Break as most americans will. That is our goal is to make sure that more americans see more of their hard earned money, thats what were pushing for and keep working with house and senate to make sure happens. On taxes you have two notes, senator corker who has been a no for a while, senator rubio told us a short time ago hes a no unless he can get an expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Is the president willing to be more generous in the Child Tax Credit to get senator rubios vote . Look, were really proud of the work that weve done already up until this point with senator rubio, already doubling the Child Tax Credit, taking it to 2,000 per child. Were going to continue working with the senator. We think weve made Great Strides and Historic Movement in terms of the Child Tax Credit and well keep working with him until we get the job done which we expect to happen before the end of the year. Is there more room to move . Right now, were going to focus on letting some of the senate move forward in the progression of their conversations. Again, were extremely excited about the progress weve made to double the Child Tax Credit. Thats something important to note and weve worked very closely with senator rubio on and we think he should be excited about the progress weve made on that front. Connie . Merry christmas to you as well. Thank you. This past year, [ inaudible ] . What have i learned this past year . I would have to say, that we would be here a really long time if i walked through everything ive learned this past year. But some of my favorite things would probably be to take time to appreciate some of the really incredible moments and a special time and opportunity and honor that certainly that i have but i think that all of us have we get to come to the white house every day, serve our country, and we get to call it work. I think thats pretty impressive, pretty amazing, and something that i hope none of us ever lose sight of. Thanks. Does the president think that roy moore should concede, in other words does he believe he lost the election fair and square, or does he think he was the victim of widespread illegitimate voting . I think the president s position is pretty clear in his outreach to doug jones directly. He called and they spoke yesterday. They had a great conversation, a very positive conversation, he likes doug jones, and looks forward to meeting him in person and hopes that he will come and follow through on his commitment to work with the president on some things that they agree on. So roy moore lost fair and square . Thats what youre saying . I think the numbers reflect that and i think the president s outreach shows that. Thanks. There are reports out this morning that speaker ryan is considering stepping down at the end of this congress. Has the president spoken to speaker ryan about the reports and does he want to see speaker ryan continue in that role . The president did speak to the speaker, not too long ago, and made sure that the speaker knew very clearly and in no Uncertain Terms if that news was true he was very unhappy with it. The speaker assured the president those were not accurate reports and that they looked forward to working together for a long time to come. Blake . Did this catch the president by surprise . The ryan report that was out today . Sounds like it my may have caught speaker ryan by surprise. I dont think it was very accurate reporting and so it sounds like theyre both committed to and looking forward to spending a lot more time together over the next, you know, hopefully seven, eight years. Can we ask you about marco rubio as well, we heard folks who might be no votes potentially undecided votes but marco rubios potential no vote is one we know it has concerns but him voting no suddenly out of left field, has that caught the white house by surprise at all . Have you braced for the possibility you might not have marco rubio in your corner . Im not sure if the president has spoken with him today. Were proud of the work weve done with senator rube why aio k forward to making sure the progress we made to double the child care tax credit, kind of a mouthful, goes into full effect when this piece of legislation is signed. April . Two things. Should roy moore just give his concession speech now, versus holding out . Probably sounds like it should have taken place. The president s called and congratulated doug jones and expressed his willingness to work with him and to meet with him when he arriving in washington. Second issue, did you watch gma this morning and what are your thoughts about this tellall and the uncomfortable of omarosa while she was here . I did see some clips of that. In terms of a tellall, thats a question you would have to ask her. She resigned from her position yesterday. Shell be here later this afternoon. We put out a statement yesterday. I dont have any changes to add to that. And certainly as has been the practice in the past and will continue to be in the future, we dont comment much further than that on Personnel Matters. Sara sara, why is if shes resigned and going to its confusing. You said she will stay on through january 20th. Why are the taxpayers continuing to pay her salary another month if shes no longer at the white house . Im not going to weigh in further as we often do and the practice were not going to get deeper into Personnel Matters. Weve put out a statement. The president likes omarosa, thanked her for her service and she will be here later this afternoon. So shes resigned from her position but theres nothing else to add on that front. Why is she still on the payroll another month . Is that normal . Look, theres a lot of different protocols that take place in the government, thats part of the process. If you want to reach out to hr they might be able to walk you through that in a more detailed way. Im not privy too. I havent been through the process myself so i cant speak to it from firsthand. On the tax plan, would the president ask the house and senate to stay here in washington and finish this bill even if it means bleeding into the Christmas Holiday . Oh, were pretty confident were going to get there before then, but this is something that i think both the house, the senate and the president are all committed to seeing happen. And were very hopeful that it will take place at the first of next week. Jeff . Too do does the president have thoughts about the disney deal to buy 21st century fox . I know the president spoke with Rupert Murdoch today, congratulated him on the deal, and thinks that to use one of the president s favorite words that this could be a great thing for jobs and certainly looks forward to and hoping to see more of those created. Matthew . What does the president think about the fcc decision on Net Neutrality . A lot of americans polls show who are opposed to that change . Look, the Trump Administration supports the fccs effort to roll back burdensome regulations. But as we have always done and will continue to do, we certainly support a free and fair internet. Anything beyond that i would refer you to the fcc. Matthew . Back to the alabama result, what happened down there change the president s relationship at all with steve bannon, given his big support for moore . And has it changed the president s thoughts on mr. Bannons opposition to other incumbent republicans . Thats a question you would have to ask mr. Bannon. Im not going to speak for him. Im asking the president s relationship. But the second part of the question you asked about whether or not he would support more candidates and i cant answer that. In terms of their relationship i havent spoken with the president directly about the nature of that relationship and whether that has altered it. Thank you, sara. You said you cant go much further on this Personnel Matter but i want to try to separate out some of the things that were hearing here and just be be crystal clear. Youre saying that omarosa was not fired on tuesday evening, that she didnt get belligerent in her conversation with general kelly, wasnt yelling at him, wasnt cursing at him and wasnt escorted off the property, secret service said not by them but she was escorted off the property by someone or some entity other than secret service . Omarosa resigned from her position. Im not going to go into a detailed process any further than that. Weve put out a statement as is standard practice. Were not going to get into the weeds of a personnel decision. Access to the white house in an interview this morning Kellyanne Conway said she and other Administration Officials have been urging congress to appropriate additional funding for the opioid epidemic. The president declared a Public Health emergency this fall but that fund only has 57,000 in it. Economists have predicted it will cost upwards of 190 billion over a decade to treat the crisis. Can you tell us how much money the white house will be urging congress to appropriate and what do you say to critics who believe the president hasnt dedicated enough resources to combat the epidemic this year . One of the reasons that the president has put one of his top people here at the white house, Kellyanne Conway, on this is because he sees this as a priority, he sees it as a major concern, not just for the white house but for america. Theres a number of stories that you said the amount of money that it will take to combat this crisis is huge, were going to continue looking at the best ways to do that. Were working at an interagency process to see what that looks like. That hasnt been finalized. We will continue looking at every way possible. I dont right now, thats still part of part of the Republican Health care plan if. . Look, thats a start but to fully address this we want to make sure we get it right and make sure that we really address this headon and thats why the president has made it such a focus and put kellyanne and others here at the white house to really make an emphasis and that a priority. Something you guys will get done by the end of this year, can the president promise that . Im not aware we can promise that, a full funding for that would take place by the end of this year. This wasnt a problem that happened overnight. Were not going to be able to fix it overnight. What we want to do is make sure we address it and that we make it a priority for the administration and were going to continue doing that until the president has spoken about this several times making sure we address it from all fronts and sides. Thank you. With omarosa leaving, how many senior staffers here at the white house are africanamerican . Look, we have a really diverse team across the board at the white house. We always want to continue to grow the diversity here. Were going to continue to do that. Do you have a number . I dont have a number directly in front of me specifically, not africanamerican, but i can say again, we have a diverse team at the white houses. Certainly a very diverse team in the press office and something that we strive for every day is to add and grow to be more diverse and representative of the country at large and were going to continue to do that. She was tasked with reaching out to the africanamerican community. Who have you identified who is going to take that role and how critical is it to this president , to this administration, to make sure that role is, in fact, filled . Yeah. There are a number of people that will be part of that process and have been part of that process that will continue to be. This wasnt something that was a singular effort by any one individual. Remember on the cabinet, ben carson has been engaged and talked with the president on this issue. Not just within the white house, the president met with senator tim scott and wants to continue those conversations to look at the best ways to do that and to do outreach to that community. Just to followup on one of aprils questions what omarosa said ive seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people. Were her concerns ever addressed or dealt with . The comments she made, that was the first time i had heard those. Whether she raised them with other individuals im not aware. I know she regularly brought up specific issues where they were talked about in meetings and we addressed them at the time. Any of the issues, were any of her concerns were . I dont. Thats a question that you would have to ask her and im certainly not going to speak on her behalf in that regard. But i do know that its something that we take seriously and something that we want to see improve i think across all fronts. Margaret. Sara, today is the fifth anniversary of the sandy hook massacre in which so many children were killed. That is a tragedy eclipsed by what happened in las vegas, which is now the most tragic and mass shooting on u. S. Soil. Since that time, what has President Trump done to try to protect the American People against a similar type of massacre . Does he think anything has been done . What is the administration trying to do . Is there anything at the executive level he thinks needs to be undertaken. Look, i think that there are a number of different ways that we look to protect our citizens. Every single day, one of the areas that the president has been outspoken about, not necessarily to those two instances but more broadly speaking in terms of National Security and protecting individuals certainly through border security, stronger vetting processes, and looking at whether or not there are other regulations that we can put in place that would offer protection [ inaudible ] these werent people that entered the United States. Im speaking more broadly in terms of National Security as a whole and look, this is a president who knows that his number one responsibility is to look for ways to protect american citizens and we try to do that every single day and whether or not theres a regulation that could be put in place or not that could have prevented those things, frankly im not aware of what that would be, but we want to look for every opportunity, every way possible that we can to protect american lives and were going to continue doing that. Correct to say that the administration is looking at how to prevent these kind of Mass Shootings by domestic shooters on u. S. Soil . I know that i know thats something that absolutely. I know thats something that the department of Homeland Security looks at and talks about and works on every single day. I dont think theres a person in this country that wouldnt like us to find ways to protect people and were certainly very supportive of that and but no issue that the president has hey lited he wants to priority there isnt one thing you could do that would have prevented those instance, those horrible tragedies. Getting very quickly, just the other day from the failed terrorist attack, which is why in these cases, this is the worst shooting in u. S. Soil i understand that. On President Trumps watch. I also think you have to take these matters, obviously, very seriously, but if you can name a single thing that would have prevented both of these i would love to hear it because i dont know what that would look like. Were look every day how to protect american lives, how we can best protect american citizens. In terms of new york we know for a fact this individual came through chain migration system, this is something the president has been outspokenly against, and something that he wants to stop and that individual wouldnt have been here to commit that crime if that wasnt in place. So thats a fact that we do know. Sara assault weapons ban, any kind of regulation, any kind of Mental Health concern, has the president mentioned that . I know that theyre looking at some of the Mental Health issues, something the president has raised before, but in terms of a specific policy were moving forward with that would have prevented that im not aware of what that would be. Sara, has the president expressed any concerns regarding the fccs decision today to roll back these obamaera regulations on Net Neutrality and moving forward are there assurances that the white house can offer to the American People who are concerned that the decision and vote today will lead to a less Free Internet . As i said a few minutes ago, the administration supports the fccs efforts, and at the same time, the white house certainly has and always will support a free and fair internet. Well take one last question for the day. Brian . Im going to ask the question about taxes. The Federal Reserve yesterday said that tax bill would provide a modest lift to the economy. Thats in stark contrast to words that the president has used like rocket fuel to the economy. What is the data the president is basing his rosier picture of the tax bill versus the experts at the Federal Reserve . There are several individuals i would point you to, kevin hassett, who has spoken in this room and on a number of networks that i see represented here, that has repeatedly stated a lot of statistics and data shows this will be a huge boost to the economy, bring companies back, it will grow our jobs, push the stock market higher. I think that those are all places i would point back to and certainly i think theres great support that we have seen just based on the idea that this passes, that youre seeing the stock market increase and they think a lot of that is tied to that. The word modest was used . I havent asked him about that. I think upset is not the right word. The other opinions offered are a little more accurate. The treasure analysis used two things hold on a second. I know the call time is here momentarily and the president will be speaking near a few minutes. Thanks v a good week and april, im looking forward to having pie with you momentarily