around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> so we had planned to bring you live coverage of president trump from columbia, south carolina, starting about 40 minutes ago, the situation is there are thunderstorms in the area. we're told air force one has been circling waiting to land safely. the rally is standing by for the president, although we're also having trouble with the satellite feed due to the severe weather there. so here's what we will do, our very very best to get the president on for you if we can live or by tape later tonight as conditions warrant. in the meantime, let's take you to the white house briefing today from earlier this afternoon with press secretary sarah sanders.

>> good afternoon. many by now have heard that i was asked to leave a restaurant this weekend where i attempted to have dinner with my family. my husband and i politely left and went home. i was asked to leave because i work for president trump. we were allowed to disagree, but we should be able to do so freely and without fear of harm. this goes for all people, regardless of politics. some have chosen to push hate and vandalism against the restaurant that i was asked to leave from. a hollywood actor publicly encouraged people to kidnap my children. this weekend a member of congress called for people to push back and make clear to those serving their country and this administration that they are not welcome anywhere, any time, for anything. healthy debate on ideas and political philosophy is important. but the calls for harassment and push for any trump supporter to avoid the public is unacceptable. america is a great country, and our ability to find solutions

despite those disagreements is what makes us unique. that is exactly what president trump has done for all americans by building a booming economy with record low unemployment for african-americans and hispanics. the defeat of isis and the ongoing work to achieve peace on the korean peninsula. earlier today the president spoke with the new president of columbia and congratulated him on his recent electoral victory. president trump noted the strong partnership between our countries and discussed the security challenges the government will face as he enters office. we are all still working to set up a call between the president and the president of turkey to reaffirm our strong bond. we encourage turkey to take steps to strengthen its democracy and continue progress toward resolving issues in the bilateral relationship. lastly, and on a slightly lighter and more positive note, it should be an exciting national championship at the college world series, since the

arkansas razorbacks will be playing and take on oregon state starting tonight in omaha. with that, i will take your questions. >> about the president tweet over the weekend where he said that people cross the border illegally should be sent back with no court cases, no judges. does the president believe that undocumented immigrants have no due process rights whatsoever? >> virtually all americans agree that it makes no sense that an illegal alien sets one foot on american soil and then they would go through a three to five year judicial process to be removed from the country. thousands of illegal aliens are removed every month without seeing an immigration judge as a result of procedures and current law including voluntary removal and expedited removal. just because you don't see a judge doesn't mean you aren't receiving due process. the president is focused on securing our borders and reforming our immigration system to prevent the crisis at the border from getting worse.

>> no judges -- judges no court cases no opportunity to claim asylum or have their cases heard before a judge? >> just like i said, just because you don't see a judge doesn't mean you aren't receiving due process. the president would like to see us stop people from illegally entering the country at all. we would like to have secure borders. the democrats want open borders. the president would like us to secure the borders and have a very legal and easy immigration process so people can come here the right way, not the wrong way. john? >> in addition to what john was asking, under current law, you spoke to this, contiguous countries to the united states, like mexico and canada, people can be removed on an expedited basis. they can basically just be taken to the nearest border crossing and sent back. does the president want to implement that type of policy where people from noncontiguous countries, is that what he is looking for here? >> he would certainly like to

see more expedited removal, but ultimately he would like to see our border secured so we don't have all of these problems to begin with. the president wants to fix our immigration system completely, not just tinker with it. he actually wants us to have a system that works and he wants to have a secure border. he doesn't believe in the philosophy that democrats do that we should have open borders. he wants to stop that. he wants to stop the crime that comes into this country. and that's what we're hoping to do, and we would like to see congress step up and work with us. blake? >> the president also said in the oval office that people had proposed adding 5,000 judges. who has proposed to add 5,000 judges? i have seen 750 as a max. >> there have been a number of different proposals, quite a few that we've seen. we've laid out what we would like to see and hopefully congress will work with us to make that happen. >> let me ask you about a couple statements on trade. what is the president's reaction to the harley davidson announcement today that they still feel that tariffs are the

way to go? >> the president's trade and economic policies have been a huge benefit to the american economy and this includes the creation of over 300,000 manufacturing jobs. unemployment is at a 3.8%, the lowest since 2000, manufacturing confidence is at historic highs. the european union is attempting to punish u.s. workers with unfair and discriminatory trade policies, and president trump will continue to push for free, fair, and reciprocal trade in hopes that the eu will join us in that. >> on the story about chinese investments, curtailing possible chinese tech investments the treasury secretary steve mnuchin said five hours ago that a statement would be forthcoming and we still don't have it. when might that be coming? what exactly is the administration stance on this? >> again, as the secretary said a statement would go out that targets all countries that are trying to steal our technology, and we expect that to be out soon. we will keep you posted. john? >> thank you very much, sarah. back on immigration, in terms of what the president envisioned

for the immigration policy that he'd like to see put in place, should asylum seekers be able to get their case heard before immigration judge? >> certainly there is a process in order to go through. there are points of entry that asylum seekers should go to. we encourage them to work through the system and not come across the border illegally. in fact, anyone that goes to a port of entry seeking asylum will not be prosecuted, and we would encourage people to use the correct system and not try to break the law. >> following up on what blake asked about harley davidson, they announced in an sec filing they are moving significant amount of their operations to europe because of the eu tariffs that were placed on harley davidson motorcycles is that what the president envisioned for what the impact would be by placing tariffs on eu and the retaliation the eu has put on the u.s.?

>> again, the european union is trying to punish u.s. workers because they have engaged repeatedly in unfair trade practices. and the president is saying enough is enough. we'd like to work with the eu to work on a level playing field. >> the president today in the oval office sitting next to the king of jordan mentioned some progress in the middle east peace process, but he didn't give us any specifics. there's been quite a bit of diplomacy going on the last few days in the middle east with jared kushner, do you have anything concrete to tell us about any sort of positive movement whatsoever from all of this? >> again, we think that the meetings that took place over the last week with senior advisor jared kushner and special representative jason greenblatt. they met with a number of officials and principals in saudi arabia, jordan, egypt, israel and qatar last week. they discussed the situation in

gaza as well as the next stages of the peace effort. we'rengo continue those conversations, and we're committed to the peace effort, and we're going to keep working forward, but those conversations were productive. julie? >> sarah -- [inaudible] -- said today that they are no longer going to be referring people who cross the border with authorization of criminal charges if they are traveling with the children which would return to the obama administration practice and administrations before that, does the president support that approach and if so, does he regret trying to push forward on a zero tolerance approach? >> no, the president certainly supports keeping families together, which he has outlined several times over the last week, but he's also called on congress to actually fix the system. they are the only ones that ultimately have the ability to change the law. the president through executive order has given a temporary solution to the problem, but it is not permanent, and we need congress to step up. we need democrats to stop playing political games, do their jobs, work with this president, and let's fix the problem at the border.

>> you talk about why you tweeted from your official account about the episode you had at the restaurant on friday night. >> sure, i was responding to a number of news stories i had been reached out to by over a dozen reporters and multiple news stories already been issued, it was considered news of the day, i responded as i would with any other news. >> can you explain what you mean by if you don't see a judge doesn't mean you don't get due process and how the president envisioned this would work while still maintaining what the constitution upholds in having a swift immigration system? >> again, there are other way for removal. there are thousands of illegal aliens that are removed every month that don't see judges. sometimes that's through voluntary removal and sometimes that's through expedited removal. again, the president's ultimate goal would be that we have actually a secure border and people aren't coming into the country illegally but we have a system that works and the people that come into the country come in through a legal system.

>> -- specifically this week to ensure that congress passes a bill? he spent all week in nevada talking about -- all weekend, excuse me, on saturday, talking about how democrats want open borders and crime, but specifically, has he made phone calls to republican members in the house where the bill is pending? has he tried to bring democrats together? what is he doing specifically to try and get a new law passed specifically other than just against the current law? >> he met with lawmakers past week, talked with several over the weekend, some he was with while he was traveling, last week he made an open invitation to democratic lawmakers that they were welcome to come to the white house to discuss what they would like to see. the president wants solutions. we have yet to have any of them show up, actually willing to have those conversations, actually willing to fix the problem. instead they would rather rant and rave about not allowing members of the trump administration to step foot in public. the president wants to see solutions. that's what we're focused on.

it is congress' job to do that. we have laid out very clearly that we want to be part of that. and what we would like to see in that package. jill? >> [inaudible] >> if they haven't passed a law to fix the system, then they haven't. republicans have laid out a number of proposals that they support. the president has voiced support for these -- >> [inaudible] >> that's because no democrat will get on board and support a solution. >> republicans cannot pass these republican bills. what is the president doing as the leader of the party? >> jeff, these aren't republican bills. these are bills that fix a broken system. they may have republican sponsors, but these should be bipartisan. this shouldn't be complicated. look, the house has already passed over 500 pieces of legislation, but they can't get through the senate because democrats refuse to actually find solutions. we have 50 bills that passed just last week to address the opioid crisis that passed through the house. the senate still hasn't taken them up. hopefully they will. and if they do, that will show that we actually can come up with bipartisan solutions. that's what we would like to see

them do on immigration as well. jill? >> julie's question about the zero-tolerance policy. the president said last week after signing the executive order that he believes zero tolerance is still important, made a point of the fact that that did not get rid of the policy, how does that square with the fact that they are now saying they are no longer referring for prosecution any adults that come with children? >> this is a temporary solution. this isn't going to last. congress needs to step up and do their job. this will only last a short amount of time because we're going to run out of space and resources in order to keep people together and we're asking congress to provide those resources and do their job. >> at some point you are going to change that policy? >> we're not changing the policy. we are simply out of resources and at some point congress has to do what they were elected to do and that is secure our border. that is stop the crime coming into our country. the country has made extremely clear that they don't want open

borders and democrats need to understand that and they need to work with republicans and find some solutions. annie, go ahead. >> you mentioned the state of resources, can you be specific about what the resources are right now for housing the children together? is there enough housing right now? what's being done about the resources? >> again, we're looking at every option available. we have asked the pentagon to help with additional space, but a lot of that will depend on our ability to stop people coming into the country illegally and we again encourage people to go through ports of entry instead of crossing the border illegally. we have requested through legislation we're working with congress hopefully to provide more resources and the ability to actually enforce the law. >> narrow down what the

president means when he says about not having judges. my understanding is if you ask for asylum, you do have certain rights. is there going to be a change in that policy? what is this administration planning to do to make it so you don't have to see a judge? >> again, i've addressed this a couple of times. there are multiple instances in where you wouldn't voluntary removal, certain cases of expedited removal, if somebody comes through a port of entry seeking asylum, those cases and that process will be heard, but at the same time, the president's ultimate goal is to secure the border and stop illegal immigration. >> i understand that. but so what does that mean practically? like is the president planning to do anything differently, or are you just saying -- >> the president has laid out what he would like to see, put out the things we want to see in an immigration package months ago. we're still waiting on congress to give us the ability to do that. >> unless congress acts, nothing is actually going to change? the administration is not

changing anything right now when it comes to judges? >> you mean are we walking around making up laws? no, because we're not the obama administration. we are trying to enforce the laws that are on the books. we are asking congress to do their part in the process and pass new legislation that will fix our immigration system. >> so the president is complaining about judges and saying we shouldn't have all these judges and people would come out and just be put out but nothing is actually going to change, he's just complaining about the process as it stands now? >> things that we have the ability to do administratively, we are working to do. but again, congress is the only one that has the abili to write law, and we hope they will do that. >> on that point, i'm trying to understand what it is the president understands about the current policy. as you explained, expedited removal allows the government to remove hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants a year without seeing judges. did the president know that when he issued the tweet? >> yeah, but there are still thousands that go through a very

lengthy process. we would like to see the process consolidated and see the backlogs stop and like to see our border secured. >> under current law -- >> i'm going to keep moving. >> you have said he would like to see more expedited removal, does the president intend to expand it to the full two year limit under the current statute? >> again, we would like to see more expedited removal, but ultimately we would like to see the border secured and people stop coming into the country illegally. that seems pretty simple to me and it would stop a lot of the problems and would eliminate the need for so many of these additional laws. >> thanks, sarah. you began the briefing talking about the importance of civility. do you consider it to be a civil policy to separate more than 2,000 children from their parents? >> we consider enforcing the law the role that the administration has to play. certainly the president has taken an executive action to the furthest that he has the ability

to do to minimize the separation of families. we're working hard to make sure families get to stay together. and we're calling on congress to help us in that effort, and we're continuing to focus on the reunification and making sure that the families again stay together and that congress will give us a permanent solution to fix that. >> [inaudible]. >> it wasn't our administration that created these laws but it is our administration that -- >> we're going to break away from this now and take you to west columbia, south carolina. the president is making his way on to the stage. about an hour late because of weather. live coverage now here on c-span 2 of this rally with the president of the united states. ♪