Kellyanne conway, House Minority leader nancy pelosi, and senatorsing an gus king and capito. Each one of our 680 locations is independently owned and operated by a local business person. Such as clint who owns two locations who is with me here today. I also serve on the board of directors of the International Franchise association. And i do that because the i. F. A. , International Franchise association, is the most vocal advocate for franchising. There are over 733 franchise businesses in the United States employing over 7. 6 Million People. And i give my time to the i. F. A. Because i love franchising. Ive been in it i like to say more than 20 years. We dont a woman never wants her age to be known. I have helped people get in business for themselves, not by themselves, have the opportunity, control their own destiny, but do that with the power of a brand and a power of training. So its exciting. Every day americans go into franchise locations, they go in as customers, they go in as employees, and they go in as Business Owners. Its refreshing to see progrowth policies and less regulation coming out of washington and that is really spurring an economic renewal. Today the International Franchise association released its 2018 franchise business forecast and were excited to say that not only has the franchise sector been growing faster than nonfranchising, since 2001. The forecast is for even faster growth in 2018. In part because of important tax relief so that Business Owners can invest more in their businesses and in their employees. Additionaly, the number of franchise locations is expected to grow 1. 9 in 2018. And franchising will account for 3 of g. D. P. You hear it all the time, these local businesses are the backbone of this great country. Creating local jobs. But even more importantly, supporting jobs in manufacturing and in agriculture. And thats something that every single one of us can get excited about. Our fast sign franchisees have told me they plan on investing their tax savings and growing their businesses, buying new equipment, adding new employees, and creating more economic output. These positive changes over the last year have sparked positive growth in the economy, and i know this firsthand and i have a lot of confidence in fast lines, but even more importantly in franchising as a whole. I look forward to hearing the important bipartisan conversation today. And really am honored to be here and honored to represent the International Franchise association. Looking forward to the state of the union tomorrow night. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for being here. And enjoy todays discussion. [applause] thank you. I also wanted to thank our partner for this event, the edward m. Kennedy institute. For the United States senate. Were pleased, so pleased, to have the institutes cofounder, victoria reggie kennedy, here with us today. Thank you. [applause] thank you. And now id like to begin our program. Please welcome to the stage the the Washington PostWhite House Bureau chief, phillip rucker, and counselor to the president , Kellyanne Conway. Thank you. Mr. Rucker hi, everybody. Thank you for being here. Excuse my appearance. I fell and broke my arm a couple of weeks ago. So im just getting by here. But were eager to talk with counselor to the president at the white house. And key advisor in helping shape the president s policies and his message and were going to start by talking about the state of he union tomorrow night. A big speech. Last year the president talked about american renewal and he got pretty good reviews. It went pretty well and it lasted a short while because in the days that followed, there were nasm controversies, including some by him that sort of created a more polarized environment on the hill and im wondering, looking to the speech tomorrow night, what can the president do to set that bipartisan tone, to try to achieve those deals that he wants with democrats in congress, without getting sort of kicked off the script so to speak . Kellyanne first of all, thank you for having me. Thanks to the the Washington Post and any other sponsors. We appreciate this platform today. The president is working on this speech, its a reflection on the past years accomplishments, but also the accomplishments not as just checking a box, a todo list, but really what is the nexus between what has happened and your own life on to or your own business or your own aspirations and how is that a framework for working together in 2018 . I would point out a few things. Theyre pretty recent. One is about two, three weeks ago now, the president held forth for 55 minutes, uninterrupted, undeterred, unscripted with a bipartisan, Bicameral Group of legislators in the cabinet room. It was quite unexpected. I think mainly by the media, the press pool, who were covering it, and by all accounts were pleased to have that kind of transparency and live, again, unfiltered and unscripted exchange between the president and the legislators. Thats good for transparency, accountability, democracy, really. And its that kind of conversation we need to keep having. That particular issue was about that particular meeting was about immigration and you see an openness and a flexibility by this president very recently on the daca recipients, the dreamers, he will address that tomorrow in his speech, immigration will be one of the major five or six points covered. And i would also go back to august 21, when the president came out with his afghani policy speech. His policy speech about afghanistan. A little bit of a diversion from where he was during the campaign, having consulted with those on the ground and his jens and National Security team. I know you wrote about it at the time and were criticized for saying the new president , new President Trump on afghanistan, new strategy. But indeed it was. I want to show those examples of openness and flexibility. It will be bipartisan in tone and content because thats the only way to function in this town. As a democracy. We saw during the Government Shutdown, very unfortunate, that folks wanted a Government Shutdown, you saw to reopen the government, you literally needed 60 votes. You needed bipartisan cooperation. We were very happy that Many Democrats came around, bucked their party leadership, and voted to reopen the government a week ago. Philip you talked about immigration which is going to come up in the speech tomorrow. The white house has a framework. Thats been previewed in the last couple of days that does include something for the dreamers. A legal status for the dreamers. Is that a red line for the president . Is he committed to seeing some sort of legal status for the hundreds of thousands of kids who are here without document snation kellyanne the president has said that indiana fact the framework currently includes resolution for 1. 8 million. So it would include those who never availed themselves of that after president obama took action in 2012. So it actually anticipates and includes those who never took the action, in addition to the roughly 700,000 who are who did. Theres also 25 billion for enhanced security at the border. We are a nation, the president will talk about how a sovereign nation must have physical borders that we as a nation have spent billions of dollars over many decades helping other countries secure their borders and protect their sovereignty. And he believes and has successfully won on and is governing on enhancing security at the border. That includes the wall and other security measures. But that also i would say that is his red line. Hes always made that very clear. But again, i think its just a great symbol of how cooperation, discussion, can be had on the same issue with two very divergent priorities. I think if you look at the conversation in the past several months, if fat year, when the democrats talk about immigration, they basically have been talking about the dreamers, the daca recipients. This president put out a 70point plan a few months ago, you can all go and read it. He talks about meritbased immigration, an end to the visa lottery system. Obviously Border Security. And now daca recipients. Philip as his political counselor, how do you help him manage and navigate the currents in the Republican Base right now . Breitbart has take to calling him amnesty don because of his immigration framework. How does he manage being compassionate with the dreamers and coming up with some sort of legal status for them . While satisfying his base that is very hardline on immigration . Kellyanne thats not a conversation we have very frequently. So for a very simple reason. Hes the president of all americans, including the millions who didnt vote for him. Thats something he said on november 9 in the wee hours of november 9. On election dayplus. Election nightplus. Yes, the speech. He changed that. He added that when we were up in the residence. He added. That he said it at the hilton. He said, im the president of all americans, even those two didnt support me. And there are more than a few of you, i believe were his words or something thereabout. And you have to take that very seriously as president. Because its just like with the tax cut and jobs act. So people were lied to. That it couldnt pass and if it did it would only help the wealthy and people now see its helping folks, upwards of three Million People already, 274 companies, employers have taken action as of this morning with the last count i saw. And youre talking about a direct investment in your workplaces, your work forces, raises. Obviously bonuses. But also Capital Investments in skills training, education for your ploles. He broader communitys being communities being invested in and things that have been seen as the province of the other party, i think thats ridiculous. Everybody thinks about child care and everybody thinks about wellness of their employees. But youve got many companies, many job creators, now, employers, taking action because of this tax cut and theyre saying. That theyre saying because of the tax cut we are doing x, y and z. There are plenty of people who are going to benefit who dont support the president and arent, quote, part of his base. The president s base is the entire country. Because hes president of the United States. And ill gesk you the best example. I have many good examples because in addition to working on the big issues of the day like tax reform, infrastructure, immigration, i tend to have some things in my portfolio that i can legitimately refer to as nonpartisan issues in search of bipartisan solutions. And when i go around the country meeting with grieving families or talking to Law Enforcement officers or Health Professionals or Faithbased Community leaders, i dont ask them how did you vote, are you registered . You just cant care. When youre serving the country. And i do think people who feel that way are the ones who should serve in government. Philip todays a busy news day, as every day is, has been for the last year. The Deputy Director of the f. B. I. Has stepped down. Hes going to be formally retiring in a couple of months but he stepped down immediately from his pofplgts im wondering, is the president celebrating position. I am wondering, is the president celebrating . He had so much to say over mccabe over the last few months, criticizing his leadership at the f. B. I. Im curious how the white house is responding to that. Kellyanne ive not personally seen the president react one way or the other. I know our press secretary on my way over here was saying during her briefing in the press Briefing Room that the white house had nothing to do with that decision. And that you have to refer your questions, to i guess, mr. Mccabe and the f. B. I. Philip but the president had criticized his leadership personally. Kellyanne ive also read in the paper, maybe even the Washington Post, that conscious your twitter feed, that mr. Mccabe had planned on retiring at some point. So i would again its not a surprise move. I guess if you read the Washington Post or phils twitter feed, as i do. Weve seen it before. But in any event, thats what Sarah Sanders has said and that is what is occurring right now as the news is breaking. Philip another story today is that the House Intelligence Committee has put together a report, a memo rather, suggesting that the f. B. I. May have relied on political motivated or questionable sources to justify one of those early requests for secret surveillance warrant in the russia investigation. This is obviously something the house committees going to have to decide in the next couple of hours, but should that memo be publicly released . Do you think the public deserves a right to see it . And do you think it should necessitate any further changes in the leadership of the f. B. I. And the d. O. J. . Kellyanne when it comes to the f. B. I. , let me make very clear the president want to quantico, i believe it was in deerks and he has Great Respect, as he has said, for the rank and file. There are about 25,000 or so employees at the f. B. I. Youre talking about a few people who are in charge of an investigation and what we see thats been made public. I dont have any special knowledge obviously. On that. You see its been made public. Some very disturbing statements about the now president. We expect people have political points of view. They support who they support in the ballot box. Someone gave money. At least one attended the president s political opponents victory party. On election night. Nonvictory party, i suppose. , we believe in transparency and accountability. So this president would err on the side of transparency. I hope that the legion of people, including in the media, who have been covering russia and the investigation for over a year now, and the president s made very clear that theres no collusion, theres absolutely no collusion. He calls it a hoax. An excuse for losing an election. But more importantly, is the transparency and accountability piece of this that if those two are in charge of this memo, and ive not seen it obviously, those in charge of that feel that it is ready to be released to the public. Im not sure what would need to be redacted or not. Then they should make that decision. Philip does the president think that that the message is that youre talking about is that evidence that the Law Enforcement community was working against his campaign . Kellyanne the Law Enforcement community is a very large group of people. We should never generalize as such. As i say, its whats been revealed now, after the fact, and ironically, i guess through the course of the investigation that was really targeted at him and his campaign, which i was the manager for the winning part and i can tell you that the idea that i would ever have to go to moscow rather than North Carolina or michigan to help guide the campaign is foolish. And i dont you know why anybody would think otherwise. On this particular discrete matter, lets let the committees decide what they think is best based on what they know. This is a president who has talked about prosperity, security, transparency and accountability being his three Top Priorities and he will talk about those tomorrow night in his state of the union. In fact, hell talk about a safe, strong, proud america and i think that the word proud is very important too. Because whether its this president telling the country to dignyify all career types, to have invested millions of dollars through the department of labor into skills training so that we are not as a nation telling everybody, you must go to a Fouryear College, you must get a degree, a Fouryear College degree, where we hear from employers and governors from both sides of the aisle, all the time that theres a labor shortage supply of carpenter, welders, the folks i grew up with in south jersey. I grew up outside of camden in philadelphia. Most people i went with went for as certificate and were able to support themselves the next day practically. This is something who is trying somebody who is trying to say to america, be proud regardless of what your choice of career is. We want to find things that bind us together as a nation. And he will talk about that in tomorrows state of the union. Philip he probably i assume is not going to talk about the russia investigation and the state of the union address. But thats the shadow that sort of hangs over the work hes doing as president and Sarah Sanders said today at the press briefing, its about time everybody wash russia fever out of their systems. A real desire to move past. That the president himself last week said he was looking forward to testifying under oath with Robert Mueller if indeed hes asked. And im wondering, as one of his advisors, considering his history is his history and his past during his time as a businessman of exaggerating details and saying things that are not true, and there was this one deposition that he gave in 2007 where he had 30 misstatements, do you worry at all that he could be putting himself in a position are we might perjure himself . Kellyanne the question of whether or not the president testifies in mr. Muellers investigation really is a question for his attorneys, of which im not one. Im a fully recovered attorney. Im not his attorney. I know that mr. Dowd, ones his attorney,