Inflation market based measures of inflation compensation remain low. This was a unanimous decision not to change Interest Rates, but the key headline is that the fed is going to begin unwinding Balance Sheet, quote, relatively soon. Back to you. Adam, thank you very much. Okay, so if youre just joining us, the fed out with decision on Interest Rates and leaving them as they were, unchanged, but, of course, theyve got a lot of work to do in front of them to work off the 4. 5 trillion Balance Sheet. Joining me with thoughts on all of it as we watch a market higher. 97 points, bgc senior partner steve cortes along with our own nicole petallides. Were waiting on the white house, everyone, theyre going to have a press conference here. Youre looking at the live feet to us, at 2 00, with Sarah Huckabee sanders, dont forget Anthony Scaramucci saying the cameras are back on as long as he has hair and makeup. So well be watching for all of this. Big news day out of the white house as well, with donald trump, of course, making some waves by saying that he is banning transgenders from the u. S. Military. Back to the fed as we watch a market moving higher. Steve, did you anticipate no change, i guess, and i could just walk this forward, if you would, walk it forward for us, when do we actually start to see rates once again tick higher, and how do they deal in the meantime with the Balance Sheet that is frankly out of control . Right, right trish. Quantitative easing easy to get into, not easy to get out of when you do this with a Balance Sheet. I would say this is completely a nonsurprise, wall street knew with 100 certainty they wouldnt move today and they wouldnt. There is a lot of indecision in september, are they going to raise in september . Im of the view they will and should, wall street its a coin flip, a 5050 bet when you look at where futures markets are pricing Interest Rates going forward. The larger point here, another great day for a lot of stocks, boeing soaring to alltime high on a huge earnings report, bullish outlook going forward. Whats going on in the economy, thanks to the optimism, the regulatory relief donald trump has brought to the economy, thanks to the tax cuts imminently coming to the economy, the economy is accelerating and confidence is high. Because of that, its allowing the fed finally at last to start this process of normalizing policy, and thank goodness. Trish i dont know, nicole petallides, donald trump is going to take kindly to the normalization process. Its nice to have the wind at your back, the fed helping you out as they did for president obama for eight years. Im in agreement with steve, we need to get to normalization process. We do need to start moving higher on rates. However, there is a lot of chatter about gary cohn potentially coming in and replacing janet yellen. Do you think, do traders think if she is, in fact, going to move higher on rates come september that her days might be numbered . Reporter i dont think people are betting on a september rate hike from janet yellen, more likely by the end of the year. A great point. We know she has loved that low Interest Rate policy, everybody uses the word normalization, not even really raising rates, just trying to get to normal level so they could have bullets in the box in case the things go worse. So its very interesting whether gary cohn or he really is keeping janet yellen in the loop on this one. In the meantime, everybody is maintaining optimism and looking to not only what weve seen with the fed, a low Interest Rate, not from the trump administration, but now turning to earnings and holding onto the optimism. 75 have been upbeat for the most part thus far, and we have records today, the dow, nasdaq and s p and some stocks are that are doing great, like advanced micro, amazon, boeing, moving higher. Pretty amazing that just continue here on an upward trend. Trish do you uponing the trend continues, steve cortes . In other words, are we still cheaply valued in your view or about right or getting a little frothy . How do you characterize this market . I think we go higher from here. Were not cheaply valued. The stock market has come quite a long way. Can we still go higher from here . I believe we can, if and when we get the tax cuts. I believe were going to. I remain very, very optimistic despite the tough sum or capitol hill with health care, i think before fall we get tax cuts. We have economy burning relatively well. If we throw gasoline of tax cuts on there, all of a sudden the small or medium sized fire turns into a beautiful bonfire. You are confident its going to get done. This is the challenge they have seen with health care, lets not forget what we have to go through yesterday. Senator mccain had to come in from arizona despite having recently had an operation and getting a very serious diagnosis. He had to have the Vice President come in. Right. Trish all these votes were so desperately needed and this is the start the conversation on the health care reform. Hang on, nicole. I want to ask steve, why are you so confident that youre going to see tax reform . Right. Listen, very valid question and heres why. We didnt see the president take front and center in selling the Health Care Vision to the American People. I believe hes going to do that and stated hes going to do that with tax cuts. Its going to be campaign style. Theres going to be rallies, improved messaging. My friend Anthony Scaramucci turned the cameras back on. I think thats critical to getting tax cuts. We have to persuade. We on team trump have to persuade and sell the American People on the necessity of it. If the president takes the lead, there hell be unstoppable on capitol hill. Trish nicole, what are you hearing, if tax cuts go through, the market goes much higher . Reporter i was watching the facebook earnings and all that. We talk about the market going higher. Citigroup put facebook at 190 price target in 12 months. Off 14 from mondays close. So youre looking at 190 target for facebook right now . Its trading at 165 a share, amazing. People are still betting to the upside here. Trish all right, quickly, can we show shares of whole foods. Turns out information there on earnings came out. Samestore sales declining. Reporter upwere a beat on earnings per share and in line with revenue for whole foods and i didnt see too much wrenching about the amazon deal. Ill have to look through that. Trish well check back with you. Thank you so much guys, turning to politics, hearing from the white house any minute where we expect Sarah Sanders to field questions on health care, on Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, beleaguered attorney general as donald trump characterized him and the militarys ban on transgender people that the president tweeted about today. Here he is saying after consultation with generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the u. S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruptions that transgenders in the military would entail. Thank you. So why is he doing this . Why is he doing now . How much is it about the military and the culture, how much of it is strengthening his base which i think received this quite well. Joining me republican strategist boyd mathisson and democratic strategist robin. What do you think about the timeing . Why we lease the news now at a time when health care is in a precarious position . Im not sure on the timing, to to be honest. Seems like a distraction, shiny object to get people focused somewhere else. Interesting things remember to, you hit this right in terms of playing to the base a little bit. The reality is it takes us back to president obamas policy that he did through almost his entire two terms, changed about a year ago, a small percentage of the military that this impacts and to me the bottom line is the readiness factor, does it impact . Studies show it doesnt. Im not sure why now and how this helps the president move the agenda forward. I continuing think it does help him. He needs the help he can get, when he says hey, senator collins, that wasnt such a great move what you did on health care or senator murkowski, not a good one, which, by the way he did tweet out today. He needs to than his folks are behind him, his team is behind him. And i think this is something that many of them would agree with. Youre talking about 0. 02 or less of the military population, and, you know, i know the studies say it doesnt make a difference, i imagine if you are someone thats serving, it kind of does. It affects the culture, it affects to some extents morale, at least as his base sees it, boyd . Yes, there is perception component there, i think youre right in terms of playing to the base. Although his base is not going anywhere, lets be honest. They are locked in, theyre moving forward. Congress isnt focusing on it. Trish now that theyre doubling down, he can double down on them. I dont think he needs to. The interesting thing is the people who dont like trump, the 74 who give him a disapproval rating, half are still glad hes in the white house and Hillary Clinton isnt. I think its an overplay by the president to the base. I dont think he needs to. He will continue to leads out agenda, hes better off. Trish to robin, for a moment. We made the point over and over again, one of the things this president can do uniquely so is use the bully pulpit. And he can drag the senators that dont want to go along with Economic Policy plans into the open and say hey, you know, theyre not on board, theyre part of the swamp. And so i think that robin that is a bit of a threat that exists for anyone whos not on board with his agenda, and its a different way of doing things. Ed rollins was telling me in the reagan days, you would have someone like ed call all the donors in these various senatorss states and say hey, get them in line, we need them to vote this particular way. So you exuded pressure that way. This is a different kind of pressure. This is a pressure being exerted from the American People. You know, i see the point youre making, trish. To the earlier point, i see this more as a distraction. I appreciate you bringing me on today, i myself am part of the lgbt military forces. I am an openly gay u. S. Army ranger veteran. I can tell you we spent over a year preparing to integrate transtroops. We have 11,000 transgender troops serving in the forces right now. Trish i saw the statistic from randa, 6,633 Transgender Services, youre quoting me a number thats almost twice as much. Finish your thought. I want to make the point, that the is nations number one employer of transgender. Youre talking about completely doing away with it, and there are people currently undergoing hormone replacement therapy. This is a medical condition. Trish robin, youre getting all worked up about something that is a wedge issue. He said the department of education is not going to give any funds to schools that are allowing transgenders in either bathroom. In other words, you cant say i feel like the girl today so im going to use the womens rest room or feel like a boy so im going to use the mens rest room. You actually have to have that identity. You know, in some ways you look at it and say, why are we making such a big deal out of this . Well, theyre making a big deal out of it because it is a wedge issue, right, boy . I agree. Trish hang on. Boyd . Yeah, it is definitely a wedge issue. And sadly the extremes on both ends of the spectrum are going to raise millions of off of this in fundraising emails. In everybodys email box before the program is over. Thats unfortunate were getting to the wedge issue components to raise money so we win political battles. Weve got to shift the focus back to the hard working American People you described, trish, the forgotten men and women, they are struggling because of this sham of a health care process. Trish they do feel a little under threat. Idea that in a school, any boy can go in, and im not saying they would do this. Hey, i live in new york city, right . And theres a playground in the new york city central park, with a bathroom, and you will see men go into a womens rest room, where you have little girls go, and theyre perfectly within their rights because of this decision that, oh, its okay for anyone to use. Look, i think its complicated, its distracting. It is a wedge issue, and robin, its gonna play to the base on both sides. Absolutely. But i remind you hes a president for all of the people. He has the responsibility to protect even the t in the lgbt troops. He has the responsibility as commander in chief to look out for those people. Trish he said he would, remember this. Very quickly, a lot to get to. Hes not taking care of them now. Trish thank you to the lgbt community. I will fight for you while hillary brings in people who will threaten your freedoms and beliefs. Do you see this as a 180 . Absolutely, this is going to fly in the face of the lgbt community, and we learned a lot about that, what happened with the stonewall riots in 1969. They rioted for six days. Im concerned what this says to the lgbt community, frankly. Trish all right. Well, he said he consulted with a lot of generals and came to the decision that military servicemembers should not be transgender and no money should be spent on the medical services that one would need for the transgender population. So we can anticipate there will be a lot of questions on this coming up at the White House Press briefing. Boyd, robin, thank you very much. Okay, any minute now, White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders will be briefing the press. We can expect she will be asked about health care, as republicans face setback after setback in the senate, as they try and replace obamacare, but maybe they can get it done, and maybe todays tweets from the president regarding transgenders in the military is actually all about solidifying that base. Were going to talk to congressman sean duffy about everything as we await the white house. Hes next. Today, were out here with some big news about type 2 diabetes. You have type 2 diabetes, right . Yes. So let me ask you this. How does diabetes affect your heart . It doesnt, does it . Actually, it does. Type 2 diabetes can make you twice as likely to die from a cardiovascular event, like a heart attack or stroke. And with Heart Disease, your risk is even higher. You didnt know that. No. Yeah. But, wait, theres good news for adults who have type 2 diabetes and Heart Disease. Jardiance is the only type 2 diabetes pill with a lifesaving cardiovascular benefit. Jardiance is proven to both significantly reduce the chance of dying from a cardiovascular event in adults who have type 2 diabetes and Heart Disease and lower your a1c. Jardiance can cause serious side effects including dehydration. This may cause you to feel dizzy, faint, or lightheaded, or weak upon standing. Ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may be fatal. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, and trouble breathing. Stop taking jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis or an allergic reaction. Symptoms of an allergic reaction include rash, swelling, and difficulty breathing or swallowing. Do not take jardiance if you are on dialysis or have severe kidney problems. Other side effects are sudden kidney problems, genital yeast infections, increased bad cholesterol, and urinary tract infections, which may be serious. Taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions. So now that you know all that, what do you think . That its time to think about jardiance. Ask your doctor about jardiance. And get to the heart of what matters. I enjoy the fresher things in life. Fresh towels. Fresh soaps. And of course, tripadvisors freshest, lowest prices. So if youre anything like me. Youll want to check tripadvisor. We now instantly compare prices from over 200 booking sites. To find you the lowest price. On the hotel you want. Go on, try something fresh. Tripadvisor. The latest reviews. The lowest prices. Trish right now, senators are debating health care reform, looking at the senate floor, jeanne shaheen, democratic senator from New Hampshire speaking. One can imagine she doesnt like any of this, but they have to vote at some point in the next hour on whether or not to see a straight repeal of obamacare. Meanwhile, President Trump is warning republican senators there will be consequences if they dont get health care done. Watch him. Any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling america that they are fine with the obamacare nightmare, and i predict theyll have a lot of problems. Trish most likely. Well, the president has a point, right . Republicans have been promising over and over again that you would see repeal and replace. Theyve been promising this for seven years, i dont know how they let seven years go by and didnt come up with anything. The house did its job, now why cant the senate . Joining me sean duffy, congressman, good to see you. Good to be with you trish, thanks for having me on. Trish what do you think . Are they going to act on this one . Well see. The president s right. This is the moment of truth for the Republican Party and the republican senators, theyve campaigned for eight years if they want to repeal and replace obamacare. They recognized how bad the law is for health care and american families. If they vote no. This is saying theyre fine with obamacare in the infinite future, which is unacceptable, so many people are getting hurt. You can tell from the tweets from the president , hes frustrated. Hes talking to the American People in rallies and on television, selling a certain vision for america on health care and taxes. Hes not a king, though, has to work with congress, if congress cant be successful in repeal and replace. Donald trump cant be successful with his agenda. So the two of us are tied together and you can tell the frustration is boiling within the president , and we feel the same frustration in the house. I get it, why do you think this is. Why dont you think there is more unity right now . Why is there such a splintering and how is it senators collins, murkowski, think its okay to be this opposite everything the president is trying to get through, and everything really republicans have stood for in the way of repeal and replace . There is the idea that you need to keep the expanded Health Care System under obamacare. We need to continue with subsidies and expanding medicaid. Letting Insurance Companies offer Health Care Products that fit the needs of your family at a price you can afford and the Free Enterprise and the competition would give better access and lower prices. Were better off than a government run system, but republicans arent willing to make the argument to the American People and constituents. Were still going to help people who make enough money to buy health care. Theyre still going to get the help but seems like so many senators are afraid of their shadow, and the bottom line is, if republican senators dont do this, were going to find ourselves in a situation where Republican Voters arent going to stand with republicans up for election, devastating. I can make one other point, trish . Trish sure. Democrats sit back and pretend obamacare is great for the American People when really its imploding. People are losing health care, premiums are going up, deductibles are skyrocketing and democrats have wiped their hands and sit on the sidelines and sit there and advocate for a singlepayer Health Care System. We cant be in control for their inaction. Trish couple thing, Jeff Sessions, do you think its time for the a. G. To step down . They should have a private conversation, i dont like the tweeting that goes out publicly. This is a family conversation. Jeff works for President Trump. They should deal with this behind doors. I dont like the public humiliation thats going on. He service at the pleasure of the president. The president wants him to go, he can fire him. Trish we understand that later today the president will have a major announcement about a Company Coming into your state. A chinese company, but the thinking is it will create a lot of jobs, what can you tell us about that . Im telling you, im going to the white house this afternoon for an announcement. You know, bringing manufacturing back to america, bringing jobs to wisconsin, whether its going to be hundreds or thousands, this is a really significant move. Showing that america is competitive again, and what happens when you have a governor like scott walker and a president like donald trump who are willing to reach out to businesses and make the sales pitch why america is a great home for investment because we have the best workers and the most innovative people with the best education. When you make that argument, businesses set up shop and employ our families, which is a good thing. Trish congressman duffy, good luck with it. Thank you for joining us today. Were going to be right back as we wait for press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders next. Trish all right, everyone, waiting on the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee sanders who will be addressing reporters there at the white house. Of course, a lot going on today. You have President Trump out tweeting that there will be no transgenders in the u. S. Military, that it is a distraction and too costly from a medical perspective, and that they are no longer allowed to serve. So you can anticipate that the press secretary will get a whole lot of questions about that. In the meantime, health care is certainly front and center. Tax reform also front and center as it relates to health care, and the president s trying to rally the troops right now, which may be in part what is related to the tweets on transgenders in the military. Here he is, just last night in ohio, blasting the Mainstream Media. Watch. Im here this evening to cut through the fake news filter and to speak straight to the American People. This has been a difficult week for the media because i forced them to travel with us all around the country and spend time with tens of thousands of proud americans who believe in defending our values. Trish hes got a lot of support there all throughout country still, his base is with him and yet usa today conducting a poll asking readers if they believe trump will be impeached . Heres the headline. Impeach trump, it reads. Polls show americans split 4242 on removing the president. Can you imagine the National Newspaper asking voters in 2009 whether barack obama should be impeached . And i know there is a difference in the approval ratings. Hes well better than 80 of republicans thinking hes doing a good job. More than 30 of independents according to gallup think hes doing a good job, and you got about 8 of democrats liking him as well. Joining me right now is dan gainor from the Media Research center. Dan, he cant get a fair shake, eh . Exactly why he says fake news. I got a cue for usa today. When the front page starts looking like Stephen Colbert or keith olbermeter writing it. You got a problem. 90 of the coverage is negative and 89 for the first 80 days and now its worse. They want to get rid of trump. Its a war. Trish dan, it is a war, and they dont like him and they want to take him down, i think thats quite evident. However, as we saw during the election, they dont have the influence they might have thought they had or maybe once had because he still won yeah, but so what theyre doing, theyre doing the chinese water torture of journalism. We saw it the other day, one of the abc reporters tweeted out that there was a typo in a press release about trump in west virginia. These are the kind of things that happened under every administration, but journalists only care under trump. Its generated a lot of minutia. Trivial pursuit game, not real politics, because journalists are frustrated. They each think theyve got the state that can put through its heart to end the administration and failed miserably because the American Public dont need them as much as they used to. Trish and people like him and theyre loyal to him and we see it over and over again, you see the crowd in youngstown, ohio, dan, just last night, theyre there because they support donald trump, and they support his policies. So when you look, for example, at what he did today, banning transgenders from the military, do you think that is him speaking to his base, rallying the base in a way that really is going to make him somewhat indestructible against the Mainstream Media . Yeah, thats absolutely rallying the base, and for social hes a much more socially conservative president than they could have ever hoped. You saw it last week when you saw the buy america and buy america week. The media both times are going to twist it to make their agenda. When he did it last week, they only covered it a little bit and used it to talk about russia. I can guarantee you, i dont like to predict media, i can guarantee you there will be attacking among the transgender decision because the media are overwhelmingly prolgbt, another way they are out of step with americans. Trish i pointed out 0. 02 of the military population. Overwhelmingly not a whole lot of people there. It just affects things on the margin which is perhaps why we see this as a somewhat political move. Yes, i think that sarah will get a lot of questions about that, and theyll be on the attack, so we will watch for those fireworks. Meanwhile, what about Jeff Sessions . Dan gainor, hes putting it out there he doesnt have a whole lot of respect for the attorney general right now. Yeah, but its interesting if you watch the conservative media, really rallied around Jeff Sessions, a strident conservative, a career conservative, whos well liked among social conservatives and frankly just mainstream conservatives, and trish going to make it harder for them, going to make it harder for him if he decides he wants to fire him. We have to take a quick break, we want to bring you back to the white house momentarily. Dan gainor, thank you so much. A live picture coming to us right now. Were back with the press briefing after this. To folks everywhere whose diabetic. Nerve pain shoots and burns its way into your day. I hear you. When that pain makes simple errands simply unbearable. I hear you. I hear you because my dad struggled with this pain. Make sure your doctor hears you too. So folks, dont wait. Step on up. And talk to your doctor. Because you have places to go. And people who cant wait for you to get there. If you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands. Step on up and talk to your doctor today. Trish all right, everyone, lets listen in, Sarah Huckabee sanders on the podium. Last quarter, the president s salary went towards the restoration of two projects at a national battlefield. After his donation, additional donors quickly stepped up to bring the total gift to over 260,000. In this quarter, the president will be donating his salary to the department of education, and with that, i would like to bring up secretary devos to tell you about what the department will be doing with the president s money to help the leaders of today and tomorrow. Secretary devos, its my pleasure to present a check for 100,000 to the department of education. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, sarah. I want to start by saying how grateful i am to the president for the generous gift. The president is committed to our nations students and reforming education in america so that every child, no matter their zip code, has access to a highquality education. He and i have had many conversations how best to put students needs first and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success. There is much work to be done but were certainly on the right track thanks to the president s leadership. Yesterday ivanka trump and i were at National Museum of history where the focus was getting girls excited about learning about science, technology, engineering and math. They got to explore, create and experiment in a collaborative environment. Todays and tomorrows economy requires students prepare for s. T. E. M. Careers. Thats why we decided to use the president s Second Quarter salary to host a s. T. E. M. Focused camp for students at the department of education. We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore s. T. E. M. Field in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields. We look forward to the exciting endeavor, and i thank President Trump again for this generous gift. Thanks. Thank you, secretary devos, thank you for coming and being here for that today. Now, i know anthonys probably a little disappointed hes not up here today, but since he did some tv this morning he was able to get his hair and makeup done, so i think hell be okay. As anthony said last week, were looking to mix things up a little bit. From time to time, id like to give us a reminder why were here every day. Which i imagine for most of us because we love our country want and to make it better. I know exactly why hes here, hes tough, hes a fighter, hes a strong leader and hes somebody who deeply loves this country, and he loves his people and wants to make America Great again. In washington, its often easy to go to work, get lost in the process, and forget why were here every day. Reason were here is to serve the American People, and today id like for you to indulge me and let me tell you what that means for me. To the best of my knowledge, as the first mom to hold the job of the White House Press secretary. That says less about me than the president. Its not just with personnel, its about people and about policy. Empowering working moms is the heart of the president s agenda, particularly when it comes to things like tax reform. I have three children, and the oldest scarlet, starts kindergarten in a few weeks. Scarlet and every little girl in america should grow up in a country that if we deliver on the president s agenda better jobs, Better Health care and a better tax system, that incentivizes women to work and raise children. As a working mom its not lost on me when a great honor and privilege it is to stand here at the podium, and i thank the president for the opportunity. Ill always do my absolute best to truthfully answer your questions and deliver the president s message. Jonathan, i preempt you from asking that question later. But hope to send my daughter a message and to every other kid in america. Dont listen to the critics, dream big and fulfill your potential, in this country you still can. To remind us a little bit more often about some of the forgotten men, women and children, that were here to serve and the president is fighting for, were going to start the White House Briefing every once in a while with a letter or email we may receive from some of those individuals. To kick it off, with that process, id like to read you a letter from nineyearold dylan. My name is dylan harbin, everybody calls me pickle. Im nine years old and youre my favorite president. I like you so much, i had a birthday about you. My cake was the shape of a hat. Then how old are you . Dylan, President Trump is 71 years old. How big is the white house . The white house is 168 feet long, its 70 feet tall on the south side and 60 feet, 4 inches tall in the north and takes 300 gallons of white paint to cover the exterior of the white house residence. It has 132 rooms and approximately 55,000 square feet. How much money do you have . Dylan, im not sure, but i know its a lot. I dont know why people dont like you. Me either, dylan. You seem really nice. Can we be friends . Im happy to say i directly spoke to the president , dylan, and he will be more than happy to be your friend. My picture is in here, if you can, see me and say hello. Dylan, i hope youre watching, the president personally wanted me to tell you hello. Your friend, dylan. Dylan, thanks for writing to the president. If you are ever in d. C. , stop by the white house. With that, ill take your questions. Sarah Jeff Sessions was here today. What were you doing here . Did he meet with the president . And what does the president think about the conservatives rallying behind Jeff Sessions, saying hes essential to staying in the office . The attorney general was here for other meetings, not with the president , a Principals Committee meeting and did not see the president while he was here. I think the president has been very clear about where he is. Hes obviously disappointed, but also wants the attorney general to continue to focus on the things that the attorney general does. He wants them to lead the department of justice. He wants to do that strongly. He wants them to focus on things like immigration, leaks, and a number of other issues and i think thats what his focus is at this point. Reporter if the attorney general launches a leak probe, would that help the status with the president . I dont think thats the nature of the relationship. Again, i think the president is disappointed. He stated that, i dont think theres anything more to add beyond that at this point. Reporter sarah, thank you. Couple questions about the new policy on Transgender Servicemembers, the president announced this morning. First, what happens to Transgender Servicemembers now . Are they immediately thrown out of the military . Thats something that the department of defense and the white house will have to Work Together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully. Reporter so its possible . I see the president was pretty clear in his tweet that transgender individuals will not accept or allow a transgender individual to serve in any capacity. So does that mean that those that are now in theater, they are now deployed to afghanistan, for example, will have to be immediately sent home . Again, the implementation policy is going to be something that the white house and the department of sdrfs to Work Together to lawfully determine and i would imagine the department of defense will be the lead on that, and keep you posted as that takes place. Reporter why did you decide to do that, given the campaign, he declared he would protect the rights of transgender individuals, he would do better on the issue than Hillary Clinton, and now turned the clock back with regards to the military . The president has a lot of support for all americans and certainly wants to protect all americans at all times. The president s expressed concern since this obama policy came into effect, but also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy, and based on consultation with the National Security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion and made the decision based on that. Kevin . Reporter thank you, sarah. Followup on what jonathan said that the president tweeted thank you to the lgbt community, i will fight for you while hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs. Im wondering, you said, the policy, the president in general wants to protect all americans, does the shift in policy protect transgender americans, and what is the message he is attempting to send to them by making this shift in policy . And if i could follow on that let me answer that first and then come back to health care. Reporter sure. The decision is based on a military decision. Its not meant to be anything more than that, and its simply about, obviously, its a very difficult decision, its not a simple one, but the president feels that its the best one for the military. Reporter okay, on health care, then, if i could followup quickly. Can you repeal and replace the Affordable Care act and still protect medicaid funding . Were talking about the most dependent among us and the need for medicaid is great, and that seems to be a major concern among lawmakers including alaska senator lisa murkowski. From the president s perspective, if congressional lawmakers send him a repeal that does not protect medicaid funding, is that something he would still support and what is he doing to protect medicaid as it is now . The president is clear he wants to protect those that are part of that program but very focused on repealing and replacing. Were working through the process. Excited about the progress made yesterday and continue pushing forward until we get a new and Better Health care plan. Francesca . Reporter thank you, sarah. One short thing and questions. You can provide us with a copy of the letter that you read, hold it up or share the copy . I would be happy to. Knock out dylans last name. Reporter you said the attorney general didnt meet with the president at the white house. Have you spoken with the president this week . Do you know when the last time they spoke was . Im not sure of the time frame. Reporter and followup on Jeff Sessions. You said that the president has been very clear about his position on Jeff Sessions and yesterday the president said he wasnt leaving him to, quote, twist in the wind. But he continued to tweet about him this morning. If he is so frustrated and so disappointed in him, why doesnt he ask him to resign or fire him . Why did he continue to tweet about him . He can be disappointed in someone but wants to continue to do their job. I think i made clear last week, there comes a point he doesnt, hell make that decision. Reporter let me have you clarify if you can, comments the president made in the wall street journal yesterday about tax reform, said he and i quote here, the truth is the people i care most about are the middle income people who have gone the as he says, screwed, and upward revision, its going to be on highincome people. On the upward revision part, what exactly is the president talking about . Revision from personal side of 35 o revising it up from the current tax code . When we get ready to walk through the full details of the plan, happy to do that at that time. Right now focused on the three big priorities of the tax reform. Simple tax code, middle class relief and creating jobs. Well make announcements as we have specifics. Reporter let me ask you a more general question on that. Does the president believe that the wealthiest americans deserve a tax cut . I think the president is looking and prioritizing middle class tax relief. Hes made no secret about that. One of the biggest priorities of the three things hes focused on when it comes to tax reform. Reporter thanks, sarah. Two questions, the president had almost 24 hours to review the russia sanctions legislation. Has he decided if hes going to sign that . Well, its a little more complicated than that. Senator corker said hes not fully supportive where the bill stands. We expect a possibility more changes take place, so were going to see what that looks like before we make a final decision. I can tell you the white house, the president and the entire administration, as we said many times before, strongly support sanctions against russia, iran and north korea. Reporter second question is, is the president considering looking at policy about transgender people serving in the white house, now that hes tried to make a decision on transgender people serving in the military . No, once again, this is a decision based on what was best for the military, and military cohesion, and on the council of his National Security team. Go ahead, major . Reporter so the impression we get from the pentagon, they were flatfooted by the president s tweet. As i understand it, this has been for the last couple of weeks a conversation here specifically about tricare coverage for transgender procedures and suddenly evolved for the president to then go on twitter to announce this ban. And as you already told us, the white house and the pentagon are going to have to lawfuly implement. That typically when you have announcement of this magnitude, all of that work has been done at the procedural level between the bureaucracy of the pentagon and the white house. Why wasnt any of that work done, and why was the pentagon caught so surprised this morning by the president s tweets on that . As i said before, that the president s National Security team was part of this consultation. You mentioned yourself there have been ongoing conversations. Reporter on a smaller issue, not a whole ban. When the president made the decision yesterday, the secretary of defense was immediately informed as were the rest of the National Security team part of this ongoing conversation. Reporter you cant answer the question of whats going to happen to transgenders in the military now. Shouldnt you have been able to answer that basic question, the policy of this magnitude . Look, i think sometimes you have to make decisions and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, and theyre going to Work Together with the department of defense to lawfully implement it. Peter . Reporter one more on Jeff Sessions, you said earlier the president was frustrated. Is that frustration now in the past, and does he fully have confidence in the attorney general to carry out his duties from this day forward . The president wants the attorney general to focus on his duties as attorney general, and i think weve spoken about that extensively and i dont have anything else to add. Peter. Reporter you announced the president is donating Second Quarter salary 100,000 to the department of education, he must care about the education. Why is he calling for 9. 2 billion of spending cuts for the department of education in the next budget . A lot of time you have duplicative efforts and want to streamline the process, and we simply have a government thats completely out of control when it comes to spending. We have an outrageous deficit and looking to make things that we have a balanced budget in the next ten years. The president campaigned on it, committed to seeing it through, and committed to education. As you can see by his own personal commitment and looking for ways to save and continue onto make education better. Passing some of that decisionmaking down to local and state control, and something were certainly supportive of. Reporter quickly on transgender in june of 2016, in the heat of the campaign he wrote thank you to the lgbt community, i will fight for you. Did the president today just betray his commitment to the Transgender Community . No, as i answered before, this was a decision about military readiness, and i already answered to that specific tweet. Reporter saying to the Transgender Community he is committed to fighting for them, and how is this not fighting for them. He made it clear hes fighting for all americans. Reporter was this decision made to put pressure on democrats running in 2018, particularly democrats running in social conservative districts like ohio, michigan and wisconsin. Not that im aware of. Reporter just to follow up on that. What is the time line for when guidance will be delivered to the pentagon, how the president s decision should be implemented . Well let you know when we have announcement. Peter . Reporter the president said in a tweet this morning asking why the attorney general has not been fired . The president made an incredible nominee in chris wray and looking forward to getting him confirmed and taking over the fbi. Reporter why should attorney general session fire him. Hes made a choice to lead the agency and looking forward to getting him confirmed. Reporter one followup with tricare and the Transgender Community. Theyre often concerned, the Transgender Community before President Trump became President Trump if obamacare is trumpcare, they were wondering if they were able to get the procedures to help them complete their fate of becoming the other gender. What do you say to those people seeing this now with the ban in the military . What do you say to transgender america who wants to continue with the change . Maybe some who already had part of the change and want to do the change because of whats happening now not for certain. What do you say to transgender america . As ive said before, and ill try to make this clear, this is a military decision. This was about military readiness, this is about unit cohesion, this is about resources within the military and nothing more. Guys, i really dont have anything else to add on the topic. As i do, ill keep you posted. If those are the only questions we have, im going call it a day, but if we have questions on other topics reporter sarah sarah everyone had a second question. On what the morale is, Anthony Scaramucci this morning on new day said the [inaudible] how is the president working with the cabinet secretaries right now . How does he build their morale after all of this with sessions and hearing things coming out of rex tillerson. How is the president working on their morale . I think the same way he works with all of us. Empowers us to do our jobs, i dont think it matters whether you are cabinet secretary or lowlevel staffer, were here to do a job, he expects us to get it done, and ive spent a good bit of time with quite a few cabinet secretaries the last couple of days and the morale is high. Reporter point about Transgender Service members not here in this country but overseas, there are 18 countries where they are allowed to serve openly. Uk is one, australia is another, israel is a third. The president s tweet referred to disruptions. What does he mean . Are there disruptions in the allies military in the uk and australia and israel . As i said earlier this was made after extensive discussions with the National Security team and wanted to end the obama policy. I cant speak to another country. Focused on making sure we get good things happening here. Zeke . Reporter you were talking about what the president attorney general should be doing in his job right now. Why hasnt the president picked up the phone or invited him into the oval office. Does the president have intention of speaking to the attorney general this week . Ill keep you posted if he does. John . Reporter the question on the Transgender Service issue. You mentioned the president is seeking to improve or maintain unit cohesion. How does it maintain or improve unit cohesion when thousands of service members, some overseas serving in units overseas in the dark about this status of the military . Once again this was a decision made after the consultation with the National Security team and decided the best decision. Reporter im going to ask you about a tweet the president put out sunday. He said sad that republicans, do very little to protect the president. Which republicans is the president talking about . And what would he like to see from them . Im not going to call out senators by name up here today, but i think the president is very committed to a robust agenda and changing america for the better, and republicans have the house and senate, hes hoping theyll join them in pushing forward. Hoping the policies like repealing and replacing obamacare. I think thats a perfect example of republicans needing to step up to commitment that they made during the campaign, and since being elected and get those things done. Guys, i hate to cut it short. The president has got an event, as i know you can hear by the cheering children. I hope we can join together in welcoming the boys and girls. Thanks, guys. Reporter will the policies that president obama put in place . The ban on transgender military members. And then taxes. Basically repeating the line on Jeff Sessions. He will be disappointed and allow him to continue in the job but he wants them to focus on immigration and lakes. They are working on the implementation of this sudden transgender band for current military members calling it an expensive disruptive policy making it the military readiness. The best decision for the military. But what is crucial and no doubt will make a lot of headlines here. Felt like a snap decision by the president it kind of came out of nowhere. They ask about that in the press corps. Whether secretary james manus and the department of defense knew about it. We discussed it with him et cetera. She said the momen
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