sarah sanders spoke to reporters about president trump's supreme court nominee. she said the president is considering revoking the security clearances of some former government officials. this briefing is 15 minutes. >> good afternoon. in the two weeks since president trump nominated judge kavanagh, he met with 23 senators. all of them are republicans. that is because senator schumer is encouraging his members to not even a with the judge. for members of the opposing party to demand answers to questions and yet refused to meet with a qualified supreme court nominee is unprecedented. senator schumer should stop these political games and meet with judge kavanagh. we welcome senate democrats [captioning performed by the

national captioning institute, who take their duties seriously. the judge stands ready to meet with both members -- members of both parties. the president will be participating in an event and we are excited to hold the 2018 made in america product showcase at the white house. the president is committed to policies that ensure our products are made in america. we will see items like snowboards made by never summer industries in colorado, campers made by the corporation in indiana, and f-150 trucks made by the ford motor company in michigan and baseball bats made in pennsylvania. the president celebrates every state's effort and commitment to american-made products. he is honored to have these companies here and we look forward to having you join us at that reporter: thanks. as the president considering the

house intel request to declassify key sections of the 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 said repeatedly 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. reporter: we saw the president tweet on iran last night. what prompted him to use such strong language on them? ms. sanders: the president has been, i think, pretty strong since day one in his statements toward iran.

he's going to continue to focus on the 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 get into specifics and negotiate .ith the press that would be a determination made by the president, but the ultimate goal and focus 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 russia's election interference was all a big hoax -- those were the words he used -- 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 that have decided the other way? ms. sanders: as the president said many times and stated over again, 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. we still -- still hold strong to that. reporter: he suggested overall that it's a hoax. ms. sanders: the president is referencing the collusion component. once again, 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, forcefully 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 a 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 has put unprecedented

sanctions and been extremely tough on russia against a number of friends we have addressed here many times before. 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 that 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 excessively cover it. reporter: we can't, really because it has been seven days. we have not received any details, any reports of agreements reached. formally or verbally, so -- ms. sanders: the agreement made was the two nash security -- national security 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

details on what that video would be. reporter: does president trump plan on ordering to move carriers or additional forces to the region should iran pose the threat he alluded to in his tweets? ms. sanders: i don't have any announcements on that. reporter: i just want to follow-up, then. secretary pompeo addressed yesterday's human rights abuses in iran. 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 with our policy. as i stated this morning, we can be tough on more than one country at a time. that's what we're doing. reporter: could you explain a little bit of the threshold the president has for taking away security clearance. is it his view that any former obama official who has made

political statements about him should have their clearance revoked? or is it just limited to those names you read? ms. sanders: right now it's just those names. i will keep you posted. language 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. again, our goal is to stop iran from nuclear weapons, and 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? ms. sanders: we're hopeful that senator paul will do the right thing and vote for this highly qualified candidate. reporter: flipping around john's question about iran, considering the comments we've heard from the president's tweet, ambassador bolton's statement, which you put out, and secretary pompeo's speech last night, what is 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 continue pushing and advocating for that. 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 on the specific topic, i would refer you to the president's outside counsel. reporter: does he still deny having a relationship with a woman named karen macdougal. ms. sanders: once again, the president maintain he's done nothing wrong and i direct you giuliani for all questions made on that matter. reporter: are you considering additional actions against the -- brennan and the other 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 -- russia investigation. the fisa application agent he is a russian involved in activities. 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 and clapper 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 that front, i'll let you know. reporter: so they said something he doesn't like and he's punishing them for it? ms. sanders: no, i think you're making up your own story there.

the president doesn't like that people are politicizing agencies aredepartments that specifically meant to not be political and not been -- meant to be monetized off of security clearance. reporter: isn't the president doing exactly what you said the president doesn't want people doing, politicizing these by -- matters of national security by going after his political enemies? >> no, he is not making of collusion with a foreign government. 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 like. reporter: sarah -- >> sorry, i've got to keep moving. we are out of time.

i've got two questions left. kaitlyn, go ahead. reporter: when is the president going to make the decision on the clearances? ms. sanders: when we have an update, we'll let you know. reporter: my question, has the president briefed reporters on what went on in the two-hour meeting? ms. sanders: we have put out quite a bit of information on -- following that meeting. reporter: has the president briefed the secretary of state and director of national intelligence and defense secretary on what was said between him and putin? ms. sanders: the president has met and spoken with those individuals since his meeting with president putin. reporter: is he relying solely on his own memory about what happened in that two-hour meeting. >> he has met with his national security team and -- reporter: and it is simply what

he remembered? going to go into detail on how the president interacts every time with his national security team, but it's not a rarity. it's normal practice for two world leaders to have a conversation with one another. reporter: what about president biden,nd vice president their security clearances. are their security clearances being looked at as well? ms. sanders: i'm not aware of that >> supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh continues to meet with senators on capitol hill. all of the confirmation process on c-span, leading up to the confirmation hearings and the vote. watch live on c-span. watch any time on c-span.org or listen with free c-span radio app. .> what is live on the network on

tuesday. the houses in at 10:00 a.m. eastern for morning our speeches. measure that would eliminate the medical device tax. the houses on c-span. on c-span2, the senate abates a number of spending measures they are working on including financial services, transportation, hud, and agriculture spending. on c-span3, the oversight committee looks at u.s. election security at 10:00 eastern. at noon, president trump at the veterans of foreign wars convention in kansas city, missouri. ther that, officials with u.s. olympic committee, usa gymnastics and michigan state university talk about changes to protect amateur athletes from sexual abuse. that begins at 2:30 p.m. eastern. there are a lot of people who feel like i do not my -- want my kids to read stories that are sad, downbeat, whatever. that is not a totally

illegitimate thing to say. i want to choose as a parent when my kid understands stuff that might bring them grief, but there is also a point beyond are 14 now. they when are you going to introduce them to the idea that everything is not perfect outside your all-white suburb? factors swirled together to create the perfect dumpster fire of mass censorship of books on marginalized people. the science fiction author will be our guest on in-depth fiction addiction. live sunday, august 5 at noon eastern, discussing his latest book "walk away." his other books include down and out at the magic kingdom, little novels. plus 14 other interact with him on twitter or facebook, or by phone. our special addiction with the science-fiction author cory live from noon to

three eastern on c-span two book tv. advocateirs taxpayer nina olson on irs reform, tax law, and how to resolve tax problems with the irs. she joined us on mondays "washington journal." your cable or satellite provider. >> washington journal continues. host: each >> each week, we like to look at how your money is at work carried we will focus on the irs with the help of national taxpayer advocate nina olson joining us. olson joining us once again. -- irs national taxpayer advocate nina olson joining us once again. i had an organization, the taxpayer advocate service that is inside the irs but also independent. we help taxpayer solve their problems with the irs. it could be something the irs is doing or not doing creates economic harm to them or because they have been trying to get their issues resolved and they haven't