. Intelligent. Explosive. But the true secret to his perfection. Was a heart, twice the size of an average horse. Ive actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks. Those are criminal leaks. President trump is a man of many promises, one of them cracking down on leakers. That promise has gun unfulfilled. On monday the document deuintr e introduces new details to hack voting systems a week before the 2016 election. While it does not say the hacking changed any votes but does raise the possibility that russian hacking may have breached some elements of the voting system. Now this from the top democrat telling usa today the extent 069 attaextent of the attacks is broader. Barely an hour after the Justice Department announced charges against reality winner. She is a 25yearold Government Contractor, a senior federal official confirmed to nbc news that she is accused of leaking the document. Winners attorney tell nbc news that the his client is looking forward to putting this behind her. Joining me now john cipher who ran russia ops for the cia. I want to put reality winner on hold here and talk about what we actually were able to find out from that document. Michael, it says that they were trying to hack election systems. In laymans terms what does that mean . Election systems can be any number of things. They are the Systems People vote on. They are the systems used to tabulate votes to count them and the systems that manage the whole registration process when you go in to vote and they check to see that you are a registered voter that can be done electronically. My understanding is the report leaked said russians tried to access Voter Registration systems. How effective can they be in changing votes in the future . That has been a possibility for as long as we have had electronic voting systems. I think we have not paid enough attention to that and i think it is an open question whether the russians tried to do that and whether they achieved that. We have a twominute warning for the briefing so we may have to cut this short. Talk to me about the significance of a document about this and what should it say to the American Public . This is just one intelligence report. It is one little piece of the effort for the russians to impact and influence our election. We can look at better examples overseas in france and germany and all over europe for efforts for them to do this. It does show that they were aggressive and not surprising they have been doing this type of thing for years and years and it is what they are best at. How concerned is the u. S. Government over this . Do you believe there is enough concern coming from the top down . There is absolutely concern over this. This is exactly what the director of federal intelligence were talking about. I think this is just a small piece of that entire picture that mosaic put together about what the russians were trying to do against us. What is frustrating is how effective it was because some of the things they have done to include this attack dont look terribly sophisticated. Reality winner, the 25 year old who released this, the information that she did release is classified but how serious was that release ultimately and what sort of punishment could she be facing . She could be facing at least ten years in prison. This is a violation of one provision of the espionage act. There is no issue that she is a reporter and can reporters be she is a Government Contractor and subject to it. What about the new class of people leaking things like Edward Snowden and this woman. They are not doing it for money. They are doing it because they believe the public deserves to know. What do you make of that . I think we may have a situation where you have two streams of motivation. One is people are motivated by the model of Edward Snowden who in many parts of our society has been lionized as a hero for revealing what people thought the public should know. I think there is also another stream of motivation of people who think trump is so dangerous to our country and to the world that they will do things that they know are illegal. I think both might be at play here. Lets bring in susan and harold. The white house wants to focus on the leakers here. Donald trump has been frustrated with the inability to stop leaks and point leakers out. They are going to use this as a signal that they were able to find somebody. By focussing on the leakers here and i dont want todiminish somebody releasing classified information, but are they missing the thread . Are they missing the significance of athe russians were trying to do in this election . Are they missing an opportunity to instill in americans what a danger this could be . And is . To the Trump Administration this is a great new shiny object for them to hold out in the American Public saying we said there were leakers. We caught one. Unfortunately, i dont think that they will focus on the importance of russian influence over our elections. Thats lets not forget this is where the investigation started from. That is what they were supposed to be looking into. It led to comey being fired. It started with did the russians interfere with our elections . And President Trump and his administration had a very big problem having senate and Congress Look into that. Would it be better if the president said we are going to get to the bottom of this and russia cannot do it again. If they try to do it again we will try to enforce even stricter sanctions on them. You cant interfere and try to mess with our political system . Will that make things better . If he said that it would make his claim sound more credible. It sounds like a distraction to susans point. The other context, trump and his team said that Hillary Clintons email server that it could have been hacked by people and she could have released information, confidential classified information. This young lady will face consequences and should. What she put out is furtherance in the idea that russians made an effort to touch parts of this system we need to know how they did it and how do we prevent them from doing this Going Forward . We jump on the community for these things we have to be leaning to help develop stronger systems. My anticipation is that is something to come out of the findings and find cooperation from the appropriate parties to get it done. There is another thread here. Former nsa official saying there is too much information out there that is classified. Do you agree with that . Is there too much classified . This document didnt seem to point out anything that was overwhelmingly sensitive according to the u. S. Intelligence officials that we were able to speak with . It is generally true that there is too much classified information. I dont think that should condone the leak here. This is Sensitive Information. I think what is particularly sensitive is the potential source or method of gathering this intelligence. If this was gained through nsa intercepts of high level russian intelligence officials discussing their operation back during the election and this leak now gives up that source because they realized the nsa has access to these communications that is a big problem. John, what do you think . I spent 30 years almost in the cia. What frustratee about this is itlays to the narrative that there is a deep state trying to uncover things. It plays into the narrative that Public Servants are partisan. While this is mildly interesting, i still have faith in our institutions. I dont think when these things are leaked while they are interesting to the public it is the fbi investigators that are able to do things with this as long as they have this information then these leaks are irresponsible. If our institutions are starting to shred then absolutely i can understand why people might consider leak. We just got another twominute warning for sean spicer and the press briefing. Apparently they are doing a few things behind the scenes there. This will be a topic that does come up. Talking about politicizing our institutions, is there a real concern . Donald trumps Approval Ratings are in the 30s, high 30s. His policies continue to play to that base of people. They are focussing on a minority of americans popularity wise and not majority of americans. Is it overstating it by saying he is under cutting trust in American Government or just with his section of voters . Is that even acceptable . Politically, yes. He is trying to reinforce the idea that you cannot trust our government which he started out on the campaign trail. He does that at his own peril. We have seen what happened with his attacks on our own government and how we have seen these leaks come out. That is in part because i know this isnt going to be popular among Law Enforcement. He has brought this on himself and basically challenged Law Enforcement to the point where they have to do some kind of protection of themselves. That being said, i think that there is a fundamental distrust of government not in its core and Law Enforcement but in its not doing the job for us. And so it would be horrible if it really went into our Justice System and other core areas. On the policy level it plays right into that. We just heard from Mitch Mcconnell. We dont have the sound up yet but he is saying he is not a fan of the president s tweets. He has said that a number of times in the past. As somebody who used to be with the fbi and founded the cyber attack division do you personally and do those you speak with feel like the president is on your side at the fbi, on the side of Law Enforcement and the side of the Intelligence Community . Is it overblown to say that there is a real rift right now . I dont think it is overblown to say that. The fbi is fundamentally conservative organization if you have to put political labels on it. I think most agents are likely republicans and conservative personally. They were excited about a President Trump initially from conversations i had with some agents. Some of them probably were and some of them were probably very unexcited about the prospect of Hillary Clinton presidency. When trump fired comey i think that just flipped things and created a rift because it showed that the president was willing to politicize one of the agencies that really it is most important to keep completely apart. Called him a show boat. Do you think the attacks were fair . I was one of the people last year and as a democrat i was one of the people last year who tended to defend comey when my friends would criticize. I think he made the wrong decision but i think he did it out of good motivation. I think he was way out of line. I dont think he did it because he wanted to be a show boat and be in the limelight. I think he had two bad choices and made the one that was less bad. At this point i think what trump has done is just really blown apart any trust. With that, lets go to sean spicer in the press briefing. Everybody, thank you for the fruitful discussion before this. Thousands of allied soldiers lost their lives and thousands more were wounded during the fight to liberate europe from nazi control. We owe the brave troops involved in this critical operation an enormous debt of gratitude for the freedom we enjoy today. Last night the president was truly honored with the Vice President to host a reception and first lady here at the white house to pledge our love, support and undying gratitude to the gold star families who experienced a similar sacrifice firsthand. The story of every bra man and woman who paid the ultimate price from the opening battles of our revolutionary war is forever a part of our nations proud history and i hope everyone takes time today to recognize the sacrifice that so many have made. Now, with respect to the schedule today, later this afternoon the president will be hosting house and Senate Leaders for a meeting to discuss his domestic policy agenda specifically health care and tax reform. Later this evening he will host a dinner of republican members to discuss his recent overseas trip and Foreign Policy challenges that he is willing to work with them to tackle. President trump, as you know, has signed in 36 individual bills into law, 14 under the congressional review act. He passed the repeal and replace of obamacare through the house and embarked on historic first trip overseas showing how quickly he is acting to rebuild americas standing in the world. We have become the First Administration to confirm Supreme Court justice within the first 180 days. These will be discussed today. Now that they are back from memorial day recess we look forward to carrying on with the agenda. On health care as sarah mentioned yesterday we just dont have time to waste. Obamacare continues to collapse. A third of the counties have only one provider on obamacare. The average individual premiums have increased 105 on average from 2013 to 2017. Anthem, the only statewide insurer left in the state of ohio announced it is pulling out of every countys obamacare exchan leaving 19,000 without options. The American People have been saddled with the bill for washingtons inability to get this disaster taken care of. Its time for us to provide them with the choice and control that all americans want over their own health care. The American People and the American Economy have been suffering under burdensome overcomplicated tax system that stifles growth and takes too much money out of the pockets of working families. We are looking forward to working with congress to change that. Tax reform is a critical part of the president s agenda and his team is working with a wide range of stakeholders from Business Leaders to tax policy experts to ensure that his plan that Congress Ends up taking on will make sure that it gets to his desk so he can finally fix the system. Later this afternoon will attend listening session with Business Leaders from the transportation sector. This is one of about a dozen listening sessions that we plan to hold in the next couple of months with job creators to hear about the reforms that would best allow them to thrive, expand and create well paying jobs for American Workers. The Vice President is meeting with legislators on the hill today to discuss these next steps on all of the above policies. Elsewhere, the president s cabinet remains focussed on the agenda. Secretary of labor acosta announced the department of labor will focus on strengthening visa abuse. This includes reporting cases of criminal fraud to the office of inspector general, establishing a working group to coordinate the enforcement activities to maximize efficiency, using tools to enforce protection for the American Worker provided and developing proposed changing to better identify violations and fraud and greater transparency. The president obviously was elected on a promise to prioritize the American Worker and his entire team here in the white house and throughout government is working hard to fulfill that. With that i will be glade to take a few questions. Moments ago Mitch Mcconnell who will be here in the next few minutes reiterated that he is not a fan of the president s tweets. You have explained that the president likes to have this conduit to talk directly to the American People. Does he sometimes cross the line where his tweets become the news and impedes his ability to get things done . In the context of your question i think you helped answer it. The president is the most effective messenger on his agenda. I think his use of social media as a collective total of close to 110 Million People gives him an opportunity to speak directly to the American People which has proved to be very effective. Using it and using it wisely can be two different things. The same people critiquing his use of it now critiqued it during the election and it turned out well for him then. Let me ask you about health care. Senator graham said that he was asked whether or not senate would be able to get a bill together. Snar berr said it is unlikely to get a health care bill. Are they just misinformed . What is the difference between what Republican Leadership in the white house are putting out and what some republican senators are saying . This is an opportunity, i think the president will talk about that when he meets with the leadership. They will work their will and come together. Every elected republican in the house and senate campaigned on this for the last seven years. I think they will come together to make sure they achieve the goals of lowering costs. I know there is a commitment by the leadership and Committee Chairs and we remain hopeful that it is going to get done. Infrastructure, Chuck Schumer called the infrastructure plan an Investment Bank infrastructure plan that it is a sure loser here in congress. Are you guys willing to commit more than 200 million to potentially meet democrats whenever a bill comes forward to try to get that across the finish line . I think the American Worker and our infrastructure are the president s priority and putting people back to work establishing fixing those roads and bridges that allow our economy to thrive and grow. He has talked about the impact of broken bridges and bad roads having an impact on the economy and the ability of people to deliver goods to market. He is going to create that Public Private ptnership that ensures we maximize dollars and put people back to work. You saw that yesterday in the air Traffic Control proposal where you had Union Support and bipartisan support. The president s approach at this is that of a businessman of understanding how you can utilize that Public Private partnership to mksmize dollars and put people back to work and not just transfer federal dollars to state dollars which doesnt have the same Economic Impact as really engaging the private sector. Let me ask you a question about tax reform. The urgency for tax reform cannot be overstated. Here we are in the early phases of june nothing concrete at this point. Where is the urgency at this point from the administration . That is a subject that will be discussed today with the leadership. Something the president has talked about. Secretary mnuchin has been out talking. We havent had comprehensive tax reform since 1986. This is something that is a big undertaking. When you talk about the magnitude and the impact on the economy and job creation we need to get this right and involve stakeholders from a variety of back grounds to make sure that we get it right and that is what the president and his team is doing. I want to make sure, david from fox 29 in philadelphia. Sean, thank you so much for taking the time here. We really appreciate it here in philadelphia and the greater delaware valley. We do have a question about the president s Budget Proposal specifically the proposal to eliminate the deductions for local and state ta propey taxes in new jersey folks reportedly pay the highest amount of property taxes in the nation. A poll said 57 of folks surveyed do not support. The question is what do you say to the folks who are worried they may take a major hit . Well, thank you for asking. I think if you look at the principles outlined when talked about the president s tax reform agenda one was increasing standard deduction. So you are talking about 24,000 for middle income family. We estimate about 95 of the folks that file now would not take individual deductions because of the increase, the large increase that would happen. Most would save more under the president s plan because of the large increase that would exist with respect to the standard deduction. Just moments ago the u. S. Led Coalition Announced pro assad regime forces. Has the president been briefed on the situation . He has. A quick follow up. Are President Trumps tweets considered official white house statements . The president is the president of the United States. So they are considered official statements by the president of the United States. Is President Trump concerned that his tweets could be used against him at the level of Supreme Court when aclu takes on the travel ban case . I think we made it clear with respect to that that the courts should follow the law. I think the danger is real. The law is clear and there is no question that we should prevail at the Supreme Court. Can you tell us where the president is going to be and doing on thursday at 10 00 a. M. . Is he going to watch former director comeys testimony up on capitol hill . The president has a full day on thursday. There is a infrastructure meeting with mayors and governors to talk about what we just some of the projects that i just discussed. He is giving a speech mid day to faith and Freedom Coalition downtown. There will be a busy day as all of his days are. President will have a very busy day. And as he does all the time. I think his focus is on pursuing agenda and priorities he was elected to do. I will get to our second guy here. Scott at kfyr in the dakotas. Good to talk with you. I host a radio show here and have the blessing of talking to listeners who are enormously frustrated with the way washington works. Im curious if the infrastructure debate will be president focussing on that, our governor will be part of governors and mayors coming. Does he believe infrastructure is more than roads and bridges like drones and vehicles, pipe lines, flood protection which is creating jobs here right now . And will the infrastructure debate be better received there than the health care and tax reform debates have been so far . Might it be the chance you have to begin draining the swamp . Your governor will be here on thursday with a variety of other governors and mayors to talk about infrastructure. That will be an opportunity to talk about the challenges that you guys face in the dakotas. I know in north dakota there are several critical projects that need to be addressed. One of the issues that has been discussed with respect to the president s infrastructure plan is creating different pools of projects that allow for innovation, allow for prioritization. That will be something that is in partnership with localities, with states to figure outhat theirriorities are, what they can do to help raise necessary funds ando this in a businesslike innovative way. We have a ways to go. In saudi arabia the president signed a lot of letters of intent with the saudis to buy american weapons. Have there been any actual contracts signed yet with saudi arabia . If not when will there be . I think department of defense has the lead on that. There were two sides. 110 billion of procurement with saudi arabia. It totalled up to 350 billion over the next couple of years. The immediate 110 million i believe were signed. Actual contracts . That is something to follow up with department of defense. It can lead to 350 billion. And then there is another almost 350 million on the commercial side that is department of commerce can probably provide you a better list. You are saying there are actual contracts right now . There were agreements with the department of defense. I dont know what was actually signed. I know that there were two pieces. The defense side and the commercial side. You saw at least through the pool, there was press in the room when the commercial side was done. I believe initial 110 billion was up front and done. I wanted to ask about [ inaudible ] qatar. The first was the president seemed to be taking credit for the states and did they speak to the saudis about whats going to happen. There is tension for quite sometime and the situation was notified through proper diplomatic channels. The United States continues to be in close communication to resolve the issues and resotore cooperation. There is note that his message of toughness on finance is being heeded by countries in the region. The u. S. Wants to see the issue deescalated and resolved immediately keeping with the principals in terms of defeating and Terror Financing and extremism. There is a lot of concerns that the move comes and financing terror groups. Would that change therapy . The president had a very, very constructively conversation during his visit. At that time he was hardened by the commitment to formally joining the Financing Targeting Center and showing commitment to the issue. You mentioned tax reform and they had trouble trying to resolve what the ey were quoted as saying is. Several folks in the white house said they were interested in pushing a larger tax bill that would add to the deficit. Thats talking about the deliberations about what the package would look like they were not sure about how to do a key priority and the tax reform debate or not. Can you assist . Part of that is because there is a discussion with congress and others, working with congress to talk about the plan Going Forward. Thats a conversation as i mentioned that the president will have a conversation. An increase in the deficit is something they find acceptable with tax reform. I would put it like this. A conversation will go on with about how to proceed and im not getting in front of that discussion. In response to a discussion about who it was that changed the president s nato speech taking out the article five language and i will ask sarah to followup with you. Can you confirms that what happened . A different one was prepare and late in the process and that speech did take some of those who believe they were aware of the first speech by surprise. Before the president s speech that the top talked about, we were at a nato article five and that seems silly. Its a bit of a silly discussion and the president s presence at an article five kmemation and his discussion about nato invoking article for the First Time Ever after 9 11 speaks for itself to both nato and all 13 articles that make up being part of that treaty. They could find out exactly what happened. The reporting that there was the version that delivered. There was a lot of things that go on behind the scenes in terms of every speech. Every meeting the president has in terms of preparation and until the president gets the version he feels is appropriate on any number of subjects. Its not appropriate to share it. I will followup on that thing and to all the articles. How would you describe that discussion . I have not had a discussion. Last time you said there was a development. Im answering a question. I have not had that discussion with him. Is there confidence as attorney general . I have not had a discussion with him about that subject. I tend not to speak about it. Sean, the Chinese Government had a call from the state department tohe three activists for the chinese Shoe Companies and others. Has the white house made a specific comment on the intentions or does ivanka trump want people they made it clear the u. S. Position on that will continue to exert the proper diplomatic pressure on that. Have you heard from them . I would suggest you followup with them. The london mayor said the president should no longer come. Has he been invited . He appreciates the gracious invitation. The officials told us you would unveil the review and the Decision Making after the foreign trip. When can we expect this announcement . They will discuss that with the secretary and master and others when he is feels as though he is comfortable with a plan that he wants to push forward. What does victory look like in afghanistan . Stable government. Us free from threats and i think we commented on that before. We want to make sure that we root out all forms of terrorism and provide stability in the region. Dave . Yesterday there was the first case of a leak or administration in the Justice Department that announced the charges and it seems clear from leading the post that she is an opponent of the president. Did he have a reaction to that . With respect to all kinds of ongoing investigation, we would ner cment on an ongoing investigation. That being id, you heard the president very clearly talk about the concern that he has about unauthorized disclosures of classified or Sensitive Information and the threat they pose to national security. While i dont want to comment on anything specific, i think it is important to note that any disclosure of classified or Sensitive Information can clearly threaten the national security. John . Thanks so much. You said it is president s tweet speaks for itself. In a series of tweets that the president faulted the department of justice for its defense of the president s executive order on immigration. Given that he has faulted the doj, does he fault the who leads the doj, the attorney general jeff sessions. I answered that question. Thank you. Despite what you have said today i said john. Sorry, john. Despite what you said about the dispute in the persian gulf, its clear the president is taking sides in this. Why . In what way . He said today on twitter, all references pointed to qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism. I commented on this. He is talking about Terror Financing. Thats not what i said. He had a productive discussion and he was pleased that they joined with the other gulf nations in support of the Terror Financing center and he is pleased with the movements taken. He is concerned about terror and stomping out isis and all forms of terrorism. Two questions. First, is the president comfortable with Robert Mueller as the special prosecutor and does he believe the president has the right to replace the special prosecutor if he or she exceeds mandates . I literally have not discussed that with the president. My other question is this. On sunday the president put out a very forceful commemoration of the battle of midway 70 years ago. He did not know anything about the 25th anniversary of Tianamen Square in china, the uprising and the building of the goddess of liberty. Will there be a statement about the brave uprising a quarter century ago. I will look into that. I know the house and Senate Leadership are here. Thank you very much. They are ending the Daily Briefing with just about 25 seconds left to go in this 2 00 hour. I am going to wrap it up for us and he talked about a number of things including james comey testifying on thursday. The president is going to have a busy day and asked whether or not the president has confidence in his attorney general. After the tweets he sent out about the doj and he said that he does. You will hear a lot more about that briefing with my friend ali who specks itp w. It is all yours. Tha you, katie. Have yrself a g ternoon. Thanks for watching this hour of msnbc. We have a rlot to cover. A number of questions and comments from sean spicer about the president including a response to a question asked about the mayor of london saying that the president should cancel plans to come to the united kingdom. The president thanks her majesty for her gracious invitation. They asked about whether or not republican senators might try to pass a