In addition Congress Needs to do its job. Helping costs money. Research into new vaccines and the first Clinical Trials in humans. That cost money. Thats why my Administration Proposed an urgent request for more funding back in february. Not only did the republican let congress not pass our request, they worked to cut it then they left for summer recess without passing any new funds for the fight against zika. The experts at the cdc, the folks on the frontlines have been doing their best by moving funds from other areas but now the money we need is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical. For instance without sufficient funding nih Clinical Trials and the possibilities of a vaccine well within reach could be delayed. So this is not the time for politics. More than 40 u. S. Service members have now contracted zika overse overseas. In 50 u. S. States we know of more than 1,800 cases of zika connected to travel to infected areas including nearly 500 pregnant women. Zika is present in every part of puerto rico and now we have the first local transmission in florida and there will be more. And meanwhile, congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk about protecting americans from threats. Well zika is a serious threat to americans, especially babies right now. So once again, i want to urge the American People to call their members of congress and tell them to do their job, deal with this threat, help protect the American People from zika. With that, im going to take some questions. Im going to start with someone who just assumed the second most powerful office in the land, jeff mason, the new Correspondents Association president also from reuters. Thank you, jeff. Happy birthday. Thank you very much. As Islamic State loses territory you and other officials have said that it is becoming a more traditional terrorist group. Are you satisfied that the United States and its allies have shifted strategy efficiently . Secondly, given your comments about Donald Trumps lack of fitness to be president , are you concerned he will be receiving security briefing about isis and other Sensitive NationalSecurity Issues . Im never satisfied with our response because if youre satisfied, that means the problem is solved an its not. So we just spent a couple hours meeting with my top National Security folks to look at what more can be done. It is absolutely necessary for us to defeat isil in iraq and syria. It is not sufficient but it is necessary. Because so long as they have those bases, they can use their propaganda to suggest that somehow theres still some caliphate being born and that can insinuate itself then in the minds of folks who may be willing to travel there or carry out terrorist attacks. Also destabilizing at a time when the region is already unstable. I am pleased with the progress that we have made on the ground in iraq and syria. Were far from freeing mosul and raqqah but what we have shown is that when it comes to conventional fights, isil can be beaten with partners on the ground so long as they have got the support from Coalition Forces that is we have been providing. In the meantime though youre seeing isil carry out external terrorist acts and they have learned something they have adapted from al qaeda which at a much more centralized operation and tried to plan very elaborate attacks. Whatsle has figured out is if they can convince a handful of people or even one person to carry out an attack on a subway or at a parade or, you know some other public venue and kill scores of people as opposed to thousands of people, it still creates the kinds of fear and concern that elevates their profi profile. So in some ways rooting out these networks for smaller less complicated attacks is tougher because it doesnt require as many resources on their part or preparation. But it does mean that we have got to do even more to generate the intelligence and to work with our partners in order to degrade those networks. And the fact is is that those networks with probably sustain themselves even after isil is defeated in raqqah and mosul. But what we have learned from our efforts to defeat al qaeda is that if we stay on it, our intelligence gets better. And we adapt as well. And eventually we will dismantle these networks also. This is part of the reason why, however, it is so important for us to keep our eye on the ball and not panic, not succumb to fear because isil cant defeat the United States of america or our nato partners. We can defeat ourselves though if we make bad decisions and we have to understand that as painful and as tragic as these attacks are that we are going to keep on grinding away, preventing them wherever we can using a whole government effort to knock down their propaganda, disrupt their networks, take their key operatives off the battlefield and that eventually we will win. But if we if we start making bad decisions, indiscriminately killing civilians, instituting offensive religious tests on who can enter the country, you know, those kinds of strategies can end up backfiring because in order for us to ultimately win this fight, we cannot frame this as a clash of civilizations between the west and islam. That plays exactly into the hands of isil and the perversion per verse interpretations of islam theyre putting forward. As far as mr. Trump, we are going to go by the law which is that both tradition and the law that if somebody is a nominee, the republican nominee for president , they need to get security briefing so that if they were to win, they are not starting from scratch in terms of being prepared for this office. And im not going to go into details of the nature of the security briefings that both candidates receive. What i will say is that they have been told these are classified briefings and if they want to be president , they got to start acting like president and that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around. Are you worried about that . Well, i think ive said enough on that. Mary bruce. Thank you mr. President. What did your response to cri c critics who say the 400 million in cash that you sent to iran was a ransom payment . Was it a pure coincidence, a payment held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the exact same time that the american prisoners were released . Can you assure the American People none of that money went to supporter or . Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in january. Many months ago. There wasnt a secret. We announced them to all of you. Josh did a briefing on them. This wasnt some nefarious deal. At the time we explained that iran had a claim before the International Try bunle about them recovering money of theirs we had frozen, that as a consequence of its working its way through the International Try bunle it was the assessment of the lawyers that there was significant litigation at risk and we could end up costing ourselves billions of dollars. It was their advice and suggestion that we settle. And thats what these payments represent. And it wasnt a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and its interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again. Thats point number one. Point number two, we do not pay ransom for hostages. Weve got a number of americans being held all around the world and i meet with their families and it is heartbreaking, and we have stood up an entire section of interagency experts who devote their time to working with these families to get these americans out. But those families know that we have a policy that we dont pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now in this highprofile way and announce it to the world even as were looking into the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage and say to them that we dont pay ransom defies logic. So thats point number two. We do not pay ransom. We wont in the future. Precisely because if we did, then we would start encouraging americans to be targeted much in the same way that the countries that do pay ransom end up having a lot more of their citizens being taken by various groups. Point number three, is that the timing of this was in fact dictated by the fact that as a consequence of us negotiating around the nuclear deal, we actually had diplomatic negotiations and conversations with iran for the first time in several decades. So the issue is not so much that it was a coincidence as it is that we were able to have a direct discussion. John kerry could meet with the foreign minister which meant our ability to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time converged. And it was important for us to take advantage of that opportunity both to deal with this litigation risk that had been raised, it was important for us to make sure that we finished the job on the iran nuclear deal, and since we were in a conversation with them, it was important for us to be able to push them hard in getting these americans out. And let me make a final point on this. Its now been well over a year since the agreement with iran to stop its Nuclear Program was signed. And by all accounts it has worked exactly the way we said it was going to work. You will recall that there were all these Horror Stories about how iran was going to cheat and this wasnt going to work and iran was going to get 150 billion to finance terrorism and all these kinds of scenarios. And none of them have come to pass. And its not just the assessment of our intelligence community. Its the assessment of the Israeli Military and intelligence community, the country that was most opposed to this deal that acknowledges this has been a game changer and that iran has abided by the deal and that they no longer have the sort of shortterm breakout capacity that would allow them to develop nuclear weapons. So what im interested in is if theres some news to be made, why not have some of these folks who were predicting disaster say you know what, this thing actually worked. Now, that would be a shock. That would be impressive. If some of these folks who had said the sky is falling suddenly said you know what, we were wrong and we are glad that iran no longer has the capacity to break out in short term and develop a nuclear weapon. But of course that wasnt going to happen. Instead what we have is the manufacturing of outrage and a story that we disclosed in in january and the only bit of news relevant is the fact that we paid cash which brings me to my last point. The reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with iran that we couldnt send them a check. And we could not wire the money. And it is not at all clear to me why it is that cash as opposed to a check or a Wire Transfer has made this into a news story. Maybe because it kind of feels like some spy novel or, you know, some crime novel because cash was exchanged. The reason cash was exchanged is because we dont have a banking relationship with iran which is precisely part of the pressure that we are able to apply to them so that they would ship a whole bunch of Nuclear Material out and close down a bunch of facilities that as i remember two years ago, three years ago, five years ago was peoples top fear and priority that we make sure iran doesnt have breakout nuclear capacity. They dont. This worked. Josh letterman. Thank you, mr. President. Repeatedly now donald trump said this election will be rigged against him. Im alcoh challenging the core our system. Can you promise the American People the election will be conducted in a fair way and are you worried comments like his can erode the publics faith in the outcoming election . If we does will, what will you say to the American People . At the end of the day its the American Peoples decision. I have one vote. I have the same vote you do. I have the same vote that all the voters who are eligible all across the country have. I offered my opinion but ultimately its the American Peoples decision to make collectively. And if somebody wins the election and they are president , then my constitutional responsibility is to peacefully transfer power to that individual and do everything i can to help them succeed. It is i dont even know where to start on answering this question. Of course, the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean . The federal government doesnt run the election process. States and cities and communities all across the country, theyre the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths and if mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a Conspiracy Theory that is being propagated across the country including in places like texas where typically its not democrats who are in charge of voting booths, thats ridiculous. That doesnt make any sense and i dont think anybody would take that seriously. Now, we do take seriously as we always do our responsibilities to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process. If we see signs that a voting machine or system is vulnerable to hacking, then we inform those local authorities who are running the elections that they need to be careful. If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws in terms of equal access and are providing grants for disabled voters or discriminating in some fashion or otherwise violating civil rights laws, then the Justice Department will come in and take care of that. But this will be an election like every other election. And im i think all of of us at some point in our lives have played sports or maybe played in a school yard or sand box and sometimes folks if they lose they start complaining they got cheated but i never heard of somebody being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score is even tallied. My suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then, you know, maybe he can raise some questions. That doesnt seem to be the case at the moment. T barbara starr. Thank you, mr. President. On the question of isis expansion that you have been talking about, because you see them expanding around the world, because you see them trying to inspire attacks, what is your current level of concern about the homeland . You talked about the Protection Measures but what is your assessment about the possibility your own intelligence advisers suggest its possible about the direct isis threat to americans . And if i may follow up, what is your assessment today as you stand here about whether donald trump can be trusted with Americas Nuclear weapons . You know, on your second question and ill sort of address this to any additional trump questions. I would ask all of you to just make your own judgment. Ive made this point already multiple times. Just listen to what mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad. Its suggests that youre not confident. Well, as i recall i just answered a question about this a couple days ago and i thought i made myself clear and i dont want to keep on repeating it or a variation on it. I obviously have a very strong opinion about the two candidates running here. One is very positive and one is not so much. And i think you will just hear any further questions that are directed to this subject i think youll hear pretty much variations on the same thing. What i can say is this is serious business. And the person who is in the oval office and who are secretary of defense and are joint chiefs of staff and are outstanding men, women in uniform report to, they are counting on somebody who has the temperament and good judgment to be able to make decisions to keep america safe. And that should be very much on the minds of voters when they go into the voting booth in november. In terms of the threat thatsle poses to the homeland, i think it is serious. We take it seriously. And as i said earlier, precisely because they are less concerned about big spectacular 9 11 style attacks, because they have seen the degree of attention they can get with smaller scale attacks using small arms or assault rifles or in the case of nice, france, a truck. You know, the possibility of either a lone actor or a small cell carrying out an attack that kills people is real. And thats why our intelligence and Law Enforcement and military officials are working around the clock to try to, you know, anticipate potential attacks, to obtain the threads of people who might be vulnerable to brainwashing by isil. We are constrained here in the United States to carry out this work in a way thats consistent with our laws and presumptions of innocence. And the fact that we prevent a lot of these attacks as effectively as we do without a lot of fanfare and abiding by our law is a testament to the incredible work that these folks are doing. They work really hard at it. But it is always a risk. And some of you may have read the article in the New York Times today, i guess it came out last night online, about this individual in germany who had confessed an given himself up and explained his knowledge of how isils networks worked. There was a paragraph in there that some may have caught which we dont know for a fact that this is true, but according to this reporting, the individual indicated thatsle recognizes its harder to get its operatives into the United States but the fact that we have what he referred to as open gun laws meant that anybody, as long as they didnt have a criminal record that barred them from purchase could go in and buy weapons. That made a homegrown extremist strategy more attractive to them. Those are the hardest to stop because if somebody doesnt have a record, if its not tr