it, did it for women. >> great show, great to have all of you. we are staying right here for mattis over time, this will continue, and find us on facebook at facebook the cup "happening now" starts right now. >> jon: we start with this fox news alert, we are minutes away from the white house daily briefing. >> heather: lawmakers on both sides of the aisle request fbi documents connected to the alleged wiretapping of trump tower. we're covering all of the new "happening now" ." >> obamacare is collapsing. obamacare is not staying. if we did nothing, the law would collapse and leave everyone without affordable healthcare. >> jon: two house committees working on the g.o.p. plan to replace obamacare. while some conservatives are already threatening to sink the new bill. is it dead on arrival or can it move ahead? plus, wikileaks behind a massive document dump, claiming to exposed cia spying practices and

some of those tools could be right in the palm of your hand. and... >> i just heard it got to the backyard, but i don't know for sure how close to the house it has gotten. >> jon: powerful winds fanning deadly wildfires and four states, what weather conditions are expected to help the firefighters? it is all "happening now." ♪ >> jon: we begin our second hour today in washington where we are waiting for the white house briefing to begin. welcome to "happening now," i am jon scott. >> heather: i'm heather childers infer jenna lee, great to be here again. >> jon: great to have you. >> heather: talking about sean spicer who most likely will face questions about the intel leak exposing's sensitive sea cia secrets as well as president trump's allegations that his predecessor wiretapped and add trump tower as the white house is pressured to provide evidence all of this as the president prepares to meet

with conservative leaders on the g.o.p. plan to replace obamacar, which is being debated right now on capitol hill. chief white house correspondent john roberts joints is not with the latest development. nothing big going on, right? >> no, just another typical wednesday here at the white house, good afternoon, president now having lunch with some folks on his strategic infrastructure plan, elon musk at the ceo of tesla and space x, one of the participants along with rick perry perry company secretary of energy, elon musk a very frequent visitor and participant and president trump's roundtables are no surprise to see him here. later today, the present will host conservative leaders from the house up there on capitol hill to talk about the new american health care act. the president getting a lot of blowback from conservatives who think this is nothing more than obamacare lite, that there is the same entitlement with in it though of a different scope and application than in the affordable care act. rand paul from kentucky one of the people who has been most critical of this, prompting the

president to tweet out last night: "i feel sure that my friend rand paul will come along with the new and great health care program because he knows obamacare is a disaster!" the president also believes that conservatives, particularly members of the freedom caucus who have been very vocal in their opposition to this will eventually come around. the white house indicates that it is willing to negotiate, but according to kellyanne conway he was on fox and friends this morning, that negotiation may only go to a point, listen here. >> the president has made clear as has the vice president that this is the plan but that the president has also used the word negotiation. it's also a process in play here called reconciliation. everyone knows as this american healthcare act makes its way through the normal channels, it probably will be changed somewhat. >> probably will be changed somewhat, but she did not indicate the degree to which it might be changed. couple other things on the radar screen today, wikileaks of the cia cyber spying tools,

white house not talking about this at all, not even acknowledging something like this might have happened as you can imagine, if something like this did get out, it got into the wrong hands could be particularly problematic. plus, it is likely this afternoon at the briefing will raise question is about whether or not they cia may be snooping on americans. and the white house will probably be challenged again to provide some sort of evidence to back up the president's claim on saturday, extraordinary claim that his predecessor barack obama was wiretapping him at trump tower. this has all been handed off to the intelligence committees now to look into, they are going over the cia to look at that what raw intelligence on the whole russia dop at the white house is hoping this will all quietly go away, but heather, extraordinary charges like that tend not to go away very quickly so we expect this to come up at the briefing. >> heather: tough job for sean spicer no doubt, thank you. >> jon: we will be hearing more from sean spicer, we expect about 25 minutes from now, but yesterday, he found himself being peppered with questions

about his bosses claims that president obama tapped his phones at trump tower. when pressed for evidence, spicer said he doesn't have access to that kind of information. >> are not in a position that that would be regularly part of my daily duties for the president to sit down and go through that, that is probably a level above my pay grade. as i've mentioned, as i've mentioned, i think the president believes that the appropriate place for this to be adjudicated is for the house and senate intelligence committees who have the clearances, staff, processes to go through this, look at it and report back. >> jon: but a former press secretary says otherwise. we will get into that any moment. joining is now, guy benson, political editor at town hall.com and joe trippi, former manager of howard dean's 2004 presidential campaign, both are fox news contributors. guy, one gets the impression that sean spicer did not exactly want to address the allegations from his boss that president obama ordered the

phones tapped at trump tower. >> i am quite confident that the white house would very much prefer not to talk about this anymore. there is some evidence that there may have been wiretapping of certain trump allies last year for various reasons, but so far, no basis to substantiate the very inflammatory specific acclaim from the president that his predecessor ordered wiretapping of his phones. so i think there is some deflection going on from the white house, don't want to talk about it, also don't want to embarrass their boss, but there should be investigations into the russian meddling, even though there is no evidence there was any collusion or that it tipped the election, that is a serious matter. so is the national security leaking that comment to become appears to be designed and timed to damage president trump so there are important inquiries than slideshows, one of which the president may have treated himself into. >> jon: would you like to see an investigation into these allegations that the obama administration or maybe former president himself ordered the

phone tapped at trump tower? >> absolutely. i think this is absurd that the president tweeted this and now his own white house spokesperson spicer is trying to push it off to congress. when you get the chairman of the intelligence committee devin nunes, he says he hasn't seen no evidence of this, and then tells us and admonishes us that the president is saying something in the press is taking him to literally come about when you accuse your predecessor of a felony, which is what he did, people need -- with one phone call, he could declassify whatever evidence he had if there is any, and we could know the truth. we don't have to have an investigation, but that is the best way to clear the air, then let's do it. >> jon: lettuce one of the questions. apparently, the president may have seen a report on a british web site, british blog that is

sort of thinly sourced about this. one gets the feeling, guy, that he may have forgotten that he is president of the united states and if you want to get to the bottom of these allegations come he generally has the power to do so. that goes to sean spicer's tweet yesterday. i'm sorry, not sean spicer, jay carney, former obama spokesperson who of sean spicer's claim that the information was above his pay grade says actually his pay grade is the highest possible in the white house, same as the chief of staff, national security, and other senior personnel. jay carney is not buying sean spicer's response. >> i don't believe that the president forgot he has president, but sometimes perhaps he doesn't lose sight of the fact that presidential pronouncements need to have a higher standard, particularly something this provocative where he may have read something online or seen something that was written and then jumped

sloppily to a conclusion for which there isn't any evidence that anyone knows of including reportedly the fbi director. again, this is a headache for the white house that i think is distracting from important investigations, one of which at least, the president says is essentially important, and i agree with hemorrhages pertaining to the national security leaks, and now we have another one today, this one targeting the cia. >> jon: my point, joe and i think guy understands it, he doesn't necessarily have to go to a british web site for information about this kind of story. he can go call the director of the nsa or the cia or the director of national intelligence to get this information. >> absolutely, he is president of the united states. he could have picked up the phone before he tweeted, asked if any of this was true or asked to see whatever reports there were. by the way, he could declassify any such warrants or anything that was out there, any evidence

and he could do that. he hasn't, and he can't. i just think it is more evidence there is nothing there. let's look at this, all of these leaks we are talking about, all of this investigation leaks, is there no patriot at the nsa, cia, fbi or justice department that would leak the proof that barack obama did this if he had done it? there are no patriots on that side of things within the intelligence community? it would be out there right now. or the president would have put it out there, and sean spicer would not be shoveling this off to the house intelligence committee where the chairman says there is no evidence and the president is a neophyte, that is where we are. >> jon: we will probably hear more from sean spicer when he takes the microphone's 20 minutes or so from now. we have to end the discussion there, thank you both. appreciate it. >> heather: not to a fox news exclusive, senator ron johnson wants to know why a texas joint

terrorism task force could not pursue the case of an iraqi refugee who entered this country under a fake name? when it is believe heat fought against u.s. troops in iraq, national correspond it william la jeunesse has more on this breaking story. this makes you shake your head. >> you know, that admission claims the travel ban is necessary because of the inability to properly fit people from certain middle eastern countries, now comes this terrorism investigation that illustrates that point. the chairman of the senate homeland security committee ron johnson has written this letter to the attorney general asking about a man who entered the u.s. as an iraqi refugee who later became the subject of an investigation by the joint terrorism task force in san antonio. according to the letter, i am quoting opec with this individual allegedly fought against american troops as an insurgent in iraq and at some point entered the country as a refugee under a false alias." so the vetting did not work.

they then tracked down the navy seal who captured this man for a positive i.d. who said the iraqi boasted at the time of killing u.s. troops, ultimately he was released and made his way here in the u.s. under a false name. now, here's the second shocking part of the story. when the u.s. attorney for the western district of texas sought to prosecute this refugee, it got turned down by an attorney at the main justice department because we are told it would make hillary look bad and confirm that candidate donald trump was saying something accurate. now that iraqi is gone, they don't know where he is pure johnson said the case demonstrates the risks involved with letting people with little documented history in these countries whether it is a paper trail, homeland security department as you know heather recently said nearly a third of the 1,000 fbi domestic terrorism cases involve those admitted into the u.s. as refugees. back to you. >> heather: we've been talking

about that throughout the day. william la jeunesse life for us, thank you. >> jon: very disturbing report. the battle over the gip plan to replace obamacare as republicans face opposition from within their own ranks. one g.o.p. lawmaker who is optimistic about the bill is using some very colorful language to describe it. he will be here live to explain his thoughts. plus, three years to the day since malaysia airlines jet disappeared over the indian ocean. are investigators any closer to learning what happened to more than 200 people on board? roller derby. ♪ now give up half of 'em. do i have to? this is a tough financial choice we could face when we retire. but, if we start saving even just 1% more of our annual income... we could keep doing all the things we love. prudential. bring your challenges.

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>> what is going on behind the scenes is any republican coming out publicly that has come out against it has been called by the white house in been cajoled in mood by the white house to give in, but if conservatives stick together, we will have a force and negotiation, and we will talk about clean repeal versus replacement if we do stick together because i don't

think they have the numbers to pass at this point. >> jon: let us senator rand paul, no fan of the g.o.p. plan to repay calling it dead on arrival. two house committees are now debating and are likely to debate the measure all day, we will walk you some of that taking place right now, joining us now, a congressman from texas, member of the house freedom caucus, and i think it is fair to say, congressman, at this time yesterday, you were not a big fan of this bill as presented. your quote is that "i think amidst the horse excrement we can find a pony around here somewhere." have you found the pony yet? >> no, but we have had those that are pushing this bill actually realize they need our support, they can get our support, but we need to at least be as bold as we were in 2015

and as i mentioned to president trump when he was on the husk floor during the state of the union, you are being told there are some things we can't do under reconciliation that we have already done. anyway, it seems like the bird rule, whatever they call it down in the senate, it seems more like that is a rule that lets them say we can't do that because the bird rule or whatever. there are a lot of things we can do, and the presiding officer makes that call, but if we don't get there more important parts of obamacare repealed, what is really critical is that prices of the insurance won't go down. the deductibles won't go down. it will still be hurting americans. now we are told with this bill we have, we may be able to get up as high as a 10% decrease in

the 125% or 100 for 50% decrease, that's not going to do it for my constituents. we have to do the right thing in repeal as much of obamacare as it takes to bring their prices down and to make -- give their patients more choices and what they do. it is just unaffordable right now, and i am very concerned that as it is, it is still going to be quite costly. we are holding out. i learned when president bush was in the white house, in fact i told him, look, i said yes, you never called me, had me come over to the white house and offered to have me involved like these other guys, so from now on, i'm a hard know on everything, then bush said come to the white house, let's talk. >> jon: let me ask this. the bill is being marked up in committee, if you could put one thing on it to make it more palatable to you, what would it be? >> that is the problem.

just one thing is not going to fix it. >> jon: we only have 30 seconds, i'm trying to keep you limited. >> for one thing, we have to get it to where if you are not legally in the country, you don't get subsidized healthcare. take out the tax credit for new entitlement and get rid of the cadillac tax. don't let it come back and because it assuredly will. >> jon: that seems like it would be fairly easy to accomplish to say that if you are not a u.s. citizen, you don't qualify. >> actually, president obama said that in his speech when joe was an actually described what he was saying. anyway, i had a bell back in 2009, i forgiving people permits if you're coming to pick fruit or vegetables, but you ought to provide an umbrella of healthcare policy for those people you're bringing in. i am for doing what other countries in the road do. you will get a visa but only when you show us that you have

health insurance and we are going to check and you have to keep it the whole time you're here or we will throw you out. there are countries that do that, and we should be doing that as well. if you are here illegally, yes, we are conscientious, we carry and have feelings, we will let you get healthcare while you're here illegally, but then you will get deported if you come back in, then it should be a felony and you go to prison. we care, but we have got to stop accepting people who cannot afford their own healthcare because we are paying for everyone else that did not pay for it, and that is not fair to those who can afford it. >> jon: congressman louie gohmert, republican from texas, thank you for coming on. >> heather: a lot to talk about. new file from north korea's latest missile test, what just happened at the united nations, we are live with that story nex next. you don't let anything keep you sidelined.

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>> jon: hard to believe, but it has been three years since malaysia airlines flight 370 disappeared over the indian ocean. family members of those on board holding services around the world today in memory of their loved ones. >> it is about us all coming together today and remembering that this is not over. it cannot remain a mystery. >> jon: the boeing 777 finished after shortly taking off from kuala lumpur, malaysia, heading to beijing. the plane's last contact with air traffic control took place over the south china sea. in january, australia, malaysia, and china suspended the search after looking through 46,000 square miles of the indian ocean. 239 passengers and crew members were on board that flight. >> heather: united nations security council just wrapped up closed-door consolations after

-- const de my consultations i should say after north korea's latest weapons test where it fired multiple medium-range ballistic missiles which landede sea off japan's northwest coast. u.s. ambassador nikki haley now calling for all u.n. members to enforce the sanctions on north korea that have been imposed. greg palkot is following the breaking story for us. >> yes, very strong words coming from the new u.s. ambassador to the u.n., nikki haley. maybe indicating a change of approach to north korea by the trump administration. following that launching this week, the four ballistic missiles, north korea called them a rehearsal for a nuclear attack on u.s. bases in japan, the u.n. called them band, the security council met and a special session. coming out of it, ambassador nikki haley a moment ago called it the actions in the rhetoric of leader kim jong-un believable, irresponsible, and

arrogant. she also hinted at a possible new white house approach, take a listen. >> we are stepping back and since these multiple lunches, reevaluating what u.s. approach is going to be, i can tell you we are not ruling anything out, and we are considering every option that is on the table. >> considering every option on the table. china's foreign minister and beijing also speaking out today, saying that perhaps the u.s. and north korea on a collision course as he described it should come up with some kind of a deal. north korea suspended its missile, nuclear program, the u.s. and south korea stopping their military exercises. also, he said the just-deployed american backed and sourced missile system and south korea against any possible offensive action against north korea should be stopped, too. ambassador nikki haley again just a few moments ago said those muscles are just military exercises are just defenses. there have been reports,

heather, that the white house team is putting together a range of options about how to deal with north korea, but beyond some tough talk we have heard from president trump about no more band missile launches and also china getting involved with it, there haven't been any specifics. experts say the clock is really taking on this one. back to you. >> heather: a lot on the plate, thank you for those breaking developments. >> jon: fox news alert, the podium is still empty, but we are waiting for the white house briefing to begin. sean spicer, the press secretary, should be stepping up to the microphone any minute now. we will take you there live. plus, cia spying secrets revealed by wikileaks. our next guest talks about the implications of this massive document dump.

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or safe driving bonus checks. oh yes.... even a claim satisfaction guaranteeeeeeeeeee! in means protection plus unique extras only from an expert allstate agent. it's good to be in, good hands. >> heather: fox news alert for you to the white house where we are awaiting the start of the daily briefing any minute now, press secretary sean spicer likely to face some questions about wikileaks, cia, healthcare, latest on that and the president claimed that his predecessor wiretapped him at trump tower. we will bring you that lived all of it when it gets underway. >> jon: information out on wikileaks releasing new documents that claim to reveal the cia's most sensitive spying secrets, at least the electronic ones. thousands of pages supposedly detailing how the cia can turn

ordinary cell phones and smart tvs into surveillance devices. morgan wright is a cyber security analyst and senior for the center of digital government. good to have you back on. when you got wind of these revelations from wikileaks, what was your first reaction? >> a word that would be bleeped out if i said it right now, like here we go again. what do we have to do to protect the secrets? some people may read it that you should not be tapping these phones and doing this, but at the end of the day, these are the secrets we use to protect us from attacks, collect intelligence on foreign adversaries. how many people would like to know executive what kim jong-un is going to do with his nuclear missiles? what if we disclosed the only tradecraft we allowed to pursue what was going on, what good would be served by that? there are a lot of implications for this, none of them are good. >> jon: julian assange, the founder of, thinks there should not be any secrets, everything should be open to

everybody. your thoughts? >> julian, give me the password and tell me what is on the wikileaks surveyor, he wants to keep something secret so it's disingenuous to say he wants everything transparent when he is hiding in the ecuadorian embassy. that being said, -- this is more than collecting information. the cia works differently than the nsa pay they operate bases and countries, their case officers recruit people to do closed and operations which means i give you something, taking u.s. feeds or other things in and fomenting them into networks. when this gets disclosed, we put at risk the very people we are asking to spy on their country organization to get us this information and puts them at risk the same way barbara hansen was arrested, he disclose the identities of our agents when oliver james was arrested, this is no different than that. the only difference is this has electronic to it but at the end of the day, same thing. i think it is treasonous and traitorous activity and i hope the investigation finds out who did this. >> jon: for instance, there are some apps whatsapp for

instance, as a messaging application some people use, has encryption ability, but these files suggest that you can or the cia was able to get around that encryption and tap into some of these conversations that people who were using the app that were safe. >> technically, the conversations were safe. in other words, they've never broke the encryption and one of the most popular what they're going after his telegram because that is used by a lot of jihadist networks but what they did is compromise the device that the app was running on so they can see what's being typed into the messaging going across. it's still very difficult to break the encryption itself, so what they did is targeted the particular type of device whether it was android or iphone, and it is brilliant work. they figured out a way around it but at the end of the day, now that people know it, they will take countermeasures and it will be much more difficult for us to monitor. >> jon: apple says, for one, it's going to try to patch some of the holes that this dump has

revealed in its software. >> there will always be just contention between the government and our national security and the private sector for example silicon valley. they may not want the government and a bit at the end of the date of the bad guys are driving a certain brand of car, i want to know how to defeat that card to get into it, and a phone or computer is no different than what we've been doing for years in terms of breaking into safes, trying to find and copy other people's secrets, but the fact that this is so pervasive and it is run on software, a lot of people don't understand so they hear what they do not understand. this is no different than what we've been doing for years, it is just a different tool. not a new tactic, but the more we disclose this, the more levels the playing field, where the good ones, we fight with one hand behind our backs and we are at a disadvantage. if we level the playing field, we give our adversaries in advance we don't want them to have in this cyber battlefield. >> jon: agreed, morgan, thank you for your expertise.

>> you bet. >> heather: republicans in congress such overturn several obama era regulations on schools this week and setting up a new debate over education policy and that trump admission. in florida, president trump and his education secretary betsy devos made a major push for a charter and private schools, during a catholic school that allows poor children to attend it using taxpayer dollars. for more on all this, republican strategist and former senior advisor and campaign manager for governor mike huckabee, and jessica who is a former democratic congressional candidate. thank you for being here. >> good to be with you. >> heather: were continuing to monitor d.c. where sean spicer is scheduled to be at any moment now. actually, here comes now, i was going to say i have to cut you off early. we do have to do that. he has a lot to talk about today, obamacare, cia leaks, let's listen in. >> press secretary spicer: i will leave it at that. good morning. first off, i want to acknowledge

as the president this morning that today is international women's day. it is also women's history month. we are going to be holding several events throughout the month here at the white house to honor and celebrate women and how their vital contributions have and continue to be to our society, our economy, our family and businesses. the president tweeted this morning about the surgeon hiring in the two months he has been in office. linkedin 'as workforce reports say january and february are the strongest consecutive months for hiring in over a year and a half. a new report from adp and moody's showed strong private job growth that is far exceeding market expectations and just this morning samsung announced its planning a "major investment customer in a u.s. production facility citing that president policies as a basis, it should reach around $300 million. we keep seeing the wave of optimism and growth in the wake of the president's pledges to help american businesses continues to produce real results for people throughout

the nation. yesterday, i forgot to -- there are couple things i did not get to yesterday's let me mention a couple of those. yesterday afternoon, the secretary of veteran affairs dr. david shulkin and senior white house staff met with several veteran service organizations including what is commonly referred to as the big six to discuss the president's commitment to helping our veterans and modernizing rva. the meeting represented another step in fulfilling the president's promise to the men and women who have served our nation so honorably. end of the president looks forward to personally following up on that meeting with the vs pro. also last night that president named several vigils he intends to appoint to several cabinet posts, noah francisco solicitor general at the department of justice, jeffrey rosen, deputy secretary of transportation, john jay sullivan, general council department of defense, member of the federal

communications commission, tony, the assistant secretary for public affairs and department of treasury. checking further announcements as the week goes on. now onto the events of the day, this morning after receiving his daily intelligence briefing, the president met with lorraine powell, the founder and president of emerson collective, an organization dedicated to removing the barriers that unfortunately prevent some of the road from achieving their full potential. they discussed education and immigration policy, which are two of the areas emerson collective focuses on. then the president held a strategic affairs lunch focused on infrastructure with leaders in the private sector. the infrastructure used to be a point of american pride, but now an overbearing, and effective regulatory system key projects keeps them in limbo for years. the president has already started removing the regulatory roadblocks that have been killing projects before they have even begun through his executive actions, streamlining the permitting process and calling for each agency throughout the government to

identify regulations that cause undue burden. as the president has said many times, strong public-private partnerships will often be key to revitalizing our countries ruined roads, crumbling bridges and outdated airports. the government has wasted too much of the taxpayers money on inefficient and misguided projects. by looking at infrastructure from a business person's perspective, as the president and these executives do, we can restore respect for the taxpayer dollar and make the best investments. the president was particularly pleased to be holding this meeting up at second of transportation elaine chao, epa admitted shooter scott pruitt and energy second rick perry are all confirmed and getting to work. in attendance at the lunch as a mentor were second elaine chao, secretary scott pruitt, second rick perry, ceo for several companies, josh harris, cofounder of apollo global management, bill ford, ceo of general atlantic, lynn scarlett,

managing director of the nature conservancy, tyler devol, partner and elon musk of space x. later this afternoon, the present will meet with congressman elijah cummings to discuss rising prescription drug prices. another president is looking forward to continuing the dialogue they started a few weeks ago on the phone. at 4:00, the president will meet with interior second ryan zinke, senator murkowski and sullivan of alaska, they are expected to discuss the priorities of the department of the interior especially as it pertains to the government-owned lands in alaska. his evening, the president will meet with conservative leaders about health care. we will have more details and participants on that meeting a little bit later this afternoon. the president and vice president continue to reiterate their support for the house built on obamacare repeal and replace and look forward to working with congress to institute a new healthcare system. tonight, the present will have dinner with senator and mrs. ted cruz and a couple administrative announcements for the president and first lady today announced the initial details for the 139

white house easter egg roll taking place on monday, april 17. they are honored to continue the traditions of the past while creating new ones. it will play a lasting role in the fabric of our nations history. tickets to the easter egg roll are free to the public it will be allotted through an online lottery. further details on the lottery he had information on that day will be released later this month. keep an eye on whitehouse.gov for more information on that. i am also pleased to announce that a member of ireland's administration will visit the white house for the traditional st. patrick's day visit, we will have more details as with other foreign leader visits later this week. with that, questions. david smith of "the guardian." >> reporter: about the president's state visit to the u.k., is that coming about, what was your reaction to some members of parliament and britain saying that the president is not welcome, they

used words like racist and sexist, has that led them to reconsider? >> press secretary spicer: the president as you know accepted her majesty's invitation when the prime minister was here. he looks forward to going over and visiting the united kingdom, as we have details to share with you further, we will, but there is nothing further this time. >> reporter: does the white house have a reaction to the iranian vessels coming within 150 yards of a navy ship over the weekend? are they on notice, it would you offer anything beyond a verbal reaction and i have a follow-up question. >> press secretary spicer: the u.s. navy ship that was in close proximity is obviously summing the president has been made the president has been very clear this provocative action is something that will not be tolerated. with that, i would refer you to the department of defense who is monitoring that situation and we'll talk about the appropriate actions to be taken. >> reporter: sickly, does he have any plans to revamp the hb

one visa program by the april 1st deadline? >> press secretary spicer: we've talked before about immigration as a whole, there is the legal part of immigration then the illegal part. the president's actions he has taken in terms of his executive order and other revamping policies have focused on our border security, keeping our country safe, people safe, then obviously whether it is h1b visas or spousal visas, other areas of student visas, there is a natural desire to have a full compounds of look at that. he discussed the race act yesterday which [boos] with senators purdue and cotton, we will have more on that, and as the readout mentioned, he was very supportive of their efforts with respect to how we view legal immigration. he mentioned his joint address that we are one of only a handful of countries that does not use a mirrored-based seat back system of immigration and that is what we need to look like in its totality.

>> reporter: i have to click questions, are you aware of any women who work at the white house who are participating in the strike today? and also more generally, what is the admitted rations reaction to this protest, and do you think it is an effective way -- skipping work as an effective way for women to demonstrate their power and significance? >> press secretary spicer: on the first part, i am not aware of any. they are not here, everyone i am aware of has shown up in it's working really hard to advance s agenda. they are committed to moving this country forward, those of us who have joined the president throughout government, but obviously as the president stated today, we want to recognize the contributions that women make to our businesses, families, economy, society, and it is a free country. people have the right to express themselves. but i think we should on a daily basis, not one day a year but 365 days a year appreciate the

contributions that women make in all of those categories. it should not be a daily thing, and hopefully we can fix that a little bit more. >> reporter: there seems to be this growing groundswell of conservative opposition to the healthcare bill that was offered up by leadership in the house of representatives. you mentioned the president is going to be meeting this evening with conservatives. what is his message to those individuals, are they members of the freedom caucus, is it senator rand paul that's going to be there? can you give us a sense about what the president intended to do to turn around that opposition that was quite apparent yesterday? >> press secretary spicer: a few things on that. one, as i mentioned, we will have a list of participants later. two, i think there have been a lot from business and conservative groups have been very supportive, whether it is americans for tax reform, american taxpayers union, medical device manufacturing association, u.s. chamber of commerce, one nation health, consumer health products

association, the association of wholesale distributors, legislative exchange council and others pair there has been tremendous support for this. we have people throughout washington, d.c., going to different associations and groups throughout the day is the last couple days talking about the benefits of this. we are going to continued to do outreach, as you know, he met yesterday with the haslip team expressing his unwavering support for the bill in the process about to be encountered, he mentioned he will work with the individuals today. we are going to have a full court press. our team throughout the administration on local radio and television to get that message right to the american people, to talk about both the things we talked about yesterday, why we have a crisis right now and healthcare ny obamacare is failing, but secondly, why the solution the president has worked on with the house is the right one to bring down costs and to reinstitute choice. that message is going to continue to get delivered both today and for the next several

weeks until it passes the house and senate and comes back to his desk. again, one of the important messages i think those on the conservative side need to understand is that right now, there is an uneven playing field. if you get your insurance through medicaid, medicare, through the government or an employer-based healthcare, your untaxed and employers are untaxed, it is those small businesses and business owners that are paying the penalty, and that is what we have to remember. we talk so often on the conservative and republican side about the importance of entrepreneurship, the importance of small businesses to our economy, yet they are the ones who suffered right now with an inequity in the tax system. i think by leveling that playing field and by giving them more options and driving down costs, we are actually doing a very conservative thing here by removing the mandate of a government mandated "you must buy this program or you will pay

a penalty," eliminating choice, we are enacting, i think i'm a very strong conservative values and healthcare that give all americans more choice at a lower cost. i think that should be a very positive message. >> reporter: as a brand-new federal employee, i am sure you are aware -- >> press secretary spicer: current, welcomed back. >> reporter: i'm sure that you and your family are aware that they offer a very compounds of healthcare program called the federal employees benefit program for you and anyone on this staff, building, on the hill, their families -- very generous. state of the art. the individuals involved in the healthcare situation right now, the debate, no matter how it plays out, do they really have the kind of sympathy and empathy for individuals who may not benefit nearly as much when they are negotiating these systems, all of these plans? >> press secretary spicer: in what respect?

reporter mike you arguer affiant, you are covered. >> press secretary spicer: it is unfortunate -- first of all, i am not fine because of obamacare cover premiums of everyone have gone up. regardless of what you play do not pay, federal employees make a contribution to their health care plan as well. all premiums have increased over -- whether you are in an employer-based system are not. one of the big issues with obamacare is in order to fix a problem that faced 15-20 million people, the entire system got shattered. prices on everybody got ratcheted up, people who were on medicaid suddenly lost their ability. so the issue was in an attempt to solve a problem that affected a very specified and defined group of people, we affected the entire healthcare market. so whether or not you get it from an employer or not, but your question, that is part of the issue. hold on, here's the issue, you're right, absolutely right, right now if you're a federal employee and a lot of cases the state coming in to open a book

and look at what plan matters to you, what planet is best for you or your family. how much do you want to pay, how much coverage do you want to have, what is the co-pay you are services or benefits do you want as part of your plan? absolutely, but the issue of so many americans don't have that choice. for a third of the counties in this country, they've got one choice, one. and a lot of states, they've got none, the exchanges are becoming fewer and fewer, the number of doctors in plans that take medicaid fewer and fewer. to your point, i think actually we are in a unique place because we get to understand what the average american should get that we should not be limiting to a specified number of people. >> reporter: i appreciate your argument, very well taken. however, i'm going to compare a gs five or gs nine to a senator or secretary of one of the agencies. the safety net on those individuals gives them a certain cushion and they are negotiating, but do they really have that kind of compassion or empathy for the people who in fact may be thrown off of the

healthcare? >> press secretary spicer: i think just because it has healthcare doesn't mean they cannot empathize with someone who doesn't. we all have family and friends that are suffering for that is like saying because i have a job, i cannot be empathetic to someone who doesn't have a job. we all have family or friends, the same thing when we watch a friend or family member suffer through a terminal disease because we have not suffer through it does not mean we cannot have compassion toward that person or be concerned on how much that bill is costing them. that is actually, in some ways, depending on the relationship you have with that person, you can even feel worse, you can feel guilty about how much you have and how you are not able to help that person. i think in many cases, that is what drives us is to know their options available to some americans and not others. thank you. >> reporter: there is a criminal investigation into this alleged theft of cyber tools

from the cia by wikileaks. what can the white house tell us about the situation, particularly the fact it seems like there is another leak for the intelligence community that is on the scale of edward snowden? can you assure the american people that none of these tools have ever been used against the them? >> press secretary spicer: there are couple things in that. number one, for obvious reasons, it is our policy as a government not to confirm the authenticity of any kind of disclosure or hack. that would be highly inappropriate for us, but all of these occurred under the last administration. that is important. all of the alleged issues, and i think it is interesting to have it asked way about the damage that could have occurred or what tools could be used in light of what's been going on recently. your own networks correspondent james rosen had his phone, multiple funds hacked. was that appropriate back then?

i think there is a lot of concern out there about alleged leaks. there are two steps to this. i think what you saw over the last week in terms of -- this should be a major concern to people in terms of the leaks coming out and the desire to get to the bottom of them whether or not, not specifically with concern to the disclosure that you are referring to, but i think the idea that we are having these ongoing disclosures of national security comic classified information should be something that everybody is outraged in this country. this is the kind of disclosure that undermines our country, our security and our well-being. you've seen over the last two years, depending on the leak, it depends on the outrage. it is interesting how whenever -- whether the leak occurred under the last administration, you had member after member talking about disclosures that occurred during the last administration, whether it was

members of congress, elijah cummings expressed concern during the last administration in terms of the americans what it dealt with hillary clinton, it was complete outrage about the leaks that occurred, members calling for investigations into leaks. it is interesting how there is sort of a double standard when the leaks occurred how much outrage there is. i do think there is important, don't want to get into confirming or denying this particular thing, i think it is interesting how different subjects are approached. this one, everyone is immediately rushing to come in there should be a lot more coverage of this, this alleged leak should concern every single american in terms of the impact it has on our national security. >> reporter: and i asked something related? a person imprisoned in iran since last october for collaborating with a hostile government, that government being the united states of america, he is on a hunger strike apparently, his health is suffering. as the president aware of his

plight and that three other american's are being held in iran, what if anything might the president be doing about it? >> press secretary spicer: obviously we are aware of the information in that particular case, i would refer you to the state department. >> reporter: this is a sort of personal question, what is the president doing personally to convince people about this healthcare law and the people who do not like it? >> press secretary spicer: we are on day 2. as i mentioned, we've been out local, toxic to local in radio markets, the president yesterday met with the house deputy whips, today he is having a series of additional meetings with conservative groups and others, he has already talked to insurance companies, we talked about the lead up with executive from insurance companies, he met with governors, attorneys general, a group of lieutenant governors are coming in. we are going to be aggressively going after -- talking about the solutions we have for

healthcare, both the need to repeal the current obamacare system and the need to replace it with something that gives patients the choices and costs that they need. as i mentioned yesterday, and i cannot overstate this, there's a difference between having a card and having care. being told you have coverage and not being able to use it is no good. that is the thing i think is really important. when we get asked the question so often, how many people are going to be covered? that's not the question to ask, how many people are getting the care they need? having coverage with a high deductible and in some cases -- or not having a plan that allows you to get the coverage you need or afford it is not real coverage. it is a card. i think that is a big difference in the approach we're taking here is how do we get people the affordable care they need, that there is more choice, more doctors coming into the system instead of leaving come of that is a big, big difference in the approach happening now.

i think you will see a lot of travel inactivity by the president and all of the administration, not just going to be the president. it's going to be the secretary, directors, key administration staff, vice president has been actively engaged in meetings on the hill, talk radio, local radio, local television. you have seen a flurry of meetings with outside interest, op-ed's expanding the problem and engaging groups, associations that have an interest in this comet industry leaders, but this is going to be a very, very aggressive, comprehensive approach to making sure that every american understands that there is a major problem and that we are here to fix it. cecelia? >> reporter: want to go back to that, is the president outraged by this? >> press secretary spicer: again, i don't want to -- the allegations, he has been very clear about the concern he has for leaks.

i think he is very concerned about the allegations that are out there in terms of what may or may not have been. it is an allegation, someday we are not going to confirm at this time, but as you can imagine from the president's previous comments, he is extremely concerned about this, about these about the potential that something, if this were true, would have on our national security. make no mistake about it. the president has talked before. that anybody who leaks classified information will be held at the highest degree of law. we will go after people who leak classified information. we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. this is playing with our night national security is not something that should be taken lightly under this administration. >> when it came to the campaign and hillary clinton, the president said, quote, i love wiki leaks. does he still feel that way today? >> there is a big difference between disclosing john podesta's g mail accounts and back and f