The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:32 P.M. EDT
MR. EARNEST: Good afternoon, everybody. Nice to see you all. It's nice to see that some of you made it back from Germany already. Hope the rest of you missed us -- I'm sure you did.
I don't have any announcements at the top, Josh, so I'll let you get us started with questions.
Q Thanks, Josh. Welcome back.
MR. EARNEST: Thank you.
Q The President attracted a little bit of attention during his press conference yesterday for saying that he did not yet have a complete strategy. And I know he was referring very specifically to a strategy for training Iraqi forces, not the broader fight against ISIL. But, nonetheless, Republicans have been piling on. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to do a little bit of clean-up, if you would like.
MR. EARNEST: Well, Josh, I think the President was very direct about something that we have actually talked about in here for several weeks now, which is the President has been very clear with his team that we need to be carefully examining the strategy and refining and optimizing it where we can capitalize on lessons learned, apply some best practices, and make sure that we're doing everything we can to make progress against ISIL and make progress in the effort to degrade and ultimately destroy them.
That is the ultimate goal. The training, equipping, and offering some advice and assistance to Iraqi security forces is merely one element of that strategy. But this is one area where we can talk with some specificity about how Iraqi security forces that have benefitted from the support of our coalition military partners have performed well on the battlefield. And what we know is in at least one recent area where we experienced a setback, in Ramadi, those were forces that had not benefitted from being trained by the U.S.-led coalition.
And so, again, this is an example of the President saying, well, let’s make sure that we're taking the lessons learned. We know that troops in the Iraqi security forces that have the support of the coalition perform well on the battlefield. Let’s try to ramp up the numbers and capacity of those individuals in Anbar Province. And that's exactly the strategy that we're pursuing.
Now, how exactly to implement that is something that we're still working through. And what we also know that we need for us to maximize that opportunity is for the Iraqi government to do a better job of sending recruits to that program. And that includes both Iraqi security force units -- essentially units of the Iraqi military -- to get enhanced training from our coalition trainers.
It also means the Iraqi central government doing a better job of recruiting more Sunni tribal fighters, because ultimately we do know that the only sustainable solution are local security forces in Anbar Province that are willing to take on ISIL, that they can do so knowing that they have the full support of our military coalition, can be backed by military airstrikes, but also know that after they have succeeded in driving ISIL out of Anbar Province that they can then, working with the Iraqi central government, actually govern that region of the country.
Q Admiral Kirby over at the State Department this morning said that saving Iraq could be a proposition that takes three to five years. Does the President -- that obviously would put us well into the next White House. Does the President agree with that assessment?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Josh, I wouldn’t put a number on it. But the President has indicated exactly what Mr. Kirby indicated, which is that this is something that is going to require a significant and long-term commitment from the international community. This is not a short-term proposition. And we are in a phase now where we are very focused on degrading ISIL and their capacity to operate inside of Iraq, but that over the long term we're going to need to build up the capacity of the local governments and of the local security forces, and to enhance their capabilities when it comes to working with the central government and, frankly, build up their confidence in the central government -- not just to both function effectively, but also to look out for their interests.
We have been blunt about our assessment that one of the things that created the kind of weakness that ISIL capitalized on last year was the failure of the Maliki-led central government in Baghdad to demonstrate to the diverse population of Iraq that he had their best interests at heart. And that did cause that country to fracture, particular along sectarian lines, and did create an opening that ISIL has capitalized on.
So what we want to do is we want to make sure that we can address this immediate threat from ISIL, allow Iraqi security forces and Iraqi fighters to take the fight on the ground to ISIL. But once they’re driven out, we want to make sure that there is a local governing capacity there and that there is confidence in the Iraqi central government to lead that country.
Q But that three-to-five-year timetable that the State Department put out, that’s not something that you are disputing, is it?
MR. EARNEST: Well, what we’re saying is that this is going to be -- this is not going to be a short-term proposition. And again, I think that’s entirely consistent with Mr. Kirby’s assessment as well.
Q There was an interesting moment yesterday in Germany where Prime Minister Abadi appeared to sidle up to the President for an interaction, and some interpreted it as some type of a snub, or perhaps the President didn’t see that the Prime Minister was there, but they didn’t end up speaking at that time. Can you clear up for us what was going on at that interaction?
MR. EARNEST: I think those who concluded that it was a snub were probably telegraphing some insecurities that date back to junior high. The fact is, the President just completed a long working lunch that included Prime Minister Abadi, and the President was engaged in conversations with the IMF Director and others.
After that photograph, the President did have the opportunity to meet with Mr. Abadi in a bilateral, private meeting, and it actually represented the second time in two months that the two leaders had met. So I think that’s an indication that the President has all the communication he needs with Prime Minister Abadi.
Q And I wanted to ask you about these protests that we’ve seen in Texas after a white police officer pulled a gun on a group of black teenagers who were at a party and tackled one girl to the ground. Has the President seen the video of that incident, and does he feel that race may have been a motivating factor in that incident?
MR. EARNEST: Josh, I don’t know that the President has seen the video. He’s aware of the news coverage of that particular incident. I think what is clear is that early indications are that local authorities have taken what appear to be appropriate steps. They have placed that officer on leave. And again, without knowing any of the details here, but that seems like a prudent thing for them to do. But ultimately, what steps they need to take and what the investigation yields about what exactly happened there is still something that’s going to take a few more days at least to determine.
But, again, I think this goes back to something that the President has been talking about quite a bit over the last several months, which is that there’s a strong benefit to police forces working effectively to build the trust and confidence of the communities that they’re sworn to serve and protect. And I think understandably, graphic incidents like the one that we saw depicted on that video do have a detrimental impact on the relationship between local law enforcement and the local community. And I think that’s evident from some of the news coverage and public statements of people who live in that community.
But, again, based on very early evidence here, it appears that local authorities understand the need to protect that trust and are trying to take steps consistent with that priority. I will say that this is a topic that the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing looked at carefully. And they put forward a long list of public recommendations of best practices that local law enforcement agencies can implement to enhance the trust with local communities. And so that obviously is something that we believe doesn’t just enhance the safety and security of the American public and of communities across the country, it actually makes it safer for members of local law enforcement to do their very important work.
Q A follow-up on that please, Josh?
MR. EARNEST: I’ll come right back to you.
Roberta.
Q I want to ask about encryption. And I know you talked about this a little bit last week, but since then, yesterday, two major industry groups -- technology industry groups sent a letter to the White House saying they oppose policy actions that would undermine encryption, and specifically said they oppose building in work-arounds for government law enforcement to get in through encrypted systems. And I’m wondering if you have any reaction to what they said, and if you can explain sort of the process, where things are at in the White House consideration of this issue.
MR. EARNEST: Roberta, I have not seen the letter, so I don’t know if that was something that they sent today. Maybe it’s still in the mail. The thing that I -- and I don’t have a new position, frankly, to share with you at this point. The President --
Q Can you explain where things are at in the President’s consideration of encryption and allowing law enforcement to --
MR. EARNEST: Well, I don’t have an update for you in terms of that policy process. The President has spoken about this publicly on a couple of different occasions, both in the news conference that he convened with Prime Minister Cameron earlier this year as well as at the cybersecurity summit that the President convened out at Stanford University back in February. So his position on this is clear. I don’t have an update for you in terms of that policy process.
Q So there’s no recommendations before him that he’s looking at or considering?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t have a public update for you on the process.
Q Lastly, on Turkey. I was wondering whether the White House has any reaction to the election there, and any concerns about what it might mean for stability in the country or the fight against Islamic State, or if there are any implications for U.S. initiatives that are happening on the borders there.
MR. EARNEST: The United States looks forward to working with the newly elected parliament and with the future government, and to continuing our close political economic and security cooperation.
As you know, Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States, and we’re committed to continuing our close political, economic and security cooperation. One area where the United States is coordinating closely with Turkey in our efforts to try to shut down the flow of foreign fighters that benefits ISIL. This is really important. This is a difficult task. Turkey has a long border with Syria and we know that that is a commonly used route for individuals who are looking to travel to Syria to enter the country and to take up arms alongside ISIL. And we know that Turkey has taken important steps to try to shut down the flow of those individuals.
But there is more that we would like them to do. And I think the President was pretty direct in his conversations -- or in his comments at the news conference yesterday about what more we would like to see Turkey do to shut down the flow of foreign fighters in a way that would benefit the security of not just countries throughout the region but also benefit the security of the people of Turkey.
Q Did the outcome of the election have any bearing on that -- on what the United States hopes to see Turkey do?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the United States -- again, they’re a NATO Ally. We have a strong relationship with them, particularly when it comes to matters related to national security. And, again, we are pleased with the work that Turkey has done so far to address this issue. But we also believe that there’s more important work that they should be doing. And we’ve communicated those views directly to them in private and I think the President was pretty blunt in talking about it publicly as well.
Michelle.
Q In the President’s words yesterday on what was working and not working in the fight against ISIS, I think what really stands out is this lack of recruits in certain areas where the capacity to train is there. I mean, at this point, Iraq is trying to defend its own country. I mean, these are people of Iraq whose cities are being overrun. The fact that those recruits aren’t there now, doesn’t that bode poorly for the future of this? I mean, in so many ways, the U.S. is picking up every slack.
MR. EARNEST: Well, Michelle, I think you are making an observation that we have discussed for some time about politics being critically important to the longer-term success of Iraq. And that is to say the Iraqi central government needs to inspire the confidence of the people of Iraq; that they need to build political support for their ongoing efforts to lead that country and to unify that country to face down the ISIL threat.
This is, as I mentioned in response to one of Josh’s questions, this is what we had diagnosed as the principal weakness of the previous prime minister -- that Prime Minister Malaki had governed that country in a way that did not demonstrate a commitment to inclusiveness and, frankly, made that country vulnerable to the kind of offensive operations from ISIL that we saw last summer.
And we are pleased that Prime Minister Abadi has followed through on his early political commitments to try to govern that country in a multi-sectarian fashion, and to demonstrate clearly to every citizen of Iraq that he has their best interest at heart and that the country’s resources will be used to benefit every citizen in the country.
And that’s a difficult challenge. You can understand the skepticism among some members of the Shia population who, for a long time, did not feel that the Iraqi central government had their best interests at heart. And you can imagine that they’re carefully evaluating the policy decisions that are being made by the new Iraqi government. And I think their hesitation is understandable.
What’s also clear, though, is that the failure of the Iraqi people to unite behind this goal of facing down the ISIL threat put at risk the very existence of their country. And so the stakes here are high. And that’s why, again, our approach to this challenge has always been to insist that Prime Minister Abadi follow through on his commitments to build a multi-sectarian security force to govern the country in an inclusive way. And so far he’s done that, to his credit, but it will take some time for him to build and strengthen the trust of the population -- the population that’s not Shia, like he is.
Q But it’s kind of like now is the time to defend their own country from falling apart completely. Building this inclusive government network is going to take a lot of time. This seems to be pointing directly to a lack of a will to fight overall. Isn’t this -- go ahead.
MR. EARNEST: Well, I was going to say, I think that’s an overly broad generalization. That there have been areas --
Q Areas, yeah.
MR. EARNEST: Well, yes, there have been areas where we have seen the Iraqi security forces, when backed with the support of our military coalition, not just demonstrate a will to fight but actually demonstrate some effectiveness when fighting. And that has succeeded in driving ISIL out of areas like Tikrit and Haditha, even some areas in Anbar like Baghdadi. That is an indication that there is a strategy -- there is a template for success here.
And we want to make sure that we essentially work closely with the Iraqi central government to build on that opportunity, and that means a variety of things. It means putting more Iraqi security forces through our training programs, but it also means recruiting more Sunni local tribal fighters who will benefit from the advice and assistance in training of coalition forces. And that last element is particularly important because, as you point out, these local Sunni tribal fighters will take the fight to ISIL not just within their own country but in their own neighborhood. And it means that these Sunni tribal fighters will be fighting for their communities.
And what’s important is that they carry out those efforts under the command and control of the Iraqi central government. And again, it reflects Prime Minister Abadi’s commitment to governing the country in a multi-sectarian way, and protecting the country in a multi-sectarian way.
Q And lastly, what do you think about this bipartisan AUMF that’s being introduced in the Senate?
MR. EARNEST: Well, as you know, Michelle, several months ago the administration put forward language urging Congress to pass an ISIL-specific authorization to use military force. We put forward that language at the specific request of Congress so that they could follow through on something the President challenged them to do, which is to pass a specific authorization to use military force that applied in this case.
You’ve seen the administration send up the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense to go and urge -- to testify before congressional committees and urge Congress to take action. And in the last several months, we’ve seen very little congressional action. And you’ve heard some pretty sharp criticism from me because of their failure to act on this.
But I do think that the language that was put forward by Senator Kaine and Senator Flake is an indication that at least some members of Congress are willing to step up and fulfill their constitutional responsibility to be heard on this matter. And I think that Senator Kaine and Senator Flake deserve credit for that. The language that they put forward does include some tweaks to the language that we had originally submitted. But we are also candid about the fact from day one that our legislative language was intended to be a starting point for negotiations.
So it appears that Senator Kaine and Senator Flake have acted consistent with the spirit of that legislative proposal. And we’re hopeful that other members of Congress will follow through in a similar way.
Jon.
Q On the OPM hack. We learned that up to 4 million current and former government employees had -- their personal information was vulnerable to these hackers. Does that universe of people include Cabinet Secretaries?
MR. EARNEST: Jon, there is an ongoing investigation to this specific matter and that investigation includes the scope of this particular intrusion. So if there’s more information that we have to share about who precisely was affected, that’s information that would come from the FBI who is leading this investigation.
Q Were the vulnerable personnel files -- did they include the Secret Service, FBI?
MR. EARNEST: Again, part of this investigation is to determine the precise scope of the intrusion and to get a better sense of exactly what information was put at risk and what information was potentially exfiltrated. And so that’s work that is ongoing right now.
Q But we were told this was a universe of up to 4 million, so you must have known what the universe is. Does that universe of possible vulnerabilities include Cabinet Secretaries, people employed by the Secret Service, FBI and the like?
MR. EARNEST: Again, the scope of this particular intrusion is something that continues to be investigated by the FBI.
Q So what did you mean when we were told it was 4 million -- up to 4 million?
MR. EARNEST: Well, that was a number that was based on our assessment at that time of precisely the number of records that were affected by this particular intrusion. But this is an ongoing investigation and --
Q You must information as to -- I mean, that number didn’t come out of the blue. I mean, it was 4 million who, 4 million what?
MR. EARNEST: We’ve described them as either former or current federal employees.
Q And is there any suggestion that this information that was taken, or feared to have been taken, could be used to either blackmail individuals or to steal the identity of individuals that have sensitive security positions?
MR. EARNEST: Jon, again, the investigation doesn’t just include the scope of this particular intrusion, but it also includes an effort to try to determine the motive of the individuals who may have been acting in this case. As a precautionary measure, those individuals that are determined to be at risk here will be offered by the Office of Personnel Management some identity theft protection and other advice about steps they can take --
Q Okay. So then you’re offering that to somebody. So is that being offered to Cabinet Secretaries, members of the Secret Service or FBI?
MR. EARNEST: It’s being offered to individuals who may have potentially been affected in this case.
Q And so does those individuals include --
MR. EARNEST: I'm not going to talk about the individuals who may have been affected.
Q So you’re not ruling out that the group of people that I just mentioned were included in this group?
MR. EARNEST: You should check with the FBI, and if they have more information to share with you they’ll share it.
Q How concerned are you about this? And what is the nature of the concern? Is the concern that people might be ripped off because their identities might be stolen? Or is there a greater concern -- security concern?
MR. EARNEST: I think the concern that the President has is that this highlights the clear vulnerabilities that exist in many elements of the federal government’s computer architecture. And this administration, for years now, has been working diligently to try to upgrade our defenses and to put in place measures that would mitigate against those intrusions and respond to them when necessary. This is --
Q So is the President upset of the gross failure here? I mean, supposedly, these people had access to personnel records for months without even being detected.
MR. EARNEST: the President is concerned about the vulnerabilities that were highlighted here. But the other thing the President indicated, in talking about this yesterday, is that the reason that this intrusion was detected is that OPM was actually in the process of implementing better defenses of their computer network when this particular intrusion was detected. So that’s an indication that they’re making progress. But there’s clearly more important work that needs to be done not just at OPM, but at other government agencies.
But, again, this is not different than the kind of threat that we see in the private sector as well. And all of you represent news organizations, many of which have been subjected to intrusions like this, and your security professionals are doing the same thing that our security professionals are doing, which is making sure that we’re rapidly adapting to the innovative and persistent adversary that’s out there.
Q Was China behind this?
MR. EARNEST: The specific individuals or entities who carried out this particular intrusion is something that’s still being investigated by the FBI.
Q Do you have reason to believe it was a foreign government or somebody working on behalf of a foreign government?
MR. EARNEST: What the FBI is doing is trying to determine who those individuals are and if they were acting on behalf of a criminal enterprise or a nation state. They’re going to do their best to work to determine that.
As is consistent with the strategy that we’ve used in investigating previous cyber intrusions, I can’t promise you that we’ll be in a position at any point in the future to make a grand pronouncement about who may have been responsible for this particular intrusion, but it’s something that we are working hard to try to determine. And if a response is necessary, then the President, because of steps that he announced a couple of months ago, has more tools at his disposal to respond to this particular incident -- and I’m referring to the executive order the President signed that authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to impose financial sanctions against those who are deemed to be responsible or benefit from a cyber-attack.
Bob.
Q Josh, with the al-Abadi meeting yesterday, which leader suggested -- who suggested to who that the United States should speed up or whatever, do more training of Iraqi forces? Because the President, in the news conference, made a relatively strong statement saying that when Iraqi forces have been trained that they’ve done much better at retrieving land of their country. Who came up with the idea of speeding this process up, or however you want to put it?
MR. EARNEST: Well, that is a conclusion that the President’s national security team has reached based on their assessment of conditions on the ground.
And you have U.S. military personnel that are operating in joint operation centers in Iraq where they’re essentially embedded with Iraqi security forces. You have some U.S. military personnel and coalition military personnel that are on the ground at -- stationed at bases in Iraq where they’re working directly with Iraqi security forces to train them. So we’re in a position, based on our knowledge of what’s happening on the ground, to evaluate the effectiveness of Iraqi security forces. And what is becoming clear is that the kind of training that these Iraqi security forces are getting from the United States and our coalition partners is having a positive impact in their performance on the battlefield. And that’s a good thing.
And again, this is the President wanting to apply this lesson throughout the country, and to encourage the Iraqi central government to ramp up their recruitment both of other military personnel that are already enlisted in the Iraqi security forces, but also to include Sunni tribal fighters and others that will ensure that we have a multi-sectarian security force under the command and control of the Iraqi central government that’s taking the fight to ISIL on the ground in Iraq.
Q Was it a request from al-Abadi, or was it a suggestion by the President?
MR. EARNEST: The President and his national security team reached the conclusion that this was an effective strategy that the President wanted his team to ramp up.
April.
Q Josh, I want to go back to that question about Texas. First of all, how did the President find out? Was he watching the news, or was he informed by the Justice Department as to what was going on?
MR. EARNEST: I’m not aware of any formal notification that the President has gotten from the Department of Justice. This is obviously something that was covered extensively in the news while we were in Germany.
Q Did he find out in Germany, or did he find out when he came back here?
MR. EARNEST: The President was aware of this yesterday, soon after it was reported publicly.
Q So in Germany, or on the plane coming back?
MR. EARNEST: In Germany.
Q So also -- well, now since, yet again, another videotape has surfaced showing at the very least the fact that there could be excessive force, is there an expectation at this White House that the Justice Department will go into this and look at what happened?
MR. EARNEST: Well, that would obviously be a decision that would be made by officials at the Justice Department. That would not be a presidential directive.
Q And I understand that, but is there an expectation, particularly when, again, this White House is now known for this effort into supporting law enforcement as well as rooting out the bad policing, is this something that there’s an expectation possibly around this White House that this could indeed be something that the Justice Department could be reviewing to see what happened?
MR. EARNEST: Well, in terms of an investigation, that would be a decision that would be made by Department of Justice prosecutors. And so I wouldn’t want to say anything that might leave somebody with the appearance that we’re interfering in those kinds of decisions. But there are also other officials at the Department of Justice that are responsible for administering federal resources that can be used to assist local law enforcement. And some of those individuals have spent time in places like Ferguson, in Baltimore, and other places, other communities that have experiences this kind of public attention as a result of the conduct of some members of their local police force.
But, again, I’d refer you to the Department of Justice for any decisions they may have about contacting the local law enforcement in that community in Texas.
Q In the waning months, year or so that you have in office, the President has in office, the President started out his presidency stepping into a situation with racial profiling and then at the end of the first term had Trayvon, and then it kept going second term with issues of policing. Does this administration embrace the fact that because of how this President has handled the issue of policing, bad policing as well as supporting good policing, that this could be a legacy piece for him -- dealing with the accountability component of video cameras, also rooting out bad policing, pattern and practice reports, and changes in police departments? Is this President looking at this as a legacy piece? Are you embracing this as a potential legacy piece for this administration?
MR. EARNEST: Well, April, I guess what I would say is that this is an issue that the President has been involved in throughout his career in public service, going all the way back to his service in the Illinois State Senate; that some of the President’s most important legislative achievements in that office were his efforts to broker agreement on racial profiling legislation in the state of Illinois. And he did that by working closely with civil rights leaders, as well as law enforcement officials in that state.
So this is an issue that the President has been working on for a long time and he spoke in pretty personal terms about why he believes these efforts are so important. And the President -- I do think he expects that over the course of the next 18 months, that he will spend more time talking about this issue and continuing to make it a priority.
Q So you do embrace it as a legacy piece?
MR. EARNEST: Well, again, I think it's too early to say sort of what historians will evaluate. And one of the reasons for that is that so much of what we have seen are -- that have raised concerns have raised questions about the leadership and staff of local law enforcement organizations, and the President has been pretty clear that as the head of the federal government he has limited influence over those particular organizations.
But the influence and authority that he has is influence and authority that he’s willing to use to do several things. One is to help communities deal with these particular challenging situations, particularly in a way that supports, as you pointed out, the vast majority of men and women in law enforcement who work really hard and do a really good job of protecting communities all across the country, and doing it in a fair way. These are professionals who are willing to put their lives on the line to protect. And these are individuals who are worthy of our praise and our recognition. But what’s also true is that we can make those individuals more effective if we can bolster confidence that the community has in the broader law enforcement organization.
And, again, I do think this is something the President will spend a decent amount of time talking about over the next year and a half.
Julie.
Q Thanks. Just getting back to the breach of federal employee data. I know you said, and they’ve said at OPM that the reason they discovered it was because they were installing additional safeguards. But I'm wondering whether the President thinks that there was a management failure here. I mean, this is, after all, an agency that handles sensitive personal information for the vast majority of federal government employees. They had been told by their IG that they had vulnerabilities. Even though they were addressing those, it wasn’t happening in a quick enough way, obviously, to stop this from happening. So does he have confidence in the director over there and senior leadership that they have their hands around this issue?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the President has confidence that every single member of his staff understands that cybersecurity needs to be a priority. And, again, in talking about this yesterday, the President was pretty direct about the fact that we've got our work cut out for us when it comes to taking what, in some cases, are pretty old computer systems and making sure that they have modern, adaptable security measures in place to protect against cyber intrusions.
What’s also clear is that our adversaries -- whether we're talking about criminal enterprises or federal governments, or entities acting on behalf of foreign governments -- that these adversaries are persistent and well-resourced, and we need to make sure on our side that we're vigilant and well-resourced to meet this threat. And it requires an approach that understands that this is a very adaptive environment, that particularly when we're talking about modern technology, we're talking about very complex mechanisms and the need to make sure that our defenses adapt as rapidly as our adversaries do.
Q So does he feel that the OPM Director is up to that challenge?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the President certainly believes that the Director of the OPM is aware that this is a priority. And this is a message that's been delivered to -- the President convened this Cabinet meeting a couple of weeks ago -- two or three weeks ago, I guess it was now -- where this was an item on the agenda, the need to make sure that, institutionally, agencies across the administration understand that these kinds of threats are real and require the attention of the senior-level officials at each of these agencies.
(Interruption of the briefing. Secret Service agents announce that they need to evacuate the Briefing Room.)
(Pause at 2:08 P.M. EDT)
* * * *
(Briefing resumes at 2:46 P.M. EDT)
MR. EARNEST: Good afternoon, everybody. (Laughter.) We’ll try this again. Just to give you an update on what has transpired, as many of you may have heard from the Secret Service, shortly before 2:00 p.m. today, a telephonic bomb threat concerning the room that we are now all in was called into the Metropolitan Police Department. The local police department contacted Secret Service officials, who determined that for the safety of all of us, they needed to evacuate the room and to sweep it.
Fortunately, here at the White House, the Secret Service maintains the resources that are necessary to quickly make the room safe and make sure that it’s safe for all of us. And they did that quickly, and now we’re ready to restart.
Before I get to your questions, I used our brief respite to gather some more information, Roberta, in terms of answering your previous question about encryption, and I can tell you that officials at the White House have received the letter. We are aware of it, and we appreciate the input and perspective of these organizations. The administration firmly supports the development and robust adoption of strong encryption. The President himself has acknowledged that it can be a strong tool to secure commerce and trade, safeguard private information, and promote free expression and association.
At the same time, we’re also, understandably, concerned about the use of encryption by terrorists and other criminals to conceal and enable crimes and other malicious activity. But the fact is that even though some people misuse this encryption technology. We believe here in the administration that responsibly deployed encryption helps secure private communications in commerce, and that’s something that’s worth supporting.
Q Josh, before the alarm, who covered up the cameras in this room? Because the cameras were covered up or pointed down. I mean, these are cameras that are owned by news organizations. I’m just wondering -- we were all escorted out, so it wasn’t anybody with our news organizations, but somebody cut off our ability to see what was going on in this room by turning the cameras down. Who did that and why?
MR. EARNEST: I was also evacuated alongside you, Jon, so I was not in the room.
Q Can you find out?
Q Because these cameras, again, are owned by the news organizations --
MR. EARNEST: I understand.
Q -- and somebody has gone to every single one of them, even the ones outside were tampered with so that we wouldn’t be able to see what was going on in here.
Q Josh, was President Obama or his family in any way impacted or evacuated?
MR. EARNEST: They were not. This was the only room in the White House complex that was evacuated.
Q But you were evacuated as well, though, so it wasn’t exclusively this room. Who beyond this room or how far outside of this room did the evacuation go into effect?
MR. EARNEST: Peter, when I said that I was evacuated, I left the room at the same time that all of you did.
Q So you stayed in the White House complex, though?
Q So it was safe to be in the room adjacent to here, but specifically not in here?
MR. EARNEST: I was not in the room adjacent to here, Peter. I went back into my office.
Q Which is --
Q Is that --
MR. EARNEST: Let’s just do this one at a time.
Q So just to be clear, so this room was evacuated. Was the lower press room adjacent to us evacuated?
MR. EARNEST: So, yes. It is considered part of the press area that the White House press operates, so the staff that works there came into my office while the room was swept.
Q Was any staff outside of this room or the adjacent room evacuated? Was any senior staff or any other staff within the White House evacuated?
MR. EARNEST: No, it is my understanding that no one else was affected by this particular incident.
Q Concerning the evacuation --
Q Is this --
MR. EARNEST: Let’s just do this one at a time.
Q The call came in at 1:53 p.m., Josh, according to the Secret Service. The evacuation took place, as you witnessed with us, at 2:14 p.m., so more than 20 minutes passed in that time. Is there any reason for any concern in that delay before the evacuation took place?
MR. EARNEST: No. This is a decision that was made by Secret Service based on information that they had received. I don’t know how long it took for that information to be transferred -- transmitted to the Secret Service and for the decision to be made to evacuate the room, but, again, the evacuation was conducted to protect the safety of all of us.
Q And what was the President doing at the time? Even if he wasn’t impacted, what was he physically doing while we were evacuating?
MR. EARNEST: I’m not sure exactly what he was doing. He was here at the White House, but I’m not sure where he was.
Q Do you know if he was at the Oval Office at the time?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t know exactly where he was. He was here on the White House grounds.
Q If this was a serious enough threat -- it was a bomb threat, right?
MR. EARNEST: That’s my understanding, yes.
Q If it’s serious enough to move us all the way over to the Executive Office Building, why would the President not be moved out of the White House?
MR. EARNEST: Again, Chip, I can’t -- these are obviously decisions that are made by the Secret Service. They did that in the interest of keeping us safe. But I suspect that part of the reason for moving you to the South Court Auditorium was because that was a place where you could be inside and be in the air-conditioning. But that’s what they’re trying to do, is make sure that they could quickly clear the room, which they did, and allow us to all come back here and go about our business.
Q The President was never in any danger as far as we know?
MR. EARNEST: Certainly not that I’m aware of.
Q Josh, do we know if there’s any indication that this incident was connected to the security incident that we saw on Capitol Hill today?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t know. You should check with the Secret Service about that.
Go ahead, Jon.
Q And, Josh, you said you were evacuated, but you mean you just went to your office?
MR. EARNEST: That’s correct. I was evacuated from this room, like all of you were.
Q Can you remind us how close your office is? I mean, it’s right down the hallway.
MR. EARNEST: It’s not far away.
Q So it’s just hard to imagine why a bomb threat that would necessitate evacuating this entire room wouldn’t affect the rest of this West Wing complex. It’s not a very large complex.
MR. EARNEST: It’s not a very large complex, but, Jon, I can’t account for that.
Go ahead, Julie.
Q Just quickly, can you tell us how it is that the rest of the West Wing could have stayed in their offices while we had to leave? I mean, if it had been a bomb, is there some sort of fireproofing, bombproofing that exists between here and there that would allow them to stay while we had to leave?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t know all of the security measures that are in place to protect the White House. Even if I did, I'm not sure I’d be in a position to talk about them from here. But for a question like that, I’d refer you to the Secret Service.
Q Can you tell us what they did in here before they gave us the all-clear and let us come back?
MR. EARNEST: My understanding is that they swept the room, which, typically, involves the inspection of the room by some experts. And I know that they had K9 units in here as well. But for all of the activities that were required to clear the room, I’d refer you to the Secret Service.
Q Swept it very closely.
MR. EARNEST: Correct.
Q Josh, is this --
Q Josh --
MR. EARNEST: Let’s just do this one at a time. Go ahead.
Q I want to go back to the question I was asking before we were evacuated. If anyone else --
Q Could we just say -- could you find out where the President was and where he was moved?
MR. EARNEST: I know that he was not moved. And we’ll see if we can get some additional information about where he happened to be at that time.
Q I want to follow on the line of questioning about the proximity. So you were told to shelter in place, correct -- in your office?
MR. EARNEST: No, April, I was asked to leave the room in the same way that you did.
Q I'm saying, in your office, were you told to shelter in place? Because you said --
MR. EARNEST: No, I was not told to shelter in place.
Q Okay, so we’re just feet from your office and feet from the Oval Office, and also feet from the Residence. There’s a close proximity. Was anyone else told in the Residence maybe to move, or over here, to shelter in place while this was going on? Because it seems like it was a very serious scenario that they had gone in offices, gone under desks, had dogs walking through, and that no one was told to move or shelter in place except for lower press.
MR. EARNEST: Well, April, I'm sharing with you all the information that I have right now, which is that, based on a threat that the Secret Service received from another law enforcement organization about the press area at the White House, the press area at the White House was evacuated for the safety of all of us. And the Secret Service, using resources that they keep here on the complex, was able to quickly search this location and conclude that it was safe. As soon as they did we were able to all come back in the room and pick up where we left off.
Q But they moved us. We went outside. You say it was to keep us cool, but I don’t think it was. We were out there -- you were in your office. We went to Pebble Beach first, and then they moved us further down into the next building on the campus and moved us even further back. It wasn’t for coolness. It was because of a fear. So my question is, with a proximity to everyone and everything here, the seat of power just feet away, and they were not moved, but we had to be pushed all the way back. I'm trying -- there’s something not jogging and not mixing. It just seems odd.
MR. EARNEST: Well, April, for the questions that you have about decisions that were made by the Secret Service, then I would encourage you to contact the Secret Service and they can maybe get you a more specific answer to your question than I'm able to.
Q And the Secret Service to break into a briefing, which they don’t -- they had to think about it coming in -- because I watched them. They had to think about stopping the briefing because of the severity, and no one was -- it's just, it doesn’t sound right, I'm sorry.
Q Did you talk to the President since the evacuation?
MR. EARNEST: No, I did not.
Q Could you just clarify? Was he in the West Wing, do you know?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t know, but we’ll see if we can get you precise information. He was here at the White House, but I don’t know exactly what room he was in.
Q Okay.
MR. EARNEST: Are we ready to go back to our regularly scheduled programming?
Go ahead, Viquiera.
Q Can you say any more about the nature of the threat as it relates to law enforcement that would necessitate a limited evacuation here at the White House -- potency, or power, or wherever it may have been?
MR. EARNEST: No, I'm not. I don’t know what information was transmitted in the specific bomb threat other than the briefing room was identified as the location of this purported bomb. But I --
Q And it was a bomb, though? Not any sort of agent or --
MR. EARNEST: Again, the Secret Service said it was a threat.
Go ahead, Michelle.
Q Does it concern you that if the bomb was in the building, that you were so close to it, potentially? And does it concern you that if the bomb was called in as a threat that somebody in the press corps might have had on their person that the entire press corps was then kept together in a small area well away from the White House? I mean, do either of these scenarios raise questions in your mind?
MR. EARNEST: No. I have complete confidence in the professionalism of the men and women in the Secret Service to make judgments about what’s necessary to keep all of us safe, and that’s what they did this afternoon. But for questions about why those decisions were made and how they were made, you can direct them to the Secret Service.
Okay. All right. Are we ready to move on to other topics?
Q Not yet.
MR. EARNEST: Okay. Go ahead, Mark.
Q Josh, you said the President was not moved today. Have there been occasions in the past during his presidency when he’s been moved into the EEOB?
MR. EARNEST: I’d refer you to the Secret Service for answering questions --
Q Yourself, though?
MR. EARNEST: Off the top of my head, no. But it doesn’t mean that it didn’t occur. So I’d encourage you to check with the Secret Service to confirm.
Q And there was no bomb, right? Just a threat. They didn’t discover something and deactivate it. I mean, there was nothing --
MR. EARNEST: That’s correct. That’s correct.
Q Josh, were any other members of the Obama family at the White House at the time that this all took place? The girls, or his -- Michelle, First Lady Michelle Obama --
MR. EARNEST: I don’t have the answer to that, but we’ll check on that for you, too.
Anybody else? Okay, Julie, back to you.
Q Just to follow up on what you were saying when we were all evacuated. You were talking about a Cabinet meeting where the President raised this several weeks ago -- or a couple of weeks ago.
MR. EARNEST: Yes, I was.
Q I wanted to clarify, was that before or after he had been made aware, and you at the White House became aware of this breach of 4 million people’s identifying information?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t know of the precise sequence of those events. But I will tell you that it is not unusual for the President to spend time at a Cabinet meeting talking to the leaders of his government about the importance of cybersecurity. But I do know that as recently as the most recent Cabinet meeting which occurred two or three weeks ago, that this was an agenda item and the President made clear to members of his Cabinet how seriously he takes cybersecurity and how important it is for the leaders of those organizations to prioritize the effort to upgrade our cyber defenses, put in place software that can mitigate the threat from cyber intrusions, and also make sure that we have the tools that are necessary to adapt to the ever-evolving threat.
Q And has he talked with the OPM Director since this breach was revealed, as he became aware of it?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t believe so, no.
Juliette.
Q You’ve got a few major decisions or events coming up between the health care ruling that's expected to come out of the Supreme Court, the upcoming trade vote, and then obviously the deadline for the Iran talks. When the President and his top aides look at what’s happening in the next few weeks, how do they view these key issues as influencing his ultimate record while here in office?
MR. EARNEST: It’s going to be a busy summer. It is an indication of just how dominate the President’s priorities have become in the political discussion in Washington. And that’s an indication that you have a President here who is doing everything that he can to drive his agenda. And at least one or two of the topics that you cited are pretty good examples where members of Congress, failing to thwart the President’s agenda through the legislative process, have turned their attention to the courts. And I think that’s an indication, again, of how much progress the President has made to advance his agenda, to advance his priorities. And hopefully, we’ll be able to continue to implement them.
And when it comes to -- the President spoke at length about the upcoming -- or the recent arguments before the Supreme Court related to the Affordable Care Act, and the President expressed some confidence that the administration would be able to continue to move forward with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act in a way that maximizes benefits for millions of Americans, not just the 16 million Americans who got health care coverage because of the Affordable Care Act, but because of the many other millions of Americans that benefit from the other consumer protections that are written into the law.
When it comes to the ongoing Iran negotiations, the President does believe that negotiations with Iran are the best way for us to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And we have seen a pretty concerted effort by some in Congress to try to undermine those negotiations, but the President remains as determined as ever to try to see that diplomatic effort through because he believes it’s clearly in the best interest of the United States; he believes it’s clearly in the best interest of our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel; but also because it is clearly the best way to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
And then the third one you mentioned was --
Q Well, the Supreme Court ruling on health care. So, right, I mean -- and trade, in terms of the trade --
MR. EARNEST: Oh, and then trade, yes. And the President I think expressed some confidence that we would succeed in building a bipartisan majority in the House for trade promotion authority.
Q Should those events not transpire the way you’ve laid out, but, in fact, for example, the trade bill doesn’t pass, the Supreme Court rules against you, or Iran falls through, how much do you think that affects the ultimate impact the President will have while in office?
MR. EARNEST: Well, I think the way that we think about it is that these are priorities that the President has identified. And we’re going to put -- I think we’ve already expended significant political capital on each of those things to try to move them forward, and we’ve made really important progress in each of those areas. And the President is determined to see them through because they are consistent with the kinds of values and priorities that he promised the American people that he would seek to advance as President and this is him making good on that promise.
Q A couple questions on Iraq.
MR. EARNEST: Yes.
Q Number one, when the President says that there aren’t enough recruits for training, what is he referring to -- number one, that overall, there aren’t enough recruits that the Iraqi security forces are getting, or are not enough recruits being made available for training? In other words, they’re just not presenting enough of them for training? Or is he simply saying there aren’t enough Sunni recruits and sort of non-Shia majority of recruits? What is he exactly referring to?
MR. EARNEST: Mike, I think great minds think alike, because I asked our national security staff this exact question today. So let me convey to you what I understand to be the case. And in some ways, I’m going to actually leave the most important thing for last, so stick with me here through the beginning.
The first is we have seen that already-organized units of the Iraqi security forces are able to go through training -- so these are individuals who are already in the military, are already part of a unit, but when this unit has the benefit of coalition training, we see that they perform more effectively on the battlefield.
And so one of the things that we would like to see the Iraqi government do is to speed the movement of Iraqi security force units into and through the coalition training process. Now, what that means is it means when you are taking security forces from one area of the country and putting them into training, you need to make sure that you have enough recruits to replace them in what they’re currently doing. So there is a need for the Iraqi central government to continue to recruit Iraqis into the Iraqi security forces for that reason, to essentially replenish those security forces that are --
Q And they’re falling short of that?
MR. EARNEST: Well, we would like to see them do more of that. And our sense is, is that that would actually allow us to speed the process through which Iraqi units that are already organized be transferred into the training process.
Now, separate from that, you asked what is a very good question about the effort to train local Sunni fighters. Here’s why that is really important -- and this goes back to a question that I was answering earlier. The only enduring solution that we will have to this, what appears to be chaos in many areas in the Middle East, is for local structures to be in place where you have local governments and local security forces that are vested in the protection of their communities.
And what is evident is that U.S. military personnel, even when fully committed to offensive large-scale ground operations, can be successful in stabilizing a security situation -- even over a large swath of desert in Iraq that essentially the United States military can effectively put a lid on outbreaks of violence. But what we saw happen is, without a governing structure that has the credibility of the local population to follow on to those U.S. forces, we see that the fabric of those communities starts to break down.
So what the President has said as it relates to this specific strategy -- and this is true of our broader strategy against ISIL -- is we need to build up the capacity of local forces to take the fight to ISIL on the ground in their own country. That’s a phrase you’ve heard me use many times. I would adapt it here to Anbar, which is, we need local forces on the ground who can take the fight to ISIL in their own communities.
And so the idea is to essentially recruit local Sunni tribal righters, train them, equip them, have them work very closely with Iraqi security forces, have them all operate under the command and control of the Iraqi central government, and essentially have a multi-sectarian force fighting ISIL on the ground in Iraq. What this means is it means you will have local citizens fighting ISIL to protect their own community, or in some cases, to take back their own communities. And they’ll do that with the strong support of the Iraqi central government.
So what this would do is it would inspire the confidence of local citizens in the support that they receive from the Iraqi central government, while at the same time, have individuals who have literally taken up arms to defend their own communities.
And what I have just described is a scenario that we believe could ultimately be successful in trying to bring greater stability to these communities that have experienced so much chaos in recent years. But what’s also true, from what I just described -- it took me a long time to describe it; it’s going to take even much longer to successfully implement it and to allow that strategy to take root.
But there’s no time like the present to try to advance that kind of strategy. And that’s what we’ve been engaged in over the last several months. And the President believes that there is more that we can do to recruit and train local Sunni tribal fighters. And that will be a part of this ongoing effort as well.
Q Yesterday when you said there’s not a complete strategy yet on this training mission, does he have a timeline for when he will have the complete strategy on the training mission?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the President has asked his team, as he frequently does, to be in a constant state of refining and optimizing the strategy that we have in place. And it’s clear that one element that is in need of refining is this effort to train, equip, and offer advice and assistance to Iraqi security forces. And so this will be an ongoing process, but this is something that the President is focused on.
Q And last question. At the risk of sounding like a blowhard, when I was in Iraq 10 years ago, Bush administration, they were going to train everyone with American trainers. Spent a lot of time at combat outposts -- great trainers, but it was very clear to anyone who spent a day there or two days there that the problems were not problems that could be cured by trainers. They were things like a culture of cowardly leadership at the company battalion level, completely unprofessional NCO corps; that it’s more cronies than professionals; corrupt logistics, they weren’t supplying things correctly; ghost soldiers. And when you read the descriptions of the collapse of the Iraqi military in places like Mosul, you could see the same sort of elements there that weren’t just political problems, but they were endemic, operational problems in the Iraqi army that can’t be cured just by having trainers train people.
Do you have a sense now whether those fatal operational problems in the Iraqi army have been cured? Or that this training will actually do more than help a little bit so that it takes a few seconds longer for them to collapse?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Mike, I think what I would say is -- I think what you’re asking is a perfectly legitimate question, and many of the problems that you have identified based on your own experience covering this conflict years ago I do think, in the mind of the President, can be traced back to inherent political problems; that if you don’t have a central government that’s committed to pursuing an inclusive brand of leadership that includes a multi-sectarian security force, that you’re going to see the kinds of problems that you have just talked about. You’re going to see corruption. You’re going to see fighters who aren’t committed to the safety and security of the entire country, and that’s going to erode morale.
And that’s why the President prioritized from the very beginning the establishment of a central government in Iraq that was ready to not just make promises, but actually live up to the pursuit of a multi-sectarian inclusive governing agenda. And so far, that’s exactly what we’ve seen from Prime Minister Abadi. And it’s because of Prime Minister Abadi’s commitment to that inclusive governing style, that’s why you’ve seen a corresponding investment from the United States and the broader international community.
Because the President’s view wa, all of our investments in training a equipping would not have the desired effect if there wasn’t a corresponding commitment from the central government to address the political problems that had plagued the Maliki administration. But because of the commitment from Prime Minister Abadi, we are optimistic that the kind of investment that the United States and our coalition partners are making in Iraq now are more likely to take root and be successful.
Shannon.
Q The President’s comments on King v. Burwell yesterday, as we’re waiting for a decision, he said he was optimistic that the court would “play it straight” with regard to the decision on the subsidies. So what is the implication there if you all don’t win that case? That the justices are playing politics with the issue, or that they don’t know how to do their jobs?
MR. EARNEST: Well, I think the President’s view is that this is a straightforward case. And in the mind of the President, as he mentioned yesterday, this is probably a case that the Supreme Court shouldn’t have even taken up. But as long as they have, the President believes that the reading of the law is quite clear -- and this is a case that you’ve heard me make many times. Frankly, this is also a case that we’ve heard from Republican staffers on Capitol Hill who have also validated that those who wrote this legislation intended for every single American, regardless of which state they live in, who is eligible to collect tax credits, to do so to make their health insurance more affordable. So it’s a pretty straightforward reading of the law in the mind of the President and in the mind of many -- the vast majority of legal scholars who have taken a look at this, and that’s why the President indicated that he was optimistic about the outcome.
Q What are we to do with Jonathan Gruber’s comments then, who has taken credit for participating in helping to draft the ideas behind the Affordable Care Act, saying that essentially the idea was that states that didn’t set up exchanges would not get these subsidies and credits? Their residence would pay out, but they wouldn’t get the benefit?
MR. EARNEST: Well, again, I can’t account for his comments. All I can do is I can account for the comments of many Republican staffers on Capitol Hill, who said that the law was intended to ensure that every citizen, regardless of which state they lived in, could collect tax credits to make their health insurance more affordable if, in fact, their income level was at the appropriate level.
Q So if you lose, what’s the implication about the Court and its reasoning in coming to that decision?
MR. EARNEST: Well, again, I’m not in a position where we’re expecting to lose. Because of the power -- because of the strength of our arguments and because what we believe is the Supreme Court’s commitment to -- as the President mentioned -- playing it straight, we’re confident about the outcome.
Q Another question. The administration’s filing June 2nd with the FISA Court regarding renewing collection -- bulk collection of data to reverse the Second Circuit’s decision, the Clapper case, the only federal appellate decision that’s found that the program is being used improperly -- essentially, in this filing, telling the FISA Court to disregard that ruling. So you think the Second Circuit got it wrong? Do you intend to appeal it?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the thing that we have said -- and this is what we said shortly after the Second Circuit issued their ruling and while the Congress was debating the USA FREEDOM Act -- it’s the view of the administration, speaking generally, that the reforms that are included in the USA FREEDOM Act would address the concerns that were raised by the Second Circuit. There may be an opportunity for the Second Circuit to eventually reach that conclusion on their own, but because of the kinds of reforms that the President encouraged Congress to pass in the context of this bill, we believe that it does strike an appropriate balance between the need to keep the country safe with the need to protect our civil liberties.
Q Do you have a time frame for anticipating whether or not you will appeal either to -- hearing of the Second Circuit or the Supreme Court?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t have a timing for that. I’d refer you to the Department of Justice on that.
Andrew.
Q There was some reports that Lisa Monaco and Ash Carter are working on a new plan to close the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay. Is that the case?
MR. EARNEST: Drew, it has long been a priority of the President -- frankly, since his first day in office -- to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The reason for that is -- well, there are many reasons for that. The first is the President believes that continuing to operate the prison at Guantanamo Bay serves primarily as a recruiting tool for terrorists and extremists around the globe. The cost of operating that prison is prohibitively expensive and doesn’t serve the best interest of the American people.
The fact is, this administration has demonstrated time and time again that we can bring those individuals to justice, many of them through criminal courts here in the United States. There are any number of extremists and terrorists that have been convicted of very serious crimes and put away and brought to justice. But there are also other proceedings through military commissions and others that can dispense with these cases. And the President believes -- and has believed for a long time -- that the interest of the United States would be best served by closing the prison. And this is an effort that we have doggedly pursued, even in the face of strident opposition from members of Congress.
Q You’ve got nothing new to announce?
MR. EARNEST: I don’t have anything new to share with you at this point.
Q Just on a completely different subject, has anybody told the First Lady about Robert Gibbs going to McDonalds? (Laughter.)
MR. EARNEST: I’m not sure if she has received the news. Obviously I had an opportunity to work closely with Robert both on the campaign and here at the White House -- and the folks at McDonalds have just hired themselves one of the most effective and articulate communications professionals in the country.
Cheryl.
Q Thanks. So, Josh, why did the President give a speech on health care today? Is he still concerned about public opinion, or did he have a different audience in mind?
MR. EARNEST: Well, the first, Cheryl, is he received an invitation from the Catholic Health Association to speak to their group. He was pleased to accept and he did believe that it was an appropriate venue to talk about the enormous benefits of the Affordable Care Act that has made life better for millions of Americans -- and not just the 16 million Americans who have gotten health care since the Affordable Care Act took effect, but also the millions of other Americans who have enjoyed the benefits of the slowest growth in health care costs in history.
These are individuals who -- again, millions of Americans who no longer have to worry about being discriminated against because they have a preexisting condition. This is the millions of women all across the country that don’t have to be worried about being charged more for their health insurance just because they’re women.
So this gave the President an opportunity to make a case that probably was familiar to all of you but one that he obviously enjoys making.
Fred.
Q Thanks, Josh. On health care, one quick one to start with. The President didn’t mention, speaking to this Catholic group, anything about the HHS mandate, which has obviously been a point of controversy with Catholics. Why is that?
MR. EARNEST: Well, Fred, I can talk to you about lots of things that were included in the speech. It’s hard for me to account for the things that aren’t.
Q Okay. And as far as King v. Burwell, you’ve talked about how this could cause utter chaos. The President talked yesterday in Germany about the consequences if the Court rules against the administration. I wanted to get your thoughts. Should the Court in your opinion consider the social consequences of its ruling, or should they purely stick strictly to the legal argument?
MR. EARNEST: Well, I am confident that the nine justices of the Supreme Court know much more about what it is they should do than I do. So I would be among the last people to tell them exactly what decision they should make or how they should make it. They have an independent responsibility to evaluate the arguments and reach a conclusion. And each of them is eminently qualified to do that. And I’ll express the same confidence that the President did yesterday about their ability to do that.
Q And one last one on this. The President said today that none of the predictions have come true about this, but yet there have been reports about people who have been shifted to new insurance policies through their work, that people have been put in new networks so they’ve had to see new doctors in some cases. That was something that came up -- if you like your doctor, you can keep it, if you like your health plan, you can keep it. Is that something that was -- was that one of those dire predictions that did come true?
MR. EARNEST: Fred, that was the circumstance in the health care market before the Affordable Care Act went into effect. And the fact is that there are a lot of people who had to change their health care plan because they got sick and because their health care plan tried to drop them. No longer can health care plans do that because of the Affordable Care Act. And I think that’s a testament to the power of this law and the impact that it’s had -- the positive impact that it’s had on people all across the country.
Yes, ma’am, I’ll give you the last one.
Q Josh -- (inaudible) the deputy head of China central military commission, is coming to visit the White House this Friday. Would you please disclose some agenda and details -- will he meet with President Obama?
MR. EARNEST: I’m not aware of that particular visit, but let me have one of my colleagues in the National Security Council get back with you and we can give you a better sense of what’s planned for the visit.
Thanks, everybody. We’ll see you tomorrow.
END
3:20 P.M. EDT
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Washington Marriott Wardman Park
Washington, D.C.
11:58 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. (Applause.) Everybody, please have a seat. Thank you so much.
Well, I don't know whether this is appropriate, but I just told Sister Carol I love her. (Laughter.) On a big stage. It is true, though -- I do. She is just wonderful. Her dedication to doing God’s work here on Earth, her commitment to serving “the least of these,” here steadiness, her strength, her steadfast voice have been an inspiration to me. We would not have gotten the Affordable Care Act done had it not been for her. I want to thank the entire Catholic Health Association for the incredible work you do. (Applause.)
And it's true, I just love nuns, generally. (Laughter.) I'm just saying. (Laughter.)
It is an honor to join you on your 100th anniversary of bringing hope and healing to so many. I want to acknowledge Dignity Health and its CEO, Lloyd Dean -- (applause) -- honored by the Catholic Health Association last night for his outstanding support of our efforts to improve health care in America. He has been a great friend.
I want to thank Ascension Health, a great provider of care -- that also recently raised its minimum wage. (Applause.) I want to thank Secretary Burwell and the members of Congress who are here today, because they have been obviously doing extraordinary work. (Applause.)
My first job in Chicago when I moved after college to work as a community organizer -- my first job was funded by the Campaign for Human Development, an anti-poverty initiative of the Catholic Church. And my first office was at Holy Rosary Church on the South Side of Chicago, across from Palmer Park. (Applause.) You're clapping there -- she knows Holy Rosary. (Laughter.) And the task was to work with parishes and neighbors and faith and community leaders to bring low-income people together, to stitch neighborhoods together, clergy and laypeople. And the work was hard, and there were times where it was dispiriting. We had plenty of setbacks. There were times where I felt like quitting, where I wondered if the path I’d chosen was too hard.
But despite these challenges, I saw how kindness and compassion and faith can change the arc of people’s lives. And I saw the power of faith -- a shared belief that every human being, made in the image of God, deserves to live in dignity; that all children, no matter who they are or where they come from or how much money they were born into, ought to have the opportunity to achieve their God-given potential; that we are all called, in the words of His Holiness Pope Francis, “to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness, and respect for every human being.”
And at the time, when I had just moved to Chicago, the Cardinal there was Cardinal Bernardin, an extraordinary man. And he understood that part of that commitment, part of that commitment to the dignity of every human being also meant that we had to care about the health of every human being. And he articulated that, and the Church articulated that, as we moved at the state level in the Illinois legislature, once I was elected there later on in life, to advance the proposition that health care is not a privilege, it is a right.
And that belief is at the heart of the Catholic Health Association’s mission. For decades, your member hospitals have been on the front lines, often serving the marginalized, the vulnerable and the sick and the uninsured. And that belief is at the heart of why we came together more than five years ago to reform our health care system -- to guarantee that every American has access to quality, affordable care.
So I’m here today to say thank you for your tireless efforts to make health reform a reality. Without your commitment to compassionate care, without your moral force, we would not have succeeded. (Applause.) We would not have succeeded had it not been for you and the foundation you had laid. (Applause.)
And pursuing health care reform wasn’t about making good on a campaign promise for me. It was, remember, in the wake of an economic crisis with a very human toll and it was integral to restoring the basic promise of America -- the notion that in this country, if you work hard and you take responsibility, you can get ahead. You can make it if you try. Everything we’ve done these past six years and a half years to rebuild our economy on a new foundation -- from rescuing and retooling our industries, to reforming our schools, to rethinking the way we produce and use energy, to reducing our deficits -- all of that has been in pursuit of that one goal, creating opportunity for all people. And health reform was a critical part of that effort.
For decades, a major barrier to economic opportunity was our broken health care system. It exposed working families to the insecurities of a changing economy. It saddled our businesses with skyrocketing costs that made it hard to hire or pay a good wage. It threatened our entire nation’s long-term prosperity, was the primary driver of our deficits.
And for hospitals like yours, the fact that so many people didn’t have basic care meant you were scrambling and scratching every single day to try to figure out how do we keep our doors open.
Leaders from Teddy Roosevelt to Teddy Kennedy wanted to reform it. For as long as there were Americans who couldn’t afford decent health care, as long as there were people who had to choose between paying for medicine or paying the rent, as long as there were parents who had to figure out whether they could sell or borrow to pay for a child’s treatment just a few months more, and beg for God’s mercy to make it work in time -- as long as those things were happening, America was not living up to our highest ideals.
And that’s why providers and faith leaders like you called for expanding access to affordable care. Every day, you saw the very personal suffering of those who go without it. And it seemed like an insurmountable challenge. Every time there was enough political will to alleviate that suffering and to reform the health care system -- whether it was under Democratic Presidents or Republican Presidents -- you had special interests arraying and keeping the status quo in place. And each year that passed without reform the stakes kept getting higher.
By the time I took office, thousands of Americans were losing their health insurance every single day. Many people died each year because they didn’t have health insurance. Many families who thought they had coverage were driven into bankruptcy by out-of-pocket costs. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens had no coverage at all in this, the wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth. And despite being the only advanced economy in the world without universal health care, our health care costs grew to be the most expensive in the world with no slowing in sight. And that trend strained the budgets of families and businesses and our government.
And so we determined that we could not keep kicking that can down the road any longer. We could not leave that problem for another generation to solve, or another generation after that.
And remember, this was not easy. (Laughter.) There were those who thought health care reform was too messy, and too complicated, and too politically risky. I had pollsters showing me stuff, and 85 percent of folks at any given time had health care and so they weren’t necessarily incentivized to support it. And you could scare the heck out of them about even if they weren’t entirely satisfied with the existing system that somehow it would be terrible to change it. All kinds of warning signs about how tough this was -- bad politics.
But for every politician and pundit who said we should wait, why rush, barely a day went by where I didn’t hear from hardworking Americans who didn’t have a moment left to lose. These were men and women from all backgrounds, all walks of life, all races, all faiths, in big cities, small towns, red states, blue states. Middle-class families with coverage that turned out not to be there for them when they needed it. Moms and dads desperately seeking care for a child with a chronic illness only to be told “no” again and again -- or fearful as their child got older, what was there future going to be because they weren’t going to be able to get insurance once they left the house. Small business owners forced to choose between insuring their employees and keeping the “open” sign hanging in the window.
And every one of these stories tugged at me in a personal way -- because I spoke about seeing my mom worry about how she was going to deal with her finances when she got very sick. And I was reminded of the fear that Michelle and I felt when Sasha was a few months old and we had to race to the hospital, in the emergency room learning that she had meningitis -- that we caught only because we had a wonderful pediatrician and regular care. Never felt so scared or helpless in my life.
We were fortunate enough to have good health insurance. And I remember looking around in that emergency room and thinking what about the parents who aren’t that lucky? What about the parents who get hit with a bill of $20,000 or $30,000, and they’ve got no idea how to pay for it? What about those parents with kids who have a chronic illness like asthma and have to keep going back to the emergency room because they don’t have a regular doctor, and the bills never stop coming? Who’s going to stand up for them?
Behind every single story was a simple question: What kind of country do we want to be? Are we a country that’s defined by values that say access to health care is a commodity awarded to only the highest bidders, or by the values that say health care is a fundamental right? Do we believe that where you start should determine how far you go, or do we believe that in the greatest nation on Earth, everybody deserves the opportunity to make it -- to make of their lives what they will?
The rugged individualism that defines America has always been bound by a shared set of values, an enduring sense that we’re in this together, that America is not a place where we simply turn away from the sick, or turn our backs on the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. It is a place sustained by the idea: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper -- that we have an obligation to put ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes and see each other’s common humanity.
And so, after a century of talk, after decades of trying, after a year of sustained debate, we finally made health care reform a reality here in America. (Applause.)
And despite the constant doom-and-gloom predictions, the unending Chicken Little warnings that somehow making health insurance fairer and easier to buy would lead to the end of freedom, the end of the American way of life -- lo and behold, it did not happen. None of this came to pass. In fact, in a lot of ways, the Affordable Care Act worked out better than some of us anticipated.
Nearly one in three uninsured Americans have already been covered -- more than 16 million people -– driving our uninsured rate to its lowest level ever. (Applause.) Ever. On top of that, tens of millions more enjoy new protections with the coverage that they’ve already got. That 85 percent who had health insurance, they may not know that they’ve got a better deal now than they did, but they do. Americans can no longer be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions -- from you having had cancer to you having had a baby. Women can’t be charged more just for being a woman. (Applause.) And they get free preventive services like mammograms. And there are no more annual or lifetime caps on the care patients receive.
Medicare has been strengthened and protected. We’ve added 13 years to its actuarial life. The financial difference for business owners trying to invest and grow, and the families trying to save and spend -- that’s real, too. Health care prices have risen at the lowest rate in 50 years. Employer premiums are rising at a rate tied for the lowest on record. The average family premium is $1,800 lower today than it would have been had trends over the decade before the ACA passed continued.
In the years to come, countless Americans who can now buy plans that are portable and affordable on a competitive marketplace will be free to chase their own ideas, unleash new enterprises across the country, knowing they’ll be able to buy health insurance.
And here’s the thing -- that security won’t just be there for us. It will be there for our kids as they go through life. When they graduate from college, they’re looking for that first job, they can stay on our plans until they’re 26. When they start a family, pregnancy will no longer count against them as a preexisting condition. When they change jobs or lose a job, or strike out on their own to start a business, they’ll still be able to get good coverage. They’ll have that peace of mind all the way until they retire into a Medicare that now has cheaper prescription drugs and wellness visits to make sure that they stay healthy.
And while we were told again and again that Obamacare would be a job-killer -- amazingly enough, some critics still peddle this notion -- it turns out in reality, America has experienced 63 straight months of private sector job growth -- a streak that started the month we passed the Affordable Care Act. (Applause.) The longest streak of private sector job growth on record -- that adds up to 12.6 million new jobs. (Applause.)
So the critics stubbornly ignore reality. In reality, there is a self-employed single mom of three who couldn’t afford health insurance until health reform passed and she qualified for Medicaid in her state. And she was finally able to get a mammogram, which detected early-stage breast cancer and may have saved her life. That's the reality, not the mythology.
In reality, there are parents in Texas whose autistic son couldn’t speak. Even with health insurance, they struggled to pay for his treatment. But health reform meant they could buy an affordable secondary plan that covered therapy for their son -- and today, that little boy can tell his parents that he loves them. That's the reality. (Applause.)
In reality, there’s a self-employed barber from Tennessee -- who happens to be a Republican -- who couldn’t afford health insurance until our new marketplace opened up. And once he bought a plan, he finally went to the doctor and was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. In the old days, without coverage, he wouldn’t have even known that he was sick. And today, he’s now cancer-free.
So five years in, what we are talking about it is no longer just a law. It’s no longer just a theory. This isn’t even just about the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. This isn’t about myths or rumors that folks try to sustain. There is a reality that people on the ground day to day are experiencing. Their lives are better.
This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another. This is health care in America -- which is why, once you get outside of Washington and leave behind the Beltway chatter and the politics, Americans support this new reality. When you talk to people who actually are enrolled in a new marketplace plan, the vast majority of them like their coverage. The vast majority are satisfied with their choice of doctors and hospitals and satisfied with their monthly premiums. They like their reality.
Now, that doesn't mean that we don't have more work to do. Sister Carol and I were talking backstage -- we know we got more work to do. Like any serious attempt at change, there were disruptions in the rollout, there are policies we can put in place to make health care work even better. Secretary Burwell is talking about all the things we have to do together around delivery system reform. We have to protect the coverage that people have now and sign even more people up. We need more governors and state legislatures to expand Medicaid, which was a central part of the architecture of the overall plan. We have to continue to improve the quality of care. And we know we can still bring down costs.
And none of this is going to be easy. Nobody suggests that somehow our health care system is perfect as a consequence of the law being passed, but it is serving so many more people so much better. And we're not going to go backwards. There’s something, I have to say, just deeply cynical about the ceaseless, endless partisan attempts to roll back progress. I mean, I understood folks being skeptical or worried before the law passed and there wasn’t a reality there to examine. But once you see millions of people of having health care, once you see that all the bad things that were predicted didn't happen, you’d think that it would be time to move one.
Let’s figure out how to make it better. It seems so cynical to want to take coverage away from millions of people; to take care away from people who need it the most; to punish millions with higher costs of care and unravel what’s now been woven into the fabric of America.
And that kind of cynicism flies in the face of our history. Our history is one of each generation striving to do better and to be better than the last. Just as we’ll never go back to a time when seniors were left to languish in poverty or not have any health insurance in their golden years. There was a generation that didn't have that guarantee of health care. We're not going to go back to a time when our citizens can be denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. When tens of millions of people couldn’t afford decent, affordable care -- that wasn’t a better America. That's not freedom. The freedom to languish in illness, or to be bankrupt because somebody in your family gets stick -- that's not who we are. That's not what we're about.
Debra Lea Oren of Pennsylvania knows that. Debra suffers from osteoarthritis that was so severe that it put her in a wheelchair. And for years she couldn’t stand or walk at all, and was in constant pain -- through no fault of her own, just the twists and turns of life. And without health insurance to get treatment, it seemed as though she might never again live a life that was full. Today, Debra is enrolled in affordable health coverage, was able to have surgery to replace her knees. She’s back on her feet. She walks her dogs, shops at the grocery store, gets to her doctor’s appointments. She’s cooking, she’s exercising, regaining her health.
Debra couldn’t be here today, but she recently wrote to me and she said: “I walk with my husband Michael and hold hands. It’s like a whole new world for me.” Just walking and holding hands -- something that one of our fellow Americans for years could not do.
Every day, miracles happen in your hospitals. But remaking Debra’s world didn’t require a miracle. It just required that Debra have access to something that she and every other American has a right to expect, which is health care coverage.
And while there are outcomes that we can calculate and enumerate -- the number of newly insured families, the number of lives saved -- those numbers all add up to success in this reform effort. But there are also outcomes that are harder to calculate -- in the tally of pain and tragedy and bankruptcies that have been averted, but also in the security of a parent who can afford to take her kid to the doctor; or the dignity of a grandfather who can get the preventive care that he needs; or the freedom of an entrepreneur who can start a new venture -- or the joy of a wife who thought she’d never again take her husband’s hand and go for a walk.
In the end, that’s why you do what you do. Isn’t that what this is all about? Is there any greater measure of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness than those simple pleasures that are afforded because you have good health and you have some security?
More than five years ago, I said that while I was not the first President to take up this cause, I was determined to be the last. And now it’s up to all of us -- the citizens in this room and across the country- -- to continue to help make the right to health care a reality for all Americans. And if we keep faith with one another and keep working for each other to create opportunity for everybody who strives for it, then, in the words of Senator Ted Kennedy, “the dream will be fulfilled for this generation, and preserved and enlarged for generations to come.”
It couldn’t have happened without you. (Applause.)
Thank you. God bless you all. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
END
12:25 P.M. EDT
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
We welcome the Supreme Court’s important decision yesterday in Zivotofsky v. Kerry, which reaffirms the long-established authority of the President to recognize foreign states, their governments, and their territorial boundaries. The Court’s decision upholds the President’s long-standing authority to make these sensitive recognition determinations as part of his conduct of diplomacy and foreign policy. Moreover, it confirms that the President’s recognition determinations should be accurately reflected in official documents and sensitive diplomatic communications, including passports.
Today, speaking from the Catholic Health Association's annual assembly in Washington, D.C., President Obama outlined the state of health care in America, now that the Affordable Care Act has become part of the fabric of our health care system. In it, he told the story of Debra Lea Oren of Palmer, Pennsylvania. Debra, who suffers from osteoarthritis so severe it put her in a wheelchair, couldn't walk or stand for years. She was in constant pain.
Today, she's back on her feet. Here's why:
Debra was able to enroll in an affordable health plan that covered the surgery she needed to help her walk on her own again. As a result, she can walk to the grocery store. She can cook and exercise. She can get herself to her doctors' appointments on her own two feet (and two new knees).
This is what health reform has meant to millions of Americans.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Today, at the invitation of the Catholic Health Association, President Obama will address their annual conference and thank them for their dedication to helping ensure all Americans have access to health care. The President will discuss how the passage of the Affordable Care Act reflects our values and the kind of country we strive to be. He will also describe how the Affordable Care Act has become part of the fabric of an improved American health care system, one where we and our children can rely on health security throughout our lives, and make the most of our opportunities as a result.
Additionally, the White House released updated data on how the Affordable Care Act is working in every state in the country. Five years after healthcare reform became a reality, more than 16 million Americans have gained coverage, and the Affordable Care Act has improved coverage for virtually everyone who already had insurance. Americans can no longer be discriminated against for having pre-existing conditions, women can't be charged more just for being women, and there are no longer lifetime limits on the care Americans receive. And hospitals, doctors and other providers are changing the way they operate to deliver better care at lower cost.
The White House also launched a new interactive long form webpage -- "Health Care in America" -- which includes an embedded letter to the President written by the late Senator Ted Kennedy as he endured brain cancer, having instructed his wife to send the letter to the President after he passed away. A lifelong champion for health reform, Senator Kennedy encouraged the President to endure the fight for health care reform and thanked him "one last time" for carrying it forward. The page also includes an interactive timeline that contextualizes a century-long fight for real health reform in America, dozens of stories of Americans whose lives have benefited from reform, and a live player that will stream the President's remarks tomorrow.
President Obama’s remarks will be livestreamed HERE, and excerpts of his prepared remarks are included below:
“The rugged individualism that defines America has always been bound by a set of shared values; an enduring sense that we are in this together. That America is not a place where we simply ignore the poor or turn away from the sick. It’s a place sustained by the idea that I am my brother’s keeper and I am my sister’s keeper. That we have an obligation to put ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes, and to see the common humanity in each other.
So after nearly a century of talk, after decades of trying, after a year of sustained debate, we finally made health care reform a reality for America.”
…
“Five years in, what we’re talking about is no longer just a law. This isn’t about the Affordable Care Act. This isn’t about Obamacare. This isn’t about myths or rumors that won’t go away.
This is reality. This is health care in America.”
…
“There are outcomes we can calculate – the number of newly insured families, the number of lives saved. And those numbers add up to success.
Then there are the outcomes that are harder to calculate – yes, in the tally of pain and tragedy and bankruptcies that have been averted, but also in the security of a parent who can afford to take her kid to the doctor. The dignity of a grandfather who can get the preventive care he needs. The freedom of an entrepreneur who can start a new venture. The joy of a wife who thought she’d never again take her husband’s hand and go for a walk in God’s creation.”
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:
Scott Allen, of Maryland, to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vice James LaGarde Hudson, resigned.
Mary L. Kendall, of Minnesota, to be Inspector General, Department of the Interior, vice Earl E. Devaney, resigned.
WITHDRAWAL SENT TO THE SENATE:
Ericka M. Miller, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, Department of Education, vice Eduardo M. Ochoa, which was sent to the Senate on March 4, 2015.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:
President Obama also announced his appointment of the following individual to a key Administration post:
President Obama said, “I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them.”
President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:
President Obama announced his appointment of the following individual to a key Administration post:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
Elmau Briefing Center
Krün, Germany
4:08 P.M. CEST
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. Let me begin by once again thanking Chancellor Merkel and the people of Bavaria and Germany for their extraordinary hospitality here at the G7. My stay here has been extraordinary. I wish I could stay longer. And one of the pleasures of being President is scouting out places that you want to come back to, where you don't have to spend all your time in a conference room. The setting is breathtaking. Our German friends have been absolutely wonderful, and the success of this summit is a tribute to their outstanding work.
The G7 represents some of the largest economies in the world. But in our G7 partners, the United States also embraces some of our strongest allies and closest friends in the world. So, even as we work to promote the growth that creates jobs and opportunity, we’re also here to stand up for the fundamental principles that we share as democracies: for freedom; for peace; for the right of nations and peoples to decide their own destiny; for universal human rights and the dignity of every human being. And I’m pleased that here in Krün, we showed that on the most pressing global challenges, America and our allies stand united.
We agree that the best way to sustain the global economic recovery is by focusing on jobs and growth. That’s what I’m focused on in the United States. On Friday, we learned that our economy created another 280,000 jobs in May -- the strongest month of the year so far -- and more than 3 million new jobs over the past year, nearly the fastest pace in over a decade. We’ve now seen five straight years of private sector job growth -- 12.6 million new jobs created -- the longest streak on record. The unemployment rate is near its lowest level in seven years. Wages for American workers continue to rise. And since I took office, the United States has cut our deficit by two-thirds. So, in the global economy, America is a major source of strength.
At the same time, we recognize that the global economy, while growing, is still not performing at its full potential, And we agreed on a number of necessary steps. Here in Europe, we support efforts to find a path that enables Greece to carry out key reforms and return to growth within a strong, stable and growing Eurozone. I updated my partners on our effort with Congress to pass trade promotion authority so we can move ahead with TPP in the Asia Pacific region, and T-TIP here in Europe --agreements with high standards to protect workers, public safety and the environment.
We continue to make progress toward a strong global climate agreement this year in Paris. All the G7 countries have now put forward our post-2020 targets for reducing carbon emissions, and we’ll continue to urge other significant emitters to do so as well. We’ll continue to meet our climate finance commitments to help developing countries transition to low-carbon growth.
As we’ve done in the U.S., the G7 agreed on the need to integrate climate risks into development assistance and investment programs across the board, and to increase access to risk insurance to help developing countries respond to and recover from climate-related disasters. And building on the Power Africa initiative I launched two years ago, the G7 will work to mobilize more financing for clean-energy projects in Africa.
With respect to security, the G7 remains strongly united in support for Ukraine. We’ll continue to provide economic support and technical assistance that Ukraine needs as it moves ahead on critical reforms to transform its economy and strengthen its democracy. As we’ve seen again in recent days, Russian forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine, violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is now the second year in a row that the G7 has met without Russia -— another example of Russia’s isolation -— and every member of the G7 continues to maintain sanctions on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
Now, it’s important to recognize the Russian economy has been seriously weakened. The ruble and foreign investment are down; Inflation is up. The Russian central bank has lost more than $150 billion in reserves. Russian banks and firms are virtually locked out of the international markets. Russian energy companies are struggling to import the services and technologies they need for complex energy projects. Russian defense firms have been cut off from key technologies. Russia is in deep recession. So Russia’s actions in Ukraine are hurting Russia and hurting the Russian people.
Here at the G7, we agreed that even as we will continue to seek a diplomatic solution, sanctions against Russia will remain in place so long as Russia continues to violate its obligations under the Minsk agreements. Our European partners reaffirmed that they will maintain sanctions on Russia until the Minsk agreements are fully implemented, which means extending the EU's existing sectoral sanctions beyond July. And the G7 is making it clear that, if necessary, we stand ready to impose additional, significant sanctions against Russia.
Beyond Europe, we discussed the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and we remain united heading into the final stages of the talks. Iran has a historic opportunity to resolve the international community’s concerns about its nuclear program, and we agreed that Iran needs to seize that opportunity.
Our discussions with Prime Minister Abadi of Iraq, President Caid Essebsi of Tunisia and President Buhari of Nigeria were a chance to address the threats of ISIL and Boko Haram. The G7 countries, therefore, agreed to work -— together and with our partners -— to further coordinate our counterterrorism efforts.
As many of the world’s leading partners in global development -- joined by leaders of Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and the African Union -- we discussed how to maximize the impact of our development partnerships. We agreed to continue our landmark initiative to promote food security and nutrition -- part of our effort to lift 500 million people in developing countries out of hunger and malnutrition by 2030. We’ll continue to work with our partners in West Africa to get Ebola cases down to zero. And as part of our Global Health Security Agenda, I’m pleased that the G7 made a major commitment to help 60 countries over the next five years achieve specific targets to better prevent, detect and respond to future outbreaks before they become epidemics.
And finally, I want to commend Chancellor Merkel for ensuring that this summit included a focus on expanding educational and economic opportunities for women and girls. The G7 committed to expanding career training for women in our own countries, and to increase technical and vocational training in developing countries, which will help all of our nations prosper.
So, again, I want to thank Angela and the people of Germany for their extraordinary hospitality. I leave here confident that when it comes to the key challenges of our time, America and our closest allies stand shoulder to shoulder.
So with that, I will take some questions. And I will start off with Jeff Mason of Reuters.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. After your meetings here, you mentioned Greece in your opening statement. Do you believe that the Europeans are being too tough on Greece in these talks? And what else needs to be done on both sides to ensure there’s a deal and to ensure that there isn’t the undue harm to financial markets that you’ve warned about?
And on a separate and somewhat related topic, the French told reporters today that you said to G7 leaders that you’re concerned that the dollar is too strong. What did you say exactly? And are you concerned that the dollar is too strong?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: First of all, don’t believe unnamed quotes. I did not say that. And I make a practice of not commenting on the daily fluctuations of the dollar or any other currency.
With respect to Greece, I think that not only our G7 partners but the IMF and other institutions that were represented here feel a sense of urgency in finding a path to resolve the situation there. And what it’s going to require is Greece being serious about making some important reforms not only to satisfy creditors, but, more importantly, to create a platform whereby the Greek economy can start growing again and prosper. And so the Greeks are going to have to follow through and make some tough political choices that will be good for the long term.
I also think it’s going to be important for the international community and the international financial agencies to recognize the extraordinary challenges that Greeks face. And if both sides are showing a sufficient flexibility, then I think we can get this problem resolved. But it will require some tough decisions for all involved, and we will continue to consult with all the parties involved to try to encourage that kind of outcome.
Q Are you confident it will happen before the deadline?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think that everybody wants to make it happen and they’re working hard to get it done.
Nedra.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. How frustrated are you that after you personally raised your concerns about cybersecurity with the Chinese President that a massive attack on U.S. personnel files seems to have originated from China? Was the Chinese government involved? And separately, as a sports fan, can you give us your reaction to the FIFA bribery scandal? Thank you.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: With respect to FIFA, I cannot comment on a pending case by our Attorney General. I will say that in conversations I’ve had here in Europe, people think it is very important for FIFA to be able to operate with integrity and transparency and accountability.
And so as the investigation and charges proceed, I think we have to keep in mind that although football -- soccer -- depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on, is a game, it’s also a massive business. It is a source of incredible national pride, and people want to make sure that it operates with integrity.
The United States, by the way, since we keep on getting better and better at each World Cup, we want to make sure that a sport that’s gaining popularity is conducted in an upright manner.
I don’t want to discuss -- because we haven’t publicly unveiled who we think may have engaged in these cyber-attacks -- but I can tell you that we have known for a long time that there are significant vulnerabilities and that these vulnerabilities are going to accelerate as time goes by, both in systems within government and within the private sector. This is why it’s so important that Congress moves forward on passing cyber legislation -- cybersecurity legislation that we’ve been pushing for; why, over the last several years, I’ve been standing up new mechanisms inside of government for us to investigate what happens and to start finding more effective solutions.
Part of the problem is, is that we’ve got very old systems. And we discovered this new breach in OPM precisely because we’ve initiated this process of inventorying and upgrading these old systems to address existing vulnerabilities. And what we are doing is going agency by agency, and figuring out what can we fix with better practices and better computer hygiene by personnel, and where do we need new systems and new infrastructure in order to protect information not just of government employees or government activities, but also, most importantly, where there’s an interface between government and the American people.
And this is going to be a big project and we’re going to have to keep on doing it, because both state and non-state actors are sending everything they’ve got at trying to breach these systems. In some cases, it’s non-state actors who are engaging in criminal activity and potential theft. In the case of state actors, they’re probing for intelligence or, in some cases, trying to bring down systems in pursuit of their various foreign policy objectives. In either case, we’re going to have to be much more aggressive, much more attentive than we have been.
And this problem is not going to go away. It is going to accelerate. And that means that we have to be as nimble, as aggressive, and as well-resourced as those who are trying to break into these systems.
Justin Sink.
Q Thanks, Mr. President. I wanted to ask about two things that were on the agenda at the G7 this weekend. The first was the Islamic State. You said yesterday, ahead of your meeting with Prime Minister Cameron, that you’d assess what was working and what wasn’t. So I’m wondering, bluntly, what is not working in the fight against the Islamic State. And in today’s bilateral with Prime Minister Abadi, you pledged to step up assistance to Iraq. I’m wondering if that includes additional U.S. military personnel.
Separately, on trade, Chancellor Merkel said today that she was pleased you would get fast track authority. I’m wondering if that means that you gave her or other leaders here assurance that it would go through the House. And if it doesn’t, what does it say about your ability to achieve meaningful agreements with Congress for the remainder of your time in office?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, on the latter question, I’m not going to hypothesize about not getting it done. I intend to get it done. And, hopefully, we’re going to get a vote soon because I think it’s the right thing to do.
With respect to ISIL, we have made significant progress in pushing back ISIL from areas in which they had occupied or disrupted local populations, but we’ve also seen areas like in Ramadi where they’re displaced in one place and then they come back in, in another. And they’re nimble, and they’re aggressive, and they’re opportunistic.
So one of the areas where we’re going to have to improve is the speed at which we’re training Iraqi forces. Where we’ve trained Iraqi forces directly and equipped them, and we have a train-and-assist posture, they operate effectively. Where we haven’t, morale, lack of equipment, et cetera, may undermine the effectiveness of Iraqi security forces. So we want to get more Iraqi security forces trained, fresh, well-equipped and focused. And President Abadi wants the same thing.
So we’re reviewing a range of plans for how we might do that, essentially accelerating the number of Iraqi forces that are properly trained and equipped and have a focused strategy and good leadership. And when a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon, then I will share it with the American people. We don’t yet have a complete strategy because it requires commitments on the part of the Iraqis, as well, about how recruitment takes place, how that training takes place. And so the details of that are not yet worked out.
Q Is it fair to say that additional military personnel -- U.S. military personnel are of what’s under consideration?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I think what is fair to say is that all the countries in the international coalition are prepared to do more to train Iraqi security forces if they feel like that additional work is being taken advantage of. And one of the things that we’re still seeing is -- in Iraq -- places where we’ve got more training capacity than we have recruits. So part of my discussion with Prime Minister Abadi was how do we make sure that we get more recruits in. A big part of the answer there is our outreach to Sunni tribes.
We’ve seen Sunni tribes who are not only willing and prepared to fight ISIL, but have been successful at rebuffing ISIL. But it has not been happening as fast as it needs to. And so one of the efforts that I'm hoping to see out of Prime Minister Abadi, and the Iraqi legislature when they’re in session, is to move forward on a National Guard law that would help to devolve some of the security efforts in places like Anbar to local folks, and to get those Sunni tribes involved more rapidly.
This is part of what helped defeat AQI -- the precursor of ISIL -- during the Iraq War in 2006. Without that kind of local participation, even if you have a short-term success, it’s very hard to hold those areas.
The other area where we’ve got to make a lot more progress is on stemming the flow of foreign fighters. Now, you’ll recall that I hosted a U.N. General Security Council meeting specifically on this issue, and we’ve made some progress, but not enough. We are still seeing thousands of foreign fighters flowing into, first, Syria, and then, oftentimes, ultimately into Iraq.
And not all of that is preventable, but a lot of it is preventable -- if we’ve got better cooperation, better coordination, better intelligence, if we are monitoring what’s happening at the Turkish-Syria border more effectively. This is an area where we’ve been seeking deeper cooperation with Turkish authorities who recognize it’s a problem but haven’t fully ramped up the capacity they need. And this is something that I think we got to spend a lot of time on.
If we can cut off some of that foreign fighter flow then we’re able to isolate and wear out ISIL forces that are already there. Because we’re taking a lot of them off the battlefield, but if they’re being replenished, then it doesn’t solve the problem over the long term.
The final point that I emphasized to Prime Minister Abadi is the political agenda of inclusion remains as important as the military fight that’s out there. If Sunnis, Kurds, and Shia all feel as if they’re concerns are being addressed, and that operating within a legitimate political structure can meet their need for security, prosperity, non-discrimination, then we’re going to have much easier time.
And the good news is Prime Minister Abadi is very much committed to that principle. But, obviously, he’s inheriting a legacy of a lot of mistrust between various groups in Iraq -- he’s having to take a lot of political risks. In some cases, there are efforts to undermine those efforts by other political factions within Iraq. And so we’ve got to continue to monitor that and support those who are on the right side of the issue there.
Colleen Nelson.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned that the U.S. and its European allies have reached a consensus on extending the sanctions against Russia. Is there a consensus, though, about what specifically the next step should be if Russia continues to violate the Minsk agreement? And also, can you deter Russian aggression in other parts of Eastern Europe without a permanent U.S. troop presence?
And separately, I wanted to ask you about the possibility that the court battle over your actions on immigration could extend late into your term. Do you think that there’s anything more that you can do for the people who would have benefitted from that program and now are in limbo? And how do you view the possibility of your term ending without accomplishing your goals on immigration?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: On Ukraine and Russia and Minsk, there is strong consensus that we need to keep pushing Russia to abide by the terms of the Minsk agreement; we need to continue to support and encourage Ukraine to meet its obligations under Minsk -- that until that's completed, sanctions remain in place.
There was discussion about additional steps that we might need to take if Russia, working through separatists, doubled down on aggression inside of Ukraine. Those discussions are taking place at a technical level, not yet at a political level -- because I think the first goal here going into a European Council meeting that's coming up is just rolling over the existing sanctions. But I think at a technical level, we want to be prepared.
Our hope is, is that we don't have to take additional steps because the Minsk agreement is met. And I want to give enormous credit to Chancellor Merkel, along with President Hollande, who have shown extraordinary stick-to-itiveness and patience in trying to get that done.
Ultimately, this is going to be an issue for Mr. Putin. He’s got to make a decision: Does he continue to wreck his country’s economy and continue Russia’s isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire? Or does he recognize that Russia’s greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries?
And as I mentioned earlier, the costs that the Russian people are bearing are severe. That’s being felt. It may not always be understood why they’re suffering, because of state media inside of Russia and propaganda coming out of state media in Russia and to Russian speakers. But the truth of the matter is, is that the Russian people would greatly benefit. And, ironically, one of the rationales that Mr. Putin provided for his incursions into Ukraine was to protect Russian speakers there. Well, Russian speakers inside of Ukraine are precisely the ones who are bearing the brunt of the fighting. Their economy has collapsed. Their lives are disordered. Many of them are displaced. Their homes may have been destroyed. They’re suffering. And the best way for them to stop suffering is if the Minsk agreement is fully implemented.
Oh, immigration. With respect to immigration, obviously, I’m frustrated by a district court ruling that now is winding its way through the appeals process. We are being as aggressive as we can legally to, first and foremost, appeal that ruling, and then to implement those elements of immigration executive actions that were not challenged in court.
But, obviously, the centerpiece, one of the key provisions for me was being able to get folks who are undocumented to go through a background check -- criminal background check -- pay back taxes, and then have a legal status. And that requires an entire administrative apparatus and us getting them to apply and come clean.
I made a decision, which I think is the right one, that we should not accept applications until the legal status of this is clarified. I am absolutely convinced this is well within my legal authority, Department of Homeland Security’s legal authority. If you look at the precedent, if you look at the traditional discretion that the executive branch possesses when it comes to applying immigration laws, I am convinced that what we’re doing is lawful, and our lawyers are convinced that what we’re doing is lawful.
But the United States is a government of laws and separations of power, and even if it’s an individual district court judge who’s making this determination, we’ve got to go through the process to challenge it. And until we get clarity there, I don’t want to bring people in, have them apply and jump through a lot of hoops only to have it deferred and delayed further.
Of course, there’s one really great way to solve this problem, and that would be Congress going ahead and acting, which would obviate the need for executive actions. The majority of the American people I think still want to see that happen. I suspect it will be a major topic of the next presidential campaign.
And so we will continue to push as hard as we can on all fronts to fix a broken immigration system. Administratively, we’ll be prepared if and when we get the kind of ruling that I think we should have gotten in the first place about our authorities to go ahead and implement. But ultimately, this has never fully replaced the need for Congress to act. And my hope is, is that after a number of the other issues that we’re working on currently get cleared, that some quiet conversations start back up again, particularly in the Republican Party, about the shortsighted approach that they’re taking when it comes to immigration.
Okay. Christi Parsons.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. More than six million Americans may soon lose health insurance if the Supreme Court this month backs the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. A growing number of states are looking for assistance as they face the prospect that their residents may lose federal insurance subsidies and their insurance markets may collapse. Yet, your administration has given very little to no guidance on how states can prepare. What can you tell state leaders and advocates who worry that health care markets in half the country may be thrown into chaos?
THE PRESIDENT: What I can tell state leaders is, is that under well-established precedent, there is no reason why the existing exchanges should be overturned through a court case. It has been well documented that those who passed this legislation never intended for folks who were going through the federal exchange not to have their citizens get subsidies. That’s not just the opinion of me; that’s not just the opinion of Democrats; that’s the opinion of the Republicans who worked on the legislation. The record makes it clear.
And under well-established statutory interpretation, approaches that have been repeatedly employed -- not just by liberal, Democratic judges, but by conservative judges like some on the current Supreme Court -- you interpret a statute based on what the intent and meaning and the overall structure of the statute provides for.
And so this should be an easy case. Frankly, it probably shouldn’t even have been taken up. And since we’re going to get a ruling pretty quick, I think it’s important for us to go ahead and assume that the Supreme Court is going to do what most legal scholars who’ve looked at this would expect them to do.
But, look, I’ve said before and I will repeat again: If, in fact, you have a contorted reading of the statute that says federal-run exchanges don’t provide subsidies for folks who are participating in those exchanges, then that throws off how that exchange operates. It means that millions of people who are obtaining insurance currently with subsidies suddenly aren’t getting those subsidies; many of them can’t afford it; they pull out; and the assumptions that the insurance companies made when they priced their insurance suddenly gets thrown out the window. And it would be disruptive -- not just, by the way, for folks in the exchanges, but for those insurance markets in those states, generally.
So it’s a bad idea. It’s not something that should be done based on a twisted interpretation of four words in -- as we were reminded repeatedly -- a couple-thousand-page piece of legislation.
What’s more, the thing is working. I mean, part of what’s bizarre about this whole thing is we haven’t had a lot of conversation about the horrors of Obamacare because none of them come to pass. You got 16 million people who’ve gotten health insurance. The overwhelming majority of them are satisfied with the health insurance. It hasn’t had an adverse effect on people who already had health insurance. The only effect it’s had on people who already had health insurance is they now have an assurance that they won’t be prevented from getting health insurance if they’ve got a preexisting condition, and they get additional protections with the health insurance that they do have.
The costs have come in substantially lower than even our estimates about how much it would cost. Health care inflation overall has continued to be at some of the lowest levels in 50 years. None of the predictions about how this wouldn’t work have come to pass.
And so I’m -- A, I’m optimistic that the Supreme Court will play it straight when it comes to the interpretation. And, B, I should mention that if it didn't, Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision.
But I’m not going to go into a long speculation anticipating disaster.
Q But you’re a plan-ahead kind of guy. Why not have a plan B?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, you know, I want to just make sure that everybody understands that you have a model where all the pieces connect. And there are a whole bunch of scenarios not just in relation to health care, but all kinds of stuff that I do, where if somebody does something that doesn't make any sense, then it’s hard to fix. And this would be hard to fix. Fortunately, there’s no reason to have to do it. It doesn't need fixing. All right?
Thank you very much. Thank you to the people of Germany and Bavaria. You guys were wonderful hosts.
END
4:43 P.M. CEST
Today, President Obama sent the following message to the White House email list. In it, he talks about a letter from the late Senator Edward Kennedy on the importance of reforming our country's health care system.
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He'd written in May of that year, shortly after he learned that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered to me upon his death.
It is a letter about the cause of his career -- what he called "that great unfinished business of our society" -- health care reform.
"What we face," he writes, "is above all a moral issue; that at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."