journal live thursday morning. join the discussion. >> obama campaigns or the democratic candidate in virginia's governor race. live coverage at 6:00 eastern. paul ryan at the animal that annual dinner in new york city. coverage starting at 8:40. live on c-span and c-span.org or listen live with the radio at -- radio app. >> history unfolds daily. there in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. it is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> at the daily white house

briefing, sarah sanders answered questions about federal belief efforts in puerto rico. president's conduct and phone calls to the families of soldiers killed in combat you this is 25 minutes. >> one of trumps promises was to defeat isis. with the fall of muscle and with isis nearly eradicated, it is clear isis is crumbling across

iraq and syria. of theminent victory global coalition and brave service members comes at a high cost, particularly to the syrian democratic forces that suffered many casualties as they thought to limit liberate their country from the oppression of isis. instead of caring for the humanitarian needs of residents, isis utilized the money it stockpiled to finance across the world including against many muslims. as coalition and partner forces closed in around them, isis used civilians as human shields and killed those who attempted to fully -- to flee. their acts have left many scars across the region and we remain committed to stabilization efforts and security forces in liberated areas for a political transition in syria. the syrian regime and supporters enter the efforts to liberate. instead of focusing on fighting

isis, they attack partners and frompt to block them liberating the syrian people from the brutality of isis. destructive and its ideology will remain a threat, the liberation will mark the beginning of a new phase in the syrian conflict. as we take away the ability of isis to take it -- carry out attacks, we will see the de-escalation of violence in other battle is across syria. tomorrow, we to welcome the governor of puerto rico to the white house to talk about the ongoing recovery and efforts. hand-in-hand with local leaders in all areas of the country that have been impacted avril natural disasters in recent months. said, wehas repeatedly stand with our fellow citizens. we are here to get them back on their feet.

>> the president said earlier today would not allow insurance companies to pad pockets with money from the federal government. the white house has concerns about the alexander murray bill. can you articulate those? we want something that does not bail out insurance companies but actually provides relief for all americans. this bill does not address that fact. i want to make sure that is taken care of. this is a good step in the right direction. the president certainly supports democrats coming together. a full approach and we need something to go further to get on board. >> can you articulate what the white house is concerned about? >> some of the things the president has stated, lower premiums, drive competition, he likes the idea of luck grants.

those are the ideas he would like to see. >> when he says congresswoman is not telling the truth are there according -- are there recordings? inthere will several members the room including john kelly. >> it says he has called every family of someone who has died. is that true? >> the president has made contact with all of that have been presented to him. >> they have not actually heard from the white house in many capacity. >> all the individuals the president has been presented with through the proper protocol have been contacted through that process. >> to follow up on the health care question.

is it correct to say that trump is not support the deal in the current form? >> correct. he stated that clearly. had conversations today with governor reynolds of iowa. can you tell us about what they discussed? >> they did not make assurances on that specific issue. they are going to continue to look at that process. no definitive decision was made but it was discussed. >> today, secretary mnuchin talking and said it was hard not to get tax cuts to the wealthy as part of the cuts across the board. reality ofent of the the independent analysis when as recently as the month ago the president said the plan would not. is -- and the

priority that the white house has laid out is to benefit the middle class. that --ould agree >> there may be people that receive tax cuts that are also in the wealthy bracket. yes. thatriority remains middle-class americans are the ones most impacted. >> what is the criteria that the white house uses are presenting names of families to the president? >> there is a process that is the standard protocol. once a person is killed in action the first step begins with a dod casually assistance officer making next of kin notification. after that they create a package that is sent to the white house

military office. that is been reconfirmed the details at and the contents have to be confirmed to the office. the president or other members of the administration can engage in contacts. >> following up on that. if the president had contacted the family members of every service member because of the particles of the office? >> that's my understanding. if there's a specific case i would have to look into it. generally speaking that is my understanding you >> why did the present weight 12 days to speak publicly? >> i walked you through the process. to thekage that was sent white house arrived on thursday of last week. white house military office confirmed the contents of that package on monday. the letters had been drafted over the weekend. once the confirmation was completed, calls were scheduled monday to be made on tuesday.

>> why did he not make a look remarks -- public remarks? is the president satisfy he has learned everything he wants to know about situation at self? -- itself? mission, a low risk big surprise. no air cover. whether or not these military personals arrived or not. he knows everything he needs to know about this particular race, rules of engagement, everything else. >> i don't think the president can never be satisfied when there is loss of life from men and women in uniform. >> i cannot get into specifics. i can't get into the specifics of details at this point.

i don't think you can ever use the word satisfied with the process when there is a loss of life for someone in the military. i will come back. is the administration looking at the atf? does the president think that congress should do it? >> we are still looking into and having a review done of that process. when there is a official position i will make that announcement. questions, when the camender murray bill monday, there were questions about whether it would contain federal funding for abortions and these concerns have been raised by several lawmakers on capitol hill. will the president rule out

signing any kind of measure that includes funding for abortion? >> he would like to see a health care bill that does not funding for abortion. somethingthat is the that would be a priority for him. what theof negotiating health care passage would look like i am not going to do that today. i will take one question to get to everybody. >> thank you. a question about the nfl. that alldell said players should stand during the playing of the national anthem. asre was no change in policy it relates to the nfl mandating that all players in the nfl stand for the national anthem. does the president believe he is winning this argument or he has one this argument as it relates to what you say about whether players should stand for the playing of national anthem?

>> it is a step in the right direction. as we said many times before the president supports standing for the national anthem, saluting the flag, and honoring those men and women in uniform that fight to protect it. >> does the present feel it is not adequate to simply send a letter of condolence to the family of a service person? as president bush and president obama typically did? does he feel it is not adequate for president obama to have sent a letter to general kelly but not call general kelly? >> i don't think there is anything that any president can do. there is never going to be enough that a president can do for the families of those who are killed in action. the point the president was making is that there is a different process. sometimes they call, sometimes they write letters, sometimes

they engage directly. taken far out of context by the media and if there is any frustration i think that is where it should be focused. >> you guys talk about the stock market a lot. quote there is no question in my mind if we do not that you are going to see a reversal of significant amount of gains. saying if attacked reform does not happen there would be a major correction. how concerned is the president at his point of that possibility? >> we are confident we will get tax cuts done. that is what we're focused on. >> does he have any plans at this point to visit california, to survey the damage in person? does that speak to a lack of interest in helping the state

recover? > the position has not changed. i talked about it a couple of times. we urge all sides to avoid escalating this further. we oppose the violence from any party and we would like for them isis.focused on and iran. that is where we would like to see their energy focused.

i'm going to keep to one question. >> more than two months since the president said he would consider the opioid epidemic a national -- a lot of work had to be done. can you explain why it is taking so long? there is an in-depth legal process that goes with declaring national emergencies. we will make a further announcement on that next week. there have been multiple people, it is an interagency process. stakeholders have been involved and will have further announcements next week like the president said he had i'm going to stick to the one president -- question. thean you talk about strategy from the white house going forward on this? mark sure has told us democrats have a must-have. is that still where things are? >> the strategies to get enough votes.

>> can you elaborate on the democratic roads? >> we would love to see them on board. we don't know why any democrat would be against dividing tax cuts, specifically to middle-class americans. i don't know why anybody would not wants to get on board. >> it is been almost a month since hurricane maria hit puerto rico. almost 80% of the island is without power and one million americans, one third of the population there, don't have reliable drinking water. is the administration considering the current state of affairs acceptable? does the buck stop with president trump? >> we are doing every thing we can to help the people of puerto rico. one of the reasons why the governor will be here at the white house tomorrow to continue those conversations. to talk about how best the .ederal government can help

>> does he still consider himself a low interest rate guy? >> as the president said yesterday he has interviewed a number of very qualified individuals and he will make that announcement in the coming days. we can to liberate all the details of that when that happens. i'm sorry. days out of two weeks. -- added up two weeks. weeks?up to >> what is the president lying? -- denying? call, asesident's accounted by multiple people in the room, believe that the president was completely respectful. very sympathetic. himselfd condolences of and the rest of the country and thinks the family, commended

them for having an american hero in the family, and i don't know how you can take that any other way. >> he did not say those words, the context. she felt he put it in the wrong context. >> i'm not getting into the back and forth. the sentiment of the president was very clear. he took the time to make a call to express condolences to think the family for the individual service. i think it is a disgrace of the anda to try to portray kindness like that. -- an act of kindness like that. >> general john kelly before invoking his sons get -- death. >> i know we spoke to general kelly several times. >> does general kelly know he would be raising his son's memory? >> i'm not sure if he knew of that specific comment but they have certainly spoken about that

and he is aware and they have spoken memo -- sometimes. -- several times. general kelly is disgusted by the way this has been politicized. the focus has become on the process and not the fact that american lives were lost. he is disgusted and frustrated by that. if he has any anger it is towards that. >> -- [indiscernible] is the white house putting pressure on the senate to pass the lindsey graham bill? >> there have been conversations about that and be in menstruation supports that policy. beyond that i don't know if

there has been further conversations or pressure applied. >> congresswoman -- i sparked to her -- talk to her and she says was --ckson [indiscernible] outr trying to find information about boko haram. his transmitter was imaging for two days -- emitting for two days. it makes no sense why he was not located had what do you say about her comment that he did not know, the widow said that the president did not know his name. >> just because the president said your guy, that does not mean he does not know his name. the hardest job he has is making

calls like that. appalling what the congresswoman has done and the way she has politicized this issue. the way that she is trying to make this about something that it isn't. this is a president who loves her country very much, who has the greatest level of respect for men and women in uniform, who wanted to offer condolences to the family. to try to create something from that that the congresswoman is doing is frankly appalling and disgusting. >> what did she say about the mission? >> i'm not going to get into the details of that action. as i said before i'm not going to get into the deep he deals -- the details of that action. >> setting aside the congresswoman. setting aside the discussion about the politicized nation,

the woman who raised sergeant johnson said she felt like her son had been disrespected. i'm not asking you any of that. said that,somebody is the president reconsidering the way he communicates? did general kelly cobbs -- counsel him did general kelly counsel him about the way he uses words? >> general kelly was present for the call and taught it was respectful and the president did the best job he could under the circumstances. mexican negotiators have .ejected the u.s. proposals is nafta debt? >> -- is nafta debt? -- dead?

president but the said it was a bad deal and we are going to push forward. >> president trump said that former fbi director protected hillary clinton. he asked where the justice department was on this. what does the president want the justice department to do? the white house have doesn't and won't offer a legal opinion on comey's conduct. deferred anyse has legal questions about director coming to the department of justice. them tohat does he want do? anything on that front will be handled by the department of justice. why did it take nearly two

weeks for him to say something about this? oroffer public condolences explain to the american public what happened? >> as i said before, there is a protocol for that. we did make public remarks from the administration. i know i did in short order after that happened from the podium at the direction of the president. i speak on his behalf and i did that on behalf of the president and the administration. you talked about politicizing a couple of times, but did the president politicize general kelly's sons that by bringing it up? >> he was responding to a question and stating a fact. -- to clarify your

earlier answer, you are not the nine that the president used the words " that's what he signed up for. " not get into the because of a personal call. i don't find that to be appropriate. >> discussing the liberation of president does the envision future u.s. involvement in syria and iraq? >> we want to continue to work with our coalition forces to completely destroyed and defeat isis. that is the focus. thank you guys so much for today. see you tomorrow. >> this morning on c-span, a

hearing on efforts to improve wellness and health outcomes with testimony from researchers. help committee at 10 a.m. eastern. close your eyes for a moment. open your eyes. that's how fast it happens. in a blink, no warning. night, "qay