Quick. Yesterday, i guess, the group of House Republicans put out a, an immigration plan that would deal with daca and also do a whole lot of things that werent kind of under the umbrella of the four things outlined in the meeting yesterday. Was that helpful . Was that not helpful . To getting to a deal ultimately . Does the president wish that they you know, take that off the table so you can focus on what might be happening with senator flake or others in the senate . How does no. We think thats a great starting point. We think a great place went beyond the parameters that the president specifically and you later he let out the things he felt had to be included. Not just what could be included. Certainly we think that this is a good starting point. Part of the negotiation process. If we could get everything done we think thats much better than part of it done, but were okay with getting a deal done as long as it falls into the parameters that the president laid out. But he understands, right, that adding the extra things are what makes, what has the potential to make this more difficult, because various constituencies think of those things as poison pills that will actually make it more difficult . Thats all in the negotiation. Everything puts everything on the table they want. Figure out what youre not willing to give up, weve weve laid out and try to come out with everybody winning what were hoping to do. Both republicans, democrats, the house and senate. Weve laid out those nonnegotiables for us and will move forward in that process and hope to get that. You think youll get that by the next week or so . I wont put a time frame on it but we hope to get it done. The priority, get it done and get it done right. April . Sarah, secretary mnuchin said this white house has been working with businesses as it relates for a while, as relates to this tax plan, and when it comes to walmart, had this white house been talking with walmart about a safety net for employees that would lose their jobs today . Looking at a sign right now from sams club that says, this club will be closed on january 11, 2018. Thats today. The day that secretary mnuchin talks how wonderful there will be increases in pay for walmart workers. Im not aware about a conversation about a specific safety net. I can tell you that were excited about the fact that they raised minimum wage, increased opportunities when it comes to paid family leave, and that they are increasing salaries to over 1 million american workers. We think thats a positive. In terms of specifics on a safety net and conversations around that i couldnt speak to that. And status report, i understand that ryan and mcconnell are not together on issues of welfafare reform. Weve having conversations about that and think its important policy to look at, but right now our focus primarily is on the budget and secondary is getting a deal done in regards to immigration on daca and border security, and most likely moving on to infrastructure from there. John . Yeah. Thank you, sarah. Two brief questions. The president said yesterday that, and i quote we are going to take a strong look at the libel laws. Now, many lawyers said that was an unusual statement, because all libel laws are at the state level. Not the federal level. Was he refers to states should take a look at libel laws or Something Else . Certainly states should take a look at it. Look, the president s frustrated with the misreporting and fake news that regularly takes place. He is tired of the medias obsession over recent fictitious, the book on the president and hiS Administration and thinks when things like that happen there should be an action of recourse and simply said it should be looked into. He meant the states, not that there should be federal libel law . Speaking generally libel law should be looked at. And is the administration any reaction to the reports of the arrest of former iranian president auk mahman abdinijab . Not to my knowledge. And what about talking about abuse and surveil, can you elabora elaborate . Its something we talked about many times before. There are a lot of things that indicate there was surveillance at trump tower, and im not sure what the clarification is deened on that front. Two questions for you. A few days ago you said the white house did not have any reaction to the transcript released by senator feinstein related to fusion gps. Is the president aware of this transcript and does he have any reaction to the fbi references within the transcript what was said by that gentleman . We certainly think its a gross overstep by senator feinstein to release that transcript. Theres been a lot of comments about obstruction of justice and frankly, the only people weve seen trying to influence the investigation are former director comey and democrats in congress and that would include senator feinstein, representative schiff, who have goethe selectively leaked to the media witness interviews. We see that to be a big problem and something that should certainly be considered and looked at. And followup question. Today ecuador announced its granting nationality to wikileaks founder julian assange. Does the president agree or disagree with this decision by the ecuadorians . I havent spoken to him about that. Sarah, can i ask you, on iran again. When the president went through the exercise in october of decertifying, the sanctions waivers, he said, words to the effect of, fix it, or he wouldnt do this again. The fix was supposed to include some legislation which hasnt happened yet. Is the president comfortable with where the fix it part of this process is right now . And what is his feeling about what a fix would look like . Well, the president still strongly believes this is one of the worst deals of alltime, and one of the single greatest flaws is that its restrictions leave iran free in the future to openly develop their nuclear program, and rapidly achieve a Nuclear Weapons breakout capability. Obviously, we see a big problem with that. The administration is continuing to work with congress, and with our allies, to address those flaws, and well keep you guys posted as a decision on that front is made. Hallie . Thanks, sarah. I want to ask about offshore drilling. Before i do, can you clarify something youve said, that a lot of people were confused by that tweet. Actually i didnt say it. You said a lot of people were confused. We werent confused but some of you were. Yes. I want to ask. Mime pompeo was out talking, pushing for this. A lot of people in the president S Administration represented he wanted this to pass. His tweet was confusing, contradictory, it just was. How are people supposed to trust, not us as reporters but lawmakers, stakeholders, policymakers, that the people representing the president s position actually are . I think that the premise of your question is completely ridiculous and shows the lack of knowledge that you have on this process. Ive tried several times. Ill do it a tenth time here. Look, the president supports the 702. But he has some very strong concerns about the pfizer program more generally and why he put out a memo last week outlining such and why the dni director put out a new policy this morning. Im not sure what the confusion is there and definitively saying the president s tweet was in your view not at all confusing and not at all contradictory . You think thats an accurate statement jie want to be very clear. It wasnt confusing for me. Im sorry if it was for you. The offshore drilling ban . Questions whats happening in florida . Other states pointed to the reason thiS Administration has ginken fon exempting florida saying they also would like to be exempt. So how is exempting florida from the ban anything other than, in critics view, than giving a political favor to white house allies and key Battle Ground states . Look, the president is a massive advocate for america, not just being Energy Independent but energy dominant. Thats part of that process. The offshore drilling. Why its opened up for public comment. These are going to continue to be negotiations. Were going to continue to look for places and ways to make america more energy dominant. If thats one were going to continue forward in that process. Thats why weve opened up drilling and anwar, the Keystone Pipeline and cut jobkilling regulations that have to do with that. Its an open Comment Period and well continue to talk with other stakeholders as we make decisions for other areas and other states. Jake . And a political favor . I am not aware of any political favor that that would have been part of. So, no. Thank you. Prison reform. The president recent ly commute the sents ev s eveence of a fat years. What does the president view as priorities . Look, the president is looking, one of the big topics are conversation today, looking at reducing reoccurring crime. Thats the big priority on that front at this points. Reports are out, please clarify. What is mr. Kushners role in this exactly . Helping lead that conversation and put stakeholders together from a number of different areas that have expertise on this matter. One last question. Anita . Can you go back to immigration. Can you shed a little light on what the holdup is . Members of the Republican Party were in the negotiations, theyre the ones saying they agree with democrats. The administration has been in the meetings, at least some of them. So what is the, what do you know of not only one member said there was a deal reached. The other members are well in sync, on the same page, we havent quite gotten there but feel were close and, against, will keep having these conversations. The president had a meeting here today with a number of members, both from the house and the senate, republicans and democrats, as a followup discussion on immigration, and, again, we feel very strongly that we can get a deal made. And the president talked about missing, is that the issue . Not enough funding . Can you shed a little light on it . I think its demming agreeing to the other side of the deal. Thats where we are and, again, confident and feel were going to get there. Thanks so much, guys. Sarah is the president good afternoon, everyone. Sarah Huckabee Sanders just ending the press briefing. Questions particularly immigration. Deal or no deal . Republican senator jeff flake of arizona says lawmakers from both sides of the aisle reached a deal on immigration. And on daca. His colleague, senator tom cotton hitting the brakes. Senator cotton one of Seven Members of congress who met with the president this afternoon says theres no deal. Sarah Huckabee Sanders asked about a possible deal in todays briefing that just ended. Heres what she said. There has not been a deal reached yet. However, we still think we can get there, and were very focused on trying to make sure that that happens. The president s been clear about what his priorities are in that process, and were going to continue working with members of the house and the senate, republicans and democrats, to make sure that we try to get that deal done. Okay. This is a little trickier than it appears, because there are different people involve ared in different negotiations. So there may be the outlines of a deal everybodys not filled in on. Covering all the angles. Peter alexander joining us, lee ann caldwell, attorney at nbc news, ronald reyes. Start with you, lee ann. A deal negotiated by one of the groups negotiating you have the outlines what that might look like . Reporter i do. Of course, it could change after the caveat, now that the deal is not completely final, but what it does, it addresses daca, and the people who applied for the daca program and those who didnt, but are eligible. It gives them a path to citizenship. It also adds about 2. 8 billion for border security. It also goes further and addresses this family migration. It says the parents of Daca Recipients are not allowed to receive citizenship. They, instead, will get temporary protected status, and then this deal also talks about the visa lottery system. Theres 50,000 slots from low immigration countries for people to immigrate here every year. It takes half of those and gives those to people from either el salvador or haiti. Those who just lost their temporary protected status who have been in the United States. Of course, these things could change. Theres some republicans on one on the right who are saying that this is theyre nowhere close to a deal. These are not the parameters and does not go as far as theyd live. Other republicans, although, im talking to, like senator thom tillis, part of these negotiations at the outset and then left. Has always been involved in these negotiations, and he said, you know, theres a couple issues and were close, but i would not say that theres a deal yet. All right. Peter alexander. Maybe just has been happening so quickly, but sarah Huckabee Sanders did not seem to buy into the idea that there was maybe a deal. She seems to have reflected the views of tom cotton and others who said there isnt a deal. Obviously a discussion with some congressional members at the white house, which shes reflecting. What are we supposed to think about this . I think the bottom line, the white house is skeptical theres any deal. They can see there is not a deal right now but are trying to frame this as optimism that thanks to the president s hard work that televised negotiating session just two days ago, largely focusing on immigration the president is helping push the process forward on the four main topics needed to be a part of this. Border security including some some way a wall. Daca, the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and family based migration and ending the lottery system. The administration knows, the problem isnt what happens in the senate but among the members of the house specifically the Freedom Caucus and other conservatives. Frankly, they are skeptical and dubious. They dont want to get too far out in front of their skis, want it to play out. If you look at it different, peter, look at the four areas, the stuff leigh ann just reported on, the path to citizenship for Daca Recipients, the idea its 2. 8 billion dollars for borderrelated things as opposed to 18 billion the president was looking for, this sort of feels like it might be a little more of a victory for democrats than republicans . Reporter still a ways to go. Thats why one of the questions posed to Sarah Sanders here was, should d. R. E. A. M. Ers in the country have confidence President Trump can press the issue in way, with their status in legal limbo, they will be able to stay. The clock is ticking. Early march is the explanation date. One d. R. E. A. M. Er said feels like he has an explanation date on his head and others, former Homeland Security secretaries, republicans and democrats alike saying the real deadline is january 19th to make sure all the paperwork is in place to implement the new plan that comes, Congress Comes up withened a the president allmyly signs on to. A long way to go and a lot of reasons people are skeptical it gets done. I want to speak more about this in a moment. Before i go, that was an Interesting Press conference. What about it, what sort of, stood out to you on that . Reporter is that me, ali . Yeah, you, peter. Reporter struck me specifically the white house lives in an alternate universe when it comes to the contacts saying the president was confused about fisa, his Early Morning tweet but others. The towards Sarah Sanders used we dont think theres a conflict at all. He has a great deal of understanding. We werent confused, she said. When asked about the fact that the president tweeted these tweets over the course of a couple hours this morning before the house was to vote on that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act today, section 702, the Intelligence Community really cracked down on its efforts to surveil potential foreign terrorists. Sarah sanders says it had nothing to do with the fact the president is a fan of fox friends waging this morning and just so happened to be top of mind. People can draw their own conclusions if thats believable. Thats the assessment in the eyes of the white house. When hallie asked what to make of it, Sarah Sanders said the premise of your question is entirely ridiculous. Interesting stories. Peter, leigh ann on capitol hill, raul reyes, nbc. Com contributor, well talk about fisa in a moment. Covering the mixed signals the president ditched out earlier today on the surveillance big. The house so youre up to speed what happened, the house passed a key provision in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known at fisa, not before the president confused everyone by tweeting house vote, what he said. House votes on controversial fisa act today. This is the act that may have been used with the help of the discreddy itted and phony dossier to badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previouS Administration and others with a question mark. That directly contradicted trumps own administration statements to reauthorize the provision for its value in the fight against terrorism. 90 minutes later, the president walked back the comments tweeting, with that said, i have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and todays vote is about Foreign Surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it. Get smart. But the damage had been done in the eyes of some lawmakers. Look, we speak on an almost daily basis. He thinks its still in the bill. A mistake. The president is a posupporting vote. The president is echoing the latest message heard from a common daentator on fox news. Peter, still there. In the end the president came around. The fisa it was reauthorized another six years, but to the point that, hallies question, to Sarah Sanders, this is awful confusing. The morning of the vote, the president seems toing