They will be meeting in front of reporters for at least a brief period in the oval office this hour, and were certainly standing by for that, especially since this morning the president s former chief strategist steve bannon was arrested and charged with fraud. Were bringing that to you if and when it happens. Now lets turn to the latest on the coronavirus. New infections in the United States continue to decline today with the country averaging just over 47,000 new cases can over the last seven days. Thats down 11 from the week before. Looking at the map, you can see that there are 20 states that are now seeing a downward trend in cases, in new cases. The number of people hospitalized due to covid is also lower today, down nearly 28 since its peak last month. Tragically though, more than 1,300 americans died from the virus yesterday as the daily death toll remains stubbornly high, refusing to decline it seems. In florida the death toll just crossed 10,000 people. And on the critical issue of testing, the rate is up slightly today but still down in trouble spots like florida and georgia leading some to question whether new cases are now being under counted once again. Overall the trends are positive right now, but the countrys top official in charge of testing warnings that it can quickly change if americans arent careful. We need to be absolutely diligent about adherence to Public Health recommendations or else we could have flares and outbreaks. This thing could turn around very quickly if were not careful. We also have some breaking news about the nations top Infectious Disease expert dr. Anthony fauci. Hes just out of surgery following a procedure for a polyp on his vocal cord. Dr. Sanjay gupta is joining me now with the very latest on this. Sanjay, what more are you hearing about dr. Fauci, how hes doing and what this procedure means for him . Yeah. Well, he had a procedure that started this morning. It was under general anesthesia, and it was, as you mentioned, to address this polyp that he had developed on his his vocal cord. We can show an image what have that looks like. Basically it looks like something thats been bothering him for some time so hes been wanting to get it addressed, you know, over the past few months, in fact, but now was the time that he could actually get it done. He texted me. There you see the image of it. Thats a traffic representation obviously but thats what the polyp looks like, adhered to the vocal cord and can cause someone to have difficulty speaking, sometimes can be painful as fell and he wanted to have it addressed for some time so now is the time. He texted me, kate, as soon as he got out of surgery. The guy is amazing, right, almost 80 years old, texted me and said he was doing okay and said hell need time to recover from all of this. You can imagine that recover means not talking business basically what hes been having to do for six months straight as we leap on him. Can you just remind us that the kind of representation of a polyp and what it looks like is really useful but how does a polyp form . I feel like i often hear about it when it comes to singers developing polyps. Thats right. Yeah, thats right. Theres theres all sorts of different reasons, you know. Typically its just from overuse of the vocal cords or from damage to the vocal cords in some way so singer, as you mentioned from overuse but people who are smokers, for example, may be more likely to develop polyps just because of the trauma to the vocal cords. I can tell you with dr. Fauci, hes been talking about this for some time. Back in december of last year he actually dealt with flu. He had a pretty significant flu virus at that point. This is obviously precovid and hes been talking a lot, you know, over the last several months and his voice has become increasingly gravelly and, you know, hes talked about it. He knew he had a polyp. It was just a question of when best to sort of have this addressed, and us a mentioned correctly, the advice is going to be dont talk for a while. Thats how you rest and recover from vocal cord surgery or if you do talk, keep it at very limited bursts of speaking, just under a couple of minutes, for example, so well not going to hear from him as much spoken words or even just little shorts snippets of speech. Ill tell you. Ill take an interview with text over him considering how Important Information is that we need to get from him at any time. Thanks, san really appreciate it. You got it, kate. We wish the doctor a very quick and speedy recovery. We mean that in the most urgent sense as were in the middle of the pandemic. Lets turn back to the chaos of the coronavirus thats surrounding School Reopenings across the country. The situation on College Campuses is becoming especially troubling, and it seems to be quickly exposing how difficult it is to contain the virus no matter the plan in place, no matter how much money any campus may be able to throw at it. The dr. Deborah birx, the coordinator for the White House Coronavirus task force, shes now telling colleges that they need to be conducting surge testing in order to keep a handle on cases that are popping up and so quickly. Heres dr. Birx. Lets play how dr. Birx put this with state and local leaders yesterday. Teaching universitieses have to do entrance testing and weve talked to every universities about it and being able to do surge testing. How can you do 5,000 samples or 10,000 samples in one day . Heres just a sample of the problems that is facing universities right now. University of mississippi, at least is a student athletes, one employee, tested positive for covid. In massachusetts, Boston University is reporting 12 covid cases since testing began on campus late last month. Five students at Virginia Tech have tested positive for covid ahead of the fall semester which starts next week. Thats on top, of course, of the situations at unc chapel hill and notre dame having to move to Online Learning only after outbreaks on their campuses this week and in Kansas Health officials are investigating at least five covid clusters at universities across that state. Lets go there. Joining me right now is the Health Secretary for the state of kansas dr. Lee norm ena. Thanks for coming back on. I appreciate it. First, i want to ask you what you think dr. Birx is advising about campuses and colleges doing surge testing. Are are the colleges and universities in kansas capable of that . We have some of our colleges and universitieses that are doing surveillance testing when students, faculty and staff come in. We have some that are not doing surveillance or testing. We do have the ability to do surge testing, and, of course, to follow anybody thats going to be symptomatic and do the clustered and tracing around them. The advice from birx, that makes sense to you, right . Makes a lot of sense. In fact, i met with her in kansas city this past saturday, and we described one of the larger universities that is using a salivabased test to test every one of the people coming in. They have had quite a number of positives, have been able to quarantine and isolate those and are going to sequentially do the fenway park youll, staff and and students in in waves, if you will. Its been successful. Thats really interesting. How concerned though are you just broadly locking at what youre dealing with at the moment, how concerned are you about the five active clusters that were hearing about at colleges in kansas . Quite concerned. Some of the patterns are already emerging and granted classes just started on monday. We know the ones tested positive probably brought it in from their home communities. I know well have more outbreaks than just the five but its a big reminder. In the kansas our number of coronavirus is still going the wrong direction. Collegeses and universities, community colleges, will not be safe islands as long as community numbers are going up. Kansas state is one of schools thats facing an outbreak, a cluster, and from what i see its linked to a from a erpt it. Theres other schools with clust centurylinked to the greek system as well. Doctor, what can you do about this . What can you do about offcampus parties . If this seems to be a particular trouble spot, how do you address did . Well, to your point, the colleges and universities can do things in the learning veerpt but for fraternities and involve tis it depends on governance structure and the Civic Responsibility within those fraternities and vore industries. Two significant outbreaks, you mentioned one of them here in kansas, and thats just going to be the tip of the iceberg. It will happen more and more. I do not know what College President s and ceos will do when it comes to the greek communities, but i think there really needs to be a significant curtailment of their social activities because they are just not getting it quite honestly. And that must be a quite traus traiting for you. You opened the campuses, youre there to learn but college life is about a social life and this isnt a college year. What would you say if you could have every ear of fraternities and sororities and College President s because they need to step up and make decisions . Ive kind of given up a little bit on frat interpret and sorority members. If you ask them what should you do to curtail the coronavirus, they can cite it line and verse what is the right thing to do, but they are not doing it. Young people think they are invincible, but i think its a large amount of responsibility, therefore, falls on to the could have nance structure and then ultimately goes to the top saying how much can you curtail their activities and i think it will get worse . Whats your fear here. Earlyin you were okay with communities shut down and now youre dealing with Real Community spread and schools are reopening and that doesnt make a lot of sense. I feel like we just lost dr. Norman as you can well see. Thanks so much for your time. Well get back with him as soon as we can another day. Also breaking news this morning that were following. Another associate of President Trump arrested, this time his former Campaign Manager and chief strategist chief white house strategist steve bannon, plus, president obama delivering a blistering rebuke of President Trump at the Democratic Convention warning that democracy itself is at stake in november. So what will joe biden say after what turned out to be a very historic night at the dnc . If youre at home thinking about your financial plan. So are we. Prudential helps 1 in 7 americans with their financial needs. Thats over 25 million people. With over 90 years of investment experience, our thousands of Financial Professionals can help with secure video chat or on the phone. We make it easy for you with online tools, esignatures, and nomedicalexam life insurance. Plan for better days. Go to prudential. Com or talk to an advisor. Heres a choice you dont have to make. Ses are always making choices. The largest 5g network. Awardwinning customer satisfaction. Or insanely great value. Now, with tmobile for business, theres no compromise. Network. Support. Value. Choose. Any. Three. Tmobile for business ready when you are. That selling carsarvana, 100 online wouldnt work. But we went to work. Building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. Creating a coast to Coast Network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. Recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. And putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. Thats why weve become the nations Fastest Growing retailer. Because our customers love it. See for yourself, at carvana. Com. vo because we know you want to get back to going your speed. Steering life at 10 and 2. Youre prepared for this. And so are we. Soon youll get back to skipping the counter without missing a beat. Back to choosing any car in the aisle. Back to being the boss of you. Go national. Go like a pro. Were following breaking news this morning. Former Trump CampaignSenior Adviser steve bannon has been arrested and charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in new york. He and three others are accused of orchestrating a scheme to defraud donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars that the donors thought were all going to help fund the president s border wall. Cnns kara ask kcanell joins us now with that. Reporter hes been charged with one count of fraud and one charge of conspiracy to commit monday laundering. Bannon and others had launched a Crowdfunding Service to raise money to build the wall called we build the wall. Instead, prosecutors say bannon and others used hundreds of thousands of dollars that they raised from donors to pay for personal expenses. Prosecutors say that bannon and others had exchanged Text Messages and had tried to conceal these payments using shell companies. In the words of prosecutors heres what they said. They said bannon through a Nonprofit Organization under his control received over 1 million from we build the wall which bannon used for among other things to secretly pay one of the codefendants brian kolfage, and bannon is in custody and is expected to make his First Court Appearance today. Because of coronavirus, a lot of these appearances are done virtually, but bannon is not expected to be detained. Prosecutors are not expected to ask him to be held so we may see bannon leave the courthouse later today, but it it is unlikely hell enter a plea at this moment. His lawyers did not respond to a request. He says he has no comment and the white house has declined to comment. Bannon is not the First Official that has ties to the Trump Campaign and to the president who has been arrested. Weve seen michael cohen, michael flynn, roger stone and others who have been arrested so bannon is yet the latest person with close ties to the president who has been charged criminally. The now, there is no allegation that this had anything to do with the white house or the president , but prosecutors say this scheme began almost as soon as it started in december of 2018 and continued right up until religious entally. Kate . Yeah. You know, i want to just, if you can stick with me, i want to keep that that graphic up with how many people have been charged or convicted that are linked to President Trump since 2017. Its a pretty startling picture to have up on your screen. The. I think we have with us cnn legal analyst pal callen. There you are, pal. Tell me as youre listening to this, youve looked at this indictment. How serious are these charges . Its a very serious indictment. Its about 24 pages in length. It aperts a conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Money Laundering in the diversion of money from a charity. I think whats interesting about it is that ban phone himself, they used the figure 1 million as the amount of money that was transferred to steve bannon who, of course, was a top adviser to the president before being fired really by President Trump, so this is an endime, by the way, that the maximum statutory penalties is about 20 years in prison, so thats not to say that that would be the sentence handed down, but its a very, very serious charge. One thing thats striking is the extent to which bannon and the others who are charged with him went to cover their tracks here. What do you think, pal, they have they have, someone high profile like steve bannon, who has been so close to the president of the United States . Well, i would have to think that they have strong strong paper trails that would lead back to the defendants in the case. Now they do specifically mention forged invoices. That would be a very, very important piece of evidence if you were trying to prove fraud. The basis of the fraud is that the contributors thought they were giving the money to the we build the wall crowdfunding organization, and instead the money, so say prosecutors, was going to personal use by bannon and by other members of the conspiracy, so you can expect a paper trail. We dont know what the other evidence is. A lot of times in these cases, kate, one of the defendants turns on other to get a deal from the prosecution. We dont know whether those talks are going on in the background, but i can tell you as a former defense attorney, current defense attorney and prosecutors, that that happens all the time. Let me ask you, you touched on it a bit, but what more are you learning about the details around bannons arrests and the others, if you will, what more youre hearing on how this all went down . Well, so this investigation was conducted by the u. S. Attorneys office in manhattan and also the u. S. Postal inspector service. Thats the investigative arm of the u. S. Postal service. Now what were told is that people who may have included, were not exactly sure if it included people from both of those arms, but we do know that bannon was arrested this morning with federal officials on a boat docked in Long Island Sound off the eastern coast of coppin could. Were told its a very large boat and thats where they found bannon and arrested him this morning. This indictment was officially voted on and brought on monday. Its been under seal. Its not clear why they moved today to arrest bannon but we know that happened early this morning, that he was taken into custody and that hes been processed. Kate . Thank you so much. Paul, thank you as well. Really appreciate it. So then there is this. President trump is not just refusing to condemn a Conspiracy Theory group that the fbi has identified as a domestic terror threat, but he also seems impressed that they are, in his words, quote, gaining in popularity, embracing what really amounts to a dangerous online cult because, well, simply put, they support him. Listen to the president. These are people that dont like seeing whats going on in places like portland and places like chicago and new york and other cities and states, and ive heard these are people that love our country and just dont like seeing it so i dont know anything about it other than they do specialedly like me and they also would like to see problems in thesaryias, like especially the areas that were talking about, go away. Problems in these areas that we would like to go away like vast conspiracy theories about child sex trafficking . John harwood is joining me now from the white house. The president didnt pull a usual i dont know this group and im not going to say anything and make them mad. He embraced them saying he heard they liked him and that they are popular and then the press secretary who tried to blame the media for her boss words rather than troy to clean it up. Well, look, the press secretary is always going to try to cover for the president and explain that the president didnt mean what he said. We know the reason for what the president did. They have praised the president and if somebody praises the president hell embrace them no matter who they are. The president has had a very unpopular term, become more and more politically isolated. Anyone who is going to stand up with him, hes going to embrace. We haeshd this from myles taylor, the former Deputy Director of dhs, explaining hell take any friend. When steve bannon left the white house and said some critical things about him, the president blasted him. Just a few weeks ago in his interview on fox puts he. Thats how his immediate works. Had efocused on himself and he thinks if someone is with him that they are good. Each if the remote possibility that the white house and president isnt really aware of what the group is about, when they hear the folks, that his own fbis fbi considers this group, you would think they will be able to take this very, very bolt step, if you will, saying we dont support them. Its a surprise but not a surprise. Kate, theres zero chance that the with us the president sim self foermts. Its said that the president has weakened the antibodies within the Republican Party against nutty conspiracy theories and thats base the president enself has man tis pated in it something naemps talking been president obama and president obama spying on his campaign and using words like treason. Its all nutty stuff. Its formented by of the. And its super dangerous and needs to be called out. Thanks. Appreciate it. Tonight is joe bidens bick night at the Democratic National convention. Were learning where biden wants to focus and also where hes likely not going to focus. These are real people, not actors, whove got their eczema under control. With less eczema, you can show more skin. So roll up those sleeves. And help heal your skin from within with dupixent. Dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderatetosevere eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. Dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. Many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. Dont use if youre allergic to dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. Tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. If you take asthma medicines, dont change or stop them without talking to your doctor. 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I keep thinking about that 25yearold indian woman, all of 5 feet tall, who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in oakland, california. On that day she probably could have never imagined that i would be standing before you now and speaking these words. The i accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of america. That was senator Kamala Harris making history, becoming the first woman of color on a major party ticket. As she accepted the democratic partys nomination for Vice President during last night, the third night of the convention. Night three also brought another first, former president barack obama delivering a searing rebuke of President Trump going where former president s historically dont as he really tore into trumps leadership or lack thereof from his perspective making a case trump is threatening to destroy democracy itself. Listen to this. They are hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote and to convince you that your vote does not matter. That is how they win. Thats how a democracy withers until its no democracy as all. And we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not take away your democracy. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if thats what it takes for them to win. So we have to get busy building it up by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days and by voting like never before. Joining me right now is van jones, cnn political commentator and former Obama Administration official. Van, i watched with great interest last night for your reaction to the speeches of the evening, and you were emotional following harris remarks. You were emotional about what you had seen. Whaflt was what was behind t emotion . I thought about all the black women, my mother, my grandmothers, my great grandmothers who never had a shot, never had a shot, smart, tough, resourceful, innovative, funny, never had a shot, and im getting Text Messages from black women i went to college with, mothers of little brown girls holding their hands saying a see, baby, and so, you know, some things are bigger than just the Technical Analysis of the speech, bigger than just the moment. You know. She was doing that for a lot of people, a lot of people, and and also i was thinking about her sister maya, you know, who is a civil rights leader in her own right. If you didnt have Kamala Harris, you would have maya harris and maya harris is a giant, i know, in the Civil Rights Community and then little mina. I new mina when she was a gangly little teenager looking like a baby giraffe and to see her a fully grown woman and successful entrepreneur. These harris women coming from such humble backgrounds, all of them just extraordinary and i got emotional and i just feel, listen, theres a lot that goes on right now in this country that will just tear you down and have you hiding had under the bed, but when somebody does something that breaks through a barrier for tens of millions of people, you know, and does it with grace and with poise and with beauty and with smarts, you know, and with resilience, you know youve got to take a step back sometimes, and that was for me that was for my mom. That was for my grandmas and for a lot of black women and women of color here and around the world. So you have harris historic moment and then you have president obama in his speech. It was extraordinary in how he went where former president s havent, and also then though his call to action to you, the voter, you out there, his plea, i mean, him saying do not let them take away your power. It was it was striking to hear that from obama. I mean, what do you think what do you think president obama did with his moment in that moment . You know, i dont think he ever planned to give a speech like that. I dont think he ever wanted to give a speech like that. I know what a traditionalist he is, what a constitutionalist he is. Hes such a scholar and such a historian. He knows thats not what american president s ordinarily do and for him to feel that he needed to do that, that he needed to break with hundreds of years of precedent to make that kind of statement, he must have been looking down the barrel of what if i dont do it . What if i dont say what i believe and then, you know, people take the election lightly like they did last time, dont turn out like last time and things get worse than they are right now so, you know, to me it was the completion of a big circle for him from 2004, this young kid up there talking about i dont believe in red states and blue states, its just the United States, you know, for him to go from that guy, that young guy to this elder statesman having to rip up the playbook for a president and say, guys, its all on the line. If we want that kind of america, everybodys got to do Something Different including me, i just think it was a big coda on his whole journey. Ill tell you. What hes not the kind of guy that wants to do that kind of speech. Some people would love that. They would be drooling at the mouth and let me get at that guy and break precedent and disrupt everybody and do something totally different. Thats not barack obama so that lets you know where his heart is right now. Thats a good way of putting it. Now to the biggest speech of joe bidens political career to date that will happening tonight. Jeff zeleny reporting is that joe biden is not intended to make trump a central figure of his speech. Isnt that a which will exwhen a big part of the election is seen as a referendum on President Trump . Nobody watching bidens speech needs to hear anything about donald trump. If you are watching biden tonight you probably have heard of donald trump. What they need to hear is from joe biden, and they need to to now see the completion of this entire journey weve been on this week. We see all the decency. We see ail of the great stories. Everybody says hes a good guy, hes a good guy. Can he get the job done . Whats the relationship between all these decent acts that hes done as a human being and what he can do for American Families right now who are hurting and in need of some decent champion. The if he can connect the dots, because for a lot of people, you know, the character question people pretend like its not important. Its important, and to see his character, thats great. Now can the character result in a change for my life . If he can cross that dredge, hes got a good shot tonight. The other thing is weve drawn a beautiful circle that includes immigrants and includes disabled people and all kinds of people i dont know if the circle we have drawn right now includes enough of those blue collar, hard hat, lunch pail guys that are also an important part of this party. He is uniquely qualified to reach out to them, too. You dont have to erase the circle and draw a circle just for them h. Draw the same circle a little bit bigger and make sure that those folks have a place of dignity and honor in this party and i think biden will have had a very successful convention. That type of vote their voted for obama and then voted for donald trump. Thats a really thats a really interesting point. Bring them home. Great to see you, van. I always love how you wear your emotion on your sleeve. Youre a very evolved human and i love it, thank you. Well, thank you very much. Listen, history every day all day every year so i appreciate you. Thank you. Be sure to watch cnns special live coverage on the final night of the Democratic National convention that starts at 7 00 eastern. Come up for us, a pediatrician makes a public plea for all schools to mandate the flu shot. She joins me live next. Esome new app called rakuten that gives me cash back on everything. Thats ebates. I get cash back on electronics, travel, clothes. Youre talking about ebates. I cant stop talking about rakuten. 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Howd you do all this . Told ya wayfair. Lets talk dining tables. Yes blow it up. Wayfair youve got just what i need massachusetts has just become the first state to require flu shots for all students to attend school from k12 up to college. Officials calling it an important step to reduce flurelated illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the covid19 pandemic. Will other states follow suit . Joining me right now is dr. Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician. Great to see you again, doctor. Thank you for being here. You make this case very eloquently today that every state should essentially follow massachusetts. From a pediatricians standpoint, why is it so important that kids get a flu shot this year . What are you afraid youre going to see if they dont . Thats right, kate. Its great to be with you, so to be super clear, this is not the first time ive advocated for this or soon to be winter. This is important because the flu is a serious illness for children. Children are hospitalized, hundreds of thousands of children get the flu every year and a few hundred pass away. The flu shot is a safe vaccine that can prevent at least a significant amount of these kids from suffering from this, so this year im afraid that im going to be seeing both covid19 and flu. I, unfortunately, dont have a way to prevent kids from getting covid19 other than the measures weve been emphasizing, the social distancing, the handwashing and maskwearing but we do have a way to prevent flu from becoming a significant epidemic so we have to take the steps that we can take and that includes schools mandating it. Why is flu season on top of covid such a dangerous mix . Gosh, kate. For so many reasons. First, not a lot of kids are going to be able to go back to school in person, right . Weve created a mess in this country and thats the unfortunate reality that were living in but for the schools that are able to go back to inperson learning, kids are going to be or parents are going to be asked to monitor their kids for symptoms at home. And a parent is going to have a really hard time telling the difference between flu and covid19 symptoms, and in addition to that, we really cant afford to have both illnesses circulating at a significant level. Went can a. Our Health Care System cant handle it. Our schools cant handle it. Our communities cant handle it. Doctor, so sorry we have to jump in because we have to jump over to the white house with bringing news coming in. President trump speaking right now. Was involved in our campaign. He worked for goldman sachs. He worked for a lot of companies, but he was involved likewise in our campaign and for a small part of the administration, very early on. I havent been dealing with him at all. I know nothing about the project other than i didnt like about it other this what i read about it, it i said this is for government, not private people and i said this sounds like showboating. I made my statement at the time saying it was showboating. Well have to see what happens. I think its a very sad thing for mr. Bannon. I think its surprising, but this was something, as you know, just by reading social media and by reading whatever it is and by speaking to mike and mike and all of them, i didnt like that project. I thought that was a project that was being done for showboating reasons. I dont know that he was in charge. I didnt know any of the other people either, but its its sat. Its very sad. The. Roger stone and michael february and rick gates and paul manafort, what does it say about your judgment that these are the kind of people and a culture of lawlessness . Well, there was great lawlessness in the Obama Administration. They spied on our campaign illegally and if you look at all the things and scandals they had they have tremendous lawlessness. I was not involved. I was not involved in the project, have no idea who it was but i can tell you the three people that were talked about were people that i did not know. I dont believe i ever met them. I dont think that should be a privately financed wall. I dont think its too complex. Its too big, amend were now up to 300 miles almost in another week, week and a half. Well be up to 300 miles of wall at the highest level. They were even having construction problems. I was reading, the little i know about it i get from you. I was reading where they were having construction problems with the wall they had a small area just to show people that they could build a wall, and they were having a lot of problems where it was toppling over and others things, and i didnt like it because i didnt want to be associated with that. We built a very powerful wall. It was a wall that is virtually impossible to get through. Its very, very tough. Its very strong, and its everything the boarder patrorde wanted and i thought this would be an inferior wall. I didnt know that. I didnt know about bannons involvement but i steve had a great career with goldman sachs, with a lot of other people. I havent deal with him at all over years now, literally years, and i guess this was a project he was involved in but it was something that the fact you can see i made statements about it a long time ago. Something that i very much felt was inappropriate to be doing. Okay . Mr. President please, go ahead. Go ahead, please. Mr. President , the end of one of the very important issues just sterilize the country in iraq. How america is going to support ending the militia role in iraq youre very hard to understand. Could you maybe help me with this . Try it again. [ speaking Foreign Language ] mr. President . Yes . The United States helped the helped iraq enormously and defeating isis and also in toppling the Saddam Hussein regime. We are working on building a strong relationship that is based on joint interest between iraq and the United States thats based on economic benefit of the iraqi people and the United States people. Mr. President . When i got to when we came into office, isis was running rampant all over iraq and syria. And we knocked out the 100 of the isis caliphate but the Obama Administration did a very, very poor job. They were running rampant all over. We did a real job and got rid of that and that was a good thing and now we are working with iraq. They used the Great American dollar which is the most powerful currency in the world. And theyre starting to do well. And we are with them and this gentleman in particular, we have developed a very Good Relationship and hopefully its going to be very strong for our country. Mr. President . Yes . There have been 32 attacks. There have been 32 attacks in the last 10 month on u. S. Interest in iraq. Particularly in the green zone and u. S. Military bases. How will you help iraq to hold these attacks by pro iranian militia and hold these people accountable . If i may, theres some u. S. Troops to withdraw from iraq totally in three years. Is this true . So, at some point we obviously will be gone. We brought it down to a very, very low level. We deal when there are attacks, we take care of those attacks and very easily. Nobody has the weaponry we have. Nobody has the anything of what we have, we have the finest, the greatest military in the world. When somebody hits us, we hit back harder than they hit us. Iraq has been very helpful where necessary but we have been taking our troops out of iraq fairly rapidly and we look forward to the day when we dont have to be there and hopefully iraq can live their own lives and they can defend themselves which they have been doing long before we got involved. Yes, please. About the bounties, you say you hit back hard but we havent seen any definitive strike back for bounties upon americans. You dont know about the bounties. You tell me, if you know something you can know but you dont know very much about it but if that would be true, if we found that would be a very it would be a fact, what you just said, we would hit them so hard your head would spin. Mr. President , how do you see the role of the kurds in iraq and relationship between baghdad and the kurds helped us greatly defeating the isis and getting the isis 100 of the isis caliphate so we have a very Good Relationship with the kurds and treated them very well. Mr. President . Mr. President . Yes, please. The end of the militia roles in iraq is very important to stabilize the country. How america can helpeneding the militia roles and how can help iraq in the democratic process. What we are doing is helping where we can but thats a country, a separate country. They have a Prime Minister and they have people in office and they have to run their country. We have been in iraq for a long time. I wont say whether or not i said we should be there but frankly i didnt think it was a good idea but i was a villanuevian so who listens to me . I made my point clear as clear as a civilian can do it and now we are leaving shortly. And the relationship is very good. We are making very big oil deals. The Oil Companies are making massive deals and thats basically the story. I mean, we are very happy with the relationship that we have developed over the last couple of years. I thought before that frankly the quite was being taken of but well be leaving and hopefully leaving a country that can defend itself. Mr. President mr. President , the United States there were air strikes on Northern Iraq kurdistan region killing a civilian. In your talks in your meetings here you talk a lot about the sovereignty of iraq. Is that something that youre looking for help from the United States . If thats something that iraq is asking for help in terms of the interference from the neighbor, not just iran but other neighbors here they have to make a specific request but certainly the Prime Minister has my ear so if he does that well take a look. They do have its a very unstable part of the world and im not talking about iraq. Im talking about the whole of the middle east. It is a very, very unstable part of the world but were there to help and because of the relationship we would certainly be willing to lend you the kind of support that you need. [ speaking Foreign Language ] translator definitely the turkish attacks are not accepted. On the other hand, the iraqi constitution also does not allow iraq to be to become used to attack any neighboring country. We are entering dialogue with turkey to rectify this situation and i look forward to solving this problem with turkey and getting our neighbors the turks to understand iraqs circumstances. But once again, the iraqi constitution does not allow iraqi territory to be used to attack any neighboring country. I will say this. The United States and me in particular has a very Good Relationship with turkey and with president erdogan and well be talking to him but we are a very, very Good Relationship with turkey and with president erdogan. Mr. President . Just a follow up on the troops question, sir. Do you have a timeframe for the complete withdrawal of troops from iraq . Mike, what would you say to that . As soon as we complete the mission, the president s made very clear to get the forces down to the lowest level as quickly as we possibly can and working with iraqis to achieve that. We are at the lowest level now, jeff. Lowest level in afghanistan that we have been in many years. Well be down to about 4,000 troops in afghanistan. And that will be when . Couple months, sir. Within a few months, a couple of months. One other thick. As you know in syria we are down to almost nothing except we kept the oil and will work out a deal with the kurds on the that but we left and kept the oil and left the border. We said turkey and syria can take care of their own border. We dont have to do that. I remember when i did that i was scorned by everybody. They said this is terrible. Its now two years ago. We did it with mike pence went over and met with the various parties and very successfully and removed the troops. Nobody was killed, nobody. Now they protect their own border like they have been for hundreds of years and weve left but we did keep a small force and we kept the oil. And well make a determination on that oil fairly soon. Just one domestic question, sir. The manhattan case about your taxes is now ruled that you do need to give your turn over your taxes. Do you have a reaction to that . The Supreme Court said if its a phishing expedition you dont have to do it but more importantly this is a continuation of the witch hunt, the greatest witch hunt in history. Never anything like it where people want to examine any deal you have done to find a comma out of place. No president had to go through this. The Supreme Court shouldnt have allowed this to happen but no president had to go through this but what the Supreme Court did do is say, if its a phishing e we decision is you dont have to do it. Well probably end up back in the Supreme Court. But this is just a continuation of the most hideous witch hunt in the history of our country. We beat mueller. We won at every level in this in washington and d. C. We won at every level so now what they do . Send it to new york. All democrat state and send it to new york. Should never happen to another president. This is a continuation of the most disgusting witch hunt in the history of our country. All it is. But the Supreme Court said phishing e