Agenda items, a new round of sanctions on syria and those who do business with the country. This development overnight in north korea. The country has tested yet another missile just a few days after south koreas new president took office. In france today, macron was sworn in as that countrys new president. On the issue of White House Briefings, join in on the conversation. The phone lines are open. 2027488000 for democrats. 2027488001 for republicans. If you are an independent, 2027488002. Us a tweet. Post your comment on our facebook page. Good sunday morning to you. Thomas and grandmothers and andothers to moms grandmothers and godmothers, happy mothers day. In north korea, yet another missile test. Here are the details from seoul, south korea, from the New York Times. Missile. Ediate here are the details on the test. It took off from a northwest city and flew more than 430 miles before landing in the sea between north korea and japan. Russia is a member of the aimed to six nations persuade north korea to give up its nuclear arsenal. There is a forum taking place. This issue coming up today. North korea launching the muscle, the first test after the ile, the first test after the election in the south. We want to begin with the white house and specifically the White House Briefings. The president indicating there may need to be a change in the daily briefings. Here is his interview that aired yesterday on the Fox News Channel. [video clip] you moved so quickly, but your Communications Department cannot keep up with this. President trump yes, that is true. What do we do about that. President trump we dont need press conferences. Just dont have them unless i have them every two weeks and do them myself. Dont have them. I think it is a good idea. First of all, you have a level of hostility. It is unfair. Sarah huckabee is a lovely young woman. You know sean spicer. He is a wonderful human being. He is a nice man. Is your press secretary today and tomorrow. Will you be tomorrow . Will he be tomorrow . President trump yes. He gets beat up by these people. They dont show the 90 questions that they asked an answer properly. And answer properly. When will you make a decision . President trump i want use names, but another president doesnt do what im feeling. I am not sayin doing. Another president will sit in the oval office and do practically nothing all day. I am doing every minute of the day, i am doing something. I am cutting prices. This nation has such unbelievable potential. The thing is they cannot keep up with it. They do their best. If they give an answer is a little bit off, they are liars and horrible. I would recommend we dont have it. When will you make that decision . President trump over the next couple of weeks. They will be unhappy because the ratings are so high that i dont know what these networks are going to do. They are going to start to cry. Host that on the Fox News Channel aired last night. President trump in an interview last week. Joining us live on the phone is the president of the White House Correspondents Association, jeff mason. Thanks for being with us. Guest my pleasure, steve. Host where is this all heading . Guest it is hard to answer that. I would say that the White House Correspondents Association certainly is in favor of having briefings and would reject any move to have briefings canceled. Briefings are an important way for journalists to ask questions, and it is our job to do that every day at the white house. That is a principle that is in the first amendment. We would oppose anything that would go against the principal. Host you issued a statement on the White House Correspondents Association website. You also tweeted it out on your twitter page. Let me share with the audience the whole statement. The full statement. Let me ask you about the televised aspect of the briefing. Some have wondered whether or not the cameras have influenced the drama that unfolds inside the Briefing Room. Guest you know, that is something we talked about with sean spicer at the very beginning of the Trump Administration when we were in new york. In thef us Correspondents Association board went up and had talked with them and a couple of his colleagues. One of the questions he asked then was how we would feel if not every single briefing was televised. The Correspondents Association, it does not take a position specifically whether they need to be televised every day. We represent television reporters. We represent court reporters. Would represent radio reporters we represent print reporters. We represent radio reporters. The clips and what they need for the television packages. The white house decides to hold some briefings offcamera, which it sometimes does, that is fine. That is their decision. Host jeff mason. Washington post reporting on a possible staff shakeup. Comey firing. Reince priebus and sean spicer may be let go. Are you hearing any of this talk . Guest i have not heard any of that talk, no, but there certainly have been rumors since the very beginning of the Trump Administration about various shakeups. That is not something i can capacity, in my wac a but i am my whca capacity, but something we will be watching. Host another missile test in north korea confirmed by japanese, chinese, and u. S. Officials. What does this mean . Guest well, it means, number one, that the white house and other u. S. Allies will be looking closely at how to handle north korea. It is something that we talked thet in our interview, reuters interview with President Trump a couple weeks ago, and the fact that dismissal made it as far as it did. The white house referred to russia means the u. S. Will press russia to be involved in increasing sanctions against north korea. The big question is whether or not allies get together and increase the sanctions and whether that is in a. Host this setting the stage for the president s first extensive trip beginning this week. Quickly walk us through the itinerary. Guest sure. The president going abroad for the First Time Since becoming president. He will start in saudi arabia and meet there with gulf allies and saudi arabia leaders. He will go to israel, where he will be meeting with the leaders of israel and the palestinian leaders. From there, people go to brussels. Excuse me, first he will go to rome and meet with the pope, which will be a very closely watched meeting. Some of the critics he has levied at hope francis. He will go to brussels and have a meeting with nato leaders. That will conclude with a meeting in italy with other g7 leaders. Host jeff mason, who covers the white house for reuters, and the president of the White House Correspondents Association. The website is whca. Net. Place being with us early on a sunday morning. We appreciate it. Guest my pleasure, steve. Host lets get to your calls on the issue of the White House Briefings and whether or not they are useful. Already waiting in on our twitter page. Sent us your tweet. Elaine is first on our calls in washington, independent line. Good morning. Caller hi. My name is elaine, and i really like those briefings. For one thing, during the obama administration, the questioners were picked. The questions were in advance. Reading fromwas these teleprompters in the podium, which were never there before the obama administration. Now, when they get out there, they are talking right off the top of their heads. I can understand why there is disagreement now. It is very informative, but what i dont like about them is the decorum with which the press questions the press secretary. It just disgusts me to think what they pull out of him. They pull the most ridiculous things out of him instead of pointing to the important things. Host thanks very much for the call. We go to paul next in new haven, connecticut. Caller good morning. I think the press conferences are a good idea. I think what they can do is decrease the accusation update nfake news. Maybe the media in light of how they ask questions. Host tteresa. Caller good morning. I think the press briefings are not useful. They say the president s tweets stand for themselves. If he is tweeting, why do we need to hear the tweets stand for themselves . Most of the time, sean spicer says i will get back with you, i dont have an answer for that, i have not talked to the president. I dont think the American People are learning anything from the press briefings. Host thank you. Michael from new kensington, pennsylvania, republican line. Your take. Caller good morning. How are you . Host we are fine. Thank you. Caller beautiful morning. Thank you for cspan. I do not think they are helpful. It is a shame because the press briefings are important. I think we do need press briefings and legitimate questions from the media, but this media seems to be focused on one thing, and that is destroying donald trump. It is very similar to when nixon came into office. Hey were so hostile today, it is even more obvious how hostile they are. Host thanks for the call. Bill from alabama, good morning. Independent line. Caller good morning. Host you are on the air. Go ahead, bill. Caller i do not think the press conferences are necessary because the way the press, the hostility they asked, the way khey asked the questions as the questions, and the way they misrepresent the statements made by the president and his press secretary. Even the print media, you cant believe anything you read. It is just crazy. Host thank you very much for the call. More from the briefing on friday with press Secretary Sean Spicer and this exchange. [video clip] look, i think we come out here every day and tried to do the best job we can communicating with the president what the president has done. We get here early. We work beyond being here at this podium. We get here early. We were pretty late. We do what we can. The president has a very robust schedule as many of you are very well aware, and i think intel by the activities annexed it alone, and sometimes we dont have the opportunity to get in to see him to get his old thinking. In those cases, we do our best to follow up with you, but there are times when you read a story where someone is trying to pull apart one word, one sentence and an i gotand make it you thing. We dont always have the opportunity to see the president. Inis, i think we do a pretty good job of following up and getting you the information after the briefing. That is exactly what he meant. Considering canceling the daily briefings . I think he is a little dismayed as well as a lot of people that we come out here and try to do everything we can to provide to you and the American People with what he is doing on their behalf, what he is doing to keep the nation safe, what he is doing to grow jobs, and yet, we see time and time again an attempt to parse every word and make it a game of got you as opposed to figure out what the policies are, why som something is being pursued. I think that is where there is a lot of dismay. Host the White House Briefing on friday. Newspaperthe hill Available Online. From may dump spicer, considering a fox host. The president may replace sean spicer and hire a fox news host as a possible spokesperson. Six west wing officials telling the New York Times that the president is considering the most farreaching shakeup of his first term after being dissatisfied with several top aides, especially spicer. Really guilfoyle is being considered Kimberly Guilfoyle is being considered. The president has spent several hours with spicer praising his tv ratings. Reporting thes president has grown dissatisfied with the performance of Reince Priebus and his communications director. That this morning from the hill newspaper. Left it back to your phone calls and the issue of the White House Briefings, whether or not you find them useful. The president racin racing the idea you may do away with them. Caller good morning. I would like to say happy mothers day to all mothers out there, and thank you for having me. I think that he should get rid parpicer, the rot, and replace him with the fbi director. Host when you dial in, make sure to turn the volume down. A couple of tweets. The cover story of cq weekly. If congress will not check the president , who will . This from Time Magazine. The firing of james comey. An inside look after hours at the white house. Bbs contributing to this story. A look at the firing up behind director james comey. John from evansville, indiana, independent line, good morning. Caller good morning. With jeffuestion mason. The kind of insinuated that freedom of the press includes having White House Briefings. But i alwaysr, thought that the White House Briefings were at the whim of the white house, not the press. There has to be a separation there. The press does not control the white house. Even know i am a Firm Believer in the remote the press. Host his point was that in order to get information you have to have access to sean spicer to find out what the president s speaking is on any issue of the day thinking is on any issue of the day. Caller i agree with them over the press cannot dictate what the white house does. Host john from indiana. We will go to anthony, democrats line from maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. My comment host you are on the air. Caller yes. My comment is that people keep calling and saying the news media is giving fake news, but we know that the president lies. Spokespersons, they come out and try to explain what the president did. He disregards what they think. It is two different stories coming out of this administration. It cannot be fate lies from the media fake lies from the media. You have to step back. You have to have a rock drop on your head to see that this man lies constantly, and they have lies. Y to spin his life. I it is hard to do. Donald trump is a very deceptive person. Host thank you very much for the call. Lets go next to david from north carolina. Good morning, republican line. Your view on all of this. Caller i think that the press briefings are useless. The press is out to get trump. There was a story that cnn was empathizing based on the Time Magazine story about trump wanting two scoops of ice cream. N. Ey made that a cry o it is obvious they are out to get him. I remember a story on obama when they were talking about and this is trivial, but they were talking about what he was eating for dinner. Tastesde it like his were the greatest things in the world. It is obvious they are out to get him. It is obvious they are not going to put out good stories about him. Unemployment came out at the lowest rate in eight years this week. Host thanks for the call. Richard rogers with this tweet. Lets turn back to the other major story overnight. Another missile test in north korea, and a statement from sean spicer that was issued late yesterday. It reads in part with a missile impacting so close to russian soil, in fact closer to russia the two japan, the president cannot imagine that russia is pleased. Nort than to japan, the president cannot imagine that russia is pleased. That Statement Issued overnight by sean spicer on the situation in asia and north korea in particular. Lets go to frank in manheim, pennsylvania, democrats line. Caller good morning, steve. Yes, i think this president is a dangerous man. They need to get him out as soon as possibl. Softspoken, and they dont have their things together. They treat him so gingerly. You get Maxine Waters and some of the other ones, the democrats, to get this man out. The already let loose 59 bombs, which did not do anything good. He is a gangster. He is a gangster. His whole regime is gangsters. They want to get down with president putin. That is exactly what they want to do. He is dangerous. Spies in all the general in our country. I think that is great. Before they, too, really take this country down the drain. Host thank you. Send us a tweet. Join in on the conversation at facebook. Com cspan. There is this tweet from johnny. Anne is joining us from michigan. Good morning. Caller yes, i believe he should cancel the press conferences. The press treats him like yesterdays garbage yesterdays garbage. They lie about him. They make up stories and run with them. Andssia is pure nobody ever says anything good about him at the press conferences. If somebody is going to beat you up daily and lie about you, will you go out would you go out there again . Host thank you. Also on the united online, john from lincoln, nebraska. Go ahead, please. Caller do you know how far back the press briefings go . I think it is kind of meticulous. The president has to mix it up with the media. He is failing at it. They start with roosevelt or truman . Host every president has dealt with the press corps dating back to george washington. Startedvised briefings when mike mccurry was White House Press secretary during the clinton administration. Before that, typically what would happen would be offcamera briefings or the first five to seven minutes of the briefing would be televised to get the south, and the rest would be offcamera sound and the rest would be offcamera. Every president has had dealings with the press. As a maybeust think not so great analogy is when the football coaches and some of the players have to come out and face the media, and they are not in a good mood. Trump just has not done that well. Spicer is a joke. That snl thing has nailed him. They are tired of being made fun of. The out all there, they are not asking for liz questions. They are asking very meaningful questions if you listen closely. Thank you very much for your time. Host john, thank you. This tweet from another viewer. York,go to michael in new democrats line. Good morning. Caller