not cost our country anything but they will have great, great health insurance again. [inaudible] >> now, i didn't undercut anybody. i don't believe in undercutting people. thank you very much everybody. thank you. thank you. and just over 20 minutes on c-span2 a debate between the candidates for new jersey governor.

today's white house briefing with press secretary sarah sanders species book about president chose relationship with secretary of state tillerson end this twitter feud between the president and senator bob corker.

>> good afternoon. i hope everybody had a nice columbus day. i got to take a little break. i'm sure you miss a sure you miss a pic of me start by saying our hearts go out to the people of california who are enduring the fires. the loss of life is truly devastating but last night the president spoke with governor jerry brown and today approved an expedited disaster declaration for california along with fire management assistance grants. the administration is working closely with state and local officials in california. i would like to share positive news reported that the u.s.

virgin islands today preschoolers into the u.s. virgin islands this week the seven schools opened today powered by generators and 11 more are scheduled to open next week. additionally in puerto rico fema is hosting a jobs fair to hire 1200 puerto ricans to help with the relief effort and boost the local economy through the road to recovery is long and there is so much work for us to do but the resilience of the people of puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands continues to inspire us all. we will be with him throughout this entire process and we are confident they will come back stronger than ever before. over the weekend we release the presence three primary immigration policy objectives which will be included in any immigration legislation congress considers. the president has presented common sense immigration reform with broad bipartisan support that finally puts hard-working americans first according to a recent poll over 70% of the american people support more i.c.e. officers and strengthening penalties against

illegal immigrants who are repeat violators of our laws. two in three americans implement a merit-based immigration system that looks out for working-class americans, ideas that even bernie sanders has supported in the past. the presence priorities also include the southern border wall like what the democrats voted for the 2006 secure offenses act. these are not radical proposals. many have gotten bipartisan support in the past that the administration is ready to work with congress to achieve these policy objectives and to ensure safe and lawful admissions defend the safety and security of our country and protect american workers and taxpayers. today the first lady flew to west virginia to visit lilies placed the nation's first nonprofit and for recovery center that also provides services to parents and families dealing with addiction. lily's house treats infants for neonatal abstinence syndrome which occurs when the baby withdraws from drugs he or she was exposed to in the womb before birth. according to the government accountability office and

american baby is born with nas every 25 minutes and 40% of babies born addicted to opioids goes into the foster system. each situation is a tragedy in the first lady is doing incredible work to raise awareness about this important issue. looking ahead to tomorrow the president will continue his push to provide tax relief to hard-working americans. he'll be traveling to harrisburg pennsylvania to deliver remarks. in attendance at the event will be hundreds of truckers. they keep our economy moving literally and they are excited about the president's tax reform plan was to create more jobs and empower workers and families to keep more of their hard-earned money. before i take your questions i would like to offer an invitation to all of the white house press corps on behalf of the president and the first lady and the administration to bring your children to the eisenhower executive office building on october 27 to celebrate halloween, where there will be lots of fun and i'm sure lots of candy so we can sugar your kids

up and send them back home to you. [laughter] and with that i will take your questions. >> sarah over the weekend the president said that he wished to secretary of state was a little tougher and now today he is suggesting that secretary tillerson has a lower iq than he does. so my question is why would the president wants somebody who thinks it's neither tough nor particularly smart as the secretary of state? >> the president certainly never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent. he make a -- made a joke and nothing more than that. he has full confidence in the secretary of state. they had a great visit earlier today and they are working hand-in-hand to move the presidents agendas forward. >> over the weekend senator bob corker called the white house and adult daycare center and said the president could lead the country into world war iii and said quote it concerns me. he would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.

what can you tell us about the internal reaction to the senior republican making comments like that and as that and is there concern that other top republicans could make similar comments like that? >> senator corker is certainly entitled to his own opinion but he's not entitled to his own facts. the fact is the president has been an incredibly strong leader on foreign-policy and national security. he's been a leader on this front and i think that's been seen and demonstrated time and time again since he took office. few examples over 20 nations have significantly her loose economic ties with north korea further isolating them. guns china and russia to sign onto the toughest sanctions against north korea ever. his new strategy is destroying isis. we have tremendous battlefield battlefield -- with your piece got more nato allies to pay their share fair. we are exporting energy like coal and natural gas to eastern europe. his vision of possible realism

is creating calm around the world and defeating our enemies. again senator corker may have an opinion but the fact certainly don't lie. the president has been very successful in this front. >> first of a going into the weekend the president sent his principles for the dreamers legislation up to capitol hill. included in it was a provision for building the wall. the president had earlier said that he would do the wall at a later time, do the dreamers first and security measures into the wall later. did he change the goalposts? >> the president is simply stating his priorities for what responsible immigration reform should look like and that includes those three big priorities. he promised congress he would lay out exactly what he did. i don't think we have been inconsistent on that front or certainly not unclear. the president has talked about his priorities repeatedly and this case over the weekend laid them out in a very detailed

fashion. >> he insisted that the wall be part of any daca legislation? >> i'm not going to stand and negotiate from a podium with you guys but that's something for the president and congress to work out but we are laying out our priorities. that's exactly what we put in our document that's what we will do to work with congress to get the most response of immigration reform package that we can. >> a question to the follow-up. >> is a good thing he's a reporter not a math teacher. >> i was horrible at math. >> commissioner goodell said like many many of her fans we believe everyone should stand for the national anthem. it's an important moment of her game. we to honor flag and our country and our fans expect that of us. he's having a meeting next week to discuss all of this. given the position of the league as articulated by commissioner goodell what is the white house's reaction to what it looks like the nfl is going to do moving forward?

>> i think we would certainly support the nfl coming out in asking players to stand just as the president has done. we support the national anthem and the flag and the men and women who have fought to defend it. our position has not changed on that front. we are glad to see the nfl taking positive steps in that direction. >> i had to but i promise there really just two. the first is the one to ask about something the president said earlier in the oval about tax reform to. see he suggested they be adjustments to strengthen the tax framework. obviously we know that lawmakers need to fill it out. but saying adjustments, suggest some sort of change. so i'm wondering if they are going to be changes to that framework in things like modifying the state or local productions were changing the pass through for business interests rates that we have heard kind of floating out there? >> we don't have adjustments to make to the framework. the key principles as we have laid out remain the same and no

changes to announce today. >> to the presence allies have suggested that senator corker should resign. as the president think that senator corker should resign? >> i think that's a decision for senator corker in the people of tennessee. >> the president also said this week in the senator corker was a large the responsible for the i ran deal which the president has hinted that he wants to renegotiate. that was a deal as negotiated by barack obama sequestration. why does the president think that was largely bob corker's fault? >> senator corker worked with nancy pelosi and the obama administration to save the way for that legislation and basically rolled out the red carpet for the i ran deal. those are. factual. >> thanks sara sarah. the last few months the president has criticized a number of senior republicans sometimes in very personal terms terms. senator murkowski senator leader mcconnell and most recently

senator bob corker. what do you say to critics who say that the president is alienating himself from republicans that he will need to move this less insulation forward? >> i don't think he is alienated anyone that i think alien -- congress is alienated themselves by not getting the job done that the people of this country lifted them to do. they campaigned on repealing and replacing obamacare and they haven't done it but i campaigned on tax reform. hopefully we see that happen. we are certainly committed to that and we think we'll get there but time and time again congress is made from assistant failed to deliver. if anyone is being alienated his people that are promising things and not delivering on them. >> i'm going to skip around so i can get to more people. >> utah last week about the fact fact that you plan to rollout a conference to plan on i ran. what i'm not clear on is how does to certifying fair ban

nuclear deal lead to opportunity due to negotiate on all of these issues we have with i ran like exporting terrorism and cybercrime etc.? >> i'm not going to get ahead of the president's announcement on this. and will be happy to take more questions when that announcement was made. >> the president referred to little bob corker again. i'm wondering if the white house continues to work or continues plan to work with senator corker's team to amend a law that gives oversight to the i ran accord that you've already said you don't like. are you still willing to work to change that law? >> we are certainly still willing to work with anybody that wants to come and actually put forth real solutions and be part of those solutions. we are happy to work with all parties in bettering the american people and if he wants to be part of that we'd be happy to talk about it.

>> former secretary of state hillary clinton just issued a statement condemning the purported behavior of one of her prominent hollywood donors harvey weinstein. the president also said he wasn't surprised by the news and said he had known harvey weinstein for some time. my question is does the president have a reaction to clinton's statement and secondly does he have his own reaction? how much did he know about harvey weinstein's behavior and what's his response today? >> i don't know that he's seen secretary clinton statement so i haven't had a chance to talk to him about that so i would want to weigh in on what his reaction might be. >> he said that he had known the weinstein for a long time. >> i think that statement speaks for itself and there's nothing to add. >> i know he's going to announce a later this week but has the president reach a decision on whether to recertify i ran are

not? >> the president reach a decision on an overall i ran strategy wants to make sure we have a broad policy to deal with that not just one part of it as i said last week to deal with all of the problems of i ran being a bad actor. beyond that i don't have anything to add today. >> would he like to see congress do away with a 90-day recurring certification? >> i will let the present speak to that later this week. what does the president tend to do with his executive order on health care reform and secondly the president when he was resending daca said one of the reasons he was doing that was that it was inappropriate for the obama administration to do with the executive order will couldn't get done with legislation. why the difference when it comes to health care? >> he american people demand something to happen. they have elected a number of different people to congress to deal specifically with this issue.

due to congress failing to act its no surprise the president is going to try to take action to provide flexibility and relief to the many americans who continue to suffer under obamacare. to posit this -- positive step forward. >> what exactly is he going to do and what is he going to try to do? we have generalities from the present but not a lot of specifics about what he can do with executive orders and why it might be effective when it comes to lowering costs. >> again to take action as much as they can to help provide the flexibility not relief. the president is going to make an announcement on that later this week and we will see that again by the end of friday. >> thank you sarah. two questions. the president said that senator corker as to the secretary of state when they met privately before he took office.

that is on most historically unknown that someone would actually ask for a cabinet position in a meeting with the president, at least in the 21st and the 20th centuries. does he stand by that statement completely that the senator asked to be named to the position of secretary of state? >> i haven't talked to him specifically about that but i would certainly imagine the president wholeheartedly stands by his statement on that. >> the other question i had was last sunday before the tragic events in las vegas catalonia had its foe. the president had said the week before when he was with prime minister roy he supported a unified spain. today the president of the state of catalonia said he would not declare independence but would seek independence from spain through negotiations at this time. what is the administration's position on that?

>> our position hasn't changed but we would certainly welcome the president of spain in conversations between us and them and moving forward. but again there's nothing different from what the president said when he was here a couple of weeks ago. >> so you welcome talks with catalonia and spain? >> that's up to the people of spain and catalonia to decide that our position is that consistent with what the president said a couple of weeks ago. >> i have a couple questions for you. you stand by your statement that rob harper -- bob corker rolled out the red carpet for the iran deal? >> i do. it is made it 10 minutes ago. >> bob corker originally opposed the iran deal. how can you say he rolled up the red carpet for the deal then? >> he works with them on the legislation that roll that out. that's what helped i think put things in motion. he may have voted against the deal ultimately but he not only

allowed the deal to happen but he gave it credibility. >> one quick follow-up's era on taxes the president repeated this claim in the oval office saying where the highest tax nation in the world. why does the president keeps saying this? is not true overall. >> we are the highest taxed corporate taxed in the developed economy. that's a fact. >> that's what the president said. >> that's what he was talking about. we are the highest corporate taxed country in the developed economies across the globe. >> sarah so that's accurate but they president's repeating this claim that where the highest tax nation the world. that's not what he said. he said we are the highest tax nation the world. >> the highest tax corporate nation. it seems. consistent to me. sorry were going to have to agree to disagree. >> in forbes interview president trump talked about economic development rules.

>> we want to move tax reform through. i think the president's position position, american companies have been forced to send their operations and more portly a lot of their jobs overseas due to decades of increased taxes and overregulation. in addition to a start tax and regulatory reform the present is looking additional ways to bring jobs and profits back to our shores. >> sarah the chamber of commerce said today the white house is putting poison pills in the nafta negotiations to make it more unpalatable. does the president want these talks to continue or does he want to -- the president wants to continue the conversation but the president ultimate goal is to make sure we get the best deal for americans as possible and certainly for american workers. he's been clear that he doesn't think the current structure is a good one and he wants a better deal. we are going to keep moving forward and see how the conversations go and that's where we are in the process.

>> what will he say to the prime minister trudeau tomorrow? >> i'm not going to get ahead of their conversations. >> how do you think these ongoing fights with republicans on capitol hill help the president's agenda, tax reform first and foremost? >> the president present is very committed to getting tax reform done. he's calling on congress to get the job done. they are on another vacation right now. would be a lot better off if they were not taking vacations and started staying here until we get some real things accomplished. the present is here and he's committed to working with them to do that. >> i think the senate is working today but how specifically does the liberal line that chairman chairman of the foreign relations committee help of tax reform? >> hopefully senator corker who is then somebody who's consistently talked about being a fiscal hawk was presented with responsible cuts that he would certainly support those.

>> i just wanted to tie up a loose end from one of the president's tweet. he said the nfl is getting massive tax breaks and called on congress to change the tax law. what specific changes was he calling for? the nfl claims it no longer seeks a tax exempt status. >> all of this is available on line at c-span.org. here in c-span2 we will take you live next to newark new jersey and the newark performer centered for the debate between the candidates there. our candidates are republican kim guadagno and our moderators at w. pbi anchor jim gardner. >> good evening and welcome to the debate between republican and democratic senate for governor of new jersey.