kavanaugh continues to meet with senators on capitol hill. follow the confirmation process on c-span, leading up to the senate confirmation hearings and the vote. watch live on c-span, watch any time on c-span.org, or listen ith the free c-span radio app. up next, today's white house briefing. sarah sanders discussings a range of issues, including possibly revoking security clearances for former government employees. his is about 15 minutes. soup good afternoon. in the two weeks -- sarah: good afternoon. in the two weeks since cask nt trump nominated gnaw, he's met with republicans. senator schumer is urging members to not even meet with the judge. for members of opposing parties to refuse to even meet with a

qualified supreme court nominee is unprecedented. senator schumer should stop these political games and meet with judge kavanaugh. we welcome senate democrats who take their constitutional duty of device and consent seriously. judge kavanaugh stands ready to meet with members of both parties. as you know, here in a few minutes, the president will be participating in an event and we're excited to hold the 2018 made in america product showcase here at the white house. the president is committed to policies that ensure more products are made in america. today we will see items like snowboards made by never summer industries in colorado, campers made by the newmore corporation in indiana, and fi-50 trucks made by the ford motor company in michigan. and a personal favorite, ranger boats from arkansas is also here. the president celebrates every state's effort and commitment to american-made products and he's honored to have these

companies here today. we look forward to having you all join us at that event here shortly. with, that we'll hurry and jump into questions. kevin. reporter: thanks. is the president considering the republican house intel request to declassify key sections of the records with respect to the fisa document release? and will he do that declassification before the house goes into recess? ms. sanders: the president wants to remain uninvolved in the process he wants the department of justice to be fully transparent with requests from congress and he's going to continue at this point to remain uninvolved. however, he sees more and more every single day that this is proving further and further to be a total witch hunt, particularly because it was based on a false and unverified and discredited dossier. reporte: we saw the president tweet on iran last night. what prompted him to use such

strong language? ms. sanders: the president has been, i think, pretty strong since day one in his comments toward iran. he's going to continue to foe tchoins safety and security of the american people. reporter: what would it take to the direct negotiations between the president and president rouhani. ms. sanders: i'm not going to negotiate that, but the goal of the president is to make sure we keep nuclear weapons out of their hands and focus on the protection of americans. reporter: the president tweeted yesterday that russian's election interference was all a big hoax and last week he said he had faith in the intelligence agencies. so does he believe it's a hoax or does he have faith in the intelligence agencies? ms. sanders: as the president said many times and stated over

and other rks as have i and a number of other administration officials, we maintain that russia interfered in the election. the president, however, very much so and has repeatedly again as have the rest of us that his campaign colluding in that process is a total hoax. reporter: he suggested overall that it's a hoax. ms. sanders: the president is referencing the collusion component. the president has faith in the intelligence that maintains that russia was involved in the elections. however it's also important that that same information concludes that it had no impact on the election. and that the president again would like to repeat there was no collusion. reporter: following up on that question, the president has forcefully spoken out against iran, force pli spoken out against north korea, he'll he said he will speak out forcefully against any threat to

the united states. russia's interfering has been zha threat to the united states, why has she he in the spoken out strongly about that? ms. sanders: he has been tough on russia. he has brought it up every time they've met. he's brought sanctions on russia, frankly i'm not sure why that is so hard for the media to write about. we've repeated it time and time again. the policy that the president has been since day one in office has been extremely tough on russia. probably more so than with any other country. reporter: thank you, sarah. senator rand paul today made a strong attempt to vitiate the credibility of former c.i.a. director john brennan, saying that he's, and i quote, monetizing his security clearance, and should be removed from -- it should be removed from him. even called on the president to do this. will the president consider

senator paul's suggestion and call for the removal of former director brennan's security clearance? ms. sanders: not only is the president looking to take away brennan's security clearance, he's looking into the clearances of comey, clapper, haden, rice, and mccabe. the president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances, making baseless accusations of improper contact with russia or being influenced by russia against the president is extremely inappropriate and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence. reporter: when the president pulled out of the jcpoa , he did not reveal an alternate plan to address iran's nuclear ambitions. he seemed to bank on economic

sanctions being enough to get them back to the table. is that still his plan b? ms. sanders: as we have said, the president's number one goal is to make sure iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. we have similar and shared interests with our european allies. we're continuing to have discussions with them and when we have specifics on that front we'll let you know. reporter: my question about russia is that president trump continues to air his grievances about the coverage of his meeting with vladimir putin. ms. sanders: you continue to obsessively cover it. reporter: we can't, we have not received any details, any reports of agreements reached. ms. sanders: the agreement made was the two national security tells -- teams from both the united states and russia would continue at a working level. these discussions. i can tell you that ambassador bolton plans to have meeting a

followup with his counterpart from russia next month. in addition to meetings with other european allies to further those discussions and we'll keep you posted when we have specific detinals what that video would e. reporter: is there a plan to move carriers or other troops to the region? ms. sanders: i don't have any announcements on that. reporte: secretary pompeo addressed human rights abuses. why is the administration zeroing in on iran, when there are a number of other states including russia that are doing the same? ms. sanders: we have been tough on russia. we can be tough on more than one country at a time. that's what we're doing.

reporter: could you explain president trump's taking away clearance, sit his view that any former obama official who has made political statements should be removed? or sit just those specific names? ms. sanders: right now it's just those names. reporter: the lang wang the president used in a tweet is similar to the language he used last august in new jersey when he spoke of fire and fury being rained down on north korea. of course that led to a one-on-one meeting that the president ultimately had with kim jong un. is the president open to diplomacy with iran, meeting perhaps one-on-one with president rouhani. ms. sanders: i'm not going to negotiate the specifics of what the president or administration would be looking at. our goal is to stop iran from nuclear weapons. we'll keep you posted through

that process. reporter: and the statement about judge kavanaugh you made at the top. there's one republican senator who says he's undecided. well two that say they're undecided but rand paul in particular said i'm honestly undecided. i'm concerned about his views on privacy and the fourth amendment. are you concerned about losing rand paul once the vote comes up? s. sanders: we're hopeful that senator paul will do the right thing and vote for this highly qualified candidate. reporter: about iran, considering the comments we've heard from the president's tweet, ambassador bolton's statement, secretary pompeo's speech last night, what's stopping this administration from just openly advocating regime change in iran? ms. sanders: our focus is on stopping iran from having nuclear weapons regardless of who is there.

that's what our priority is. if we have any further announcements on that front i'll let you know. but the president, his administration, are going to ontinue pushing an advocating. reporter: regarding one of the stories that broke on friday, how did the president feel when he found out his longtime lawyer and fixer had recorded him surreptitiously? ms. sanders: while the president maintains he's done nothing wrong, i refer you to the president's outside counsel. reporter: does he still deny having a relationship with a woman named karen macdougal. ms. sanders: the president maintain he's done nothing wrong and i direct you to rudy giuliani. reporter: are you considering additional actions against the names you read off in addition to revoking their security clearance is there any other action under review? ms. sanders: not that i'm aware of. reporter: to go back to the fisa

application. e state suspect that spage a russian agent. given that the president continues to say there's no collusion between his campaign and russia, is he concerned or does he not believe the intelligence community's assessment that carter page was a russian agent? ms. sanders: again, i think we've spoken extensively what our position is on. this we have no changes to that. reporter: the president is threatening to punish brennan and comey for saying things about him he doesn't like. is that presidential? ms. sanders: the president is exploring these mechanisms to remove security clearance. because they politicized and in some cases actually monetized their public service and their security clearances. and making baseless accusations of improper contact with russia or being influenced by russia against the president is extremely inappropriate. the president contends the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to

accusations with zero evidence. when we have further updates on hat front i'll let you know. reporter: so they said something he doesn't like and he's punishing them? ms. sanders: no, i think you're making up your own story there. the president doesn't like that they are politicizing departments that are not meant to be political. reporter: isn't the president doing exactly what you said the president doesn't want people ing, politicizing these by people? er ms. sanders: no, when you're the person who holds the nation's deepest, most sacred secrets and you go out and make false accusations against the president of the united states , he thinks that is a -- something

to be very concerned with and we're exploring what those options are and what that looks ike. reporter: sarah -- ms. sanders: kaitlyn, go ahead. reporter: when is the president going to make the decision on the clearances? ms. sanders: when we have an update i'll let you know. reporter: has the president briefed reporters on what went on in the meeting? ms. sanders: we have put out information on that reporter: has the president briefed the secretary of state and other officials on what was said between him and putin? ms. sanders: the president has met and spoken with those

individuals. reporter: is he relying solely on his own memory about what happened in that meeting? . sanders: he has met with those people. reporter: but it's about his memory. this is a sit-down with the russian president. ms. sanders: it's not a rarity. it's normal practice for two world leaders to have conversations. reporter: what about president obama and former vice president biden, are their security clearances being looked at as well? ms. sanders: i'm not aware of that >> the u.s. house is in recess now but members will be back at 6:30 eastern for votes and speeches. lawmakers have been working on several bills including one aiming to protect private property rights. another bill that would begin the process to build a memorial

here in washington, d.c. honoring america's second president, john adams. follow the house live here on c-span when members return at 6:30 eastern. >> this evening, christians united for israel hosts a dinner to mark the 709 anniversary of israel's independence. we'll hear remarks from the rael ambassador to the u.s. and u.s. ambassador to the u.n. niki haley. watch the event live at 8:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3 or if the senate is out for the night we'll air it on c-span2. >> tonight, on "the communicators." tina pigeon, general counsel for alaskan cable provider g.c.i. talks about how the company makes broadband possible for small business -- villages across tundra, glaciers and mountains. then, incoming president of the