>> this weekend on c-span2's book tv -- saturday at 4:30 p.m. eastern, michael waledman, president of the brennan center for justice at n.y.u. law school examines the history and debate surrounding the second amendment in his book "the second amendment: a biography." then starting at 7:00 p.m., a look at current books on education and reform with jon merrill, author of addicted to reform. sam sorbo with her book, they're your kids, and the author of the new education. nobel prize wing economist and author of a world of three zero talks about how to solve the problems of global poverty, unemployment and climate change. for the complete weekend chedule, go to booktv.org. >> next, today's white house briefing with press secretary sara sanders. she discussed gun violence, the

senate intelligence committee's investigation into russian interference in last year's election, and federal hurricane response in puerto rico and the virgin islands. the briefing ran about half an hour. sarah: good afternoon. still working on that, i see. we'll get better. yesterday three u.s. service members and one partner nation member were killed while providing assistance to counterterror operations. as many of you are aware, u.s. forces are in the country to provide training and security assistance to the local armed forces. in their efforts to counter violent extremist organizations. additionally, two u.s. service members were injured and evacuated in stable condition to germany. names are being with held at this time as part of the next of kin notification process.

our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the fallen service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of the freedoms we hold so deer. -- dear. the president also visited las vegas yesterday to offer his support to the incredible people there. he met with law enforcement, first responders, the medical trauma teams, all of whom did incredible work under dire circumstances. and visited with survivors and their families. the president was deeply touched by the spirit of the people in las vegas. in one particularly stirring moment at the hospital the president met 28-year-old thomas gunderson who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the leg. after being shot, thomas drug himself behind a rofe bleachers and began worrying that he may bleed out. but two young women rushed to his side, one tied a belt around his leg to stop the bleeding and others rallied a group of men to carry him to safety. he suffered a torn muscle in his calf, making it difficult to stand. but when the president and the first lady walked into his room at the hospital, he endured the pain and rose to his feet. when asked why did he it,

thomas said, i will never lie down when the president of this great country comes to shake my hand. the las vegas strong hashtag that has swept across social media in recent days could not be more fitting. looking ahead to tomorrow, the vice president will be traveling to florida, the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico. he will meet with survivor, local officials and first responders and personally assess the massive recovery efforts. the federal government continues to provide much-needed personnel and supplies to puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands. puerto rico's governor recently said, and i quote, the president and the administration, every time we've asked hem to execute, they've executed quickly. that has been and will continue to be our goal. this unprecedented relief effort should make it very clear, we will not rest or stop until all of our people are safe, secure and set on a clear path toward building the very bright future they deserve. and with that i will take your questions. jill. reporter: two questions for you.

i want to start off with -- [inaudible] -- does the president support legislation that would ban or regulate -- [inaudible] sarah: right now, our focus has been on healing and uniting the country. the investigation still continues to be in very early stages. we know that both members of both parties and multiple organizations are planning to take a look at bump stocks and related devices. we welcome that and would like to be part of that conversation and we'd like to see a clear understanding of the facts and we'd like to see input from the victims' families, from law enforcement from policymakers. and we're expecting hearings and other important fact-finding efforts on that. and we want to be part of that discussion and we're certainly open to that moving forward. reporter: -- [inaudible] -- what the president's thinking? sarah: we want to be part of that conversation as it takes place in the coming days and weeks. reporter: -- [inaudible] -- asked about daca today. obviously the october 5 deadline. is there any thinking right now about potentially extending that deadline because so many

people can submit a renewal form? sarah: i'll keep you posted on any announcements on that front. right now president's position has been that he's called on congress to come up with a permanent solution and a fix to this process. to have responsible immigration reform. we'd like to see that be a part of it. reporter: asking for cuts in immigration -- [inaudible] -- and the daca fix? sarah: we're going to roll out the specific principles that we'd like to see in that responsible immigration reform. very soon. probably in the very short future. and we'll let you know when we do that. you can see all the details on that day when it's there. reporter: couple questions on puerto rico. the president said that the debt in puerto rico's going to be wiped out. director mulvaney said he wasn't -- we shouldn't take the president word for word on that. can you but the continue down from the podium, whether or not the president will take action

or push for legislation to forgive any of the debt that puerto rico currently has? sarah: right now the primary focus is to provide relief to puerto rico and support in the rebuilding efforts. while we're still dealing with is immediate disaster, it inappropriate to talk about the problems they were dealing with before the storm. there's a process to deal with puerto rico's debt and it will have to go through that process to have a lasting recovery and growth. this is a process that was put in place and set up under obama and that has a board of advises that are deals with that debt and it will go through that process as it moves forward. matthew. sorry, i'm going try to jump around. we'll come back. reporter: thanks. i'm wondering if there's any concern in the white house that the president's frequent use of the term fake news to describe mainstream outlets mudies the water a little bit and makes it harder for citizens to identify the actual fake news that the intelligence agencies have said

countries like russia use to interfere in the last election? sarah: i think that the president has a great frustration with the fact that a lot of times you have inaccurate information that's being presented as factual. a lot of times you have opinions that are being presented as news and they're not. i think that that is a real concern and something that certainly should be looked at. reporter: is there a distinction between erroneous reports or reporting that he finds offensive and the type of fake news that we saw pushed during the election by russian intelligence? does he see the distidges there? sarah: we see a problem with any stories that are inaccurate or untruthful being presented to the american people as facts. reporter: can you give us a read-out on -- [inaudible] -- sarah: the president routinely meets with senators and house members and this wasn't anything beyond that. they talked about a number of issues. obviously senator cotton has been somebody the president has

worked with regularly, since taking office. we're going to continue to do that. if we have further information we'll let you know. reporter: [inaudible] sarah: i think both of those topics were discussed. reporter: beyond bump stocks, does the president have as open attitude about other measures of gun control that have long been debated or is the white house open in willing to be a part of that conversation, is it limited to one on bump stocks? soipt president's a strong supporter of the -- sarah: the president's a strong supporter of the second amendment. that hasn't changed. this is a president who want to look at -- wants to look at -- i think at this point in the process, i think we all need to take a step back. we had one of the most horrific tragedy that's ever taken place on u.s. soil and before we can run out and start talking about the preventions for something like that to happen again, which we all certainly want to do, we have to determine what caused it. we haven't got than far down the road. that's something that law enforcement agencies are all

collaboratively working day in, day out to do. we want to help support that effort in any way possible. and, again, i think that this administration's position is extremely clear. we would look at taking any step we could to prevent something like this from happening again. reporter: just to be accurate on that. bump stocks is what you're open to having a conversation about. and that's it for the moment. sarah: that's something we're certainly open to having that conversation. at this point, again, i don't think that we want to go out and start having -- and making rash decisions while we're still in an open investigation. we'd like to get more facts about what we can do. not just in this case, but this is a president who's very committed to doing every single thing he can every single day to protect american lives. whether that's securing the border, whether that's defeating isis. whether that's containing north korea. and whether that's looking at legislation -- legislative fixes that may be necessary to help protect american lives. that's something that the

president and the administration are committed to doing and looking at and being part of that conversation every single day moving forward. reporter: a lot of people talk about the bump stocks. i'm going to talk about something else. that's the iran nuclear deal. october 15 deadline coming up. i want to make it clear for the people that don't know, it's a little more complicated because there's also the review act that congress enacted last year. so i'm just curious, given that the president has previously said this deal was an embarrassment, does it make sense then to presume that he will not choose to recertify or might he decide to strengthen sanctions and sort of stay in the deal that way? sarah: the president has, as he said, made a decision on this and he'll make that announcement at the appropriate time. the main focus that he has had has been a comprehensive strategy on how to deal with iran. that is what he wanted his team to put in place and i think you will see that announced in short order and that will be a

comprehensive strategy with a unified team behind him supporting that effort. reporter: i'm imagining voices in the room on that. even though it will move forward is one, there's been some debate. is it fair to say that? sarah: the president's team has presented a united strategy that the national security team all stands behind and sports. and the president will make that announcement soon. reporter: since the briefing began, the n.r.a. has put out a statement as it relates to bump stocks, their position on bump stocks. they write that they believe that devices that allow semi-automatic rifles to function as fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulation. does that change the administration's point of view? after all, the president has been a big supporter of the n.r.a. and the n.r.a. has also been a big supporter of the president. sarah: as i said a few minutes ago, we welcome certainly that and a conversation on that. that hasn't changed. it's something we're very open

to and, again, we want to be part of the conversation on that moving forward. reporter: one on puerto rico and then one on taxes. going back to puerto rico. you said that with the debt, that there's a process in place and that the process will play out. does that mean the president's comments of just simply wiping away the debt is no longer on the table? sarah: the president wants that to go through that process and that's the stage we are in. reporter: and on taxes. chuck schumer writes now or at least the schedule to have a news conchings about the state of local tax deductions. being wiped off the books, how they should stay on the books. there's currently one republican senator, seven republicans at least in the house who want that to stay as a part of the tax framework. the president talked about red lines. is he up for negotiation on salt or is this something for him that is a red line? sarah: the president has laid out his priorities and the framework of what he wants to see in this tax relief package.

i think one of the big things you have to look at is that most americans don't actually itemize deductions. 80% of the benefit goes to six-figure tax filers. the fact is, is it -- it isn't fair and it doesn't make sense for working americans across the country to subsidize the very wealthy in a few states. the president's been clear about his position and we're moving forward with the framework that we've laid out. reporter: a question on puerto rico. yesterday the administration in its supplemental request asked for $13 billion to help storm victims. will some of that go toward helping puerto rico rebuild its power grid? which was in pretty dire straits before this storm? sarah: there was a large portion of that that will go to fema's disaster relief fund. and that will be determined at the appropriate time, which parts of those will go to which efforts and so i direct to you fema on the specifics of what that would look like. reporter: why did the president tweet this morning that he'd

like to see the senate intelligence committee investigate news outlets and i guess this quest to go after fake news? does he value the first amendment as much as he values the second amendment? sarah: absolutely. the president is an incredible advocate of the first amendment. but with the first amendment you have -- hold on. i allowed you to finish. with the first amendment, with those freedoms also come responsibilities. and you have a responsibility to tell the truth, to be accurate. i think right now when we've seen recent information that says that only 5% of media coverage has been positive about this president that administration, while at the same time you have the stock market and economic confidence at an all-time high, isis is on the run, unemployment's at the lowest it's been in 17 years. we've cut regulations at a historic pace. we're fixing the v.a. for our vets. you've only found 5% of your time to focus on some of those

big issues and frankly those are the issues most americans care about. not a lot of the things that you cover, not a lot of the petty palace intrigue you spend your time on. i think we need to move toward a certainly more fair, more accurate and, frankly, a more responsible news media for the american people. reporter: if i could follow up on that. sarah: i'm going to try to get to everybody. like i told your colleague, if i have time. reporter: should congress investigate -- reporter: a few questions. one, is governor brown in california, just signed a sanctuary state statute. and interested in what efforts the administration will make to block the move. and whether this signifies that the administration's efforts to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions has failed, given that california has more than 12% of the nation's population and it will now be an entire state under the sanctuary designation? sarah: look, we are spending

every day we can trying to find the best way forward. the president will be laying out his responsible immigration plan over the next week. will hope that california push back on their governor's, i think, irresponsible decision moving forward. reporter: my second question was a follow up to -- sarah: hold on. i'm going to try to get to everybody today. reporter: was the president upset that his secretary of state didn't deny calling him a moron in his public remarks yesterday? sarah: as the secretary of state said, this is a petty, ridiculous accusation and frankly i think it's beneath the secretary of state to weigh in on every rumor out there. his spokesperson however did come out and clarified that the secretary of state has never used those words. reporter: what's the -- the president saying he has undercut the secretary of state. sarah: i think the premise of that question is ridiculous. the president can't undercut his own cabinet.

the president is the leader of the cabinet. he sets the tone. he sets the agenda. and i think that question makes no sense because of that. reporter: thank you, sarah. two questions, first, let me follow up on kevin's question earlier about the iran agreement. we know that certified does not mean a complete cut. and it would still keep the u.s. in the negotiating procedure. on the other hand, a clean break such as advocated by former ambassador john bolton would completely separate the u.s. from any agreement with iran. ambassador bolten opposed that, reportedly has been unable to talk to the president about it. is the clean break advocated by him still on the table? sarah: as i told kevin, the president is going make an announcement about the decision that he's made on a

comprehensive strategy that his team supports and we'll do that in the coming days. i'm not going to get ahead of that announcement. john, i'm going to try to get to everybody. reporter: i asked two. sarah: i know, everybody has two. [laughter] if that's the case that we're setting, somebody can say, i have 12 questions on the front end and i never get to go to anybody else. i'll come back to you if i can reporter: we know that secretary price was essentially let go for his private jet trail and -- travel and we know that, i think in close proximity to his firing secretary perry took a private jet. e know that kelly anne conaway . at the same time the president has now spent i think 17 weekends at taxpayer ex pents for the flights ear -- expense or flights in air force one. here's the question. is he not setting the tone that tells his cabinet members that this kind of misuse of taxpayer money or overuse, if will you,

is ok? sarah: i'll start with north carolina. my understand something that for political event, that that will be reimbursed for any political travel. the president -- reporter: the -- [inaudible] -- sarah: i'd have to check on that. the president is in a different position. he's not allowed to travel in a different way other than in a secure airplane, as air force one. reporter: he could stay here and work. sarah: he hasn't been there every weekend and every weekend that he's traveling, no matter where he is, he's working. he's hosted foreign leaders on several of those trips which have led to great accomplishments. they've led to putting further pressure, unprecedented pressure on north korea in large part because of the relationship development that's taken place at some of those weekends that you're attacking for. this is a president that is committed to helping move his agenda forward and certainly i think that those webbeds have been very successful in doing -- weekends have been very successful in doing that.

reporter: i won't ask about the president's tweet this morning about the senate intelligence committee. is he frustrated with how long the investigation into alleged russian election interference is taking? sarah: i think more important thanly -- more importantly than the president being frustrated, i think the american people are frustrated. the senate intel committee told us yesterday that after nearly nine months of investigation, that's included more than 250 hours, 4,000 pages of transcripts, 100,000 pages of documents, interviewing officials in the intelligence community who wrote the report on russian election meddling, interviewing relevant obama administration officials, and talking to every trump campaign official they've requested. it's literally found zero evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and russia. i think that the american people would like them to focus on some other things. i know that we certainly have said this all along. and we're glad that as they continue this process they're coming to the same conclusion. reporter: on the vote last week, i'm wondering, the u.s.

commanders have regularly praised the peshmerga for their ability to fight isis. what message is the white house and the u.s. government sending to them now by not backing them in their desire for independence? sarah: look, we've been clear and consistent on that. it hasn't changed and we're not going weigh in any further than we already have. reporter: does president trump believe the senate tense committee should investigate -- intelligence committee should investigate america media organizations? sarah: i don't know that that's the case but i do think that we should call on all media to a higher standard and certainly i think i weighed in very clearly what our position is. when jim asked the question earlier. reporter: -- [inaudible] -- intelligence committee looking into the fake news networks in our country? sarah: you have a lot of responsibility. and a lot of times false narratives create a bad environment, certainly aren't helpful to the american people, and you have a responsibility to provide and report fair and

accurate details. when we don't, that's i think troubling for all of us. reporter: you said several times that the white house wants to be part of the conversation on bump stocks. the president will be talking about gun laws as time goes by. but you also suggested, i think, that the time to talk about that is after the investigation has gotten to another stage or wrapped up. if not now, when is it appropriate to start having a conversation about policy? sarah: i haven't said that the investigation has to be fully complete before conversations can take place. but i think we have to be careful that before we go out and try to talk about things that prevented something, we need to know what caused it in the first place and we're not there yet. we're still in that process. we certainly want to, again, look at every way that we can prevent anything even remotely close to this from ever happening again and we want to be part of that process and we hope to. reporter: one question just to clarify the white house's position on these bump fire

stocks. this morning in a couple television interviews, kelly ann conaway suggested that the a.t.f. in 2010 made a decision that these bump stocks were firearms parts and not firearms themselves and couldn't be regulated under the existing law. is it the white house's feeling that that was the wrong decision on the part of the a.t.f.? sarah: i'm not aware of kellyanne's comments. i'd vk to look at that before i weighed in and have all the information before me. i think the bigger point here, we're open to having that conversation. we think that we should have that conversation and we want to be part of it moving forward. reporter: two las vegas questions. one, is the administration considering overriding the 2010 obama a.t.f. ruling on gun stocks? sarah: i think that's something we should look at. we're very open to it and we want to have that conversation and move forward in the process. reporter: [inaudible] -- congresswoman from las vegas

said she personally delivered a letter to a member of the white house staff yesterday inviting the president to meet with the gun violence task force. did the president see it? is he going to say yes? sarah: i'm not sure if he saw the letter but i think we certainly would be open to having a meeting with a number of different organizations and people that would be involved in this process. reporter: do you know if he got the letter? sarah: i'd have to check before i commented. reporter: has the president had preliminary conversations with congressional lead% bump stocks? and did he talk with any of the rescuers in las vegas about these devices? sarah: i know the conversation came up in the very early stages with some of the members that were traveling yesterday. but nothing definitive. again, opening up that conversation. like i've said, several times today, that discussion that we welcome and that we want to be part of. reporter: over the last couple of days the president has used the word fear, hate, cruelty.

you're having conversations on different things that -- [inaudible] -- what is the conversation when it comes to the issue of terror? you've not talked about it yet. you've not classified it as such. in talking to people from both sides of the aisle, they're saying there's no one settled universal definition for terrorism. we've seen timothy mcveigh with oklahoma city. emanuel in ther charleston. i mean, under all circumstances that we've seen so far, people were intimidated, scared, ambushed, military-style, in a planned, thought-out effort. whether it's political or not, they were terrorized. is this administration willing to start having conversations about other things, was this terror, domestic terror? sarah: i think that's something for the law enforcement communities to define and identify. i think the bigger thing that

this administration certainly has been focused on is the prevention. and looking at how we can stop things like this from ever happening again. i don't care how you label, it it's something that should never take place in country. and this president is committed to looking for ways to prevent it. reporter: what about -- sarah: sorry, i'm limiting everyone to one question today. reporter: what does this white house believe? the president went there, very controversial. sarah: actually it wasn't controversial. it was widely praised even by democratic governor. i think that it is sad that the mayor of san juan chose to make that a political statement instead of a time of focusing on the relief efforts. the president invited her to be part of that conversation. he specifically asked in the meeting, where many were present, including a couple dozen other mayors who were very happy with the recovery efforts, the governor, the congresswoman, he opened the floor up for discussion and she actually made zero comments.

to me that would have been the time and the place that she should have weighed in and asked for what she needed and laid out what she was asking for san juan. she didn't. instead she chose to wait until the president left and then criticized him on tv which i think is the wrong thing for her to do for her constituents and i hope next time she's give the opportunity to help her constituents she'll take it. reporter: very clear that the president is open to the conversation about bump stocks and regulations on gun control. does he want to leave that conversation or use the power of the presidential platform to push for more regulation on, for example, bump stocks? law enforcement officials have said they were used in vegas. sarah: i think right now the position of the president has been to lead on the effort of uniting our country. we've had a country in mourning and i think we saw what kind of leader this president wants to be by what he did yesterday. he went in, he met with the law enforcement officials, he met with the medical teams, he met with the survivors of that

horrific tragedy. obviously this president wants to be a leader. i think he's demonstrated that. i think he'll continue to do that in this process. if you want me to get down into the wheed weeds on specific policy, i don't think we're there yet. right now we want to lead the effort on bringing our country together and offering comfort to those that have been hurt over the last several days. sorry. this is the last one. reporter: some talk that some of the main facilitators of the iran nuclear deal could -- are significant contenders for the nobel peace prize. is the white house aware of that? and do you have a thought on -- [inaudible] -- sarah: i'm not sure about the nobel peace prize process. certainly not as it pertains to that. but we've been very clear what our position is on the deal. that hasn't changed just because some people may receive an award for it. thanks so much, guys. have a good day. reporter: you said no on congress investigating news outlet, right? [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] >> and a look at our primetime schedule on the c-span networks starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> and a tweet from abc news about reaction from the house speaker to the resignation of republican congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania. house speaker paul ryan saying -- >> congressman murphy announced he would not seek re-election after a news report said he request added a woman with whom

he'd had an extra marital affair get an abortion. he's a member of the house pro-life caucus. he's voted to impose more restrictions on abortion access and earlier this week voted in favor of legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. >> c-span's cities tour takes book tv and american history tv to south dakota with our cable partners. we'll explore the rich history and literary life of the state's capital city. saturday at noon eastern on book tv. author nathan sanderson talks about pioneer cowboy ed lemen in his book, "controlled recklessness." tpwhreffs involved in the expansion of that cattle ranching industry primarily in western south dakota. which was essential along with mining and the expansion of the railroad into the growth of our state in the early part of the 20th century. >> and director of the pioneer girl project, explores the memoirs and inspiration of

laura engels wilder. >> the pioneer girl project is a research and publishing program of the historical society that is designed to study and publish a comprehensive addition of laura engels wilder's pioneer girl. which is her auto biography. >> on sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv, we'll tour the south dakota state capital. >> if you look up, there are also four corner areas with flags. obviously the south dakota flag . there is a flag from daca territory, there's a flag for the united states, of course. there are also flags for spain and france because they controlled this territory at different times. and then each corner has -- one corner has a white flag. one a red flag. one black and one yellow. and those are the native american colors that symbolize the four directions of the compass. >> and hear about lewis and

clark's encounter with members of the la codea sioux along the missouri river and why that meeting was so important to the area. watch this all saturday at noon eastern on c-span2's book tv and sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. the c-span cities tour, working with our cable affiliates and visiting cities across the country. >> earlier today, the house foreign affairs committee held a hearing on muslim refugees who fled myanmar. according to reports about half a million people. u.s. state department officials testified on the u.s. response. the hearing begins with graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing. the hearing is two hours. >> this hearing will come to order. before my opening statement, without objection, i'd like to play a video, short video, from