Theyre sanctions that would require the sanctioning of anybody directly and indirectly involved with irans Ballistic Missile program. There are also new sanctions that would be imposed on the Iranian Revolutionary guard core for their support of regionally desablizing activities and terrorism. Host in your recent article at cq. Com on this iran sanctions bill thats coming up, you also write about likely russian saxes a likely russian sanctions amendment, unrelated, that could come up on this bill. Why now . Reporter these sanctions are as a response to the 2016 election interference. Democrats introduced a bill with considerable republican support back in january. And its taken this long for them to build up enough support to move the sanctions forward. These sanctions would codify existing executive branch sanctions, making it difficult for a president for President Trump to remove the sanctions without the support of congress. They would also impose new sanctions attacking, for bidding any foreign forbidding any Foreign Investment in Russias Energy sector, forbidding the sale of potentially purchases of iranian sovereign debt. And making it illegal to purchase privatized russian former russian state assets. Host why would they be attached to this iran sanctions bill and not brought up as a separate measure . Reporter i think democrats saw an opening. When this iran bill was brought up and democrats theres enough support to clear a cloture vote for this bill. Democrats saw an opportunity to , in order to get their support for the iran bill, to require republicans to at least allow a vote on the russia sanctions. Host lastly in your cq article, you write about senator corker likely being convinced to take up the russia piece to this. Whos taking the lead on the democratic and republican sides . Who is really pushing this russian measure . Reporter the leaders are benjamin cardin, Armed Services chairman john mccain, bob corker, and then from the banking committee, the chairman, mike crapo, and the ranking member, brown. Host Rachel Oswald recovers National Security issues for cq roll call. Read her work at cq. Com. Shes also on twitter. Thank you for being with us. Reporter thank you for having me. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up saturday morning, Roosevelt Institute fellow discusses republican efforts to overhaul the doddfrank Financial Regulation law. And the supreme courts decision to hear a major cell phone privacy case. Also, Darryl Burnett of Education Week talks about the how every Student Succeeds act is impacting the ability of states to identify ineffective teachers. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern saturday morning. Join the discussion. This weekend, book tv is live from the 33rd annual Chicago Tribune printers road litfest in chicago. Our coverage starts on saturday at 11 00 a. M. Eastern with author Mary Dearborn with her book. At noon, 2016 National Book award winner and his book. Followed at 1 00 by an author and his book. Nd at 4 00, watch our coverage of the 33rd annual Chicago Tribune fest starting it saturday at 11 00 a. M. Eastern on cspans 2s book tv. This afternoon, President Trump said hes willing to testify under oath about the russia and 2016 election investigations. That came out of a series of questions from abc news on former f. B. I. Director james comeys testimony on capitol hill yesterday. Change took place at a joint News Conference with President Trump and the remaining romanian president who is in town for bilateral meetings. Well show it to you in its ntirety. Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and the president of romania. President trump thank you very much. President iohannis, thank you for being here, its an honor to welcome such a good friend of america to the white house. As you know, the people of romania and america share much in common. A love of freedom, proud cultures, rich traditions and a vast and storied landscape to call home. The relationship between our two countries stretches back ell over a century but today we especially reaffirm and celebrate our Strategic Partnership that began more than 20 years ago. That partnership covered many dimensions, including economic, military, and cultural ties and today we are making those ties even stronger. Mr. President , your visit comes at an important moment not just in this partnership, but among all the responsible nations of the world. I have just returned from a trip to the middle east where i worked to strengthen our alliances, forge new friendships and unite all civilized peoples in the fight gainst terrific. Terrorism. No civilized nation can tolerate this violence or allow this wicked ideology to spread on its shores. I address the summit of more than 50 arab and Muslim Leaders a unique meeting in the history of nations, where key players in the region agreed to stop supporting terrorism. Whether it be financial, military, or even moral support. The nation of qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level and in the wake of that conference, nations ame together and spoke to me about confronting qatar over its behavior. So we had a decision to make. Do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action . We have to stop the funding of terrorism. I decided, along with secretary f state rex tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time had come to call on qatar to end its funding, they have to end that funding, and its extremist ideology in terms of funding. I want to call it i want to call on all the nations to stop immediately supporting terrorism. Stop teaching people to kill other people. Stop filling their minds with hate and intolerance. I wont name other countries but we are not done solving the problem but we will solve that problem. Have no choice. This is my great priority because it is my first duty as president to keep our people safe, defeating isis and other terror organizations is omething i have emphasized all during my campaign and right up until the present. To do that, stop funding, stop eaching hate, and stop the killing. For qatar, we want you back among the unity of responsible nations. We ask qatar and other nations n the region to do more and do it faster. I want to thank saudi arabia nd my friend king salman and all the countries who participated in that very historic summit. It was truly historic. There has never been anything like it before and perhaps there never will be again. Hopefully it will be the beginning of the end of funding terrorism. It will therefore be the beginning of the end to terrorism, no more funding. I also want to thank the romanian people for everything they contribute to our common defense and to the fight against the evil menace of terrorism. They have their own difficulties with it. And theyve come a long way and theyre doing a lot. Romania has been a valuable member of the coalition to defeat isis. And its the fourth largest contributor of troops in afghanistan. There, 23 of your citizens have paid the ultimate price and america honors their sacrifice. I want to recognize president iohannis in committing row neighbor romania from increasing its defense spending from 1. 4 of g. D. P. To over . We hope our other nato allies will follow romanias lead when meeting their financial obligations and paying their fair share for the cost of defense. But i will say this that because of our actions, money is starting to pour in to ato. The money is starting to pour in. Ther countries are starting to realize that its time to to pay up and theyre doing that. Very proud of that fact. As you know, i have been an advocate for strengthening our ato alliance through greater responsibility and burden sharing among member nations. And that is what has happened. Because together, we can confront the Common Security challenges facing the world. Mr. President , i want to applaud your courage and your courageous efforts in romania to fight corruption and defend the rule of law. This work is necessary to create an environment where trade and commerce can flourish and where citizens can prosper. I look forward to working with you to deepen the ties of both commerce and culture between our two countries. Romanians have made contributions to the United States and to the world. Ery notable among them was nobel prize laureate elie wiesel, who was born in romania and sadly passed away almost one year ago. I understand that earlier this week, the American Jewish committee presented president iohannis with the very prestigious light unto the ations award for his work to further holocaust remembrance and education in romania. Join the a. J. C. In saluting your leadership in this vital cause. The people of romania have endured many, many hardships. But they have made a truly remarkable, historical journey. The future of romania and romanias relationship with the United States is very, very right. President iohannis, i thank you for your leadership, i thank you again for being here today. I look forward to strengthening our alliance with your country and our bonds with your people. The relationship has been good but now its stronger than ever. Thank you very much. [applause] president iohannis President Trump, thank you so much for the words you found for romania, for the romanian people and for me. Thank you very much for the invitation to be here today with you, and thank you so much for arranging this nice weather in this place. R. President , i am very glad that we had such a good meeting and this is due to your strong leadership, and this is also due to our strong partnership. Obviously the fact that we celebrate 20 years of Strategic Partnerships, this year is important for both our nations nd it is important to know and this is what i want to underline, this partnership with the United States of america shapes romania as it is today. Romania is a solid democracy ith a solid, sustainable economic growth. Romania, which stands together with the u. S. Troops in afghanistan. We stand together in iraq. Mr. President , this partnership ontributed greatly to what romania is today, and this partnership was and is very important, and i think this partnership not only has to continue, this partnership has to become stronger. This partnership has to define our bilateral relation, and this partnership has to contribute to solve so many problems. President trump, you mentioned terrorism. I am very glad that due to your strong leadership, nato decided to go against terrorism. Your involvement made so many nations conscious of the fact that we have to share the burden inside nato. This is why romania also decided and if im right, i hink this is the first country in your mandate to step up to 2 of g. D. P. Or defense spending. A significant part of this defense spending is going into strategic acquisitions, and i hope, President Trump, that we find good ways together to use to make good use of this money. Romania is very conscious of the fact that we stand on the eastern flank and we have we heavily rely on your partnership, President Trump, because we cannot stand there without the u. S. We cannot stand there alone. On the other hand, our partnership has a huge opportunity to step up, not only in Security Matters but also in commercial and economic matters and this is very important. Romania is a member of the European Union and i think its the best interest of you, mr. President , to have a strong European Union as a partner. This is vital for all of s. Our relationship, the transatlantic link is vital. Transatlantic link is not about diplomacy, about olicy. Its at the basis of our western civilization, and together we will make it stronger. Together we will make it better. Nato and the European Union do not have to compete against each other. They have to work together. They have to work in such a matter to have synergetic effects, make europe stronger, make the United States of merica stronger. And this is what we decided, President Trump and i to make our partnership stronger, better and more enduring and his will lead very soon to nhance economic exchange, to better commerce and this is what we all decide and what we wish because we are responsible, President Trump and i, not only for the security, we are responsible for the wellbeing of our citizens and this is what we have decided to do. Thank you so much, President Trump. President trump thank you. David bowyer, washington times. Come on, dave. Reporter apologies. Mr. President , this morning on twitter you were referring to the testimony of james comey vindicating you, but i wondered if you could tell us in person, sir, why you feel that his testimony vindicated you when its really boils down to his word against your word and if you could also tell us, sir, do tapes exist with your conversation with him . President trump well, ill tell you about that sometime in the near future. No collusion, no obstruction. Hes a leaker. But we want to get back to running our great country. Jobs, trade deficits. We want them to disappear fast. North korea a big problem. Middle east, a big problem. So that is what i am focused on. Thats what i have been focused on. But yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction. We are doing really well. That was an excuse by the democrats that lost an election that some people think they shouldnt have lost because its impossible for the democrats to lose the electoral college, you have to know. You have to run up the whole east coast and win everything as a republican and thats just what we did. So it was just an excuse. But we were very, very happy. And frankly james comey confirmed a lot of what i said and some of the things that he said just werent true. Thank you very much. O you have a question . Reporter i lost the microphone, sir. Sorry. Thank you. Reporter i lost the microphone, sir. Sorry. Thank you. And, mr. President , if you could tell us a couple weeks ago President Trump was in brussels at the nato meeting, and not only was he encouraging nato members to pay up the 2 required of gdp for national defense, but he also was saying that countries including yours who had not paid 2 in the past should make up for that difference. Do you think thats fair . President iohannis i was in brussels, and i met President Trump, and i listened to his speech, and i liked it because, you see, nato is based on values but it is ultimately a military alliance. And, you know, military spendings are complicated and you need a lot of money because nato is the strongest alliance the earth ever saw, and we want to keep it that way. So we have to spend money for defense purposes. And spending money means if you are in an alliance, everybody has to spend money. This is called burdensharing, and i fully agree, mr. President , to that. So, of course, some people liked this better and some didnt like it so much, but its a simple fact that we have to do this, not as a purpose in itself. We have to do this to stay strong, to be strong, and to in defend our nations. President trump 100 correct. And one of the things i was referring to during that speech was the fact that, yes, they and havent paid what they should be paying now. But for many years they havent been paying. So i said, do we ever go back and say, how about paying the money from many, many years past . Now, i know no president has ever asked that question, but i do. We are going to make nato very strong. You need the money to make it strong. You cant just do what weve been doing in the past. So i did say, yes, we havent you havent paid this year but what about the past years, the many past years where you havent paid . Perhaps you should pay some or all of that money back. You have a question. Reporter thank you. I have a question for President Trump. On the matter of security, sir, many of the countries on the eastern flank of nato, including romania, see russia as a threat to the security and the peace in the region. Do you share this vision and do you think that the United States should act under article 5 if this country will be under military aggression . Thank you very much. President trump well, i am committing the United States and have committed, but i am committing the United States to article 5, and certainly we are there to protect, and thats one of the reasons i want to make sure people know we have a very strong force by having the paying the kind of money to have that force. Yes, i would be absolutely committed to article 5. Him reporter thank you, mr. President. Was there any discussion about the Visa Waiver Program for romania . This very timeframe for including this country in this program . President trump yes, we didnt discuss it, but it would be something we will discuss, mr. President. President iohannis i mentioned this issue and i also mentioned it during other meetings because this