Research into new vaccines and by the way, n. I. H. Just announced the first Clinical Trials in humans that costs money. And thats why my Administration Proposed an urgent request for more funding back in february. Not only did the Republicanled Congress not pass our request. They worked to cut it. And then they left for summer recess without passing any new funds for the fight against zika. Meanwhile, our experts at the n. I. H. And the front lines, have been doing their best making do by moving funds from other areas but now the money we need to fight zika is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical. For instance, without sufficient funding, n. I. H. Clinical trials and the possibilities of a vaccine, which is 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 more than 1800 cases of zika connected to travel to infected areas, and that includes nearly 500 pregnant women. Zika is now present in almost every part of puerto rico, and now we have the first local transmission in florida, and there will certainly be more. And, meanwhile, congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk about protecting americanss from threats. Well, zika is a serious threat to 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. laughter the new Correspondents Association president. And 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 to strategies sufficiently to address that change . And secondly, given your comment this week about Donald Trumps volatility and lack of fitness to be president , are you concerned that he will be receiving security briefings about isis and other Sensitive National security im never satisfied with our response because if youre satisfied, that means the problem is solved and its not. So we just spent a couple of hours meeting with my top National Security folks to look at what more can be done. It is absolutely necessary for 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 insigneuate itself then in the minds of folks who may be willing to travel their or carry out terrorist attacks. Its also destabilizing for countries in the reg a unstable. So i am pleased with the progress that weve made on the ground in iraq and syria. Were far from freeing mosul and raqqa, but what weve shown is that when it comes to conventional fights, isil can be beaten with partners on the ground, so long as theyve got the support from coalition providing. In the meantime, though, youre seeing isil carry out external terrorist acts, and theyve learned something. Theyve adapted from al qaeda which at a much more centralized operation and tried to plan very elaborate attacks. And what isil has figured out is if they can convince a hand full of people or even one 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 elvates their profile. So in some ways, rooting out lesscomplicated attacks is tougher because it doesnt require as many resources on their part or preparation. But it does mean that weve 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 will probably sustain themselves even after defeated in raqqa and mosul. But what weve 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 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, using a whole government effort to knock down their propaganda, to disrupt their networks, to take their key operatives off the battlefield, and that eventually, we will we will win. But if we if we start making bad decisions, indiscriminately killing civilians, for example, instituting offensive religious testses on who can enter the country, 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. It that plays exactly into the hands of isil and the proversions perverse interpretations of islam that theyre putting forward. S 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 the nominee, the republican nominee for president , they need to get security briefings so that if starting from scratch in terms of being prepared for this office. And im not going to go into the 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 , theyve got to start acting like president , and that means being able to receive these briefings, and not spread them around. Reporter are you worried about that . Well, i think ive said enough on that. Mary bruce. Thank you, mr. President. What is your response to critics who say the 400 million in cash that you sent to iran was a ransom payment . Was it really simply a pure coincidence that, a payment that was held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the and can you assure the American People none of that money went to support terrorism . Okay, its been interesting to watch this story surface. 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 and at the time, we explained that iran had pressed a claim before an International Tribunal about them recovering money of theirs that we had frozen that, as a consequence of its working its way through the International Tribunal, it was the assessment of our lawyerses that we were now at a point 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 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 being held all around the world. And i meet with their familieses, and it is heartbreaking. And we have stood up an entire section of interagency experts who devote all 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 highprofile way and announce it to the world, even as were looking into the faces of other hostage families familieses whose loved ones are being held hostage and say to them that we dont pay ransom, deifies logic. So thats point number two. We do not pay ransom. We didnt here and we wont in the futu, we did, then we would start encouraging americans to be targeted, much in the same way that some 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 by the fact that as a consequence of us 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 that 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 oppoit 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 americanss out. And let me make a final point on this. Its now been well over a year 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 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 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 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 january. And the only bit of news that is relevant on this 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 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 know, some, you know, 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 were able to apply to them so what they would ship a whole bunch of Nuclear Material facilities that, as i remember, two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, was peoples top freer and priority, that we make sure iran doesnt have puerto rico out nuclear capacity. This worked. Josh letterman. Thank you, mr. President. Repeatedly now, donald trump has said that this election will be rigged against him, challenging really the Core Foundation of our democr can you promise the American People that this election will be conducted in a fair way . And are you worried that comments like his could erode the publics faith in the outcome of the election . And if he does win, given that youve just declared him unfit, what will you say to the American People . Well, at the end of the day, its the American Peoples decision. I have one vote. I have the same vote you do. All of the voters who are eligible all across the country have. I have offered my opinion, but ultimately its the American Peoples decision to make collectively. And if somebody wins the election and they are president , and 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 electioning 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, they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths, and if that is being propagated across if mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing maybe he can raise some questions that is. Seems to be the case at the moment. Good evening. Im kristine johnson. You have been listening to president obama address a roomful of reporters discussing the situation with isis, how americas combating terrorism and also he touched million that was exchanged with iran. Cbs evening news with have more news later. Welcome to our 5 00 newscast. The february has joined the earth to find a person who killed the woman in queens. Lets get to tony aiello live reporter the reward is 10,000 and police are desperate to the crimestoppers tip line. Officials have been searching a federal park thats now a crime scene. As crime scene searches go, this any. A painstaking slog through acres and acres of undergrowth and grass. We plan to chop every weed down until we are satisfied we have all the evidence. This is a remote area. The young lady was running, still daylight, so hoping somebody saw something going into the park. Reporter the probe into the death of Karina Vetrano centers on the question was she strangled by someone she knew or by a stranger . Interviewing landscapers and Home Improvement workers. They just asking us what time we shut up and were you working tuesday . They want this guy, whoever he is. I hope they get him. Reporter the man in the black shirt is vetranos father phillip a former firefighter. He visited the command post thursday morning. Vetrano alerted Police Tuesday when his daughter didnt return from her evening run. He actually found her body when he joined police in the initial search. It was face down, a few feet off this unpaved trail in ran together. All of us have to help this family. Anyone who knows something needs to call right away to the police. The mother and father are visibly shaken. Them closure. They want justice. They want to be able to bury their daughter with dignity. Reporter every utility pole in the neighborhood has a poster seeking information. Residents seek answers and an arrest. Its really, really very reporter the victim was beloved. She had many friends. She was widely traveled. She was well educated. And police say based on the condition of her body, they believe she put up a fight before she was sexually assaulted and strangled. Tonight, police are going through all of her social media accounts and posts. They are going through and analyzing her cell phone records. They are checking out sex offenders who live in brooklyn, queens and nassau county. They are doing everything aiello, cbs 2 news. Now to breaking news. Part of 287 in new jersey shut down after a bad truck accident. Joe biermann is live in chopper 2 with more. Joe, what are we seeing . Reporter hey, dick. This is southbound 287 in oakland up in Bergen County exit 58. Tractortrailer caught fire. Closed since 4 00, large traffic delays, southbound 287 coming up to the closure at exit 58. Joe biermann, cbs 2 news. Now to launching an assault against zika attacking from the air and on the ground. They want to keep the outbreak of the virus from spreading further. Weijia jang is live in miami with the latest. President obama just wrapped up a press conference saying the zika situation is getting critical and he urged congress to pass emergency funding. Here in florida, some promising news. The governor Just Announced a portion of the zika zone has been cleared meaning that mosquitos there are no longer transmitting the virus. Still, there are concerns it could spread to other parts of the state and country. Spraying from the air to try to all die which means it was effective. Reporter the target, the mosquito thats proved tough to get rid of. Aggressive efforts to fight mosquitos on the ground are being ramped up. The cdc director met thursday with local officials to talk about the plan of attack. Im very impressed with how intensive the control activities are. Reporter Health Officials are investigating one case outside the area. That is sepa go through the same process where well talk to other people, get samples from the area. Reporter so far, 2300 people have been tested for zika across florida including 200 people in the zika zone. The governor of florida visited local businesses trying reassure residents and tourists. This is a safe state. Lets think about this. We have one square mile. One square mile north of downtown that we think we might have locally transmitted zika. Reporter pregnant women are virus can cause devastating birth defects. Earlier this week pregnant women were advised to avoid the wynwood area. Researchers are racing to develop an effective vaccine and three experimental ones have already proved to be effective in monkeys which is an encouraging sign as the test moves towards people but researchers dont expect a fully approved vaccine until 2018 at the earliest. Weijia , over what really works in the fight against mosquitos. Deet, citronella, dryer sheets, which one is the best . Well sort it all out for you later. An elderly bronx couple tied up and robbed at gunpoint. The nypd says three men were caught on Surveillance Video early yesterday morning near the couples home in the soundview section. The armed men entered the home near evergreen and wheeler. Couple with ziploked and duct today the their eyes. They stole money, cell phones and credit cards and fled. The nypd wants to know how were doing. Today the mayor and commissioner announced plan to poll new yorkers as part of a Community Satisfaction survey. They will talk to 20,000 people and collect information. There will be officers satisfaction surveys. Commissioner bratton says this is the First Program of its kin