Going to cdc. Gov. Congress needs to do its job. Fighting zika costs money. Helping puerto rico deal with its zika crisis costs money. Research in the new vaccines and by the way, nih Just Announced the first Clinical Trials in humans, that cost money. Thats why my Administration Proposed an urgent request for more funding back in february. Not only did the Republicanled Congress not pass our request, they worked to cut it. And then they left for summer recess without passing any new funds for the fight against zika. Meanwhile, our experts at the nih and cdc, folks on the front lines, have been doing their best in making do by moving funds from other areas. But now the nan money that we need to fight zika is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical. Without sufficient fundinging nih Clinical Trials and possibilities of a vaccine which is well within reach, could be delayed. So this is not the time for politics. More than 40 u. S. Servicemembers have contracted zika overseas. And 50 u. S. States we know of more than 1800 cases of zika connected to travel to infected areas and that includes nearly 500 pregnant women. Zika is now present in almost part of puerto rico and now we have the first local transmission in florida and there will certainly be more. And meanwhile, congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk about protecting americans from threats. Well, zika is a serious threat to americans. Especially babies. Right now. So once again i want to urge americans to call their members of congress and tell them to do their job. Help protect the American People from zika. With that, im going to take some questions. Im going to start with someone who just assumed the second most powerful office in the land, jeff mason, the new Correspondents Association president. Also from reuters. Jeff . Thank you. Hardly powerful. Haen and happy birthday. Thank you very much. You and other officials have said it is becoming more traditional terrorist group. Are you satisfied that the United States and its allies have shifted to strategies sufficiently to address that change . And secondly, given your comments this week about Donald Trumps volatility and lack of fitness to be president , are you concerned he will be receiving security briefings about isis and other Sensitive NationalSecurity Issues . Im never satisfied with our response because if youre satisfied, that means the problem is solved, and its not. So we just spent a couple hours meeting with my top National Security folks to look at what more can be done. It is absolutely necessary for us to defeat isil in iraq and syria. It is not sufficient, but it is necessary. As long as they have those bases, they can use their propaganda to suggest there is somehow some calla fate being born. That can insinuate itself in the minds of folks who can travel there or carry out terrorist takees. It is also destabilizing for countries in the region at a time when the country is already unstable. I am pleased with the progress weve made on the ground in iraq and syria. Were far from mosul and raqqa. But what we have shown is that when it comes to conventional fights, isil can be beaten with partners on the ground so long as theyve got the support from Coalition Forces that weve been providing. In the meantime, you see isil carry out external terrorist acts. And theyve learned something theyve adapted from al qaeda which at a much more centralized operation and tried to plan very elaborate takes. And what isil figured out is if they can convince a handful of people or even one person to carry out an take on a subway or at a parade or some other public venue, and kill scores of people as owe foesd thousa as opposed to thousands of people, it still creates a concern that elevates their profile. So in some ways rooting out these networks for smaller less complicate aid tack says tougher because it doesnt require as many resources on their part or preparation. But it does mean that weve got to do even more to generate the intelligence and to work with our partners in order to degrade those networks. And the fact is that those networks will probably sustain themselves even after isil is defeated in rocka and mosul. But what weve learned from our efforts to defeat al qaeda, our efforts get better and we adapt as well as eventually we will dismantle these networks also. This is part of the reason why, however, to keep our eye on the ball, not panic, not succumb to fear because isil cant defeat the United States of america or our nato partners. We can defeat ourselves though if we make bad decisions. And we have to understand that as painful and as tragic as these attacks are, that we are going to keep on grinding away, preventing them wherever we can. Using a whole government effort to knock down their propaganda, take their key operatives off the battlefield and eventually we will win. But if we start making bad decisions, killing civilians for school many some of these areas, instituting religious tests on who can enter the country. Those kinds of strategies can end up back firing. In order for us to ultimately win this fight, we cannot frame this as a clash of civilizations between the west and islam. That plays exactly into the land of isil and the perversionsdoct perversionsdoctperversions putting forward. We will go by the law, in both tradition and the law, that if somebody is a nominee, the republican nominee for president , they need to get a security briefing so that if they were to win, they are not starting from scratch. In terms of being prepared for this office. And im not going to go into details of the nature of the secure briefings that both candidates receive. What i will say is that they have been told these are classified briefings. And if they want to be president , they have to start acting like a president. And that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around. Are you worried about that. I think ive said enough on that. Mary bruce . Thank you, mr. President. What is your response to critics who say the 400 million in cash you sent to iran was a ransom payment . Was it really simply a pure coincidence that of some that was payment held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the exact same time that american prisoners were released. And can you assure the American People that none of that money went to support terrorism . Okay. Its been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in january. Many months ago. There wasnt a secret. We announced them. To all of you. Josh did a briefing on them. This wasnt some nefarious deal. At the time we expressed that iran expressed in a tribunal about money of theirs we had frozen that as a consequence of it working its way through the International Tribunal it was the assessment of our lawyers where we are are at a point that there was significant litigation risk and we could cost ourselves billions of dollars. It was their advice and suggestion that we settle. And thats what these payments represent. It wasnt a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again. Thats point one. Point two, we dont pay ransom for hostages. We have hostages all around the world. I meet with their families. And it is heart breaking. And we have stood up an entire section of inner Agency Experts who devote all their time to working with these families to get these americans out. But those families know that we have a policy that we dont pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now in this high profile way and announce it to the world, even as were looking into the faces of other hostage families whose whose loved ones are held hostage and say to them that we dont pay ransom, defies logic. Thats point two. We dont pay ransom. We didnt here and we wont in the future. If we did, we would encourage americans to be targeted. Much in the way of countries who do pay ransom have a lot more of their citizens taken by various groups. Point number three. Is that the timing of this was in fact dictated by the by the fact that as a consequence of us negotiating around the nuclear deal, we had diplomatic negotiations and conversationes with iran for the first time in several decades. So the issue is not so much that it was a coincidence as it is that we were able to have a direct discussion. John kerry met with the minister and our ability to clear accounts on a number of issues at the same time converged. And it was important for us to take advantage of that opportunity both to deal with this litigation risk that had been raised. It was important for us to make sure that we finished the job on the iran nuclear deal. And since we were in a conversation with them, it was important for us to push them hard in getting these americans out. And let me make a final point on this. It has been well over a year since the agreement with iran to stop its Nuclear Program was signed. And by all accounts it has worked exactly the way we said it was going to work. You will recall that there were all these Horror Stories about how iran was going to cheat and this wasnt going to work and iran was going to get 150 billion to finance terrorism and all these kinds of scenarios. And none of them have come to pass. And its not just the assessment of our intelligence community. Its the assessment of the Israeli Military and intelligence community. The country most opposed to this deal that acknowledges this has been a gamechanger that iran has abided by the deal that they no longer have the sort of short term breakout capacity that would alilow them to develop nuclear weapons. So what im interested in is if there is news to be made, why not have some of these folks who were predicting disaster say, you know, this thing actually worked. That would be a shock. That would be impressive. If some of these folks who had said the sky is falling suddenly said, you know what, we were wrong, and we are glad that iran no longer has the capacity to break out in short term and develop a nuclear weapon. But of course that wasnt going to happen. Instead what we have is the manufacturing of outrage in a story that we disclosed in january. And the only bit of news that is relevant on this is that we paid cash. Which brings me to my last point. The reason we todhad to give th cash is because we are so strict in maintaining sanction answers we dont have a banking relationships with iran that we couldnt send them a check. We could not wire the money. And it is not at all clear to me why it is that cash as opposed to a check or a Wire Transfer has made this into a news story. Maybe because it feels like some spy novel or you know, some crime novel. Because cash was exchanged. The reason cash was exchange said because we dont have banking with iran. Dh which is part of the pressure we could apply to them so they would close down a bunch of facilities that, as i remember, two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, was peoples top fear and priority that we make sure iran doesnt have break out nuclear capacity. They dont. This worked. Jeff. Thank you, mr. President. Repeatedly now donald trump has said that this election will be rigged against him, challenging the Core Foundation of our democratic system. Can you promise the American People that this election will be conducted in a fair way and are you worried that comment like his could erode the publics faith in the outcome of the election. And if he does win, given that you just declared him unfit, what will you say to the American People . And at the end of the day, it is the American Peoples decision. I have one vote. I have the same vote you do. I have the same vote that all of the voters who are eligible, all across the country have. Ive offer mid opinion but ultimately it is the American Peoples decision to make collectively. And if somebody wins the election and they are president , then my constitutional responsibility is to peacefully transfer power to that individual and do everything i can to help them succeed. I dont even really know where to start on answering this question. Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean . The federal government doesnt run the election process. States and cities and communities all across the country, they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths and if mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a Conspiracy Theory that is weeg propagated, across the country, included in places like texas, where typically its not democrats who are in charge of voting booths, thats ridiculous. That doesnt make any sense. And i dont think anybody would take that seriously. Now we do take seriously, as we always do, our responsibility to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process. If we see signs that a voting machine or a system is vulnerable it hacking, then we inform those local authority who are running the elections that they need to be careful. If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws, in terms of equal access and arent providing ramps for disabled voters, or are discriminating in some fashion or are other wise violating civil rights laws, then the Justice Department will come in and take care of that. But this will be an election like every other election. And i think all of us at some points in our lives have played sports or maybe just played in a school yard or sand box and sometimes folks if they lose, they complain they got cheated. But ive never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score is even tallied. So my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election. If mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesnt seem to be the case at the moment. Barbara starr. Thank you, mr. President. On the question of isis expansion youve been talking about, because you see them expanding around the world, because you see them trying to inspire attacks, what is your current level of concern about the homeland . You talked about the Protection Measures but what is your assessment about the possibility, your own intelligence adviser suggest it is possible about the direct isis threat to americans and, if i may follow up, someone saying, what is your assessment today as you stand here about whether donald trump can be trusted with Americas Nuclear weapons. Now on your second question and ill sort of address this to any additional trump questions, i would ask all of you to just make your own judgment. Ive made this point already multiple times. Just listen to what mr. Trump has to say and make your own decision about how you feel about him making decisions about for example the nuclear triad. It sounds like youre not comfortable. Well, i answered this question a couple days ago and i thought i made myself clear. I dont want to keep repeating it. I obviously have a strong opinion about the two candidates running here. One is very positive and one is not so much. And i think you will just hear any further questions directed at the subject i think you will hear pretty much variations on the same thing. What i can say is this is Serious Business and the person who is in the oval office and our secretary of defense and our joint chiefs of staff and outstanding men and women in uniform report to, they are counting on somebody who has the temperament and good judgment to make decisions to keep america safe. And that should be very much on the minds of voters when they go into the voting booth in november. In terms of the threat that isil poses to the homeland, i think it is serious. We take it seer seriously. And as i said earlier, precisely because they are less concerned about big spectacular 9 11 style attacks, because they have seen the degree of attention they can get with smaller scale attacks using small arms or assault rifles or in the case of nice, france, a truck. You know, the possibility of, either a lone actor or small cell carrying out an attack that kills people is real. And thats why our intelligence and Law Enforcement and military officials are working around the clock to try to, you know, anticipate potential attacks and to obtain the threads of people who might be vulnerable to Brain Washing by isil. And you know, we are constrained here in the United States to carry out this work in with a way thats consistent with our laws and prezusumptions of innocence and the fact that we prevent these attacks from being carried out as well as we do, without a lot of fanfare, is a testament to the work these folks are doing. But it is always a risk. And some of you may have read the article in the New York Times today. I guess it came out last night online. About this individual in germany who had confessed and given himself up and then explained his knowledge of how isils networks worked. There was a paragraph in there that some may have caught and we dont know, you know, for a fact that this is true. But according to this reporting, the individual indicated that isil recognizes it is harder to getty operatives into the United States but the fact that we have gun law answers that barred them from purchase and they could go in and buy weapons, that may a homegrown extremist strategy more attractive to them. And those are the hardest to stop because by definition, if somebody doesnt have a record, if it is not triggering something, then it means that anticipating their actions becomes that much more difficult. And this is why the military strategy we have in syria and iraq is necessary but not sufficient. We have to do a better job of disrupting networks and those networks are more active in europe