Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to start with the word about the news out as lewiston maine last night where we saw another tragic shooting at his taking the least 18 lives. Injuring many others and let countless people in grief shock and trauma. As the president said in a statement earlier today in the first lady are praying for the victims and their families. For those still fighting for their lives and for the families of survivors and Committee Members reeling from this latest act of gun violence importantly we continue to urge all residents to heed the warnings and guidance of local officials and federal Law Enforcement corps who are on the ground to assist in the response. During the state dinner last night the president was informed he received initial briefing of the shooting antisat down with maine potts governor as well as senator collins and king and congressman jared goldman. He pledged full federal support in the wake of this tragedy. This morning the president received another briefing the shooting from senior advisers and he ordered the u. S. Flag be flown halfstaff at the white house and all public buildings of respect for all the victims. I want to echo the president sentiments on this tragedy and the epidemic of gun violence in general. This is not normal. We cannot accept this. There had been literally hundreds of Mass Shootings in the last year alone leaving seats at dinner tables across the country empty and we think those who survived these acts physically and mentally scarred. While we have made progress since the president signed the bipartisan community, Safer Communities act into law much more, much more must be done. The president has been clear that executive action alone is just not enough. As the president , as the Vice President who oversees the newly established office of gun violence prevention stated during todays luncheon and i know many of you watched it very closely as well where she said it does not have to be this way. As our friends in australia have shown, again it doesnt have to be this way. Its within congresss power to pass legislation that will make our streets safer and make our communities safer and make our schools safer. The house has a new speaker who he said, hes ready to get to work and to find Common Ground. Now is the time. Now is the time to find Common Ground. Lets Work Together to ban assault weapons and highcapacity magazines. Lets Work Together to enact universal background checks, require safe storage of guns and keep guns out at the hands of criminals and dangerous individuals who have no business in armed with a weapon of war. The president will continue to do everything in his power to protect the American People and to protect our communities, protect our children and the urge, to urge Congressional Republicans to come to the table, to come to the table because it truly is Common Ground at this time. With that as you all know im joined in todays Briefing Room by the Economic CouncilLael Brainard to discuss the gdp report that you saw this morning and any other economic things out there. Welcome to the briefing for a second time Lael Brainard. We thought this might be a good moment to look back at this time last year and per call with the experts were saying about the u. S. Economy. A year ago the consensus view was that unemployment would need to go up 4. 5 and the economy would need to stall out in order to get inflation down to where it is today. It turns out that was wrong. You can see that here on the charts. The u. S. Growth has been much stronger than the naysayers believed. Unemployment has remained below 4 this entire time. Inflation has actually fallen in line with that forecast. In fact today we learned gdp grew by 4. 9 in the Third Quarter even as core pc inflation on a quarterly basis phil to 2. 4 , the lowest level in nearly three years. That Strong Economy is a testament to the resilience of American Consumers and American Workers with President Bidens plan to grow the economy by growing the middle class. Consumer spending is robust as americans have rejoined the labor force in record numbers in real wages are up over the last year. President biden vows to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and thats exactly what we are seeing in the data. Last week survey of Consumer FinancesShows Americans median net worth is 37 higher than it was before the pandemic, adjusted for inflation. Thats the largest gain in the history of the survey and the gains were strongest for the bottom half of the Income Distribution and for and hispanic families that have traditionally not seen as large gains. Just yesterday the way w. Reached a historic tentative agreement that provides a record increase for autoworkers and is a testament to the president s strategy to ensure a strong future for autumn manufacturing here in america. Thats good news for American Workers and good news for the future of the u. S. Auto industry. As the date and that agreement we can see the president s strategy is yielding real results even as we continue to work to bring costs down. Thanks. The present celebrated the gdp report saying its a testament to the resilience of the American Consumer but the report also shows personal savings dropped by 360 million. Is the message to americans. As i said what you are seeing is americans are back in the labor force in record numbers much higher participation than what was anticipated and higher than prepandemic. Their outlook, that is showing up also in the wealth number so if you look at American Household median wealth in inflationadjusted terms its actually gone up since before the pandemic so the u. S. Consumer, u. S. Workers they are absolutely the reason we are seeing this resilience in the economy and they are actually seeing increases in their wealth over this period. What about americans who are dipping into savings to afford afford. Because net wealth is rising and real incomes are rising and the americans are working thats exactly what we would want to see in the economy. We are no longer worried about a recession quick. The data in recent months has all pointed in the same direction which is that we are seeing strong ongoing growth with inflation coming down and we are seeing unemployment staying put for below 20 , four months ago with inflation coming down so those data which have been sustained now for a relatively long period of time suggests theres ongoing resilience there. We have seen Small Business formation at a record rate. Theres lots of dynamism and the economy that people are taking notice of and we know the president has historic legislation that is leading to historically high amounts of construction in the Manufacturing Sector including leveraging privatesector. For all these reasons these continues see the economy growing with inflation and the strongest growth and lowest inflation. The gdp numbers were released to the owner of paris payments have begun for tens of millions americans. Is this a headwind that you seen the u. S. Economy and whether there had wednesday as he or the rest of the year . Domestic consumer with very strong in the Third Quarter and we believe based on the strong job market we continue to see resilience there but the president has always said he would like to see students relief go forward and hes continuing to look to find avenues to do that in the wake of the Supreme Court decision. We party announced a number of programs that have led to large and significant relief for a large number of americans that he will continue working to make sure the full amount of Student Debt Relief is available over time. Whether there had wednesday as he . P right now what we see going into the 4th quarter is continued ongoing investments on the basis of the Clean Energy Tax credits and the chips program. The infrastructure law so there should continue to be allowed to privatesector interest. We certainly see it in the numbers with 1 billion worth of private sector investment. Those things i think will continue to provide uplifts to the Global Economy and theres some soft spots there so perhaps a headwind there. Do you expect to see Consumer Spending ease in the coming months . P there is the possibility from quarter to quarter we have seen some variations so its hard to know right now what retail spending and spending more broadly is going to look like. Again consumers have good sources that income and wages rising, strong employment, strong participation of labor force so we can certainly see variations in the relative contributions relative to Business Investment firms. Certainly consumers and businesses are taking it into account the cost of credit and that is a headwind on the economy. Despite that we have seen strong gdp of 4. 9 in the Third Quarter and we think thats because there is strong support from the policy on the vestments cited the economy and the president s historic legislation there and the broader plans to grow the economy from the middle out. Thank you for coming back. Okay we are moving on. As you know admiral john kirby is here. I think you have something to share the top. Admiral. Good afternoon everybody. Let me start, the couple things i want to get to and let me start with the middle east and the present is being routinely updated by the situations are obviously continuing to support. We continue to support israels military Security Assistance that continues to flow to them as needed almost on a daily basis. Obviously we are still laser focused on the situation and making sure more food water and medicine can get in. Since the 21st of this month some 74 trucks have gotten in 12 over just the last 24 hours. More needs to go and we are working with partners on the ground to get them to accelerate and increase the flow of humanitarian assistance so again it remains a high focus for the National Security team. I do want if you allow me to to take a couple of minutes to update you on the situation in ukraine. As we said publicly russia has launched a new offensive in Eastern Ukraine across multiple lines including around. I spoke about this recently. Its not a surprise. We have watched this build and we point president putin aims to conquer ukraine and we have been working to ensure that ukraine has the equipment to defend its territory. Just today we have noticed another package of Security Assistance which includes chaplain antitank missiles and more Artillery Ammunition more ammunition for the high mobility artillery system otherwise known as as far using all these capabilities the ukrainians have been able to hold on on the defense against the offensive. Since the 11th of october russia has suffered significant losses in its offensive attempts including lease 125 Armored Vehicles and more than a battalions worth of equipment. Expect more recent attacks to come. Its a dynamic conflict and we need to remember that russia still maintains an offensive capability may be able to achieve tactical gains in the coming months. To pursue that outcome elsewhere on the battlefield russia continues to show no regard for the lives of its soldiers. We believe they have suffered thousands of casualties in the effort to conduct this and some of them on the order of their own leaders. We have information that the Russian Military has been executing soldiers who refuse to follow orders. We have information rushing commanders are threatening to execute and tire units when they seek to retreat from ukrainian artillery fire. Russias mobilize forces remain undertrained, underequipped and unprepared for combat. As was the case during their field winter offensive last year Russian Military appears to be using what we would call human wave tactics just during masses of this poorly trained fighters ready to defy with no no proper equipment no leadership in the resources. Its not surprising russia suffers from poor morale given these conditions. Russias renewed attempt is a sobering reminder that president putin is not giving up on his aspirations to take ukraine as long as russia continues its assault we get to continue to support the ukrainian people in their defense. His intentions are clear and we heard the president talk about this last week. Sending western weapons to ukraine to ensure that we contingent do that its Critical Congress stepped up and passed the simple mental request that the president put forward last week which includes a significant amount of resources for ukraine and further humanitarian and Economic Needs in selfdefense. And to move forward with that supplement and the time clearly is not on our side with ukraine going forward. Same as the present yesterday said he has no confidence in the numbers presented by the palestinians in gaza. Have you reached a conclusion . P we know the cause administration is just a front for hamas and its run by hamas a organization. We cant take anything coming up of hamas including the socalled ministry of health at face value. Secondly the president s talking about humanitarian pause in the peace process. Whats prompting this tone shift. The president has never backed away or never stopped affirming the need for a twostate solution. Coming into office hes been working on it very hard and i know its a lot and its taken people a long time to get there and we havent got there but we havent stopped working towards that goal. We still believe as he said yesterday when this conflict is over the test to be the goal we are driving at a state for palestinians where they can live in peace and security and justice. That is a strategic longterm goal. In a tactical sense as secretary blinken said we do think there should be consideration made. These are localized temporary specific pauses on the battlefields so humanitarian assistance can get in to people that need it where the people can get out at that area to safety. We think its an idea worth exploring. I want to ask you about the present lack of confidence in the numbers in gaza right now. Because the Health Ministry is run by hamas. To be clear that president in the white house you dont dispute the thousands of palestinians many of them innocent civilians have been killed by israeli forces. A force not. We know the death toll is rising in gaza but what we are saying is we shouldnt rely on numbers put forth by hamas. They said more than 7000 is there any way to assess how many does . The president said it we dont have a conference in math and it does appear including allowed people and the room that thousands of palestinians have been killed. Is the white house satisfied to israel to this point has obeyed the laws as the president has indicated and his israel and the white house doing enough to protect innocent lives. Again we are going to react in real time to events on the battlefield and every allegation. We just are going to do that. [inaudible] i just said we are going to react in real time. We have been in constant touch with their israeli counterparts since the early hours of this conflict. To ensure we are asking them the hard questions that they asked themselves and reiterate as the president said yesterday he said theres an added burden here to make sure they are doing everything they can to minimize civilian cashbased and we are in constant communication with them. To followup on the former question does the president have faith in numbers released by the west bank that its more than 100 palestinians killed. I have no dispute with the rough numbers coming up affair. Therethere is a a lot of violenn the west bank as well. And those are the numbers we are seeing come out of gaza. Can you follow up on the meeting and what are the expectations and will the present during the meetings and what kind of role can the u. S. Expect from china. That was like seven questions. Hes looking forward to this discussion. You know hell start up with secretary blinken later this afternoon. The white house. Its a chance to continue the conversation that jake himself has had with their counterparts for many months. Its another milestone in that effort to keep the lines of communication open with the prc. It will be an opportunity to address areas of concern as we continue to have some of the prc behavior particularly in the south china sea. It will also be an opportunity to explore ways in which we can continue to keep these channels open to try to get open the militarytomilitary channels which are still close. Chinas role. Im sorry i have no doubt part of this discussion is whats going on in the least in the chinese perspective and certainly looking for ways to be helpful. The Florida Governor said the state is sending drones to israel. Have youve been coordinating with the Florida Governor and this and will they send weapons another materia . That i will certainly that the governor speak. Its not illegal for the governor of the state to offer assistance to another cou