was having to face. out andiate him coming thoughtfuluple -- critique of where american politics is that because we are on the wrong path. >> watch the entire interview 11day at 2:15 p.m., and :05 p.m. >> white house secretary sarah sanders answered several general johnut kelly's remarks at the white house press briefing. this is 20 minutes. ms. sanders: good afternoon.

it is friday. come on, guys. do not let ryan show you up. i know there is more spirit out there. as many of you saw last night, the senate adopted another budget resolution. this is another milestone for tax reform and sets the stage for us to pass major tax cuts that will deliver more jobs and higher wages for americans all over the country. many of you have seen today that the first lady donated the gown that she wore to the inaugural ball to the smithsonian's national museum of american history. in her speech, she said leading up to inauguration day, everyone was so busy getting ready that the dress designer ended up only having two weeks to work on the design and create the dress. it obviously came together, and the first lady is excited to take part in the rich tradition of first ladies contributing to and maintaining our great history.

by the way, if you have not visited they smithsonian's exhibit of first lady dresses, you certainly should take time to do that. today is a special day for all of us at the white house. there is a lot of people here who serve the president and our country behind-the-scenes. one of those people is our incredible communications director. tomorrow is her birthday, and as you know, i love a good birthday, so i wanted to make sure to mention it here in the last briefing of the week. so happy birthday, hope. be sure to send her a note and wish her happy birthday. thanks for your selfless leadership and most importantly, your great sense of humor. with that, happy friday, and i will take your questions. reporter: the president said in an interview with fox business, should we take that as a signal that other candidates are not doing a good job? ms. sanders: we still have an announcement on that and that is something under consideration,

but he has not ruled out a number of options and he will have an announcement on that soon in the coming days. i'm not going to get ahead of a big announcement like that. the president himself will make it. we will keep you posted when we are ready to roll that out. reporter: on that note, janet yellen said the president was extremely critical of her during the campaign, saying at one point that she was too political and should be shamed of herself and was a political arm of the president and hillary clinton. now he has said rather nice things about her, most recently a couple of times that he respects her. what has changed in his thinking with janet yellen over the last year? can you shed some light on the relationship? ms. sanders: he has had some opportunity to spend time directly communicating with one another, certainly through this process. but beyond that i'm not going to weigh in any further into this process and where we are, other than the president will make an

announcement soon. reporter: when is the president going to weigh in on what happened to those four special operations soldiers in niger? will the president addressed publicly what happened? ms. sanders: as we said, as general kelly addressed, the department of defense has initiated a review which occurs anytime there is an american killed in action. we are going through that process. the president, the department of defense, and frankly the entire country and government want to know exactly what happened. and the president and the nation are grateful to those 4 american heroes, and we won't rest until we get some answers and that is part of this process. when the time is appropriate, we will talk about the details of the investigation. reporter: there is a video of

congresswoman wilson's speech in 2015. in the speech, it doesn't appear she represented funding for the fbi building. does general kelly stand by the statement he made yesterday that he felt she was grandstanding? she was taking credit question mark -- credit? ms. sanders: absolutely. general kelly said he was stunned that representative wilson made remarks about her own actions in congress, including lobbying president obama on legislation. making an action with american heroes about yourself you are an empty barrel. , if you don't understand that reference, i will put a little more simply. as we say in the south, all hats and no cattle. reporter: when she was talking about what she did in congress, she was not talking about securing $21 million. she was talking about naming the building.

fbi agents, who she then went on to effusively praise, and that was the bulk of the speech. ms. sanders: she also had quite a few comments that day that weren't part of that speech and video that were also witnessed by many people that were there. what general kelly referenced yesterday. reporter: tell us specifically. ms. sanders: exactly what he said. there was a lot of grandstanding. he was stunned she took that opportunity to make it about herself. reporter: can he not be here to talk to us about that? ms. sanders: he addressed that thoroughly yesterday. reporter: he was wrong yesterday. about getting the money, talking about that. ms. sanders: if you want to go after general kelly, that is up to you. if you want to get into a debate with a four-star marine general i think that is highly inappropriate. go ahead. reporter: when president spoke at the cia building in january, in front of the stars of 117 cia agents who had fallen and been killed in the line of duty, he talked about a number of things including himself.

he talked about fake news attacking him. he talked about the mlk controversy. he talked about crowd size. ms. sanders: that wasn't an event set to memorialize those individuals. that was a celebration talking about the transfer of power. it is two very different events. if you look at the president's comments at events like the 9/11 ceremony earlier this year, those were very somber. those were focused specifically on those events. those are not even apples to apples. that's not a fair comparison. reporter: thank you. putting the congresswoman aside for a second, i want to focus on what the mother of sergeant johnson said. she said she felt the president disrespected her in his comments. regardless of the president's intentions, is the president concerned that what he said might have come across as disrespectful, and does he plan to follow up with her and repair that relationship? ms. sanders: certainly, if the spirit in which those comments

intended were misunderstood, that is very unfortunate. but as the president has said, as general kelly said, who has a very deep understanding of what that individual will be going through, his comments were very sympathetic, very respectful, and that was the spirit in which the president intended them. if they were taken any other way, that's an unfortunate thing. reporter: the 43rd president of the united states, george w. bush, made comments in new york city yesterday. i would like you to address comments he made concerning the issue of russia, specifically russian influence in the united states. he said the russian government has made a project of turning americans against each other. and he said russian interference will not be successful. foreign aggression including

cyber attacks, disinformation, and financial influence should never be downplayed or tolerated. do you agree with those sentiments? ms. sanders: do we agree that russian interference should not be tolerated? absolutely. we have said that many times before and would certainly argue that has been repeated. i know i have said it at least a dozen times from this podium. reporter: i want to follow up with a question i asked you if times, most recently in july. it relates to our relationship with russia, and i have never gotten an answer from you. does president trump view russia as an ally, a partner, or an adversary? ms. sanders: a lot of that depends on russia and what type of relationship they want to have, and whether or not they want to be a good actor or a bad actor. and we are going to continue trying to work with them on certain things that are very important, particularly for national security on things like syria, north korea. we would like to be able to work

with them to confront some of those threats. so some of that depends on the actions russia takes and how they want to be perceived. reporter: i also have a question about the george w. bush speech. first to clarify, are you saying the white house is no longer saying the congressman talked about the funding? she just talked about legislation in general? ms. sanders: i specifically said and will repeat it again, general kelly said he was stunned she made the comments about herself. that was the point of what he said. that was what took place here yesterday, and we still stand by those comments. reporter: on the george w. bush speech, he said at one point when bigotry is emboldened, our policies seem more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and fabrication. does president trump agree? what does he see as his role addressing that? ms. sanders: does he agree with the assessment of what? reporter: that bigotry seems emboldened and our politics seem more vulnerable to conspiracy

theories and outright fabrication. those were former president bush's words. ms. sanders: i think if everybody is pushing fabricated things, most people would think that is coming from the news media and i would agree with that sentiment. -- >> reporter: the president signed an executive order today that appears to allow the pentagon to recall retired pentagon officers into duty. what is the reason for this executive order? ms. sanders: i don't have anything further on that, and i will have to get back to you. reporter: general kelly has is upset this has become a political conversation. the president's call with the widow. why did he feel like it was appropriate to come here calling unlikeempty barrel, calling her privately? why did president trump feel the need to take that further?

>> i think it is simple. ones talkingthe about the story, and he felt it was necessary to address you and america directly. been given an enormous amount of coverage and he felt it was important people got a full and accurate picture of what took place. he wanted to make an appeal to america to go back to kind of oforing that sacred code gold star families. why the president felt the need to respond, it is because it should have ended yesterday comments,ral kelly's but it did not. it is continuing today. the boko coverage on most tv you turn on, every newspaper, and

the president responded to those continued accusations. >> another question asked can you give us any information? whether it was something he authorized or was aware of before american soldiers were killed? the process, any time an american is killed in action, there is a full review that takes place. jumping to any conclusions, we want to make sure that is completed fully and then we'll have those details for you at that time. a aide was briefed on the matter. there was an indication of a massive intelligence failure. is that indication -- the view of the white house? >> we will wait until the review is completed and answer those questions at that time. >> one more question -- can you get to that question? >> did the president authorized

the operation in niger? >> i am not going to get into any of the details at this point. you may be able to talk to those at the department of defense and they can answer anything further, but where we are in the process, until the review is complete, we are not going to weigh in any further. i'm going to try to get to everybody. >> given all the reaction to the context of the phone calls, doesn't love president intend to families inalls to the future should other americans die? >> we are hoping and praying those phone calls do not have to take place and that is where we are right now. >> los angeles times has reported, the military operating in these year has in the months

leading up to this ambush. is the president satisfied that special forces unit had all the resources it needed to operate? times, have said several i am not going to get into the details until that is finalized. too often in cases like that, we and jumps to conclusions made determinations before the details are known. >> thank you. have to keep it to one question? >> yes sir, even you. before me i had that kind of power over anybody else, including my kids -- >> if only i had that power over anybody else, including my kids. >> several london publications has said the president's visit

to london will be a working visit with prime minister may and not an official state visit which means he will not be received by the queen at buckingham palace. what will be the nature of his visit to london and prime minister may? >> that still has not been determined, we are going back and work with our allies. once we have those travel details outlined, we will let you know. they have made the invitation for the president to come, we have accepted and are working out the logistics. there are no other details beyond that. >> the state department announced it is up to 24 people who have been impacted by the tacks.at is the president satisfied with the investigation, and has he

reached out considered reaching out? >> i do not believe he has reached out to the victims involved at this point. that is an ongoing investigation and something we cannot weigh in further at this time. is there a transcript of the call? is not a transcript of the call, i believe she was responding to a orts and think she had read. i have not spoken directly to her, there is not a transcript. senator -- confirmed he is blocking the nomination to try to get more relief funds for harvey. does that come as a surprise? the number two republican would be blocking the nominee? >> the administration welcomes a

conversation with all members of congress about the next disaster relief request, which we expect a comment in the coming weeks. while we urge the senate to keep doing their job by confirming qualified nominees to crucial positions. this administration has faced obstruction of its nominees, and further delays only hurt the american people. we hope they will get on board and help that process move further along. does the white house feel it is appropriate for past presidents to be critical of the sitting president? and when was the last time president trump spoke to president bush? >> our understanding was the comments were not directed toward the president. when these two individuals have criticized their president, they have done so by name. rarely do it without being redirect. we will take them at their word

these actions and comments were not directed toward the president. isthe united nations following the refugee situation along the bangladesh mea yanmar border. did they speak about the refugee situation? was the president asked for further help? what was the tenor of their conversation? >> they had a productive conversation. we will have a readout with more details this afternoon, and we will be around the rest of today to answer questions. with fat, happy friday. hope you have a good weekend -- with that, happy friday. hope you have the weekend. >> president trump