services committee. live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. and janet yellen and ben bernanke will discuss the u.s. economy. live from the brookings institution live at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> today's white house briefing ith sarah sanders. and announced that the president will host his first state dinner ith frever precedent macron. mr. sarbanes: the president being out and keep this fairly quick. also, got back in this morning, so bear with me a little bit, and great to be back with everybody. after traveling to the winter olympics led by ivanka trump,

the country is proud of our athletes. not only did they perform well but did it with class and sports manship and it was a privilege to meet our athletes and their families. in addition to the athletic competition, these games were important. on file, the united states announced the largest ever set of new north korea sanctions, companies and countries should know that the trump administration is 100% committed to the permanent denuke larization of the korean peninsula and we will enforce united states and united nations' sanctions. we will continue to lead a cam pabe of maximum pressure and we believe there is a brighter path available to north korea. they have expressed a desire to hold talks. but let us be completely clear. denuke larization must be the

dialogue. the united states and the world must continue to make it known that north korea's missile and nuclear programs are at a dead end. we welcomed the nation's governors. they participated in breakout sessions. the president led a session on safe schools and safe communities. it was a productive dialogue with our state leaders and came on the heels of other listening sessions. survivors, students, teachers and local officials. the president is committed to ensuring the safety of our schools and communities and wants to hear ideas from americans of all backgrounds and beliefs. and we must make it harder and protect the rights of law-abiding americans while keeping guns out of the hands of those who pose a danger and create a culture.

condemning violence. the president will not rest until these goals are achieved. i'm pleased to announce the first state visit of the trump administration. the president and first lady will welcome president and mrs. macron to the white house on april 24. this will advance american and french cooperation on economic and global issues and deepen the friendship between the two countries. reporter: does the president believe that sheriff israel of broward county should step down and also the broward county deputy who resigned has come out with a statement said he believed he was acting appropriately and thought the gun fire was coming outside the school and taking steps to ensure that he was able to respond. mr. sarbanes: the president els in terms of his --

ms. sanders: but he has been very clear in his public comments on how he feels about the situation specifically. but that's a decision that should be left up to local officials. reporter: should he sheriff israel step down? ms. sanders: that should be left up to the local communities and not the president. reporter: the president did not mention whether he wants to have an age limit. is that still his position. will lawmakers come to the white house and did the president say he will have a law on bump stocks? ms. sanders: let's see. on bump stocks, the president did sign an executive memo directing the a.t.f. and department of justice to outlaw

on bump stocks. if we cannot find an administrative fix, we would support legislative solution to complete that. on whether or not he will be meeting with lawmakers, the president is planning a meeting for wednesday with bipartisan members of congress. we'll have further details on that later in the week to discuss different pieces of legislation and what they can do moving forward. in terms of -- i think the last question you had, was the age limit, that is still being discussed and legislative piece has not been determined on that front. reporter: he mentioned it today. is he reconsidering it how it should be implemented? ms. sanders: in terms of the concept, that is still being discussed and part of the discussion.

reporter: on john kelly's new security clearance, can you discuss how many people lost their access to that? ms. sanders: that goes to a broader number or an individual number, so i'm not going to get into that. reporter: were there any administration first -- ms. sanders: our policy has not to discuss it. reporter: does the president believe that background check should apply to internet sales and gun show sales? ms. sanders: we are looking at the different ways to do that and haven't made a final determination. i do think that will be a large part of the conversation that takes place later this week when he visits with lawmakers. reporter: he has expressed support has a position that is

constitutional and allow people to carry in one state to carry into another state where states don't allow concealed carry. ms. sanders: i haven't talked to him about it recently. i have to follow up. reporter: the president has been getting pushback about his proposal to allow teachers to carry guns. governor inslee, for example. has the white house hold from any jurisdiction that is actively pursuing this where they don't already have these authorities? ms. sanders: we heard from individual teachers and school personnel that support it. but we're not advocating for the arming of every single teacher. there are teachers who have pre-existing training and desire to be part of something like this. we are still listening and making and determining the best

steps forward. but hardening our schools is a viable path and one we are looking at. but a final determination hasn't been made and would certainly involve state, local and federal officials all weighic in which is what you have seen. we have had a number of different stakeholders involved. i think you had voices from the very most conservative to the most liberal side and we are looking to bring all of those groups together and determine the best path forward to do the very most to make sure we are doing everything under the administration's purview. reporter: what did the thinking about the idea? not sure it would work? ms. sanders: this is something that is part of the discussion. and that's what we are doing right now. what we did last week is what

the president did this morning and continue to do on wednesday with lawmakers to make that determination. reporter: you mentioned the president's remarks. russia is considering sanctions on north korea and possibility of dialogue, who in the administration would take point? ms. sanders: the president would be the lead on taking point on anything that would move forward. in terms of whether or not there would be any consequence, i'm not going to weigh in ahead of time and we have never broadcast what we might do. but something the president does take very seriously. reporter: some conservatives on capitol hill want concealed carry reciprocity to be included in the package of gun legislation is that something the white house supports?

ms. sanders: as i said, i know the president has been supported in the past but i haven't spoken with him recently. reporter: welcome back. let me get a sense whether there are any pre-conditions of talks that would occur between u.s. and north korean officials. ms. sanders: as we have said in the past that any conversation that we have would match the comments that we have been making in public and anything that would be discussed would have to be solely on the focus of them agreeing to denuke larizing the peninsula. that would be the primary factor. >> the vice president led the delegation for the opening ceremonies and ivanka trump led the delegation for the closing ceremoniees and high-level officials were in south korea and north korean officials that

were present. was it a missed opportunity for both sides to talk to one another during the olympics? ms. sanders: i don't think so. i think the message that the united states wanted to deliver was the one of maximum pressure and we continue to do that. i think you saw that in all of the remarks in public and private between the u.s. and officials and president moon and his administration and also through the actions of the treasury department with the largest sanctions ever that you saw on friday. reporter: i want to get back to -- [indiscernible] the report was pretty forthright about this in the onset and now you just said it is something that is still being discussed. it feels like a little bit of a downgrade. why is it a downgrade and he had lunch with the n.r.a. over the

weekend, did the n.r.a. get ahold of him? ms. sanders: it's not a downgrade in what this process would look like and specific pieces of legislation would look like. it would be premature, but the president is still supportive of the concept. reporter: you just returned from the region, from the perspective of the region, have the north koreans been successful in driving a wedge between the united states and south korean? ms. sanders: i don't think so. you saw that with the vice president's visit and over the last several days there was a great sense of cooperation and i would say that that alliance is very much strong. there is no daylight between us and the south koreans and what needs to happen. reporter: is the president concerned about the continuing violence despite there has been -- ms. sanders: syria is

terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with air strikes, rockets and the regime's use of chlorine gas only intensifies this. the united states calls for an immediate end and urgent access for humanitarian workers and badly needed humanitarian aid. reports report i want to ask about the luncheon with the n.r.a., was it on saturday or unday and why wasn't it on the president's schedule? ms. sanders: the president wasn't trying to keep it under wraps. it was a productive conversation and i think everyone is in agreement that things need to be done and we need to have changes take place to do what we can to protect america's kids. members of the n.r.a. want to be part of that discussion. the president is taking

information from a number of stakeholders and try to pretend like he is being influenced by any one group would be ridiculous considering the number of individuals he has met with that come from the far left to the far right and a lot of those in between and we will continue those discussions and meet with bipartisan lawmakers later this week. reporter: yesterday morning, the n.r.a. person said these are things when it comes to the age limit. it does seem like there is a softening of the stance between what we heard this week and what we are hearing now today. and is it at this point, the president committed to that. ms. sanders: we haven't seen the legislation in form yet and we are not going to speak to potential legislation that doesn't exist that may have have a lot of different language.

the president still supports it. but in terms of legislation, we need to see what it looks like. i'm disappointed that peter didn't make it. we were on the same travel schedule. reporter: i want to ask you this, given the guilty plea from rick gates on friday, what is the president's judgment that three people on his campaign have turned out to be criminals. ms. sanders: those are issues that were involved long before the president. and because they are active investigations, i won't go any further than that. they are actions that are under review and under investigation that took place to him being part of the president's campaign. reporter: sean spicer who was at the podium should a statement that another mass murder attack conducting chemical weapons.

given, should the assad regime be on notice? ms. sanders: i think the president put the assad regime on notice some time ago and we are continuing to echo that message where we call for an immediate end to these offensive operations. in terms of any specific operations, i'm not going to broadcast what we may or may not do, but they should it take very seriously. i don't believe anything has taken place. reporter: waist the time line for anything happen? ms. sanders: he is not going to lay out a specific calendar. he says that is a big mistake. so i'm not going to do that today. reporter: first on the question about background checks, the

president has talked about making background checks stronger, but that would suggest that he thinks an effective background check is a useful tool, so can you say for sure that he supports whether it is background checks, whether panding the checks and sales at gun shows and the internet. ms. sanders: i'm not aware that's the position he is in right now. he supports the cornyn legislation and that would be something that the administration could get behind. in terms of other specific legislation, it would be another piece of legislation that the president would specifically support. any legislation beyond that, we have to see what it looks like. i haven't asked him that specifically. reporter: the first lady today the r remarks about to

spouses of the governors, mentioned the young students who had eman douglas been advocating, praised them and said their advises need to be heard. given the large majority of the students that express views that run counter to the administration that this administration would support, does the support agree with the first lady that these are important voices that need to be heard? ms. sanders: absolutely. he had a number of them here at the white house just like last week and we will continue having those conversations and one piece of the conversation and certainly one that is very important and should be listened to and that is why that is the very first meeting that the president held on school safety. we want to continue that dialogue as well as continue the conversations with state, local and federal officials.

and the president had the governors here today and that's why he will be having meetings with congress on both sides of the isle. reporter: when the president said he would have run into the school, was he suggesting that he could have saved the day? ms. sanders: i think he was just stating that as a leader, he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help. the coach and other adults and a lot of the students stepped up and helped protect other students. i think the point he was making, he would have played a role in that. reporter: is he trained in firing a weapon, a handgun or firearm? ms. sanders: i don't think that was the point he was making. he said he would be a leader and would want to take courageous action and those who weren't

carrying firearms just shows you can be helpful in that process. reporter: if you have a lot of people inside these schools with weapons, that this could turn into a situation like the wild west. what would you say to parents out there who are worried about a faculty member, coaches and administrators packing heat? ms. sanders: that's why we are having this conversation. here are a lot of parents -- we'll leave the last few moments and take you to the house. the nays. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1222 as amended, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill.