has any background when it comes to our common carrier or net neutrality. the agency is still the agency that does not answer or come into play unless a harm is done and unless you can prove unfair or deceptive practices. those are very high hurdles for e security systems >> at today's white house briefing, press secretary sanders took questions on reports that house republicans would block the president's proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum. we will show as much of the briefing until the house comes back in at 5:00 p.m. eastern ime.

mr. sarbanes: good afternoon. as you -- senator sanders: the president and first lady -- ms. sanders: the bond between the united states and united states and israel is the strongest. to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital made made good and appreciates prime minister netanyahu saying his action will be remembered by the israeli people. our two nations stand united against terrorism and those who fund it as well as in our shared goal to build a more peaceful and prosperous middle east. before taking your questions today, i would like to introduce you to our special guests. have retired marine corps

heck who both served. the president met both of them recently at walter reed. sergeant peck suffered a traumatic brain injury. then after two years of therapy, he re-enlisted and deployed to afghanistan. he stepped on an i.e.d. and lost both arms and legs and spent two years at walter reed and received a double arm transplant and doing physical and occupational therapy at walter reed and doing increditly well. staff sergeant dwifere suffered from an explosion. he stepped on an i.e.d. resulting in the loss of his left leg. doctors were able to save his limbs and re-aattach them through 50 surgeries and spending four years at walter reed, he is back there.

thank you both for your service and for inspiring us all with your bravery, sense of duty and resilience. these men represent the best of america and remind us why it is so important that our great veterans get the care they deserve. and we have announced plans for the v.a. to shift electronic medical records to the same system used by the defense department. and the president signed an executive order to ensure veterans can receive care outside of the v.a. system when needed. he signed into law a bill empowering senior v.a. officials to fire employees who are not taking care of our vets. accountability is being restored. he signed into a law a bill streamlining processes when appealing benefits claims. hundreds of thousands of vets are awaiting decisions. the president is pushing the v.a. to use the new process to

work through the backlog as quickly as possible. he signed a bill authorizing $2.1 billion in additional funds for the veteran choice program. this program helps vets facing long wait times. by empowering them to receive quality care. the white house has set up a v.a. hotline satisfied by veterans. i could continue with the list, but should leave no doubt that president trump is serious about taking kay of our veterans. they sacrifice so much for us and we must never them down. thank you sergeants pecan dwire. and i met them at walter reed and promised they would be on their best behavior, but we'll see how it goes. if it goes tough, i will be happy to refer questions to both of them because i'm sure as tough as they are they can handle anything that is thrown at them.

reporter: have you or the president read in full the i.g. report on secretary shull kin. are you satisfied with his response? and is he in any jeopardy? ms. sanders: secretary shull kin has repaid several thousand dollars towards some of the travel costs of the trip that was in question. and we are continuing to focus on a lot of the great work that is taking place at the v.a. while that is still under review. secretary shull kin has done a great job. and one of the reasons these guys are here to continue pushing to make sure we improve the v.a. system and continue to put extra encouragement on the v.a. secretary to make sure we are doing everything. reporter: you said the secretary's conduct was consistent with the standards the president has established for the v.a.? ms. sanders: that continues to be under review. reporter: the speaker of the

house said he is very concerned rging the president not urging the tariff plan. what's your reaction to speaker ryan? ms. sanders: we have had a great relationship with speaker ryan but doesn't mean we have to agree on everything. the president has been committed and talked about this for many years, particularly on the campaign trail and the people came out loud and clear and supported this president, thfer supporting the policies that he campaigned on. we want to solve the problem and the president believes in free, fair and resip ro call trade. to protect wants american workers and protect industries like the steel and alume anymore industries. reporter: nothing of this will jeopardize economic growth as the speaker fears?

ms. sanders: we have to protect some of the industries that are the backbone of this country and we have to protect american workers. we can't ignore these industries. it's a matter of both economic and national security and something he feels very strongly about and will continue to move forward. >> looks like the deadline on daca is going to come and go today. any action that the white house could take has been suspended. what is the message to congress and hasn't done anything to do it? ms. sanders: it is terrible that congress has failed to act. the president gave congress six months and gave them a plan. he gave them four pillars that he wanted to see in legislation. legislation and principles that the majority of members of congress have supported in the past. they claim to want to fix daca. the president laid out a pathway and exact way to do it. and failed to address it. we hope congress will do their job, show up and get something

done and fix this problem, not kick it down the road and not continue to ignore the it. reporter: i expect you are expecting a favorable ruling from the supreme court and then what happens? ms. sanders: we fully expect to win on an appeal and we feel confident there as well. but again, it's congress' job to pass laws and the president has laid out what he wants to see and the sad part is that both republicans and democrats don't disagree on most of the merits of this legislation. the fact that they can't come together and get something done is pathetic and using the courts as an excuse. they need to come to work. reporter: if the court reinstates his authority to rescind the daca protections and congress doesn't act, is the president willing to back off? ms. sanders: i'm not going to get ahead of what the president

will or will not do. reporter: the president had tough. does the president ruled out exceptions under the limiting tariffs for certain u.s. allies? ms. sanders: we are finalizing what the final deal will look it and i will not get ahead of the president's announcement. reporter: many republicans were caught off guard by the president's decision as it relates to tariffs. were they caught off guard? were they give quen a heads up? ms. sanders: they should have been well aware that this is something that the president has been talking about for quite some time. if they were caught off guard, they haven't been listening to what he is sagan talking about and how he has promised to make good trade deals and make free and fair trade. reporter: is he open to

discussing this particular issue that he is at odds and perhaps find a compromise? ms. sanders: the president is going to do what he feels is necessary to protect american workers. reporter: let congress know what wanted to be done on guns. where is that proposal? ms. sanders: we are continuing to have those conversations. the president has laid out specific things. and as well as the stop gun violence act. those are two beeses of legislation that the president supports. we are going to continue to engage with congress as we lay out some more details of what we would like to see. >> reporter: including the meeting

taking place on thursday with leaders of the video game industry. reporter: the president said it was going to cost $250,000 to build the u.s. embassy. what was he referring to or what did he mean by that? ms. sanders: he is going to do it faster and far less expensive than the billion dollar project. reporter: on the tariffs, the president tweeted that trade wars are good, easy to win, can you explain what he meant by that? ms. sanders: the president is very confident if that is where we ended up, that's where we would win. that's not the goal. we are trying to get free and fair trade and hope other countries will join in. reporter: paul ryan is pleading with the president to reverse course. is there no way to reverse course? ms. sanders: the president said he wasn't backing down but in terms of the specifics, i'm not

going to get into that. reporter: possible that some of the details will change. ms. sanders: haven't rolled out all of the details. reporter: he said 25% tariff on teel imports and 10% tariff on aluminum imports on everybody -- ms. sanders: i'm not going to go any further. reporter: secretary pruitt is under scrutiny for his taxpayers and secretary carson is under scrutiny for the $31,000 dining set. can you talk about that? after media scrutiny. can you explain the white house view and taking all three of those and how you believe this fits the pattern of draining the swamp?

ms. sanders: all of those individual secretaries travel are under review and i can't speak to that further as that it is going. reporter: how is this behavior consistent with the president's directive to drain the swamp? ms. sanders: that's why they are under review. but i can't get into anything further right now. reporter: the president said that he wants to come back to the table about middle east peace. ms. sanders: i can only tell you we are committed to the peace process and we are going to continue having those conversations and pushing to get something done. he sees a lot of things that everybody else isn't seeing and i can't get into that right now. reporter: i want to ask you about breaking news. am nunberg is refusing a

subpoena and he said, meaning the president, may have done something during the election, but i don't know that for sure? ms. sanders: he is incorrect as we said many times before. there was no collusion with the trump campaign and anything further on what his actions were, he hasn't worked at the white house and i can't speak to him or the lack of knowledge that he clearly has. reporter: what is your knowledge that he is refusing the subpoena. would you encourage him to come forward? ms. sanders: i'm not going to weigh in on somebody who doesn't work at the white house. we are fully cooperating with the office of special counsel and will continue to do so and reiterate once again the reason we are so comfortable doing so is because there is absolutely no collusion within the trump campaign or any foreign government. reporter: commerce secretary

wilbur ross was asked if there was any possibility that the president could change his mind. he said whatever his final decision is, is what will happen, what he has said he has said. if it is different, it will be something different. why doesn't this a mixed message? ms. sanders: this is a decision. it will ultimately be made by the president. there are a lot of legal details that are being finalized and the secretary isn't going to get ahead of the president. at the end of the day, this will be something that the president makes a decision on and he will do so fully with the idea of doing what he can to protect american workers and promote economic and national security. reporter: what, if any, was there a shift today in jared

kushner's position in relation o netanyahu's meeting? ms. sanders: none at all. reporter: he doesn't have the security clearance? ms. sanders: i will not comment clearance.individual someone has written president trump at least twice in reference to chicago and guns and you said you will continue conversations about guns. why wouldn't you bring someone to the table because he is on the ground with gangs and dealing with guns. chicago as well. ms. sanders: i would have to look into that? . i'm not aware of the individual or the letters. so i would have check into that. reporter: does the president believe we should take guns away

from people before due process? ms. sanders: we need to expedite the process and if somebody is potentially harmful to themselves or other people, that we have the ability to expedite that process. certainly want to have due process and want to make sure it's not tied up for months and months and months and someone who could be potentially dangerous is allowed someone to have a gun. reporter: attorney michael cohen had trouble reaching him to talk him about the $130,000 to stephanie clifford. did they talk about this during the campaign? ms. sanders: not that i'm aware of and i refer you to michael. reporter: the difficulty in reaching a deal. it has been more than a year since prime minister's netanyahu's visit.

he said a year ago, the administration achieved a great peace deal and would be doing it very diligently, why hasn't the administration put forward a framework? ms. sanders: we will continue pushing forward. we are as committed now as we have ever been and continue in this process and will let you know when we have aannouncement. reporter: is there progress in achieving some kind of proposal? why would that be? ms. sanders: we aren't going to get ahead of where we are in this process. the conversations are still ongoing and this wasn't a problem that was created in a short amount of time but we are committed to fixing and being part of and will continue those conversations and pushing for that peace. reporter: two brief questions. first, the "new yorker" is carrying a story in which a

former british agent christopher steele claims that russian sources within the kremlin tore speed ood governor romney men enemy.is a sworn the administration's response? ms. sanders: i don't know that is factual in that. reporter: when the president announced --. we'll leave here, the house is coming back for legislative work. thuse will rese proceedgs onponed questis at later tim what pur does the gentleman om alama see recogtion? >> mr. spear, ie to uspend the rles d passhe bill h.r. 1209. the ear pro mpore: the