>> 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