from the airport complimentary as well. i'm dana perino. the press secretary is set to brief any moment. here's shep. >> shepard: 3:00 on the east coast. noon on the west coast. ten minutes passed the latest start for the white house press briefing. though it's not started. a live look there. sarah sanders is set to take the podium ten minutes ago. we're expecting to hear from her in a moment. there's a full menu today. there's the rob porter scandal where we left you a week ago. the thinking at the time was the chief of staff might make an appearance to take questions from reporters, but that didn't happen. they cancelled the briefing because the school shooting happened in parkland, florida. so there's all the news from that shooting and its aftermath with students in tallahassee today trying to change the culture. lots of news in the russia

investigation. the latest suspect is in court at this moment. this is a bit complicated. here's a stab at the explanation. robert mueller is accusing this guy, alex vanderschwan who is the son of an oligarch that is close to putin with lying to federal investigators about his contacts with the former trump advise eric gates. now gates and the former trump campaign manager paul manafort, were indicted for money laundering and conspiracy and all kinds of things tied to their pro russia lobbying in ukraine. the thinking here, the lawyer gets a plea dale and gates gets a plea deal in an attempt to get to manafort, the top of the food chain. generally speaking, work around the perimeter to get to the center. peeling the onion. licks to the tootsie pop center. you understand the point.

this is the latest in a string of charges from robert mueller. last week rod rosenstein announced the indictment of 13 russian nationals and three russian companies charged with setting up an elaborate plot to influence american voters among other things. the special counsel is looking to moscow's meddling in the 2016 election and also on a separate track, possible collusion with members of the president's campaign and separately whether the president has obstructed justice along the way. president trump and the russian president vladimir putin have repeatedly denied the claims. more on his case in just a moment with catherine herridge. all of this comes as the president tweeted this morning "i have been much tougher on russia than obama. just look at the facts. total fake news." we looked at the facts. that's not true. lawmakers in the house and the senate overwhelmingly passed --

voted to slap more sanctions against moscow back in july. the senate voted 98-2. the house voted 419-3. sanctions on the russians. do it said everyone except the white house. the white house did not implement them. missed the deadline last month saying they were not needed. that was before the indictment of the 13 plus the 6 in russia. do they need it now? as of yesterday, president trump had still not publicly called out the russians. had still not publicly expressed that something needed to be done about russian entinterference a to this moment still has not. the president said russia had been punished and it was time to move on. >> people don't realize, russia has been heavily sanctioned. they were sanctioned at a very high level. that took place very recently.

it's not time to get back to healing a world that is shattered and broken. >> shepard: has that time now changed? we don't yet know. hopefully we'll find out. the president went on to say it's an asset to be on good terms with moscow, not a liability. a question today maybe for sarah sanders and the members of the press corps, are we on good terms with the russians now? that all of the president's security officials, all of them have said among other things that there is evidence that the russians interfered with our election, did so to help trump and to hurt clinton. are we still on good terms? we also have heard from those same security heads, the same investigators, the same personnel, the same special counsel's office that they're all working to interfere with our elections. they are now and they are for 2018. we have team fox coverage with chief intelligence correspondent, catherine herridge live in working on the. first, let's get to the white

house with john roberts? the room. hello, john. >> hi, shep. the latest charged filed by the special counsel's office are in the outer orbit of the russian investigation to use your met nor, the candy coating of the blow pop, my wife's favorite. this appears to be related to the investigation and business dealings that paul manafort and rick gates had in ukraine, the firm that the russian was employed by. mueller is charging him with making false statements about the last time he had contact with rick gates and deleting e-mails. president trump weighing in on the russian investigation pointing fingers at the obama administration saying during the 2016 election, then president obama didn't pay much attention to what was going on with russia, down playing the idea that anybody could rig the american election system because

donald trump says he thought that hillary clinton was going to win and department want to rock the boat. president trump also insisting today that he's much tougher on russia than president obama is, even though, shep, as you pointed out he did not put into effect the sanctions that congress had passed. president trump referring to have a constructive relationship with russia. shep? >> shepard: what's the latest on an improving background check as mentioned by sarah sanders? >> the one thing that the president can get behind is the bill put forth by senators cornyn and murphy. it requires states or giving states incentives to upload information to the database to get more federal agencies involved in uploading information to the database. basically, shep, all it really does is tries to make more efficient laws that are already on the books. some people would argue this

should be happening anyways. you don't need a congressional intervention to make that happen. this doesn't go any distance down the road to what some people are wanting and that's more restrictions on the sales of assault-type weapons and a lot of people that say when it comes to mental health, you need better checks and balances with that as well as the fact that the fbi dropped the ball here and not passing on the tip that it got back in january. the president for his part tomorrow will hold a listening session with the high school students and teachers. we don't know if any teacher from stoneman douglas high school. thursday, the president will meet with local and state officials to talk about school shootings and what can be done about it, shep. >> shepard: this morning the president tweeted about a "washington post" front page story where a woman and not for the first time accuses the president of kissing her forcibly on the 24th floor outside their offices. the president said it was in the lobby. the basics of it remain the

same. >> yeah, the woman is rachel crooks. this was an indent that was alleged to occur in 2006 in an elevator at the trump tower. she claims the president forcibly kissed her for about two minutes. that prompted president trump to tweet this morning a woman i don't know and to the best of my knowledge is on the front page of the fake "washington post." he said i kissed her two years ago? never happened. would -- who would do this with security cameras. >> shepard: john roberts, thanks. a lot happening here. it's eight minutes past 3:00. at 3:30 in washington, right there at the white house, there's the medal of valor ceremony. this news conference, the white house press briefing was to begin at 2:00, which would have gave us a lot of time with a day an a lot of news.

but now that time window, it's shrinking every minute and they still haven't come out. the medal of valor ceremony begins at 3:30 in the east room. so we'll see what we have for a briefing today. waiting for sarah sanders. now more on the latest criminal charges and the special counsel's russian investigation. catherine herridge is with us, our national security correspondent in washington. katherine, they're working and the perimeter to get to the center. is that a fair assessment of what's happening here? >> yeah, based on the two pages which are -- what we can say right now, the federal court hearing has begun and the lawyer at the heart of this was not taking reporter's questions as he entered the building. court to court records make public this morning, the lawyer was the target of a special counsel investigation. the court records said the lawyer lied about his contacts

with rick gates along with paul manafort. the 31-page, 12 count indictment focused on working with the ukraine. gates who is in court at this hour, worked on the report for a ukrainian politics. after meeting in office, she was prosecuted for fraud and other crimes that were politically motivated. they wanted ukraine to be closer to nato and europe. the lawyer will plead guilty, which will be a violation of lying to the feds. >> shepard: what could this mean for gates and manafort? >> we don't want to speculate too far. but they question whether a guilty plea from the lawyer will increase pressure on gates to cut some kind of deal with the special counsel and then flip against manafort who was candidate trump's campaign chairman for a number of months. on fox this morning, a white

house spokesman said the lawyer is so many steps removed from the mandate, that was investigating co ordinance with the campaign and officials. >> this has to do with an attorney representing one of the officials that has been indicted. has nothing to do with actions related to this president. >> we're waiting for a read out of that court hearing right now. the thing that has my attention in the two pages that were released, they talk about documents and conversations in september of 2016. that is just two months before the election. what we know now based on the reporting, it was at the height of the russian dossier being circulated to the state department and media organizations. >> thanks, catherine. >> you're welcome. >> shepard: we're waiting for the white house briefing. we have a lot, the push on gun control and the white house reaction coming up from the fox news deck on this tuesday afternoon. ♪

mvo: with everything that is going on around us and in the nation, we need to work together. we need to do it more often to help people that need help. ♪ ♪ i'll stand by you. fvo: he's encouraged other people to look around and notice one another and take the time for each other. that's his gift. ♪ i'll stand by you.

can start in the colon constiand may be signs of an imbalance of good bacteria. only phillips' colon health has this unique combination of probiotics. it provides four-in-one symptom defense. it's your daily probiotic. ein the 2018 lexus es,y system plus, standard... and the es hybrid. take advantage of special president's day offers now through the 28th, on the 2018 es 350. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. >> and not yet. but soon enough. for now, let's bring in ken thomas, white house reporter for the associated press. the list is long today, ken. what tops it? >> we haven't had a briefing for a while. there's a lot of questions. one, what is the white house reaction to some of the mueller moves that we've seen the last day.

two, what is the status of john kelly. how does the president view the chief of staff. also, how does the president view the work of his fbi director, christopher wray. there's been criticism from florida's governor on his handling of the florida shooting and any number of other issues that will be discussed. >> shepard: john roberts often gets the first question. i don't know where he is going. of all the big questions right now, what would you most like to have the answer to? >> i think we want to find out as much as we can about where john kelly stands right now. the white house chief of staff. we thought he was going to come out to the briefing room last week hours before -- >> shepard: we heard it behind the scenes. why never reported it. sadly the school shooting happened. >> that's right. this will be the first opportunity for the white house to publicly talk about the job of the chief of staff. we're very interested in his standing. we're also interested in where

the president might be going in response to this florida shooting. the white house officials told us over the weekend that the president would be supportive of some type of heightened background checks. we want to know how much does the president want to lean into this issue. >> shepard: there's a certain curiosity level on russia sanctions and why there's been no admonition, no public rebuke. nothing. because you look at the totality of it, when the special prosecutor said they meddled, when all of the president's investigators, everyone he's appointed, they all say yes, russia did this and there's no response. makes you wonder why is there no response? that's not the normal course of events, you know. >> that's right. some of the president's critics say that he has not been forceful here. he's not responded and made clear that this is unacceptable behavior by the russians. we saw about a month ago, the treasury department put out a

lengthy list of russian oligarchs and politicians and other leaders that are flourished during putin's time. we want to know -- the treasury department suggested there could be sanctions based on that list but we haven't seen anything. >> it's been widely reported that vladimir putin has taken billions from the russian people that his rich friends, the oligarchs run everything in russian. they're al billionaires now because they took the money from the state. it's the kind of information that we could give the russian people that would be -- i don't know -- some tit for tat. here's the real on your system there, russian people. what do you think with an election coming up? we haven't done anything that we know about. >> right. steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary suggested that we could see some sort of sanctions that would be a follow-on to this list, that the list was the

first step in that process. but we still haven't seen that. i think the mueller findings last week ratchets up the pressure on this administration to take some type of action that would show russia that we mean business. >> shepard: what do all of those tweets over the weekend signal to you about the white house and the way the president was feeling about situations? >> initially they said they were happy with the findings and happy from the state from rod rosen steen. the tweets would indicate otherwise. they seemed to be defensive in their nature. the president felt like he hadn't been given a fair shake in how this news was relayed in the media. we'll be asking sarah huckabee sanders more about that as well. >> shepard: ken, look forward to it. thanks as always. obviously still waiting for that

to begin. it's almost 19 minutes past 3:00 at the white house, this is the east room where the medal of honor ceremony -- medal of valor. what will happen, some first responders that have come in and proved what heros they are will come in and get honored for all that they have done for you and me and america. so that's going to happen which leaves 10 minutes for the white house briefing. we'll see what happens. today's criminal charge in the russian investigation is painting a picture of the investigation. analysts say if you read between the lines, you can get a good idea where robert mueller may be headed. that's what they say. like they would have predicted the one that got charged this morning or somebody named papadopoulos. at any rate, a political reporter with a few take-aways so far we believe coming up.

you know what's awesome? gig-speed internet.

you know what's not awesome? when only certain people can get it. let's fix that. let's give this guy gig- really? and these kids, and these guys, him, ah. oh hello. that lady, these houses! yes, yes and yes. and don't forget about them.

uh huh, sure. still yes! xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. now you can get it, too. welcome to the party. >> shepard: there's the medal of valor ceremony that will happen on the right-hand side of the screen. that begins in seven minutes. seven minutes from now. on the left-hand side of the screen, that is the white house briefing and that begins an hour an 23 minutes ago until it was rescheduled for 23 minutes ago and then scheduled for 33 minutes ago but it isn't. not yet. more now on the mueller investigation. the special counsel charged a lawyer today with lying about his contacts with the former trump aide rick gates. this comes after 13 russian nationals were charged and three russian companies with meddling in the 2016 election.

let's go to jonathan swan now for axios. great to be here. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: in the grand scheme of things, where is this investigation based on your report something. >> there's two parts to the investigation. we often forget about the second part, the criminal side and the counter intelligence side. what we hear about day to day in washington and look at our own fault as washington reporters, the limits of our sources. we've taken to people that have spoken with mueller. so we get their perspective. the mueller team is not leaking. but there's this other part of the investigation to which -- you pointed this out in your intro. we don't have much visibility. so we see these revelations with 13 russian names. you haven't seen a single one of them mentioned or teased or forecast in the press. nobody talked about george papadopoulos. so we can see the white house

interviews seem to be coming towards an end. but i much point out, a later end than trump's lawyers suggested. we don't know because there's a counter intelligence dimension that we don't have enough visibility into. >> shepard: there's this russian meddling part. there's a collusion part that presumably we don't know much about and a money laundering part. yes? >> yes. when i talked to ty cobb about this late last year, he said our part of the investigation, the white house part, that will be done by the end of january. of course, that's not true. but what he said to me, he said if you put aside -- they couldn't call them the manafort silo and the flynn silo. he said those two silos, i can see them continuing on another year or so. as for our portion, nothing to see here. the white house part is done. we know that's not true.

just last week we're told that mueller spent about 20 hours plus with steve bannon, mueller's team and then we still haven't had an interview with the president of the united states. so it seems there's still a ways to go on that side of things. >> shepard: the russian lawyer about a minute ago pleaded guilty. as expected -- this is a live shot for viewers outside the courthouse there, the federal courthouse. we're expecting him to come out and we'll see them then. it had been reported that rick gates would also plead. it's as if there's this lawyer, rick gates and paul manafort. is it part of one thing? >> again, this is the limits of reporting. we need to be very careful with what is a fact that is established and what is not. we know that he's been indicted because we read the indictment today. we don't have a full picture of what happened with rick gates. the los angeles times reported that he flipped and was going to

testify against manafort. as far as i can tell, there's not been a lot of corroboration and i haven't been able to personally corroborate it. >> shepard: inside the white house what is the mood in there based on the things that have happened? >> well, it shifts by the day. the mood is sort of trickled down mood. it's not trickle down economics. it's trickle down mood. a lot of it defends on how trump is feeling. he and his lawyers felt jubilant when they first came out because it was horah, vindication, no evidence of collusion. but president trump has spend a weekend watching television and point have been pointing out on television and in other venues that actually tpd on everything and we can't claim any sort of final vindication on any part of this. this is just one section of the investigation. trump himself sees all of this through his own lens.

he's never actually grappled with the idea that russia has been trying to infiltrate and intervene in the american electorate system. he sees it as an attack on himself. so he finds it impossible to separate these two things. >> shepard: very interesting. thanks, jonathan. >> thanks for having me. >> shepard: we're not sure what the situation is with what's going on at the white house. we can only know what they tell us. what they have told us, just hasn't happened. our john roberts says they believe that the press secretary will come out there in just a minute. we know that this medal of valor ceremony will begin in 1 1/2 minutes. these things happen on time. we'll have to see. president trump has called the former massachusetts governor mitt romney dumb, one of the worst candidates in the history of republican politics all in one tweet. now he's endorsing him because washington is weird.

now sarah sanders. >> our country celebrated valentine's day. a deranged murderer killed 17 people in stoneman douglas high school. the president and the first lady spent time with the victims that were recovering, thanked the doctors for the work and praised the law enforcement and first responders. here at the white house, the victims and families have been in our thoughts and prayers. our broken hearts are filled with gratitude as we heard the story of incredible heroism. 15-year-old anthony bourges was shot five times as he used his body as a shield for classmates. he's in recovery. thank you for your courage. aaron feis shielded students from a hail of gun fire selfishly giving his own life to save others. teacher scott bible was

barricaded in his classroom but opened his door to let students run in. that cost scott his life but saved others. numerous other teachers sheltered students in their classrooms. tomorrow we will be hosting parents, teachers and students here at the white house to discuss efforts to ensure safety at our schools. members of the parkland community will be attending as well as individuals that have been impacted by past school shootings including sandy hook and columbine. thursday we will have local officials including members of local law enforcement to continue that conversation. as the president has said, it's the right of every american child to grow up in a safe community. that begins in america's neighborhoods where the brave men and women of law enforcement have the president's full support and it extends to our schools where teachers across our nation invest their lives in our students. no parent should have to wonder if a child will return home from school at the end of the day.

the president has expressed his support to look at the federal background system and we will look at ways to secure our schools. as you're aware of later today, right now, in the east room the president will award the medical of valor to 12 public safety officers. they include officers, emergency medical personnel and firefighters and the president looks forward to recognizing them for risking their lives to protect american citizens and communities. the honorees are individuals that have exhibited exceptional courage regardless of personal safety to save or protect human life. with that, i will take your questions. >> does the president now acknowledge what the special counsel indictments made clear, which is that russians not only tried to meddle but interfere and influence the 2016 election?

>> absolutely and the president has acknowledged that multiple times before. he did it in the transition, a press conference in poland and acknowledged it for a third time at a press event in poland. he's stated several times, one of the places where you guys seem to get confused and seems to happen regularly, the president hasn't said that russia didn't medal. he said it didn't have an impact and it wasn't with help from the trump campaign. it's very clear that russia meddled in the election and didn't have an impact on the election and it's very clear that the president campaign didn't collude with the russians in any way for this process to take place. >> if that's the case, why hasn't the president implemented the sanction which congress passed last year? >> look, frankly that's not completely accurate. look, this president has been tougher on russian -- >> but the sanctions -- >> there's a process that has to

take place. and we're going through that process. that law also says that the country has to violate something for the sanctions to go into place and that hasn't necessarily happened. the president has been tough on russia. he pushed through $700 billion to build our military. he's helped export energy to eastern europe. russia is not excited about that. he's upheld sanctions that the obama administration put in place. he's upheld those. he's closed three diplomatic properties in the united states. he's taken a number of actions against russia and put pressure on them. he helped arm the ukrainians, a number of places that obama was too weak and refused to take and put pressure on where this president has. >> i'm sure you will -- >> first, a clarification from

some of the president's tweets. the president doesn't think that the fbi failed to stop the parkland shooter because it was too involved with the russia investigation, does he? >> i think he was speaking -- not necessarily that that is the cause. we all have to be aware the cause of this is that of a deranged individual that made a decision to take the lives of 17 other people. that is the responsibility of the shooter. certainly not the responsibility of anybody else. >> dishe mistweet when he said that? he said this is not acceptable. they're spending too much time to prove russian collusion. >> he's making the point that we would like our fbi agencies to not be focused on something that is clearly a hoax in terms of investigating the trump campaign and its involvement -- >> you agree the evidence is that there the russians interfered -- >> i said the trump campaign --

>> the investigation is about what russia did and raises the question that the president agrees the national security adviser says the evidence is uncontrovertible. what is the president going to do about it? what is he specifically doing about the fact that russia interfered with our election and has every intention of doing it again? what is he doing about it? >> the department of homeland security, kirsten nielson met with a number of stakeholders and looking at the best ways forward. everybody wants to blame this on the trump administration. let's not forget this happened under the obama administration -- >> it happened a year ago. what has he done about it? >> we spent a lot of time working on super security, focusing on protecting the fairness on our elections. as i just said the department of homeland security met with state and local officials just over the last several weeks along

with election vendors to make sure that our election system is secure. last week they melt with state and private officials on how best to secure the election system from foreign interference. we're not the only targets and we're working with our allies on the daily basis to make sure that we're following best practices. this has been a topic of conversation with multiple foreign heads of state. president trump and the administration have made it clear that interference in our elections will have consequences and we will continue to impose -- last week, we called out russia by name. the first time you've seen something like that taking place. we'll continue to do that. >> he doesn't even called out putin. he criticized obama, he criticized the fbi. he didn't even criticize vladimir putin. >> he has been tougher on russia in the first year than obama was in eight years combined. he's imposed sanctions, rebuilt

our military. he's done a number of things to be tough on russia. last week, there was an incident that will be reported in the coming days in another way that this president was tough on russia. >> last week the board of governor, rick scott, called for the fbi director's resignation. the governor and the president were together over the weekend or last week. did the -- did governor scott talk to him about that and more importantly, what does the president think -- he tweeted about this, but what does he think about the director -- should the director go? what are the consequences of missing the tip on the shooter? >> i'm not sure if it came up in the private conversations with the governor and the president. i'd have to get back to you. in terms of the inaction of the fbi that is currently being reviewed and investigated and i can't speak to it at this point. i believe it's internally. at this point, there's not a lot i can say.

but i do feel and i believe that we're looking at one action could be taken and certainly what actions can be taken to prevent that. no changes in that. we've answered the question a number of times and i don't have anything new. >> what you said before about the event tomorrow, you mentioned who was coming. what is the topic exactly? is it mental health, guns? what are they going to be talking about with the parents and the students? >> it's a wide range of issues. you have a number of people that have unfortunately been through horrific tragedy like the one that we saw in parkland florida last week as well as some that hope they never have to go through that. we'll have a number of parents and teachers and students from schools in the local area as well. this is a listening session to see what can be done better, what the actual concerns of the students are, what they would like to see one of the things

the president wants to do is makes sure he sits down with people from all fronts. unfortunately when horrific tragedies like this happen, everybody wants a quick and simple answer. there isn't one. there's not a quick and simple answer. we want to make sure that we're addressing the problem and we want to make sure that we're meeting and talking with as many people that are not only affected but play a role in this process as possible. that's why he's sitting down with the parents, the teachers and the students and sit down with state and local law enforcement officials and then he's going to sit down with the nation's governors and bring those conversations together and look for the best path forward and do everything we can from a state, local and federal level to make sure incidences like this does happen again. >> thank you. the president and the assault weapons ban, what are his positions on that? >> we haven't closed the door on

any front. that's what the next several days and weeks will be, to have conversations and see what this process looks like and see what areas we can help make changes to and in what places we can do better. specifically i know background checks are something that the president is supportive of making more efficient and looking at better ways to improve that process. we're going to continue to look at a number of other factors as well. >> thanks, sarah. in the aftermath of the indictment that was handed down by special counsel bob mueller's office friday, the president tweeted quite a bit and tweeted quite a bit over the weekend. he was critical of the fbi, critical of democrats, critical of the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff and critical of his predecessor but not critical of russia or the russian president, vladimir putin. i didn't get if a sense of

outrage and what the president put out there in his tweets that he's angered that russia tried to interfere in the u.s. presidential election -- >> he called out russia by name in his official statement that went out shortly after those indictments came down. he called them bad actors and called out russia. that was the first reaction of the president. i would disagree with the premise of your question. he's been extremely tough on russia in a number of different ways and we're going to continue to do that. >> angered by this or outrainfalled by the fact that russia interfered? our system? >> he's angered that anybody would meddle in our system. again, it's important to remember that we are looking forward to on figuring out the best ways to make sure that that doesn't happen again. >> three weeks. we have a lot of house keeping to do.

first, you mentioned background checks and conceal carry reprosty. >> i haven't spoken with him about that. i know he spoke with senator cornyn friday. he's generally supportive of that. we're going to continue those conversations. >> last week there was news by private travel with different senators and using federal resources. do both of them have the confidence of the president? >> i have no reason to believe otherwise. if somebody no longer has the confidence of the president, you will know. >> finally, the chief of staff on friday issued the memo on security clearances. those with interrupt secure clearances by the end of this week would lose their classified

information. what do you know about jared kushner? can you talk about whether or not how he will do his senior job in the white house if he doesn't have access to classified information? >> i can tell you that no decision within the memo will impact anything that jared kushner is working on, in terms of specifics -- >> does he not need -- >> i can't answer whether somebody has security clearance or not. i can tell you that nothing that has taken place will effect the valuable work that jared is doing. he continues and will continue to be a valued member of the team and will continue to do the important work that he's been focused on with the last year. john? >> sarah, you mentioned a deranged individual took the lives of 17 people at park land. that's after a deranged individual took dozens of lives in las vegas in which the president offered some support for banning bump stocks which

have fallen by the wayside. preceded by a deranged video -- et cetera, et cetera. other than a bill for government agencies to do what they're supposed to do, does the president have any ideas, any ideas at all on how to address this or is he starting from scratch? >> i can tell you the president supports not having the use of bump stocks and we expect further action on that in the coming days. he ordered the department of justice and the atf to review the regulation of bump stocks. my understanding is that review has been completed and movement will take place on that shortly. the president when it comes to that is committed to ensuring that those devices are -- will again -- i'm not going to get ahead of the announcement. the president doesn't support the use of those accessories. >> and on the broader problem,

deranged individuals killing people indiscriminately, does he have any idea -- >> that's part of the conversations -- >> if he has to listen to a bunch of people and he does haven't any ideas of his own, that suggests he doesn't have any ideas. >> you're taking any words -- >> can you explain -- >> i was trying to before you interrupted me. the president is very focused on mental illness, working with the health and human services department to determine the best path forward on that and what is available and allowed under the law. something that we take seriously and something we want to address and we're working hand and hand with the federal government and state and local law enforcement officials on what we legally can do. unfortunately we can't flip a switch. there's a process. we're a law and order country. the president is trying to do everything he can under his

capacity to address these concerns and certain little when it comes to mental illness. >> would the president consider granting mr. kushner a full clearance even if the background check suggested -- >> it's not aware of any red flags. it's irresponsible to suggest that without having seen any individual's file. and secondly, i haven't spoken to the president about whether or not that would be necessary. but again, as said, mr. kushner's work that he has done will not be impacted. he will continue to do the work he's done the last year. >> has it ever overruled -- >> i'm not aware. >> former speaker gingrich put forward a proposal that he's promoting and training teachers and administrators to use firearms and having more people with firearms in schools. is that in the range of ideas that the president is open to and if you can explain more

about how the president and how the white house is going to run this process in terms of taking in ideas from everybody and having listening sessions. >> i haven't spoken with him about peopler gingrich's plans. we're going to take in a lot of information from individuals that have been affected, specifically by school shootings as well as those that hope they never have to be in that situation and talking to state and local law enforcement officials, state and local elected officials on what we're legally allowed to do and what areas that we feel like we can help with that moving forward. david? >> what does the president think about secretary shulkin's handling of the travel? what does the president think about that? >> this still has the -- there's a 97-page inspector general

report. until there's a secondary review that takes place, i can't comment. >> does the president believe there should be an age limit for those that buy an ar-15? the shooter was a teenager when he bought one. >> there's laws in plates that restrict that. in terms of whether or not we make that federal policy, that hasn't been determined. that's something -- >> is that something -- >> certainly something on the table for us to discuss and we expect to come up the next couple weeks. >> over the weekend, he tweeted about his national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster suggesting that he seemed to forget to say that russia didn't impact the outcome of the election. does he have confidence in him to do his job. >> he has confidence to general mcmaster. i spoke to him about that answer. he said that he liked the general's office but thought that addendum would be helpful

to add. thanks very much. >> shepard: the addendum would have mad it inaccurate. we'll get to john roberts in a moment. a couple things they talked about at the beginning, the russia report, the indictment. sarah sanders went on to say that we know from the russian indictment that there was no collusion. that is not true. the collusion according to fox news reporting is a separate investigation and there was no mention of that. it wasn't what this indictment was about. this indictment was about russian meddling. this indictment was about the russians. this indictment wasn't about meddling. this indictment wasn't about collusion. there was no ruling on collusion. that's an open matter. as far as impact on the election goes, that too is an open question. the white house is trying to say that it is incontrovertible that russian meddling had no impact on the election. that's not true. it's an open matter. what they did, they staged rallies, set up advertisement.

they moved people from one place to another. it's obvious that advertising is something that has an impact or campaigns wouldn't pay millions of dollars for it. there's that matter. there's one more at the end talking about -- explaining collusion is a separate matter. and then there's jared kushner. last week on friday the chief of staff, kelly, put out a statement that by this friday everyone that doesn't have a permanent security clearance and we believe there's more than 100 of those, everybody that doesn't have one, will need to have one to continue to work in the white house. it's our understanding that jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, in charge of so many things, doesn't have a permanent security clearance. sarah sanders said that it was improper to say there's red flags in his background, but it's been at least since last january, so 13 months. still no permanent security clearance. john roberts at the white house, this matter of permanent security clearance is for people that working at the white house,

sounds like it's not a big deal. it is. >> it's a very big deal. exactly what kelly said was that anybody that was continuing to work with an interim security clearance and didn't have a full one would have that interim security clearance revoked that means they couldn't handle classified information, which could in the harshest of circumstances render their situation moot. then you get this churn of new people coming into the white house and they have to go through the security clearances unless you here people and detail them over that already have security clearances. but there's a number of people that work in very important positions in the white house, not the least of which is jared kushner, who do not have these permanent security clearances and could come under the edict that general kelly issue last week. >> i thought your question about

the crisis in schools was really good. did you learn anything from her answer? >> the one thing we learned, one piece of news, and i felt shep like i had to push her a little harder today because they were relies on talking points. the one thing we did find out, there is going to be an action on bump stocks and it was a bump stock that allowed the shooter in las vegas to fire off so many rounds in quick succession. it takes a normal semiautomatic rifle and turns it into an almost automatic. so that is something that is going to happen. we don't know if he will ban-support banning bump stocks or limiting or controlling their sales. you had to push the white house because the president -- the white house said, the president is going to listen to a bunch of ideas. that's fine. you should be listening to ideas. if you're president, you should also have some of your own. we didn't learn much from her other than the fact that they

support the idea that they have to have greater facilities to deal with people with mental health problems which seem to be at the root of these shootings. >> shepard: the medal of honor ceremony has begun. the president said he will have meetings next week to talk about this crisis. my producers are telling me he's not offered up any independent ideas. the white house has led to us believe the president will make news in this medal of valor ceremony. we shall see. let's listen. >> the key in all of these efforts, as i said in my remarks, the day after this shooting is that we cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. we must actually make a difference. we must move passed cliche's and debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and

security measures this actually work. make it easier for men and women of law enforcement to protect our children and protect our safety. in the aftermath of this evil massacre, our spirits have been lifted by the accounts of bravery. at the stoneman douglas high school, coaches, teachers, students, law enforsment officers and others that have shown us that the forces of love and courage are always stronger than the forces of evil and hate. it's this truth that brings us together today. the 12 patriots come from many places and serve in many different roles. they all share one thing in common when faced with danger, they each put the lives of others before their own. very brave people that i'm

standing with today. here with us are lieutenant william buchanan and emergency medical technician sean oceanbyne. where are you two guys? that's what i thought. good looking guys. that's good. they were both off duty near elizabethton in the great state of tennessee. it is a great state. when they saw a smoldering car with a passenger trapped inside, they braved smoke, fire and the danger of explosion to rescue the man, and they saved his life. people thought it would be impossible to save his life. william, sean, thank you very much. great job. [applause]

fire engineer, stephen gunn is also here. he was on the scene of a fire started by an arsonist in phoenix, arizona. as flames ungulfed the home, he charged inside to save an unconscious man. within seconds, his helmet began to melt and his skin began to burn. not good. but he carried the man out before the house collapsed. that's by second. engineer gunn, i understand you keep your melted helmet as a reminder of that day. now you will have a symbol of our nation's gratitude to go alongside of that very charred helmet. something much prettier than the

helmet. beautiful medal. thanks very much. thank you. [applause] >> on a february evening in california, patrol officer david poyagen from redondo beach received a call that people were drowning in the ocean. four people that had been fishing along the sea wall were swept into the ocean but raging waves. a rough day. the officer jumped into the dark icy water and helped get the three survivors on a rock while the captain went back former help. on top of the rock was a rough stay for all of them. each time waves crashed over the rock, they were all tossed back into the water.

but again and again, the officer rescued them until more help arrived and saved the lives of those three people. officer poyagen, a job well-done. thank you. [applause] when a gunman began firing at the employees of excel industries, and heston kansas, chief douglas schrader charged into the building without any backup whatsoever. he closed in on the shooter, dodging bullets and firing back until he stopped the killer cold. chief schrader, you saved a lot of lives. thank god you were there. thank you, chief. [applause]

thank you. officer andrew hopsonsburger jr. that's a very important junior, isn't it? you're very proud of your father. he was patrolling the parking lot of antigua high school in wisconsin during the school's junior prom when he heard a burst of gun fire. within 19 seconds, he found the shooter and took him down before he was about to kill four innocent students. andrew, incredible job. thank you very much. thank you. [applause] finally, when terrorist attacked

defensive employees of the san bernardino department of public health, six of the heros with us today chased them down and put an end to their sinister ram papag rampage, which was going to get a lot worse. during the attack, officer nicholas was shot in the leg, but he continued to fight back despite a really horrific wound. today we're fortunate to honor him and the rest of that amazing team. corporal rafael, detective bruce southworth, deputy sean wallen, detective brian overa and investigator chad johnson. thank you all very much. that's great. [applause]