and attorney joe cotchett. #metoo founder movement, clarence thomas, starbucks c.o.o., and nikki hayley. illary clinton, rex tillerson, and canadian prime minister justin trudeau. apple c.e.o. tim >> at the pentagon briefing, lieutenant general kenneth mckenzie said there's no change in u.s. military posture following the cancellation of the summit with president trump

and north korean leader kim jong un. he said a, quote, normal state of vigilance will be maintained. citing what he called, north korea's past unpredictable behavior. he's joined by chief pentagon pokesman dana white. >> good afternoon. i hope everyone is getting ready for a safe and happy holiday weekend. for many, memorial day weekend signifies the start of summer. it can be easy to overlook the significance of memorial day and what it means to our nation. especially the service members who continue to defend our freedoms every day. we celebrate memorial day in honor of the brave men and women who died while serving in the military. as we head into the holiday weekend, please join me in a

moment of silence for those we have lost in service to our great nation. ms. white: regarding the secretary's travel -- yesterday, secretary mattis delivered the air force academy commencement address. he charged the class of 2018 with holding the line to ensure our military remains the most lethal force in the world. today, secretary mattis presides over the north comm and norad change of command ceremony as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of norad. he will underscore the importance of north america as an example of democratic stability in a time of global promise and peril. he will also reinforce the importance of our indispinsable alliance with canada, and he will mexico's increased leadership and renewed commitment to regional stability. with that i will take your questions. bob, you're back. reporter: yes, thank you. dana, a couple questions in

connection with the president's remarks a few minutes ago about canceling the meeting with north korea. he mentioned that he had spoke with secretary mattis about this and he said the u.s. military now is more ready than ever to deal with north korea. i'm wondering either of you or both could flush that out a little bit by what he meant by that. is the u.s. reinforcing positions in some way in south korea? is it anticipating missile provocations now and preparing for that? that sort of thing? ms. white: i can confirm, yes, the secretary spoke with the president today. we are still dealing with the maximize pressure campaign. that hasn't changed with us. in terms of we're ready to fight tonight. that's always been the case. our position has always been to support our diplomatic-led effort. so i'll let the general expand on that. general mckenzie: i will say i think particularly infusion we are getting the plus up in the recent budget will let us address a number of readiness concerns all of which will improve the readiness of the

military, including forces that might be called upon to deploy and fight if we have to conduct operations on the korean peninsula. i will also tell you we maintain a high state of vigilance in regard to the dprk and that will include our missile defense activities. reporter: thank you. do you anticipate missile provocations in light of what's transpired in the last -- general mckenzie: i can't speculate. we will be ready if it happens. reporter: you said, general, there is a high state of vigilance with north korea. the question to either of you. is there a heightened state of vigilance? general mckenzie: no. a high state of vigilance because they've proven to be unpredictable in the past. we want to be able to respond quickly but not a heightened state of vigilance. it's the normal state of vigilance we maintain. reporter: that cancellation of the planned summit has not affected the military posture or in any way? general mckenzie: not in any way. reporter: the president said in

addition to secretary mattis, also spoke with japan and south korea saying they will shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden, any cost by the united states in operations if such an unfortunate situation was upon us. is the president saying -- maybe this is something that you discussed with secretary mattis, but saying that south korea and japan will finance any u.s. military operation in the peninsula? ms. white: i would have to let -- refer you to the white house. i wasn't privy to that. i haven't spoken to secretary mattis since the phone call. i'm happy to come back to you if i have more details. reporter: ok. thank you. reporter: "inside defense," unrelated. the department was notified by the department of commerce they'll be conducting section 232 investigation into flal security implications for imported automobiles. do the pentagon feel imported automobiles are a national security threat, especially most of them come from japan, south korea, europe?

ms. white: so, tony, we just got that memo. i promise to come back to you on that. we are still reviewing it. i owe you an answer. tom. reporter: thank you. >> which tom? ms. white: that tom. you will be my second, tom watkins. no. i am going with you first. reporter: thank you, dana. the i.g. issued a report on afghanistan regarding minimal progress and this detracts with the report on minimal progress. general, we are talking about the winter offensive, u.s. and afghanistan, how it was designed to counter a taliban spring offense. even in afghanistan it's springtime now. how does that winter offensive stack up to the reports that show minimal progress? general mckenzie: sure. the report also noted some significant and minimal shift

in favor to the government. it's a mixed report. i think we're early in a fighting season this year. i think there's a lot of fighting left to be done. i wanted to wait until we are further along in the year. reporter: you are more privy to metrics than in the report. the only metric they could use to judge it is the land that's controlled by the government vis-a-vis not by the government. that hadn't shifted much going to that latest report. can you share with us some of the metrics that we give us a sense of your optimism? general mckenzie: i'd rather late to do it later than right now. reporter: will you do it? general mckenzie: yes. ms. white: tom. reporter: is secretary mattis disappointed to scrap the summit? ms. white: secretary mattis was in support of the effort. this was a state department decision. we -- for us, as the general has said, the maximum pressure campaign continues. our posture hasn't changed. we remain very vigilant and we

will continue to be. so this is -- this is the beginning, not the end. reporter: can i follow-up? he spoke to the he spoke to the president this morning. can you help us to frame it? we're trying to characterize. i understand it's a white house-led effort but what is his opinion? had he been -- what was his view in terms of the summit going forward? was he looking forward to it? was he supportive of it? there must be some feeling from him about now what's happened. we're seeing a total 18 06789 the building is -- 180. the building is going from, just a few months ago we were on this path and then it was all looking much more promising with the summit and now it's cancel and we're talking about -- canceled and we're talking about ready to fight tonight. it's a complete turn-about. so instead of just referring us back to the white house, can you give us any kind of characterization of the secretary's view on all of this? ms. white: i would tell you, as he has said in statements, he

had been cautiously optimistic. the secretary's used to dynamic situations. this is a dynamic situation. this is nothing new to him. so, he's ready to support. we'll continue the maximum pressure campaign. but the secretary was always of a cautiously optimistic about where this would go and he was very firm about, we continue to support our diplomats. that hasn't changed for the secretary. reporter: one different topic for each of you. general mckenzie, on north korea, you say no heightened state of alert. heightened. and i'm curious what that is. because apparently that would come, no need for heightened alert would come from secretary mattis and general dunford, that there is no need for it. so clearly that is the reaction from this building, that there is no need for heightened alert. and i am curious why that is since you also said you do need

readiness funds to improve your ability to fight against north korea. but i'd like to hold and ask to you answer that in a minute. dana, a different question for you. the confidential f.b.i. source, the president has already publicly said that person was paid money and we now know from your press office that that confidential f.b.i. source actually got about $1 million in contract money from d.o.d.'s office of net assessment to produce some reports. so just for the record, can you say that the $1 million the department of defense paid to this confidential source was for actual work being done for the pentagon and he was not being paid by the pentagon to be an f.b.i. informant? different questions for both of you. ms. white: general, i'll let you start. kens sure. we always -- general mckenzie: sure.

we always maintain a high state of ready on the korean peninsula. we've done that for many years because of the actions of d.p.r.k. and its leadership. we're always very confident from our ability to go from a cold start to something more significant if we are required to do so. we wouldn't raise readiness and i'm not going to discuss raising alert levels but -- with you. but we wouldn't do that unless we had indications of that. right now we're at a level of good readiness. we're in a boxer stance. we're ready to respond. we'll see what develops over the next few days if any provocative actions occur from dprk, we'll certainly be ready for it. reporter: can i just ask you to expand on the one point you made, however, that you need this additional readiness for issues such as north korea. so what is it that that can give us -- general mckenzie: certainly -- the others in general over the last few years has send a reduction in things such as munitions, training and other things. because of the focus that we've

had against the fight in afghanistan. and against the fight against isis in syria. with the plus-ups that we've gotten now, we're able to turn and address endemic shortages that have plagued the departments for many years. and that will in turn effect or ability to employ forces against north korea. but also in other places across the globe, should we be required to do so. ms. white: to your second question. i am aware of this. but this is currently under investigation. what i will do is i can come back to you about more details. but this is currently under investigation. i'll need it to get you more details when i have them. reporter: i am sorry but i do need to follow up on this. so your press office has confirmed that this person was granted four contracts by the pentagon's office of net assessment. this is public information that can be found on your own contract website. so, is it -- but you say it's under investigation and i

understand that. are you saying that it is under investigation, then, that the money he was paid by the defense department actually went for real d.o.d. work as opposed to paying him to maintain his informant status? what is it that you're saying when you say under investigation? ms. white: so, first of all, the whole issue of his status and what he was with respect to the f.b.i., that is under investigation. with respect to the contracts, i just have to see this. i just don't have the details. the press office is correct. that they confirmed that there were four contracts. but i would prefer to come back to you and give you more details. i'll come back to you today. how about that? louie. reporter: i'd like to follow up on a few questions. first on the investigation. i take it to mean that you're saying that -- ms. white: which investigation? reporter: about the individual that barbara was talking about. i take it to mean that you're saying there is no d.o.d. investigation of his relationship with the pentagon,

is that correct? ms. white: none that i'm aware of, no. reporter: thank you. the question is about the nuclear testing facility in north korea, that north korea publicly destroyed today. what is the assessment, if i could ask both of you, what is the assessment of the capabilities of that facility today and how quickly do you think it could be brought back to operability if it needed to be? general mckenzie: we're looking at pictures of it right now. we don't have a final assess am. they obviously did some -- assessment. they obviously did some visible destruction to the entrance to the tunnel. i don't have a better answer for you than that right now, except that they've done visible activities related to destruction. i don't know more than that as we talk right now. reporter: is that prior, in the weeks leading up to today as well? was there destruction of facilities in the weeks leading up to today? general mckenzie: we watched preparations for the activity that just occurred. we've been looking at that

closely. anything o you have about the defense spending between the u.s. and south orea or are you willing to ask south korea to include this cost? ms. white: in terms of the shared costs, burden sharing on the peninsula? is that your question? so, i don't have any further details. obviously the president has spoken to his counterparts. but i don't have any details about any changes in the relationship at this time. right here. reporter: thank you. can you clarify your statement about being ready to fight tonight? what does that mean? is it in case you were asked to fight or what? and then on syria, the syrian ate media reported yesterday some positions being attacked or targeted by the coalition.

led by the u.s. can you comment on that as well? ms. white: i'll answer your first question and give it to the general. in terms of fight tonight. it means that the united states military stands ready to defend our interests, this nation, and the interest of our allies. that's what i mean by fight tonight. general mckenzie: i have no reporting that indicates anybody struck syrian military position, u.s. or coalition forces. the u.s. is not involved in it. reporter: one contract question for you, dana and one career question for the general. you said the maximum pressure campaign is going to continue. you have got any instructions today to rash et up the maximum pressure -- ratchet up the maximum pressure campaign? and for dana, a lot of the computer world is waiting for the final jedi cloud. the defense department has said they want to get it done by the end of the month which is coming up next week. is it on track for an end of the month release?

general mckenzie: i wouldn't want to speculate on that. obviously this is information that's less than three hours old. i'm not tracking anything. that would be something i wouldn't be able to speculate on anyway. reporter: you haven't got any instructions in the last few hours to ratchet up the maximum pressure campaign? general mckenzie: that's a future contingency that i'm not going to speculate on. ms. white: with respect to the r.f.p. we are very anxious to get it out. i don't have a particular date to give you on when it will be released. but it is working and we are reviewing everything. but i anticipate that it will be released on time. reporter: when do you release it, could you give a statement in terms of how it's changed from the draft r.f.p. and how industry input helps shape the final product? ms. white: let me take that. reporter: thanks. reporter: for both of you, one on north korea and then one separate topic. a lot's changed in the last 48 hours. for months we've heard that

china had a critical role in getting north korea to the table. and then yesterday its involvement was canceled. and then today this, the cancellation of the summit. what is the way forward to get any sort of agreement to denuclearize north korea? ms. white: the way forward is, frankly it's in the hands of the north koreans. as the president already said, he's prepared to talk. his letter says, write me, call me. but our position is, we continue the maximum campaign. that hasn't changed for us. we're going to continue to ensure that the alliance is strong and that we're ready and that forces are prepared for whatever contingencies. reporter: in terms of disinviting china, what are kind of the actual consequences of that and not having them in the fold, even as these other things like the potential cell phones and some of the other things that have caused china

to be disinvited? ms. white: i think it's important to remember that we will work with china where we can. and we will confront china where we must. with respect to the disinvite or rim pack, that was directly involved because of the militarization of the south china sea which has to do with the rule of law. so that was that expression. but again, we'll continue to work with the chinese, but it's also important that they understand that we take the militarization of international waters very seriously. reporter: you have been able to talk to the chinese since then? are they still going to engage on getting north korea to potentially denuclearize? ms. white: i'm not going to speculate on what ongoing talks there could be. reporter: apologies. a separate topic. last week we talked about the water study at h.h.s. in the last week or so, there's been some movement on it. but could you just -- from the podium -- state the pentagon's official stand on getting this information out to military families? ms. white: yes. we want to get all of that

information out. but understand that the lead is h.h.s. what we have done with respect to -- this has been an ongoing issue. we've worked with the bases. we have worked with the local communities. we've surveyed 524-some-odd installations and their water systems and in the places where we haven't been able to remedy the contaminants, we have provided contingency. bottled water, municipal links. so we are getting that information out. that information is also provided in the base news letters and newspapers and there's also a website, which i'm happy to give you after this, where all of that is listed in what we have done to mitigate the pollution. reporter: you have seen any change in behavior from the chinese in terms of enforcing sanctions on their northern border? general mckenzie: no, i

haven't. but i don't have any detailed information on that. i'll have to come back to you on that. i'm not prepared to give you anything more than. that i think they've been pretty consistent in the application of it. but i don't know that seen a change, something i could discuss with you here today. reporter: for both of you, we hear about the maximum pressure campaign. does that include a military component or is it just the sanctions side? ms. white: it's a whole of government approach. this is sanctions, this is economics, this is diplomatic, this is military. the maximum pressure campaign spans the u.s. government. reporter: can you flush out a little bit then what the military component of the maximum pressure campaign is? general mckenzie: certainly. it's the maintenance of high-ready forces in north korea. it's the deployment of thad to korea. it's the exercises we continue to conduct with our korean and japanese allies. it's a whole variety of things. if i could expand on that for a movement i think tom made a point you thought the building had done aumbings-turn in terms to our approach to north korea. from a military point of view,

we've been on a consistent direction that hasn't changed at all. we're in full support with the military component of the maximum pressure campaign, but nothing has changed. we didn't ramp up or down as word of this summit began to rise and now has ended. we're being very stud straight ahead ony, very straight -- steady, very straight in terms of the readiness we display. i don't believe we've changed anything from the military component vis-a-vis north korea going forward. reporter: can you say that the secretary recommended president rump to cancel the summit with kim jong un? ms. white: the secretary and the president spoke today about the cancellation and the secretary was aware of the decision. reporter: also, just a follow-up. recently the united states resumed the exercise with the republic of korea and then kim jong un regime, of course, responded to it with -- [inaudible] -- can you say whether there was an impact of this exercise on the point that

we are today? ms. white: i'm not going to speculate on what factored into the decision making process on the part of north korea. i can tell you that we continued our exercises. we will continue our exercises. and we stand in full support of the diplomatic effort that moves ahead. reporter: thank you. a question for both of you. in light of the cancellation of the summit, is the pentagon, are u.s. forces, korea, taking a second look at whether south korea should be in a company tour, as in the dependence of service members should be allowed to live there? given that north korean artillery can range all u.s. bases in south korea. ms. white: general. general mckenzie: since it just happened four hours ago, i think it would be premature to speculate at all about that. reporter: earlier this week, the state department declared that the u.s. is going to do a full court press against iran.

one of the -- including navigation. is the u.s. prepared if it needs to get into a conflict with the irgc? general mckenzie: freedom of navigation, particularly in the u.s. central command area responsibility, talking the strait of or muzz. we believe we are prepared to ensure that freedom of navigationing can maintained in those two critical geographic choke points. reporter: how long would it take to sink the iranian fleet? general mckenzie: i don't think that's useful speculation. reporter: my question is for both of you. if i could get a debate about the operation in eastern syria, could you confirm that the s.p.f. now are in control of the syrian-iraqi border? and what is the -- [inaudible] -- right now for the i.s.f. in backing the s.p.f.? general mckenzie: sure. first of all, we believe that on the iraqi side of the

border, they pressed up against it pretty completely and we're very satisfied with the way that's developing. in the ewe frafe e.s.a. river valley in -- ewe freight e.s.a. river valley in syria, operations continue. i don't believe that they've completely closed up against the border but they're moving in that direction and after a pause for a period of time, those operations have now ecommenced and are moving. reporter: could i have a clarification? a quick clarification about the phone call. did the secretary have the phone call with the president before the decision was made or after the decision was made? ms. white: listen, i don't know the exact timing. the secretary and the chairman are both out in colorado springs. they spoke earlier this morning. reporter: how long were those conversations? ms. white: i'm not going to detail how long they spoke. e secretary was aware and -- reporter: -- [inaudible] --

ms. white: so the secretary and the president did speak and the secretary was aware of the decision that was going to be made with respect to the summit. thank you all very much. [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] >> secretary of state mike pompeo testified today before the senate foreign relations committee. on the department's 2019 budget request. you can watch the hearing in its entirety tonight on c-span t 9:00 p.m. eastern. >> this weekend on afterwords, former national intelligence director, james clapper, with his book "facts and fears: hard truths from a life in intelligence." he's interviewed by house intelligence committee member, democrat jim himes. >> what do you think the risks and opportunities are of the trump foreign policy, which is

radically different than the obama foreign policy? >> well, i try to look for areas where i could be supportive. of president trump and his foreign policy. whatever it turns out to be. for example, i agreed with are we came out on afghanistan. and i know it was a teleprompter speech and all that. but i thought he said the right things. and we need to stay there. as undesirable as many may view that. so i felt that was the right call. i supported president trump's acceptance of the invitation to have a summit with kim jong un. i don't know where that's going to go. there are all kinds of potential pitfalls here. but why not try something different? >> watch afterwords sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2's book tv.