stop on a tour of new hampshire while considering a 2020 residential run. in forthe senate gavels work on a middle east security bill. it would fund security assistance to israel, and allow sanctions against syria. on c-spancoverage three, at 9:30 a.m. the senate intelligence committee on global security threats. later, congressional budget office director goes before the senate budget committee to talk about the u.s. economic outlook. at the white house briefing, national security advisor john bolton and treasury secretary steve mnuchin announced new sanctions against venezuela's state owned oil company in response to nicolas maduro's refusal to step down after being declared illegitimate by

venezuela's national assembly. they were followed by economic adviser larry kudlow, an press secretary sarah sanders to questions from reporters. >> good afternoon. under president trumps leadership, the economy is growing putting the president and a stronina strong position g standing conference in china. the president will meet with the vice premier to continue talks. president trump is committed to achieving access for u.s. exports and better treatment for farmers, ranchers and business is. fair and reciprocal trade will boost long-term economic growth and not only in the united states but globally it

courageously spoken out against the corrupt and illegitimate regime of nicolas who must do what is right and allow for free, fair and credible elections to speak more about the policy toward venezuela and to take your questions i'd like to welcome to the national security adviser and the director of the national atomic council larry kudlow and then i will be able to take their questions. president trump officially recognized the president of the venezuelan national assembly as being the interim president of venezuela the national assembly this action was a statement that the people of venezuela had enough of depression and

economic hardship. since then, 21 other governments in the region and across the world joined the united states in recognizing as the interim president. today i will turn over to steve mnuchin to announce sanctions as it is known by the spanish acronym for state-owned oil monopoly. this continued through his description of the cronies to ensure they can no longer lose the assets of the venezuelan people. the call on the venezuelan

military and force us to accept a peaceful democratic and constitutional transfer of power to be at shea in washington recognized in a few days ago and just within the past hour's, the first consul of venezuela in miami. i call on all responsible nations to recognize the interim president immediately. he's made it clear he will not recognize or call for new elections. now is the time to stand for democracy in venezuela.

responsible for the diplomatic personnel, the national assembly and any violence against the groups would signify an assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response. now let me give the floor over to stephen mnuchin who will describe the sanctions. today the treasury took action against the venezuela's state-owned oil company to help prevent the further diversion of the assets by former president maduro. the united states is holding accountable those responsible for the tragic decline. we will continue to use all of our diplomatic and economic tools to support the interim president of the national assembly and the venezuelan people's efforts to restore the democracy. it's long been a vehicle for embezzlement, corruption,

venezuelan officials and businessmen for the assets by maduro and well preserved these for the people of venezuela where they belong. the path to sanctions is through the expeditious transfer of control to the interim president or a subsequent democratically elected government committed to taking concrete and meaningful actions to combat corruption. today's actions follow my determination that the persons operating in the venezuelan oil sector may now be subject to sanctions. today they also issued a number of general licenses that authorized certain transactions and activities for the limited periods of time to minimize any

immediate disruptions and support the assets in the united states will continue to operate, provided that any funds that would otherwise go instead will go into a blocked account in the united states they've already been taking steps to reduce their reliance on venezuela and those imports have fallen substantially in recent months. we've also issued a general licenses to ensure that certain european and caribbean countries can make an orderly transition. we continue to call on all of our allies and partners to join the united states in recognizing interim president and blocking better oh from being able to access the funds. thank you and i would be happy to answer some questions. a >> you mentioned were significant response.

we want to force us to know how strongly we think that the national assembly, the opposition, and most importantly, american personnel are not harmed. this is an unequivocal statement on our part. >> [inaudible] >> the president ha >> the president has made it very clear on this matter that all options on the table [inaudible] with me just comment and we will be releasing them with the general licenses to explain a lot of these issues, but effective immediately for purchase by the un entities money will have to go into the

blocked account. i've been in touch with the refineries and there is a significant amount of oil that's already been paid for. it will continue to come to the united states. therefore, the people in venezuela want to continue to sell us oil as long as it goes into blocked accounts people continue to take it otherwise we will not be buying it and again, the general licenses the refineries in the united states can continue to operate, so i would expect in the short term very modest impacts on the refineries. we've been working with them closely on these issues. >> they are hearing about this now a lot of people have been preparing for this over the last month held the money go from the

blocked accounts to take it back and received it back what is the connection? >> let me comment that in general as it was said in the past for the purpose of the sanctions as to change behavior. so, when there is a recognition that it is the property of and the rightful rulers and the leaders then indeed the money will be available. you will be working with them on the money into blocked account and whether that can be used for them. can you explain to the country the strategic interest in venezuela now what is at stake for us and if it isn't achieved.

>> we think it's in the direct national interest of the united states right now under the government's civil society in venezuela it is disintegrating, the economy is in a state of collapse something in the range of three to 4 million refugees have already fled the country and the authoritarian regime of chavez and maduro has allowed penetration of adversaries not least of which is cuba as some called the country now reflecting the growth of the military and security forces have on the regime we think that is a strategic threat and there's others as well including the interest in the deposits. >> this is a country that is very rich in oil resources and there's no reason why these shouldn't be used for the economic benefits of people

there. there is no reason for the poverty and starvation and the humanitarian crisis. >> the united states talks about the potential of the sales of oil and also stopping the oil products in venezuela. there will be a part of the limitation on selling oil products as a part of the sanctions with regards to the embargo we are not going to make a comment on that >> he seemed to anticipate the action that you announced today in the briefing room at the property of the state and he further said we are the only ones who can decide. what is your response? stanek again it is the property of the rightful leaders of the

country, so we agree with that he isn't a proper leader of the country at this time, and i said these are valuable assets that we are protecting from for the benefit of the venezuelan people. [inaudible] there's been a reduction in the overall price particularly since we instituted the sanctions i think we have been very careful in making sure that these costs don't impact the american consumer. gas prices are almost as low as they've been in a long period of time and the refineries intact a specific part of the country and we are very comfortable that they have enough supplies that we don't expect any big impact in the short term. >> do you feel they are able to take these measures as a result

to increase the leverage of the debate? >> we are determined whether it is in the case to use sanctions to use them in the right way and we are very comfortable that we've coordinated and the department of energy and other people on this regulation. >> [inaudible] article 21 of troops of another country in a sovereign nation. while the united states raise a complaint secretary of state pompeo addressed a few days ago and we expect other meetings on this and related subjects in the

coming days because as we've both said we know what the legitimate government of venezuela is [inaudible] are you comfortable with the progress that's been made of the last couple of weeks very kudlow said that this would be determinative. >> it's very productive, the conversations are going back in the meeting between the presidents whicpresident which y important time. we sent the team over to beijing anand is very significant discussions were about to period of time we've had conversations since then the president is

going to meet at the end and let me just remind people we do have another 30 days after this, so my expectation is that we will make significant progress at the meetings. we have a timeline how we knocked out the last days. there's been significant movement and we are working through are still very complicated issues. >> i understand the prices are low now so how long do you believe that this will move to a modest impact and we quantify by how much [inaudible]

>> markets are not always efficient. they move in different directions and i want to be careful not speculating in the markets. the orioles went up a lot right before the sanctions i think thk with oil prices are now which reflects the supplies and demand in the market, and as i've said we are dealing with the venezuelan oil that is a broad modest part of our overall supply. we are an exporter of energy and we are particularly concerned that there were a handful of refineries that had a dependence

there was significant of the like most of them have 10% or less dependent on the venezuelan oil, so i do not expect that people will see an impact on the gas pumps. >> [inaudible] >> i'm not going to get into all the specifics of the markets but let me just say post is about 10% or less and there's plenty of supplies at c. that's already been paid for other's inventory and excess oil i'm sure many of our friends in the middle east will be happy to make up the supply the right outcome is a transition to have the companies rebuild and make sure they get out of poverty is a complete tragedy to have the crisis in a country that has very rich

resources would that be priority for the administration? >> it would be one of the top that we have on the agenda and i think that this is pretty obvious. we want to make sure that we expect when we get a deal that it will be enforced. i would say in the conversations we had previously the details of how they do that needs to be negotiated but ip protection, no more joint ventures but those are the important issues on the

agenda. >> has the president spoken directly and can you summarize that conversation and how safe is the president believe our diplomats are? >> they've had several conversations including most recently the night before week granted the recognition to be meeting with the ambassador in the future the vice president, secretary and myself we have drawn down significantly for personnel at the embassy all of the attending personnel are gone

we've asked them to be very clear about what is left of the regime do you believe that the russians are playing any kind of a role in trying to support? >> our assessment based on numerous contacts on the ground is that the rank-and-file of the venezuelan military is acutely aware of the desperate economic conditions in the country. we think that they look for ways to separate the national assembly government. we think the junior officer ranks in the mid-officer of level ranks are the same and we are also aware of significant context the supporters of the

national assembly you may have seen a statement last week by the defense minister vladimir linked to by him and his generals in uniform and what they didn't know is how many of them were already talking to the national assembly can you speak to the critics we always evaluate the sanctions continuously and existing sanctionsanctions as well as fue sanctions so we will look at the effectiveness and whether we need additional sanctions. i will just tell you speaking for the treasury, i want to thank the large number of government workers who came in

and i will tell you as it relates to specific way the sanctions area, people have working around-the-clock and we couldn't have gotten this done without the threat of the people that came in, so quite the contrary and i want to thank the people that helped out on this. >> very briefly we will have larry come up and get updates and then we will be back up for the rest of the questions. >> i would just say i think the economy is very strong. i know there are some disagreements but as the numbers shake out, people get a gdp report probably next week we will get a jo the job support ts friday so that will work out. based on things we've talked about here, the production is strong, investment is strong. i still think we are on a 3%

growth rate and the lower tax rates and the regulatory rollback and opening up energy y and so forth is working and is continuing to work and i think frankly the optimists are going to be right. >> it cost between 8,000,000,011. >> i looked at them and the numbers that came out today we disagree with all this stuff they do the best job they can

it'll take longer for the first quarter now the government is open and the switch goes right back on. they do not acknowledge the importance of the tax cuts to the editorial in [inaudible] i'm glad we are back to work and all the federal employees and people for load go right down the line everybody is glad we

are reopening and putting them back to work. regarding the macroeconomy, i don't think that it was a factor does that compound the hardship effect on the federal employees flex >> i don't want to speculate. we have a process laid out what's the effect bears out i don't want to speculate. again, the state of the economy to me, my colleagues are very strong and i don't think that was. rutan and the individual hardship cases, i will repeat that in the aggregate, the numbers we saw low unemployment claims for the retail sales, industrial production from the

federal reserve where business equipment went up for the seventh straight month and a scatterescattered about the kina points suggested to us that we are still in a very strong mode right now. 3% is the longer-term but i also think it is going to pan out in the short run so we will see. >> [inaudible] >> she is correct. i don't want to make any predictions on that. these are very difficult. the only comment i will make it as, and i've said this before, the scope of peace talks will be the broadest end of th and deep. china history we've never had anything this comprehensive and i would regard that as a big plus. the president has expressed some guarded optimism about the talks

is encouraging to me everything is on the table. fourth, the issues will be important and i know the ambassador said that in the key part of the discussions are they also getting backpay? >> i think the defense related ones will play not sure i'm not an expert on that. i would have to go and check back and take a look at this over the. the. i honestly don't know.

>> starting in 2022 they say it is simply unsustainable the path we are on and are they doing anything to change it? >> we have a fundamental disagreement with th with that y and the growth outlook. economic growth is the single biggest factor in compiling the numbers. in response to the trump policies and deregulation we had a much higher one about a one percentage point differential nonetheless with them more or less the differential over ten years is very significant. all i'm saying is in the first

two years of the administration our view has been correct. i am not here to, they have a point of view they are professionals and i respect them but that is the single biggest. i would say one other matter be anticipated a tough budget coming out the economic growth is absolutely essential to reducing the deficit share of gdp and if you look at our numbers, which are moving up some but not enormously, we anticipated a deficit share of gdp that is part of the reason that we disagree.

>> the slowdown in demand affected their businesses. as the administration worried it's too much pressure on the economy and negatively affecting the spot on here? >> the kind of trade openings that we are talking about, and other structural factors are pro- growth. every one of them. but trade negotiations turn out positively insofar as the barriers would say, and much better treatment of property rights and as steve said before, very important ending the transfer of technology and things like that. we will export believe strongly the united states gave our people the chance to sell to

china and legal experts. the sales will roar and it would be great if they open their markets and that is going to help the economy and it's going to help our economy. i've always believed that. the question is fairness, reciprocity. i completely agree that it's also a matter of economic growth. lower barriers in the united states, my judgment is the most competitive economy in the world today. we are the most competitive economy a survey just pushed us back to the number one spot and we are proud of that. so the china talks what is at stake here i think is another possibility of spreading prosperity frankly in both countries to make legal reforms and reciprocal.

>> will you count on the president's mouth to shut them down? is the president willing to go through another shutdown if he can't get money from the democrats for the border wall flex >> the president doesn't want to go through another shutdown. that's not the goal. the goal is protecting the american people. ideally, democrats would take the next three weeks to negotiate in good faith we have

three weeks to work with democrats as the president indicated on a number of occasions they could get this done in 15 minutes we agree on the fundamentals border security is important and the fact there is a problem and we should do something about it so but spend some time getting it done the president opened the government on the basis that immigrants have signaled to us that they are willing to actually get serious [inaudible]

i'm not going to negotiate here that's why they had bee had thee the members to work through some of the things to come back to the president that means democrats get virtually nothing and that will make the president have to take executive action that does not give democrats the things that they want so this is a perfect time and at the table has been perfectly set by the president in order for a good deal to come together where everybody gets a little bit of something.

>> the presidents organization outside to speak on behalf of the president an in his official capacity i do know that they've put out a statement i know the trump organization has put out a statement, and i'll refer you to that. >> what is the president think should happen to a business that, you know, employs illegal immigrants and doesn't use systems to check and make sure they're not doing that? >> because one of the reasons that the president wants to actually fix the problem. he's one of the people that's identified the fact that we have a problem and we should fix our immigration system. if democrats want to get serious about fixing that, they have a president that's more than happy to sit down with them and do exactly that. >> since i know so little about this, let me ask you a couple of questions. >> we have an agreement on something. [laughter] the senator said yesterday

further should they likely get more democrats to come to his idea about the need for the border the president has been resisted going any further than the protections of the reason the president doesn't believe the recipients should have that? that is why we have the conference and why the president has asked to take place the next three weeks whether or not that happens this time or after

[inaudible] a specific white house attendee that would participate would be engaged with members across the board both in the better part of the conference as well as the back and forth that >> what's your data point here? >> we'll keep you posted when the white house is in attendance. >> what's your -- that democrats are ready to get serious about immigration reform. >> democrats have signaled their willingness we hope that we will

see that happen. i would be happy if they never touched american soil is the administration going to settle down to zero? >> i'm not aware of any statement and it's certainly not of the administration. >> [inaudible] >> the president will as always undergo a yearly exam and we will keep you posted on how that happens. >> do you mind if speaking up, i'm sorry. >> going back, can this economy sustained with another government shutdown?

>> we don't want another government shutdown. it seems that you should be so simple. we are all in agreement that we needed and that there's a problem so we don't have to go down that road. >> it's very hopeful and optimistic the numbers don't show otherwise. we have a strong economy that shows jobs continue to grow and wages continue to rise the numbers are actually very much in the favor of the things that larry laid out. the president and his team focused on long-term economic stability comstability, long-tec fundamentals coming and we think that if we had to be could sustain them but we don't want to have been tried to contact

the president via their mutual friends? i know that the house speaker pelosi said she would extend an invitation. do they believe she's acting in good faith in this regard flex >> i don't think she acted in good faith on the front end considering she cited the concerns that doesn't exist but we are hopeful that moving forward in the future she will. do you expect her to extend an invitation in the course of this three week window while the negotiations were ongoing?

>> that is a better question for the speaker. >> you are not exactly ruling out another shutdown and those that came back are concerned that there could be another shutdown. what is your advice or message to them are they concerned they might not get another paycheck? >> i would call the members of congress and ask them to fix the problemproblems that we don't ho continue having this process so that we secure the border and protect american citizens. >> the president said over the weekend he made no concessions whatsoever that the influential conservative are saying that he had concessions in this because he said he would not sign any legislation that didn't include money for the border wall, and then he went ahead and did that and granted to keep the government open for the next few weeks. he made no concessions on the

legislation. >> they are still ongoing and i would argue that the conservatives actually have influence of support they believe in protecting americans just like the president. this is a simple fix is easy for democrats to sit down and come to an agreement and work to get border security. >> declaring a state of emergency after february 15 and using funds already there for the building of the wall under the national security and homeland security so the conservatives are supporters of the president warned not to go in that direction that would create problems for federal authority interceding with state

authority? president bush wouldn't declare an emergency over katrina because he didn't want to get into that argument with governors. has the president considered this and the criticism of fellow republicans, notably senator blunt of missouri? spin it as another listen to members of congress as well as constituents across the country. the president's number one duty and responsibility a responsibis the commander-in-chief is protecting the american people and she sees the crisis at the border to be a real one and i don't think anybody in the country can argue the fact that there is a real problem in the border. it needs to be fixed into the president will do what it takes to fix that. >> i'm not aware of that. haven't had any conversations about that. i'm not going to get into that

at this point if need be, we will let you know. >> he's put that option on the table. if he believes what is happening why would he wait for three weeks to declare its? >> the president has said as most of us in the administration the best fix is to be able to do that legislatively that of the congress particularly democrats in congress would rather play political games and do their job than the president would be forced to take a different path. again the iab elit ideally thatt happen. >> you're missing the point. it's not just an emergency it is a crisis they are doing the best one which is a legislative fix but if congress doesn't do their jobjob and the president will be

forced to make up for shortcomings. >> $5.7 billion are found nonnegotiable. >> i'm not going to negotiate from here. that is the whole point of the conference, to come back to deals. at the end of the day the biggest thing that has to happen is there has to be real and adequate funding for the borderr security including funding for awol and we will see what it comes back with. i'm not going to negotiate with you. right now we are in the process of letting the conference do its job to negotiate a deal and come back they would have awol at the

end of the promise. can he maintain a promise that their will be walls on the southern border by the end of the term? >> they have engaged and built it includes having a border wall. >> there's talk in afghanistan in exchange for the guarantee from the taliban but there've beethat therewould be no terrorn the country would be a victory for the united states i would

refer to the state department beyond that. >> to follow up on the president ruled out -- >> i'm not aware of the conversation regarding that or the need for it. >> i'm not going to talk about the hypotheticals that are just ridiculous. they said over the weekend working with wikileaks should be

considered a crime. >> the outlets that we work for and search for including reporting on it so i think that those are responsibilities by members of the media. i'm not aware of anybody here ever working in any capacity, but i do know that any individual that represents here most of the reported on that information you are just as accountable as anybody else in that process. >> are you concerned and is the president concerned that they are brought into this investigation or guided into this investigation but the presidency is in danger it has

nothing to do with the president and roger stone's case the churches have literally nothing to do with the president and it has to do with his communications with congress can you assure the american people about individuals that were assigned that at no time the president had any interactions with roger stone but nobody close to the president had any interactions he told the president what's going on and those conversations ... when it comes to roger stone is a complete surprise he didn't know about any of this is that what you are saying? >> the president did nothing wrong in this process and the

charges of the indictment he had absolutely nothing to do with the president. >> we expect in a few moments the government will announce theweare just about to have this delegation here. are you taking some sort of care with china what is the strategy? >> they are not linked, they are a totally separate process. at the negotiations on the trade front will continue to be ongoing, and i believe on the other question and the thing that you mentioned may be coming i believe they are waiting on me to finish so they can do that. >> senator marco rubio of florida came to the senate floor to talk about the political situation in venezuela. he also addressed the middle east policy bill that includes security assistance for israel. this is about 10 minutes.