00:00Thank you Caroline, regarding the president's speech tonight, he's been in
00:04office over 540 days now. If what he says is tonight is backed up by evidence, why
00:09hasn't anyone been charged? Well he hasn't revealed it yet, he hasn't
00:14declassified the documents yet and you will see what he says tonight and then
00:17we'll move forward appropriately from there. So will charges call up tonight from the Justice Department?
00:20I don't speak on behalf of the Justice Department, Caitlin, you know that, Rachel.
00:23By evidence, will there be charges? You'll have to ask the Justice Department, I don't charge people, I just speak
00:28on behalf of the
00:29president. Rachel. Why is it that across the administration you can't say
00:34what the imminent threat against the United States was that required us to
00:40launch this? And also Prime Minister Starmer told Parliament today that his
00:45reason that he didn't allow the use of British bases was that he was not
00:50satisfied that there was a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan. Was there
00:56an attempt to provide the UK government with a legal basis for these strikes and
01:02a viable thought-through plan? To the first question, I completely reject the
01:07premise of your question. You have had the President of the United States, the
01:11Secretary of War, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice President of the
01:15United States, the Secretary of State, and now I am out here today to explain to
01:19you exactly what led the President to make the decision to launch Operation Epic Fury. And
01:25President Trump does not make these decisions in a vacuum. This decision to
01:29launch this operation was based on a cumulative effect of various direct
01:34threats that Iran posed to the United States of America. And the President's
01:38feeling based on fact that Iran does pose an imminent and direct threat to the
01:43United States of America, based on the fact that they are the world's leading
01:47state sponsor of terrorism, based on the fact that they were rapidly and
01:51aggressively building up their ballistic missile missile program to give
01:58themselves immunity within their country alongside their Navy so that
02:01inside their country they could continue to create nuclear weapons and
02:06nuclear bombs, which would of course pose a risk to Americans in the region and
02:12even Americans one day here at home. And then another point on this is the
02:16President found that through these extensive exhaustive failed negotiations with
02:20Iran that they were hell-bent on death and destruction. So again, the President was
02:25not going to be just another President on a very long list who sat back and
02:29stood by and passed the buck of this direct threat to the next administration. The
02:34President had a feeling again based on fact that Iran was going to strike the
02:38United States, was going to strike our assets in the region, and he made a
02:42determination to launch Operation Epic Fury based on all of those reasons. And I
02:46would like the media to actually report on all of them rather than just picking
02:50sound bites from one person in this administration and saying, oh they're
02:54contradicting the other person. No, again, these decisions are not made in a
02:57vacuum. They are made by the President's feeling that Iran was going to strike the
03:02United States and our assets in the region, and he was not going to sit back and
03:06watch that happen. The determination was made that the President was going to
03:10strike first alongside Israel, and that has obviously been proven to be the right
03:14decision and an effective one at that. As possible.
03:18Is the President more determined to go after Tish James and James Comey?
03:22Go ahead. Is the President more determined to go after Tish James and James Comey?
03:26Excuse me, I'm answering a question from you. You turned and looked at me, I'm sorry.
03:29I turned and looked at you because you're yelling. I will take a question from your
03:32colleague and then I'll take your question too, okay? If the economy is as strong as
03:36the President has said it is, then why is he telling parents two weeks before
03:40Christmas that they should only buy two or three dolls for their children?
03:43Look, what the President is saying is that if we want products made right here in
03:47America, if we want them to be made from American small businesses, which is a large
03:52part of the reason the President has effectively implemented tariffs, then we're
03:56going to have better quality products right here in the United States. Maybe you'll
04:00pay a dollar or two more, but you will get better quality and you'll be
04:03supporting your fellow Americans by buying American, and that's what the
04:07President was saying. Again, with respect to affordability, every economic metric,
04:12Caitlin, and I wish you would report more on it, does in fact show that the economy is
04:16getting better and brighter than where it was under the previous administration. I
04:20will repeat, inflation as measured by the overall CPI has slowed to an average 2.5% pace.
04:27Real wages are increasing, roughly $1,200 for the average worker. Gas prices are down in almost
04:33every single state across the country. Again, in 22 states, it's below 275. You look at the tax cuts,
04:40those are going to go into effect next year. So, the best is yet to come. The President is digging
04:45our country out of the economic hole that the previous administration put us in, and that's
04:49what he's talking about.
04:50The Press is down from where it was a year ago, as you know, and grocery prices have been up.
04:54So,
04:54we've covered the economy, but there's mixed signals in terms of what that looks like.
04:59Inflation is down from where it was. As measured by the overall CPI, it has slowed to an average
05:032.5% pace. This is down from what the President inherited. The President inherited 2.9% in January.
05:10Today, it's at about 2.5%. So, we're trending in the right direction with more to come. And I would
05:14remind you, when President Trump left office in his first term, inflation was 1.7%. And the previous
05:21administration jacked it up to a record high 9%. So again, in 10 months, the President has clawed us out
05:26of
05:26this hole. He's kept it low at 2.5%. And we believe that number is going to continue to decline,
05:33especially as energy and oil prices continue to decline as well.
05:36It wasn't high under Biden. They're just saying it's not virtually...
05:38Well, nobody reported on it being high under Biden. My predecessor was standing at this podium,
05:43but now you want to ask me a lot of questions about it, which I'm happy to answer. But I
05:47will just
05:47add, there's a lot more scrutiny on this issue from this press corps than there was... Well, and the
05:53previous administration said that too. My predecessor stood up at this podium and she said inflation
05:58doesn't exist. She said the border was secure. And people like you just took her at her word.
06:02And those were two utter lies. Everything I'm telling you is the truth backed by real factual data,
06:08and you just don't want to report on it because you want to push untrue narratives about the President.
06:11A federal judge over the weekend that the President had appointed to the bench in his first
06:15term in office, basically argued that he could not deploy other state's National Guards to Portland,
06:21basically said that it was untethered, his argument, to what is actually happening on the ground.
06:26Which local officials in Portland have said that the National Guard is needed there?
06:31With all due respect to that judge, I think her opinion is untethered in reality and in the law.
06:36The President is using his authority as Commander-in-Chief U.S. Code 12406, which clearly states that the
06:43President has the right to call up the National Guard in cases where he deems it's appropriate.
06:48And if you look at what has happened in Portland, Oregon, for more than 100 nights, I was talking to
06:54our law enforcement team about it this morning, for more than 100 days, night after night after night,
06:59the ICE facility has been really under siege by these anarchists outside. They have been
07:07disrespecting law enforcement. They've been inciting violence. We saw, again, a guillotine rolled out
07:12in front of this federal building. And so the President wants to ensure that our federal
07:15buildings and our assets are protected. And that's exactly what he's trying to do. And ultimately,
07:21in the case in Los Angeles, that judge ruled in the Ninth Circuit, that panel of judges ruled that
07:27those troops could remain and that the President was well within his authority to do so. So we are
07:32appealing that decision. As you know, we expect a hearing on it pretty quickly. And we're very confident
07:36in the President's legal authority to do this. And we're very confident we will win on the merits of the
07:39law.
07:40But no local officials that you can point to that have said we need the National Guard?
07:43Because I spoke to the police chief of Portland last week. He said that the President's claims
07:47just don't match up with what's happening on the ground.
07:49I would encourage you as a reporter to go on the ground and to take a look at for yourself,
07:53because there's been many members of the press, not press in this room, but independent journalists,
07:58some of whom we'll be inviting to the White House very soon to share their stories,
08:01because they have been in the middle of these riots and they have witnessed the anarchy that is
08:05taking place night after night. It's on video. You should play it on your show. You have a great
08:10opportunity on primetime on CNN to show your audience. Yeah, but you're probably talking to
08:15partisan Democrat officials who are opposed to everything this President does. You should also
08:20ask the people who live in Portland. We've actually heard from many members of the community who have
08:26said that this is complete civil disobedience. It's a mess. It's been loud. It's been troubling for
08:32neighbors in the community who are just trying to live peacefully. And these people are are not
08:37in there to peacefully protest. They are there to cause mayhem and havoc.
08:42Yeah, Caroline.
08:43Stephen, go ahead.
