Assets when repatriated to invest in manufacturing, jobs, the things youre talking about. Share buybacks and other financing eng nearing. How can you guarantee that wont happen this time . Weve heard that numerous times. If thats the worstcase scenario, companies repatriate their money and use it for share buybacks and dividends. What happens . Buy back shares, issue dividends. Pay the wee pate trags, we get another 20 tax on Capital Gains or dividends and then the people that get that money back do what . Reinvest it back in the economy in new investments, new capital, worth putting very enticing rules into the stham wiystem th entice people, giving people a fiveyear writeoff to instantly expense. If that happens. Fine. We know the money will get invested back into the economy and drive jobs, Economic Growth, wages and drive prosperity. Thank you, gary. Asked the question twice and didnt answer. Answer this, because i get your message on the middle class. Theyd that clear, but this tax plans is a stands now appears it will benefit the president and his family. Why not just be candid about that . Look, ive told you it will benefit the middle class. I think thats what american but the american taxpayers care what they take home and have to spend. What they care about. Thats what i care about. The president s message here, too, saying he wont benefit yet it appears the way this is put together, he actually will. Gets to the idea of wealthy americans around this country which people do care about. Can you speak to that . Lem take you through the components youre all obsessed upon for a minute and sarah will yell at me im taking too long here. You all talk about the death tax, that being a great benefit. The two biggest drivers for repeal of the death tax are the nfib and the farm bureau. Thats Small Businesses and farms. Those are the two organizations thats been the most time lobbying on repeal of a death tax. Death tax has the biggest effect on them. Small businesses and farms. Wealthy americans do a lot of estate planning. They can use trusts. They can use all types of things that are legal within the tax code to make sure they dont pay death tax. On the amt, im not getting into deep, deep, deep calculations but at a broadbrush level, when you do the amt, once you get rid of the deductions of state and local taxes thats the biggest addback in amt. Amt becomes irrelevant once you get rid of state and local taxes. All the things youre trying to pull at youre not looking at the flan its entirety. They dont make sense once we redo the plan and simplify. Yes . Youre welcome. Gary yes, you. Yeah . Just as a followup question on that. In your ultimate appearance of his group, you said that i cited to you the worry of groups such as jim martin and the 60s plus Seniors Association you are going to drag out repeal of the deth death tax, wouldnt be immediate and said at the time it was immediate. Is that final . Is it going to be an immediate repeal and go off the books as soon as the new tax reform package is passed . In our outline, its immediate. Immediate. Same with the alternative minimum tax . Everythings immediate. The only thing phasing out is the fiveyear expensing. Its a fiveyear expensing. Yes . Last one, guys. Speaking of Small Businesses, start negotiating, because yesterday senator schumer said that democrats may be willing to work some kind of Small Business tax relief into whatever comes out of all this. Where do you start negotiating on that . What offer do you want to make perhaps to the democrats . Our offers opening offer and final offer are on the table. We were happy to start at 25 and happy to go lower. And were happy to start at 20 on corporates and go lower. Theres our opening offer. If he wants to counter something lower were very negotiate. Thank you. One more, gary, one more . Thank you, gary, and boss says i got to go. Now try to be respectful of yalls time, also we have tom bossert that will come up, talk about Hurricane Relief efforts and take questions specific to that and ill come up after that. Thanks, guys. Thanks, sarah. Good afternoon. As you know, President Trump has put people first and paperwork second. Hes had us call out and pull out all the stops and promote as much federal relief into puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands and we can muster and meeting his objectives and heard reporting from sarah. Ill jump right in. Peter . Ask you, first, thanks for being here. Specifically on the jones act, focus of a lot of attention in the course of the last 24 to 72 hours thousand, critics say the white house should have moved more quickly. Why is that an unfounded complaint . It is unfounded, heres why. The jones act briefly stated is a rule that favors flagged vessels. U. S. Flagged vessels. If there are not enough u. S. Flag vessel, the capacity, in other words, to meet the need, we waive the jones act. In this particular case, we had enough capacity of u. S. Flagged vessels to take more than or to exceed the requirement in need of diesel fuel and other commodities into puerto rico. What happened is i think almost 17 days or 18 days worth of what youre seeing backlogged diesel fuel needed in the island. It was a little misunderstood and misreported we had a capacity problem and had to waive the jones act. Not the case. The idea here is that we had provided as many commodities as were necessary to the island. The challenge became then landbased distribution nap remains the challenge, remains the priority today. However, last night governor rozelleio called me a little after 8 00 and said at this point to ensure Additional Needs are met moving forward, might be a good idea to pro actively pull out all the stops in case that capacity problem ran into the requirement problem. I talked to the president , he thought that was absolutely the right thing to do and waived it right away. That was not too late. It was not even too early. Just the right thing to can do pro actively. Clear from this point distribution is one of the digest challenges. Talked 44 of 69 hospitals now being up and running as necessary to bring those people whose lives are at risk. What percentage of the country when you say you really have havent had a chance to explore to see how theyve been impacted by this . Yes. Its hard to answer the percentage of the country. Ill answer it this way through aerial surveillance weve seen the entirety of puerto rico. Some of the southwest and southeast sections of the island had a little bit more, sparse on foot exploration, but its the interior of the island presenting the biggest problem now. The mountainous interior where were dedicating efforts to try to get in with rotary wing support. The margin so to speak are open to airports and seaports where were freeing up some delivery. Again, back to the jones act question, we had up until the waiver last night enough capacity in u. S. Flagged vessels to get all commodities necessary into the island. Ran into the priority challenge distribute be land based commodities into the people. To pivot before i take the next question, a challenge or function of two problems. First, capacity of the locals and the state diminished because those people are victims as well that work for the state and local authorities and secondly the debris and downed power lines had to be pushed out of the way. So weve got the resource theres to do that now. But thats the challenge remaining. The central interior will be reviewed and looked at carefully over the next 24, 48 hours to make sure were getting nieleedf the people met. And the governor had no requested protectively a waiver in the jones act would you have seen a compelling reason to initiate a waiver . I wasnt recommending to the president he waive the jones act until i got the governor request and historical note of relevance. Sometimes we see carriers request the waiver. Foreign flagged vessels or u. S. Flaled vessels or Carrier Companies call and say please wave it because theres an issue. We didnt get to my knowledge, any carrier requests. Once the governor calls says pro actively i see in the future on the horizon, then i think we should listen to him and the president completely agreed. All over hyped in simp termed . Perhaps misunderstood. Also critics believe it was a price issue, and for those i cant answer it. I dont know how the markets price these things but already bought and paid for by the u. S. Taxpayer in a humanitarian investment and wise to save lives whether u. S. Citizens or not. We have u. S. Virgin island citizens, puerto rican citizens, all american citizens, its the right investment to make. Changing the price point i dont know. An oped piece on that, capacity is the issue. Life saving requirements, thats the need. We had that capacity met. And in the middle, please. Yes, maam. Tom, the need is immediate and with all the challenges that are coming, what are the conversations about with air drops . Just air dropping in certain areas because people are talking about running out of water, running out of food in hours or minutes. Whats happening with that conversation . And also once again, issue of housing. Were hearing about ships, cruise ships. What else is going on with this . A number of things are happening. With respect to the distribution of commodity, the biggest challenge now, but the restoration of power is also a big challenge and tell you why. Energy here electric power is supplying the hospitals that are providing medical care to the wounded and those that brought medical conditions and had key lation and other needs. Dual priority, emergency power and blocking, clearing, pushing out of the way all the roads to open them up to get commodities delivered. Theres still a shortfall. Drivers for all the trucks. Pushing personnel into augment state and local authorities to continue to push the commodities. You saw today i think was some reporting and some loop footage of some trucks sitting on ports and docks. Were moving those trucks quickly. Also prioritizing what needs to come off first to get generators air drops circumstance come stlaent having to rebuild the infrastructure, move things away . Yes. At this point if air drops are under consideration im not aware of it but promote it if its a way to get faster food and water to people in need. We have a onestar general, general kim in place in charge of all ground force operations making sure one person is in charge of marshalling those efforts. If he recommends air drop i think well air drop. Sir . I have from volunteers with boots on the ground saying that they need helicopters to evacuate people from remote areas of the island. He says there are people burying their family members in front yards. They look at apocalyptic conditions between 72 and 48 hours. A disconnect from what im hearing here and they tell us from there. Explain the difference . No disconnect. If its accurate it needs to be addressed immediately. I want to be careful not to micromanage from here. The mistake youve seen in the past. Im confident in a way we have enough resources marshalled and deployed forward to make the decisions under the right command and Leadership Structure and weve done and ive explained in the past, augmented and changed our Business Model in the field. Did that last thursday in earnest you saw the effects over the weekend. We augmented local and state authorities not just at the top but all the way out through and to the lower levels. Now there are federal officials identifying needs and requirements, requesting them of the state level, augmenting the state level to validate the requirements and from the federal side providing them. We are in every stage of the identification, validation and provision of requirements and delivery of them to people in need, and a couple of things here. First, people seeing 24 and 48 hour horizon problems saying i dont see enough food and water coming. Its my sincere belief that food and water will get to them before the deadline arises and well save their lives. No doubt. Over 10,000 people there now and more on the way including a lot of aerial support, uss comfort, read the numbers. 12 coast guard cutters, three United States navy ships one d. O. T. Maritime vessel, six commercial ships with supplies en route. As of 5 00 a. M. More since. Seven additional ships to house responders. And commodities distribution now exceeding millions. 1. 3 million meals, 2. 7 million liters of water. That type thing. Moving in today seeing a distribution problem unclog. Somebody burying somebody in a front yard is a terrible story. I dont want to project it at the norm. I think theres a careful distinction here. What is the norm . Seen 16 fatalities confirmed from state authorities. No fatalities acceptable. If that number increases significantly that will be a devastating blow. We are doing everything we can to prevent that. Loss of life from the storm is one thing. Loss of life thats preventible is another. Thats why were trying to marshal resources. Maam . Senator rubio just got back from the island says there are significant concerns with the administrations response. No clear command and control sbeen local and federal agencies and requires response led by d. O. D. Is that option on the table here . Sure. Already been undertaken. I was with the senator briefly on monday in puerto rico. I think what hes identifying there is something we already had in place, a solution for. Hes identifying traditional problem between municipal and State Government authorities. Normally fema and the federal government provides aid to the government, the state and then they would work it out with the local authorities. Weve identified here as of last thursday and you saw it implemented over the weekend was a lack of capacity, coupled with insular several hundred mile pay way divided by an ocean island problem, so what weve done is provided federal authorities largely guys in green, right . Title 10 and title 32 forces and fema mmp managers to stand next to each municipality leader whether mayors or local Authority Figures like water or electric Authority Leaders augmented by federal forces. Weve addressed those challenges and communicating between local and state authorities by augmenting them with federal staff. Something that wasnt necessarily apparent to the senator. He identified a problem, a problem already being fixed and wasnt able to see at the municipal level for two reasons. One, didnt get to them. Neither could visit them monday and two a Communications Problem of grave import that persists to this day. That Communications Problem is tied to the electric power restoration problem. If i could before i take the next question, let me explain how and why its unfolding. We decided to take action putting the United States corps of Army Engineers in charge of power restoration on the island. Whether the military is in charge, depends on the mission and function. Theyre in charge of a lot not everything. The people of puerto rico are strong, competent and were there not diminishing capacity theyre in charge. Thats the best way to handle things. Where not able and diminished capacity were taking extreme steps. A direct federal assistance order given a Mission Assignment given, ive heard others on tv quibble whether its a mission or not. Make it clear, the general from the United States army corps of engineers given a in addition to restore power on puerto rico. At large, full stop. He has some priorities. His priorities are temporary Power Generation now. The big dieselrun generators supporting hospitals and lifesaving capabilities. Two, permanent generation. Restore the damped Power Generation capacity on the south of the island. Three, transmission. The big lines transmitting power to and from and fourthly distribution. Thats the last mile capillaries hooking up to houses and that type of Power Generation. Those are his priorities and im certainly the puerto rico will see results of a dedicated corps of Army Engineers mission. Maam . Call on yes, sir . If air drops would help, why are those not happening . Is it a military issue . Is that a problem with them not stepping up . Its my belief both the State Government and municipalities involved identified the fastest route being ground based. If thats not the case im comfort and want to make sure i dont step into something i could be far removed from. If the Ground Force Commander identified and air drop mission faster more product uv i endorse it from here and wouldnt question his judgment. It was my reporting, understanding, earlier today they identified the fastest delivery methodology clearing first, delivering second and needed drivers and augmenting them and needed Security Force and weve applied those. A Security Force plan now laid down for each of the drivers so they can feel safe. And from several aid flights have gotten out of south florida and managed to get to the island and deliver food and water without having logistical problems. Severe criticism coming from south florida saying that theres mismanagement coming all the way from the president. Can you respond . Yeah. Well, im not certain who youre talking about or whos criticizing us. Theres plenty to go around. Managed to get an aid flight into the island, unloaded. The problems youre having of your own making from not taking action sooner and bringing in the military sooner. First i thank the mayor for providing aid. Second the mayor is dead wrong in this case and i challenge him to go down and get a better understanding first before rendering that verdict on what weve done. What weve been doing and how blown away youll be when you see the full totality of the picture. I wouldnt be critical of him personally but like with the jones act criticism rendered not yet informed on the facts. Thanks for that question. And able to get supplies through and why are 10,000 containers waiting at the port of san juan . To my point earlier, getting a lot of supplies through. Misreporting that misunderstands that fact. The president has referenced some of the debt and economic problems that puerto rico has been struggling with for some time here. When you talked about the lack of capacity, municipal and state level. Are you faulting local officials for a lack of preparedness . No. Let me be clear. When i say capacity, im talking about the capacity problem of people being victims that would otherwise be the first responders, repairers and managers of the municipal government functions. Were trying to restore baseline municipal government functions because theyve been affected. Their homes destroyed, families put in peril. Thats the capacity problem that im addressing. When you talk about money, i believe that the Island Authority in general was 72 puerto rico 72 billion in debt pap restructuring effort under way. Congress weighed in with a pra misa act and that is being restructured handled through bankruptcy proceedings and so forth. How is that impacting this response . The president brought it up. I think the president i know the president brought it up in terms of recovery, but heres how it affects the response. What it does is puts the island in a position where they dont have the Financial Resources to meet the cost share requirement for all of these goods and resources personnel material flowing in to the island. The president acknowledged that pub luckily and privately. Realized that would be a problem at advice of the fema administrator myself and secretary duke and took the step of doing a 100 federal cost share adjustment to pay for all this. Debris premoval, pushing, power restoration, army corps of engineers and all emergency protective measures, police, fire, ems, truck drivers, all those sorts of things. 180 days. Six months for Virgin Islands and puerto rico and until we can get our hands around this. All of those functions, missions i just described 100 federal cost share. We dont want anybody worried about paper. We want them worried about people. Take two more questions. Sir i wanted to follow that a little and ask, starting to envision down the road if any sort of bailout might be part of this sort of broader recovery package that you look for as supplemental and on that supplemental the first cracks at it will be relatively soon. On capitol hill, suggesting the first week in october. Is that the timeline youre anticipating . Starting to compile that . As my league alluded to, willing to negotiate with congress if theres a better fiscal idea. From an Emergency Management perspective, the next coming weeks, fema got a 7. 1 billion appropriation released october 1st and what will happen now, go back for more, ask for that in the form of an emergency supplemental to provide money into fund that does this lifesaving, Life Sustaining effort and even early Recovery Efforts. Whether we have to address or should address at that point their existing 72 billion worth of debt and how its restructured is something ill have to take my lead from the economists on and some budget hawks, but i think the best idea here for us would be to focus on prom ich promisa and prosa. Rebuilt under proper management and rebuilding codes and standards to withstand a future hurricane and we dont go back to sticks and wires in the future. Well put federal money into this do it wisely, prudently. Said it from this podium before. President trump believes in that seriously. Not address the dut restructure, if we do and Congress Wants to, President Trump is up to that challenge supplemental well have to come i think in the next two to four weeks. But i cant put a better date on it and refer you to director mulvanie. One more question here. And if i understand, why has it taken eight days to get a threestar general on the ground to start organizing this . We know the island situation et cetera. But why eight days . Well, because it didnt it didnt require a threestar general eight days ago. Let me explain to you how the process works. The best way of xplaexplaining answer. A threestar general is in charge and had one from san antonio from day minus eight and minus two and through until today. We forward deploy add onestar Brigadier General to take care of ground force command once we realized the problem of Logistics Distribution outstripped capacity of the effective municipal governments but that three star general was there extension of Northern Command. Made a number of improvements to that Distribution Process and marshalling of military resources since, for instance, general honore experienced what he did in katrina. Matured a bit from that day. What he lacked back then has been put in place and in place for this response out of san antonio and augmented by a Northern Command structure thats been pretty robust and forward leaning here. Doing vocal authorities, not waiting for paperwork. Doing things that are on command authority. Dont wait for a governor the requests. Allforwardleaning Lessons Learned and applied. Put the fivestar general physically located in the field. I dont anticipate hell stay there long. Needs to be there, eyes on it, be comfortable with his forces the governor and municipal forces because its a different Business Plan model in the field and unique and its an island. 1,100 miles or so away from the nearest land in florida. Once satisfied i think, we expect that threestar general to receive back into his appropriate command structure. For now both he and onestar subordinate command there and in charge and a lot more people there over the coming days to address this significant problem and need. If thats okay id like to make that my last question san antonio is thousands of miles from puerto rico. Was it a mistake, would you acknowledge it was a mistake looking back to not have this threestar general on the ground earlier . Not at all. In fact it doesnt affect it the way we stage equipment and the way we handle area command and field operational commands. This is textbook and been done well. Put the unusual step, put the threestar general down forward leaning. I have every confidence well hand that in the best way possible. Peter, if i could, john, im going to see, thats my last question. If i can, i always do, end saying, id like everyone to say an extra special prayer for the people on puerto rico tonight. The u. S. Virgin islands are dealing well, not a lot of coverage but say that prayer for them as well and also for the 10,000plus federal workers, several thousand other volunteer workers, businessmen and others, men and women, helping those in need hon negligently something thsomething honestly require weeks and moss of patient, respore power and food and proud of the puerto rican people, strength in leadership and the governor has our full confidence and faith. Thank you. Thank you, tom. Were running kind of long today. Jumping straight a into questions and try to take a few before we cut it off for the day. Steve . The president looked further into tom prices use of a private plane and taking steps to crack down on this practice . Look, as the president said yesterday, hes not thrilled, certainly not happy with the actions. Definitely were looking at the issue. Theyre conducting both internal and an i. G. Full review. To be clear also the white house does not have a role on the front end of approving private charter flights at the agencies and thats something were certainly looking into from this point forward and have asked a halt be put particularly at hhs on any private charter flights moving forward. Until those reviews are completed. And does secretary price expect to keep his job in this administration . I think the president s addressed this yesterday. Were going through this process. Going to conduct a full review and see what happens. Justin . Can i ask two things . First, the president has six times over the last couple days said that a senator is in the hospital. I think referenced to senator bob cochran, not in the hospital, and the reason this is relevant to the question, the president said they have the votes for the Health Care Bill passed. So can you tell us what senator hes referring to and if it is senator cochran, why, if the votes exist, the senate isnt voting on that now . Look, our understanding is that the senator was physically unable to be here this week to actually participate in a vote. Recuperating. The point were making we have the votes on the substance not necessarily on the process. Which is why were still confident that we can move Health Care Forward and get it done in the spring. Second thing is, obviously the president didnt support roy moore in the primary, but moved to kind of warmly embrace him sense then. Im wondering, judge moore made controversial comments, samesex illegal, being gay, bestiality saying the lawmaker as a muslim shouldnt be able to serve. Why those comments shouldnt disqualify him from a president ial endorsement considering that from the campaign trail the president promised weve said many times before im not getting into back and forth on political endoersments from the poeds yum and not weighing in on a specific race ahead of time at this point. I want to followup on that. Because as you mentioned, judge moore, homosexuality should be illegally, sandy hook was a divine retribution. He said Keith Ellison should not be permitted to serve in congress because hes a muslim. Without asking about specifics of the race, does President Trump share any of those views that i just mentioned . And if not, why does he think this person is fit to be a u. S. Senator . Not that im aware of. I have not taken a deep dive on every comment that the senator, or the Senate Nominee has made. But i certainly know where the president stands on those issues and wouldnt see any parallel between the two on that front. Are there any beliefs a candidate could hold or actions a candidate can take that if he were still a republican the president would not endorse him . Not getting into every potential hypothetical every potential candidate may or may not have over the course of time the president is the president. I know where he stands on specific issues and what i can speak about. Not somebody else thats a candidate for another office. Its not here. I didnt get to, tom did not call on me. Im going to ask the question i wanted to understand. He mentioned in response to what senator rubio was saying, asking the pentagon to be in charge, that the pentagon is in charge of a lot, but not everything. I still dont understand why its not in charge of everything . What the response will be to senator rubio who sent a letter to the president today . Again, were continuing to work with state officials including the governor who as tom said we have confidence in but supplementing and augmenting that with federal resources including over 10,000 federal employees and a onestar general there on the ground on that front. Why one entity in charge, i guess is the question . He said many were in charge of different things. Why is one person not in charge . Or one entity . I believe one person is in charge of different parts of this process. The governor is still the governor of puerto rico. Were continuing to work with him, be in Constant Contact and have one person in charge of the federal component of that. And that would be the onestar general on the ground working with state officials. Sarah two questions. One, i know you said the white house doesnt approve charter flights ahead of time, generally speaking given the focus that the president on cost savings, like you said, wanted not to just drain the swamp but spend money in for responsible ways. A policy for administration for Government Employees to fly commercial . Guidance, given guidance how to travel . Looking into that. When it comes to military aircraft, thats a part the white house does actually play a role and on that front the Trump Administration has actually authorized far fewer flights for senior government officials than the Obama Administration did during the same time period, and so were continuing to look at ways to bring that back under the places where the white house has that direct control and authority which is under military aircraft, which weve cut back significantly at this point. Followup on the roy moore comments. You dont want to talk about the race. From the podium at least it condemn some of the sentiments you said the president to your knowledge does not share . I would certainly say we dont agree with those comments, but in terms of whether or not im going to get into the back and forth over another candidate here to focus on the president , the president s agenda and those are the questions and people i can answer for. One more question on secretary prices flight. You said the white house wasnt aware. On at least one of those flights a Senior AdviserKellyanne Conway flew with him on the private flight. Are you looking a the that one specifically to see if the white house knew about that . I didnt say we werent aware. I said the white house doesnt authorize those private charter flights. Again, were doing a full, not just of that flight but an intern review at hhs of all private charter flights as well as an i. Grnlgts review conducted of all of them not one particular flight. That will be julie . If the president as hes watching this coverage in puerto rico, is he satisfied with what he sees as the response here . Is he satisfied on what hes hearing from his from his advisors or would he like to see things moving along faster as some of the people on the ground have asked for . The president wants to continue to do everything we can to protect the safety and security of the people both at u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico. Were continuing to do that as tom spoke very in depdepth abo that process. What it looks like. Thats the focus, what well continue to do. People first, paperwork second. The president empowered all of his agencies to go forward with that mindset and what well continue to do julie . I saw secretary price is here today for an event with the first lady. Did the president have a chance to down and talk about this issue . His private jet . A oneonone conversation with the secretary about that . And when you said the white house ordered a halt on these flights, administrationwide, white house people, every agency . Particularly with regard to hhs . I dont know they spoke today but they have spoken about this issue previously. I dont believe the president saw the secretary at any point today, though. And following up on that, does the president believe or anyone at the white house think that there has been a tone set at the top here that has allowed cabinet members to feel empowered to be able to take private jet flights when theyre going on official travels . We now have the hhs secretary, the epa administratoadministrat secretary took a flight on a private jet on an itinerary widely available commercially. Is something the president said or done to set the tone this is okay . Not at all. I think the president s been clear about his position by stating clearly that he is not thrilled with the airplane use at this point. Two things. One, make sure i understand the extent of the review process here into price and others . You said hhs review, is there a white house component, is price looking that or anyone accuses . For hhs specifically conducting an internal review and i. G. Review. The white house is looking at more of an overall not specific to that department, because theres already two reviews taking place there. Also, sarah, the president said would donate personal funds, i think 1 million to harvey relief. Any personal donation to puerto rico . I havent talked to him specifically about that but he didnt make a donation to harvey relief. He made a donation to relief organizations. The red cross and many others that are a part of all of the hurricanes wreev experienced over the last several weeks and so those organizations arent limited to a specific, nor those donations, a specific storm but go to those organizations that are helping aggressive lir and intensely in the Recovery Efforts in the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico as well. Peter . And housekeeping things. One, saw Steve Scalise with that emotional remarks, the House Chamber today. Did the president speak to him today or yesterday to welcome him back and can you tell us about that conversation . They did speak today. I dont have details but see if i can get something. He certainly welcomed him back reminding him well continue to keep him and our family in our prayers for a full recovery. And disaster in puerto rico is the president considering delaying his trip there scheduled for next tuesday . As of right now, we feel comfortable with the president taking a trip on tuesday. If there were any indication that it would halt or disrupt recovery or relief efforts we would certainly reconsider and pull that trip back, but at this time the folks on the ground indicated it would be helpful for him to be there. Aroundfinally, has jared kusr ivanka trump or any other staff member taken a plane ride since joining this administration or given in access to ride along with somebody else in a private plane . Not sure about those two specific individuals. Id have to look. And cuba. The cbs reports the u. S. Is prepared to announce a itch maer withdrawal of staff and families from embassies in havana. Can you tell us about that and how would you describe the relation between cuba and the u. S. . At this point i wont weigh in on the cuba situation and i dont have anything new to add. Cuba says it warned the u. S. Against taking hasty actions with regards to whats happening to u. S. Diplomats . She werenwe havent taken ac going to weigh in on at this point. I assure you our goal is on the focus whats best for this country. Not whats best for cuba. John decker . Thanks. Sar sarah. The president you know said that players who kneel or take a knee during the national an then ought to be fired. And you, yourself, have said from the podium in response to very critical tweet by an espn anchor that that individual ought to be fired. Said it was a fireable offense. Which brings me to secretary price. His extensive use by these private jets, why is that not a fireable offense . Thats my first question. And has he offered to reimburse the government in any way for his use of those private jets . Thats something we would determine once the reviews are complete. In terms of reimbursement. Not sure. Id have to check and get back to you. On the issue understanding that many of the nfl players are still very upset with this back and forth. I think so many many americans. Far more americans than there are nfl players. Can i finish my question, please . Sure. Many nfl players are upset and many had different ideas and prns on this but when the president weighed in, the nfl said were going to be united. There is an anticipation that it could go even more so, grow, this weekend. What is the president anticipating what should we expect him to say about this . Its now the nfl against the president. I think the president s made very clear. This shouldnt be about the nfl being against the president. This should be about our country coming together to support the flag. Support the National Anthem. Theres nothing wrong with having pride in the United States. This president s been very clear on that and certainly not going to back away from it. Followup. So the nfl players what were hearing, its not about not having pride. Saying theyre patriots love the country but challenging the system. Looking at history like the challenge of, of the system when it cams to womens rights issues as well as civil rights. What does the president say when you look at history and see how people love this country but wanted to challenge the system to make it better . I think if were going to look at history we should look at the thousands of americans who have given their life to protect that flag, to protect that anthem. We should be celebrating those people . I gave you a chance to answer. Finish your statement. Sorry. Okay. Look at every way to bring our country together not ways to divide it. The president is simply talking about what were for, not about what were against. And certainly this administration will always be for protection and celebration of the flag, and the National Anthem. Thats not going to change, and followup sarah, wait, to clarify. One second to clarify on that. I dont think theres much to clarify tlvlgts is. Because this is a big issue. Pretty black and white. It is is a racial issue for some people and the question is, when the military issue is brought in, the military goes and fights for the freedoms of this nation. And the players are saying they are thankful for the military service to allow them to have the freedoms to do this. I mean is there some kind of confusion here or is it us versus them kind of scenario . Certainly shouldnt be. As ive said several times before this, this isnt an us versus them. This is something that brings our country together. These are symbols of what our country stands for, and this should be the opposite of what that is. This should be a very unifying moment when the National Anthem plays, all americans should be proud to stand up, salute that flag, salute that anthem and be part of that process. Go ahead . And followup and this morning said he believes nfl team owners are afraid of their players. What did he mean . The backlash and stance theyre making not wanting to create conflict within their team. The president is here to lead the country. He feels strongly about this. As do most americans, because they certainly agree with him as weve soon not just in the public support also in public polling on that very specific issue. Four days and as we like the president have time to i believe they spoke yesterday morning or this morning and im make sure you get that. Thanks. Followup quickly. Two quick questions. Follow jum on the nfl thing. May nob the brightest guy in the room, dont say it. You said it. But my question nobody else argued either, so i really dont understand. I understand that hes saying you should stand up. But if a guy is sitting there going, i dont want to stand up, he still recognizes he has the First Amendment right not to. Yes . Its his opinion. Hes not or is he asking us to carve out an exception to the First Amendment for freedom of expression . No. Not looking for an exception. The president is clear what his position is and feels strongly when the National Anthem plays people should stand up. Followup i had a second question. I did have a second question. It was, in regards to the private emails. That have gone out. As the president monitoring staff on that, concerned about them using private emails for public business . The white house has been clear and instructs all staff to fully comply with president ial records acts. All staff briefed on the need to preserve those records and will continue to do so. Brian . And what senator cochran and make this the last question. Running tight on time. And about senator cochran and the health care vote, the white house understanding senator cochran wasnt able to physically be here this week. Senator cochrans office said there have been plans made for senator cochran to come to washington if there was going to be a bill. Was the white house not aware those plans were made . That was our understanding. That the senator was physically unable to be here this week. Were glad that wasnt the case. Thanks so much, guys. Well be in the office the rest of the day. Happy to answer the rest of your questions. Will you go to hefners funeral . So few minutes left and so much left to address at the meaty press briefing started and ending by Sarah Huckabee sanders including the president s Homeland Security adviser tom bossert and chief economic adviser gary cohn, covered a lot of ground. A lot of it puerto rico. Do that in a moment with mariana atencio, and taxes, and other things talked about. A lot of questions about roy moore. The guy who won the republican primary in alabama. These are the problems, these are roy moores controversial comments. He says homosexual contact should be illegal, 9 11 was god punishing perverseness, obama wasnt born here. Muslims shouldnt sit in congress. Sandy hook shooting was punishment for, you know, things weve done. People ask you about whether that makes him worthy of the president s endorsement. A lot of questions about tom price. Human services secretary. Interestingly enough, Sarah Huckabee sanders did not say that tom price continues to enjoy the support of the president. So lots to talk about there. But lets go back to taxes, because thats the big topic that weve got. For facts sake, i want to talk about the president s continued claims that this is really a tax break for middle income and working people. Walk with me to the board here while i just walk through some of those. Talk to people about this in a moment. The president has made a statement that, i think theres very little benefit for people are wept wealth. Eliminating stacy tax ill start with. You only pay the estate tax if you die and your estate is passed to people, on the amount over 5. 49 million. Now, i dont know who you are and what you think the middle class is, but theres nobody with a 5. 5 million estate who is considered middle class. So the elimination of the estate tax is not only something that will help the commonwealthy but probably benefit Donald Trumps family as well. Theres also the idea of reducing the top tax rate from 39. 6 to 35 . Remember, this is the top margins tamt rate. Generally speaking only high earners earn this. People earn probably 200,000 a year at a family who pay that tax rate and may be in new york city, middle class, but the bottom line, again, this is generally something that is going to affect people at the higher end of the income stream. The other thing is passthrough companies. Business owners report business income on individual returns. They would see their top tax rate also drop from 39. 6 , but this time down to 25 . So rather than being a worker, if i were a contractor i would write off these expenses involved in doing my job and then not only could i write them off and pay lower taxes than somebody who worked for somebody, i then pay it at a rate of 25 . Again, this tends to favor higher earning companies, while there are a lot of Small Businesses in this category, many of them, most of them, earn in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the amt. Alternative minimum tax. Fundamentally impacts people earning between 200,000 and 1 million. Again, 200,000 a family of four in new york city, you can make and argument thats not wealthy, but fundamentally, the alternative minimum tax affects wealthy people. You remember in the one page of the tax return that we have seen from donald trump in 2005, he paid 31 million, because in higher taxes, because it was calculated under the alternative minimum tax. If there were no alternative minimum tax in 2005 we know donald trump would have had 31 million more dollars. So the claim, just addressing one claim here. The claim donald trump doesnt benefit and that this doesnt benefit the rich, i think can be fairly called false. Continue this discussion with people who are looking at it, though. I was actually quite pleased to see gary cohn was up there selling it. My opinion, have him out there more because he makes better arguments than most, but republican congressman Mark Wayne Mullen of oklahoma joins me. A member of the republican whip team. Congressman, good to see you. First of all, must have been good to see Steve Scalise back in congress today. Ali, great see him back. I dont think there was a dry eye on the entire house floor from the republican or democrat side. Such an inspiration to have him there. That was the nice part about congress. Spend a lot of time talking about bad parts. That was great one including for us here in the media to see. Were glad about that. And one thing steve talked about, unity. We can disagree, but need to come together on this country and fundamentally agree we need to support this country and put america first. Why i like the tax discussion. This is a policy discussion. Tax cuts actually hurt your home state of oklahoma. There had been a concept of cutting taxes for so long in the end, it didnt prepare that state for the economic downturn. Didnt prepare the state for lower oil revenues because oklahoma is a big oil state and as a result, infrastructure started to suffer and you had to resource that. Just using your own experience, should we be cautious about tax cuts that arent paid for on the assumption as gary cohn and the president have said, it will stimulate Economic Growth to the extent thats how well pay for it . Ali, you Start Talking about keeping money in a local level or sending it to a state capital or washington, d. C. , no argument. We can spend our money better at home than politicians can in the capital. If you want to talk about being responsible for dollars look at washington, d. C. We spend money like its going out of style up here. Over 20 trillion in debt betted in my own back yard into my companies with my employees with my neighbors who is going to help drive the local economy. Its about keeping the money at home. Right. But how do you pay for those kind of tax cuts . Our initial estimates we fget t see a lot of detail on this plan but more than 2 trillion hit to the deficit. Ali, is what were doing right now helping . Were sending money up here to this concrete jungle in warra , washington, d. C. , and not spending it right. We can stimulate the economy by investing back in our own neighborhoods and economy. As a Business Owner that employs a few hundred people but my wife and i, we didnt start that way. We started with absolutely nothing. That tax break means were able to build those companies faster. Were able to invest. Were able to hire the right people, pay the wages to them and be able to hire the best people to grow that company. Thats called investing in your local economy. Thats what were all about here. Were talking about investing back home. And if we invest back home its going to grow the economy nationally. We need to continue this conversation. We were supposed to have this conversation 51 minutes ago. Im going to ask you right here if i can have my producers reach out to you to rebook you so we can continue this conversation and have it for a little longer . Ali, i would like to drive in real deep on this. So would i. And discuss the facts. We might disagree on some of the policy, but lets make sure were talking facts. Thats absolutely right. Thanks congressman for joining me. Mark wayne mullen is a republican from oklahoma. Were going to continue that conversation. Were going to get deeper in it. Also with brian reedle, a senior fellow at the manhattan institute. He served as an economic adviser to marco rubio and mitt romneys president ial campaigns. Im going to dispense with the stuff about donald trump saying its not going to, you know, help the wealthy and not going to help him. I think weve dealt with that. To what the congressman was saying. Theres a simple matter here for fiscal conservatives. Theyve liked to hold themselves up as dont put tax cuts in where you keecant pay for me. Its not clear other than a big spike in Economic Growth how youll pay for this. This morning, gary cohn said well see such great growth that well pay for these tax cuts. Thats dodgy, at best. First, ill tell you that background, long term, the budget problem, the reason the National Debt is going to go from to 91 trillion is because of entitlement spending. Just first point we have to address spending. I agree that even though revenues are not the problem, that doesnt mean we can afford a large tax cut either. Its going to be hard to pay for itself completely through growth. Youd need to increase Economic Growth by about 0. 7 annually forever to pay for this tax cut. Thats very ambitious. I would like to see growth revenues included in the score in a realistic way and more offsets. More pay for the because we truly need tax reform and id like to see douus do it without adding to the debt. The best we can do is agree theres not enough meat on this plan and as it goes forward well have to look at the actual specifics about whats being cut and whats being added. The danger when this plan goes through congress, of course, is that theyll actually add tax breaks and get rid of offsets. A lot of lawmakers say you cant touch state and local deduction. Usually these plans get more expensive. Im hoping congress can be more responsible because we have to get this done. We absolutely need tax reform. Brian, im going to make the same promise. Were supposed to have a much longer conversation on this. Ive got a lot of news to cover and that White House Press previprev i briefing took a lot of time. Ive got notes like this. This is what i wanted to talk to you about. This isnt going away. I need to go to puerto rico. You heard its a dire situation. 44 or nearly half of the island has no drinking water. More than 90 of cell sites still out of service. 44 of 69 hospitals back in operation. Mariana atencio is at a cruise ship in san juan. Tom bossert has been saying all this talk about the jones act and getting things into puerto rico was a red herring. The problem wasnt getting things to puerto rico but distributed around puerto rico and that there are all sorts of containers at the port. What do you know about this . Ali, we were at the port a couple hours ago. Were there for a long time. We spoke to the Vice President of a company that has 40 control over whats happening at the port. And this person told us very clearly, the Vice President of the company, about these almost 10,000 containers of supplies. We saw the containers. We saw the refrigerated containers. He said full of supplies that were stranded there at the port and didnt have the drivers to deliver them to the areas of need. The governor of puerto rico is saying only 20 of these drivers have showed up to work. Already here on the ground youre starting to see to hear from the experts and the people in charge about these bottlenecks that we have been reporting on. Here at the port its once again what we saw at the airport that we showed you in the morning. Its this desperate attempt for people to flee the island of puerto rico away from this nightmare scenario of no fuel, no water, no Cell Phone Service and very little food. People arent leaving by air. Theyre leaving by sea. I dont know if you can make out the Royal Caribbean cruise ship behind me. Its been brought here especially to get people off the island. These are the very last one of them. This line was about 2,000 people long. They will get to ft. Lauderdale florida next tuesday. Theyre here with their small babies, with anything they could really pack, leaving their homes. Many of them, damaged homes. And the sad thing is most of the ones weve spoken to in line say they have no idea if and when they will ever return to puerto rico. It will be interesting if we had a timeline on when repairs would happen and when infrastructure would be back but its really serious. It looks like if you can get out, it might be worth doing so. Well stay on top of this story. Doing great reporting in puerto rico and before that in florida. Shes been busy unfortunately. So many of our viewers have been asking. Learn how to help the victims of Hurricane Maria by going to nbcnews. Com puerto rico. We have a list of charities. You heard im carrying on on the stuff talked about at the white house. The nfl and protests during the National Anthem. We heard Sarah Huckabee sanders talk about it. Im joined by an organizer for black lives matter. Im sorry weve also been squeezed because of this time. Weve only got a couple of minutes. This is just developing into something really interesting. The president has taken something that Colin Kaepernick was clear about what his protest was about. Didnt talk about the flag. Didnt talk about military members or fighting for our rights. He was talking about very specific things. The president decided this was an affront to veterans and the flag. And he is sticking with that. So remember, colin, he took a knee 211 days ago. Its interesting only now is this becoming a conversation and the way its becoming. And trump is trying to make this about him but colin was really clear. This is about the injustices toward black people. About police violence. Over 800 people have been killed alone by the police this year and only six cases has an officer been even charged with anything. So the threat is still there. The issues are still there. We need to make sure were talking about them and not letting trump disrupt us. The black lives matter protest had various things and there were criticisms of the types of protests, they were insensitive and if your hands are up, if youre talking about not being able to breathe and now you cant take a knee. At some point this becomes a First Amendment right for peoples ability to protest. We would never have been in the street if the police hadnt killed anybody. We were only responding to violence. It began as a call to end violence. Coal sin asking people to think about these issues. He shouldnt be punished for that. 211 days later we see 28 of the 32 owners make statements in unity but they havent hired him or done anything to address these issues. People are avoiding the, issue and talking about trump. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked a question about this comment by donald trump. Listen. I think they are afraid of their players, you want to know the truth. And i think its disgraceful. What do you make of that . Donald trump was responding to a question about why the owners are not taking a harder line on these players who are taking a knee. The owners dont own the players. Those are the statements that are dog whistles. Hes like shouting out into the crowd and trying to play to the ego of the owners in this moment. Its weerd the nfl has become his primary target but we cant ignore the issues that caused colin to kneel. It was about systemic depression of black people. Is it about ignoring those issues colin brought up . I think trump is trying to say, lets not talk about racism or the history of enslavement and rally up his base. Sorry we didnt have more time. Thank you for joining us. Thats it for this hour. Thanks for watching my show. Deadline white house with Nicolle Wallace starts right now. Hi, everyone. Its 4 00 in new york. Its 11 00 p. M. In moscow where were learning they spend a lot more time tweeting with the intent of sharpening the divide in american politics than we knew. Twitter was on capitol hill today briefing the house and Senate Intel Committees looking into russian interference in the president ial campaign. This news adds to the disturbing picture taking shape of u. S. Technology, social Media Companies specifically, being easily and efficiently hijacked by russian agents to influence u. S. Elections. Facebook announced last week that it would hand over to congress 3,000 political ads linked to russian actors