White House Conducts Press Briefing, Sep. 1
I'll keep it quick up here at the top so that we can get to your questions.
The President and his homeland security team, and the entire administration continue to focus on the lives and safety of those affected by Hurricane Harvey in
Earlier today, the President signed a proclamation declaring this Sunday a National Day of Prayer for those affected by the hurricane. And just this afternoon, the President heard from the heads of the
As
The President will be back in
The President is currently finalizing a supplemental request to support the needs of emergency responders at the federal, state, and local level. And we'll share more information on that later.
The President has had calls with several foreign leaders who expressed their support for the American people during this difficult time. Just today, he spoke with the presidents of
And I'd also like to take this opportunity to follow up on a question I was asked yesterday, and announce that the President will host the Emir of
Finally, I'd like to reiterate the message that
And with that, I'll take your questions.
Q Sarah, you mentioned the supplemental. Does the President feel that it would be helpful to tie the supplemental to the vote on raising the debt ceiling? And do you have any details on the amount of the supplemental? There have been reports that it would be about
Q What about the issue of tying the vote to the debt ceiling?
Q So the President said that he would have a decision on DACA in the next couple of days. Can you talk a little bit about what are the factors driving that decision? What is he weighing right now? And also, does he think that the program, as it is designed now -- does he think it's illegal?
The President has been very clear: He loves people, and he wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly. And so that's what he's doing now, is finalizing that part.
Q Can I ask a question that might help us understand what informs this decision? Does the President feel that young people who came to this country illegally, who came of age here, who have jobs here, went to school here, are those people Americans or are they foreign (inaudible)?
John.
Q How incumbent does this
Q I asked that -- if I could just follow up -- I asked that question because Senator
Q Sarah, the President said "we love DREAMers" today, and, in April, he said the DREAMers should "rest easy." You know the President. Is it conceivable that he could end this program and send all these people out of the country after saying things like that?
Q That's not a detail, that's whether he ends the program.
Q But he must have made that fundamental decision.
Q Sarah, thanks. The President has said that if we have to close down our government, we're building that wall. Is he backing down from that threat now?
Q So there's a report out, though, in the
Q Well, is it wrong then?
Jess.
Q Sarah, if I can ask you two questions, one about the ROK call that happened today: Yonhap already has a readout of the conversation and, in it, the South Koreans are saying that the President of
Sara.
Q I have a question on
Sara.
Q Shifting back onto Hurricane Harvey: Has the President made a decision on what charities he's going to donate to? Do you know if that's going to be coming from his own money or from the
Q But can you clarify whether it's going to be his personal money or money from the
John.
Q Thank you, Sarah. Yesterday, Sheriff
Alex.
Q A poll released by
I think if you look at what he's been doing this week, particularly in terms of focusing on unifying the nation on Hurricane Harvey recovery, talking about tax reform -- an issue that's got very wide bipartisan support -- the numbers, frankly, that we are focused on and that this administration cares about aren't polls numbers. But we care about 94 percent of Americans who get assistance to file their taxes, that the majority of Americans thinks the tax code is unfair, and that 70 percent of individuals in 10 key states support broad-based tax reform.
The numbers that we're focused on have to do with actual problems that Americans are facing. The numbers that we're focused on are the ones that actually impact day-to-day life for all Americans. That's what we're focused on; certainly not silly polls that, frankly, weren't much use to us in the election, and, certainly, I don't think are now.
Francesca.
Q Thank you, Sarah. I want to switch to tax reform. We learned today that the President will be traveling to
Q So you don't have four other states that you might be traveling to or four other names specifically?
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody that doesn't support tax reform in this country, and those are the people that are the bosses of those individuals. Those are the people that elected those members to go there and help do the things that they are asking for, and tax reform is at the top of their list.
Q Sarah, my paper just published a story that
A couple of quick questions. First of all, can you confirm the existence of that letter? Secondly, can that letter be made public? And thirdly, we report that
Q Can we get a copy of the letter?
Noah.
Q Thank you, Sarah. (Crosstalk.)
Q Earlier this week, the President tweeted that "talking is not the answer" in regards to the North Koreans. Today the South Korean President's office says he and
Noah.
Q This is a follow-up to the
April.
Q On the issue of DACA, the Vice President said that the President will use a big heart in making this decision. What is the definition of a big heart?
Q I have one more on jobs. What is this
A few weeks ago,
There were 150,000 new jobs created over this time period, and since the President came into office, 1.2 million new jobs. We are incredibly focused on this. This is not just something we have been talking about, but something that the President has been very active in since day one.
He has gotten rid of over 800 regulations that have created a better environment for job creation. We're continuing to focus on that, primarily through tax reform. And, that's why it's such a big deal for us in the fall.
Dave.
Q Thanks. Can you confirm that the President is meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday about tax reform? And, does that mean that the details are almost finished?
Q On Tuesday?
Q Does that mean the package is almost finished?
Q Thank you, Sarah. Two questions. The first one is on DACA. I know you're not ready to make an announcement yet, but these people, these DREAMers came out of the shadows and they provided their personal information to the government for work permits. If the President does end DACA, will that information be used to round up and deport any of these people? That's my first question.
Q My second question is on infrastructure. Clearly, the devastation in
Q Hurricane Harvey -- the President was in
And then from there, he'll go to
Q Are there any events on Sunday? Or is this all contained to Saturday?
Q Does he have any other weekend plans after that?
Hallie.
Q If I can ask two questions on that. Given the President is going to be obviously pretty busy on Saturday, down in that region -- you've said 19 times that he's going to be finalizing the decision in the next three days. Can you specifically explain what is going to change between now and Tuesday, given that we heard the President talk in the
Q And given that it's so important, I just want to kind of personalize a little. There's a guy in
Charlie.
Q New reports are detailing how the, under the Obama administration, the group Antifa was being watched and their activities were declared as "domestic terrorist violence." My question is: Was the President or his Chief of Staff aware of those investigations and reports before Charlottesville?
Q Is he tracking the rise of violence from this group going forward?
Q Is he tracking the rise of violence from these groups going forward?
Q A follow-up to Hallie's question for a moment. I think I read that there were 120,000 DREAMers in the state of
MS. SANDERS Again, I think that this isn't a decision that the President takes lightly, and he's taking time and diligent effort to make sure that he goes through every bit of the process. And he'll continue to do that and make that announcement on Tuesday.
Q Is what's happening in
Margaret.
Q Thanks, Sarah. I've got two. The first one is, coming back after
Q There were some tensions between the President and congressional
And I also wanted to ask you -- with all the caveats that you're loath to discuss -- this letter that -- this part of an investigation --
Q The letter, as reported, suggests that some of the rationale did have to do with
Q Sarah, can I drill down on what is driving the DACA review and final decision? Is the President reviewing the merits of the DACA policy? Or is he reviewing the legality and validity of the process the Obama administration used to grant it?In other words, if
Just as we're wrapping up here, a reminder: If you have suggestions for the President to contribute to that would be great if you could get those to us by the end of the day.
And also we encourage everybody to participate in the National Day of Prayer and hope you have a good
Thanks so much, guys.
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