Attention in this matter . Because the secretary of state said russia is either complicit or incompetent. What does the president believe russia actually is in this matter . Well have plenty of time to discuss how those talks go. I want to, one thing president is very clear on from the getgo he doesnt like to telegraph all the cards he has. He wants to see how that conversation goes with secretary tillerson. If we get them to agree to commit to action on defeating isis reporter [inaudible] they will have a listen to that discussion. What goes beyond rhetoric and where the talks start. What they are willing to commit to action. It is important to get ahead of this before they meet is not something i want to do. I want secretary tiller an meet with lavrov and have the conversation and report back. Reporter quickly about the white house itself. What is the president s perspective on the ability, the current ability of seniors advisors to reself idealogical differences, resolve their personality differences and work as a team . He is very confident in that. Reporter why . This is the same group with the same ideologies, with the same strengths that came together for a common purpose to win a campaign. There is unbelievely talented team at the senior level, midlevel, frankly all the way down to the bottom level of this administration that is committed to the president s agenda. I said this multiple times throughout the transition. Everybody that came into this administration while they might have a personal view or an action on an issue, they understand and understood and understand the president s vision and agenda and their goal of coming into this was to understand first and foremost it is the president who made pledges and promises to the American People about the direction he would take this country and actions hes taken and he is doing that. I just read off a series in terms of judges that he appointed. The Congressional Review Act pieces of legislation that he signed. The executive orders. When you look at actions that he has taken and the results that he is getting 60 down can on the border, nobody would dispute the fact that immigration was a hot topic during this campaign. And the president s actions are seeing results. I think youre seeing both on the market and National Security front. So he understands that we have some pretty smart, talented individus whare opinion 8 00 on a lot of subjects. But that are battles and policy differences need to behind closed doors. We need to focus and come out committed to advance the president s agenda but he is completely aware of the talent that he has and that is part of the reason he brought this Team Together because the talent and successes and accomplishment they have had on a variety of backgrounds and fully believes they will continue to push forward to advance his agenda. Reporter led him to have or order this meeting on friday where the two principals, bannon and Jared Kushner were essentially told by the president cool this, get along and get on the same page . Look, i think a lot of stuff was overblown about this, that makes it out into media sometimes and gets a little bit more sensational than it truly is but i think the president obviously very pleased with the last week that he had and accomplishments especially on the Foreign Policy front. I think we had unbelievably helpful and productive meeting with the chinese. His meeting with King Abdullah was unbelievable and he continued to have very strong Foreign Policy wins in terms of the relationships that were making with other heads of state. The attack on syria, not just bipartisan praise here at home but world praise and i think that he recognizes that sometimes some of this spills over, these policy differences and discussions. He made sure that the focus stays on advancing the agenda. Reporter if youre saying one of the priorities is to see a regime change in syria, how far is the preside willing to go to see Bashar Alassad out of power there. So, just to be clear i cant, i dont think it you cant a stable and peaceful syria with assad in charge. I dont think that is a scenario that is possible but i think the first step is in that is to make sure the region, syria in particular, are stable. You cant have isis marching through syria and then worry mostly about who is in charge right now. Weve got to make sure first and foremost in terms of our National Security, i think it was brians question at the beginning, ours National Security is the first and foremost reason we have to act and as isis is proliferating and chemicals of mass destruction are on the rise there, we have to contain that. Once that is done we can apply political, economic and diplomatic pressure for regime change. They can work in tandem. Im not trying to but the bottom line is still the containment of isis and conflict that is occurring. Is the red line, to clarify, is the red line for this white house Chemical Warfare . Is conventional warfare enough to get the president to go further there than this white house has gone before . Look i think the president has been very clear there are a number of lines that were crossed last week. He is not going to sit down we saw that in the lasted a administration it. They drew these red lines. Then the red lines were run over. I dont think you will see the same play. Not just syria but the world saw last week is a president that will act desist civilly and proportionally and with justification when it comes to actions like that. I will tell you, the answer is if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb in to innocent people i think you will see a response from this president. That is unacceptable, and i think the reporter [inaudible] one of the things i dont want to start doing, if you do, this is the reaction youre going to get. The president made very clear throughout his time in the campaign, through the transition and now as president he will not telegraph a response to every corresponding action because that tells the opposition or the enemy what youre going to do and whether or not that response is worth taking. The president will be very clear that he will keep his cards close to the vest but make no mistake he will act. John . Reporter thanks a lot, sean. I wanted to ask but the reaction that the president took in terms of military involvement on sweden. You said in your statement that all 59 of those cruise missiles hit their intended target yet were seeing report that military in airbase in syria continues to be used by syrian military. Yeah. Reporter given that how can you consider that particular mission a success . I think from what youre hearing, taken two prefueled planes taken off. That is a pr stunt. Their fueling capability was taken out. Radar capabilias takenut and 20 of fixedwing aircraft from the entire air force was taken out. Their ability to operate successfully out of that airbase is gone. Like i said, as a pr stunt, they took prefueled planes, pushed them over to make it look like make no mistake about it. Radar capability is gone. Fueling capability is gone. A good chunk of their aircraft is gone. That is huge success. John. Reporter one question following up what Major Garrett asked. These reports of a shakeup at the white house. There have been various reports that the deputy National Security advisor kt mcfarland is stepping down from that post. She will take on the post of u. S. Ambassador to singapore. Can you confirm that . What is behind that particular move if indeed that is the case . I appreciate it. Look i have said many times before that were not going to get into Personnel Announcements until theyre ready to announce. I would say that two points on that. One, when general mcmaster was announced it was pretty clear, we said it at time, you all asked the question whether or not he would have the ability to shape the National Security council in his liking with president s concurrence. I think you have pretty much seen that was an accurate statement at the time and continues to be now. And general mcmaster has the president s confidence to insure that our National Security council is shaped in a manner that best serves the president of the United States in every way, shape and form. Secondly to your point, staff said over weekend i will reiterate, only thing shaken up in washington right now, is shaken up is washington. I think this president continues to show that he is going to be disruptor and do things differently and bring real change to washington. John. Reporter thank u, sean. Two questions. The Previous Administration was in touch with with the assad opposition and gathered conclaves of different groups including the free syrian army. Is this administration in touch with the same antiassad forces, political and military . Im not going into details what were doing and who were talking to. I think that is obviously, didnt prove to successful last cycle, lasted a administration in terms of regime change. I will not get into telegraphing what were doing and how were doing it. Reporter on the domestic front congressman ron desantis wrote the president last week to call in very Strong Language for him by executive order to end what he calls the opm rule of 2013. That was an executive order of course, that undercut the Affordable Care acts amendment saying that members of congress and their staff could not get health care and special subsidies unlike any other american. And he said as soon as that is eliminated, congress will move faster because they and their staff will not have special treatment. Is the president going to use his pen and get rid of the opm order . I will have to look at that secretary price is dealing with i know that is opm order. Secretary price has been reviewing all of the necessary implementation documents and orders with respect to obamacare. I know he is working with the director mulvaney. Director mulvaney i anticipate will be here with you guys at some point tomorrow to talk about he reorganizing of government. That mig be apopriate time to talk to him specifically about that. Dave . Reporter thank you, sean. The list of judges that the president put out last year saying these are the people i will nominee you referred to earlier, in the end democrats still tried to filibuster judge gorsuch. Right. So what difference from that perspective did the list, putting out that list make in the end . Thats a great question. It showed first and foremost the president kept his word. The president put out a list of people and campaigned on it. Said if you elect me, these are the type of justices i will choose from. And they are originalists. They are going to read and interpret the constitution as it was written and meant to be. I think the American People in a lot of cases, if you look at exit polling voted for him in a lot of cases because of that. I think it shows that again whether or not you disagree or agree with the president sometimes philosophically he gets high marks for keeping his word. I think that means a lot. He went out on a number of topics including the type of justice that he would appoint. Put it before the American People, allowed them to vote up or down at the ballot box. Its affirmation of the kind of justice that he wants but its also a continuation to know that the president is going to be someone who make as pledge to the American People and keeps it. Neil he will obviously have other federal judges to nominee. I hope so. Reporter what else did this process teach him, anything . I think from the political side it was pretty obvious. You can disagree with judge gorsuchs judicial philosophy, but i think by every standard, he was a very highlyequaled justice. The American Bar Association rated him their highest, people worked for him in the past, his judicial record in terms of number of cases where he was in the mainstream and democratic appointees sided with him. And i think it basically showed the president trying to work with Senate Democrats wasnt really, was somewhat of a futile task. These people made up their mind by and large who the person was and would vote it down. That is probably the biggest lesson. But it also shows when you have the right individual, you have got someone eminently qualified well succeed in getting him done. Blake. Reporter turn your attention to tax reform and there is a report out there that says the president has basically gone back to the drawing board as it relates to taxes. Yeah. Reporter is that accurate . No. Reporter what he put out there on the campaign trail is that still the backbone what he to get done . That is the backbone. What youre seeing us going through this process of his economic team, everyone from secretary mnuchin, secretary ross, to gary cohen, and others sitting down internally beginning process meeting with groups that have been advocating for tax reform since 1986, got ink on that one dry, start to meet with outside groups, industry groups, individuals, members of congress to get their input. This will be a major under talking and i think we want to make sure we listen, have their ideas and their input as we move forward. This is the beginning phases of that process. Reporter mentioned gary cohn. He said on friday that there had been this august deadline that Steve Mnuchin others talked about. Friday gary cohn suggested that august might not be the deadline. Is this timeline getting pushed at this point . It is not getting pushed, it is getting obviously at that would be a great opportunity before they leave for august recess. Well make sure we do this right and do it with the input of all the individual groups and members of congress had a long time interest in doing this. And it is a big deal, right . Youve got the ability for our businesses and industries to be more competitive in the global market. You want to make sure youre providing middle income tax relief that creates Economic Growth throughout the country. Reporter americans filling out tax reforms for 2016. This Time Next Year they will fill it out 2017. Will they have have a tax cut next year . I hope middle income americans have a tax cut by then. Jeff . Sorry. Reporter [inaudible] i know. Can go next. Careful with that. [laughter] reporter then candidate trump was pretty critical, excuse me was pretty complimentary of president putin. Seeing how russia is reacted in syria, what is your view of president putin now . It always been the same respectfully, if we can get a deal, we have a shared particular any in interest the of isis. If we can he defeat them and work with them on a plan to defeat them well do it. He also said, also people cut off part of the quote, if we cant work with them, okay. But the president came into office to really focus on two fronts, keeping our country safe and growing our economy and putting people backtoback to work. If russia or any other country can help us achieve the goals through Market Access and additional product and services of the United States into a bigger marketplace and keep our combined countries safe against isissers specially in country like syria where theyre playing so prominently well work with them. If we cant get the a deal with them the president will not be disappointed but he would like to do what he can to work with the individuals to make it happen. Jim. Reporter would you describe him the same way he did several months ago as a leader who he would be president obama. Well wait and see where everyone weighs in. I think secretary tillerson will have a lot of information after meets with foreign secretary lavrov. Reporter one other question on trade. You mentioned 100 days. Yeah. Reporter that the president and president of china agreed on. Did china offer to give the u. S. Some concessions on beef exports and Financial Investments as part of that . Yeah, look. This is an initial working plan that theyre going to try to hammer out what that 100 day looks like. They call them like waystations. What are those stops between 100 days and now . That would be things that both sides would be looking at. I think obviously beef exports and additional Market Access in china, intellectual property. Ability to have Foreign Ownership especially Services Industry is something that is a big prize of u. S. Exporters. And industry for a long time. But it is something being hammered out as we to forward. So thats, the plan was to put together a plan and there is a lot of pieces both sides would like to see in there and these benchmarks between now and those 100 days but that plan is something they talked about putting together during just over the day that they met together and while, and it is something that the counterparts are now going to continue to flesh out. There is a lot of topics that to the put on the table. Well see how that works. Jim . Reporter thank you, sean. What is the status of, multipart question, what is the status of renegotiation of nafta and what is the white house doing to tweak nafta and u. S. Interests . Is there concern about getting it done before the mexican elections heat up at the end of the year . First thing with respect to trade we need the senate to approve Robert Lighthiser as the next u. S. Trade representative. Ustr drives that. And so, our focus is getting that done and will be ready to go. We still have official 90day notification we have to give congress. Once we get ambassador lighthiser confirmed well be ready to announce a better work plan on that but as of right now that is not there. Jeff. Reporter thank you. 2013 mr. Trump as private citizen had a lot to say about syria. One of the things he said then president obama needs to seek congressional approval. Members of congress believe he should as well. What is his plan to explain his strategy in a broader sense and w