Our elections. We dont dictate how other countries operate. What we do know is that putin has been elected in their country. Thats not something that we can dictate to them how they operate. We can only focus on the freeness and fairness of our elections, something that we 100 fully support and continue to do everything we can to protect to make sure bad actors dont have the opportunity to impact them in any way. You said election meddling didnt come up in the call. Did the resent poisoning in the United Kingdom come up . I dont believe that was discussed. On one of the sunday morning shows, trey gowdy from South Carolina said when responding to the various tweets that the president had put out over the weekend regarding special counsel Robert Mueller, he said when youre innocent, act like it. What is your response to what trey gowdy said over the weekend . Look, the president has been very clear about the fact that there was no collusion between his campaign and any other entity. However, to pretend like going through this absurd process over a year would not bring frustration seems a little ridiculous. I dont think any individual, including members of congress would like it if they had been accused of taking their seat in congress by doing something nefarious when they hadnt, particularly if it went on more than a year into their time in office. My guess is they would be more than anxious to push back and certainly would defend themselves as the president has clearly done in this situation and has since day one. Another republican over the weekend, Lindsey Graham, also a republican from South Carolina said that if the president were to fire maybe we need to work on our South Carolina members. Said that if the president tries to fire Robert Mueller, it would be the beginning of the end of his presidency. What is your response to what Lindsey Graham says . As white house counsel, ty cobb said this week, the white house yet again confirms the president is not considering or discussing the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. Republicans do you feel like youre losing republicans in some way . These two prominent republicans from South Carolina both spoke in this manner over the weekend . Certainly dont think were losing republicans at all. I think were voicing some frustration over this ongoing process that we look forward to ending soon. Pamela . In january the president told a room full of reporters that he would love to sit down and do an interview with Robert Mueller under oath. He said that time frame has passed. Does he still want to do an interview with Robert Mueller . Look, weve been fully transparent throughout this process. Weve been fully cooperative. Were going to continue to be cooperative with the office of special counsel. Beyond that, i cant go any further. Can you provide more clarity on the president s tweets towards Robert Mueller over the weekend, calling him out by name . What was behind that . Like i just said, clearly we have not been shy about the fact that theres frustration of this process. We would like it to end quickly and soon. The president has contended since day one and will continue to do so that there was absolutely no collusion between his campaign and any outside force or country. So i dont understand why its hard for anyone to process. If you had been attacked mercifully and continuously day in, day out, every second while youre trying to work hard to do good things for this country and literally every day you wake up to an onslaught of people saying youre there because of reasons that are completely false, thats frustrating. Certainly i think fair for him to be frustrated. Why doesnt he push for the firing of Robert Mueller if he thinks the probe is a witch hunt . We dont feel like that is the most productive step forward. We would like to see this come to a conclusion. I want to follow up on the accusations of fraud and the russian election. Why does the United States government believe that they should not criticize russia nor the accusations which have been brought up by the u. K. Government directly in a statement . Theyre listing things like restrictions on fundamental freedoms and lack of access for candidates. Why doesnt the president or the white house believe that that is something that they should be discussing with the russians leader. I didnt say we couldnt. I said it didnt come up on todays call. The focus was to talk about areas of shared interest. We know we need to continue a dialogue. Its important for a lot of the safety and security of people across the globe. We would like to be able to work with them on things like north korea, on iran and both countries shared interest in lowering the tensions when it comes to an arms race, recognizing that thats not the best thing for either country. So we want to have those conversations. That was the point of todays call. John . Was there an appropriate time to raise questions about Political Freedoms with russia . Weve continued to talk about these important issues. Its not what todays call is about. John . Thank you. Two questions. First, we discuss the president s call to president putin, following his reelection. Did the president make a similar call to chancellor Angela Merkel who has just formed a new government and assumed her fourth mandate in berlin . I know he spoke with the chancellor last week. Id have to look back at the specific details of their conversation. I know that they spoke within the last week. The other thing is, congressman Ryan Costello of pennsylvania is expected, if not today, sometime in the coming weeks to announce hes not running for reelection making him the 38th Republican House member to announce retirement, resignation or pursuit of another office. A post world war ii high in the exodus of Republican House members. Is this something the president is bothered about and do members call him when they say theyll make announcements like this . Hes had conversations with a number of members. Cant speak to the situations specifically. Were not concerned right now. We think we have a great story to tell after the first year of being in office. We look forward to communicating that to the American People and continuing to push the president s agenda. David . Sarah, did the topic of religious liberty come up with the crown prince today . Did the president bring that up at all . I dont believe that came up. I would have to check on the last half of the meeting. I wasnt there. Trey . Two policy questions. Human rights estimate that the Saudiled Coalition is responsible for the death of 1,000 civilians and talk part in 85 unlawful air strikes. Did the president bring up these concerns about high civilian casualties in his meeting with the crown prince today . Im not aware that that came up. Id have to check on the last half of the meeting. How about the call between President Trump and russian president putin . The russians said that syria came out in the call, the readout by the Trump Administration didnt not include any mention of syria. Did the president discuss syria and the high civilian casualties on the ground in syria . It briefly came up. As you know, weve had a number of public statements on our position there. That certainly thats not changed. The canadian Prime Minister noticed the pace of nafta talks be accelerating. He said that the president is enthusiastic about getting a deal. Is that true . The president is always enthusiastic about getting a good deal. Whatever deal he makes he wants good for americans and american workers. So anything we do would have to be a part of that conversation. There seems to to be an end of april deadline. After that, the political process will get over the negotiations on nafta. Anything possible that quick within six weeks . I dont have any specific announcement at this time. Were continuing to have the negotiations and continue to have those conversations being led primarily by the ambassador and the president. One last question. The president talk about the crumbling infrastructure. Can you discuss the gateway project, a rail tunnel between new jersey and his home state of new york, that has support of many republicans and according to one study is key to 20 of the nations Gross National product . The president wants to address infrastructure on a broader scale, not put all of our emphasize into one project. We want to see the infrastructure across the country rebuilt, which is why we put forward priorities when it comes to that and a plan moving forward. We look forward to working with congress to make progress on that in the coming days. Thanks so much. The president has an event in a few minutes. Thanks, guys. That was Sarah Sanders at the White House Briefing room. She took questions on a range of issues including story today that President Trump has called president putin, congratulated him on winning. A lot of questions about if the president thought that that election was free and fair. You know, sort of read between the lines of what Sarah Sanders was saying. Lots of other questions about the president s Legal Defense team, his frustration with the Mueller Investigation continuing. But theyre continuing to be cooperative and a few other things. Meantime, our main story is still really hot and heavy right now. The hunt for a serial bomber intensifying in texas. Another package explodes in a fed ex facility. Im dana perino and this is the daily briefing. Officials say this is linked to four other bombings in austin that killed two and injured four others. Jonathan hunt is live in austin for us. Jonathan . Dana, good afternoon to you. Its an increasingly desperate search for whomever may be behind these ongoing bombing attacks here in austin. Now it appears beyond austin. As you mentioned, a package exploding at a large fed ex facility in the city of schertz, which is a suburb of san antonio overnight. One worker suffered injuries but they were described as light. She did not need to go to the hospital. That was the only piece of good news out of that. Hours later, we found out that they had actually found a second package with explosives at that facility. It did not detonate. Were now hearing though that at a fed ex facility here in austin itself, investigators are examines a suspicious package. We do not know at this point if it contains any explosives. Nobody is taking any chances. Investigators and bomb squad detectives have swarmed that facility in the south of the city. On top of that, at another fed ex store in the sun valley suburb of austin, investigators have confirmed that the packages which were then discovered were sent from this facility in austin. They were headed back to another address here in austin. We dont know the exact target of those packages. All and all, you put all of these developments together, everybody is very much on edge. Officials say theyre doing everything they can to catch whomever is behind all of this. Listen here. We have agents from across the country. We have our National Response team here. We have k9 explosive detections here. We have Intel Research specialists. Were working hand and hand with our fbi partners, state and local partners. Weve been working round the clock. Again, the Public Safety is our number 1 priority. Were providing all the resources that we can to finally find some the person or individuals responsible for this. So after the four explosions here in austin, now the fifth explosion after that fed ex facility in schertz, the hunt is on for the person or persons behind this. Obviously, dana, when you look at this logically, theyre looking for someone with a good amount of expertise in explosives building these kind of devices is not easy. Making sure that they do not trigger before you want them too is not easy at all. So they are looking at somebody who has a lot of experience handling explosives. That narrows it down somewhat. Obviously in this situation, investigators may not be telling us everything they know. If they are getting closer to the bomber or bombers, they do not want that person to realize that they are getting close. Certainly everybody in austin hopes there will be an arrest very, very soon, dana. All right, jonathan. Thank you for that. Lets bring in joey jones, a former marine bomb technician. Given all that we know so far, looking at this from afar, theres 500 federal agent theres including all of the people that we could imagine from the fbi, atf, et cetera and then the local Law Enforcement there as well. Intelligence working together. Do you think that they are in closer to figuring out who the perpetrator is . I think the first thing they have to establish, are these bombs connected. Were looking at everything from a brand and size of battery consistent across the board to the type of explosive theyre making at home or using for the bombs. Just to see if the bombs are connected. From there you know youre looking for an individual or specific group of bomb makers working together. Its important to know that subtract the backpack trip wire, theres something consistent there. Something to say the trip wire was to set off the narrative and distract police. Theres a lot to consume and a lot to understand. Theres a lot of keys and signs and even forensics. Weve taken fingerprints off of tape of bombs that have blown up in afghanistan. You can try to for the components that have exploded, you can look and see where those might have been made. That might give you a clue as to where this person is. Absolutely. With every bomb up until these at the fed ex center, theres a simple way to design it with mechanical and common Electronic Components and a sophisticated way with photo cells and mercury switches. We dont have that information right now as to how they were assembled. If you go the sophisticated route, theyre pretty specific components that are only available in certain places and only certain places that you can use them or wire them up. That helps narrow the search. If its more rudimentary, thats what weve seen in afghanistan for decade. The anarchists cookbook is on the internet and teaches you how to make the explosives. Electronic engineering is readily available as well. Theres not a specific set of information that is deincluded to people that are trained. That makes it harder to nail down. Do you have any other insight as to how something would be able the get these bombs, put into a package to the point that, you know, you have to be i think jonathan was saying and you would know. In order to get these into a package and delivered without it exploding in route, it has to be a pretty sophisticated person. The bombs that went off last week sat on a door step. Theres an easy way to disarm them until you want them to go off. I dont want to go into too much detail. But basically Something Like a washing machine or egg timer. Its mechanical. You can feel and hear it tick. I dont want to assume that is what is used in these bombs shipped through fed ex, which leads me to believe they were more electronic engineers and more sophistication. So up until this morning, there was a narrative there that these could be simply devices, but now this morning seeing something that is put on a truck, thrown around, carried around for a couple days before they go off, that leads me to believe theres a chance of something more sophisticated and more electronicbased. Also we look at two ways that explosives can blow up, a powder fuse or electronic detonation. Those blasting caps or initiators are not easy to get ahold of or easy to make. The most sophisticated component that appears to be in these bombs. Your expertise is valuable to all of us. Thanks very much. President trump is hosting a Law Enforcement roundtable on sanctuary cities. Lets listen in. Last september, an illegal immigrant was arrested by San Francisco police for spousal a because. Ice filed a detainer but the detainer was denied and the alien was released. Then he was arrested for murder a week later. Many cases like that. In another case, an alleged illegal gang member was arrested by the San FranciscoPolice Department more than ten times between 2013 and 2017 for charges including domestic battery, assault, theft and rape. San francisco refused to cooperate with ice. You know that very well, dont you, tom . You have a lot of problems with that. He kept getting released. Over and over again he was released. Sanctuary cities put innocent americans at the mercy of hardened criminals, hardened murders in many case. Yet house and Senate Democrats voted nearly unanimously in favor of sanctuary cities. Explain that. Well look into have safe cities, folks. Safe cities. Theyre also blocking the space we need on the omni bus to stop, catch and release. Catch and release. We catch a killer, we have to release him. We need the extra beds so we dont have to release him. Bed space is very important. Democrats priorities is to protect criminals. Not to do what is right for our country. My priority and the priority of my administration is to serve, protect and defend the citizens of the United States. So we have tremendous people around this table, people that know what is happening, what is going on. Tom, id like to start with you. You can say a few words quickly. Well go around the table. Thanks very much. Thanks for inviting me, this is an important discuss