moments before the press conference is set to begin so because it looks like we are owe an a little bit of a delay we haven t seen that just yet. you might be noticing the bobs heads at the bottom of the screen, people walking in, you go is are good, very nicely ducking out of our way, just members of the media, american and german media getting settled, getting into their seats here as everybody continues to make their way into the east room. obviously a ton of press interests here. you can see people seated in the room, so we are waiting for the president obviously for the german chancellor. they have in a meeting in the oval office. you probably saw a little bit of that pool spray, apparently the president was asked if nato was a topic of conversation. he said we ve talked about a lot of things, as chancellor merkel said in german it was good to sort of be in touch and i m paraphrasing here. so the anticipation s building i would say. you can see i think it s a sound check if i m li
quote here explaining mr. spicer was pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story. so essentially though, having to answer for what sean spicer said roughly 24 hours ago, a little less than that, craig, when he was reading that sort of list of news reports and the gch2 report came up. we don t know the word apology was used. there s no indication from our reporting that sean spicer said he was sorry, simply that they are backing way off any claim that they believe gchq was involved in this as the story that they said it claimed. the british intelligence agency? reporter: that s correct. i want to play a portion of what hallie talked about there, this is sean spicer thursday, this sparked this conundrum. the brits. president obama didn t use the nsa or the cia, didn t use
they talk about european union. president trump happy to see the european union collapse. that s one they ll really have to talk through. we just saw we heard from jamie there, we just saw members of the german delegation make their way into the east room, so, it looks as if we are literally just a few moments away from this starting. hallie jackson, i believe i still see you on the floor there. customarily after the opening statements we usually get two questions, correct? at least two questions from members of the assembled media, is that right? reporter: that s correct. forgive me. we sat down. looks like there s movement here. we expect to see the president and chancellor as the delegation has entered the east room. as to how this unfolds, washington parlance, it s two and two. two questions to german media, two questions to american media. it s up to the leaders who gets to ask those questions.
all countries including germany to spend 2% of gdp by 2024, and you are now seeing the increases in defense spending coming along, this started before president trump has made this an issue but it will continue, i expect, because the threat posed by russia is one of the reasons that europeans are looking to increase in defense spending, and the need to have a fairer burden sharing is something all american presidents recognized and it s time and finally for europe to recognize the same thing. ambassador ivo dalder, thank you, sir, for your time again. left side of your screen, that is a live look inside the packed white house east room. you see all of the journalists have gathered there. the only folks we are missing now president donald trump and german chancellor angela merkel, expected to start this joint news conference any moment now literally any moment now. hallie jackson is also inside that room. hallie, what can you tell us?
hallie jackson, we ll let you get seated as president trump and german chancellor angela merkel both make their way inside. bill kristol with me, with the weekly standard, editor-at-large. what are you waiting to see between these two world leaders? angela merkel is extremely experienced and i imagine will be polite and proper and not give anything away she doesn t want to give away. donald trump is much more of a wild card at these things. i would say the abe and theresa may press conferences, short press conferences, two questions each, he s been pretty disciplined. i m very interested if he gets as i said before, if he gets asked a question about the british intelligence claim by sean spicer. i know that s not quite on topic. you may only ask about german-related issues but it s such for me, having worked in the white house and being a little knowledgeable about some of these things, the idea the