LIVE: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki holds press briefing

foreign foreign um uh [Music] all right okay okay a couple of items for you at the top on his first day in office president biden directed the department of education to pause federal student loan repayments through september of that year he has since extended it twice today being the third extension millions of americans were struggling of course at that time to stay afloat because of the pause and repayments 41 million americans were able to breathe a little easier during some of the toughest days of the covet 19 pandemic today is america is stronger than we were a year ago and we will be stronger a year from now than we are today however as our administration recognized in recently extending the covet 19 national emergency we are still recovering from the pandemic and the unprecedented economic disruption it caused which of course is the root reason for this extension in order to enable americans to continue to get back on their feet after two of the hardest years this nation has ever faced we have announced earlier today of course the plan to the extension of the pause on federal student loan repayments through august 31st of this year that additional time will assist borrowers in achieving greater financial security and support the department of education's efforts to continue improving student loan programs um also would note uh one note on the covet funding bill we have made clear for months about our funding needs and at every step of the way we've provided the details that republicans have asked for even when they've asked for has changed in real time i have a little prop here i'm just gonna call him vanna over here thank you this is kevin munoz um this is 385 pages of information we have given to capitol hill and briefed them on how coveted funding has been spent what we need what the needs are these are the kind of details we have provided and constantly briefed members on the hill to make clear to them what the impact will be if we do not get this funding you can have access to this for a prop if you would like it as well we'll make copies for you thank you thank you okay but unfortunately as we've gone through before going back to january while we've worked going back to january with members of congress democrats and republicans on the funding needs we've hosted dozens of briefings we've held more than three dozen conference calls we've shared more than a dozen funding tables all available 385 pages and we've also given congress a full accounting of every dollar that's been spent on the covent medical response and a full accounting of the entire american rescue plan which as you all know goes well beyond the direct medical needs we've also provided all the specifics of planned additional funding how it will be deployed against the additional purchase of monoclonals and pills and vaccine vaccines and unfortunately even after senate leadership agreed upon a on a pared down bipartisan bill senate republicans decided to move the goal post yet again and force amendment votes on something completely independent of our covid response needs and at this point we the question we have is whether republicans are acting in good faith to provide the resources we need to save american lives or if they are just playing politics the virus is now waiting for republicans in congress to get their act together we know ba2 is here we know that it is more transmissible we know that it is leading to increased cases and we know we're already seeing an impact on our resources the program that reimbursed doc uh doctors pharmacists and other providers for vaccinating the uninsured had to end yesterday due to a lack of funds america's supply of monoclonal antibodies that are effective at keeping people out of the hospital will run out as soon as late may and our test manufacturing capacity will begin ramping down at the end of june so we're going to continue to work closely with congress to drive to a solution because the president knows that we can't afford an action in this moment it's going to require politicians stopping to stop skirting their responsibility to the american people covet is not over and we have an obligation to protect our country the american people and make sure we're taking steps to prepare finally last thing last night as you may have all seen we announced uh the authorization of an additional hundred million dollars in security assistance the department of defense announced uh to ukraine through president through presidential drawdown authority this package will meet ukraine's urgent need for additional javelin anti-armor systems which we have been providing to ukraine and they have been using effectively to defend their country the javelins have been one of the most effective weapons the ukrainians have been have deployed in combating russian tanks and russian armored vehicles they were critical in the defense of kiev and other areas and we want to ensure we continue to get them in the ukrainians hands we also continue to work with our allies and partners to provide ukraine with additional capabilities and expect to have more to announce in the coming days kevin's been out here before so i have already embarrassed him in the past and i will keep it short but kevin as many of you know is our coveted spokesperson kevin only recently turned 26 which means he can barely rent a car but he is he can now uh but he he has become an expert he is stalwart he works 20 hours a day and he is indispensable and so i'm very grateful to kevin and happy he's out here to provide the prop but also to provide all of you with many many answers on a daily basis okay with that zeke thanks jen um you just mentioned that kobe isn't over we just saw the president give this remarks to a very large crowd in indoors i hope we need to speak a little bit to how the president views such large galleries is that is that sort of thing he's trying to model for the rest of the american public that the risks for most people from koben now are lesser than they were a year or two ago before vaccines and treatments that sort of behavior now it's not something that should be stigmatized or and should be embraced sure i think what the president is doing is he is following cdc protocols and models and that's exactly what we would recommend the rest of the country do that includes getting vaccinated getting boosted getting an extra booster if you were eligible as the president did just last week and obviously taking any steps or precautions that the cdc recommends to keep yourself safe and obviously in washington dc uh we remain in a yellow zone and the president follows those protocols as needed last time the president tested i suspected you would ask this i've asked this question and i will get you an answer to that as quickly as possible um as you know he has tested his irregular testing cadence um is usually tested a couple times a week and we will venture to get you that as soon as possible after the briefing yeah different topic the us today sanctioned a number of russians including vladimir putin's daughters as well some other senior officials i thought you might be speaking about that sort of the administration was thinking about when our family members of russian oligarchs and russian government officials sort of fair game for sanctions and how you've waited and we've described the distinction between minors and adults in this case sort of you know collective punishment or trying to prevent them from covering assets with you know people who are not necessarily involved in the decision making in ukraine that is going to make you benefit from that well we've seen a pattern over time of uh president putin and russian oligarchs stash assets and resources in the bank accounts and of their family members uh and so this was an effort to get at those assets um and that's why these individuals were sanctioned but why the distinction between minors and adults well again we we look at uh where assets may be stored and stashed and make a decision and an assessment on what's appropriate go ahead um the new york times has a verified video that appears to show a group of ukrainian soldiers killing captured russian troops outside a village just west of key has the white house seen these videos do you have a response is this something you're investigating i have seen the video i don't have any confirmation or validation of the video or the report and uh so far the administration or the what the us has spent about two billion dollars since the beginning of this invasion obviously you know you've said the us is committed to doing everything it can to help ukraine in this fight but but if general milly is correct in what he said yesterday this really could go on for several years are these numbers sustainable over the long term can you keep up at this pace well i would say first just to reiterate what general milley said and the president has also been clear that there are tough days ahead for the ukrainian people there's a likely scenario where this could go on for some time and even as they have moved their forces and they've retreated from kiev they were treated from the north and the west and they're consolidating forces in the east and in the donbas and we've warned that we're entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time it doesn't mean it will look exactly the same or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same and that is something we will continue to assess in our conversations with the ukrainians as well as with our allies and partners around the world and right now uh just to note obviously our focus is on uh amping up and providing a range of military assistance the 100 million dollars for javelins is a good example of that as they earn an active uh fight every single day against the russian military also humanitarian and economic assistance and there will be different needs that will come about over the course of time and that's something we are of course committed to continuing to support uh their recovery from this their continued fight uh from this uh but i can't make an assessment about sustaining because obviously this war and the needs will change over the course of time and if this is a really protracted prolonged conflict uh given what the treasury secretary said today sort of warning of the enormous economic repercussions of this war for the whole world what does this mean for the economy in the us for the next year or two can you just give us sort of a big picture what americans should be bracing for well as we've made decisions about putting sanctions in place we've continued to do that through the prism of maximizing the impact on russia and the russian economy while minimizing the impact on the west and the united states obviously there are areas where there has been an impact including on the price of gas and you saw the federal reserve convey today the impact of the russian invasion on inflation and we know that to be the case um but what we're trying to do is mitigate those impacts uh and obviously not just the announcement of the strategic release from the strategic petroleum reserve but the announcement by the iae iea today is the largest release that they have ever done in history and all of these are part of our collective effort to impact to mitigate the impacts on the american people over the course of time even the length of time of the release from the strategic petroleum reserve meant to be a stop-gap measure kind of a bridge measure to get to the point where oil companies could produce more is intended to have a mitigation impact over the course of time so like what we're doing is anticipating and trying to take steps to reduce the impact on the american people over time following up on that iea question do you have a a detail or figure of how much oil has been released to the 180 million barrels today i'm happy to get that for you i'm sure that our team may have that but i don't have that in front of me can i ask a president today told union members amazon here would come was he endorsing the efforts of union of workers to unionize amazon facilities what what he was not doing is sending a message that he or the us government would be directly involved in any of these efforts or take any direct action what he was conveying is that is his longtime support for collective bargaining for the rights of worker networkers to organize and their decision to do exactly that in this case uh something that he has long supported broadly over the course of his career go ahead just back to the issue of the sanctions that are being imposed on putin's children obviously sanctions against him as well does the u.s have a rough estimate at this moment in time of how much of his assets are tied up versus what he still might have access to i don't have an assessment to offer from here on that but we know that we've seen attempts and efforts to stash assets uh in the accounts and resources of his children um a senior administration official earlier today was raising the question of putin's endgame game that at some point he would presumably recognize that this war has been a failure for him given some of the scenes that we're seeing in places like bucha and mario paul does the us believe that he is any closer to realizing that reality today versus a week ago a month ago well remember the scenes we're seeing in bucha are from events and atrocities that didn't happen yesterday they happened some time ago right and there will be more of those which our secretary of state and our national security advisor have also predicted unfortunately because there are a lot of areas of the country where russia has invaded and committed atrocities no doubt which we have not yet had visual access to i would say that i can't make an assessment for you from here on what is in president putin's mind what we do know is that because of the impact of the economic sanctions including the ones we have taken today and steps we've taken over the course of time we have seen an unquestionable significant impact on russia's economy and that has led to this question now as a result of the decision around whether or not they would be able to make a bond payment earlier this week that they will have to decide whether they are going to spend down uh dollars and resources they have to to avoid default or whether they're going to spend that continue to spend that money in funding the war and that is a part of our objective is to force them into a place where they are making that decision but we've seen russians economy collapsed by 15 percent wiping out the gains it made in the last 15 years inflation is spiking up to 15 percent russia is set to lose its status as a major economy and our objective is to implement those consequences to make it much more difficult for president putin to fund the war and we're seeing the direct impacts of that already and to make it clear that this was a strategic blunder and we're already seeing those impacts on the economy how that impacts him and you know that that is not something i can predict in terms of getting into his mind what is the administration's current assessment of what putin's endgame is and does the administration believe that that may have shifted since the beginning of the invasion well we um i would say that one while they have moved to their troops around and repositioned we have not made and they haven't made many airstrikes in the last 24 hours according to department of defense and their briefing which you may have seen or their backgrounder uh we also know uh that uh you know their goal remains uh weakening ukraine as much as possible um and we should be under no illusion that that objective uh hasn't changed even as their uh tactics have changed go ahead thanks jen um the president today as he was talking about his vow to stand by ukrainians added a line and by the way if i've got to go to war i'm going with you guys can you clarify what that meant there's no intention of sending troops to the ground or fighting a war uh between uh with the u.s forces against russia that was a reflection of his long love for labor unions and members of labor unions and the building and trades workers who were there and people that he would always love to be in the foxhole with not an indication of a change in u.s policy he also

referred to that heated exchange we saw that involved secretary austin and he said with regard to ukrainian troops we've trained them and we've given them the weapons um can you clarify what he meant by we have trained them what training was he talking about there was some some time ago training and we have provided them obviously a range of weapons over time what point he was making is one secretary austin made yesterday without the extensive military assistance that we have been providing the ukrainians the security assistance over the course of the last uh several weeks and and even months before that 1.6 billion dollars worth maybe a little higher now after 100 million last night they would not have been able to effectively fight back as they have and how it has basically worked as they have requested a range of assistance we go through and see what we are able to provide we often work with partners and allies to provide assistance we don't have access here and then we expedite the delivery of that over the course of time whether that is javelin stingers or a range of materials that are the us military has determined they're not only trained on but has been effective in fighting this war but aside from the physical resources what training was he talking about what was the latest training the us troops have done there's not new training to report out to you what he was really emphasizing and the important part here is what secretary austin was also talking about is the military equipment that has been provided that has allowed them to fight this war on sanctions you've said a couple times now that um you know the u.s sanctioned kun's daughters because there's reason to believe putin has stashed his wealth with them does that mean that the u.s

has some information about where the billionaire daughters are stashing their well i don't have any more to provide to you from here we make assessments about where to implement financial sanctions to get close to not only the assets of president putin but those around him and we have seen a long pattern of using relatives and family members to stash wealth thank you jen first on immigration our team in texas is saying that you guys are starting to give smart phones to border crossers hoping that they'll use the phones to check in or to be tracked i which part of that is supposed to deter people from crossing illegally into the states well i think you of all people since you've asked me a range of questions on this topic over time would recognize that we need to take steps to ensure that we know where individuals are and we can track and we can check in with them the alternatives to detention program is what we utilize as three unique forms of technology to monitor participants enrolled in the program telephonic which is one of them which is uses a participant's voice to create a biometric voice print during the enrollment process and when the participant has a check-in call their voice is compared to the voice print smart link which is another option enables participant monitoring via smartphone or tablet using facial matching technology to establish identity and global positioning system monitoring is of a participant's location and movement history using satellite technology through an ankle bracelet this is all part of our effort as individuals come into the united states and individuals who are entering who will proceed to immigration proceedings to monitor and track where they are with the telephonic though any concern by folks around here that these migrants will take the phones and just toss them do you have a record of people throwing phones away i'm just asking if that's a concern our concern is ensuring that individuals who irregularly migrate to the united states proceed through our process of you know of course being monitored but also participating in uh in uh in hearings uh to determine whether or not they will be able to stay i would note that nearly 80 percent of non-citizens released at the border from dhs custody under prosecute prosecutorial discretion have either received a notice to appear or are still within their window to report so actually the vast vast majority of people are appearing in part we have these monitors and monitoring systems in order to do that effectively on another topic was it common for president biden to do favors for hunter biden's international business partners like writing college recommendations for their kids i have i've seen the report i have no confirmation or comment on a report about whether or not the president when he was a private citizen wrote a college recommendation letter for an individual i a college recommendation letter though from at the time a former vice president would be a big deal so do we know what the president might have gotten in return for doing a favor like that again i have no confirmation of any recommendation letter the president wrote when he was a private citizen by the way not serving in public office that's even the report but he's the president now and you're his spokesperson correct and he was not the president at the time of this report so there's evidence that the president at one point was office mates with hunter and his brother jim here in d.c it's not accurate that is not accurate so when hunter biden is emailing a landlord uh please have keys made available for new office mates joe biden jill biden jim biden that you're disputing we're not office mates no they were not office mates okay great go ahead thanks jen um on student loans briefly you were sort of asked about this yesterday but i just wanted to come back to it so as people plan for the future um should borrowers expect that after august 31st they'll have to repay their loans or is there another is there a chance that it could be further extended after august 31st we'll continue to assess and what we look at well of course the economy is in a better state than it is than it was a year ago um and it's we have a strong recovery we also understand that there are a range of impacts that are still longer lasting because of the pandemic including the impacts on costs and inflation and this is part of the president's effort to help alleviate that as was fixed as the was the family glitch announcement of yesterday so we'll make an evaluation department of education we'll look at that on a range of factors as we get closer to that timeline has the president at this point ruled out the possible executive level cancellation on a wide scale of student debt uh he has not ruled out um but i don't have any update on that and i would note that again he would encourage congress to send him a bill uh cancelling ten thousand dollars in student debt something that he talked about uh looking forward to signing on the on the campaign just really briefly on the g20 yeah the secretary yellen said today that they may not that that the u.s might not attend meetings if russians are there is that is she implying that these would just be individual meetings or would it would it be a kind of broader scale boycott at the g20 in public she i think they have later clarified she was referencing at the ministerial level and more specific meetings i would point you to them of the more specifics the president has also said he said on the trip that he did not think russia should be a part of the g20 you know meeting um and i would note it's seven months away which is a lifetime in our uh in our lives but it wasn't an indication of plans for us to boycott or not attend it was just it shouldn't be business as usual which is something the president has also said is it a priority of the president to try to identify the russian units that carried out the atrocities in busha is that something the u.s may be able to do is it something the president wants to have happen we will continue to assist in every way possible with these efforts to track down data additional information and contribute to the international effort to do exactly that let me ask if i can a couple other questions that make news today a judge has just issued the first outright acquittal of the defendant charged in the january 6 capital riot this was a new mexico man matthew martin he was acquitted on some misdemeanor charges by the judge this man had claimed that he thought police allowed him into an entrance near the capital rotunda does the white house have any do now that that case has been due i don't have any specific comment on that case we continue to support the efforts of the january 6 commission and all of the members in trying to get the bottom of what happened that day to prevent it from happening in the future let me go back to one last question as it relates to what's happening in russia the u.s still doesn't have an ambassador to india it appears increasingly clear that los angeles mayor garcetti doesn't have the votes right now to be confirmed how does the lack of an ambassador to india impact our ability america's ability to pressure india not to work with russia in providing any aid or assistance well our preference is always to have a confirmed ambassador on the ground it's an incredibly important diplomatic position we also engage with countries through a range of channels and obviously our deputy national security advisor was just in india recently in the last few weeks conveying clearly what the consequences of violating sanctions would be and what the mechanisms are and also making clear that that we do not think india should accelerate or increase imports of russian energy and other commodities even as obviously those decisions are made by individual countries and also making clear that we stand ready to support india as in any efforts to diversify its imports and serve as a reliable supplier even as they're only importing about one to two percent of their oil from from india so we have a range of ways to communicate and engage and obviously sending our deputy national security advisor as an example of that but clearly our preference would be to have a confirmed ambassador president still support that nomination he does the russian ruble has been on the rise uh victor urban in hungary said today that he'd be happy to pay for russian gas in rubles that he's happy to buy more russian tax is there anything the u.s can do about

this are you engaging hungary on this point uh well i would i would first say in terms of the ruble the reason uh it's important to note that the russian central bank is making extreme policy decisions to artificially prop up the ruble so it's not actually on the rise it is being artificially propped up by limitations that they are putting in place including barring banks from selling dollars to customers russian brokerages are not allowing foreign clients to sell securities exporters are being forced to sell 80 percent of their dollar revenues and buy rubles so they are essentially manipulating it on their end um as it relates to hungary i mean slightly a different question but um our um you know obviously there was the recent election as you noted um of uh of victor orban um i would note that um our hungary's a nato ally continues to be we continue to cooperate on a range of bilateral and shared global interests including on nato defense and on humanitarian assistance they're currently hosting forces from an army striker infantry troop as part of a nato battle group we regularly conduct joint training exercises with them and we will continue to work to strengthen our partnership with hungary obviously uh reliance on the ruble is a decision individual countries will make and we've obviously made our views clear on that front so you have engaged hungary on this question that's not what i conveyed i just conveyed their nato ally go ahead can we go back to the sanctions as they were announced this morning the spare bank and the alpha bank connections i believe exclude energy they're full blocking technology excluding energy similarly the soe sanctions coming tomorrow also will not affect the energy sector can you speak to that balancing act is that because you're worried about domestic impact here in the us on the price of natural gas press gasoline or is that because the europeans asked you to sort of carve that out why or why why is that still sort of a bridge too far for the us on these sanctions they're not people blocking sanctions if they're excluding anyone well i mean i would say they're they're quite extensive given spare bank is uh the largest bank uh in russia and alpha bank is the largest private bank in russia so and in total we're now fully back more than two-thirds of russia's banking sector uh these conversations and discussions obviously are done in coordination with our european allies and partners and we continue to assess how we can maximize the impact while minimizing the impact on other economies including of course the global global oil marketplace and we've taken steps of course banning oil imports a number of countries including poland in europe have announced their intention to take uh steps but that's up to individual countries to make but it's part coordination assessment um with uh with other countries and our allies about the impacts but i would still say it's a quite a significant step given they're the largest bank in russia this was done because of the europeans saying hey you know this would be no this is but but we do update them and brief them on the steps we take and why and we look at the impacts on on how things will impact the united states how they will impact a range of our allies as we make decisions about sanctions very quickly in the central bank captions propping up the rubles do you have any sense of how long they're able to keep that up i don't have an assessment uh from here at this point in time on that go ahead thank you on the immigration with the lifting of section 42 there are a lot of democrats particularly democratic senators up for re-election who worry that you don't have a plan to either stop the spring surge of undocumented immigrants or handle it could you what do you say to those democrats well i would first say that title 42 is not an immigration measure it's a public health measure and one that congress has given the cdc authority to make a decision about and we respect that and think that's that's absolutely right um this is why the president proposed an immigration bill on his first day in office and we would certainly welcome efforts of anybody to work with us on that but as we're implementing this over the course of the next five weeks if i'm doing my math correctly we've also surged resources from the department of homeland security and we will continue to take additional steps to implement and make clear that this is not the time to come that there are there will still be significant measures put in place for anyone who tries to regularly migrate to the united states do you feel that you i mean what's your goal and what do you expect what what impact do you expect to have on the spring surge with those kinds of measures i would really point you to the department of homeland security to make any projections of that because we have not made any projections of what it will mean in terms of the uh the uh the ending of title 42 either thanks i know that you talked about the stringent measures you've taken to keep the president safe from covet that go beyond the cdc guidelines but that's such a visual contrast between that and the president showing up massless in front of people at some of these events so how do you make sure that you keep that protection bubble around him i'm sure you feel like you're asked to explain this ad nauseam but the bubble's looking pretty porous lately sort of enforced i would say first that we continue to take measures that go beyond what the cdc protocols are that includes ensuring that everybody who's going to see the president in a meeting is tested in advance or if you're traveling with the president you're tested in advance when possible we take steps to socially distance in circumstances which certainly the oval office and other meeting spaces in the white house allow for if an individual in the white house is a close contact they are asked to or required to i guess you could say wear a mask for 10 days after that exposure and they are also tested regularly following so i would say we take additional measures that go beyond what the cdc protocols and requirements are to ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep uh principal safe the president the vice president uh and others of course in the building was everyone tested before the eastern event tomorrow everyone who was there it's not at public events i'm talking about at meetings but again i can check on the protocols for public events sure have you changed any protocols surrounding him in recent days as more people are in the administration contract this virus we've continued to implement stringent and strict protocols i would note that even as we're looking at with ba2 a very transmissible variant as we all know and our public health officials have told us we've seen an increase in cases right in the country in the region among the press corps and certainly in the white house um and uh but it is not at this point what we saw during omicron um and what the steps we have taken here including a policy put in place to ensure that return to work was part of our policies in the federal government are meant to ensure that can continue to be the case and even while we have individuals who are out with with kovid everyone here is required to be tested highly recommended to be boosted people who are out because of that the vast vast majority have mild cases and are continuing to work from home and obviously we are continuing to implement the return to work policy and feel we have the measures necessary to do that what's the clearest version of the message that you're trying to send to americans about living with this virus even as infection rates rise i mean that it's not the end of the world if you get it if you're boosted i mean is that the message you send through the president who's maskless in front of hundreds of people that this this isn't the end that we have to live this way is that our recommend all right well the message we're sending is to follow the cdc protocols and guidance for where you live the president does that he did an event in washington dc today where it does not require mask wearing there are other parts of the country as you know where he's traveled and he has worn a mask where that has been the recommendation our protocols also here we and we would certainly project this to the american people are that getting getting um vaccinated and getting boosted and if you are immunocompromised are you over a certain age getting your next booster is certainly a way to help protect yourself that's something the president has done and every member of the senior staff and white house staff has done and will continue to do although some of us are teasing the people who are over 50 that we're not old enough yet but that's a side that's a sidebar when we are we will we will be doing that as well um so it is it is to follow the protocols and to recognize that the statistics show you are significantly more likely to be hospitalized and even to die if you are not vaccinated if you are not boosted and yes we are living with covet 19 we are continuing to fight it and our biggest message right now is that we need the resources from congress to continue to have the uh to to ensure we have programs for the uninsured that we can provide uh treatments for immunocompromise that we can make sure that we have testing mechanisms and booster mechanisms and we're going to we're at serious risk of of those programs not being able to continue the title 42 question you said that the administration will be taking uh additional steps to make clear this is not the time to come that was of course a pretty explicit message from the president and others last year do not come is that still the message on may 24th yes that as the u.s moves to end title 42 in may are there discussions now or is there any update you can give us on ending the testing requirement for re-entry into the us for people traveling here i don't have any update on that at this point in time that's something we will continue to evaluate i have a follow-up on sanctions and energy sure the european union said yesterday that they are paying russia every day a little more than one billion dollars for gas and oil how long can this go on in the president's view without undermining the collective effort to punish russia well i would say that we continue to believe that it's up to individual countries to make assessments about what additional measures they will be put in place while we are focused on continuing unity with our nato allies and partners and our european partners it does not mean that is always identical and different countries have to make their own assessments what we've also tried to do is take steps to uh to ensure there are other options to reduce dependence even if it's a small percentage and if there's a varying as you well know degree of reliance for these countries you're referencing on russian oil and some of them have taken steps to convey they want to reduce or end their dependence or import of russian oil and that's something certainly we'd support and play any constructive role in helping uh to helping expedite in a second follow up on the question about hungary are there any plans to engage with them about this particular topic of paying in rules at any level in the coming days or weeks i'm happy to check with the state department and see if there's any plans for engagement about it okay thank you you've talked about the increasingly picture of russia's economy over the years public reporting has shown that white supremacists and other domestic extremists have developed an affinity for russia is there any concern that as the russian economy continues to degrade that russia might try and inspire domestic extremist domestic terrorists to commit acts of violence on american soil in retaliation it's an interesting and scary question um i don't have any prediction or assessment of that nor have i heard a prediction or assessment of that from our national security experts or the department of homeland security i'm happy to check with them and see if there's anything on that front question okay all right gentle an american catholic nun has been abducted happened monday nights by gunmen and burkina faso in western africa her name is sister suellen tennyson she was doing missionary work there is the white house aware of that by a chance at her abduction i'm happy to check with our national security team and the state department obviously they would have purview over any steps to bring a sister tell me her name again tennyson and she's working in burkina faso in western africa sister tennyson back who clearly was doing incredible work uh humanitarian work it sounds like on behalf of the people in burkina faso i will check with the state department and see if there's any updates on this specific case yeah go ahead thank you oh okay all right um okay go ahead patty go ahead okay thank you i want to follow up on what you said yesterday about the lack of global covet funding um and you explained it essentially means that the us cannot turn the doses that you already have into shots and arms and i believe that the u.s has already purchased the 1.2 billion doses that is pledged and out of that there is about 680 million that haven't been delivered so my question then is what will happen to those doses i know like possibly you already have funding for delivery the cold chain storage training people and so on but what happens to the rest of it when you are unable to turn those vaccines into vaccinations well we're not quite there yet and our hope is that we will be able to turn them vaccines into vaccinations but as you know it's not just an issue of vaccine doses it's the know-how it's the capacity it's the tools and mechanisms to be able to store deliver implement getting shots into arms in a number of these countries which is why a number of countries haven't even been able to accept the doses that we've been able to offer because of that know-how and that is part of the program that is so essential to fund through usaid and other other of our international bodies to do exactly that but we're not quite at that point we're going to continue to press for international funding just like we are going to continue to press for domestic funding because we feel it's important and imperative that we continue to be the arsenal vaccines around the world how you want to do that is the goal to push for a separate package and global covert funding i'm not going to get ahead of where we are obviously it was disappointing to say the least that the package did not move forward despite an agreement on that uh yesterday afternoon but uh what i'm here to convey is that uh this funding domestically and internationally is is imperative uh it's uh it's urgent and we're going to continue to press for all of it i have one more question on uh visit to india which was also partly to uh to go on a listening tour for the build back better world that was actually scheduled to be formally launched early this year so if you can give us an update on that why is it not launched yet and at at this point do you feel that it is with you know with the projects with the listening tours uh with the pilot projects that are being planned is it robust enough to be introduced to the world as a viable alternative to china's belt and road initiative as you know the president has used his own time to talk about build back better world and how important it is to our efforts to rebuild infrastructure without the strings attached around the world um and um that that speaks to our commitment to it and obviously our deputy national security adviser taking a trip himself having a discussion about it as a reflection of our commitment to that in our efforts this morning at the monitor breakfast nec director brian diese mentioned a classified briefing that took place earlier today between lawmakers jake sullivan and others about quote escalating vulnerabilities around semiconductors can you tell us more about this meeting and was it an effort to get congress to hurry up on the reconciliation of the two related bills well i can't speak to the specifics of a classified briefing uh what i can tell you is that we can remain committed to supporting efforts to get euseka passed which includes significant funding for chips manufacturing and production which as we know is a big hindrance to our ability to manufacture a range of a range of items in the united states including cars and others that rely on chips and this bill has a great deal of funding for it so i think it was a reminder and more details that i can't get into from here on uh on on how important addressing that shortage and being able to produce them at home are moving forward go ahead as the uh administration sort of collects this evidence for a potential war crimes trial against russian officials does the u.s does the administration have a

preferred venue for where that type of trial might take place that there are obviously a few avenues available to the international community there are and there there's a lot of precedent and that has used different venues so at this point that determination has not been made uh what we are doing and i think i would point to first our attorney general's comments earlier today uh about the role of the department of justice in this effort moving forward uh but uh we have supported a range of efforts including uh the efforts by uh the ukrainian special prosecutor to uh gather uh information um and the work of the war crimes unit under the ukrainian uh prosecutor general sorry prosecutor general not special prosecutor and a team of international prosecutors who are working with them we also um in the last few weeks we helped establish investigations through the u.n human rights council and the osce of possible violations by russia and we welcome the investigation opened by the icc prosecutor so there has been different ways that war crimes unfortunately there are past instances and examples have been have been investigated and tried uh in the past and and we're going to support all of these efforts but there hasn't been a determination yet about what mechanism it will take has this effort changed at all the thinking of the administration as it relates to the relationship between the us and the icc well we are not a member of the icc as you know uh that hasn't changed we have supported and contributed data and information to uh icc investigations in the past uh there was uh we supported the u.n security council's referral of libya to the icc back in 2011 and if you look back to 2004 we also provided data and information to the icc investigation of darfur so there is past precedent even as we have not been members of the icc go ahead thank you jen a couple of follow-ups um when the president said that the u.s was training ukrainians was he talking about training that occurred during his administration i don't have any other additional details what he was really making a point about is what secretary austin said yesterday which is that without the extensive and robust military assistance we have provided the ukrainians would not have been able to as effectively fight and push back on the russian invasion and then he said amazon here we come you said that he was generally expressing his support for the right to unionize moments later though news broke that the sec was beating an investigation of amazon was that a coincidence no relation sec is an independent agency aware that there was an investigation not that i'm aware of one final one this administration has sent everything from medical supplies to laser guided rockets to the ukrainians right now while this administration is making them more lethal is the thought that we are bolstering their defensive capabilities or is the administration confident that we are bolstering their offensive capability to in fact you know expel russia from their borders well their country is being invaded so it's all defensive they're defending their sovereign country and the territorial integrity of ukraine using these weapons systems that the department of defense has long categorized as defensive systems you wouldn't go invade another country with a lot of these systems the vast majority of these systems that's not how you would go about it and obviously that is not what they're doing they're trying to protect their own people their own cities their own innocent civilians who are being invaded by a foreign power okay let me do one more in the back because i never got to the hound post and i today is the day there was a recent report that the president had expressed some frustration that uh the former president had not been charged without getting to the details of that there are lots of people being charged with um obstructing an official proceeding meaning the january 6th certification well the former president was doing that openly his administration was doing why wouldn't you charge i mean why hasn't the president come out and said that if that's the case well at first i've never heard the president say those words or say that phrase that was reported and i know ron clayton said something similarly so i i don't know we we each spend a lot of time with him um but i would say that the president from the beginning has felt strongly that the justice department and the attorney general must operate independently and any decisions about prosecution need to be made independently and that is the strength of our system even as the former guy ignored that and former president nixon ignored it as well the president does not want to be in that category of how you approach the separation of the white house uh and the department of justice and uh and he thinks that will even strengthen our systems as they've been weakened over the last few years okay thanks so much all right all right everybody see you tomorrow you

2022-04-09 19:00

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