Yesterday but day we had reversal. A lot of people saying negative arrows would continue. Instead, Cheryl Casone we have green arrows. Melissa Technology Companies came in. Hello, everybody, im Cheryl Casone, in for melissa francis. This is after the bell. We have all eyes on the white house to see if President Trump responds to questions about james comeys firing and independent counsel appointed by Deputy Attorney general to head up the investigation into russias involvement in our election and if there were any ties to the trump campaign. We do have blake burman standing by in the east room of the white house. Break, what do you expect to hear . Do you think the president will answer questions after the statement with him and the colombian president . Port this one could go in any number of directions. Were here in the east room. This could go east, west, north, south, any way they take it, there are a litany of issues from the president on this day. The president making two big pieces news within the last hour or so one of them he doubled down against the need for special counselor potential russian meddling and potential coordination with his campaign during the 2016 campaign. He feels that special counselor hurts the country as he put it. The president also saying, i quoting here, it also happens to be a pure excuse for the democrats having lost an election that she should easily one because of the Electoral College being slanted so much in their way. That is all this is. I think it Shows Division and i think it shows we are not together as a country. Just got the twominute warning, cheryl. We anticipate the president will be here in 120 seconds. Other big piece of news, i send it back to you, president confirmed himself, Joe Lieberman, former democratic senator turned independent, is top contender to be the next fbi director. He might be asked about lieberman, special counselor . Keep in mind, i didnt even mention the name jim comey. A lot leading in here, cheryl. Send it back to you. Mr. Rosenstein on capitol Hill Briefing the senate. That well be talking about during the hour. Blake burman standing by in the east room. David we want to go quickly kirsten haglund, conservative political commentator. Kirsten, we heard about the president s comments visavis the special counselor. Differs dramatically from the calm, collected notice he gave to the announcement yesterday, when he said i stated many times, a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know. There was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity. It was very calm. Not so today. Today he was talking hard ball and coming out with tweets. Right. I think from now on, especially with the fact that we have a special counselor appointed to this case, the president needs to make sure that he stays on message. Message discipline has been something that a lot of people within the white house and without have desired from this administration. And now that this is going on he makes sure he keeps that discipline. Obviously the tweet this morning didnt really add very much. It was very different david kirsten. I want to stop for a moment, we see rex tillerson, secretary of state, sitting down, preceded by Vice President pence. General mcmaster there as well and Reince Priebus theyre all lining up. This is of course a meeting that he has had, talking for the past half hour with Juan Manuel Santos a close ally from the country of colombia, Juan Manuel Santos a recipient of Nobel Peace Prize for work he has done bringing warring factions, in a decadeslong civil war in colombia, bringing those factions together. The president talking about the drug trade between colombia and United States how to stop that. Also talking about narcoterrorism because there a connections between terrorists, International Terrorists and the drug trade. There is a lot to talk about. Because there will be questions at the end i assume at this press conference. We dont know absolutely for sure, cheryl, that questions concerning the firing of comey and appointment of the special counselor will arise. Cheryl Robert Mueller as well who will lead this independent counsel. That news broke last night. President by the way having lunch at white house with several network news anchors and fox newss own bret baier who got the statement blake burman read to you from the white house. At least questions from the American Press will 100 focus on this investigation. Remember the acting Deputy Attorney general, the Deputy Attorney general if you will, rosenstein had the private meeting with the senate. Dick durbin came out he told us that he knew when he wrote that memo that he knew that mr. Trump was indeed going to fire james comey ahead of time. David interesting thing though we also had a may 4th testimony been reexamined of jim comey where he said he never had any political interference with any fbi investigation. That seems to contradict handwritten notes he put forward or at least his supporters put forward taken back in february around the time of the firing of general flynn, suggesting that the president was pressuring him in certain ways with regard to the investigation to drop an investigation into general flynn. So, there is a lot of conflicting information, some of it augers well for the president. Some of it augers well for his opposition. So, all of this is going to be sorted out. Clearly mr. Mueller has a lot on his plate. Here we have the president of colombia and the president of the United States. Lets listen to the two gentlemen. Again president of colombia is fluent in english but there may be a translator. Thank you very much. Its a great pleasure to welcome president santos to the white house. Colombia is one of our closest allies in the hemisphere. And today we reof a Firm Partnership between our two great nations. President santos and i had a very productive meeting, and we will continue to work very closely together to bring peace, safety, and prosperity to the hemisphere. Perhaps no area is really more important in terms of cooperation than our joint effort to end the terrible drug crimes that playing both of our countries. Recently we have seen an alarmed, a very highlyalarmedd. Last year colombia cocoa cultivation and cocaine production reached a record high, which hopefully will be remedied very quickly by the president. We must confront this dangerous threat to our societies together. I affirmed the United States willingness to affirm colombias efforts, Drug Trafficking networks, cocoa cultivation and cocaine production which there is far too much. The drug epidemic is poisoning too Many American lives and were going to stop it, many different ways. One of them will be the wall. My administration is committed to keeping drugs and gangs from pouring into our country. Already border crossings are down more than 73 . Secretary kelly is with us. He has done a a fantastic job. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. In short we have a tremendous group of people working with us in terms of i. C. E. , the i. C. E. Patrol and the Border Patrol agents. They have done a fantastic job. I like you to give them miest compliments, mr. Secretary. Ms13, likewise a horrible, horrible, large group of gangs that have been let into our country over a fairly short period of time, are being decimated by the Border Patrol, by i. C. E. And by our incredible local police forces, and they are getting out of our country, or, in some cases going directly into prisons throughout our country. But they have literally taken over tns and cities of the United States. Theyill be gone very quickly. I look forward to working with president santos as we target Drug Trafficking. Both the United States and colombia have strong Law Enforcement and security relationship. Weve had it and especially over the last fairly short period of time. Together we will continue to fight the criminal networks responsible for the deadly drug trade that our people a really strong commitment to getting rid of because they want a much brighter future. President santos and i also discussed the deteriorating situation in venezuela and it is really in a very pad state as you see as we all see through the media. A stable and peaceful venezuela is in the best interests of the entire hemisphere. America stands with all of the people in our great hemisphere yearning to be free. We will be working with colombia and other countries on the venezuelan problem. Its a very, very horrible problem and from a humanitarian standpoint it is like nothing weve seen in quite a long time. The United States and colombia are also strong Economic Partners and we will continue to pursuerade policies that benefit both of our peoples. The nations common goals of protecting our citizens. Expanding opportunity, an stopping the drug crisis that will improve the lives of our people and many throughout the region. So many people are being so horribly affected by whats going on in terms of violence and in terms of drugs, were going to take care of the situation and we both agreed to take care of it strongly and quickly. President santos, it was an honor to meet with you and your entire group of representatives. Very talented people indeed who have been working with us and my representatives and i look forward to many more productive meetings such as the one we just had. I would like to thank you very much forebeing at the white house, being our guest. I would like to congratulate you on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. That is a very freight great achievement. Thank you very much. The. Mr. President , i want to thank you personally for this warm and productive visit. And for the strong support colombia has received from your administration, from congress, and from the American People. [speaking spanish] translator as you know our nations have had a long time strategic alliance, an extraordinary friendship. Weelieve in the same principles of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law. And we work so that the western hemisphere can be more prosperous and safe. The United States and colombia, both democracies of greater, of longer standing in the hemisphere, we have supported each other. Our soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in the korean war at the request of the United States, we sent antidrug experts to afghanistan. Today colombia and the United States are working together to support Central America in their fight against drug cartels. The violence of organized crime. I can say, mr. President , based on our conversations this afternoon, that i have no doubt that the United States and colombia continue to be today more than ever a support one for the other. Our alliance was strengthened. Our most valuable cooperation has been in colombia which i can sum up in very simple terms. When colombians were fighting to survive for our democracy to survive actually, faced with a threat of terrorism and Drug Trafficking, the United States stretched out a hand an helped us win that battle. We will never forget it. Today we are living in a different country. Today colombia is a more peaceful society, a more modern and a fairer society. In november last year we ended the longest and last Armed Conflict existing in our hemisphere. The guerrilla is putting down weapons at this precise time to the united nations. Insecurity has come down significantly. Today we have the lowest levels of violence over the last 40 years. At the same time, we have had significant progress for our citizens, in issues about education, housing, health and social services. Millions of colombians have been lifted out of poverty. Today, we continue incomes to you, as partners, in peace colombia, to consolidate peace in the most affected areas. With robust support of your government we are removing thousands of antipersonnel mines that murdered and mutilated children, women and soldiers. We are healing their wounds of our victims and we are embarking on a big Sole Development program. Such as today were working with your administration to take advantage of the unique opportunity peace offers so as to reduce permanently the production of cocoa leaf in colombia and fight more effectively the other links in Drug Trafficking including consumption. We must continue and deepen the fight against organized crime, transnational crime. Responsible not just for Drug Trafficking but also for Human Trafficking and illegal mining. Our shared agenda framed within a high level dialogue that we colombians values includes cooperation which has allowed us to have unprecedented progress towards quality education for everyone and this is a priority in the policies of my government. And we wish to do more with regards to innovation and technology. With the active participation of the private sector we have reached trade agreements, investment agreements that are mutually beneficial. This morning, we established Entrepreneur Council between the United States and colombia. We are and wish to continue to be the best destination in latin america for american businesses. Colombia will continue to be very proudly a close friend and a strategic ally of the United States. Dear President Trump, i hope you can visit us soon so that can personally witness the transformation underway in our country. I hope to be able to welcome you to a colombia in peace, more equitable colombia, better educated colombia that you have so much contributed to. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Does anybody have any questions . Im shocked. John, go ahead. Mr. President , thank you very much. Thank you. [inaudible]. Mr. President , like to get your reaction to Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosensteins decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the russian interference in the campaign. Was this the right move or is this part of a witchhunt . Well, i respect the move but the entire thing has been a witchhunt and, there is no collusion between certainly myself a my campaign but ian always speak for myself and the russians. Zero. I think it divides the country. I think we have a very divided country because of that and many other things. So i can tell you that we want to bring this great country of ours together, john. And i will also say very strongly, weve had tremendous success. Look at our job numbers. Look at what is going on at the border as we discussed before. You look what will be happening, you will see some incredible numbers with respect to the success of general mattis and others with the isis situation. The numbers are staggering, how successful they have been the military has been. Tomorrow as you know im going to saudi arabia, going to israel, im going to rome. We have the g7. We have a lot of great things going on. So i hate to see anything that divides. Im fine with whatever people want to do but, we have to get back to running this country, really, really well. We made tremendous progress in the last 100 and some odd days, tremendous progress. You see job numbers. You see all of the production that is starting, plants starting to open again, havent been open in years. Im very proud of it. That is what i want to be focused on, believe me there is no collusion. Russia is fine. Whether it is russia or anybody else, my total priority, believe me, is the United States of america. So thank you very much. Translator President Trump, president santos, can we say today were setting a new road map in the relationship between colombia and the United States which are the concrete commitments . You were talking about the conflict time. Many funds are needed for that. And President Trump, many deaths, human rights violations. There is plenty to be done. As well as a very, very serious problem. We havent really seen a problem like that i would say, mr. President , in decades in terms of the kind of violence that were witnessing. The president was telling me, and i knew that venezuela was a very, very wealthy country just about the wealthiest in your neck of the woods and, had tremendous strengths in so many different ways. And now its poverty stricken. People dont have enough to eat. People have no food. There is great violence and we will do whatever is necessary and well Work Together to do whatever is necessary to help with fixing that. And, im really talking on a humanitarian level. When you look at the oil reserves that they have, when you look at the potential wealth that venezuela has, you sort of have to wonder why is that happening, how is that possible . But its been unbievably poo