to grow up poor, live in a tenement, go to public schools, because first and your family, -- and rice to be one of 100 united states senators. to going back to washington to fighting -- to fight for the people of new jersey. today's regiment -- resurrection day, and i want to thank god once again. >> on capitol hill tonight, the senate finance committee continues its work reviewing the senate tax reform proposal. they are in a short break now, expected back in about 10 minutes. the house passing its tax reform bill today, when the full senate finalized its version -- of chambers will need to come together to record -- reconcile the two.there

file debate on floor action for tax reform, and c-span's congressional chronicle, at c-span.org/congress. we will look at today's white house briefing. press secretary sarah sanders went over the president's age of trip, and also addressed questions about tax reform on capitol hill. >> good afternoon. apologies for the delay. it's great to be back with everybody. certainly, missing most of you who were not on the road -- i

have seen most of you who were not on the road. a little wiggle room there. the president's historic five country trip to asia was an incredible success. he rid the world against the menace of north korea, strengthened our alliances, and showed our commitment to a free, open, indo pacific region, and took a stand for free -- fair and reciprocal trade. american families will be safer and more secure, and american workers and companies are one step closer to competing on the level playing field they serve. speaking of leveling the playing field, the president applauds the house for passing the tax cuts and jobs act, a massive step towards fulfilling our promise in restoring tax cuts for the american people by the end of the year. house andouraged the senate continue to work together, to deliver what the president asked them to do. allow hard-working middle-class families to keep more of their

hard-earned money. the senate finance committee is also making progress, and will soon advance this to the floor for a vote. a simple, fair, and competitive tax code would be the rocket fuel for our economy, and it is within our reach. we will bring jet -- back jobs, a rough. we will bring back our great american dreams. now is the time to deliver. and we fully expect the senate to follow the house's suit. and with that, i'll take your questions. cecilia. >> two questions. does the president believe roy moore accusers and do you think he should drop out of the race? the president believes these allegations are very troubling and should be taken seriously , and he thinks the people of alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be. >> so that's a no, he thinks roy moore should stay in? >> look, the president said in his statement earlier this week that if the allegations are true then that roy moore should step aside. he still firmly believes that.

>> the president would like to see the truth proven, how? >> i don't want to get into and litigate back and forth. the president has made clear if allegations are true, allegations he takes very seriously, finds very troubling, if those do happen to be true, then he should do the right thing and step aside. >> does the president believe the accusations himself, their own credibility can be established? outside of them making these allegations, what's the mechanism by which the president would be satisfied that the allegations are true? >> i don't think the president laid out what the mechanisms are. that should be determined possibly by a court of law. but that's also something in a decision that the people of alabama need to make, not the president whether or not they want roy moore to support them in the senate. >> ivanka trump says she has no reason to believe with the women -- should the president disagree with those positions?

>> he's saying he finds the allegations to be extremely troubling. he doesn't know any more than you do on this fact , other than these are something that should be taken something very seriously and the people of alabama should be the ones to make the decision whether or not to support roy moore. >> having the information we have and the information that the people of alabama have, would president trump vote for roy moore? >> the president is not a voter in alabama. >> he endorses candidates in states he's not a voter in and says i would vote or not. would he vote for roy moore? >> i haven't asked him if he would vote for roy moore. john. >> >> a number of republican senators pulled their endorsement for roy moore. urged him to step aside. sheldon said he wouldn't vote for him. senator cruz has pulled his endorsement. the president is not only president of the united states, commander in chief, he's

also leader of the republican party. why want he weigh in on this? why won't he take the type of strong position that these other republican senators have taken on roy moore? >> the president supported the decision of the r.n.c. to pull resources in this race but it's up to the people of alabama to make that decision. i don't have anything to add on that front. >> i don't mean by asking this suggesting this is the most importantly thing addressing the country but it happens to be my story assignment for the day. [laughter] you say that the president finds these allegations against mr. moore, judge moore to be very troubling, extremely troubling. as we all know, the president faced a number of similar allegations or somewhat similar allegations during the course of the campaign and he vigorously denied them. but i wonder what you would assert the difference between the two situations such on the face of things we should

find one set of allegations very troubling, and on the other we shouldn't pay attention to them at all? >> well, the president has more insight into what he personally did or didn't do. and he spoke out about that directly during the campaign. and i don't have anything further to add beyond that. jeff. >> sarah, i'd like to ask you about two other things. the bill passed by the house today, one of the things that the tax bill does is increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion. i know the white house argues that will be paid by growing the economy. but if the economy doesn't grow, how do you swear the republicans' view or general principle that -- and on a -- -- that deficits are bad? >> i just disagree with the premise of the question. we do expect the economy to grow. we've seen that happen over the last 10 months and we expect that to continue. >> are you confident that the economy will grow consistently

enough to cover these costs that otherwise would be a balloon deficit? >> yes. that's been part of our process and part of what we've laid out from the beginning. we expect this to be consistent and that's certainly what we hope for. that's reason of the reasons the -- that's one of the reasons that the president continues to push for deregulation that helped boost the economy. he continues to push things to help do that and accomplish that and we feel confident moving forward. blake. >> the house and senate bills have a way to go. they are similar, but at this point, does the president have a preference for the house or senate bill? >> right now, both bills achieve the president's priorities. that's been his focus. tax cuts for middle class families. simplifying the tax code. slashing tax for businesses of all sizes so they can grow, create jobs. raise wages for their workers and compete in a

global marketplace. he's laid out those priorities right now. both pieces of legislation do that and that's what he's been focused on throughout the process. >> you didn't say repealing the obamacare individual mandate. is that a priority for the president as well? >> that's something the president obviously would love to see happen, but in terms of the big things that he laid out on the very front end of the principles for the tax reform package, it's those things i just laid out. >> i had a true -- question about the trip. is this an endorsement -- >> the president believes this is a decision for the people of alabama to make, not for him. >> my question about the trip is. made a strong argument of having a good relakesship with russia and vladimir putin is a good thing for the united states. does the president believe that president putin would lie to his face? >> as the president said many times before, he doesn't think it's helpful for him to get into

a back and forth argument with vladimir putin but he does think there are places where we can work with russia, particularly whether it's on syria, north korea or other big global issues that the world is facing and that's been the president's focus and he's going to continue to look for ways that we can work with them that help america. steven. >> 13 republicans in the house today broke from the president, broke from their party leaders because they believe this bill will actually increase taxes for some, if not many or most of their constituents. in california, new jersey and new york, those 13 members represent millions of people who in theory voted for the president, believing he would lower their taxes. so what does the president say to those people and how is this whole tax reform endeavor for them, not a bait and switch? >> the president is still

incredibly focused. he's laid out the priorities to make sure the tax plans helps those in the middle class and that's what it does. that's the focus of both pieces of legislation in the house and senate. jim. think that roy moore is a complete? >> i don't know him and -- i've never met him in person. >> does the president think he is qualified customer >> the president thinks this is a decision for the people of alabama to make. >> we've heard from you, when are we going to hear from the president? >> the president put a statement out earlier>> in the week, when we were on the trip. >> he avoided it for two straight days. he is the leader of the -- united states, republican party. >> i am aware of all those qualifications of the president. and it's actually my job to come out here and answer questions on his behalf which i'm doing which i've done, and which he has done repeatedly over the last 12 days while we were on a trip across asia. so to act like he hasn't

answered questions is silly. sorry, kristen. >> on the other side of the aisle, does the president have response where the allegation of senator franken and the miss trial on -- >> on senator franken, it appears the senate is looking into that which they should and we feel it's an appropriate action. i haven't asked him about senator menendez. >> could you talk a little bit about the decisionmaking behind -- mick mulvaney to go to the consumer financial protection board, he's been a long-standing critic of the board -- in the first place. what signals should we take from that in terms of the future of that board? >> i don't have any announcement on that front at this point. but we'll follow-up with you in the

coming days over any movement in that area. francesca. >> thank you, sarah. china said they'll spend a special envoy to north korea tomorrow. the president was just in beijing. is that something the president talked to president xi about while he was there? is that something the president favors? >> the president certainly favors china taking a greater role in putting maximum pressure on north korea. this is one of the things he and president xi spoke extensively about over the course of our visit and certainly any effort in order to denuclearize the peninsula, china participating in that, the president supports those efforts. i have another question about china and trade. yesterday in his remarks, the president said we can no longer tolerate unfair trading practices that steal american jobs and wealth and intellectual property. united states taking advantage -- he specifically china. does the president still believe china is raising the u.s. economy?

>> the president knows there has not been fair and reciprocal trade with china. wasas been very clear, and cleared directly with the president of china, and we want to make sure that americans and american workers, in particular, are getting the best deal and best pieces possible. that was one of the reasons he worked to secure massive deals totaling over $250 billion while he was in china. he's going to continue to push for those types of efforts. jordan. reporter: thank you, sarah. before the president left for asia, officials here said north korea might be added back on the +list of state sponsors of terror. has the president gone forward? ms. sanders: i believe the president will make an announcement the first part of next week and we'll keep you posted. reporter: the fish and wildlife service will allow elephant

trophies imported from zimbabwe. the president disagreed with this hunting. why did he change his view on the practice? ms. sanders: there hasn't been an announcement that's been finalized on this front. i defer you to the department of interior. reporter: they have draft what's going in the federal register tomorrow. ms. sanders: again, there hasn't been an announcement and until that's done i wouldn't consider it final. again, i would defer you to the department of interior for the time being and when we have an announcement on that front we'll let you know. reporter: thank you, sarah. the senate judiciary committee sent a letter to jared kushner alleging he did not provide all the information that he should have. -- about his emails during the campaign. especially with wikileaks. do you acknowledge that mr. kushner has not been fully

forthcoming? secondly, donald trump jr. sent all his correspondence on his twitter account. do you acknowledge that the campaign was in touch with wikileaks during the campaign or was the president aware that his son was corresponding with wikileaks? ms. sanders: jared's attorney will be putting out a statement momentarily. it will probably happen within the next half-hour or so, so i'll refer you to that. in terms of dealing with the campaign, i refer you to the campaign. deborah. reporter: thank you, sarah. after the house passed the g.o.p. health care law, you had a celebration in the rose garden. i assume there won't be a celebration today about the tax bill. what are you doing differently this time around? ms. sanders: look, the president was on the hill earlier today to praise and rally support for the vote. he's very engaged in this process. we're going to continue to be. and we're looking forward to seeing the same results come out of the senate when they pass a

bill, and signing historic tax cuts and tax reform by the end of the year. reporter: yes, you talked about the tax bill in terms fulfilling a promise to middle class people that the president made during the campaign and afterwards. why does the president support a bill that individual tax rates -- the cuts will expire at the end of 2025 but the corporate rate will never expire going down from 35% to 20%? ms. sanders: look, the president laid out his principles. that's what we said all along. we're counting on the house and senate to actually put in the details of that legislation that reflect the priorities that the president laid out. we're going to continue letting this bill work through the process, and right now we think it's in a really good place and we're going to keep pushing forward with progress. reporter: do you think that's a fair bill, to have the one provision expire and the other not? ms. sanders: again, the president has made clear what his priorities for this legislation are. reporter: one of the things that happened in china after the president left was the

announcement of more ownership in the financial sector -- it was announced after the president left. i wonder if that came up in the conversation between the president and if that was part of any ongoing conversations that was reached? ms. sanders: i don't know if that specific thing came up. reporter: the president's statement yesterday that he and president xi said there will be no proposals regarding north korea. what is your understanding, the president's understanding what he and xi agreed about that and does the president stand by that statement yesterday? >> you can find these events is mandatory. back to the senate finance committee, reviewing senate tax reform proposal. >> for people living in poverty -- of,, with a most a quarter our children living in poverty, struggling wfl