hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you're watching around the world, thanks for joining us. up first, halfway through the first 100 days, we're following several major stories on day 50 from healthcare to wiretap claims to russia. that means a lot to cover in today's white house press bri briefing this hour. look at the pictures coming in from the white house briefing

room. white house press secretary, sean spicer, and we'll bring it to you once it begins. >> the bill regarding obamacare is likely to come up. >> on my 50th day in office i want to talk about an issue of paramount importance to families across our nation. healthcare. seven years ago this month, obamacare was signed into law. house republicans have put forward plan that gets rid of this terrible law and replaces it with reforms that empower states and consumers. the house plan follows the guidelines i laid out in my recent address to congress. expanding choice, lowering costs and providing healthcare access for all. >> let's bring in our white house correspondent athena joins

and phil mattingly and investigative reporter, jose. it sounds like the president is now all in on the house republican leadership plan to repeal and replace obamacare. is he? >> reporter: hi, wolf. it does sound like that. the white house would say he is all in on this plan. when it was first rolled out, soon after it was first rolled out this week in a public way, the president tweeted about the wonderful plan, said it was open for negotiations and review. just yesterday he tweeted despite what you may be hearing in the press for healthcare issues in congress, things are going great, it's going in a beautiful picture. the problem, wolf, the problem we're talking about is there is a lot of concern within the republican party. forget about the democratic party, the white house knows they're facing a wall of opposition from democrats on capitol hill, it's also getting all republicans on board to get

the votes needed to get this bill through the house and through the senate another challenge and another hurdle. there are a lot of conservative republicans who have an issue with the house gop plan. one area, it maintains the expansion of medicaid until 2020. we learned late in the day yesterday the president has privately confessed to conservatives on capitol hill he would be open to sunsetting that expansion sooner. the problem is it could mean the bill loses support on the more moderate side when it comes to republicans. there's still a long road ahead for this bill. it will be interesting to see what they say in the press br f briefing, what the press secretary says about this supposed openness to sun ssetti medicaid. >> we'll have live coverage once it begins. the president is privately ba backing the call for earlier

roll back of medicaid expansion. some republican leaders today are rejecting that idea. update united states right now where things stand in the healthcare debate among republicans. >> reporter: look, wolf, if changes are coming to this bill this house, the venue i'm standing in now this is not the venue for them. the committee chairs shuttled over to the white house to meet with president trump. their reality is this, the bill they have put forth and moving through the chamber right now was drafted with a lot of people involved including the white house. several top staffers involved in the final decision making of the provisions and agreeing to the strategy they put forward. i think they did a good job l laying out the medicaid issue on the whole. you want to look at the dynam dynamics, not conservative and moderate. a lot of red state governors did

take that expansion that covered 11 million people in 31 states in the district of columbia. they want to make sure there is no major coverage gap there. the number they came up on sunset, 2020 was a compromise agreement that took into account, governors, moderates and conservatives, and why we hear them saying we get it and maybe the president is amenable to some concerns. but at this point this is the bill and how it's moving forward. if you want changes the senate may be a better option. >> let's talk about another important issue facing the campaign, the trump administration. that would be russia. update us on what officials are saying about the odd contact of computer servers for the trump organization, the busy organization and a russian bank. what's the latest and what's likely to happen next? >> what we have now is the same fbi team, counter-intelligence

team looking into russia meddling in the u.s. election in 2016 is looking at a server at a russian bank and server used by the trump organization. the server of the russian bank was repeatedly looking up the contact information from this server used by the trump organization. this is equivalent to looking up a phone number over and over again. it doesn't mean a phone call but it could mean they made a phone call. this was done 2800 times by this russian bank more look-ups than this trump server received from any other course. spectrum health, a medical facility chain led by dick devos, who is married to betsy devos later appointed the education secretary. this made up 98% of the look-

look-ups. computer scientists we spoke to found that very strange. all the corporations involved said they never ever communicated by e-mail with the trump organization and have different explanations about what might have been going on and they haven't actually provided proof and don't agree what might have happened. the russian bank thinks it may have been receiving spam marketing from trump hotels, but hasn't provided cnn with a single e-mail to back that up. the marketing company for trump hotels that may have been se sending those e-mail says it wasn't doing so at the time we're talking about. they stressed none of the executives had any affiliation with president trump or the trump organization. >> the trump organization computer server physically was not located at trump tower in new york, correct? >> that's correct. this server was located outside of trump tower that some are

getting wrong here. the trump organization was re renting space on some other company's server farm. what we're looking at here is whether or not this rrp bank sent any -- russian bank sent any communication to that server. all we know is they looked up the contact. if i looked up your number 2,800 times, was i trying to call you? we don't know and what they're trying to figure out. >> thanks very much. another issue certain to come up at this hour is the press house bri briefing, president trump's still unsubstantiated wiret wiretapping claims. asking the ranking member of the house intelligence committee whether they've seen anything to back up the president's accusati accusations. >> is there any evidence to substantiate what he's been s saying about president obama y spying on him? >> i haven't seen any evidence

what so ever to substantiate that. when sean spicer isn't willing to talk about it, you know there's a problem. >> reporter: do you think on march 20th, that hearing, comey will be prepared to talk about this issue? >> he's certainly prepared for the question. i don't see any reason he can't answer it. he may even welcome the opportunity. >> i am unaware of any americans unmasked or fisa requests that went in we want to find that out. at this point i don't have anything to tell you new. >> reporter: you said you have no evidence yet of wiretapping, toes th does that comment still stand? >> yes. the same thing i told you monday or when ever it was. >> those fol the meeting with the fbi director, james comey. our reporter on capitol hill, as he always seems to be, update us on what we know right now. >> right now, wolf, we know the

house intelligence committee and senate intelligence committee are trying to get answers, the house intelligence committee sending letters to get records they hope to obtain by next week, ahead of a hearing on march 20th, where james comey and a number of other intelligence officials will be discussing the issue of russia in an open public setting, a very rare move, to be testifying publicly. on the senate side we know the members who sit on that intelligence committee are he heading to langley, virginia, coming through raw data and now want to meet with members who sit, former trump associates who allegedly met with russians during the campaign and try to tie that data specifically to those trump soekts associates a determine whether there was any influence in what happened to the election and make those connections. interesting to hear about nunes

and schiff, the top members of the intelligence committee s saying they have not seen evidence yet of wiretapping even after meeting with fbi director in the brief meeting on capitol hill. >> which means comey did not bring any evidence to back up the assertion. the russian investigations and important healthcare debate all subjects on the agenda. let's discuss this with republican from virginia. dave, thanks for joining us. >> thanks. >> tomorrow will be a week since the president made the wiretap allegation in a tweet against president obama. no one has produced any evidence at all to back it up. what do you make of it? >> reporter: i don't think president obama is following him around. i found a new york times story

that said something about wiret wiretapping. the white house is saying if the "new york times" is printing that, what's going on? it's kind of a circular firing squad right now. you're right. we have to wait for evidence and our oversight busy will get it right. >> early saturday morning he said, i bet a good lawyer could make a good case out of the fact -- used the word fact president obama was tapping my phones in october just prior to the election. that was the flat statement that the president made in that tweet. no one, including anyone at the white house or executive branch agency or in congress has any evidence to back that up. let me repeat the question. if no evidence shows up, what's your conclusion? >> it kind of speaks for itself. i think they're going to -- he usually doesn't go out that far out on a limb. i think they will find a little

bit of evidence, not that obama did it but something in the executive branch went wrong and the intelligence agencies right now, it's fairly well-known, are leaking all over the place on a lot of stuff. i don't know if that's what he has in mind. i'll keep you posted as i find out. >> you agree the president has to be really precise, he's no longer a candidate or business leader, he's the president of the united states, he has to be precise in his words, right? >> i think he'll come through. he shocks a lot of people. he'll put out a statement and a few months later all of a sudden the evidence rolls in. i wish there was this degree of investigation for the hillary foundation. she had $2 billion from international sources, like 2,000 millionaires donating and we never reached resolution or heard any questioning even on that. that's a lot of meetings with a lot of people from international bodies that had business before our executive branches while she's running for president. the need for fair and balance

here would be good. >> all right. let's talk about some other issues, the congressional investigations ongoing right now to russian interference cyber attacks in the 2016 presidential election, where do you think those investigations on the house side and senate side are going right now? >> i think they're going where the broad body of evidence lies. the russians are involved and have been involved for decades, we know that. it's never been brought up for such scrutiny until right now with trump as president. it's been an ongoing issue. i think we ought to dig into it. it is concerning. i remember this stuff going back to iran and china. it's been going on for a long while. it's good we will take a good look under the hood and see what's going on here. >> let's talk about repealing and replacing of obamacare. you said you can't support the current plan. what specific changes do you need in order to join the

speaker and the president to vote in favor of this legislation? >> my major problem is the federal nature of it. the big problem is we're going to vote on bucket one, right? it's relying on bucket two. i just heard your clips on trump. trump wants people to shop across state lines. that's bucket two. lowering the regs. if he wants to reduce cost from the 20% tra jec story right now that's in bucket two. all of that is very hard to do. we kind of have the cart before the horse. we're doing bucket one like obama did eight years ago, we're talking coverage only, massive coverage. but the free market stuff comes in bucket two under secretary price. if you can do that, let's do it now. we're putting up the scaffolding and architecture for one-fifth of the economy. as a free market economist what the federal government runs isn't going so well. we're 100 trillion light on

unfunded liabilities, medicare insolvent in 2034, social security is insolvent and we will add another insolvent and we're already broke and putting it on the kids' backs. it's not clear for a young person whether they will be able to go out under our plan we pass and buy a cheap catastrophic healthcare plan at the age of 25 or so. the insurance regs we can't get rid of in this bill because of all these arcane senate rules called the birdbath insuring people can shop for insurance. that's the big deal. >> here's the problem you have in getting repealing and repl e replacing obamacare through. you might squeeze it through the house of represenresentativrepr. the majority the republicans have in the senate, 53-48 is tiny. you have a dozen expressing grave doubts about this legislation, you lose that, it's

all-for-naught and this whole effort for repeal and replace dies. don't you have to come up with something that can pass the senate? >> we do. paul ryan told us you have to bend the cost curve down. under obamacare costs are going up by 20%. turning the cost down means you have to get to negative one and reduce prices and premiums and give your family home some relief. that's a hard project. the three buckets we have right now don't assure us of that outcome. we want to go back a notch and make sure we turn that cost curve down and don't want to add any more entitlements. every plan i know of we will take care of pre-existing conditions and make sure the rug is not pulled out from anyone in every plan i know of, when you do policy, aim at the target. if you have 5% of folks over 50% of the cost, let's take them over here and solve that problem

with state risk pools, et cetera, but don't ruin the entire healthcare system for 300 million people. the free market system is what's made us rich. common and india are coming out with a free market system and getting rich. >> the current legislation, if passed as it is right now, would ruin it for 300 million americans? >> the law enacted -- obama is in a death spiral right now, forever you follow that logic where we focus solely on coverage for 18 million but never lowered the cost curve, never brought the cost down and allow people to shop. obama said you can keep your doctor and healthcare plan and we will bend the cost curve down, he did not bend the cost curve down meaning prices double in five years for every american out there. we are in a death spiral. we need fix it but need assurance the insurance regs the biggest cost driver and we're not sure whether the silver, gold platinum stuff is out of

our new bill or not. that's still uncertain as of today. >> congressman, dave brat, thanks for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. job numbers are up and illegal border crossings are down. plus, only moment is a way from the how press briefing. we'll have-the white house press bri briefing. live coverage once it begins. you do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. and if you do have an accident, our claims centers are available to assist you 24/7. call

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is at 4.7%. christina, the administration can tout these figures but can they actually claim credit for the president for these good numbers? >> unclear, wolf. you have the president re-twe re-tweeting some of these positive headlines today. what's really important is put them in historical perspective here. february is usually a very strong month for jobs. you look back the last three februarys in a row, we have almost the same rate of growth, same number of jobs created every february for the last three. unclear how much credit he can take. also you pointed out the unemployment rate is at 4.7%. we've been below 5% for nearly a year now. this trend has been going on for quite some time. that's not going to prevent probably president trump from taking credit for it. he actually also may point to

very strong growth in construction jobs. you're talking 58,000 jobs a added. that's pretty strong. some economists say it may have been because of the warmer weather. no doubt about it, it's early in the trump administration. some conservative economists are saying we have to see if he's able to implement some of the growth policies he's talking about. if he keeps up this number over the next couple of months, he is on track to deliver that 25 million jobs, those 25 million jobs he so consistently speaks about. >> kristcristina, thanks so muc. let's talk to scott peters on the energy and commerce committee that approved the healthcare bill yesterday. we'll get to that in a moment. does the president deserve credit for these jobs in february? >> i'm sure he will say it's a

wonderful picture he painted but can he implement the growth policies he talked about. people are optimistic and work together and do tax reform and infrastructure. >> the dow jones is going up, the s&p is going up. there seems to be a lot of confidence in potential policies he's going to try to push through. >> there's a lot of optimism in a new administration we'll get a lot done. certainly, i'm willing to work with him on job creating growth strategies and time to see if he can accomplish that. >> you're ready to work with that, a trillion piece of infrastructure, a lot of democrats would love that. >> a lot would love what it would do for trade. >> what about tax cuts? >> i think tax reform is something we want. we know we're uncompetitive internationally and have a lot of money overseas. a lot of democrats like me want to work on that, too. >> he wants to cut the corporate

tax rate from 35% to 25%. are you with him? >> possible. we've been talking about streamlining it a long time. i'm ready to go. >> on healthcare, repeal and replace obamacare. democrats uniformly oppose all of this. you're among the democrats, you oppose it, right? >> absolutely. we sat in a 27 hour hearing this week and hardly did anything to help the healthcare information. a lot of republicans told stories about increased premiums and democrats told stories about people relying on healthcare to take care of their families and kids. it's brought a lot of coverage to a lot of people. the deal they propose interst e interstated bay standard&pores, estimated by standard&poors. brooking institution, 15 million estimated off coverage. we just saw the melina healthcare ceo say we will see in the individual market, the prices in the individual market

rise by 30% because there's no incentive for the young healthy people to get into the pool. >> the congressional budget office are supposed to come out with their estimate on monday. you already hear officials at the white house saying, look, their numbers have been way wrong in the past and some republican leaders in the house say their numbers, don't waste your time looking at the cbo. your reaction. >> think about what you just said. we could have waited until monday to see what the budget office said what it will cost the american taxpayer and who it will cover and not cover. that was information we had waiting for this monday but we had to ram this bill on a bill declassified monday. it got no hearings. the notion there's some sort of bipartisan effort, i think that's out the window. the real issue is people haven't had a chance to look at this and really talk about it, really address what we should be doing to fix where the healthcare system needs help.

we're just returning through with this thing, the more we learn about it, opposition from doctors, american medical association, hospital association, aarp, catholic chari charities, nobody seems to like this. >> do you think it can pass? >> that's up to republicans. it won't get any democratic votes although many of us want to fix the problems in the ex t existing problems. >> was there any outreach to the democrats at all? >> zero. the justification for that is that's what happened in 2009. >> when obamacare was introduced, it was passed strictly among the democrats. >> that's fine. almost 57% of congress wasn't here then. we're all new. that's the kind of justification for bad behavior you hear from your child when they say, well, he started it. the american people deserve better than that. they deserve a bipartisan approach that's open and looks for solutions, we didn't get it this week and didn't get it on the house floor.

>> thank you, scott peters, thank you. we'll have you back. a look at the press briefing room. sean spicer will come to the lectern shortly and start answering questions. fun in art class.

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live pictures at the white house press briefing room. press secretary sean spicer will walk in soon. meanwhile, there's a lot to discuss with my panel joining us, cnn political director, david chaleon and laura and stephen moore and cnn political

analyst, david gregory. david, this effort to repeal and replace obamacare, it's going to have a lot of trouble getting through the way it is right now, the house. but the senate potentially looks even more problematic. >> it's a real test for the president in terms of his deal making both within his own party and probably less important with democrats since there's not support there. his ability to coral republicans around this core promise, also a gateway to getting broader tax reform becomes really really important. if he doesn't have enough control over republicans to get it, it's a hard thing. i think this clash that you're seeing is the pragmatist at some level in president trump who doesn't want to take away all of an entitlement already been given with conservative ideology which says we have some real problems with the entitlement aspect of this, the big government aspect. there's a lot of hurdles to get through. >> if he fails, stephen, to get

this through krrks this healthcare legislation as it is right now, it will remind me at least those old enough to remember, in 1993, there was something called hillary care that failed to get through during the first year of the bill clinton administration. >> republicans have stumbled many times, as have democrats on healthcare. david, the reason it's going to get done is it has to get done, for the very reasons you said. republicans can't afford to fail here, this was one of their central promises not just in this campaign through the last seven years. it will get done. it will be an ugly process. i actually agree with you, wolf, i think the problem is not the house, they will make a compromise with the conservat e conservatives. how do you get 50 senatorses to sign on anything? >> you have moderate republicans whether susan collins of maine or lisa murkowski of alaska. >> longer than the margin -- >> their views are very

different than the so-called tea party activists in the house of representatives, you lose three republicans, if the democrats stay firm it's over. >> it's true and i think the republicans will be the tougher fight. if it indeed does pass the house, the psychological around the bill shifts a little bit. there's a momentum that goes with getting to it the senate, not that it makes it any easier, it's a different context at that point what to do with it. all of a sudden the political priority you guys are talking about they need to do this. you mentioned hillary care. you can't overstate how much if president trump isn't able to get this first major accomplishment through how much that clogs up the rest of the system and stalls out other major priorities. it really does. that political imperative will play psychologically in the senate as well. >> there is a plan to take the

senators bowling. it worked with house members. >> laura, you've been doing reporting on the travel ban 2.0. it's already facing legal challenges in hawaii, washington state. update our viewers on the latest information you're getting. >> last night, we saw a filing from washington state. they still say this travel pban is flawed for statutory and administrative reasons. they're now using their own words against them last month using statements from white house press secretary sean spicer and the policy advisor said on fox last month, we're making tweaks around the edges, minor tweks. they're saying if that's the case this order is still very flawed and the motivation is the same. >> if the courts oppose, reject 2.0, the second revised version, there are significant changes from the first travel ban proposal it would be another

pretty serious setback to this new administration. >> it would. they would in effect have to keep going back and have presumably another big fight with the judiciary ill-advised the way they went about it. the whole busy of the urgency with which they meant to be acting because of the fears of allowing refuges and other immigrants into the country gets undercut the more this gets put on the back burner. it becomes a political capital issue. what we've been talking about with regard to obamacare, the president is heavily involved as he should and will continue to have to do, to have to fight on this other front why i thought as a political matter this was so ill-advised the way they came off the blocks on this thing. >> we'll see what happens. let's talk about the jobs numbers, steve. you are an economist and know something about this. how much credit the february numbers, unemployment numbers and job creation numbers, 235,000 jobs created, you much

credit does the trump administration actually deserve with this? >> i'm a little biased because i helped him with his economic plan. i think it's very clear, unde undeniable, ever since election night, we saw it with the stock market and saw it with consumer confidence, investor confidence up and good numbers on business spending last month. there's a new bounce with the economy. i do think trump can take credit for this. >> let me read you the tweet reince priebus put out. trump delivers. 235,000 new jobs and unemployment rate down to 4.7%. great news for american workers. listen to the president of the united states who used to pan these numbers when ever they came out. listen to what he said. >> every time it comes out, i hear, 5.3% unemployment.

that this is biggest joke there is. don't believe those phony num r numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5% unemployment. the numbers probably 28, 29, as high as 35. in fact, i even heard recently 42%. >> the unemployment number, as you know, is totally fiction. if you look for a job for six months and then you give up, they consider you statistically employed. >> it's not that way. >> is the real unemployment number now as he said 28, 29, as high as 35? i've heard 42% unemployment. >> it's not 40%. i do think there's actually something to what he said. it's true today as when he said it during the campaign. the headline on employment rate number that we report -- >> the 4.7%. >> 4.7. it is misleading to people

because it does not including t -- include the people who dropped out of the workforce and 6 million americans who want a full time job and are working part-time. i do think we ought to -- just in the media we should change the way we report the unemployment number. maybe we should include people that can't find a job. one other thing, there are so many people out there in states like michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, those states trump won. when i was on the campaign and you tell people the unemployment rate was 5%, they would laugh in your face. >> you agree it sounds like a typical politician opposed to candidate, taking credit for good numbers. it would be political maltrea if he did not take credit. >> the press briefing is about to begin. i assume sean spicer will be welcoming these numbers. >> they're not just saying great numbers, they're pointing to 4.7% for unemployment as the number they're touting.

i have no doubt he will take a victory lap here, as david said, as they should, the acadeeconom whether the promise to get rid of regulations or tax reform coming, the confidence with the numbers. >> as he becomes more popular these numbers will help his approval, it makes it a little easier to get major reforms like the tax reform and obamacare changes. >> in february 2016 and february 2015, the number was almost exactly the same, 235,000 jobs created, as it is in 2007. >> i'll make a prediction to you on cnn. this summer we will get the summer of -- we've been waiting seven years. >> this is why healthcare is so important because his ability to get to the agenda items that is fueling a lot of this confidence

somewhat ir rationally in the market, a confidence game, that could be impacted if he doesn't achieve repeal of obamacare. these things are related. >> we're waiting for sean spicer. let me get back, laura, to an issue you've been working on. you cover the justice department for us. is there any indication at all the justice department will accept the recommendation of the fbi director and provide any evidence they might have that president obama ordered the wiretapping of then candidate trump? >> i wouldn't hold your breath on that. >> old on a minute. sean spicer is beginning. >> good afternoon. two more days until the work week is over. [ laughter ] >> full attribution to rahm emanuel for that one. as many of you know day 50 of president trump's administration, we have a lot to talk about and a lot that's gotten done. i want to acknowledge today is also brian's birthday.

happy birthday to brian. i'll let you guys celebrate amongst yourselves afterwards. in just these first 50 days the president has taken many key steps he made in pledges to the american people as a candidate. he jump started job creation not only because of his executive actions but surge of confidence inspired since his election. president trump knows exactly what businesses need to thrive and grow and therefore adding steady paying jobs to the market. obviously we're very pleased to see the jobs report that came out this morning. great news for american workers. during the first full month of the trump presidency, the economy add twod 35,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.7%. we saw significant growth in the construction, manufacturing and mining sectors. the unemployment rate ticked down and labor force participation rate ticked up, showing even as more people are reentering the job market due to

the economic optimism i spoke about, businesses are continuing to grow and create new jobs. the president looks forward continuing his work with the private sector to clear roadblocks to key infrastructure projects and withdraw from job killing trade deals like the transpacific partnership and slash red tape that makes additional highring difficult f american businesses and working to keep the safety and security of the united states homeland borders and its people and proposed great rebuilding of our nation's military following a full review of our military read witness a $54 billion budget increase and offered new protections to keep people from coming into our country to seek to do us harm as a result of the presidential memorandum he signed on january 28th, he has a plan to defeat isis designed by the secretary of defense and national security team. just as he promised in the campaign he made enforcing our

nation's immigration laws a top priority signing executive orders that start work on a southern border wall that enhanced the public safety of americans through ordering the strong enforcement of immigration laws already on the books. halting funding to jurisdictions in the united states that don't comply with federal immigration rules. and directing the department of homeland security to hire a combined 15,000 new officers and agents to support the system and protect the nation. he's outlined an aggressive legislative agenda that includes tax reform, brings relief to small busy in the middle class, a massive commitment to infrastructure investment that will generate jobs and rebuild our nation and repealing and replacing obamacare. just this week he began working with congress directly on repealing the worst parts of obamacare and replacing it with the american healthcare act. this particular legislation is just one prong in the president's comprehensive approach to reforming our healthcare system.

the administration is also taking additional steps to stabilize health insurance markets and start bringing down costs for the millions of americans affected by obamacare such as stabilizing insurance markets through regulatory reform including the ability to purchase insurance across state lines and providing individuals and families with access to lower cost options by loosening the restrictions on the financial structure of plans offered through the obamacare exchanges. finally, the president is committed to working with congress on additional legislation that won't be subject to the budget reconciliation process that will allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines, that will streamline the process of the fda to bring down the coast of critical medicine, to allow for the expansion of health savings accounts, to allow more americans to use their funds for healthcare related costs and so much more. there is a one page fact sheet that lays out the three prongs to the president's plan to repeal and replace. all americans can see that one

pager available at white hous house.gov repeal and replace. feel free to download it and share it this weekend. this administration's already looking forward to all that we've been planning to accomplish in the days and weekends ahead. you should have a document outlining in each of your e-mail boxes of the president's major actions during these 50 first days and made it available at whi whitehouse.gov. the president will be having a series of meetings and calls moving further along on some of the most significant campaign promises he made to the american people. after receiving his intelligence briefing this morning the president led a discussion with house committee chairs and ushering the healthcare act through the first phase of the legislative process. he note head was pleased to see the bill pass through both committee, energy and commerce

committee and ways and means committee with unanimous republican support and they discussed working together on additional legislation to work towards turning healthcare into a system that works for every individual family and business and to work and act to keep the promise to the american people. those attending the meeting the vice president, congresswoman black, and congressman brady, and and chairman good lat of the judiciary committee. in addition to the hill outreach. department of health and hucman services have met regarding the bill. the president is commit todted making it better for a more affordable accessible health care.

>> the president had a call with the palestinian authority. we'll have a read outand hout f. and ben tillerson and dr. carson. -- em power our struggling communities. looking ahead to the weekend, the president will spend the weekend here at the white house in a series of meetings with his team. the vice president's office has already announced the details of his trip to louisville kentucky participating in listening sessions and job craters throughout the community, and hear from local small businesses. the vice president will discuss the president's economic agenda especially the repeal and replace aspects of obamacare, then conclude with formal

remarks at the distribution center and judge gorsuch hearings will begin march 20th. the committee determined by unanimous vote he was given a quote well qualified mark for the supreme court. looking forward to seeing a speedy and fair hearing and up an down vote on the senate floor. the president's weekly address is out. discusses women's history month and plan to repeal and replace obamacare, aired facebook life and now available to watch on white house d.gov. with that i'd be glad to take your questions. john. john roberts is always helping with the fashion tips. [ inaudible ] >> there's no promo.

john, on to your questions. >> our involvement of sending rangers and marines into syria marks a dramatic change on the presence on the ground, how much au ton my is the president giving james mattis for the forces on the ground? >> a team have recently been positioned to combine task force operation -- isis in raqqah in particular the location are still a sensitive order to protect the location of the forces, but approximately additional 400 enabling forces for a temporary period to accelerate the defeat of isis specifically in raqqah. as i've mentioned before one of things that the president has

ensured is that the commanders have the flexibility to do what they need to fulfill the mission. the president is obviously as commander in chief made aware and signs off on all the missions but at the end of the day it's going to be up to the generals to execute to defeat isis and protect our nation. >> the involvement complicates the whole picture, what happens with russia and its involvement with the syrian government. the big problem with iraq was we never planned for the day after. >> right. >> so what are the plans for the day after when raqqah falls, who occupies it? >> one of the things i mentioned the script part of what the president has done during his first 50 days is issue an executive order january two28 s

submit a plan in juoint consultation with the chiefs to defeat isis, that's part of that plan. you have seen an approach not only how to engage in syria but the total defeat and elimination of isis, that's an on going process that they have been involved in briefing the president. >> does the president have an idea who should occupy raqqah, should american forces stay there? >> as we devolve that plan i think we'll have more than that. i think you have already killed one question friday. john karl. one question friday. >> shawn, the chair and ranking member of the house intelligence committee asked the justice department to turnover any information that they have that there was any wiretapping of president-elect trump, candidate trump, trump tower, if there's

no evidence will the president apologize to president obama for making such a serious charge? >> let's not get ahead of ourselves. it's important to see where that goes and i don't want to pre-judge their work at this time. >> but if there's no evidence -- >> you're asking what if there's evidence. i'm not going get into a series of hypotheticals judging a report or investigation that hasn't occurred once that's done we'll respond appropriately. jim. >> senator cory gardner reported by politico yesterday to have said he doesn't believe that $14 billion wall along the mexican border is the best way to provide border security does the white house see the support for border wall weakening? >> no, that was something he campaigned on in an effort to both protect our national security and economic security and he's going to fulfill that

pledge. he's already started to work with the department of homeland security. a -- should roll out shortly. that's a pledge he plans to maintain. >> april 28th is right around the corner, government funding expires, given that during the transition period you guys asked for a short term c.r. to weigh in, what's the white house doing to avoid a shutdown, i talked to sources they couldn't point to specific talks, so what's the plan. >> director mulvaney is going to release his budget on the 16th that's the first step. we're approaching $20 trillion of our debt and i think we need to get spending under control and so part of funding the government goes hand in hand with keeping track of what we're

spending o and what we're spending on and what our pri priorities are, director mulvaney has had several conversations with members on the hill on both sides. the vice president has been actively engaged as well. that's part of the proo process, we need to release a budget, and make sure we can do going forward. but this hand in hand with that. fiscal year 2017, they go hand in hand, you need to close out fy 17 and once we have a handle on fy 18 we can start to back fill 2017. >> cuts for the rest of 2017? >> we're not having that discussion here. thank you. >> the president has said in the

path he welcomes compromise and very open to compromise on the immigration legislation that's coming up. this morning when she spoke at the christian science monitor press breakfast, minority leader nancy pelosi said that she would like to see the comprehensive immigration package that passed the senate but was stopped in the house, brought back and that was her version of a compromise on immigration. what's the administration's position on what former speaker and minority leader -- >> you're referring to the gang of eight. the president has been very clear that's not a bill he supports but looks forward to engaging with members to find a way forward to fix our broken immigration system. that was a non-starter when it came out the first time and continues, but the president

recognizes the system is broken and he wants to work with congress to fix it. hunter. >> does the white house believe there's such a thing as the deep state actively working to under mine the president? >> i think there's no question when you have eight years of one party in office that there are people who stay in government affiliated with joined and continue to espouse the agenda of the previous administration so i don't think it should come to any surprise that there are people that burrowed into government during the eight years of the last administration and may have believed that agenda and want to continue to seek it, i don't think that should come to a surprise to anyone. >> will the director of the cia purge them out? >> that's not part of the cia's purview on that one, so