Remains. Do we have any idea how many people we are looking at yet . No, we dont. There is a scientific process to estimate that. I wish it were very fast because i think a lot of people would like to know. The families would love to know that information. Unfortunately it will take months of analysis to get a refined estimate. One last question. Do you have a timeline for bringing back more remains and can you characterize what it has been like to work with the north koreans on this process. Have they been worthing with you in good faith every step of the way . The first step as we mentioned, we are in the process of planning next steps so we cant say we have a timeline today for bringing back more remains. We are hopeful we will be in the not too distant future. In terms of having worked there, i worked there in the past during that year in the field there and i went in the team on july 27th and there was a different feel to it this time. It was a friendly and welcoming approach this time compared to the way it used to be. Thank you. Thank you, director. Looking ahead to next week, ambassador bolton will meet with officials in israel and ukraine as well as his russian counterpart in geneva as a followup to the helsinki summit to discuss a number of national issues. We extend our prayers to though who are injury and deceased in genoa, italy as well as attacks in london. The president attack this is horrible attack and stands ready to provide assistance to the united kingdom. With that i will take your questions. We heard from the president via twit ter as crazed, a cryin low life and a dog. Is this a way for the president to talk about anybody lets alone someone he hired and made the highest ranking woman in the white house . The president is voicing frustration for the person who has shown a lack of integrity for the actions following her time at the white house. Why did he hire somebody he is describing as a dog and low life. The president wanted to give her a chance and he made clear and voiced concerns that this individual didnt have the best interest of the white house and the president and the country at heart. The president said do what you can to get along and if you cant, he gave him full authority to let her go. What is the strategy and continuing to respond to the charges . Why doesnt he just ignore it . He made the frustrations, i think not only those of us here in the white house, but frankly most of america would be happy to ignore it, but the individuals in this room continue to create a large platform for somebody they know not to have credibility and refuse to give a platform to when they worked here at the white house. It wasnt until this individual started to negatively attack this president and this administration and try to tear this entire place down that she received the type of platform and roll out that she is getting. I think it would be great if every person in this room and every person in the Administration Never had to talk about this again and we got to focus on the real policies and the real thing that is not matter just to people in this building, but certainly all americans. Africanamericans, hispanics and everybody in between. That would be the best thing we we could do for our country. What do you say to critics with the attacks of omarosa as part of a pattern to insult africanamericans like don lemon and Maxine Waters and nfl player who is he claims dont know what they are protesting. This president has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someones lack of integrity. The idea that you would only point a few of the things that the president has said negative about people that are minorities, the fact is the president is an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it. He always fights fire with fire and doesnt hold back on doing that across the board. Have you signed an mba . I will not get into the but its common in a lot of places for employees to sign them including in government, particularly anyone with a security clearance. He will be happy to go back there to take your question. The president said he kept omarosa on despite claims from colleagues because he was personally supportive. He said he kept her on despite complaints because she was supportive of him and said nice things about him. Is that true of any other officials working in the white house right now . Im not aware of that. Since you dont want to talk about omarosa, i have other things. We will do our best. Do you have a reaction of president erdogan and. And there is a report from the colleague and the u. S. Is warning turkey of an increased pressure. I wonder if you have details on how that was convey and what additional steps would look like. They would take steps before the hearing of the detained pastor in october. How the information from turkey was received or from the United States to turkey . I can tell you at the turkish ambassadors request, they met yesterday here at the white house and continue to raise and point out the concerns we have. One last one. They relate to turkish citizens in july and did that contribute to his frustration with erdogan . Certainly the president has a great deal of frustration on the fact that the pastor has not been released as well as other u. S. Citizens and employees of diplomatic facilities have not been release and we will call on turk tow release those individuals. Does the president or this white house believe it is a violation of department of justice protocol if the special counsels investigation goes beyond september 1st . Im not saying a specific violation, but we have been clear not only do we, but all of the American People want this to wrap up. John . Thank you, sarah. Two questions on turkey. As the relationship between the president and president erdogan grows pe rifferous, are we going to see the restoration of the read outs on calls between the president and other World Leaders . That was terminated on the day after president erdogans election and although we know that the president made a congratulatory call to him, there was no read out since. Will that be restored . We will keep you all posted not just on calls with turkey, but other head of state calls as well and provide read outs when we have them. Thank you. The taliban in afghanistan has been on a surprise offensive that have killed 100 Afghan Security forces and a couple dozen civilians as far as we kn know. The president was visiting and was in afghanistan. Does this new offensive, is he still committed to his strategy he outlined a year ago or does this new offensive given the idea that maybe a different approach might be needed . No announcements or changes in policy since the roll out last august. Have you asked the president if he has ever used the n word . The president said that in a tweet and i have never heard it. Have you asked him . I didnt have to because he addressed it to the American People at one time. Why havent you asked him directly. The president answered that on twitter earlier today. Can you stand at the podium and say you will never hear the president utter the n word on a recording . I cant guarantee anything, but the president addressed this directly. I have never heard it. I can also tell you that myself or the people in this building serving this country every single day doing our best to help people across this country and make it better, if at any point we felt that the president was who some of his critics claim him to be, we wouldnt be here. This is a president fighting for all americans and putting policies in place that help all americans, particularly africanamericans. Look at the economy alone. This president since he took office created 700,000 new jobs for africanamericans. 700,000 working now that werent working with the president took place. After eight years of president obama in office, he only created 195,000 jobs for africanamericans. President trump and his first year and a half has already tripled what president obama did in eight years. Not only did he do that for africanamericans, but hispanics. 1. 7 million more hispanics are working now. This president cares about all americans and exited to helping them and putting policies in place that do that. Im going to go to kevin. Go ahead. Just to be clear, you cant guarantee it. I havent been in every room, but the president addressed this directly. He addressed it directly to the American People and i can tell you what the focus and the heart of the president is and thats on helping all americans and certainly this is somebody who has been in business for decades and you are just now hearing these outrageous accusations after dealing with people all over the world. It wasnt until he became a candidate for president that you started to hear the salacious and ridiculous claims. If you look at the actions that this president has taken, certainly the policies that he enacted, you can see the heart of who he is and see exactly what he has done and the type of president and person he is. Just a quick one on something that omarosa said today. She called the president unfit, mentally unfit for the office. As someone who worked with her, how surprised are you at the level of this towards the white house are . Like most people, we are very disappointed she would go to such a self serving and someone who cares more about herself than our country to make up these outrageous claims and accusations. She worked here for a year and didnt have any of these things to say. In fact everything she said was quite the opposite and not just the year she worked here, but the time she spent on the campaign trail and i think its sad what she is doing. I wanted to ask you briefly, we read earlier this afternoon that the Trump Campaign has made an arbitration action against omarosa. Im curious and i know they are separate entities, but is it likely that the white house is pursuing something in the way of possible action for violating . I wouldnt be able to comment on any ongoing legal matter. A moment ago you said one of the motives for omarosa is to tear the entire place down. What do you mean by that and do you have ongoing concerns that while she was here she taped other conversations that could be damaging to the reputation of this white house or relevant to something you would rather keep quiet . The greatest concern we have is the lack of integrity this individual has shown. She played a tape recording of the conversation with the president. Do you have any doubt on the authenticity. I dont. The president said he was unaware. Is that truthful . The president had a direct conversation with general kelly and tried to work things out, if it didnt, he gave general kelly the full authority to make decisions about hiring and firing including with respect to omarosa. He knew what happened and he knee he a proved it. He knew it was a possibility, but as to the fact that general kelly called the president , i dont think he had. Repeatedly we heard the itself say that the terror group has been tract cally sri lanka wished. The lead Inspector General for inherent resolve said their forces are estimated to be between 28,600 and 38,600 fighters which is the number they had at their peak. Has icis been that . Certainly there continue to be isis fighters and we take that seriously and look for ways to defeat them and protect American People and their allies. Can i go back to the race question again. I get that you can cite statistics that might be positive for policies the president has done with africanamericans and other minorities. When you look at the pattern of comments he made specifically about africanamericans and feel like he is singling those folks out because of their race. Are they missing something or diluting themselves . What do you say to them because lots of people who look at the pattern and say yes, he says negative things about a lot of people, but there is a particular pattern of singling out africanamericans and commenting in particular about their intelligence or lack there of and their looks. I dont think so. The president has said similar things about a number of individuals certainly that are not africanamericans or any other minority. I can simply talk to you about the policies and the person that the president is. If again the person that a lot of his critics say he is certainly wouldnt have been in business with him for decades. Certainly he wouldnt have had bill and Hillary Clinton attending his wedding and they begged him for campaign contributions. Why did they have these relationships with him . It is very convenient that the accusations started when the president became someone running for office. He has shown time and time again through his actions and policies that he wants to be a president for all americans and do everything he can to make america better and not just for a Certain Group of people, but for everybody. I think that he has made a number of comments about plenty of people and to try to sing it out to one group is silly. If you did a comparison, he has a lot more nasty things out there about other people. Do you think the president is always someone who is going to fight fire with fire. This is not new and something the American People knew when they voted for him and overwhelmingly elected him to be the president of the United States. Since he took office, he governed in a way that is helping all americans. If we want to look at who is creating divisions in the country, i think the media has done more to divide this country far more than this president ever has by elevating people like the author of this book by focusing on a sparsely attended rally instead of the policies this administration and this president are enacting that are helping people not just on economy or, but School Choice or prison reform. This president is governing to help all americans and we would be better off if the media gave that a little more attention. Thanksa lot, sarah. How would omarosa viewed by fellow Staff Members while she worked here . Did she pull her weight, was she trustworthy. Did you trust her . I want to get a sense if your view of her has changed with the publication of this book. I expressed disappointment. Im not going to get into a back and forth of personal feelings i have with a former colleague. I think that the focus not only of my time here, but this administration is looking forward and how we can actually implement policies that matter to the American People and not who like to in the building behind me. Different topic. When the 50 time the Mueller Investigation indicted russians, this administration sanctioned those russians. The 12 that were recently indicted, does this Administration Plan to also level sanctions against them. I think if the media continues to give it wall to wall coverage, the media will be forced to respond, but it will be better off for all of us to walk away and focus on things that matter. Thank you so much. I want to ask about visiting other countries in south america. How much does he do with countering the growing presence of china in the region . Certainly we have a lot of shared values with the countries that he is visiting. We would like to be the priority paper for those countries. Right now what the Trump Campaign is doing is hes forcing her essentially to defend herself and potentially even pay damages. Why is that necessary . Thats a question you would have to ask the Trump Campaign. Thats certainly not a question that i can answer as somebody thats in an official government capacity. Thanks so much, guys. Have a great day. Good afternoon. Im ali velshi. I cant guarantee anything from this podium. That stunning sentence from Sarah Huckabee sanders when asked if she could guerin any that were nev are guarantee were never going to hear a tape of the president using the n word. The president also calling Omarosa Manigaultnewman a dog. Is this any way for the president to talk about any american, let alone somebody that he hired and made the highest ranking africanamerican woman serving his white house . I think the president is certainly voicing his frustration with the fact that this person has shown a complete lack of integrity, particularly by the actions following her time here at the white house. Were going to kick off the hour with that. Kes t Kristen Welker is there. Shes asked the question thats going to be important moving forward. Can you guarantee that we are not going to hear a recording of the president using the n word. I think thats the question everybody was waiting to hear the answer to. Reporter ali, i did put that question to press secretary Sarah Sanders. Could she, from behind that podium, guarantee that we would never hear the president or former candidate trump use the term the n word in any recording. This was her response. Take a listen. Have you asked the president if hes ever used the n word . The president addressed that question directly via twitter. Id refer you back to him. I can certainly say ive never heard him use that term or something similar. Have you asked him directly . I didnt have to because he addressed it to the American People at one time. Why havent you asked him directly . Again, the president answered that question directly on twitter earlier today. Can you stand at the podium and guarantee the American People will never hear donald trump utter the n word on a recording in any context . I cant guarantee anything but i can tell you that the president addressed this question directly. I can tell you that ive never heard it. I can also tell you that if myself or the people that are in this building serving this country every single day, doing our very best to help people all across this country and make it better, if at any point we felt that the president was who some of his critics claim him to be, we certainly wouldnt be here. This is a president who is fighting for all americans, who is putting policies in place that help all americans, particularly africanamericans. Just look at the economy alone. This president since he took office in the year and a half that hes been here has created 700,000 new jobs. Reporter and ali, i did follow up. I pressed her, asked her yet again, could she guara