08/13/20: Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Holds a Press Briefing

hello everybody this is a historic day and i have here with me senior adviser jared kushner ambassador robert o'brien they are going to summarize the story that was made today and answer some of your questions we also have special representative avi berkowitz here and special envoy to iran brian hook who will be here thank you kellie and thank you all for being here i want to start today by congratulating the people of israel and the people of the united arab emirates today is a historic breakthrough and a great day for peace i also want to congratulate president trump for this milestone, he worked very hard on this with his team, we worked with prime minister netanyahu and crown prince mohammed bin zayed, who are actually two visionary leaders who took a big step forward today to really change the region the last time we had An agreement like this in the region was in 1994 when Israel made an agreement with the Kingdom of Jordan that stopped the aggression and helped move CE forward in the last few years.

In the past 26 years there have been many developments in the region, some positive but many that have set the region back and led to many lives being lost, many opportunities and hopes destroyed and a region that has really had a lot of problems when the president trump took office we had an isis caliphate in the middle east that was the size of ohio we had a lot of instability iran's aggression was felt throughout the region many of their proxies were very well financed and causing instability in yemen and in syria and elsewhere and we are now in a position where we have been able to work with our allies many of our allies felt abandoned president trump has been able to rebuild those relationships his first trip as president was to saudi arabia in may 2017 where he outlined the problems facing the region and articulated very clearly that in order to progress we would all have to work together around to common goals and we would have to recognize We know the historical differences and the historical conflicts, but we cannot allow those conflicts to stop us.

President Trump's leadership. The ability to build relationships with leaders in the region. People were modernizing their society and realizing that we needed a new paradigm about President Trump's visit. a saudi arabia we made an agreement with many of these countries that we are going to start an anti-terrorist financial center and since then we have worked to limit the amount of funds that go to extremist groups we work with saudi arabia which is the custodian of the two holy sites and we worked with them to make a counter extremism center to combat extremism online and that made a big difference because you can't solve the problem in the short term without taking on the fight for the long term we have seen saudi arabia do a lot of modernizations in the last couple of years giving women more rights and taking steps in the right direction which have been very positive and now all the progress from ay really allows us to move forward uh to give you a little background on this deal this is something which has been under discussion for over a year and a half, we were talking to israel, we were talking to the united arab emirates about about moving forward obviously because of the israeli elections and other things that were happening in the region this is something that was talked about but it never got to the right place for it to happen as you know deals happen when deals are done and the peace. agreements are very rare and very historic, and there are many reasons why people would refrain from going forward, what we saw was when the president laid out his vision for peace, which we worked very hard on for a couple of years to try really understand the problems in the region between the israelis and the palestinians, he laid out 180 pages of details on how we can address the problems of the past, but also figure out how to move forward during that recognition president trump got israel to agree to have a two state solution with the Palestinians and, for the first time in history, accepting a map outlining the territory they would be willing to work with to see that it happened to show many people in the region that Israel was serious about really moving forward and making peace. and also showed them that President Trump's leadership and diplomacy could make things happen that hadn't happened before, uh , which happened when Israel was discussing with us providing, uh, to bring Israeli law and sovereignty to areas of the West Bank and apply it.

We had these discussions, and over the last six weeks, the discussions between the UAE and Israel began to accelerate around this being a potential different path. We all saw the option of Ambassador Oteva. ed that it came out that he said he thought that applying Israeli sovereignty to these areas would be detrimental to the region and a new course a new o An option was created that was discussed that ultimately both countries thought was a much more viable option to move on. Israel has agreed to suspend those efforts at this time, and as a result, we will focus on bringing these two countries together.

This is truly a historic breakthrough and shows that the leadership of president trump from the riad speech to today sees a very different middle east than the one he inherited and hopefully there are many more good things to come this is an icebreaker between these two countries this is the first arab country to normalize relations with israel in a long time 26 years since jordan and what we hope to see from there is more countries start to do the same um the last thing i will say is that uh here in america the bigger The threat that we saw in the last campaign was actually two things, one was isis, the caliphate was growing, we were seeing journalists being beheaded, we were seeing people being burned in cages and the threat of F isis was something that scared a lot of Americans and needed to be stopped.

The instability was providing a venue for extremists to plan attacks to plan all sorts of terrible things, and extremists were trying to radicalize the next generation. the biggest excuses extremists use to radicalize the next generation are the al-aqsa mosque and mosque saying it is being threatened and the fact that muslims cannot pray there this deal will allow flights from dubai and abu dhabi to tel aviv, which will allow muslims a real gateway to visit israel in peace and to come and pray in the mosque as often as they see fit. available they will share it with their friends and share the experiences they will share photos on instagram, facebook and twitter and people all over the world will see that the mosque is safe and all people are welcome there so this is a big step forward for the region, a big step forward for the country and a big step forward for the world and again i just want to congratulate the three leaders who worked very hard to make this possible uh prime minister netanyahu of israel crown prince mohammed bin zayed of abu dhabi and the president trump here in america thanks to jared for that summary and it has been an extraordinary job by several good diplomats uh working under the leadership of president trump to get to today's result uh jared kushner has been at the forefront of those efforts avi uh brian hook and others have done a tremendous job uh under the direction of the president uh to get to where we are here today and uh and i know jared you are not a dipl omatic you don't have a title ambassador title but we don't have a better ambassador huh especially in the region than uh adviser kushner so thank you for those uh those comments and for the really amazing effort i want to start by congratulating uh today the president of the united states uh al prime minister of israel bibi netanyahu and crown prince mohammed bin zayed this is a remarkable achievement and they have been the the achievement is now uh now it will be known in history as the abraham accords or the ibraham accords and the muslim countries or the accords of avraham in israel is something very special it is something that does not happen very often very few of my predecessors as national security adviser to have been able to come to this podium to announce a peace deal in the middle east is something very rare as i said before in the oval office today the president will go down in history as one of the change makers and one of the notable leaders in the middle east and that is not something in Whatever he thought when he took office, but one of his first steps was to repair our relationship with Israel, which had been badly damaged, especially in the last month of the previous administration, the president did something unheard of.

Many presidential candidates dating back two decades had promised that, if elected, they would move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem President Trump had the courage to do so and developed wonderful credibility and reserve of goodwill in Israel. He recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory and removed them from what could have been a very destabilized situation. I have seen it unfold in Syria. He destroyed the physical caliphate of ISIS, which, uh, Jared had said was the size of Ohio. It was spreading throughout the Middle East and, uh, terror was prosecuted. so many americans sotloff and mueller and kasich and foley he would put maximum

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ure on iran and cut off a lot of the terrorist financing that was going to ing a proxy war in yemen in hezbollah in lebanon in syria uh and in the whole region and today we have the abraham accords and he has brought peace to uh the middle east at least peace between the united arab emirates uh and israel and uh uh what i got said the president is often singled out as the best negotiator and he wrote the book the art of deal and he is considered a great deal maker which he is but i think history will remember the president for being a great peacemaker who brought peace to israel and the united arab emirates has signed a landmark body in afghanistan and i want to remind people that we haven't had an american combat casualty in afghanistan since feb 29th he used his offices and his uh, his

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ure to prevent idlib from being invaded in syria and he brought an uh, a ceasefire agreement when turkey He invaded northern Syria, a lot of people said that when he took office there would be a war in North Korea, but through his personal diplomacy he has prevented the situation from becoming a kinetic event, so it's really remarkable, I think when you step back and take a look at what this president has done on the peace front, uh and i wouldn't be surprised it will take some time in this environment but i wouldn't be surprised if the president is finally nominated for a nobel prize for the timing of this work today is an example of why i would be uh rightly considered and should be a front-runner for the nobel peace prize so i also want to compliment mohammed bins bravery i had the crown prince you know that there have been two other great arab leaders, king hussein in my lifetime, king hussein and anwar sadat, uh, who made peace with israel and now. mohammed bin zayed enters the pantheon of great and brave arab leaders and i want to congratulate the president, prime minister netanyahu in israel, who was under tremendous pressure to extend israeli law and sovereignty to uh portions of the country, but has faced the political pressure to make peace, something that may have been politically popular, but he put the interests of his country and his people first, so I think we have some very brave leaders. who worked with the president uh to come today on the tremendous historic deal today taking a step back from what this means beyond the historic idea of ​​a major Arab country making peace with Israel all these years after 1948 makes sense in so many different levels uh the uae and israel are capable security partners of the united states and close partners of ours in the region who oppose iran who opposes islamic extremism uh the peace agreement between these two countries will encourage and foster the cooperation huh in in those efforts these are very innovative countries huh israel is huh it's called the startup nation and for those of you who have been there it's like you're driving through palo alto through half the country the united arab emirates is also a very innovative country, bringing those two nations together will create a dynamic of innovation and creativity, in the region, and both countries are populated by people incredibly dynamic there are tremendous opportunities that will come out of this deal jared talked about the idea that arab pilgrims and muslim pilgrims go to the al-aqsa mosque going up the hill and have a chance to pray in peace in israel as they know the president has made religious freedom, especially religious freedom in the Middle East, a central point, a centerpiece of its foreign policy and this is a big step towards fulfilling the idea that the three great religions that came from the holy city , christianity, judaism and islam will be able to pray and interact peacefully together in that beautiful tourism city of jerusalem with abu dhabi and dubai and the other emirates have become meccas for t tourism especially before the chinese virus the virus of greed, uh, israel is a great land for tourism, uh, that will expand trade between the united arab emirates andisrael which have amazing economies, and again like us as we recover from covid uh this deal will help the economies of those countries and countries in the region to expand and i think they will see an increase in jobs in all three countries As a result of these agreements regarding the peace process in general we have a great team, that team will be deployed, we will be working on the phones, we will be in the region and we believe that there are other countries waiting in the wings. that they are going to watch and see how, the tremendous response to the courage of prime minister netanyahu and the crown prince, has been received by his people and by the world, i mean, i have already been on the phone with several europeans. counterparts who have called us to congratulate us on our role in this agreement, but who are some of whom are astonished that this has happened and we also think that this could lead to great business for the Palestinian people, so it is a people that the President of the United States, Trump, has not been forgotten and has endorsed a two-state solution.

He wants to see the Palestinian people a prosperous country of their own and the foundation has been laid for that, so I think we'll be working. very hard with those efforts in the next uh months and uh and year so again today is a great day it is a great day for the people of the united arab emirates it is a great day for the people of israel for their leaders and it is also a great day great day for the united states of america as we play a role that we have traditionally played around the world and get to mediate difficult situations and bring peace and prosperity to our friends and neighbors and uh and again i am honored to be part of the president's team on this and again and again we will end with congratulations to the president for his leadership and again to prime minister netanyahu and crown prince mohammed bin zayed thank you very much i will start with Steve who has agreed to suspend his annexation plan in West Bank, so the suspension will last.

It will take a while for these agreements to fully kick in and go away, and I think right now Israel is coming into focus. apply is towards building this relationship, the opportunities that are now created because of this from an investment standpoint, from an innovation standpoint, from a health standpoint, from a of tourism and, what is more important, for both countries from the point of view of security. point of view are very strong and I think for the foreseeable future you will see both countries focusing on that. I also think that Israel sees a lot of exciting opportunities in doing what's being done today with other Arab and Muslim countries as well, that's going to really be the focus as far as where we're going to work with them and you know one thing I also want to do is recognize to the tremendous team that has worked on this to date, obviously. the astute

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pompeo has been leading the efforts, the vice president has been very supportive and then obviously avi berkowitz and brian hook have been tremendous along the way both in getting to today and in the steps that are likely to be taken, so that's it you guys are touting this as a nice step forward but Palestinian officials are already criticizing it um if you don't agree how is this a good deal right now so look they have a Pretty predictable response we've seen time? and once again to all sorts of things that help improve the lives of your people, let's just focus on the facts of what's going on and let's focus on how to push things forward.

We presented a very detailed 180-page plan that we got Israel to agree to negotiate. based on that invest 50 billion dollars in your economy that allows you to double your gdp uh over 10 years that can create a million new jobs help your people have a much better standard of living us a too I got Israel to agree to have self-determination, have a safe environment, and then on top of that figure out how to create the right land, the right land, the outcome that we can move on to, so look, I think a lot of the people in the The region is seeing that we cannot wait for the Palestinian leadership to try to resolve this each country is going to do what is best for it what is best for the region and we have big problems in the world and we can't stay stuck in the past , we have to move on now, I'll just say that a big part of what motivated the UAE to move forward at this time and take the risk that they're taking is the notion that they didn't want to. to see Israel take the provocative action of applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, which hopefully gives the Palestinian leadership more space to come to the table and make a deal, so I don't know if it will happen tomorrow, I don't know if it will happen on next month I don't know if it will happen next year but at some point always learn with agreements that there is a thing called gravity and right now you are in a situation where Israel has said it is open to making peace, a lot of people in the region has done. he supported the view that the president put forth, uh, one thing he's seen with the president, he's a deal-making president, right? and part of being a deal maker is not always showing his cards again. we announced it the president had a very strong strategy for the middle east that we have been executing piece by piece day by day and we have seen that things have been improving the problems have been resolved the president has been taking things off the table uh you know, culling sacred cows that were holding people back and so if you look at today's snapshot and look back at the snapshot of where the president was when he started, you have a very different Middle East and that's not by accident, So I think over time we're going to continue to ask ourselves two questions with that number one conflict: are we doing things that make Israel safer versus less safe for the Israeli people?

That is the strongest ally of the United States in the region with this. step, actually, uae joins a very exclusive club and really becomes one of america's closest allies in the region and then number two is that we are taking steps that enable palestinians to live a better life and, so you know there are many people who find historical traps where they can find excuses not to move forward but president trump is focused on creating a bright future focused on progress and improving people's lives so i will just say today that this is a breakthrough, this is a public thing uh we have a lot of things going on in private right now that are pretty exciting and I think again that in the next couple of years if the president can move on you're going to see some historic changes in the region that they will really make the world a much safer and better place thank you thank you i appreciate uh only when i ask uh adviser o'brien uh you mentioned anwar sadat and i'm just curious see or do you imagine a kind of sadat, uh, megan carter, imagine a moment like that for the leaders because that's something that I think people remember, I mean it was 79, but going back to that moment, no, I think we'll have a formal ceremony signing ceremony at the White House and we will have to see who comes from the different countries, but I hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu will be here and the crown prince or one of his, one of the others. the princes would probably be here in Washington and I think it's going to be a great day and then really uh uh i i i as you know I don't normally talk about uh things that uh were said on the presidential phone calls but one of the leaders said we've had a tough 2020 and this is like the best news of the year this is really good news this is great news for the American people and it's been great to see how the press has reacted in a somewhat polarized time I think this is a of those stories. that everyone, regardless of their political stripes, uh, they're into that kind of thing, they're all excited about the fact that a Muslim Arab government is making peace with Israel and we'd love to have them here at the White House, I think the president I would very much like to host them, so I think we will have an event sometime in the not too distant future.

I could follow up on something you mentioned earlier. He talked about visionary leadership not just in the region but more generally, including the president to make something like this happen, it actually seemed pretty positive, if perhaps cryptically, that maybe something could happen again soon to keep this inertia going. in maybe another country, do you have the feeling that yes? If this er there's a good chance we could have a similar announcement here in the next let's say 90 days 80 days I think there's a very good chance now one thing I'll say about the president is that uh one of the things you see in great leaders there is a sense of optimism and the president is a great leader for the country because he always wants to put up a positive front and get people to do more than they are capable of and help people achieve things that people don't think are possible, so her optimism is one of her great traits as a leader.

I will say here that we have had several discussions, obviously, we stopped those discussions because it seemed like it was going to work and it was very important. to the united arab emirates for being the first to want to make history and to do it, but we have several more that we have had talks with and now we will continue those talks to see if we can move forward. at the end of the day it is an inevitability the right people in the world want to move forward the middle east has to fend for itself we have some great allies there we will continue to work with them and help them but we would like to see a security architecture and an economic architecture where the people have the security and ability to live a better life to have jobs to have prosperity and people need to believe that their children could have a better life than they can have and once that happens people will choose a job over uh on some of the other less good areas that extremists are tempting you to go thanks a couple of questions first you mentioned flights can you tell us how quickly you expect those flights to start opening embassies? to what extent is this strategy part strategy and i hope iran isolates itself further i think iran is iran if they want to move forward again the president has been very clear he is not going to pay for a meeting but he is always happy to talk to the people and that's part of him being a dealmaker and that's why again he was able to make this deal, he was able to make the deal for OPEC, plus he was able to make the US, Mexico, um, Canada deal. he did make the trade deal with japan the deal with korea we were able to get fifa 2026 the olympics 2028 the president is a negotiator so he will always be flexible i think seeing the best two coming two of the best militaries in the region together It should be something that people take note of because it shows that again people are figuring out how they can optimize and I think Iran has benefited from divide and conquer through their proxies and they have tried to create instability and they have tried to divide the Middle East, so they have always taken advantage of the Palestinian issue and have tried to stoke fear around that issue and have used it to prevent people from joining Israel. you don't know isra elis ever killed an emirati right there there's not um that hate between peoples so it doesn't make sense so i think uh we'll start to see interactions very quickly and both countries are very motivated, both from an economic point of view a tourism point of view from a health point of view from a technology point of view to start moving forward pretty quickly if I could keep up with you has been in the headlines recently alone to give him a chance to respond can you tell us why you met with kanye west did you discuss the election in any way so kanye has been my friend for 10 years and you know we talk from time to time about different things and we both happen to be in Colorado and so we got together and had a great discussion about many things, he has some great ideas for what he would like to see happen in the country and that's why he has the candidacy that he's been doing, uh, but then again, there are a lot of issues that the president's champion looks up to and, uh, it was great to have a friendly discussion. we got a request to hold temporarily on annexation from president trump he said since a temporary hold is not taken off the table I am telling you how long is temporary because they said it could be a long time and they got assurances they will adhere to that somewhere between a long time and a short time that's what temporary means, but that's important for them to know how long temporary it is he says he's not off the table it's not canceled it's just postponed watch our discussions with the principal The minister has been very extensive in the last three and a half years.

We have a lot of trust between Israel and the United States. We have done many historic things together. The people of Israel trust p. resident trump to make the right decisions that are in the best interest of israel's security and prosperity and obviously prime minister netanyahu and president trump have a very close relationshipnarrow. at the right time again and again you know it's not a binary thing moving forward or there aren't a lot of details there are a lot of things that need to be considered and we had a lot of those discussions over the next few months and then obviously we put those discussions on hold when this happened, so i imagine at some point in the future this is something that will be discussed but today is a big day this is a breakthrough this is a game changer for israel this is a game changer for the medium this and it's a game changer for the world so I think for the time being people will focus on that and focus on how to optimize from that tremendous opportunity. discuss the campaign your campaign with uh kanye west uh we had one more general discussion on politics let me ask you about a different deal one here in washington democrats republicans are two and a half trillion dollars apart it seems from your point of view do you think it's possible in this moment of a phase four deal that comes together working with president trump for the last five years on the campaign trail and through the government i would just say with president trump anything is possible so you never know the president achieved a lot things that people thought would never get done and, uh, but to comment specifically on the deal, I'll leave it up to the negotiators, as we seem to have exhausted questions on this topic. security council resolution to extend the arms embargo on Iran, but it is not shorter, a lot of harsh language on Iran has been lost, but there is still the danger of a veto.

In Russia and China, some observers say the administration risks losing faith if it can't win support for this deal. president trump is always going to do the right thing either lose face or there is a russian veto or a chinese veto if the chinese or the russians veto the continuation of the arms embargo i want to start sending arms to iran and destabilize the region that is they and that's not up to us so we'll always take the right position and not worry about what the Russians or the Chinese might do at the UN if we did that if we worry about that all the time We wouldn't do anything at the UN.

We also have other tools that we will use to deal with Iran to make sure that weapons don't flow under Iran. Let there be no further destabilization of the region. They are tools we can use. Allied diplomatic and there are other tools that we have and no one in the region wants to see Iran on the receiving end of a bunch of Russian migs or Chinese missiles or Chinese drones the region made it very clear we have made it very clear that Israel has made it very clear , so I don't think that is in the interest of anyone in the world, it is not in the interest of global peace, security and prosperity, uh, so we will continue to prosecute our case at the UN. i'm going to hope for the best i hope the russians and chinese do the right thing uh they should do the right thing and uh and if they don't do the right thing uh well we have uh we have backup steps we'll take snapback certainly one of the tools we could use and uh and uh that's something we're looking at very closely and uh it wouldn't deviate look what we're focused on right now is the vote to extend the arms embargo we would like a clean renewal of the arms embargo we would like to see our allies get behind it if we I'd like to see the Russians and Chinese back him, I just can't imagine any leader anywhere in the world who thinks it's a good idea to put advanced weaponry in the hands of the Ayatollah and his regime, especially in the Middle East today.

I mean, that doesn't make any sense, so I hope the countries in the UN security council do the right thing, and they will repeal the arms embargo and keep it in place, but if that doesn't happen, we've got it. We will take the necessary measures and one of those measures could be a quick recovery. Many thanks to Senior Advisor Jared Kushner and Ambassador O'Brien. I will answer some of his questions on other matters. Do you have any? yes oh thank you caitlyn um the president has written to miranda to give five states 100 of uh reimbursement for the costs of the national guard dealing with the coronavirus several governors are also trying to get on that list including nevada governor steve sissellach um have you had a chance to set up a time for them to talk and the national governors association says uh says the criteria for being one of those states that gets 100 not 75 is unclear can you tell me how you make the cut where you? re 100 not 75 percent so first let me note that in march president trump became the first president to authorize the use of the national guard under title 32 status with 100 percent cost sharing the president supports the men and women of our national guard this is a seldom used tool but the president was willing to take this decisive action uh 75 percent cost sharing still gives states unprecedented tremendous support and states can use their dollars from the coronavirus relief fund to cover the remaining 25 percent if they need um specifically some states presented direct cases to the president and he forced himself to support them 100 percent, but I won't go state by state as to how things stand.

Can you explain why some states answered yes? Payroll facts question and uh pre yesterday's comments from a resident what did he mean when he said he was going to end the payroll tax and a side question if reelected what should Americans believe about his commitment to safety social? Yes, he has an unwavering commitment to social security making sure it's fully funded and our seniors are well cared for. I've heard him express that in private, in private and in public, a myriad of times. What he wanted to say yesterday is that he wants a permanent pardon for the postponement.

Of course, he has deferred the payroll tax. end of the year and wants to make next year a permanent waiver of the deferral because it's very important specifically to low and middle income Americans as it's a long term regressive tax even though he thinks the payroll tax should disappear um the president is very clear on this matter that he wants a permanent pardon of the postponement um that is as far as he has gone and he has gone um even further to say h We will make sure that social security is fully funded. to vote by mail um so first let me note that i voted absentee the president voted absentee has always voted absentee for a reason that he's not there for is mass mail voting or maybe to make mass voting even more clear by mail where everyone is on the voting rolls a ballot is mailed out voting rolls in los angeles county for example you have one hundred and seventeen percent of the county registered to vote how does that make sense floating ballots would be subject to potential fraud which the president is strongly opposed to but he has always been absent for a reason we learned today that approximately 15 and a half million americans are still out of work nancy pelosi spoke with the

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yesterday treasury there was apparently no progress on that call for the 15 and a half million Americans and millions more who give a damn about the politics of everything you would tell them comes next considering that nothing seems to be moving in terms of of policy going forward, yeah, what I would say is this, um, you know, secretary mnuchin said yesterday that I'm willing to move forward with legislation that provides funding for schools, child care, food, vaccines, hospitals, ppp for rent of small businesses. assistance broadband airports state and local government assistance and liability protection for colleges and businesses he has been unmistakable this administration has on this president he is willing to move on that what we are not willing to do uh he is rubber stamp a giant 3.4 trillion dollar deal that the democrats proposed was fundamentally unserious that would have made vote harvesting mainstream was a wish list democrats that's what we won't move forward with but this president of all has taken action serious action on eviction protection serious action on unemployment insurance in a payroll tax cut student loan forgiveness in his executive capacity and what i would say the state of affairs now is you know you have nancy pelosi saying we're willing to go down a billion if they went up a billion well, it's fundamentally unserious because the democrats the chief of staff told me wouldn't even tell us huh what they would take out of 1 trillion so they said we would cut a trillion but they didn't list the things they would take off their wish list democrat so Nancy Pelosi needs to come back from recess and negotiate because the Americans deserve better conservatives who have argued that three trillion dollars or so has already been spent and that there is no need to spend more if there is no deal that is viable is the house whi from the position that since three trillion has been spent, that's fine, we don't need to spend more, the president cares about what's best for American families, he wants to see funding for our schools, direct payments to Americans, he has protected Americans. people in every way that you can in your executive capacity, but as you noted in terms of, um, the fiscal cost of things and the height of this, when the economy shut down, a two trillion dollar deal was negotiated, uh , after when the economy reopened it was a trillion dollar deal so for Democrats to say we want more than we even negotiated and approved during an economic shutdown and to say we need $3.4 trillion is really a unserious proposal kevin thanks kaley uh your reaction to unemployment claims dropping below a million 1.7 1.7 million new jobs too and blue state governors are politicizing school closings says the president what did he mean by that yeah what means b and it is that when you look around the world, many countries in the western world have opened their schools and we, as the United States, can do the same, we can find a way that the president This entity, the White House, has published a guide on how to do that.

It happened, I mean you don't want a child to have a decision that's so important to our children that it gets politicized because you think it's in the public interest for the child's health to go back to school and I've listed for you, um, all the reasons why previously um and what was your first question on your sub million job claims uh how surprised are you that that's the number and the direction we're going it doesn't surprise me because under this president he was the great president jobs once brought us the greatest economy in modern history once and it will again and this is further proof that seeing jobless claims fall below a million thanks to a July jobs report that topped the expectations and of course the previous two successful jobs reports are in line with the good manufacturing numbers we've seen and many other metrics this is the president already making sure we have a rebound economic uh that surpasses europe and other countries has the president been informed? on the Russian coronavirus vaccine he doesn't think it's a viable vaccine, the president was told he's also been told about the progress of our own vaccine on one thing to keep in mind and I think Dr.

Fauci made this point: our vaccines go through a rigorous phase three clinical trial where we have 30,000 people that we test to make sure they're perfectly healthy and moving forward, that's the kind of standard we have for American vaccines and it's important that we do that, but i think we will have a vaccine by the end of the year and the president before then is making hundreds of millions of doses of these vaccines in anticipation of one being successful chanel thanks haley um going back to iran and russia as geopolitical players in the middle east There have been sources of instability there, as we discussed, but how confident is this White House that Iran and Russia will finally fall into their respective lanes in the coming or of this deal and the deals to come, well, look, we think there's a big contrast here, and where is this administration and the previous administration and when you look, um, excuse me, the obama biden administration got close to the haters from the United States, uh, the Iran deal. it was egregious we know there were cash payments to iran and what this president has done is diametrically opposed working with our allies working with israel negotiating a historic peace deal the likes of which hasn't been seen in a quarter of a century so when you work with our allies when you engage in diplomacy when you have a great deal maker as president you get deals like the one we saw today and it's a stark contrast to what we saw in the previous administration yes the former vice president biden agrees that annexation would pretty much end with any possibility of a two-state solution that would secure israel's future as a statejewish and democratic and i would stand up for the right of palestinians to settle so i'm not going to go further into the state of peace in the middle east i would refer you to nsc on that but today we are focusing on the historic deal that was made yeah , the president was aware of these 2000 letters between him and president kim that apparently will be published in bob woodward's new book did he sign that? um, i haven't even looked into that or talked to him about today we're focused on bringing relief to the american people and the historic deal mario thanks the president's executive order on wechat block apple from distributing that app on their platform and, if so, what does the administration say about concerns that it could be hitting a US company and diminishing its competitiveness?

So the only comments I have for you today on tick tock and wechat is this the president signed those two executive orders exercising his authority under the international emergency economic powers act to address the threats posed by tick tock and wechat the administration commits to protect the American people from all cyber threats and these apps collect significant amounts of private data about users and such information can be accessed and used by the People's Republic of China and tick tock has a documented history of censoring free speech to Comply with CCP propaganda and we take American data very seriously One other thing I wanted to clarify, um, is that Speaker Pelosi has been fundamentally unserious in these negotiations and has engaged in blatant partisanship.

Which is why I spoke to the Office of Management and Budget, they said states have given each other more than $1.2 billion in election assistance grants since fiscal year 2018 and we estimate they have spent less than a sixth of those funds on these three years and they still have over a billion of those funds right now that have not been spent, so we encourage speaker pelosi to follow in the footsteps of the suggestion of congressman ro khanna from her own party, who said that i think congress should be in session i think it is absurd for congress to take a break during a pandemic and a national crisis i can tell you a person who has not had a break it is this president bringing relief to the american people thank you and He'll be here at 5:30. thank you so much