Im john berman. Hello. Im kate would jua by our count it has been about 12 hours since Donald Trumps last comments on the feud with the family of the fallen u. S. Soldier. Well have to see what he says when he takes the stage. Were also watching the white house right now. President obama about to hold a joint News Conference for the Prime Minister of singapore. Thats the main subject. You can bet the president will be asked about donald trump and about gold star parents khizer kh khan. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about that. In the shadow of a new cnn dorc poll losing ground. After the Republican Convention trump was ahead 48 to 45 . Now after the democrats had their turn, Hillary Clinton is on top 52 to 43 . Maybe this explains why donald trump is calling Hillary Clinton the devil and claiming that the election could be rigged. Cnn National CorrespondentJason Carroll is live at this trump rally in virginia. Jason, what do you see . Well, the rally is about to get under way any moment. Before things have started to get under way, a few protesters have been escorted out of the venue. First we should talk about, you mentioned them, the first time weve heard donald trump refer to hip as the devil. Certainly in the past weve heard him say that Bernie Sanders sold his soul to the devil, but that was him when he said the general election might be rigged against him, we heard him say that yesterday in columbus. Certainly a number of people in this room agree the system is stacked against political outsiders like a donald trump. Trump trump is expected to speak on a number of issue when he takes the stage a few moments from now. Weve got poll numbers to suggest where the candidates stand on some of those issues that trump will be talking about. Want to share some of that with you. The first one has to do with the economy. A lot of folks thinking that perhaps donald trump is a businessman, he would be better equipped to handle the economy. A new cnn poll shows that 50 of people feel clinton would be better to handle the economy rather than trump at 48 . The next issue is terrorism. Because of clintons Foreign Policy experience, former secretary of state, she would top trump in terms of better handling that particular issue. Recent cnn polls, theyre both tied, both at 48 . The next issue being illegal immigration, a cornerstone of trumps campaign. Every time you come to a rally like this, you hear about build the wall, build the wall against mexico. We have clinton at 55 , trump at 43 in terms of who would be better able to handle the issue of illegal immigration. Trump expected to take the stage in just a few minutes, expected to talk about issues such as immigration, illegal immigration, the economy as well. Again, he will be expected to go after clinton. How he ends up doing that, that remains to be seen. John, kate. Jason carroll, some pretty dramatic leadup music. Background music for jason which he deserves. Jason, thank you so much. Lets talk more now with alice stewart, cnn political commentator and former Communications Director for ted cruz. Alex cone net from marco rubios campaign, now a partner with firehouse strategies, a democratic strategist. Alex bernstein, National Political reporter for the new york times. John phillips, cnn political comment tart, talk show host on kabc and a donald trump supporter. I think i got everybody in. I love the brady bunch effect. Were smaller than everyone else. Everyone else gets their own box. John phillips, first you. As we said by our count, its been about 12 hours since donald trump has commented on the feud with the gold star family. He did not talk about this from the stump yesterday. Do you get any sense that donald trump in the campaign is trying to move on from this . Yes, as soon as he stops talking about it, its going to go away. Ive never been more of the belief that melania should tell him its time to go on vacation. Thats go on one of these kathie lee cruises, let this thing blow over and talk about something else. Hes the guy making sure this story stays in the news. I was on with john in the morning, the day after the father spoke at the democratic convention. We talked about it. But it didnt become the story until donald kept talking about it. I would advice him to shush. Alex, eric trump said on cbs today saying this is something blown hugely out of proportion, the Trump Campaign saying its all the media making this up right now. Josh hill, a trump supporter saying trump should just shush. How responsible is he that the story has the life . Absolutely hes responsible. Khan spoke thursday night. Friday morning really bad gdp numbers came out. Yet they spent the morning talking about the speech on thursday night and not the gdp numbers. They need to be talking about the middle class, about jobs. Instead theyre talking about what clinton wants them to talk about. People spoke at his Convention Rather than at his convention and his message. One thing people are talking about, alice, is the system is rigged. He said last night hes afraid the system is rigged. We thought it was interesting because theres no suggestion that there is fraud that is coming, but that hes returning to a theme that worked in his favor in the primary. What do you think is behind it . The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is exactly how he carried out during the primary when ted cruz beat him at the colorado convention. He said its a crooked system, a rigged system and played off that to distract from the fact that he lost. This is exactly what hes doing. Hes had a terrible several days with the media starting with the khan story and his inability to understand the ukraine and also several other stories that just wont die because they continue to feed into them. What hes doing, classic trump. Hell call the system rigged and crooked. Now hes calling hillary names like the devil. Its unfortunate hes talking about a different electorate here. He needs to broaden the base and bring in independents and start focusing on the issues people are concerned with. Thats jobs, the economy and National Security, and stop blaming the system and stop calling names and stick with the issues. Thats going to go a long way. I suspect we will see some of that when he takes the stage in virginia. He had two events yesterday where he didnt bring up the khans. It seems the campaign is making an effort not to bring it up. Alex burns, where are we right now in this race . The Hillary Clinton campaign released fundraising numbers. To put it in clinical terms, its a blankload of money they raised. Very technical. A lot of that 58 million of it i wrote it down. 63 million. For the campaign, 58 million in the bank. Our new poll has Hillary Clinton up nine right now. Where do things stand . I think you have to say right nowality the outset of the general election where each candidate has had the biggest opportunity they will have to make their case until the debates, assuming that they happen. We have to say right now that trump enters that phase of the campaign. Its why you start to hear him talking about things like a rigged election. I was at a trump event last night in central pennsylvania where he was saying the polls, you cant really believe the polls because back during the primaries the polls always underestimated my support. He said some of his supporters are embarrassed to tell a pollster they like donald trump. But in the privacy of the voting book, nobody is watching and they can vote for it. Ive heard that, too. This is how a guy who is down in the polls and looking at potential defeat tries to keep his supporters energetic and engag engaged. Emily, when you look at the polls with the Clinton Convention which i know youre going to say you think went off perfectly with this huge fundraising haul and this feud with the khan family exploding, and you look at the poll numbers, trump is down anywhere when you look at a fourway race between four and eight points. Some might say why not ten to 20 points down. Do you see a sign of froubl here for Hillary Clinton . Trump did start the week after his convention with above after his convention as well. What i think people are feeling is not just the convention bump, but it really was a very different vision for the country and a very different vision to vote for each candidate. Trump went in. It was about himself, about him, nothing else, as he runs everything else. It was about inciting fear. If youre fearful enough, i will be the guy for you. He juks posed that to the democratic convention. Look, the thing clinton had to do, she did accomplish. She didnt put herself in as an alternative to trump, but having a positive vision for the country. For the economy, it was inclusive, diverse. People feel positive about it. The reason we were talking about the khans on friday is because it was an incredibly powerful moment. Ive experienced almost nothing like that, where everybody in the room said this is the kind of america i want. Clearly people at home felt that as well. When trump turned around and attacked them, people you would never expect saying totally unacceptable, hes totally unfit to be commanderinchief. John mccain, vfw. John mccain didnt say he was unfit to be commanderinchief, to be clear. He was not happy about it. I think lit hurt him in the end. How much do you respect do you have for a candidate when you repeatedly say his actions are totally irresponsible and really offensive to a lot of people . Its not just that its the left coming after trump on this. These are gold star families. These are people that have lost their children in honor of the country. To try to write them off or say you can change the narrative, which is i think thats what hes doing by saying, shes the devil, its rigged. Hes trying to change it again. But this is not who you mess with. These people are not political. Its too much. Alex, let me ask you this. This episode, i think we can call it, this feud. It has columnists we saw this this morning both liberal and conservative openly opining, wondering, asking the question if donald trump is dealing with a mental illness. Youve seen that from republican and liberal columnists today. What does that say about this conversation . In fairness to trump, hes never been the favorite of columnists. Aguirre alice burns had a smart piece saying the only way trump can win is ohio, pennsylvania and florida. To me this is pretty simple. You go to those three states, find issues that motivate voters in those states, figure out a way to get to a majority, you hammer that message. You make it sound so simple. It is so simple. Instead, hes in new york, virginia. On his way to california. Right. So he needs to i think this is very simple. Needs to find a way to get to a majority and go do it. Stop wasting time. To be clear, praising alex burns, praising the media is a dangerous tactic. The failing new york time times. Military veterans are a giant constituency. You look at north florida, North Carolina and virginia, you cant win those states if the military Community Turns against you. Were about two minutes away from hearing president obama take the stage. John phillips, trump supporter, you can see the almost joy that president obama takes in engaging in this election, engaging with donald trump. For Trump Supporters and the Trump Campaign, what kind of opponent do you think the president poses . Hes looking for Hillary Clintons first term which would essentially be the third term of the obama administration, his affirmation that hes done a good job. He wants voters to give him that pat on the back. That being said, 69 of the public think the country is going in the wrong direction. I dont know how effective thats necessarily going to be. I guess the Hillary Campaign would assume he can help drive up turnout among minorities which was so effective for them back in 2008. I dont think thats necessarily transferable to her. Alice, while youre critical of how donald trump is handling this feud with the khan parents. What do you think of how his running mate mike pence is handling it . Hes taking a very different tactic in responding to questions about it from a military mom at a rally and also to reporters where he sticks very firmly on message, where he says that donald trump have said i have said captain skaun a hero. Let me stop myself and lets go to the white house with president obama taking the the microphone right now. Once again, im honored to welcome my good friend Prime Minister lee and his delegation back to the white house. Ive been fortunate to work with the Prime Minister throughout my presidency. I always value his insight, his counsel and his outstanding partnership. Let me say our thoughts today are also with the former president and we join the people of singapore in praying for his full and speedy recovery. As president ive rebalanced american Foreign Policy so were playing a larger and longterm role in the Asian Pacific, a region critical to our security and prosperity. As i said this morning, singapore has played a vital role in that rebalance. With singapores support, the United States is engaging more deeply than ever across the region including through asean and the east asia summit. Given the strategic location, singapore is a foundation for stability and peace. Mr. Prime minister, i want to thank you for the invaluable contributions that singapore has made to a central pillar of our Foreign Policy. Today we agreed to continue building on this process. The u. S. And sng pour are united in our commitment to advancing Regional Security and stability. Our defense relationship remains one of the closest in Southeast Asia with hundreds of american ships and aircraft rotating through singapore each year. As i told the Prime Minister, we welcome singapores interest in purchasing the f35 aircraft and well explore the possibility of singapore troops training on guam. At the same time well work to strengthen institutions like asean. We reaffirmed our shared commitment to building a regional order where all nations play by the same rules and disputes are resolved peacefully, including in the south china sea. We agreed to do more to encourage Economic Growth and innovation among our economies. With a little over a decade, trade between our two countries has grown more than 50 . Were collaborating to jump start greater Digital Innovation including research and development into technology and data to prove and promote smart cities concepts that can improve the daily lives of our citizens. Well do more to connect our vibrant startup communities so an engineer in singapore can collaborate more easily with a entrepreneur in Silicon Valley or ous tin, texas. With respect to trade, an issue that stirs great passion. Globalization means economies around the world are more integrative than ever and jobs and capital move across borders. Automation means goods and products can be produced with fewer workers. These forces of globalization and technology have not always benefited everybody evenly. There are fears an anxieties that people may be left behind. These anxieties are legitimate. They cant be ignored. They have to be taken seriously. As ive said before, it means we have to do everything we can to make sure everybody shares in prosperity. That we have strong rules to protect workers, to promote high wages, to make sure that our citizens are getting the education and the training that they need. But the answer cannot be to back away from trade in the global economy. It is here to stay. Its not possible to cut ourselves off given how integrated our economies are and try to pull a drawbridge up on trade would only hurt us and our workers. The answer is to make sure globalization and trade is working for us, not against us. Thats why today were reaffirming our commitment to the transpacific partnership. Im a strong supporter of tpp because it will reduce tariffs, taxes basically on american goods, from cars to crops and make it easier for america to export into the Fastest Growing markets in the world. Tpp levels the Playing Field for our workers and helps assure countries abide by strong labor and environmental rules. This is an opportunity to grow our economies and write the rules for trade in the 21st century in a way thats equitable. It gives us a chance to advance american leadership, reduce economic inequality and support good paying jobs, all while strengthens critical strategic relationships in a vital region. So i think not only is tpp important, but the Prime Minister and i agree that we need to extend our partnership beyond just regional efforts. We have work to do on a global scale. Singapore was the first country in Southeast Asia to join the Global Coalition to destroy isil. Were grateful singapore is making new contributions to this effort by providing valuable medical support to coalition forces. As two nations on the forefront of Digital Innovation, we recognize the growing threats of Cyber Attacks and were going to continue to work to strengthen Cyber Security and to promote peaceful norms on how nations should operate in cyberspace. Singapore, the gar dn city, helped to achieve the paris climate agreement last year. Mr. Prime minister, thank you for your commitment to work towards joining the Paris Agreement this year. Were also working closely with the International Community to reduce harmful aviation emissions and face down hfcs. Our two countries will continue to Work Together to advance Global Health securities so were better prepared to address the threat of pandemics. Last point, we agreed to keep promoting peopletopeople ties between our two countries. Were expanding our trusted trav lers program to make it easier to do business together. I welcome singapores announcement of a new Exchange Program which will include scholarships for students of our two countries and through our young Southeast Asian leaders initiative, were going to keep empowering young people in singapore and across the region to become the leaders of tomorrow in their own communities, in business and in civil society. Ill note i had a clans to meet one of those young singaporean leaders at a summit in call la lump lumpur. Kerry talked about coming together with young people from across Southeast Asia. She said we bonded in our common endeavor to seek, understand and learn from one another in pursuit ouf our aspirations to a better world. Young people like kerry give me hope. Prime minister lee, based on our Work Together, im confident that singapore and the United States will continue to advance our shared aspirations for a better world for many years to come. With that, let me turn it over to you, mr. Prime minister. Thank you, president obama. President obama, distinguished guests, im very happy to be here on an official visit for the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. Id like to thank president obama for his gracious hospitality and attention to our bilateral relations as well as the wider asia pacific and also for the good wishes on the condition of our former president. The president and i had a substantive conversations on a wide range of issues. We affirmed our strong multifaceted and longstanding partnership. Our strong economic ties are underpinned by the u. S. Singapore Free Trade Agreement. Singapore is the largest trading partner in Southeast Asia where the u. S. Is singapores largest foreign direct investor. Many American Companies run their Regional Headquarters in singapore. There are Many Singapore Companies also which are in america, and their relationship deepens year by year. In a different area we have robust cooperation under an mou in 1990 and the strategic Framework Agreement which concluded in 2005. Last year we competed the enhanced defense Cooperation Agreement which expands cooperation into new areas like humanitarian resistance and disaster relief, Cyber Defense and counterterrorism. Were also deepening Security Cooperation between our agencies in areas like counterterrorism, cybercrime, and elicit trade enforcement. And expanding into new areas like Cyber Security where our agencies are signing an mou to Work Together to protect National Security and our economic interests against Cyber Attacks. We also share an interest in smart cities. Weve discussed how cities can use technology to tackle problems from health care to transportation to delivery of public services. And theres a lot of interest from companies on both sides. Underpinning the ties between the two countries are the friendships and relationships between our peoples. Thousands of American Students are studying and working in singapore. Thousands of singaporeans are studying and working in america. Last sunday i hosted a National Day Reception in our embassy here and 600 people showed up. Its fitting to mark this special occasion of our 50th anniversary, that we are launching a scholarship for singaporeans and americans, to enable undergraduates to do summer exchanges in each others country and draw our young people closer together and to get to know each others societies, cultures, strengths and opportunities to cooperate together. Weve recently implemented a trusted Traveler Program that will also facilitate travel by singaporeans to the u. S. The president and i also discussed the tpp. Just now you heard the president give an eloquent explanation of why its important to america and also to asia. Its an integral component of americas rebalance to asia. Apart from the economic benefits, trade, Market Access, standard setting, its also vital from a Strategic Point of view and a strong signal of the u. S. Commitment to continue its deepen gaugement in the region. We greatly appreciate the efforts of the president and his team to push for the tpp which grew from a small fta which singapore started together with chile, brunei and new zealand. Now the tpp will be a Free Trade Agreement encompassing 40 of the worlds population and onethird of the worlds gdp. Were near the finish liern and we hope the countries, particularly the u. S. , will be able to ratify the tpp as soon as possible. Finally the president and i discussed our partnership in tackling global challenges like counterterrorism. Its a problem for all countries. Ref reday in the newspapers you read of new attacks somewhere, america, europe, middle east, closer to home in malaysia. We in Southeast Asia are very concerned about this, because the terrorists are active in many countries in the region. Several hundred, perhaps a thousand from Southeast Asia are in the middle east fighting isis. And we have witnessed attacks in both indonesia and malaysia that were mounted by isis followers under orders from isis operatives in the middle east to launch attacks in their home countries. So the efforts to counter isil or isis are crucial. Thats why singapore is a member of the coalition and were making a modest contribution to the effort, and were going to be sending a medical team to iraq. We have already been participating with airtoair refueling, image interpretation and in other ways. Now were going to send a medical team into iraq. It is also important to fundamentally address the root source of violent extremism in order to counter isil and was as address the issues of extremists views being propagated by isil. Discussed amongst our two countries. We look forward to working together and taking our relationship even further forward. Thank you. First question is margaret brennan. Thank you, mr. President. Given the republican nominees recent comments about the khan family and his statement that if president , he would consider recognizing russias annexation of crimea, does it make you question his fitness to be president . Second, sir, on libya, youve said in the past that the worst mistake of your presidency may have been your failure to plan for the after mapgt of that 2011 nato intervention in libya. Do you see your new decision to bomb isis there as a direct result of that . Yes. I think the republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. I said so last week. He keeps proving it. The notion that he would attack a gold star family that med extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact that he doesnt appear to have basic knowledge around Critical Issues in europe, in the middle east, in asia means that hes woefully unprepared to do this job. This is just my opinion. I think whats interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading republican republicans, including the speaker of the house and the Senate Majority leader and prominent republicans like john mccain. The question you have to ask yourself is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him . What does this say about your party that this is your standardbearer . This isnt a situation where you have an episodic gaff. This is daily and weekly where they are distancing themselves from statements hes making. There has to be a point in which you say this is not somebody i can support for president of the United States, even if he purports to be a member of my party. The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow. I dont doubt their sincerity. I dont doubt they were outraged by some of the statements that mr. Trump and his supporters made about the khan family. But there has to come a point in which you say somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesnt have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world because a lot of people depend on the white house getting stuff right. This is different than just having policy disagreements. I recognize that they all profoundly disagree with myself or Hillary Clinton on tax policy or certain elements of Foreign Policy. But there have been republican president s with whom ive disagreed with, but i didnt have a doubt that they could function as president. I think i was right and mitt romney and john mccain were wrong on certain policy issues, but i never thought that they couldnt do the job, and had they won, i would have been disappointed, but i would have said to all americans, this is our president , and i know theyll abide by certain norms and rules and common sense, will observe basic decency, will have enough knowledge about Economic Policy and Foreign Policy, and our constitutional traditions and rule of law that our government will work and then well compete for yours from now to try to win an election. Thats not the situation here. Thats not just my opinion, but the opinion of many prominent republicans. There has to come a point in which you say, enough. The alternative is the entire party and the Republican Party effectively endorses and validates the positions being articulated by mr. Trump. As i said in my speech last week, i dont think that represents the views of a whole lot of republicans out there. With respect to libya, i have said on several occasions we did the right thing in preventing what could have been a massacre, a blood bath in libya. We did so as part of an International Coalition and under u. N. Mandate. But i think all of us collectively were not sufficiently attentive to what had to happen the day after and the day after and the day after that in order to ensure there were strong structures in place to assure basic security and peace inside of libya. The good news is that we now have the beginnings of a governme government in the government of national accord. Theyre serious about bringing all the factions together to start creating a basic security structure to begin to monitor libyas borders and to cooperate internationally to deal with issues like isil penetration on their territory. And at the request of that government after they had already made significant progress against isil and had essentially pushed isil into a very confined area in and around sirte, it is in americas National Security interest in our fight against isil to make sure theyre able to finish the job. So were working in partnership with them to assure that isil does not get a stronghold in libya even as libya begins what is going to be a long process to establish a functioning government and Security System there. So the good news is that they recognize these this terrorist organization in their midst is contrary to their National Interest as well as the world worlds. Were hopeful that having completed this process of driving isil out, they will then be in a position to start bringing the parties together inside that country, and not only us, but the europeans and other countries around the world have a great interest in seeing stability in libya because that the absence of stability has helped to fuel some of the challenges that weve seen in terms of the migration crisis in europe and some of the humanitarian tragedies that weve seen in the open seas between libya and europe. Nicholas. Thank you. The first question is for Prime Minister lee. Youve spoken about the continuation of the u. S. Rebalance being a significant part of peace and stability in asia. How do you envision this continuation proceeding in the next 50 years and what role do you see singapore playing in this context . What are some of the hot button issues theyre likely to face as the u. S. Continues its rebalance. Second question, you mentioned the strong bipartisan links singapores has had with nine different u. S. President s from both sides of the political divide. How we will support a leader who is more closed off, more anti globalization. President obama, i have a question about the military collaboration which has been a cornerstone of the relationship between singapore and the u. S. , especially coming on the heels of the announcement of the medical team to the Global Coalition against isis. With the rising threat of terror in asia and the rest of the world, the potential for military confrontation in the south china sea, how do you see singapore featuring in u. S. Plans to address this Going Forward . Last question, four more years is a phrase that youre hearing a little bit in the past few weeks and months. While thats not possible, if it were, how would you continue developing relationships with singapore . What would be your key focus Going Forward, maybe the next 50 years as well . Thank you. Well, 50 years is a very long time. 50 years ago nobody imagined what the world would be like today or what singapore would be like today and that we would have such a deep and broad relationship and so many things to do together. We would like to build on this for the next 50 years. It depends on how each of our countries does in singapore, whether were able to remain stable, prosperous, open, successful. In america, whether you remain one of the dynamic, vibrant, leading economies in the world, in a world in which there are other powers, other centers of creativity and technology and science and progress, but yet, a unique participant with a history of contributing to the world, not just for your own interest, but because you believe that the world should be a better place for all countries. If america can do that and if singapore can maintain our success, then i think there are many opportunities for us to make common causes together, and then the rebalancing which the president has enunciated and executed will sustain and endure for many years to come. It would be a very different world. The countries will grow, other countries will slow down. Demographics will have a big factor. If we look at japan, the population has been shrinking and they will have to do something somehow to turn it ar rouchblt otherwise 50 more years of population shrinking and you have a very small country left in terms of economy, in terms of influence internationally. Singapore, too, has demographic issues. America has a demographic change. The population isnt shrinking, but the composition is changing. In this situation we have to adjust to a new world, maintaining our position and our ability to compete, and yet knowing its not going to be the same as it was in 1946 when america was about half the worlds gdp. So or one quarter the worlds gdp. Thats the crucial fact to be over the next 50 years. As for what we do over bipartisan links if theres a u. S. Leader who is more closed off and wants to turn inward, i dont think this is the right forum or there is any right forum for me to talk about u. S. Politics in public at this moment. We will work whoever is the u. S. Administration, whichever party. Weve worked with five republic and four democrat administrations. Our experience of american elections, president ial elections has been that many pressures build up during the election campaign. And after the elections in a calmer, cooler atmosphere, positions are rethought, strategies are nuanced and a certain balance is kept in the direction of the ship of state. It doesnt completely turn upside down. The americans take pride ofn having a system with checks and balances so that its not so easy to do thing but its not so easy to completely mess things up, and we admire that and sometimes we depend on that. Hes absolutely right. The wisdom of our founders. With respect to military cooperation, obviously singapore is a small country, but as ive said before, it punches above its weight because so much of our work in the Asia Pacific Region is not a matter of active conflict, but rather creating an architecture, a framework of rules and norms that keeps the peace and has underwritten security for the region and for us for many years now. Singapore is so often the adult in the room, the level head that can help us work with a wide range of countries around certain issues, help defuse tensions. In many ways the diplomatic work and collaboration that we do with singapore is as critical, if not more critical, than the work militarily. What is also true is the nature of threats today when you think of Cyber Threats or our concern about ensuring sanctions against north corey to ensure being able to counter a message in isil in places like Southeast Asia and ensure information sharing with countries where there may be a budding terrorist threat, those are all issues of military finesse and intelligence and precision. Those are areas where singapore excels. In addition to being a very important logistical hub and center for operations, the partnership were able to machb tan helps us to work with a whole range of other countries much more effectively than we would than if singapore werent there and we were having to just try to gather up all these countries individually. Thats where asean and the east asia summit has also been very important, because it is institutionalizing many of these practices, in ways that hopefully avoids conflict in the first place which would be in everybodys interest. I think the Prime Minister is absolutely right, 50 years from now its very hard to anticipate where were going, but theres certain trends that are inevitable. The Asia Pacific Region will continue to grow land continue to account for a larger share of the worlds economy. There are going to be countries in the Southeast Asian region that look to follow the path of singapore into a mature advanced econo economy. The United States is still going to have a massive interest in maintaining itself as an Asian Pacific power in maintaining strong bonds of trade and commerce and Scientific Exchange and educational exchange. Given the close strategic interest and maybe more importantly the close peopletopeople ties between america and singapore, i think we can anticipate that that will be just as strong 50 years from now as it is today. Singapore has to take into account not just american interests. China is a big neighbor, and there are strong commercial ties and cultural ties there as well. And in that sense singapore actually can serve as a useful partner with us and with china to assure that the u. S. China relationship moves in a productive way. Which i think would be in the interest of both countries. So this is going to be a central engine for world growth, and if we do a good job in maintaining stability, ensuring a rulesbased order, continuing to promote Greater Transparency and reducing corruption in the region so that all people are benefiting from the rapid growth thats taking place, then i think the future 50 years from now will be bright. Jordan. Thank you, mr. President. Youre here today touting the transpacific partnership. Hillary clinton is against her. Her Vice President ial nominee tim kaine has reversed himself and is against it. Donald trump is, too, meaning the next president is opposed to this deal. My question is, if you take both candidates at their word, how do you plan to get congress to pass this deal during the lame duck and what your plan to convince members to do so given the opposition i just described . Secondly, Security Officials inside and outside the government have said theyre almost certain that the hack of the Democratic National committee came from russia. Does it look to you like russia is meddling in the u. S. Election and what impact should that have on the u. S. s relationship with moscow . Well, right now im president , and im for it. And i think ive got the better argument. Ive made this argument before. Ill make it again. We are part of a global economy. Were not reversing that. It cant be reversed because it is driven by technology and it is driven by travel and Cargo Containers and the fact that the demand for products inside of our country means weve got to get some things from other places, and our most manufactured products now involve a Global Supply chain where parts are made in all corners of the globe and converge and then get assembled and packaged and sold, and so the notion that were going to pull that up root and branch is unrealistic, point number one. Point number two, it is absolutely true, the evidence shows that some past trade deals have not delivered on all the benefits that were promised and had very localized costs. There were communities hurt because plants moved out. People lost jobs. Jobs were created because of those trade deals, but jobs were also lost. And people who experienced those losses, those communities, didnt get as much help as they needed to. And what is also true as a consequence of globalization and automation, what youve seen is labor, workers losing leverage and capital being mobile, being able to locate around the world, that is all contributed to growing inequality both here in the United States but in many advanced economies. So theres a real problem be, but the answer is not cutting off globalization. The answer is, how do we make sure that globalization, technology, automation, those things work for us, not against us . And tpp is designed to do precisely that. Number one, it knocks out 18,000 tariffs that other countries place on american goods. If everybody agrees that were going to have lower tariffs, thats good for american businesses and American Workers, and we should want that. We should pursue it. Number two, the complaint about previous trade deals was that labor agreements and environmental agreements sounded good, but they werent enforceable the same way you could complain about tariffs and actually get action to ensure that tariffs were not enforced. Well, tpp actually strengthens labor agreements and al agreemet as enforceable as any other part of the agreement. In fact, people take them so seriously that right now, for example, vietnam is drafting an presenting unprecedented labor reforms in vietnam, changing their constitution to recognize worker organizations in vietnam for the first time. So what were doing is were raising standards for workers in those countries which mean its harder for them to undercut labor standards here in the United States. The same is true for environmental standards. The same is true for things like Human Trafficking where weve got a country like malaysia taking really serious efforts to crack down on Human Trafficking. Why . Because tpp says you need to. It gives us leverage to promote things that progressives and people here in this country, including labor unions, say they care about. So if you care about preventing abuse of workers, child labor, wildlife trafficking, overfishing, the decimation of forests, all those things are addressed in this agreement. I have not yet heard anybody make an argument that the existing trading rules are better for issues like labor rights and environmental rights than they would be if we got tpp passed. So im going to continue to make this case, and ive got some very close friends, people i admire a lot, but who i just disagree with them. And thats okay. I respect the arguments that theyre making. Theyre coming from a sincere concern about the position of workers and wages in this country. But i think ive got the better argument and ive got the evidence to support it. And hopefully after the election is over and the dust settles there will be more attention to the actual facts behind the deal and it wont just be be a politic politic political symbol or a political football. And i will actually sit down with people on both sides, on the right and on the left, ill sit down publicly with them and well go through the whole provisions. I would enjoy that because theres a lot of misinformation. Im really confident i can make the case that this is good for American Workers and the american people. And people said we werent going to be be able to get the trade authority to even present this before congress, and somehow we muddled through and got it done. And i intend to do the same with respect to the actual agreement. You had a second question. That was a long answer. I apologize, mr. Prime minister. But every once in a while [ indiscernible question ] oh, the fbi is still doing an investigation. Youre right that there have been some assessments made that this might have been a russian hack. What i can tell you without commenting on the specifics is that there are a lot of countries out there that are trying to hack into us. Governmental databases but also private sector date da bases and knot for profit databases. This is why weve tried to strengthen our Cyber Security. And we have provisions in place where if we see evidence of a malicious attack by a state actor, we can impose potentially certain proportional penalties. But that requires us to really be able to pin down and know what were talking about. And so i dont want to get ahead of the legal evidence and facts that we may have in order to make those kinds of decisions. More broadly, were trying to promote International Norms and rules that say there are certain things that states should not be doing to each other when it comes to Cyber Attacks. There are certain thing thats are out of balance. And those norms i think are going to slowly build and get more adherence over time. But its were still early in the process. Min i mean, in some ways the explosion of the internet and its importance to our Communication Systems has far outstripped the legal architecture to protect them. And were playing catchup. But were good to have to keep on at it. In terms of how it affects our relationship with russia, look, i think weve already got a lot of differences with russia on a whole bunch of issues. But i think that weve been able to try to stay focused on those areas where we still have a common interest, understanding that we have deep disagreements on issues like ukraine, but perhaps potentially we have an interest in bringing an end to violence in syria. How do we balance those issues . Thats pretty standard state craft cat this point with russi. If in fact russia engaged in this activity, its just one on a long list of issues that me and mr. Putin talk about. And that ive got a real problem with. And so i dont think that it wildly swings what is a tough, difficult relationship that we have with russia right now. But its not going to stop us from still trying to pursue solutions so we can, for example, implement the minsk agreement and get those russia and those separatists to lay down arms and stop bullying ukraine. Its not going to stop us from trying to make sure shuure that bring a political transition inside of syria that can end the hardship there. Can i Say Something about the tpp . I dont want to wait until your domestic politics, but looking at it from somebody on the other side of the pacific who has been intimately involved and in fact triggered the whole progress because we started the p4, and just become this important initiative. The economic arguments for the tpp in terms of trade i think the president has presented them eloquently, what the benefits are to American Companies. Its a deal which the countries have negotiated. Each one providing Market Access on their side in return for gaining Market Access on the other side, each one committing to rules in exchange for the other side committing to rules. Its a hardfought bargaining process. The negotiators spent many trips, many nights, many dawns, and fought it out. But actually at the end of it, everybody must decide, is it a plus or a minus for them . And i