it's not wet food. it's just real food. it's an idea whose time has come. oh, my leaffilter? i just scheduled an appointment online and the inspection was a breeze. they explained everything. leaffilter's technology protects your gutters for good! now my home is protected. call 833 leaffilter or visit leaffilter.com this summer. snacking. just. got. serious. introducing new $3 footlong dippers. the world might not be ready for them... ...but at $3 a pop? your wallet definitely is.

>> sandra: president biden's campaign and full-blown crisis mode as more lawmakers in the democrat party call on him to exit the 2024 race. we expect to hear it directly from the white house when the white house press briefing begins. it is expected at any moment now. already pushed back by a half-hour but we are at the new time now. hello and welcome, i'm sandra smith in new york and john great to have you back. >> john: good to be back. could be fireworks there. i am john roberts in washington and this is "america reports." president biden is trying to rally his party behind him as he enters a critical week for his campaign. this morning he sent a letter to house democrats declining to step aside and minutes later he appeared on msnbc with that same firm message. listen here. >> i have a neurological test

every single day. try sitting behind this desk and making these decisions. you know it and they know it. i am not bad at what i do. it doesn't mean i never make a mistake. i do. but i'm making those decisions. i'm not going to explain any more about what i should or shouldn't do. i am running. i am running. >> sandra: all right. former clinton advisor mark penn will join us with his reaction and analysis in moments. >> john: first to gillian turner who is live at the white house where we await the briefing and chili and some democrats say this could well be kamala harris' moment. >> they are indeed saying that. what president biden is trying to do now with his feet to the fire is it refocus attention away from his mental and physical health and instead put it on his rival former president trump. >> he's a liar. and he hasn't done a thing. he's been riding around the golf

car for ten days down at mar-a-lago talking with his friends. >> biden is ignoring recent polling that shows them slipping further behind trumpet since last week's debate telling congressional democrats in that letter you mentioned today "i feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust of the voters of the democratic party that has been placed in me to run this year. it was their decision to make, not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, the voters and the voters alone decide to know many of the party. meanwhile new documents say that the president's advanced teams gives hidden detailed stage directions how to get backstage to the podium at his events. this is in the wake of biden appearing confused on stage and front of 50 plus million people just last week. >> i did events in north carolina. i did events in georgia. i did events like this today. large crowds. overwhelming response. no slipping and so i just had a bad night. i don't know why.

>> that bad night is now prompting some of biden's closest allies to mus allowed about his running mate. >> i think the vice president would be a phenomenal president. i think she has the experience, the judgment, the leadership ability to be an extraordinary president. >> she could win overwhelmingly. >> president biden does have a lead peered the nato summit kicks off in washington here tomorrow. world leaders, heads of state, heads of government from around the world are convening here. interestingly the white house or the campaign is sending vice president kamala harris out of town while it all goes down. she is not going to be here for nato at all. >> john: gillian turner for us at 600 pennsylvania avenue. again, the briefing got pushed back to three or 4 minutes ago. we will see how much longer it gets pushed back. >> sandra: let's bring an democratic pollster mark penn now. former clinton advisor. thank you for joining us.

your reaction to president biden this morning. he called into mn and sbc. and here he is calling on democrats to challenge him at the convention. >> there talk about how i don't have the black support. give me a break. come with me and watch. watch. i'm getting so frustrated by the elites. not you guys, the elites and the party. they know so much more. but many of these guys don't think i should run, run against me. go ahead. announce and challenge me at the convention. >> sandra: all over the place at times. at some points even yelling but saying i am getting so frustrated. what is your reaction when you heard that? >> as you know, a house divided against itself cannot stand. and the president knows that and he has said quite clearly, and i keep telling people this, just listen to what he is saying. he is running. he has the nomination.

he won the primary. he has the delegates. that is the end of it. the party is going to get in line or commit suicide trying to undo his nomination because he isn't going anywhere and nobody is going to be taking the 25th amendment and no one is taking him out of office. none of those things are happening. he is the nominee and i think they are making that clear. i don't think anyone in the party has any power to change that. >> sandra: this is a question directly to you mark. not to the party but to you. do you want to see him stay in this race? >> i am an observer. do i think that the democratic party would do better switching horses midstream and seeming chaotic? i don't think that is a safe bet. they have their nominee. they have had their process. i think if you were the nominee the only person who could or should be the nominee would be the vice president because that

is the constitutional order of things. in the party should live up to that. i think having a free-for-all at the convention with convention delegates, that would be the biggest nightmare that any party could imagine. >> sandra: thank you for that. mark, this is more from president biden in that new interview this morning saying and insisting he is the guy for the job. >> i am not going anywhere. i wouldn't be running if i didn't absolutely believe that i am the best candidate to be donald trump in 2024. leave a democratic nominated process where the voters spoke clearly. i am not only believing in that but i wanted to reassert it and demonstrate that it was true. >> sandra: thoughts? >> again. he is saying it like it is. i have never seen -- look. these polls are within single digits. they aren't in double digits.

when i was working with clinton and we were achieving double digits, no one told dole you are too old and you have to get out of the seat and you can't be the nominee. president biden is the nominee. he's going to run unless he came out -- he could have gone and met with his family and met with advisors during the fourth of july and come back and said you know what, i thought about this, i'm not going to run, i'm going to do an orderly transition to my voice president. that is not what happened here. the opposite happened. he said i am running, i am president and i am not going to -- do the political analysis. if he withdrew now, he would be seen as a loser who withdrew because he was not competent. the worst thing that could happen to him is he loses. so therefore between losing and losing, the only way he could possibly win is if he stays at the nominee and who knows what could happen in an election against donald trump. and i think that is the calculus he made and that's the way this

has come out. >> sandra: one quick final question on that. from you we are hearing who could win and who could lose and american voters both republicans and democrats have shown concern about can he lead. at what point do democrats question very seriously as we are hearing behind-the-scenes more and more are. is this the right thing for the country even if he can win? >> i think politicians are going to be politicians. they are going to look at the polls. if people thought the economy was going great and that the world situation was going great, nobody would care. the truth is most voters think the economy and the country are going in the wrong direction. the president's job ratings are low and therefore right now he is behind in the polls. that's what is generating all this concern. >> sandra: always appreciate when you can join us. good to have you want. john. >> john: thank you. you can see in the bottom right-hand corner now the full

screen that we are still awaiting the white house briefing pier john kirby will be there so we expect he will lay out the plan ahead for the nato conference which starts here in washington, d.c., tomorrow. for more on that and other topics let's bring in the former director of national intelligence and visiting fellow at the heritage foundation john ratcliffe. thank you for succumbing by. regardless of how ukraine unfolded, biden seemed to do a pretty good job of holding nato members together on ukraine. but there is no question that in the couple years since that has started he's lost a step or two. is he still the right guy to be guiding the bus on the hill and was he ever? >> what i would say as part of the success and terms of nato responding in ukraine was donald trump's success. donald trump required nato members to shoulder the load and to step up their commitment and to meet that. i think that better prepared nato. honestly i think joe biden has done a terrible job with respect

to ukraine and i think president trump is right in saying this never would've happened. this is an aftermath of the debacle in afghanistan. his failure to deter putin in the first place, it he has managed a situation of his own creation. spew and i was covering trump back then for the white house and all the members of nato were saying this is too much and all the press were writing about how trump was strong-arming nato in the meantime the secretary general was saying this is great. here's what "politico" wrote about biden and nato. they said american allies fear biden is finished and cannot be trump. they reacted to biden's recent debate performance with dismay and fear that biden may be too frail to defeat trump and lead a global superpower. clearly this is cast in the idea that nato does not want trump back as president but are they correct in what they said about biden is too frail? >> the premise of that whole

article is false. i have met with foreign leaders from five different continents in the last seven months at their request and they don't express fear about trump returning. they've expressed hope and they tied it to their own national security posture. they need a strong america to have their back and they don't have that. i would submit to you that joe biden is not the right guy but he has never been the right guy. what we have seen and what we have been talking about for the last week and a half since this debate are things that people like you and we have seen for the last three and a half years. this did not just start. the only reason we are talking about it now is because it happened on live tv in front of an audience of 50 million people and i think that is really -- there wasn't an ability to spin it or to ignore it altogether which is what happened. but if you look at this over the last three and a half years, the debacle in afghanistan was early on. the failure to deter war in eastern europe with ukraine. funding is essentially a war in

the middle east by rebuilding an iranian economy. all of those are biden's accomplishment speared again, i think this mess in ukraine is one of his own making and he was never the right person to handle it and i think those leaders speaking honestly and candidly would tell you that they hope for a return of donald trump to the presidency so there is a strong america. >> john: and in light of that, president xi is eyeing ty want to see when he could pull the trigger but here's what biden said about nato and china. >> who's going to be able to hold nato together like me. who is going to be able to be in a position where i am able to keep the pacific basin and a position where we are at least a check made china. >> john: checkmate china. let's do it check on that. their military buildup continues unabated and they've added $300 billion to the defense budget. heritage estimated to be

$710.6 billion which is not far away from the u.s. how are we in any way, shape, or form check made in china? >> he is completely wrong in making that statement. you left out the point about 24,000 chinese nationals entering our southern border this past year when 342. >> john: we only have so much time. >> from the very beginning, the biden administration officials have been pushed around by china to a spy balloon transcontinental voyage across the country to the repeated aggression throughout the endo pacific over the last three and a half years. the only way this reverses is if president trump returns to the white house and there is finally a strong commander in chief that president xi respect or fears. i don't care which one but in this case he does not have that with regard to president biden and that is clear from the results of the last three and a half years. >> john: q or one of the authors of a new heritage report saying china needs to be held

accountable for covid-19. we don't have time to go through the whole report. this lays out a series of measures that this white house could lay out including sanctions and other things. do you think biden would ever do that? >> i don't but i don't get too late if it's president trump. an american president needs to confront president xi and the chinese government over accountability for 28 million deaths worldwide and as we calculated $18 trillion in damages just to the u.s. economy in addition to the 1.1 million lives lost and this was a bipartisan commission making nonpartisan recommendations. republicans and democrats alike and i think it is long past due to hold china accountable for the worst pandemic of our lifetime. >> john: john, great to talk to you. thank you for dropping by. >> sandra: white house press briefing should start any moment now. we are going to take a quick break. we will beowne] because of your credit? here's great news.

at newday we've been granted automatic authority by the va to make our own loan approval decisions. in fact, if you've had credit challenges and missed a payment along the way, you're more than five times more likely to get approved for the newday 100 va cash out loan. no one knows veterans like newday usa.

>> sandra: fox news alert as it is 17 past the hour appeared we are inside the two-minute warning to this white house press briefing. this will be key to listen to as there are growing questions purportedly from many democrats over the future of president biden's run for another term. we will certainly be listening for this. john kirby will be joining karine jean-pierre and there is peter doocy walking in the room. >> john: this will be a hot topic particularly in light of the fact that the president sent

a letter to congress saying he was not stepping aside and i think we are watching a little white house strategy here as well. john kirby will be coming out and i assume what he will be doing, i don't know for sure, but i assume what he will be doing is a very layout of the nato psalm out that will be occurring for the next couple of days in washington, d.c., starting tomorrow which will take a little bit of the fire out of the push to ask questions about biden and his viability as president. >> sandra: it there's a growing number of reports that purportedly a parkinson's doctor and multiple doctors visited the white house in the past few months. "new york times" reporting eight such doctors paid eight visits to the white house. here's karine jean-pierre and john kirby. let's go live to the white house. >> hello. happy monday. this will be a great week.

i have very long things at the top. just warning you all, no falling asleep please. we have more strong economic news in recent days. on friday our economy created more than 200,000 jobs last month under president biden's leadership we have now created a total of 15.7 million jobs over the last three and a half years. yesterday a record 3 million travelers were screened at airports. a sign that our economy is strong and americans are back on the road for the summer in record numbers. speaking of which, last week we sold 1 million barrels of gasoline to help lower gas prices ahead of the fourth of july which saw the lowest gas prices in three years. today, a new report from the economic innovation group highlighted what "the new york times" called "a

remarkable comeback under president biden." that report found communities that have been lifted behind struggled under the last administration with the times called a particularly grim stretch under donald trump. but those communities are coming back under president biden with jobs growing more than four times faster than in the previous four years. investment spurred by the presidents investing in america agenda are benefiting previously left behind communities. that is just some of the economic progress happening under president biden. watch out for news in the coming days. exciting. and next i want to share highlights from the president's recent schedule as well as looking ahead to the next two weeks. over the last ten days, president biden has been hitting the road and meeting directly with the american people as well is continuing his job as leader of the country. in the two days after the debate, he met with supporters

in atlanta, raleigh, new york, and new jersey. last week he delivered remarks on the supreme court, visited the d.c. emergency operation center for a briefing on extreme weather events, hosted a medal of honor ceremony and a joint of the first lady for a of july barbecue with active-duty military service members and their families. throughout the week, the president spoke with leaders of the u.k., united kingdom, israel, and the republic of south africa. on friday the president traveled to madison, wisconsin, for a campaign rally. on sunday, just yesterday he held numerous events across pennsylvania with elected officials including governor shapiro, senator fetterman, and congresswoman madeleine dean. he participated in interviews including joining morning joe justice moaning and throughout the president has engaged with elected leaders including members of congress.

he was speak with afl-cio, host the nato summit and our alliance. a big boy press conference according to justice bluebird who is not here but josh you are here in icu. so that will happen on thursday and it traveled to michigan on friday for a campaign event. next week he will travel to texas and las vegas on july 15th he will commemorate the 65th anniversary of the civil rights act at the lbj presidential library in austin, texas. he will highlight the biden-harris administration's progress advancing civil rights and his vision to bring america together on july 16th. he will address the hundred 15th naacp national convention in las vegas emphasizing the biden-harris administration's commitment to advancing racial

justice and equity for all americans including black americans. on july 17th he will speak to the unit dose conference where he will underline the biden-harris administration's historic accomplishments including lowering prescription drug costs for america's seniors, lowering the latino uninsured rate and creating a latino small business boon. and finally, i just mentioned the u.s. is going to be hosting the 75th summit, the nato summit right here in the united states. obviously in washington, d.c., this week nato is the most powerful and capable alliance in the world and president biden is proud, very proud to have worked to strengthen it and also expand it. with that, the admiral from the national security council is here to take your questions on that. >> i do have a few things to get through so i ask you to bear with me.

as was mentioned, the president is looking forward to hosting the leaders from 38 different countries this week and washington for a historic stomach to mark the 75th anniversary of the nato summit. this will include the heaters of all of our nato allies as well as nato partners including ukraine, japan, new zealand, and the republic of korea. before we discuss the schedule, i want to take a minute to discuss the context in which nato leaders will be gathering this week. for 75 years nato has served a vital role in protecting the american people and making the world a less dangerous place. nato is the strongest defensive alliance in history and it is bigger, stronger, better resourced, and more united than ever before in large part due to president biden's leadership over the last three years. he has worked hard to expand the alliance by welcoming to new members sweden and finland and will welcome in sweden this w week. he spent countless hours rallying the alliance in 2021 and 2022 to build a global coalition to respond to russia's invasion of ukraine and provide

indispensable support to that country. i will get more on that in just a second. the president has strongly encourage greater partnerships between the lehto alliance and finally nations around the world particularly in the indo-pacific as you will see. the president knows that the global president challenges concluding from authoritarian actors and terrorist organizations are inextricably linked. he has encouraged our nato allies to make investments in our mutual defense and deterrence capabilities. when the biden-harris administration took office only nine nato allies were spending at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. 2% was the pledge that every member of the alliance swore that they would get to. today, a record 23 nato allies are at or above the minimum level of 2% of gdp on defense spending. more than twice as many as in 2020 and eight times higher than when the allies first at that 2%

benchmark a decade ago. just quickly turning to the schedule tomorrow evening. president biden will welcome nato leaders and he and dr. biden will help this the 75th anniversary commemoration event at the mellon auditorium. the nato treaty was signed there in 1949 appeared on wednesday the president will hold its first bilateral meeting with the prime minister of united kingdom here at the white house. we will meet with the 32 members of the alliance at the convention center. later that evening he and dr. barton will host nato leaders for dinner here at the white house. nato will hold a meeting with the e.u. with the indo-pacific partners australia and japan korea and new zealand to deepen our cooperation and on thursday afternoon there will be a meeting of the nato ukraine counsel asked her which the president will host an event with president zelenskyy and two dozen of our partners who signed bilateral agreements with ukraine as the president dead in italy a week or so ago.

after that the president will hold a press conference. i guess a big boy press conference is what we are calling it and take questions from you all. we are working to set up additional meetings, bilateral meetings and the only two that i can speak to right now i with the u.k. prime minister and president zelenskyy but i have no doubt there will be additional ones and as we get more fidelity on those we will let you know. finally as is customary for summits that the united states host, there will be leader spouses and partners program hosted by dr. biden. if i could turn to ukraine because back to the context for what this meeting is all about it is important to do a quick update here on what the situation is on the ground. since the passage of the supplemental in april the president has authorized seven security packages to help ukraine including five drawdowns of munitions and equipment. the usa has made a significant impact on the battlefield. instead of the nightmare scenarios that were predicted several months ago about what we could see heading into the nato

summit, we see situation stabilized. ukrainian forces have successfully stopped russia's attack north of kirk eve denying russia the ability to take that city and limiting russian games to areas just across the border. the ukrainians have held the line and have held fast east of pot roast, hardening that are fences and ensuring russia will not break through. and they have halted russian attacks. throughout these last three months, russians have attacked relentlessly across all those fronts. in the price that they have paid for the few meters they have gained here and there has been extensive. heavy casualties, destroyed equipment, disrupted supply lines, degraded morale. people of ukraine has yet again demonstrated that when supplied and when supported by the international community and the united states, they can hold off the largest though certainly not as is clearly evident, the most capable army and europe.

ukraine is put u.s. provided equipment, straight missiles, to good use in crimea destroying russian surface-to-air missiles, and airfield. they sunk the last cruisers of capable warships and the port of sebastopol and the russian black sea fleet has fled crimea in response. while it has been heartening to see ukraine holland and his critical period we should not forget the grim reality. russia continues to bombard frontline towns with massive accuracy and glide bombs and sending missiles and ukrainian cities including when they had a hospital. a children's hospital. from prussia has ramped up the campaign against the condition and is setting conditions to punish them over the fall in the winter. to strengthen ukraine's air defenses and to help ukraine protect its cities and it's great the united states and several of our allies will have several big announcements at this week's summit. they will announce significant new steps to strengthen the military and political partnership with the ukraine to help them continue to defend

themselves today and to deter russian aggression well into the future. these elements taken together with bilateral support are part of a bridge to ukraine's nato membership. together the washington summit will set a strong signal to mr. putin that if he thinks he can outlast the coalition of countries that are supporting ukraine, he is dead wrong again. as president biden has set himself ukraine will never be a victory for russia. the people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness. >> you mention the context of the summit this week. it's also the first time the president interacted with world leaders since the disaster it debate against president trump ten days or so ago. what is the president -- how does he plan to reassure american allies in nate out that he is up for the job now when he couldn't confront trump on the

stage there? >> it presupposes the notion that they need to be assured of american leadership in present event leadership and that's not the case but we are not picking up any signs of that pair quite the contrary. the conversations in advance as they are excited about the summit and excited about the possibilities on the things we will be doing together, specifically to help ukraine. >> there've been stories from multiple outlets in both sides about questions from european leaders about the president's capacity to lead the united states. do you join that? >> i'm not aware of any such conversations that have been had. certainly not with us and here at the white house and with our staff we are looking forward to it. i want to go back to what i said at the beginning. in the last three years, rather than browbeaten and insulting and demeaning allies, this president has invested in allies and partnerships and we took office. only nine allies had reached the 2% level. now 23. that is not by accident. that's because of leadership.

that's because of constant stirring of the alliance and partnerships around the world. the president's record speaks for itself and the allies and nonnato friends and partners that are coming as well, they know that. they would not be coming. new zealand, japan, south korea to a nato summit if they did not believe in american leadership and how important it is and if they did not believe that president biden takes that responsibility extremely seriously. >> on the point about nato members boosting the defense, that was something that was a big concern and that's part of the reasons that many of them are boosting the fund. >> it was a concern before the last president to president obama said the same thing. this pledge goes back a decade or so. but the numbers speak for themselves. rather than browbeating and yelling and screaming and complaining and whining about it, president biden invested in the alliance and in the last three and a half years now, more than double the number of allies have reached out 2%.

>> two questions following from the debate. have you in your meetings ever seen him appear similarly to the way he did on the debate stage? >> the last thing i'm going to do is sit here and talk about every meeting i have had with the president. what i can tell you is what i saw in that debate does not reflect the man and the leader and the commander in chief that i have spent many, many hours was over the last two and a half years in terms of the specificity of the way he probes questions he asks. just this morning he was asking me questions about the situation on the european continent that i couldn't answer and i told him i had to get back to him. >> when he met with governors last week he suggested he would like to curtail events that began after 8:00 p.m. at night just because he would rather

focus on resting and doesn't want to have to call it a day. in your understanding of things has the national security council ever withheld information that he should've known late at night out of concern that he might not be able to process it? >> no. >> russia bombed the largest children's hospital as you know. do you believe the timing of the strikes is meant to send a message to nato ahead of the week's summit? >> it's hard to draw a line to that. sadly this is par for the course for mr. putin to hit civilian infrastructure and he doesn't care if he's hitting hospitals or residential buildings. i can't draw the line that this is some sort of message. as i said, you will see over the course of the week of very strong signal and message to mr. putin that he can't wait us out. we will support ukraine. >> i wanted to ask about the air defenses and some of the deliverables that are coming out

of the nato summit. can you walk us through what you think will be happening in terms of any additional commitments and the funding packages that will come and can you say a few words about this project to consolidate the way that weapons are going to ukraine through to the distribution center? i think there is a center that's going to be set up. >> the purpose for me to come today was to give you the laydown of the summit ahead and did not get too far ahead of the leaders in the specific deliverables. without doing that and without getting fired, i will tell you that you will see some announcements on air defense. you will see some announcements on deterrence capabilities. not just with respect to helping ukraine but boosting the

alliance. you will see some announcements with respect to the defense industrial base and how to shore up that and make it more resilient including in our own industrial base here in the united states and you will see as i alluded to some discussion about ukraine's path to nato and what that could look like and a reaffirmation of what the president has long set. that nato is in ukraine's future. >> a follow-up on that. can you say if the word irreversible will be in it? >> i'm not going to get ahead of specific language geared >> what about israel and gaza. can you say anything about the israeli response to the hamas response to the cease-fire? lots of responses. >> i'm not going to negotiate here from the podium. i would tell you there's been some back and forth. as you know we have a team in cairo right now that includes the director of the cia. they are meeting with their egyptian israeli and jordanian

counterparts and there will be follow on after that. look. we've been working this very hard. and there are still some gaps that remain in the two sides in the positions but we would not have sent a team over there if we didn't think that we had a shot here and we will take every shot we can to see if we can't get the cease-fire deal in pl place. >> a date? >> i couldn't give you a date. >> john, thank you for doing this. first, to follow up on the communique even if you can't give and irreversible. the president's objection last year and schultz's objection, if i remember correctly, was that neither one of them wanted a date set for fear, i assume, that the united states and its allies would be drawn in if ukraine was still at war while

in nato member. does that remain today to be his primary objective? is he willing to do what i just sort of the day. even if you do the word irreversible or not, it doesn't really change the meaning very much of what you publish. and i have a second. >> i will make this simple but unsatisfying. i'm not going to get into text and discussions about what the draft will look like. i think you can understand that. but i do think your question is important to provide some context too. the president still believes that nato is in ukraine's fu future. what that future looks like it depends on an awful lot of factors. right now there's a war going on and ukraine and the focus rightly has to be on helping them win that war. and we are as i detailed in my opening statement. number two, for any country that wants to join nato, any country,

it's an alliance of democracies. democracies have to meet certain guidelines. particularly when it comes to governance. we are and will continue to work with ukraine with ukraine underperforms that are necessary for any democracy that wants to be a member of nato and the third thing i would say is it is a unanimous vote. everyone needs to be on board with that and that can take some time as well. the focus is on making sure they can win and we can continue to work with ukraine so that there is a path to nato. the last thing i would say is back to the bilateral security agreement that the president signed with president zelenskyy at the jese summit in italy. we are one of many patients i did that because whenever this war ends and whatever the border looks like, ukraine will still have a long border with russia. that's going to need to be defended and they will need the reassurance of being able to put forth a capable and competent

defensive capability against russian forces going forward and that's why we will make sure that there are things in line to make sure ukraine can defend itself. >> you mentioned it was ten years ago that the 2% gdp goal was set. obviously there was no war on the way at that time and so the entire security situation looked radically different than it does or when it did when that was set >> i beg to differ. there was fighting in afghanistan and mr. putin invaded ukraine and 2014. >> i think the 2% was set. >> it was set before but it was still a security advisor. >> but we're talk about something much different today. i think we are all in agreement. as part of the president's message at the summit that 2% is in the rearview mirror? that nato allies are going to

have to be spending significantly more than that, may be double that for some countries, some larger economies or is he going to stay away from numbers? i know it is politically sensitive. you also mentioned the word win and i wonder how you are defining that. >> the president isn't going to sit down that cassette a new bar or a new level of gdp spending on. not everybody is there. most of the remaining nations have not reached 2% here most of them if not all are working on it and are getting there. i think the president wants to focus on that. once to laud and commemorate those that have but also make it clear that those that haven't still have work to do. we've been consistent about this. at least i think i have. we want all of ukraine's

sovereign territory respected which means we want no russian forces in any part of ukraine by the internationally recognized boundaries. >> you just said answering a question that you are not picking up on signs of allies needing reassurances. when it comes to president biden but allies also look for a secue united states. have you heard any conversations from the allies about issues of elections here, what they've been seeing, and the stability of the united states and the next few months, couple of years, et cetera. >> i'm not aware of any specific conversations with respect to our domestic political situation but we watch the domestic political situation of our allies and partners. of course. like we did with the u.k. and with france over the weekend. no doubt that they are watching

ours as well and they will be watching our election with a lot of keen interest. we certainly would expect that. i'm not aware of any conversations that we have added any senior levels here at the nsc or the white house from allies specifically about this particular election. >> there was a gathering of reporters a couple of years ago concerned about democracy here. >> they may be talking to you all but i'm not aware of any specific conversations here. >> i want to circle back. you said broadly that the president is not represented by what was on the debate stage and then you gave us an anecdote about a meeting today where he was engaged. are you saying you have never encountered a situation where you thought he was displaying any of those symptoms or affectations or something that would give pause for you or are

you declining to answer? >> i'm a little uncomfortable answering these questions because as a spokesman my job is to be an advisor and a counselor and i don't think it's appropriate for a spokesman. i did because i wanted to make it clear. yes, i am uncomfortable with these questions but to answer your specific question in my experience in the last two and a half years i have not seen any reason whatsoever to question or doubt his lucidity, his grasp of context, his probing nature and the degree to which he is completely in charge of facts and figures and if he isn't, what i have seen is -- because it happened to me this morning. when he isn't and when i can't be in command of those facts and figures, i have to fess up and go get the information he is asking for and he asked me questions this morning that i did not have answers for. >> to questions. this is the largest seizure of

land and the west bank with undermines the president's vision for a two-state solution. so. >> there was a statement put out by the state department about this call for settlements. we can continue to maintain her view that they continue to be counterproductive to peace and stability and a two-state solution. we don't support that. >> and you mentioned about ukraine and russia in terms of civilian casualties. half of the facility has been hit and 20 people have been killed. do you still believe that israel is doing what it takes to protect civilian lives including women and children? >> we certainly believe that they need to continue to do more to protect an offense civilian life. >> i've been asking this question for nine months paired

>> your question wasn't what they're doing or what they're not doing and my answer is yes they need to do more to protect innocent civilian life and will continue to have conversations about how they are executing these operations. >> sticking with the middle east and connecting it to the other big story. during the "abc news" interview on friday george stephanopoulos asked the president was he the same man today that you are aware of that he took office and the president's replied in terms of successes, yes. i was also the guy who put together a peace plan for the middle east that may be coming to fruition. it may or may not be coming to fruition. we don't know. we do know 38,000 people have been killed in gaza, almost 2 million displaced and according to unicef one and three children under the age of two is suffering from acute malnutrition. does the president consider his gaza policy at success?

>> the president believes wholeheartedly that the cease-fire proposal that we are trying to get done will make a big difference in terms of not only temporarily ceasing hostilities but potentially giving us an opening to end this conflict. it is important to remember how this started and you talked about our gaza policy. i will state of for you again. we want to make sure israel has a right to defend itself from the kinds of attacks it suffered on the attack of 7th of october. 1200 people slaughtered. most at a music festival. number two, israel is doing everything that they can to protect innocent civilian life. is it enough? no. they need to do more and we are doing everything we can to give humanitarian assistance to to the people in gaza. that's our policy and as a president has also said, we would be and still continue to be willing to adjust the

policies that we are executing with respect to gaza as we see things unfold on the ground. >> but does he consider the policy to have been successful? >> israel is defending itself against a terrorist attack so we can check that off. humanitarian exists but since entities to flow. it wasn't for the united states, i would say that not a fraction of the humanitarian assistance getting into gaza would get it. is it enough? no. and israelis has been taking steps. is it enough? no. we will keep working on it. >> the president described israel as indiscriminate bombing in december. seven months past and arm shipment. >> that's right. is there a question here? >> do you think that is an effective response to an endocrine indiscriminate response? >> it is never right to conduct indiscriminate bombing and

that's why we want them to be more precise. >> i'm with the middle east as well. hamas is accusing of putting obstacles in the way of the cease-fire deal that is being talked about now. does the u.s. think that netanyahu's government is doing everything it can to secure the cease-fire? >> we are working hard to get that. i'm not going to negotiate this in public or talk about who's saying what and doing what. we've seen both sides as alexandra rightly asked her questions. both sides of going out with public statements with regards to the text. the last thing i will do is get into bartering here. we are trying to close those gaps as best we can here and we would not have sent the cia director to cairo if we do not believe it was worth a shot and worth a chance. i would also add that on both sides you see public comments that aren't necessarily fully

reflective of the conversations that we are having privately with them or their inner mem members. >> there's a bit of an information battle over the weekend. the russian said that they destroyed two ukrainian patriot missile systems and the ukrainian said they were decoys. does the u.s. have its own independent evaluation on that strike and what is the state of ukraine's defensive systems? >> yes we do and i'm not going to talk about it and i think you will hear more this week about what the allies and the united states are going to do to continue to bolster ukrainian air defense. i know we get hung up on the patriots and i get that. there has been contributions of patriot systems by other nations. we are resequencing some of our deliveries of patriot interceptors from some countries now diverting them to ukraine. we are doing that. other nations are trying to contribute patriots. but let's not get caught up on one system.

their short range, there is medium-range, and there's long-range air defense and ukrainians all of it. and i think you will see this week the allies really stepping up and showing that they are willing to provide those types of capabilities. >> is there a visit to china on the heels of russia and is there any impact on the situation in ukraine? >> we are concerned about it. certainly it doesn't seem to be productive in terms of trying to get things done and ukraine and trying to move forward to achieve this just peace that president zelenskyy continues to work hard and we continue to try to operationalize but it is concerning. >> was there any advance notification given to the u.s. must mark >> not that i'm aware of. >> i'm going to ask one more time about the word irreversible. >> you can try. our position is that nato was in

ukraine's future. there is work that needs to be done to get to that point and the president is looking forward to talking to president zelenskyy and our nato allies about that pass that is the bridge to nato. >> thank you. starting with ukraine and this russian rocket attack that killed 30 people in the largest children's hospital. does it shift the u.s.'s position on not allowing ukraine to strike directly at russian airfields that originated these attacked? >> ship to the position? >> change your mind on not allowing that and how you justify not giving ukraine permission to attack? >> there's no change in our policy. you saw the president several weeks ago gave guidance to ukraine that they can use u.s. supplied weapons to strike targets just over the border. that is still the case. >> on iran. we have heard the usa this presidential election is not free and fair and they have doubts this will change anything meaningfully but we have heard the usa that they will negotiate

with iran when it serves our national interest. is the u.s. now ready to resume nuclear talks, other talks, and make any diplomatic moves with iran in light of this new president? >> no. >> can you elaborate please? >> it's a pretty easy question to answer. no. we are not in a position where we are willing to get back to the negotiating table based on the fact that they have elected a new president. they are still supporting terrorist groups like hamas and hezbollah. they are supporting the hutus as they attack ships and the red sea. they are attacking shipping as well and they are supplying drones and drone technology and drone expertise to the russian so the russians can continue to kill innocent ukrainians like they did over the weekend. so no. >> is it modern to see any opening? >> we will see what this guy wants to get done but we are not expecting any changes in their behavior. >> thank you so much. just this morning the president said that france protected

extremism during the latest parliamentary election and its said that the united states will also do so. france has a very different electoral system. why this optimism from the president and was there a sense of relief from the administration that the election turned out the way it dead? >> it's pretty clear from the election at the far right did not find the purchase that wanted to find and that the compromise and democracy is going to have to still be the watch in france as it is in the united states and it won't change our strong relationship with france, it won't change the fact that france is a valued nato ally and we are looking forward to work with president macron and the entire team. >> thank you. i was wondering what they renewed spotlight and screwed to d on president biden in public settings this week how he is preparing for the nato summit and how many questions to take at the press conference. >> you can ask the press secretary on that one.

>> you are prepping them for a lot of this. >> it's a team effort. >> i will let karine jean-pierre talk about the big boy press conference you are planning to half but he has had discussions with his national security team in the lead up to the summit as you might expect that he would. he is reviewing material and he is doing his homework and getting ready. he has the first major set of remarks tomorrow night in the auditorium and he's working his way through the remarks as you would expect them to do and he is getting ready for the two bilateral meetings that we know he will have specifically with the new prime minister of the u.k. and president zelenskyy later in the week. what i have seen from my perch is the normal amount of preparatory work that he does before major international conference and there is no difference in how we prepared for the g7 or the events in normandy or previous international force. it is pretty typical from what i've seen. >> and you expect vice president harris to play a role in the

events this week or take any meetings? >> i can't speak for the vice president's staff and team but i can have them get back to you about what her schedule will look like. >> thank you so much admiral. >> thank you admiral. okay. well. all the big questions have been answered. press conference answered. let me close my book and get out of here. hi zeke. >> we want to talk but the the white house. we were here last tuesday. you were asked if the president had any medical examinations including the time period after the debate and you said no. three days later you admitted the president had a short check-in with a medical team thereafter. you know those are two very different. >> if you were to listen to i think i did

i think i did a 30 minute gavel with the pole and i said i cleared it out you are right i said he didn't and i still stand but he didn't have a medical exam said that and you are right exited in a briefing or he had a check-in and he said this on friday khaki had a check-in with his medical doctor which is something he does a couple times a week as you know i stated this as well. for those who do not know obviously outside the briefing room and the white house many americans don't actually understand this would, let's take a step back. they deal with their medical issues or physicals vary differently. they are, you know, they are lucky if they could to see their doctor once are twice a year right? they have to get in the car and take public transportation in order to make that happen.

the unit is literally down on the other side and down the steps from residence. a couple times a week he does a check-in, a verbal check in with his doctor while he exercises, that is something that happens often. as a matter of fact he did a check-in today because i knew folks would ask about if he was tested for occult toe show covid-19 he was not. we are following cdc guidance he was not tested for covid-19 just to let you know about that one. if he has symptoms obviously we would. >> gentleman -- >> know it's in the contact is on the second gentleman but to answer your point he did not have a medical exam. he did not have a physical he did do like a verbal check in with his daughter a couple days after the debate and it was very quick. oh couple words spoken to each other and that's how we were able to give you that answer but he did not have a medical exam. he did not have a physical.

>> do you know about the verbal check-in creek. >> no, so the line of questions i was getting that day was in the way i was hearing the question was about the medical exam. i answered mj's question when she asked me medical exam and i answered and said no. physical. then someone else asked me was there a check-in. i did not need to steer anyone wrong, i was still thinking about the middle exam and the physical. that's how i answered the question -- medical exam. and went the president actually spoke to it we -- i went back and asked the medical doctor and he said they had a verbal check-in. that is what he said. but in answering the question i was talking about the medical exam and the physical. >> these experts on the white house different times over the last year are so at least one meeting with a presence position. could you state clea