MS. SANDERS: Thank you, Marc.

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Later this afternoon, the President, along with the Vice President, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, and Director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro, will host representatives from small and medium-sized companies that manufacture products here in the United States. We’ll be highlighting products made in American factories by American workers to our economy and how the process of certification ensures the integrity of the iconic Made in America label.

The Trump administration is dedicated to helping build, certify, and defend the Made in America brand so that American products can reach every shore and stock every shelf and American workers can reap the benefits. Unfortunately, the Made in America brand is under attack from a flood of illegally subsidized imports and counterfeit goods. Through a comprehensive plan involving multiple government agencies, the administration will continue to build and defend Made in America’s status as the world’s standard for quality and craftsmanship.

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Over on the Hill this afternoon, the House Ways and Means Committee will be holding a hearing on another major administration initiative that will provide relief for American businesses: reforming our overcomplicated and broken tax code. The House hearing today will emphasize how simplifying our tax code will help individuals and families, and small businesses like the ones visiting the White House this afternoon. Taxpayers will spend nearly 7 billion hours and over $250 billion annually to comply with the current system. The hours and dollars that businesses spend on compliance could be much better spent to grow their operations so that they can put even more Americans in well-paying positions.

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The Trump Administration is working from all angles to bring jobs back to our country by making it a better place to do business. This morning, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced that the first round of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement will take place here in Washington from August 16 to the 20th. These negotiations are beginning on the first possible day allowed by statute, and USTR’s swift actions are reflective of the priority the President has put on renegotiating this deal so that it is better for America’s workers, farmers, businesses, and manufacturers. USTR will be able to help you out with further inquiries on those negotiations as they proceed.

President Trump’s plans to strengthen our Southern border, which is another central part of his agenda to make America safer and more prosperous. The Army Corps of Engineers has begun to lay the groundwork for the construction of a wall along our Southern border, including drilling and taking soil samples in New Mexico, California, and South Texas. In addition, Customs and Border Protection, is currently evaluating design proposals, and we’re already seeing the results of the President’s focus on immigration enforcement. Since the President entered office, illegal border crossing are down by almost 70 percent, which is a historic low. The President is glad to see serious progress being made on one of his biggest promises he made to the American people.

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Finally, I want to welcome senior government of Iraq spokesmen and media directors who are visiting Washington as part of a State Department sponsored exchange program. During their visit, they participated in last week’s Coalition meetings and participated in a series of briefings at the Department of State. They’ve also done some press, both at the State Department and last week at the Pentagon, where they held a joint Press Briefing with Coalition spokesperson, Colonel Ryan Dillon. We’re glad to have them here with us today.

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And with that, I’ll take your questions. Jim.

Q Sarah, the Obamacare repeal has about one trillion dollars in cuts over time. If it doesn’t pass, those cuts would obviously be off the table. How then, can Congress cut taxes and move on to tax reform without jacking up the national debt? And will the President push for tax cuts knowing this will probably balloon the deficit?

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MS. SANDERS: I believe you heard from Marc that we’re confident that this will go forward, and we’re continuing to push for tax reform. At the same time, we’re working on developing that further and we’ll continue to do so and making progress on that front.

Matthew.

Q Thanks, Sarah. President Trump said millions of people voted illegally and cost him the popular vote, but it was said repeatedly at today’s Voter Integrity Commission meeting that the committee has no preconceived notions or preordained results, and Trump himself said that the committee shouldn't have conclusions already drawn. So which is it? Did millions vote illegally or do you guys not know? Because the White House has now said both.

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MS. SANDERS: No we haven’t. The President —

Q Well, you have, as I have just indicated.

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MS. SANDERS: Hold on. I let you finish your question. I’ll answer now. The purpose of the commission, I think we can all agree, both Democrats and Republicans, that we want the highest standard and the greatest level of integrity when it comes to our elections. And the purpose of the commission is exactly what you said. It’s fact-finding. That doesn’t mean that the President doesn’t have any thoughts and opinions, but the purpose of the bipartisan commission is to come together and to look at voter integrity across the board on a litany of different issues. We know there have been a lot of previous studies that have taken place. They’ll take those into account, but also not make any predetermined decisions on anything based on those studies but conduct a full review of their own.

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Q But the President made the conclusion that millions voted illegally and cost him the popular vote. Today he’s saying he doesn’t want this commission that he formed to investigate that to have any of their own conclusions. I’m still not understanding how he —

MS. SANDERS: I don’t understand how the President isn’t allowed to have an opinion while encouraging a committee —

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Q So that's just opinion.

MS. SANDERS: — to take a full review of the election process, which is what it’s setup to do. I mean, there are, again, a lot of studies that have been conducted on this that have facts that they will take into account, but the point is to have a full and complete review, which has never been done from all 50 states, and to make sure it’s as thorough as possible. And that’s the purpose.

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Q Sarah, there was a report that just posted that Trump will make the cost-sharing payments to health insurers this month. Is that correct? Has that decision been finalized that he will make those cost-sharing reduction payments?

MS. SANDERS: I believe that the decision has been made to make those through this month and determine beyond that.

John.

Q Sarah, it’s triple play Wednesday, if you don’t mind. First of all, there’s been a lot of talk about what happened in this chance encounter, or whatever you want to call it, at the G-20 dinner. Can you set the record straight as to how long the President spoke with President Putin and to the best of your knowledge, what they spoke about?

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MS. SANDERS: I think that once again the Russia fever has caught up with the media, and everybody ran out and tried to create a story that simply didn’t exist. There was an official dinner. It was made very public by the release of the President’s schedule as well as the official schedule of the G-20 that the President would be at the dinner, that he would participate, that the first lady would be at the dinner and participate.

This was something hosted by Chancellor Merkel. The seating arrangement were determined by the host, and you know, there were 40 people there to make it look — actually there were more than 40 because you had all the leaders, plus each delegation was allowed one translator to be present — and to try to create that there was some kind of private conversation in a room with 40-plus people seems a little bit ridiculous.

Q Sarah, how long did they talk? What did they talk about?

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MS. SANDERS: They had a brief conversation, and I’m not going to get in the specifics of the conversation. But again, this was a social dinner where the President spoke with many world leaders, as is the purpose. I think it would be incredibly awkward for them to all sit a dinner and not speak to each other, and I would imagine that all of you would agree with that.

Q Sorry, triple play Wednesday. Can you confirm that the President has ended the CIA’s program to arm moderate Syrian rebels, which is something that Russia was looking for?

MS. SANDERS: I can't at this time.

Q And then the third question —

MS. SANDERS: This is like eight play.

Q No it’s not. (Laughter.) You force the follow-ups. Does the President support the security (inaudible)?

MS. SANDERS: Yes, the White House does support that.

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Q Secretary of State on the Russia meeting — the Secretary of State provided a pretty full readout of the President’s conversation with President Putin in the actual one-on-one. Why not provide some sort of inkling of what was said in that conversation at the dinner? And secondly, why did it take so long for the administration to talk about this conversation?

MS. SANDERS: First of all, the first account given by Secretary Tillerson was a formal bilat, which is very different from a social working dinner with all of the leaders. He was seated next to the First Ladies of Japan and Argentina, and we didn’t offer readouts of either of those conversations.

As a set precedent, President Obama had a pull-aside in 2011 at the G-20 where there also was not a readout. In fact, ABC said at the time that it wasn’t necessary because it was a private conversation of a social gathering. There’s a very different standard that you guys like to draw between this White House and previous administrations, and you try to create a situation that frankly just wasn’t there.

In terms of how long, again, this was a publicly disclosed event. The President participated in an official dinner of the G-20 that was part of his schedule that was released publicly. You guys came and took pictures of it. It wasn’t like this was some sort of hidden dinner. The pictures have been replayed over and over. It was part of the official G-20 schedule, so to act as if this was some secret is just absolutely absurd.

Q There's a great deal of public interest in the candid exchange between these two leaders. Why did it take so long?

MS. SANDERS: Why did it take so long for what? I’m lost on your question here. I’m not trying to be dismissive, but it seems silly that we would disclose a dinner that we had already announced he was participating in. I’m not sure what other announcement should have been made. You guys have pictures of the event taking place, and it was on both the President’s schedule as well as the G-20 schedule.

Q But not pictures of those two together in their private meeting.

Q Sarah, is the President confident that the Kremlin translator was accurately conveying what he meant to convey to Vladimir Putin? I mean, it is typical protocol to have another official or translator there so that the Presidents can understand each other properly. Did he trust the Kremlin translator to portray what his thoughts were accurately?

MS. SANDERS: I believe so. Even members of the previous administration from the State Department said that it wouldn’t be advantageous for that translator not to be fully accurate.

Q Do you mean to say, though, that it wasn’t in depth enough or sensitive enough that he felt it a matter of a need to have accuracy and have someone else there? Because obviously there was a staffer — he was staffed for the Japanese translator.

MS. SANDERS: Right. Again, this was a social dinner and that was the nature of the evening.

Q I’ll go for the double play, Sarah, but let me follow up on Margaret here, and John, because this news from The Washington Post that the President is now going to end this program to arm anti-Assad rebels is obviously significant. Did this come up in that conversation at dinner?

MS. SANDERS: Not that I’m aware of.

Q Okay, so the second question then on the Election Voting Commission. The person that the President has installed to be the vice-chair, Kris Kobach, is now saying that nobody — we may never be sure if Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Also saying it’s possible, if that’s the case, we may never be sure if Donald Trump won the electoral college. Is that the position of this White House? That it’s unclear whether Hillary Clinton won the popular vote?

MS. SANDERS: I think it’s clear who’s the President based on the fact of who’s sitting in the Oval Office.

Q So then does he not trust Kris Kobach to be running this commission given those comments?

MS. SANDERS: I’m sorry?

Q Given those comments and if the President in fact does believe that the vote tally was accurate, does he not trust Kris Kobach to run this commission?

MS. SANDERS: Look, once again, the purpose of the commission is to look at how we can best uphold integrity in our election process. We’re not going to make any predetermined comments on their fact-finding mission, but what I can tell you is Donald Trump is the President of the United States, and he was elected by the people of this country, and he’s serving them very well.

Peter.

Q Sarah, given the private conversations that the President had with the Russian ambassador and the Russian Foreign Minister here in the White House where it was later learned that he revealed some sensitive information — classified information — to those Russian leaders, can you say with certainty that the President revealed no sensitive or classified information in any way to Vladimir Putin during that private conversation?

MS. SANDERS: Once again, I haven’t had a conversation about the details, but I know the nature of the evening was a social dinner.

April.

Q Sarah, piggybacking off of Peter, why didn’t you have a conversation with the President about it? Especially since it has been in the news. It’s, again, another cloud of secrecy, controversy, omission.

MS. SANDERS: It’s not a cloud of secrecy. You guys want to create one, but it just doesn’t exist, April. Sorry.

Q But have you thought about asking the President so that you can put to rest all of these questions?

MS. SANDERS: I haven’t had a chance to talk to him today. He’s been in the lunch for the last several hours.

Q And lastly, the NAACP said they sent a letter to President Trump in January for an invitation to be a speaker at their convention next week. Presidents going back to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush — a Republican President — and Barack Obama, have spoken at the convention. They have not received one word from this administration as to the President or any administration official, be it cabinet secretary or what have you, to speak. Is it under consideration or what is it? Because they said they have a lot of issues, to include issues of health care, they want to hear from the President about, and it’s not an organization that’s leaning to one party or another. It’s a 501(c)(3) (inaudible).

MS. SANDERS: My understanding is that the invitation has been declined for this year, but certainly the invitation for dialogue with that group would happily take place, and we would certainly like to be able to continue to do that.

Q When was the organization? When did they get the letter?

MS. SANDERS: I’d have to check on the exact date.

Q Because as of last night, they had no word of any kind.

MS. SANDERS: Again, I’ll have to check on the exact details, but that’s my understanding.

Q Yesterday you rejected any suggestion that the President would be responsible for the health care bill failure.

MS. SANDERS: The Obamacare failure. I’m sorry.

Q Yeah, right. Four years ago he tweeted, “Whatever happened, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.” If the health care repeal doesn’t move forward, will the President shoulder any blame for what happened?

MS. SANDERS: As I said yesterday and as Marc said earlier today, when we’re talking about the responsibility of the failure of Obamacare, no, the President is not going to own that. We are committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare and expect that to take place.

Francesca.

Q Thank you, Sarah. You previously said that the President and Vladimir Putin only talked about the sanctions related to election meddling. It now sounds like you haven’t spoken to the President about what they may have discussed at that dinner. So would it be true to say that you don’t know, at this point, whether other sanctions came up?

MS. SANDERS: My understanding is that the President only spoke with him about that specific type of sanction, and that was, I think, across the board comment from him.

Q And then I had a question about the travel, following up on Mr. Short’s comments. Will the White House commit the President to not taking any personal travel and staying in Washington for anything but the personal travel until the health care bill is done? That would specifically include the weekend trips to Bedminster or any of his other golf courses.

MS. SANDERS: As Marc said, that the President is committed to being here and working on the health care bill.

John.

Q Thank you, Sarah. Two questions. Mark Walker, the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said that the RSC draft budget is pretty much in line with what the administration wants except it wants to reform the three entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The President wants to preserve them, and he hopes to talk to the President about. I believe he’s already talked to Director Mulvaney. Is this something that the President is in cement on or that he would negotiate on?

MS. SANDERS: I’ll check and get back to you.

Trey.

Q Thanks, Sarah. Two questions for you. To follow up on Adrian’s question, where does the responsibility lie from the perspective of the White House on the pace at which the health care process has unfolded?

MS. SANDERS: I’m sorry, on the pace?

Q How quickly it’s unfolded and been addressed.

MS. SANDERS: As I’ve said before, we’re not as focused on shoving this through but making sure we get it right. We’re going to continue to push to fully repeal and replace Obamacare and make sure that gets done.

Q You’ve obviously spoken to the President about the health care push from the White House. Has he expressed any sort of concern about his domestic policy agenda and the speed at which health care has gone through? Is he concerned that this could affect tax reform, immigration, other agenda items that he has.

MS. SANDERS: He hasn’t mentioned that to me.

Q Sarah, let me pick up on that. An answer that you gave yesterday — I was hoping you could clarify as it related to health care and taxes. You said, “We’re not done with the health care battle. We’re going to continue pushing forward on that and hopefully get that completed and then transition fully to tax reform after that’s over.” It sounded like there you were saying that health care has to get done in order to move to tax reform. We know that health care reform is kind of in this neutral position right now. Is that indeed the case that tax reform still has to wait until whatever happens with health care gets settled or are you willing to walk from health care at a certain point and say we got to get going on taxes?

MS. SANDERS: I don’t believe it has to wait, but that’s certainly the preference.

Q Sarah, thank you. I just want to go back Marc’s answer on the President’s commitment to stay or go to stay in town. What he said was the President will be traveling, but I imagine the members will be traveling too. So why is it not fair to ask that the President stay in town if he’s asked the senators to do the same?

MS. SANDERS: I think Marc was referring to the weekend but not specifically taking recess. I think that is the expectation — is that they don’t take a full August recess until the health care bill is complete.

Q So we can expect to see the President go to Bedminster, perhaps, during this time?

MS. SANDERS: As always, we’ll keep you guys updated on specific details of the President’s schedule, but as Marc said, we plan to be here while the Senate is in session and get the health care bill completed.

Q Two questions. Just to clarify on the conversation between President Trump and President Putin at the dinner. So you’re saying it was very brief. Is that less than an hour, less than a half-hour? Do you have any time frame for how long that talk was?

MS. SANDERS: We weren’t following him around with a stopwatch, but like I said, it was a brief conversation and certainly not an hour.

Q And then the second question on a different topic. So the U.S. and China were having economic talks today about trade, and there were two press conferences planned for both sides. Both of those press conferences have been canceled. Should we take that as maybe there’s some issues with these economic talks going on — the trade talks going on with China?

MS. SANDERS: I would refer you to the Department of Treasury to talk about the details of those plans and whatever schedules they may have changed. I can’t speak about their schedule.

Abby.

Q Sarah, just a quick question. I think this was sort of brought up with Marc when he was just here, but did anyone at the White House ask Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie to go to the Hill on the President’s behalf to lobby lawmakers on the health care bill?

MS. SANDERS: I’m not sure of any asks that took place.

Q Are you guys aware that they are there doing this?

MS. SANDERS: I read a report saying that they were there, but beyond that I don’t have any knowledge of a specific ask made of them.

Q Is it possible that they were asked to do that from someone in this administration?

MS. SANDERS: I mean, I think these are both two people that strongly support the President, support his agenda, and that certainly I think very public given that they have been supportive of the President throughout the campaign and even in the administration. And I don’t find it surprising that they would advocate for the agenda of the White House at any opportunity they get. Just like many other supporters that were part of the campaign also support the President on many fronts.