for being here. also get to have you for the first time. >> for her, perfect time. >> news briefing starting moments from now. we will keep it right here for overtime, "happening now" starts now. >> jon: we start with this fox news alert, minutes away from what could be another contentious white house briefing. briefing. >> jenna: first one since the president security advisor resigned last night, we are covering all the news "happening now." >> the level of objection by senate democrats. >> jenna: the push to get president trump's cabinet confirmed by the senate kicks into high gear as democrats dig in for a fight. >> the president has shown his hand by selecting the most anti-working-class cabinet that we have ever seen. >> jenna: plus... outrage at town halls as the words repeal and replace obamacare appear to stall, so

what is the republican plan for fulfilling one of the president's biggest campaign promises? it is all "happening now" ." ♪ >> jon: we began with a white house briefing set to begin at any moment now after a lot of developments on president trump's cabinet. looking to the second hour of "happening now," i am jon scott. >> jenna: that seems to be a bit of an understatement. >> jon: hard to keep up. >> jenna: hi, i am jenna lee. life looked at the white house waiting for press secretary sean spicer to appear in the briefing room where he is sure to get a lot of questions about the resignation of national security advisor michael flynn amid the growing controversy over his conversations with the russian ambassador and how he characterized them to vice president pence. new members of president trump's cabinet are now sworn in, we have tim fox coverage with chief congressional correspondent mike emanuel lived on capitol hill but we start with kristin fisher who is life at the white house with more. >> sean spicer is going to have

the work cut out for him when he stepped to the microphone in a few minutes. key questions now are was michael flynn acting on his own when he discussed sanctions with the russian ambassador or did he have the president's blessing? put another way, what did the president now and when did he know it? the land is especially important given the news that former acting attorney general sally yates had warned the white house that flynn was one or both took russian black male, so that begs the question, why was he allowed to stay on as national security advisor for this long? president declined to answer any questions about flint at an event at the white house earlier today but senior advisor kellyanne conway said in regards to timing, the situation became unsustainable. >> that really was the linchpin here is that he either forgot and could not fully recall or really misled the vice president and others. >> president trump now has a question of his own. "the real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of washington?

will these leaks be happening as i deal on north korea, etc?" he is referring to the week between flynn in the russian ambassador that ultimately led to his resignation, and that is classified information and leaking classified information or simply mishandling it is a serious offense to just ask david petraeus, who by the way is on the short-list for the new national security advisor along with lieutenant general keith kellogg and vice admirable robert harmon, former navy seal in the odds-on favorite to be the replacement for flynn. >> jenna: thank you. >> jon: former wwe executive linda mcmahon gets the green light today to leave the small business initiation, senate confirming her just over an hour ago. this comes a day after lawmakers voted to confirm to other members of president trump's cabinet, chief congressional correspondent mike is keeping tabs come alive on capitol hill. >> good afternoon, three senate confirmations since last evening, treasury secretary,

secretary of veterans affairs and now the head of the small business administration, linda mcmahon as you mentioned, she has been confirmed as the small business administrator. the vote was very bipartisan, particularly for these days, 81-19 with 19 democrats voting against her. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell made the final pitch for linda mcmahon. >> we'll be able to put another important nominee to work this morning, helping businesses to flourish in the last eight years, it's been very difficult for our economy, workers and small businesses, and i'm confident the president's pick to lead the small business administration linda mcmahon will prioritize growing jobs over growing government bureaucracy. >> there are still plenty more trump nominees ahead, mick mulvaney to be head of the office of management and budget, scott pruitt to have the epa, wilbur ross for commerce secretary, ryan zinke for interior secretary, dr. ben carson for housing and urban development and rick perry for energy secretary.

senate democratic leader chuck schumer blasted the trump team particularly the budget director nominee. >> it is the most unethical cabinet that i have ever seen nominated. at least in my lifetime. representative mick mulvaney is unfortunately an example of a cabinet member that is too far compromised by potential conflict of interest and other ethics challenges. >> said three nominees done so far this week. it is not clear how many more they will get done, mick mulvaney to have the office of management and budget yet scott pruitt to have the epa are next up on the docket. they're hoping to get them done before lawmakers leave for the presidents' day holiday. >> jon: mike emanuel on capitol hill as we arrayed the briefing, thank you. >> jenna: all these issues expected to come up at the white house briefing while we are waiting for it to begin, let's bring it david senior policy provider for a "u.s. news & world report." feel like you have to take a deep breath for a moment there. we are taking it all the news,

interesting point as we take in reports by kristin fisher and mike emanuel as well that there is some questions about the white house, but there also governments trying to function. what do you think is the biggest question that sean spicer will have today? speak of the biggest question he will confront his went president trump new that michael flynn could have been potentially blackmailed by the russian government. was that withheld from president trump given that we now know that the acting attorney general at the time contacted his counsel and the white house and told him that at least weeks ago? did it ever get to trump or did it not? >> jenna: why is that significant to you, why do you think that is the most crucial question now? >> this is about trump's leadership. it is not unprecedented for early in an administration for a stafford you have to leave because of some controversy. we have seen this and prior administrations, and the obama administration even back to the

bush administration. most americans still don't know who michael flynn is. we in the beltway and east coast are going to talk about him a lot, but most americans would not know him from anyone else. if they can link it, though, to trump, trump holding onto an advisor because of loyalty and putting loyalty over a potential national security risk, then it is a bigger issue. that is a judgment call about president trump and not just about a staffer resignation. >> jenna: want to point out for our viewers there are comforting reports and frankly a lot if they're reporting on the topic is sourced to unnamed sources, current and former officials, so it's important to have that disclaimer. there are reports that there are debates even within the intelligence community where the it could be the fbi as well as the cia and others about how much to inform the president which also goes to your point about how much we do not know

yet about what he knew. >> i think likely that is what the protection ring is for. sometimes you withhold information from a president so he doesn't know things at that time. we have seen that throughout history. it is in order to protect their president from knowing things that could come back to haunt him. we don't know that yet. i think sean spicer is going to have to address that in a mere couple of minutes, but i think there is a bigger problem facing the administration, here we are 25 days in. you've got a constant amount of leaks, constant amount of anonymous sources showing up, trying to either undermine the president and what he is doing or undermining each other, undermining different aids, you have to stephen bannon faction, most chief strategist, reince preibus, chief of staff, we don't know who these people are, are they lower level or higher level? i think there is a great anecdote in "the washington post" this morning from michael, paul ryan recently went over to the

white house, asked one simple question of the main players in the room, who is in charge? the anecdote goes on to say that silence fell within the room. so i think that is what you are finding right now, some maneuvering in the administration, and i think it is starting to upset everyone making off the staffers on edge. >> jenna: michael flynn in the past 24 hours a lot of news, now resigned, question about him, but he was also symbolic, not just the real role as the national security advisor to the president, but he was someone that was a bit of a lightning rod for establishment republicans who did not necessarily like him because he was a bit of a disruptor who was going to look hard at the establishment and whether it should stay in place. also democrats did not love him, he had a lot of enemies going into that position, but he stood for a lot of what donald trump talked about on the campaign trail and now as president. so symbolically, what do you

think it means he came under fire and is no longer part of the administration? >> democrats wanted a scalp, they probably will not get one on the cabinet side though there are more to go through, now they have one pair they have one and michael flynn, and they are going to try to use him symbolically on a bigger issue, on the russian issue. i also think this could change policy. remember, president trump was thinking about rolling back some of the sanctions that the obama administration put on russia. now that could be in danger given what happened to flynn, there might even be republican resistance, senators john mccain and lindsey graham were were hawkish in the republican party, more aggressive stance against russia, this controversy could hurt the president and michael flynn's stated policy that they wanted to work with russia, have a better relationship with them, maybe roll back some of those distinctions. so we could really see a difference in policy because of

this resignation, and that would be more significant. >> jenna: i would be interesting and also the reminder, a lot of politics involved for individuals that are in place, we cannot forget that. a lot of other news to get to as well, david come happening around the world that could be significant for the administration. we will run through some of that but if you stick around, waiting for the white house briefing to get started. >> jon: this fox news alert, fox news can confirm now a story first reported in "the new york times." russia has deployed a new cruise missile despite u.s. protests that it violates an arms-control treaty drafted in 1987. in 2015, russia broke the same treaty by experimenting with cruise missiles. "the new york times" suggests u.s. officials now believe that missile is operational and has been secretly deployed. it is believed to be nuclear capable. more on this developing story as we hear. >> jenna: will be watching that but in the meantime, moments away from the white house briefing.

when it starts, we will bring it to you. we expect questions about the president's national security advisor now former national security advisor michael flynn and the way forward for the administration. in the meantime have a new court action linked to the president executive order on immigration ahead. what a federal judge in virginia just ruled that could impact others as well. plus new comments from the nato secretary-general, but he is calling for on the day before our secretary of defense attends its first nato meeting. that is all next. you don't let anything keep you sidelined.

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>> jenna: fox news alert, all eyes on the white house briefing room as we await the daily briefing amongst a lot of news on this administration, many of it having to do with this administration's role with russia and the resignation of michael flynn. here is sean spicer. >> press secretary spicer: good afternoon. happy valentine's day. i can sense the love in the roo room. first off, last night the treasury department's office of

foreign asset control labeled the venezuelan vice president as a specially designated narcotic trafficker under the kingpin act. before i continue with the briefing and look forward to your questions, i want to turn it over for a short time to newly minted secretary of the treasury steven mnuchin to issue a brief statement on this and deliver a few questions. secretary mnuchin. >> pleasure to be here on my first busy day in office. yesterday, the department of treasury office of foreign asset control designated venezuelan national as a specially designated narcotic trafficker pursuant to the foreign narcotics kingpin designation act for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. primary fragment of the venezuelan, , and lopez bello ws

also designated. these designations follow a multiyear investigation into his criminal activities. president trump appreciates the hard work put into this case by the department of treasury, department of state, as well as the national security council and many people throughout law enforcement. following the signing of the executive order last week, designing to break the backs of criminal drug cartels, this action denigrates the president seriousness about fighting the scourge of drugs in the united states. in addition, he wants to send a clear message to the people of venezuela that america stands with them. with that, i am happy to take two or three questions specifically about this. >> reporter: sanctions are directly relevant to the treasury department which you now oversee, can you tell us a little bit about plans for sanctions for russia or keeping

obama era sentience on russia. >> our current sanctions programs are in place and i was a sanctions are in important tool that we will continue to lt countries, but it is a very important program within the treasury department. the existing policies are in place. >> reporter: are you kind of plating additional sanctions against iran, and can you tell us what you think the bottom line would be for these sanctions you announced yesterday and are referring today for the venezuelan vice president? >> let me comment again this is the result of a very long effort -- yes, this was underway, the very long effort. the implication is quite significant. we expect there will be frozen tens of millions of dollars, and again, this sanctions are very important way of us sending a message that we will not stand for illicit activity whether it be drug trafficking or terroris terrorism. >> reporter: other than sanctions, what other tools are

you looking at? >> i cannot comment on all the tools but let me reinforce that sanctions are very important tool within the department, and we will use them as appropriate. in this case, we did freeze assets. again as i mentioned, tens of millions of dollars of assets, in that will have a very big impact on this. i will take one more question. yes, in the back. >> reporter: during the campaign, the president had made comments about janet yellen and basically if she was being too political, she should be ashamed of herself with the treasury department, so do they feel confident with her at the helm now, to be able to set monetary policy going forward? >> let me comment that i am really here today to talk about the venezuelan situation, but let me just say there is a tradition of the secretary of treasury having ongoing meetings with the head of the federal

reserve. i look forward to that now that i am in office, doing that and spinning time with her. thank you very much, everybody. pleasure to be here on my first day. >> press secretary spicer: all right, get back to the fun. we have been -- i want to address the events of last night first and foremost. we have been reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to general flynn on a general basis for a few weeks trying to ascertain the truth. we got to a point not based on a legal issue but based on a trust issue with the level of trust between the president and general flynn had eroded to the point where he felt he had to make a change. the president was very concerned that general flynn had misled the vice president and others. he was also very concerned in light of sensitive subjects dealt with by that position of national security advisor like china, north korea in the middle east that the president must have complete and unwavering trust for the person in that position. the evolving and eroding level

of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led the president to ask for a general flynn's resignation. immediately after the department of justice notified the white house counsel of the situation. the white house counsel reached the president and a small group of his senior advisors pay the white house counsel reviewed and determined that there is not an illegal issue but rather a trust issue. during this process, it's important to note the president did not have his attorney general jeff sessions who he trusts immensely approved by the senate. when the president heard the information as presented by white house counsel, he and significant thought that general flynn did not do anything wrong, in the white house counsel's review corroborated that. it is not ordinary for an incoming national security advisor to speak with his counterpart about the issues of concern to them. in fact, he spoke with over 30 of his counterparts throughout the transition. as charles krauthammer said last night "it is perfectly reasonable for him to do so."

the issue here with this is the president got to the point where general flynn's relationship misleading the vice president and others or the possibility he had forgotten critical details of this important conversation had created a critical mass and an unsustainable situation. that is why the president decided to ask for his resignation, and he got it. the irony of this entire situation is that the president has been incredibly tough on russia. he continues to raise the issue of crimea which the prison to be my previous initiation allowed to be seized by russia. his ambassador to the united nations nikki haley stood before the u.n. security council on her first day and strongly denounced the russian occupation of crimea. as ambassador's nikki haley said at the time "the dire situation in eastern ukraine is one that demands clear and strong condemnation of russian actions." president trump has made it very clear he expects the russian government to de-escalate violence in the ukraine and return crimea.

at the same time, he fully expects to and wants to be able to get along with russia. unlike previous administrations so that we can solve many problems together facing the world such as the threat of isis and terrorism. the president is currently evaluating a group of very strong candidates that will be considered to fill the national security advisor position permanently and is confident in the ability of general kellogg, a decorated and distinguished veteran of the united states army until that person is ultimately chosen. before i get into the president's schedule for today, quick recap of the president's activity over the last few days since we have not had the honor of sharing so much time together. the president has been keeping a close eye on the orville dam situation in california. we work closely with the man rep is ending that first district where dam is located and other state officials to help people who have been affected. the situation is a textbook example of why we need to pursue a major infrastructure package in congress.

dams, bridges, ports have fallen into disrepair. in order to prevent the nest disaster, we look for an overhaul of our nations kremmling infrastructure. we hope everyone remains safe as the evacuations continue and we will be working alongside with fema and appropriate government entities to make sure that we are doing everything we can to attend to this matter. the president was honored also to welcome prime minister of japan last week, and in their first official meeting at the white house to their joint press conference at mar-a-lago, they enjoyed their press comments and time together pay the president and prime minister had a productive was it that we are from their determination to further strengthen the u.s.-japan alliance in an economic relationship.at mar-a-s proud to stand behind prime minister abe on friday to convey the united states unwavering support for japanese allies in the face of north korea's most recent missile launch. on sunday, the president met with now secretary of treasury

mnuchin before returning to washington. yesterday, the president had an incredibly productive set of meetings and discussions with prime minister justin trudeau of canada, focusing on our shared commission's commitment to cooperation in addressing both the challenges facing our two countries and the problems facing the world. our countries share profound economic interests with more than $2 billion into a trade going across the border every day p of the president was pleased to launch the canada and united states counsel for the advancement of women entrepreneurs and business leaders by holding a roundtable discussion here at the white house. together with prime minister justin trudeau, his daughter ivanka trump, the president discussed the unique challenge that women face in the workplace with an incredible group of successful and respected women business executives from both countries. a full list of the participant is available through the pool. in addition to this in person meetings with the prime ministers of japan and canada, the president also really believe i greatly had focus with the presence of tunisia, peru,

nigeria and south africa. readouts are available on all those calls. finally, following the prime minister's visit yesterday, the president met with chairwoman mcdaniel and the cochair of the republican national committee. in the afternoon, the president participated in a panic there money for one of his military aides. aides to the president are midgrade officers from each of the services that provide direct support to the president as his role of commander-in-chief, and they are primary responsibilities are to reserve as an emergency action officer in ceremonial assistant. what of the long-standing traditions that their presidential aide is promoted to the next level. he was sweetly promoted to lieutenant colonel and the promotion was held in the oval office. the president also spoke yesterday with murray and scully on the one-year anniversary of her husband's passing pair they discussed her late husband's amazing legacy and how the president is making every effort to carry it on by

nominating judge neil gorsuch she shares the left of the confirmation constitution. last night, the president swore and secretary mnuchin, he is a world-class financier who is decades of with financial and other matters make of the ideal person to person to spearhead the president's plan to develop a dynamic and booming economy that works for all americans. we are glad to officially have him on board. moving onto the schedule of today, this morning, the president and newly confirmed secretary of education devos held a parent-teacher conference meeting with parents and educators from public, private, charter and homeschools. the president began bias congratulate excitatory munito-rizzo for toughness and staying the course throughout her confirmation process. he then discussed the opportunity for all americans to climb the ladder of success starting with making quality education available to every child no matter their zip code. under the current system, the president believes too many children are trapped and failing

schools especially in the african-american committee. he told the group to begin discussing the problem which he sees as a civil rights issue. he wants parents to decide which educational options are best for their children. they launch into a wide-ranging discussion that included public and charter schools, homeschooling, schooling, dropout prevention and the basis schools program, states response abilities, in the current state of the u.s. department of education. the president's ultimate goal is to create safe communities, great schools and well-paying jobs. he believes each of these goals is linked to the others, in the trump administration is taking concrete steps to achieve them all. the president also spoke on the phone earlier today with prime minister mae of the united kingdom come up continuing the productive conversation when she visited. he had lunch with new jersey governor chris christie and his wife regarding combating drug use and at 2:00 the present will sign houtz joint resolution in the office which is the start of rolling back harmful obama era regulations which have cost

consumers a staggering $890 billion, making our companies less competitive and even driving some of them out of business. the american free enterprise system is the greatest engine for economic prosperity in the world. but for too many to reach its maximum potential, we must remove the barriers to productivity that are holding back our great workers and businesses. misguided federal regulations such as the fec rule addressed by hjr 41 inflict real cost of the american people and put our businesses, especially small businesses, at a significant disadvantage. it's a priority for the trump initiation to fix our broken regulatory system so that it enhances american productivity and well-being without imposing unnecessary costs and burdens. signing this joint resolution is one more step toward achieving this goal. later this evening, the president will meet with secretary kelley and attorney general sessions to continue discussions on potential options for addressing the very clear national security threat we are

facing in light of the recent supreme court ruling. tomorrow, the president is pleased to be welcoming israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to the white house pray they will discuss ways to advance and strengthen the special relationship between our two countries and stability in the middle east peer they will consult on a range of regional issues including addressing the threat posed by iran and its proxies, crisis in syria, countering isis and other terrorist groups. as the president has made clear, his admitted fissionable brick to achieve comp brands of agreements that would end the israeli-palestinian conflict so that israelis and palestinians can live in peace and prosperity forward toward that goal will also be discussed between the president and prime minister. they will hold a joint press conference as well and further guidance will be coming on the time and location for looking ahead to friday, the president will travel to charleston south carolina to attend the rollout of the first boeing 787 dreamliner. this will give the president an opportunity to celebrate a huge milestone where thousands of

workers at boeing, the number one exporter in the millions of americans workers involved in aerospace. this trip has been months in the making, we are thrilled to celebrate the rollout of this amazing plane. with that, i would be glad to take some of your questions. >> reporter: back in january, the president said there was no one in his campaign had been in touch with the russians. now today, can you still say definitively that nobody on the trump campaign, not even general flynn, had any contact with the russians before the election? >> press secretary spicer: my understanding is what general flynn has not expressed as during the transition period -- we were very clear during the transition period he did speak with the ambassador -- cover part of mike i'm talking about during the campaign. >> press secretary spicer: there is nothing to make me think anything has changed in that time. >> reporter: if the present was notified 17 days ago that he could have misled the vice president and other officials and was a potential threat for blackmail by the russians, why would he be kept on for almost three weeks?

>> press secretary spicer: that assumes a lot of things that are not true. the president was informed of this, ask the white house counsel to review the situation. the first matter was whether there was a legal issue. we had to review whether there was a legal issue which the white house counsel concluded there was not. as i stated in my comments, this was an act of trust. whether or not he actually misled the vice president was the issue. that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation of general flynn. that is it, pure and simple, matter of trust. we went through a very deliberative process, very thorough review, the first part of it was clearly to understand the legal aspect of this. that was simply concluded peer there was no legal aspect, then what happens is the president evaluated the trust aspect. >> reporter: when the president was asked on air force one on friday traveling down to mar-a-lago about conversations with the russians about sanctions, he said i don't know about it. i will look into that. was he being truthful?

>> press secretary spicer: asked specifically was he aware of a "washington post" story, he had not seen that at the time. of course he was involved, i just said he was aware of that situation right after the white house informed him back in january. >> reporter: so inquiry into the white house counsel was strictly about the legalities involved, not the propriety of the conversation between general flynn and the russian ambassado ambassador? the merits of those conversations about sanctions before that trump admeasure ration took office. >> press secretary spicer: just to be clear, the acting attorney general informed the white house counsel that they wanted to give a "heads-up" to us on some comments that may have seemed in conflict with what he had said to the vice president in particular appeared white house counsel informed the president immediately. the president asked them to commit a review if there was a legal situation therapy that was immediately determined there was not, that is what the president believed at the time from what he had been told and was proved to be correct. the issue pure and simple came down to a matter of trust.

the president concluded he no longer had the trust of his national security advisor -- >> reporter: the incoming national security advisor, not part of his administration to be discussing an issue as sensitive as sanctions. >> press secretary spicer: his job is to discuss issues with his counterparts. charles krauthammer put it perfectly last night, that is what he is supposed to be doing. that is his job. we would constantly weed out to the transition who he was speaking to, how he was getting ready, president receiving congratulatory calls from around the world, we would beat out the world leader because some of the job of the incoming nsa is to sit down with that counterpart and start the dialogue, he that is exactly what he did. the question was not did he do anything improper or illegal, but he could he be trusted further, in the erosion of that trust was frankly the issue issue. >> reporter: did the president instruct them to talk about sanctions? >> press secretary spicer: absolutely not.

i think the president had no problem with the fact that he acted in accord with what his job was supposed to be doing. he had the ability to talk about issues that were important whether it is that or the 30 other countries he spoke to, that was part of his job as has been noted by many people. that is with the national security advisor and friendly other positions do. they begin the process of preparing their incoming job by talking to counterparts, people have previously held the job, et cetera. if he had not done that, there would be questions on whether he was properly prepared for day one. the issue is not whether or not -- what he discussed, there's been a complete legal review of that, no issue with that. the issue is whether or not he failed to properly inform the vice president or not be honest with him or not remember it. that is plain and simple the issue, when he lost trust with the president is when the president asked for and received his resignation. reporter mike yesterday kellyanne conway said that the president continued to have trust and general flynn.

what happened to being yesterday morning and yesterday evening that led the president to lose confidence in general flynn? >> press secretary spicer: on my getting into the specifics of what the president is thinking but i will say as i noted in the opening statement it was an evolving anti-voting process. at the end of the day, the president made the decision as he does on all subjects and asked for that, but he's one of the people we have noted before when he is ready to make a decision, he makes it whether it is hiring someone or ask for someone's resignation. when he has determined he's made the decision on any subject, that is when he informed staff. going into the day, evolving situation, made a determination late in the day, any executed on it. >> reporter: loyal person, was it a difficult decision for the president to let general flynn go? >> press secretary spicer: for sure. general flynn is a dedicated public servant. he is the head of the dia, has been an outstanding member of the army both as an officer and

as a flag officer. he has served his country admirably. i think the president appreciated his service to his nation, his commitment to his campaign and his service to his country so far. but at some point, the decision came down whether or not that trust had eroded. the important matter as i mentioned that is before the president when he is dealing with issues of world matters, of all the issues, friends, allies, photos, hot spots, he needs to rely on an actual security advisor to give them advice and i think at some point that guidance and trust eroded in thl matters ultimately decides that when he is made 3 ready to make a decision, he will make it. >> reporter: does the president believe that anything discussed with general leavened during the transition could be viewed as an encouragement to discuss sanctions with the russian ambassador? that is question number one.

>> press secretary spicer: again, as i made clear, there is nothing the general did that was a violation of any sort. he was well within his duties to discuss issues of concern between the two countries. i will say again what this came down to it as a matter of trust. the president was glad he was out there conducting his job in preparing for his job going back and forth with his counterparts throughout the world. with all the world leaders calling the president, congratulating him, looking to set up calls for him once he was inaugurated, similarly, general flynn was getting that with his counterparts around the world. there was never a concern to the president. from day one, he was briefed from the white house counsel. the issue plain and simple came down to a matter of trust. once that occurred, it was over. >> reporter: the president does not believe that any discussion that might have taken place as we know from intel it

did, sanctions, create the problem for the president in any way, that is not a problem that general flynn discussed sanctions with russia. >> press secretary spicer: now, i cannot say it clearly enough. there was nothing in what general flynn did in terms of conducting himself that was an issue. what it came down to plain and simple was him misleading the vice president and others and not having a firm grasp on his recollection of that. that is it. >> reporter: lawmakers on capitol hill on both sides of the aisle would like to investigate and probe and ask questions about this. does the president hope to cooperate with those investigations, would he instruct members of his staff to work with them here in the administration to cooperate with those investigations? >> press secretary spicer: we are going to comply with the law. the president feels very confident the review conducted by white house counsel was very thorough and concluded very conclusively as he had first

come to instinctively come to the inclusion that there was nothing wrong. people are free to do what they wish, but i think they will find exactly what the president first believed and what the white house counsel concluded, and friendly, i believe a couple publications even reported there was no investigation for a reason because there was not an issue of law, it was an issue of trust. george. >> reporter: when do you expect to have a replacement in place, and secondly on another topic, there was a report yesterday that one of your colleagues said the white house is keeping dossiers on reporters. can you say that is true or not? >> press secretary spicer: absolutely not true, there are no dossiers being kept, there's a binder right here, that's about it. that is a joke. hold on one second. i am sorry, the first part. >> reporter: timetable on a replacement. >> press secretary spicer: just like the way he handled the situation, the president will meet with individuals and when he is ready to make a decision, he feels as though the person is

qualified and can possibly advise him on the issue, he will make the decision appeared but like all decisions, rests with him. i'm going to my first skype seat, las vegas. reporter mike thank you so much on behalf of our viewers here in southern nevada for the opportunity to join you to get 3 today. as you know, las vegas has suffered terribly in the last recession, more so than any other city in the country. as the admonition moves forward with repealing financial regulations and possibly bowling bag dodd-frank, what guarantees can you make two people in nevada that those actions will not be faint on investment banks to be engaged with the risky financial behaviors that tanked our economy the last time and left taxpayers here on the hook to bail those banks out? >> press secretary spicer: thank you, john. one of the things if you look at the intent of dodd-frank, it was to make sure that we did not have institutions that were too big to fail. frankly, it has created institutions that are now too big to fail. dodd-frank actually did exactly

the opposite of what it intended to do, and i think when you look at the regulation hdr 41 the president signed today, this is another example of the president taking decisive action to rollback regulations that are frankly creating more of a burden on our nation's banks and businesses than helping them. i think the president is going to be very clear with making sure that we do things that build up the goal of what dodd-frank actually intended to do peer right now, we have taxpayers more on the hook then leaving them off, we've created more institutions in more guarantees for the federal government to bail out these institutions if they exceed their authority. john roberts. reporter mike back to what you said at the beginning, white house counsel office reviewed this and determined there was nothing illegal. what evidence did they look at and making this determination, secondly, democrats up on the hill say that they want ann bece looking into what did the

president now and when did he know it, so can you tell us what evidence the white house counsel office had and what did the president know about all of this and when was he aware? >> press secretary spicer: i mentioned the first day the department of justice made white house counsel available sought to notify west january 25th. the president was immediately informed of the situation. as i said based on the information provided at the time, his view was this was not a violation. he was proved instinctively correct, and white house counsel at the time undertook an extensive review, both of materials and questioning -- i'm not going to get into specifics. what i will tell you is on multiple occasions, they had an exhaustive and extensive questioning of general flynn on several communications based on information provided to them and materials provided to them to review. i'm not going to get into the details of that, but i would just say there was an exhaustive review. again, the thing that is

important to note is that the vice president, myself, in fact i think the first time about this issue up was january 13th. the department of justice did not notify the white house or white house counsel at that time in the transition phase until 13 days later. so i think it is important to understand something very, very important. this idea of why did it take so long, the first question should be where was that a private of of justice in this? they were aware of this. we were making statements based on what general flynn was telling us starting on january 13th. vice president went out on the 15th. they did not notify the white house counsel office until january 26. at that time, there was an immediate -- the president wasn't really informed of that, and they asked the white house counsel to conduct a very thorough review peer the very first part of the review was focused on whether or not there was any legal issue, that is it. once that became the issue, then there was a shift to phase two which is whether or not there was trust still maintained, and then that became a separate set

of issues. >> reporter: speaking to the actual evidence, the fbi has transcripts of these intercepts which i assume were done by the nsa, the order, was there any communication between the white house counsel's office and the fbi that the transcript ever entered? >> press secretary spicer: obviously there was communication between the department of justice and white house counsel's office. i'm not getting into the specific order of fact, that would be inappropriate because of the nature of information that was being discussed. >> reporter: why not dismiss the general on jenny way 27th? if the question was on trust, immediately you have january 26, on "face the nation" vice president was saying this is what general flynn told me then january 26, you heard the opposite, why not immediately ask, why wait another 2.5 weeks? >> press secretary spicer: i don't understand how that is a due process. the acting attorney general did not come in to say there was an

issue, she said we want to give you heads up there may be information. she could not confirm there was an investigation. it would be unbelievably shortsighted and wrong to go and dismiss someone immediately. in fact, with the president did was take decisive action to make sure the white house counsel thoroughly reviewed and vetted the situation. he took immediate, decisive action. if you look at the time line in terms of what he did and how that expanded, white house counsel's first and foremost goal was to make sure there was not a legal issue at hand. once that was concluded, it became a phase of determining whether or not the general's action on this and a whole host of other issues undermined his trust in the president. the president, from day one, from minute one, was unbelievably decisive and asking for and demanding his white house counsel and their team review this information for your first and foremost a question if it was a legal issue and what they immediately determined, not immediately but within several days was that

after review, there was not a le to the second phase. reportermac the president tweeted this morning, the real story is "leaks." >> press secretary spicer: it is, but when you thing about this, understand all the information was leaked. again, i know we have me lecturing you about what the story should be, but i think there is a real story here. the idea not just in this administration but the obama administration, going back to the bush administration and back that we have an issue with classified information, which this would be, handled in such a way that it is being given out. i know and some cases it is a good story, and i understand that, that is to some degree your responsibility to write it, but there is also a story here with the amount of leaks coming out of people that are entrusted with national security secrets and classified information, they are leaking it out. that is a real concern for this president. that when he is talking on the phone with a world leader, he is making key decisions that are in the interest of protecting the country that we have to wonder

whether or not people who work for our government who are entrusted with classified information and decision-based material are leaking that information out. that, i do believe, is a big story that should be reported. i also believe the president is rightly so very, very concerned about this because it is not just something that is placing the current situation, but it goes back to the amount due to neck obama initiation, bush, clinton administrations. when we have government employees entrusted with this, and we have them leak it out, that undermines our administration. i apologize, sorry. >> reporter: i have a question, but i want you to clarify something you just said to john. are you saying no one has read the transcript of the call or you just don't want to tell us? >> press secretary spicer: i said i'm not going to comment on it. >> reporter: question about sanctions, you are very specific talking about sanctions against crimea until it is returned but the sanctions flynn was

discussing were for the election hacking. that is something the president could remove on his own if he wanted to. is he committed to keeping those? >> press secretary spicer: secretary mnuchin commented on that. there is no change in our current sanction strategy with russia, and i've got nothing for you on that. >> reporter: the current story is leaks, so what is the president going to do to determine it? >> press secretary spicer: this goes back to the same way he negotiates, telling people what we are going to do to cover up additional leaks would not be a very sound strategy when it comes to make you sure that doesn't happen again. the president has been very clear when he is negotiating or dealing with an issue like this, don't telegraph to people how you're going to handle it. hold on, he gets a follow-up, everyone else got one. >> reporter: so he is going to take some sort of steps to investigate these leaks? >> press secretary spicer: i would say the president, as i said, is clearly upset about this. he understands the threat they posed to national security. it is going to make sure he continues to take action to make sure it stops.

>> reporter: you mentioned time and time again that this is an issue of trust. you also said that it was an evolving issue and that the issue of the trust the president had for flynn came down to this deception that happened with the vice president, also a host of other issues. what where the other issues and was the vice president of the only person that was misled by flynn or where other people? >> press secretary spicer: i think i explained what general flynn conveyed, there are others that expressed it as well. that is why it is others because it was not just people in the public announcements, in a series of questioning that was rather exhausted over a long period of time, he continued to maintain that had not occurred. that is where the president continued -- that is why the present was very clear that it was an eroding issue because it was not -- it was after a series of issues it a series of

statements and pronouncements that the president came to that conclusion. >> reporter: were there other issues outside of this call and discussion over that that led to the mistrust? >> press secretary spicer: i think the statement is very clear that it was this in a series of issues paid with that, let me go to ohio. >> reporter: thank you, the readers at the federalist papers project are most interested in retrieving the country to the first principles of republican government as understood by the american founders. one of those principles in the declaration of independence is the consent of the government, so my question is this. what are the president's future plans for rolling back the expensive and burdensome regulations of the administrative state, most of which are the product of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who never receive the consent of the governed to do anything, let alone make laws? >> press secretary spicer: as

i mentioned today, the president in a few minutes is signing hjr 41 which is one of those attempts to roll back some onerous dodd-frank regulations with respect to the fcc in particular. he's going to -- last week we rolled out another one of those executive orders that ensures that for every new regulation, to must be taken out. the president's commitment to lessening regulation and the overall of government is unwavering, so you will see the president undo a lot of the government overreach. >> reporter: quick question, he said that the president has been incredible he tough on russia. how is that possible? he is made comment after comment over the course of the campaign and transition where he defended vladimir putin, had an interview with bill o'reilly where he was asked if he is a killer, and he said, america has not been that much better. to me, it seems, in a lot of americans, it seems this

president has not been tough on russia, how can you say that? >> press secretary spicer: i just walked through. there's a difference between the president wanting to have an understanding of how a good relationship with russia can help us defeat isis and terrorism throughout the role. the obama admission tried to have a reset with russia, they failed. they tried to tell russia not to invade crimea, they failed, this president understands it is in america's national and economic interest to have a healthy relationship. if he has a great relationship with putin and russia, gray, but if he doesn't, it will continue on, but he's not going to assume because it was not able to happen in the past. you've seen with trimester a bit in particular and others the reset that prime minister benjamin netanyahu has talked about tomorrow, so many of these countries from around the globe are looking forward to resetting the relationship that this country has with them that they feel as though they were abandoned over the last eight years and that they are excited about the prospect of a new u.s. relationship under a trump administration. with respect to russia, i think

the comments that ambassador nikki haley made at the u.n. were extremely forceful and very clear that until -- >> reporter: that is nikki haley, not the president. >> press secretary spicer: she speaks for the president, i speak for the president. all the action and words of the initiation are on behalf of and under direction of the president. i don't think we can be any clearer on the president's commitment. >> reporter: quick follow-up. the other question is just getting back to what was asked a few moments ago about trust and being misled. are you saying that the national security advisor was intentionally misleading the president, vice president, yourself when he made these comments? >> press secretary spicer: the trust is given by the president, it's a relationship between he and any individual, and so as i mentioned in the comments, maybe -- i don't know it was intentional, he may have just forgotten but at some point,

trust -- >> reporter: but he forgot the conversation? >> press secretary spicer: that is the point, at some point the trust devoted to the point where the president did not feel comfortable with him serving in that position and asked for him to seek his resignation. >> reporter: on the issue of eroding of trust, last night, general flynn said he inadvertently briefed the vice president and others with incomplete information. considering his role in advising the president on national security matters, is the white house concerned that he may be briefed that president-elect or vice president elect with incomplete information on other matters of national security in addition to the phone calls with russia? >> press secretary spicer: when you look at that team, it is not one person in isolation, it is several. general kelly on homeland security, general mattis on doj, you have it the entire national security staff and apparatus that briefs him, director mike pompeo of the cia and others from the dni office

that briefed on a whole host of issues. it is not a single position. regardless of whether it is a single situation, it is not as though there is one person briefing him. the president synthesizes a lot of information both written and stuff that is briefed to him and it is he who makes the decision based on what he already knows, what he is presented with, so the president gets information from a lot of people, generals, admirals, people in the military community, ambassadors, state department, an exhaustive team at the national security council inmates and ultimate decision based on that and what he artie knows to be the case. >> reporter: even asked a couple times about the transcript of the calls. will the white house declassify those and release them? >> press secretary spicer: it is inappropriate for me to comment on those at this time. right now, the focus is on some of the evolving issues that were

going around the globe as you know. let me answer the question. it is not an issue that has come up. i think the president right now is focused on replacing his national security advisor in making sure he is presented with the best possible information to make key decisions. at this time, we also have to be careful that we are not involving ourselves and national security. the review, as i mentioned, was done immediately in the president felt as though it was time for a decision so he made it, so that is where we are in this iteration of the process. if we have any thing further for you, we will update you. want to go to talk news in palm beach, florida. >> reporter: thank you so much for this opportunity. i'm a proximately 6 miles from mar-a-lago right now. the president met with prime minister abe from japan at mar-a-lago this weekend and besides giving us traffic insecurity nightmares, there were apparently conversations that took place by telephone ane

prime minister that were relatively insecure a dining area. there is already video of this surfacing. will there be a stent put in place of these public areas and dining places, and one last question, when he meets with prime minister benjamin netanyahu tomorrow, what they discussed moving the embassy and settlements? >> press secretary spicer: on the second, i'm not going to get ahead of the prime minister discussion with the president. we will have a readout afterward paid with respect to the first, there is a skiff at mar-a-lago. just to be clear, the briefing, the president was briefed in a skiff ahead of dinner. he went with his national security team, they briefed him on the situation in north korea. subsequently, he had a dinner which was attended exclusively by u.s. and japanese delegation members. at that time, apparently there was a photo taken which everyone jumped to nefarious conclusions about what may or may not be discussed, but it was just about the host of the event. after dinner, the president went back to the skiff to get a

further update from his team. i'm not really sure what people are jumping to conclusions about, there is a skiff, he was briefed by his national security team, situation in north korea than the president subsequently stood shoulder to shoulder with the japanese president to make sure that our commitment to their security and stand against north korea was fully made awar aware. >> reporter: can you clarify because i got turned around. did president trump or president-elect trump at the time now of general flynn's discussion of the sanctions while he was a designee, and if not, when did he finally learn about this, why was he okay with that? >> press secretary spicer: no, he was not aware as he is not that briefed on every conversation that his national security team has or any other staffer. they were performing their duties as other people were in terms of getting up to speed,

conveying with counterparts and previous members of their team. that being said, he was made aware of it once the white house counsel briefed him on concerns the department of justice had. at that point, as i mentioned, what he asked and believed at the time was confirmed by white house discussing the issue didn't violate anything. it was appropriate and normal course of action to discuss that. he immediately asked the white house counsel to further confirm what his instincts were at the time. thank you, guys. have a great one. got to get ready for a bill signing. we've got a bill signing. we have a bill signing. >> is the administration taking any sort of effort, cabinet wise or to make sure that everyone comes forward who had any communication with the russians about santions or otherwise? >> there is no other talk. this is an isolated incident that