>> one of the jobs of growing old is passing the torch. >> watch afterwords sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. n c-span2's book tv. >> the white house announced the president would donate his quarterly salary to the veterans affairs department. the news came during press secretary sarah sanders briefing with the press corps, acting v.a. secretary robert which willky spoke briefly, thanking the president for his money and generosity. then ms. sanders took questions rom reporters. sarah: good afternoon. as you all know, president trump is deeply committed to our veterans. these brave men and women have given so much to our country and deserve our absolute best. which is why this president is fighting for reform and accountability at the v.a. in keeping with his campaign

pledge, the president donates his salary on a quarterly basis to further important projects. today the president is donating his quarterly salary to the department of veterans affairs. acting secretary of veterans affairs is here to accept the check. i'd like to bring him up to say a few words about how these funds will be used. make sure i give you the all-important actual check. mr. which willky: thank you very much, sarah. good afternoon. before i address the president's generosity, i want to say a couple of things about what happened in the house yesterday. i want to send my thanks and the thanks of veterans affairs to the chairman of the house veterans' affairs committee, dr. roe. and thank him for the bipartisan coalition that he forged together. the vote yesterday was overwhelming. 347-70.

this is long awaited legislation. this takes seven community care programs that we have been using for the last 15 to 20 years and condenses them into one. it also makes it much easier for our veterans to obtain care that they need at the moment that they need it, in homes, and in facilities closest to where they live. this also opens up the caregiver program to long-waiting communities within our veterans' world. those veterans from world war ii, korea, vietnam and the gulf war who have not had access to a community caregiver program that was opened up for those who have served in the military since. so with this strong bipartisan -- since 9/11. so with this strong bipartisan support, we urge the senate to take up the house bill and give it to president trump, hopefully before memorial day.

but i also want to single out the major veterans' service organizations. 38 of them signed a letter in support of this legislation. to the house and senate leadership. their people have been walking the halls of the congress for the last week. they will be in the senate next week and we can't thank them enough for their support for our nation's 20 million veterans. sarah, i want to thank you for the announcement. i want to thank you for president trump's generosity. the president's gift underscores his promise to do all that he can for veterans, which includes supporting those who care for our veterans. not just those of us at v.a., but the husbands, the wives, the families and the community caregivers who are out there day in and day out, making life easier for those who have borne the battle. president trump understands the critical role of caregivers in meeting the essential needs of america's veterans. so we've already earmarked this

gift for caregiver support in the form of mental health and peer support programs, financial aid, education training and research. i am deeply grateful for president trump for providing me the opportunity to serve america's veterans and for his generosity in supporting them. so thank you, sarah. and thank you to president trump. i know how much this means to america's veterans. thank you. sarah: thank you very much. lastly, this week is set aside each year to honor those across our country who wear the badge. in the spirit of police week, i want to read a quick letter from samuel of san antonio, texas, that he sent the president. dear mr. president, donald j. trump, last year i raised about $375 for our police. i went down to make -- to mcdonald's and bought $75 $-- 75 $5 gift cards to the police officers could get coffee and

lunch. it would be really cool to meet you. i wish i could vote for you but i'm only 11. my mom voted for you. i listen to yuck talks and the i -- to your talks and i went to he inauguration and saw you. samuel was adopted by his family in guatemala. he's incredibly grateful to be an american. and he's very grateful to all of the law enforcement officers around the country. the president is very proud of samuel and believes our country needs more young people like him who give back to their communities. he's a really, really great kid. it was great to meet him. with that i'll take your questions. john. reporter: we haven't had a chance to hear any kind of in depth analysis here. where are we with the summit with kim jong un and the statements that we've heard over the last few days out of north korea, do you think that these are in jeopardy the idea of a sum snit or is this just north korea -- summit? or is this just north korea doing what it does and trying to get the best deal possible?

sarah: look, the president is prepared and will be ready to meet and we're continuing to move forward with the preparations at -- at this point. and if the north koreans want to meet, we'll be there. and at this point there is not a lot of change beyond that and certainly not in our process. reporter: what north korea's saying now about the joint military exercises, after it was said kim knows that these take place and he understands that they have to take place. what game is north korea playing? sarah: you'd have to ask north korea what game they're playing. i can tell you what we're doing. and we're continuing to move forward in preparations. and the president, as we've said ail all along, will be prepare -- as we've said all along, will be prepared and ready to meet. there's not a lot to add beyond that point. john. reporter: thank you. what leverage does the u.s. have as it relates to this meeting taking place on june 12? and to that meeting take place,

what leverage does the u.s. have over accomplishing the american goal of denuclearizing the korean peninsula? sarah: we're continuing in the maximum pressure campaign. but again, nothing has changed on our end. this was an invitation that north korea offered and that we've accepted and we're continuing to move forward in those preparations. steve. sorry, i'm going to keep going because we're tight on time today. reporter: if i could follow up on that, what the north koreans also announced was they were stopping the dialogue with south korea. so is it possible that there could be a meeting between the united states and north korea if that dialogue between the north and south is on ice? sarah: the meeting that would take place on june 12 is between the united states and north korea. should it take place we're going to meet with president moon next week and beyond that, again, there are no changes at this point to our schedule. or anything else. blake. reporter: president trump will be -- [inaudible] -- the f.b.i.

-- campaign? sarah: i haven't spoken with him directly at about that but i've seen the reports. if there's any truth to that it should be looked into. sorry, i'm going to keep going because we're tight. reporter: following up on blake's question. if it is proven that there was a spy planted in the trump campaign, does that change the president's position on firing robert mueller? sarah: i'm not going to speak about hypotheticals or get into a what could happen if. we'll move forward in the process and make it a determination at that point -- make a determination at that point. john. reporter: thank you, sarah. the iraqi elections are over. and it's very clear that the two big winners, the two top vote getters, were the party that was swornemy of the united states and someone aligned with the iraqi communist party.

the second place finisher was the party alined with a warlord who was once backed by iran. what's the u.s.'s attitude on a government in baghdad having either of those individuals as a key player? sarah: i'll start with the fact that i'm glad you said the names and not me because i probably wouldn't have gotten them right. but in terms of our policy we don't have any new policy announcements. with a potential change there. reporter: so you don't care? if either of them? sarah: certainly we care but i don't have any specific changes in u.s. policy while that's happened. reporter: what does the united states expect out of negotiations today with china on trade? and what is the president's intentions on helping or changing the policy toward chinese companies? sarah: in terms of the meeting, i'll start there. those are conversations that are ongoing. when we have something from that i'll be happy to share it with

you. but right now those are just discussions and there's nothing to add. they're just not,000 in taking place. i can say -- they're just now taking place. i can say we expect their president will meet with the head of the chinese delegation later this afternoon. on z.t.e., look, the united states and china relationship has a lot of issues that we have regular ongoing conversations about, national security, trade, z.t.e. is one of them. as we've said before and as the president has stated, he's asked secretary ross to look into the issue. and do whatever is consistent with the law and regulations. but right now it's just something that he's asked them to look into. reporter: also on trade, the president said yesterday that mexico does nothing for us especially at the border. we know there are talks today on nafta. today and tomorrow. i wonder if the administration's going to condition any nafta deal on an agreement with mexico

or is mexico stepping up -- [inaudible] -- sarah: i'm not going to get into the trade conversations at this point. because they are ongoing and those are negotiations that we're in the middle of. but i can tell you that the president does want to see mexico step up and do more. there's a lot that comes through their country and he wants them to be tougher and more aggressive on that front. reporter: this morning the president marked a one-year anniversary of the mueller investigation saying it's disgusting, illegal, unwarranted and a witch hunt. his own f.b.i. director yesterday said it's not a witch hunt. does the president -- why does the white house still believe it's a witch hunt and why did he cancel his news conference this afternoon? which was originally set for 3:00. sarah: different topics. but the president knows there was no collusion in the campaign. and he has been quite clear about this. it's gone on for over a year. they've found no evidence of collusion. and still strongly believe that it's a witch hunt.

i'm not sure how we could be any more clear and certainly not sure how the president could be any more clear about his beliefs and his opinions. in terms of a press engagement, the president will have press at his event here shortly which is why we're going to have to keep it quick and short today. and likely take a few questions at that event. reporter: on immigration, there seems to be moving closer to action in the house of representatives. and i'm wondering what bill the president would accept, anything short of four pillars that he laid out earlier this month, something like border security and daca is a proposal that's gaining steam. could the president support that? sarah: the president definitely supports border security, as he's laid out multiple times. and again talked about it yesterday. he'd like to see the border secured. he'd like to see the loopholes closed. our priorities have not changed in the immigration conversation at all.

reporter: back to neevement you have said that the president -- north korea. you have said that the president would be will be to meet with north korea. does that put north korea in the driver's seat here? is it north korea that's going to decide whether a meeting takes place? and also, the president said yesterday that the white house hadn't heard anything from north korea. has that changed? you have heard anything since these talks were called off with south korea? sarah: they're certainly not in the driver's seat. nothing could be further from the truth. but they're the ones that extended the invitation. we've accepted it. if they want to meet, we're happy to do that. if they don't, as the president has said, we'll see what happens. but we're going to continue the maximum pressure campaign. in the meantime, i don't know how they would be in the driver's seat in any capacity, form or fashion. reporter: is the white house setting the standard for, we won't meet with you unless you do x, y, z? sarah: the north koreans have already made concessions.

they've already -- three americans are home now that weren't. the president has had some success in this process. and certainly we've given up nothing and we were -- we are going to continue moving forward and we're moving into this with our eyes wide open. we're not naive in this process. but the president is fully prepared to have the meeting. but if not, that's ok too. and we'll see what happens beyond that. reporter: i know we've asked this a few times. sarah: that's ok. that's what we do here. ask the same question over and over and over again. cari: -- reporter: can you say when michael cohen stopped being the president's personal lawyer? sarah: i won't get into. that jude to reach out to the president's outside counsel. reporter: why didn't the president disclose the reimbursement to michael cohen in last year's financial disclosure report? to follow up on the questions on north korea, has any consideration been given at this point to potentially canceling those joint military exercises with south korea?

sarah: on first question, that was addressed in the financial disclosure. that's something that would be determined by white house counsel, how things would be categorized in the filings. on the second part, those are ongoing exercises that are routine. they're aware of. they're annual. and at this point we have no intention of changing them. reporter: because so many people in the country have been talking about it the last 24 hours, what did the president mean when he said some immigrants are not people, they're animals? sarah: the president was very clearly referring to ms-13 gang members who enter the country illegally and whose deportations are ham strung by our laws. -- hamstrung by our laws. this is one of the most vicious and deadly gangs that operate by the motto of rape, control and kill. if the media and liberals want to defend ms-13 they're more than welcome to. frankly i don't think the term that the president used was strong enough. ms-13 has done heinous acts. it took an animal to stab a man 100 times and decapitate him and

rip his heart out. it took an animal to beat a woman they were sex trafficking with a bat 28 times, indenting part of her body. and it took an animal to kidnap, drug and rape a 14-year-old houston girl. frankly, i think that the term animal doesn't go far enough and i think that the president should continue to use his platform and everything he can do under the law to stop these types of horrible, horrible, disgusting people. i'm going to take one more question. reporter: chances of a summit now less likely than they were a week ago before these statements came out? sarah: i'm not going to get into a percentage game. i can tell that you we're ready and prepared and if they happen, they happen. if they don't, we'll see what happens. thanks so much, guys. we'll see you here in a few minutes with the president. reporter: has the president ever lied to us? [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national able satellite corp. 2018]

>> during his weekly news conference, house speaker paul ryan took several questions on an effort by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to force a vote on a proposal that would protect participants of the deferred action childhood arrivals program or daca. this is a little more than 10 minutes. mr. ryan: you know, there is a lot of good news out there today. and let me just start with this. americans are more satisfied t