Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150912

The was ceremony at the pentagon for those who lost their lives there. Defense secretary Ashton Carter and joint chief of staff as well spoke. Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention tho the flag on the pentagon building hanging in honor of patriot day and in honor of the 184 lives lost. The National Anthem sang by the National Army cortets. The United States navy chief of chaplain margaret gib lin. If you would pray for me. God, our creator, words cannot express the emotions present in the gathering. You can give grace to our thoughts and hear our prayers. Hear our prayers of intercession for those who this day only serves to open deep wounds of grief and loss. Bless this day those who still mourn the events of that day. Continue to strengthen, comfort and console them and allow their resilience to be a source of inspiration and healing to the nation. Hear our prayers of gratitude for those who gave the full measure of devotion. The first responders, the unsung host of civilians and those in uniform who perished serving within these walls or whose sacrificed their lives in the years that followed in defense of this country. Hear our prayers for guidance as we seek to uphold the memory of those we honor. Strengthen this country with unity and resolve as we still face threats to our libbertlibe. May our desire for peace not be an excuse to abuse our power and our need for justice not be jaded with hate. May we who remain live to serve you carefully and faithfully and preserve the freedom and future of the United States. We lift up these prayers to call upon your will to transform this ceremony to service. Our grief to grace and our fellowship to a future framed with hope. That those who so valiantly died that day will be honored in our prayers and by our lives. From the strength of your name we pray. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, 14 years ago at 9 37 a. M. The pentagon was attacked. Please join us in observing a moment of silence to remember those who perished. [having a moment of silence] ladies and gentlemen, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, general paul selva. Mr. Secretary, distinguished guest, friends and family of the survivors and the fallen, thank you for being here for this mornings ceremony. My wife and i offer a very special welcome to each and everyone of the survivors, and the families and friends of whose who lost their lives on these grounds 14 years ago today. We know these memorial ceremonies and you have been through many are tough emotionally filled moments for you and we thank you for being here with us. It takes a great deal of occcoue to come back on a day like this that can bring back that first raw moment when everything changed. Your grief, your solace so personal to you is shared with all of us in this nation. Today your nation joins you to reflect and to remember that 184 lives that ended here at the pentagon and those who perished in new york city and sommerset county. We are hear to celebrate the memories of relatives and the people that blossomed into great families and fine young men and women we should be proud of it. They are out there making their mark on our world. I see the resolve of defending freedom and liberty wherever it is challenged. An entire generation of american men and women put their lives on the lined for the concepts of freedom and liberty that we hold dear. Today offers us an opportunity to rededicate our lives to those causes, to the things that make this nation great. Rickey and i appreciate all of you being here to share this day with us, to allow us to share this day with you. It is now my privilege to introduce to you our secretary of defense, the honorary Ashton Carter. [applause] general selva, distinguished guest, ladies and gentlemen, to the families of those who lost their lives here at the pentagon let me begin by offering on behalf of the department of defense my deepest sympathy for the loss you suffered and the burden you continue to carry. We cannot fully appreciate how much your lives changed or how much you lost on this morning 14 years ago. We cannot understand how this felt when every day citizens longed for their laugh, to see their smile or to feel their embrace. We cannot understand the weight of their answers. But for me, and foresee many others at the pentagon, the wait of their memory and our duty to honor it, is something we do carry with us every day. For all of us, their memory is an everpresent reminder to cherish each day with those who love us, to stay vigilant against those who would harm us, and remain guided by the values that have always made us great. At times we depend upon something other than what why hold in our heads and heart to remember. Maybe it is a poem taped to your mirror. Maybe it is coming to the ceremony every year. For me, it is a piece of the pentagon that sits on my desk, collected from the rubble and passed by down by each of my predecessors who served since that horrific day. Beneath this piece of Indiana Limestone reads an inscription to honer the 184 people whose lives were lost, their families, and all those who sacrificed that we may live in freedom. We will never forget. We can never know how you feel on this day. We know what the lives of your loved ones mean to this community and nation. I hope you know by returning here to the pentagon each year you set on example of strength and resilience for all of us. Terrorist who hope to intimidate us will find no satisfaction and success in threatening the United States because not only do we come back, but by living in honor of those weve lost, we come back stronger than every before. After 14 years, and forever more, terrorist who threaten us will learn this simple yet unbending truth, no matter how long it takes, no matter where they may hide they will not escape the long arm of justice. The threat from terrorism may evolve but our threat to hold them accountable is constant. As americans we have the will to see justice is done. As a military we have the capability to see justice is done. Because of the men and women in uniform, because we can rely on the finest fighting force the world has over known, we know that justice will be done. When terrorist attack the pentagon they tore a hole in the building. They tore at places in your heart that may never heal. As you know better than anyone, they did not and could not take from us what defines us. As americans, we are defined by our resilience and readiness to stand up for values and honor the pass as we begin anew. With your example, you have umbodied those ideals and shown us how to persevere, move forward and memorialize those that we lost. Today and all days we honor your loved ones because of the examples you have set for each of us, for our American Family you have our deepest admiration. We will never forget within this community. We will always remember, we will continue to honor the memory of those you have lost with the work you accomplish together. sm ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the observeance and you are invited to go inside and attend the memorial events until 11 a. M. Thank you. Our guest on news makers is jim jordan, chair of the House Freedom caucus and he talks about several issues including the funding for planned parenthood and the investigation into benghazi. Watch it sunday at 10 p. M. Eastern on cspan. He was a nazi. He was a concentration camp confident and responsible for the murder of thousands of jews. On q and a this sunday night, jennif jennif Jennifer Tegan on her experience of discovering her grandfather was a cruel nazi person. He was a person who was cruel and a person who was he was capable of he had two dogs and trained them to tear humans apart. He was a person who there was a pleasure he felt when he killed people. And this is something when you are normal when you dont have this aspect in your personalities it is very difficult to grasp personality president obama participated in a town hall event with Service Members at ford mead maryland and talks about his memories of 9 11 and ongoing efforts to prevent similar attacks and discussed several National Security issues around the globe including the situation in iraq and afghanistan. Siisil this is an hour and ten minutes. Thank you, mr. President for joining us. It is exciting to have you for a face to face conversation with u. S. Service members. We are pleased to have you. Nathan, thank you for your participation and thank everybody who is here. I want to acknowledge colonel brian foley. I just road over with him. He is in charge of a lot of stuff. With everything going on out of this incredible facility. We cannot succeed in our missions what a strong support from congress and we have a congressman here who works hard on behalf of our military and intelligence. Congressman dutch, where were you . Thank you so much. I want to be brief because i want to mainly take questions from folks not just here but all around the world. Today is a solumn d solomn da. I started by day remembering the People Killed on 9 11. I have had a chance to meet with survivors and family members of those killed and on this day we are constantly reminded of their loss. We want to let them know we do not forget those who were fallen. We are inspired by the survivors. Many of whom still have the scars unscene seen and seen of that terrible day. It is important to remember the people that served since 9 11 in order to keep america safe and free. We have veterans from every state in the union who have served often times multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan. We have made strides in degrading the core alqaeda including bin laden himself why we are well aware of the threats existing out there. Here at forte meade we do some of the most important work to bring together all elements of American Power against those who do us harm in the homeland or overseas and threaten our allies. Despite the progress we made in afghanistan it is still important we have thousands of trainers and advisors who are supporting the afghan effort. Our combat role is complete but we have to make sure they are getting the help and assistance they need. The emergance of isil means we have to be present skwb pound them every day. Our airman are doing extraordinary work with support of other branches and we are providing raining and assistance and support training to the Iraqi Security forces on the ground as they continue to push back isil from territory they have taken. But both in iraq, and in syria, and afghanistan, and in north africa, what we are very clear about is we still have significant threats coming from terrorist organizations and terrorist ideas. We also have the traditional threats that our military has to be prepared for. From a new region where we have under written the prosperity of a region that came back after world wor two and we have alliances to europe and our role as the cornerstone of nato. We will work at every level to make our men and women have the training, equipment and things they need. That is not just a matter of tanks and rifles. Cybersecurity is opening up a new era where we have to watch out. On 9 11, i thought it was particular appropriate for me to be able to address you directly. When i look out in this audience and think about all of the all of the Armed Services members who served this represents america. People of every race, religion, faith, our military is a lynch pen in the ability to project our values alongside our diplomatic effort and economy and the peoplepeople relations that help the spread of those core beliefs that all of you are willing to sacrifice for. I want to say thank you to you and especially to those serving overse overseas. I dont have a greater honor than serving as your commander and chief and every single day i see the extraordinary work you do and i benefit from it as well. With that, lets start taking questions. You mentioned we have family members and Service Members worldwide watching this worldwide troop talk through American Forces network and armed ships at sea. The first question we want to be represented from one of the many Service Members we have here. The first question we will go out to the audience if someone has one ready. We have the microphone coming down here. Good morning, i happen sergeant Briana Harvey from texas. My question is what made you initiate on the 27th of february of 2014 and will you create something similar for females . And what will you miss the most once you are no longer president. What part of texas are you from . Parker heights, texas. Tell everybody back home i said hi. But for Service Members who are not aware, what we are referring to when we talk about mbk is what we call my brothers keeper. One of the most important principles i think of america is no matter who you are or what you look like if you work hard you can get ahead. There are pockets of poverty in places where people dont have an opportunity and that is true among union meningitis who are too often ending up in prison n instead of going to school. We want to make sure these men are aware of how they can break the cycle and do right by themselves and ultimately do right by families. One of the young men next to me was interested in enrolling in the marines but heard a rumor you cannot serve with tattoos and i said i dont think that is going to be a problem. Some dont know where to go and are out of loop and dont know how to apply themselves in ways that will allow them to succeed. We are watching on that with ourselves, businesses and our military leaders are helping out on this issue. We have a whole another set of white House Counsel on women and girl. Generally the young women are doing better than the young men. That is because you are a little smarter but they need opportunities as well. In terms of what i am going to miss, i meant what i said, the greatest privilege have is serving as your commander and chief. It is not fighting usually. It is helping train other companies to secure themselves. Helping on engineer projects or Development Projects or helping people after a natural ambassadors. You spread good will around the world every day at enormous cost to yourself. I will miss that. The plane is nice, too. I am hoping i will not have to take off my shoes again and go through security. What i will not miss is the fact that i live in what is called the bubble. They dont let me go anywhere. So i just want to go take a walk and i have helicopters and boats and all of that stuff. Even when i cross the potomic they have everyone in position. On saturday morning i cannot just go down to starbucks and not shave. Sounds good to me. Those are some of the things i will be doing when i get out of here. And i probably wont wear a tie for at least a month. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for that question. I promised we would go world wide and we are. Your first question from overseas is place you are particular with. You travelled there a few times and i am sure Service Member are well. We go down range first. Mr. President , we have your first live satellite question from afghanistan. We have Sergeant Aaron geese. If you can hear me, nod. You are on the line with the president. Go ahead with your question. Good afternoon, mr. President. First i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with me today. Thank you. My question is due to the russian activity in syria and the possibility of future activity how will that affect your current military strategy within the region . Thank you for your service and please tell everybody in your unit. As i indicated in my opening remarks we have done a great job going after and dismantling the core Alqaeda Network operating in the fata region between afghanistan and pakistan. They still pose a threat but it is much diminished. What happened with this radical violent extremism is that it is metastasizing and spreading to other areas. And right now, ground zero for those activities is in syria with isil. Our strategy has consistently been that we will use our air power to support effort by forces on the ground and moderate opposition in syria to push back on isil and put pressure on them to go after their financing, go after their networks, their supplies. A lot of their operations were fund by oil sales going after the infrastructure they built up. That strategy will continue. The challenge in syria is the president there, has been so destructive toward his own people, dropping bombs and creating a seck sectarian conf. It has become a magnet for jihadist throughout the region. The good news is russia shares with us a concern about countering violent extremist and shares the view they are dangerous. Despite the conflict in areas like ukraine this area is potentially of converging interest. Russia continues to believe that assad is somebody that is worthy of continuing support. It has been my view as long as assad is there he al aliented so much and you will continue to have a vacuum filled by extremist. Russia has provided Financial Support and arms to assad. I remember a conversation i had with mr. Putin was that was a mistake and would make things worse. We did not take my warnings and an a consequence things have gotten worse. It appears now that assad is bringing in russia equipment. That will not change our core strategy which is to continue to push pressure on isil in iraq and syria. We are engaging in russia to let them know that you cannot continue to double down on a strategy that is continue to fail. If they work with us and the 60 Nation Coalition then there is the possibility and new coalition of moderate secular and inclusive forces could come together to restore order in the country. That is our goal. This is going to be a long discussion we will be having with the russians but it will not prevent us from continuing to go after isil very hard. It could prevent us from arriving at the political settlement that is needed to bring peace back to syria. And you know, this is where our military efforts have to be combined with effective diplomatic efforts. One thing i said to all of our men and women in uniform is that you should not be fighting for our security and our freedom alone. You have to have the support of diplomats and Intelligence Experts and others because although you are vital and necessary if you are doing it by yourselves we can win any battle. But, you know, our main challenge in a lot of these countries like syria, afghanistan, libya and north africa is disorder. The only way you can restore order, unless you are occupying every country that breaks down is through political negotiations and settlement and that is where the russians are going to have to start getting a little smarter than they have been. They are threatened in many ways, more than we are, by isil. They have large muslim populations that historically have caused a lot of problems inside of russia. And the strategy that their pursuing right now is doubling down on assad i think is a big mistake. Thank you for that question from afghanistan. We here hope you and others down range stay safe. We have thousands of members overseas watching the American Forces network or streaming live on defense. Gov. Petty officer lori bent takes us to social media. The question is coming from twitter. Mr. President , can you share with us your personal experience and memories of when 9 11 first happen happened . It was interesting. Michele and i were just talking about that this morning. Sasha, my youngest daughter had just been born. She was four or five months old. September 11th was maliahs first day of preschool or kindergarten. There it is kindergarten. So michele had gone with the girls to drop malia off at school. They were tiny. I was at the time a state senator so i was going to Downtown Chicago to a hearing on an issue. And i remember driving on lake shore drive in chicago and hearing the reports of a plane crashing into buildings and at first, the reports were unclear so you thought it was a cessna or anstant h an accident happened. It wasnt until i was downtown where the hearing was taking place we started realizing it was something more serious. At that time no one was sure whether this was a one off or an ongoing attack because then you started getting reports from the pentagon and other places. The building was evacuated and i remember standing Downtown Chicago with thousands of other people and there are a lot of targets for possible action including at the time the sears tower it was called then. People didnt know what to think. And then i remember going to my law office and that is when we saw the images of the twin towers coming down. I have memories of giving sasha a bottle and rocking her to sleep while watching the aftermath of those attacks. And like i think everybody here, you know, although most of you were a lot younger, and we have not seen an attack like this since pearl harbor. I would have strong disagreements with the Previous Administration about certain decisions made but i remember, and give great credit to president bush for everyone to remember that you are not a Democrat First or a republican first or a texan or californian first. You are an american. And we had to come together. My hope is always on a day like today that we remember that sense of what binds us together is much more important than which anything that divides us. And that what makes this Country Special is the fact that you know, we are bound together and our parents or great grandparents and come from different placed but we have a shared belief system and set of commitments. All of you, in your service exlim exlim exlimpify that every day. You can join the conversation on twitter using our askpotus. We are going overseas again. We are headed to nato and brussels belgium and talk to Navy Commander scott cregan. Go ahead with your question for the president. Thank you for your time mr. President. I was honored to march in your inaugural parade in 2009 and we met when i worked a halloween event at the white house. I was a storm trooper. We all kind of looked alike. On a serious note, we are seeing more and more refuges coming to europe by land and by sea, do you think there should be a Nato Response to this crisis . I think that we have work where your European Partners on this issue. You know, the refuge crisis is not just a european problem. It is a world problem. We have obligations. I made certain to send through every agency that we have to do our part, first of all in taking our share of refuges. Those who saw the heart breaking images of the small boy who drowned and anybody who is a parent understands that that stirs all of our conscious. Not just folks on the other side of the atlantic. So, i have been in discussions with people like the Prime Minister of italy, the greeks and others who are down south. Will as you well know, it is important for port not to see a bunch of bodies floating down the river. Part of your job is to save who you can and also go downstream and see what is happening. This refugee crisis is prompted by the collapse of government in syria. The cruelty that aside is putting on his own people. That is the response i gave earlier, the importance of us continuing our military efforts and pulling together a strong international, diplomatic endeavor. To pull together in syria is going to be important. The last thing i will take about this. Even as we are in the short come of helping countries respond to the needy crisis. Unfortunately, we can anticipate that refugees will be an ongoing problem for decades to come. The reason is because there are too many states that are not doing well by their people. The spread of media gives people in wartorn countries, or extreme poverty a vision of a better life and they are desperate, and willing to take extraordinary risks to get there. We then have other factors that may end up resulting in more migration and refugees. For example climate change. I just came back from alaska where you are or smell rapidly. As temperatures rise the pentagons own assessment is that this will become a National Security challenge in part, because people will be displaced from their traditional lands, either by drought or by flooding , and that can create more refugee problems. We are going to have to work globally and one of the topics i am sure when we go to the United Nations leaders gathering at the end of this month is to start coming up with a more effective structure for an international response. No one country can solve these problems alone. The United States is the world leader, and nato as the premier alliance is going to have to play an essential role. I want to thank the lieutenant commanded her for that question. Mr. Pres. We have been to europe, afghanistan, we have gone online, lets have gone online, lets go back to the studio here. We will have a mic and a question. In your opening remark theres been talk about a separate branch of military im wondering what you see happening. Thats a great question. We initiated Cyber Command anticipating this is going to be a new theater for potential conflict. What we have seen by both state and nonstate actions is the increasing sophistication of packing, the ability to print it trait systems that we previously thought were secure and it is moving fast. Offense is moving faster than defense. A part of this has to do the way the internet was originally designed. It was not designed with the expectation there would end up being three or 5 billion people doing commercial transactions. They thought it was going to be an Academic Network to share papers and formulas. So the architecture of the internet makes it very difficult to defend consistently. We continue to be the best in the world at understanding and working within cyber. Other countries have caught up, the russians are good, the chinese are good, the iranians are good and you have nonstate actors were excellent. On like traditional conflicts and aggression, oftentimes we dont have a return address. When someone hacks into a system and goes after critical infrastructure, for example, or penetrates our financial systems. We cant necessarily trace it directly to that state or that action. That makes it more difficult as well. But we have have done is try to emphasize, number one, the need for a court needed response. Over the last several years we can bring together our military agency Cyber Command with the nsa, with our intelligence, and working with the private sector to try to set strengthen our defense. We have made progress but we are not making enough progress. I would anticipate we are going to have to do more both through the Defense Department and again, we are going to have to work. This is not a traditional war theater. We are going to have to work with a bunch of other actors and coordinate with them much more effectively. The bulk of vulnerable information and data even in our military, and the private sector, its throughout our economy, its in your smart phones. So we are going to have to strengthen overall networks, we will have to train millions of individual actors, small businesses, big, big vendors, individuals in terms of basic cyber hygiene. We are going to have to be much more rapid in responding to attacks. This is something that we are at the infancy of. Ultimately one of the solutions to come up with is to craft agreements among at least state actors about what is acceptable and what is not. For example, i am getting a visit from the president of china in a few weeks, we have made very clear to the chinese that there are certain practices that they are engaging in that we know are emanating from china and are not acceptable. We can choose to make this an area of competition, which i guarantee we will win if we have to. Or, alternatively we can come to an agreement in which we say this isnt helping anybody. Lets instead try to have some basic rules of the road in terms of how we operate. As i said theyre still individual actors, terrorist networks and others and we will still have to build a strong defense. One of our first and most important efforts has to be to get the states that may be sponsoring Cyber Attacks to understand there comes a point at which we consider this a core National Security threat and we will treat it as it is. A question from a Cyber Warriors here. We are on the east coast but i hear were going to the west coast for your next question. Our next question comes from an instructor pilot. Maj. Major more go ahead with your question. Mr. President , good afternoon. Sir both my husband and i have been serving sidebyside as instructor pilots for the past 11 years and we have two amazing and thriving children. How do you and mrs. Obama know how to balance life and worth to ensure your children will grow up to be successful in their future endeavors. First of all, thanks to you and your husband both for serving. Tell your kids i said hi. They should do it you tell them to do. How old are your kids . My daughter gabby is seven and my son robert is for. I have a picture sir. Sir. Sure hold up a picture of thats a goodlooking crew right there. They are adorable. Thank you sir. I will give you the best advice that i can probably offer for me at least i just do it michelle tells me to do and it seems to work out. Your husband may take the same approach. Those are great ages, seven and four. You come home and they are jumping on you and theyre so excited to see you. When they get to be 17 and 14 they still love you but youre not very interesting. Everybody here, the demands of your job are so extraordinary and its not like youre always on the clock, you you just have to get the job done. That puts a lot of pressure on folks. One thing i know we can do is make sure our military is supporting families. That means making sure housing, childcare, all of the things that go into supporting families when they are station, particularly given how much theyre moving becomes critical. Michelle has worked with dr. Jill biden on joining forces to make sure we are spending a lot of time thinking about how we are supporting military families on an ongoing basis. Including those spouses who are not in service, but who are serving alongside and do so much critical work making sure for example there are getting a job if they get transferred. And have the kind of backing they need. That is important. You shouldnt have to do this alone. What michelle and i did with our children early on, we are strong believer in structure and rules. Unconditional love but being firm two. We started early, heres your bedtime, here is when you are not watching tv, you will sit there and in your vegetable even if we have to sit there with you and watch you chew for ten minutes. If you start early enough with just High Expectations i think kids do well with that. Part of that involves loving those kids to death but also letting them know that i am your parent, i am not your best friend. So im not that interested in what your friends are doing. They have parents and their parents can make a decision, this this is what you are doing in our house. When you leave here you can make your own decisions but we are trying to prepare you so you have some sense when you get out of here. I think that has worked, that has has been appreciated. Sometimes they complain, they say well how come so and so can stay out to whatever our. Its like well you know thats not really our problem is it. Theyre getting old enough now where sometimes they appreciate it. Mainly because they know we adore them. Last thing i guess its just as much is possible we try to make sure every night, when we are home they have to sit down and eat dinner with us. Im a big believer in not getting the tv trays out and watching the kardashians. You sit down and leave yourself on somewhere else and well have a conversation. That seems to help too. Thats all just me channeling michelle. The main thing for your husband to do is just listen to you. That is an excellent question and i know my wife would agree. I i will tell him that thank you very much sir. Sure all of our servicemembers have families that would agree what we do with we do is because of our loved ones at home. We have family members watching on American Forces network. My wife is watching on defense. Gov with my twoyearold son. They have an. They have an opportunity to talk to two through social media. We are headed online to facebook. Sir this question is coming from michael. Mr. President how do you keep striving for great accomplishment with a positive attitude while everyone seems to be hating and talking smack about you. How do you do it . You know, the truth is not everyone is talking smack about me. There is a sizable percentage of in congress that talk smack about me, no doubt about it. It is interesting, when you go into Public Service there are two ways to approach it. One way to approach it is that you just want to be popular. You want to get elected, you want to get in to stay in to office and you want to be popular. Another way of approaching it is, i want a particular position because i want to get something done for american people. Not everything that is right to do is going to be the popular thing to do. I made a decision early on that if i was going to do this, if i was going to run for elected office then i had to have some core, some sort of beliefs and principles. There are times that ive made mistakes and i made the wrong call but i was guided by what i thought was best for the american people. I couldnt worry about shortterm popularity if i was going to do my best. I will give you a good example. When i came into office early on , we had the worst financial crisis in our history. One of the casualties of that was the u. S. Auto industry. The big three automakers were on the verge of flatlining, they were getting these bailouts but they were not changing what they were doing. A lot of folks thought chrysler was going to go bankrupt then gm would be next, then all the suppliers would lose out and pretty soon all we would be able to buy is japanese, and korean cars. I said this was an industry that was too important, one that we essentially built. I knew we had to put more money into it to get the industry back on its feet. I also also knew that we had to force them to make Management Changes to start making good cars and start competing again. When we put forward our plan i think that 10 of people agreed with it. Even in michigan the overwhelming majority of people opposed our plan. If i had been thinking in terms of just looking at poll numbers, i would have done it. But i looked at evidence and what would be best and we did it. This year we are probably going to sell more u. S. Cars than we havent 20 years and they have hired back hundreds of thousands of workers, it has been driving a rebound of American Manufacturing that is vital to our economy. The longer im in this office, the more committed i am to making those calls. Part of the challenge in this job is, if its an easy question it doesnt get to my desk. The only thing that comes to my desk as things that someone else hasnt been able to solve. My job is to make a decision based on sometimes imperfect information. Were working on the percentages, when i may be ordering lets go and get bin laden, that house in pakistan, it was probably of 5050 proposition as to whether in fact that was him. The risks obviously were enormous. If i had been making that decision based on wanting to avoid risk and not having someone talk smack about me then that might not be a decision i would have been prepared to make. Part of this is my own personal faith and prayer, part of it is the support of an incredible family and friends, part of it is seen the sacrifices all of you make. When i go to walter reed and i visit wounded troops i say to myself, i have got to be serious about what i do and i cant be worrying about poll numbers or what cable tv says, i have to make sure that to my best in my abilities i am making the decision that are most important to american prosperity and security over the long term. That way, you you can at least sleep at night. When i go to bed i go to bed easy. Because i note that i have made the best decisions that i could make. Now the only way that works is if i am also open and listening to see if the decisions i made were the right ones and if it is working. I have to be open to the fact that sometimes i may not make the right decision and i am willing to correct it. I have to own that and thats what i always tell everybody in the white house. If someone screws up, and there will be some screw ups, own it and correct it. Learn from it. What applies to everyone on my team applies to me as well. I think some of you may recall when we passed Health Care Everything was working fine until there is this website that didnt work. It was a disaster. Even though i had been asking every two weeks, house website going i hope this works. But it didnt work, we had to own that and double down and we corrected it in three or four months and now 16 Million People have Health Insurance that didnt have it before its cost less than what we anticipated and its working the way it should. That was a screwup, theres no point in trying to hide things when they dont work. The last thing i would say is i tend to take the long view on things. Political polls and what other politicians say, that comes and goes, it goes up and it goes down. I try to think 20 years from now when i look back will people say, this person operated with integrity and made decisions that were best for the country. So far that is working for me. It doesnt mean that im not sometimes a little offended. Thats when i go to the gym. Work it off. Mr. President your next question will take us overseas. For your next question is coming from Bryson Elliott in germany, go ahead with your question. First of all, sir sir thank you. Thank you for taking my question. My question is how are military exercise like african lion with morocco strengthening the relationships between the u. S. And african nations . That is is a great question, thank you for your service. Tell everybody at africana we appreciate them. I just came back from africa several months ago. There are huge challenges there but also huge opportunities. First of all, theres a continent that appreciates america. There positivl. Capacity is one of those things you have to solve when you have a willing partner so we are working with the joint chief to develop plans to continue to build up Partnership Capabilities across the continent. That will help us not only with homegrown problems inside of africa but also those platforms allow us to act more effectively against deeply rooted organizations like al qaeda on the peninsula and yemen. That is right across the ocean. We want to be able to make sure we can target those terrorists effectively. Mr. Pres. We are hoping to squeeze in at least one more question. As we promised earlier we have viewers out at sea and thats where well go now. The sailor is going to take you out to see for your next question. This is coming from the uss theodore roosevelt. Good afternoon mr. President. I am petty officer from the teddy roosevelt. I want to thank you and i am honored. Were having trouble hearing you joe. Slight difficulties but if someone else can hear it they can repeat the question. Would you like to try that question again. Good afternoon mr. President this is petty officer, thank you for the opportunity today. I am very honored. I can hear you fine now joe tell everybody on the ship we appreciate them. Hope they get back home safe. You have a question first . Yes mr. Pres. During your presidency you had a lot of great experiences. What was your most rewarding . Wow that is a big question. I tell you that there are different kinds of rewarding experiences in this office. But across the board what he comes most for me is when somebody comes up to me, when im appearing someplace or at some event, and they say mr. President , you helped me. I have had moms come up and say, mr. President my son who is 25 years old he didnt have Health Insurance, when you pass that law and he could stay on my help insurance he finally got a check up after three or four years and they found a tumor but they were able to get it out in time and now hes doing fine, and i appreciate it. Or when we have white house urs of wounded warriors. Once this wonderful couple was there, both the husband and wife were servicemembers. They had two adorable little kids and as i was shaking their hands one of them said, the wife said, i want to thank you because you saved our family. The husband had ptsd but wasnt getting help and she had written to us and i had folks reach out and he received counseling and was now doing well. The family was thriving. A lot of times the stuff seems abstract and there is just a bunch of folks talking on television, it all seems like politics, arguing. One of the things you learn the longer you are in this, is these decisions matter and you are touching people directly in some kind of way. When you hear that something you did actually helped then you say to yourself, this is worth it. This is a good day. I know everybody here feels the same way. There are going to be frustrations in our work, theyre going to be challenges in our work. Many of you operate in obscurity and people dont always say thank you. Then every once in a while you see that what i did helped, it made a difference, somebody is safer, someone who is hungry has eaten, someone who home was destroyed now has shelter, someone whos village was over run now they have a chance at security and freedom. That is what keeps you going, that is what inspires you. Those are the most gratifying moments of my presidency. An marine one. We know mr. Pres. One challenge is that you do you have other obligations and time constraints. I want want to thank you, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and coast guard, thank you and if you have any final remarks. I want to say thank you to all of you and to your family members. Thank you for your extraordinary service. What you do is vital to our way of life, it is vital to our country. I started off talking about 911 and how shaken all of us were, and angry and frustrated and moved by it. But when you travel to new york now, there is a new tower in the sky. Those first responders, the cops, the firemans, the emts, a lot of them are still serving and doing great work every day. It is just a good reminder of the essential spirit of the american people. We dont always get things perfect the first time. There are times where we take a hit. There are times where unfortunately we have selfimposed problems because of politics or conflicts inside our own country. Political systems not always serving people the way it should. One of the things we havent had a chance to talk about is that congress has a budget theyre supposed to be passing at the end of this month and we have been operating under what is called sequester which is hampering our ability to finance modernization, research and development, and support for troops that is needed. It is also preventing us from funding education and job training, infrastructure that is vital to our longterm economic competitiveness. I hope congresses pain attention to how you operate and how you do your job. If they were as conscientious about it than that the questioner would be lifted and we would be in a position where we could make investments where we need to stay strong militarily and economically. So we have challenges, but just think about how we bounce back. From 911, from the worst financial crisis of the great depression, america is the strongest, the most prosperous, and the most diverse country on earth. The 21st century is being shaped by our ideas, of the internet, and international trade, free markets, the reason for all of that is because of our people. Sometimes we hear about the bad stuff that is going on especially during political season. But america is strong and it is strong because of all of you. I never want you to forget that, you you should be very proud of what you do. Be very proud of the people you represent in uniform every day, this country is full of good, generous, hardworking people and they rely on you. Tell your families i said hi back home. Thank you everybody. Thank you everybody, your commanderinchief. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] on the next washington journal, Daryl Kimball kimball executive director of the armscontrol situation. He discusses the arm nuclear deal. The National Journal political adequate editor has the latest on the clinton investigation. Ashley messenger, npr senior associate general counsel talks about a french privacy regulator google to suspend its search result in the name of privacy. We will take your calls and you can take the calls on facebook and twitter. Washington journal live on cspan. This weekend on the cspan network. Politics, books books in American History. On cspan saturday at 8 00 p. M. Speeches by president ial candidates, first scott walker visits president reagans oma modern, then louisiana governor bobby jindal. Sunday at 6 35 p. M. To profile interviews with gop candidates. George pataki talks about his political career and is use shaping his candidacy, then Rick Santorum talks about his time in congress. His 2012 president ial run and why he is running again. On cspan cspan twos book tv saturday at 8 45 p. M. Jack discusses his book barlett letters. Sunday at 9 00 p. M. , on afterwards. Minnesota senator amy talks about her life and political career with usa today Washington Bureau chief. On American History to be on cspan three saturday at 8 00 p. M. , on lectures in history. Paul Christopher Anderson teaches a class on how former South Carolina confederates viewed reconstruction in the wake of the civil war. He discusses how some white seven is justified and even romanticize their defeat and motives for fighting. Sunday afternoon at 2 00 p. M. , the Landmark Supreme Court decision in virginia ruled it was unconstitutional to prohibit in a rational marriage. At the Virginia Historical Society Author peter, talks about the concept of the complexities of the case and how it affected similar legal challenges. Get our complete schedule and cspan. Org. Coming up next on cspan2, todays 911 ceremony in new york city. Then a hearing on the national 911 memorial and its operations. Later, a 9 11 ceremony held by the pentagon today that includes remarks from defense secretary. The names on those who died on september 11 were read aloud today at the nine a level memorial in lower manhattan. [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] [background sounds] broun. [background sounds] [background sounds] oh say can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that starspangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave [applause] [background sounds] gordon m. Aamoth, jr. Edelmiro abad maria rose abad Andrew Anthony abate vincent abate Laurence Christopher abel william f. Abrahamson Richard Anthony aceto Heinrich Bernhard ackermann Paul Acquaviva christian adams. Donald laroy adams Patrick Adams Shannon Lewis adams Stephen George adams Ignatius Udo Adanga christy a. Addamo terence e. Adderley, jr. Sophia buruwad addo lee allan adler Daniel Thomas afflitto Emmanuel Akwasi afuakwah alok agarwal Mukul Kumar Agarwala Joseph Agnello David Scott Agnes brian g. Ahearn Jeremiah Joseph ahern Joanne Marie Ahladiotis Shabbir Ahmed Terrance Andre Aiken godwin ajala gertrude m. Alagero Andrew Alameno Margaret Ann Alario gary m. Albero. Andrew alameno. Peter allegretoo. And to my loving brother in law, paul james the past at an early age as many have come and just as reminder, his mother, his father and his brothers and sisters, is nieces and nephews have never forgotten him. His memories live on every day. We never forgot come easter, his living laugh come his love for life. We love you dearly and we miss you all. And peace to all of you who stand here today. David alger. Joseph ryan allen. Richard dennis allen. Richard l. Allen. Janet alonso. Antonio alvarez. Telmo alvear. Christopher amoroso. Kazuhiro anai. Calixto anaya, jr. Kermit anderson. Michael andrews. Siewnya ang. Joseph angelini. Doreen angrisani. And my brotherinlaw, peter milano. We miss you every single day. We love you. You are always in our hearts. And my brother, Police Officer Ronald Joseph peter paul apollo. Patrick aranyos. David arce. Adam arias. Michael armstrong. Jack aron. Richard aronow. Japhet aryee. Michael asciak. Janice marie ashley. Thomas ashton. Gregg atlas. Gerald atwood. James audiffred. Ezra avles. Eustace bacchus. John badagliacca. Andrew j. Bailey. Brent t. Bailey. Tatyana bakalinskaya. Michael baksh. We miss you com, we love yous not a day that goes by that we dont think about you. And my cousin, firefighter Michael Edwards roberts. I love you and miss you everyday, michael. Gerard baptiste. Walter barron. Gerard barbara. James barbella. Colleen barkow. David barkway. Sheila barnes. Evan baron. Arthur berry. Maurice barry. Kenneth basnicki. Stephen bates. Paul battaglia. Marlyn bautista. Jasper baxter. Michele beale. Jane beatty. Manette beckles. Michael beekman. And my brother paul, your brothers and sisters, your nieces and nephews and we miss you. And michael cole and godfather robert