Confirmation Hearing for HHS Pick Tom Price; Trump Executive Order Advances Controversial Oil Pipelines; Trump to Nominate Supreme Court Justice This Week; White House Press Conference.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump says he's almost ready to announce his choice to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Here's what he just said a little while ago.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sometime next week. I'll be making my decision this week. We'll be announcing next week. We have outstanding candidates. And we will pick a truly great Supreme Court justice. But I'll be announcing it sometime next week.</s>BLITZER: Sometime next week. Our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, is standing by over at the White House with details. Jim, picking a Supreme Court nominee would be one of the most enduring legacies, considering the nominee is confirmed, of a Trump presidency, which could be four years, eight years. A Supreme Court justice could spend 20, 30, maybe even 40 years on the Supreme Court. It's a life- long position.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Courtesy of Republicans in the Senate who blocked President Obama's pick, Merritt Garland, to replace late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died almost a year ago. It was February 13th when Antonin Scalia died. And, Wolf, from what we understand at CNN, talking to sources, there are a couple of pretty conservative judges on his list. William Pryor, who is a judge who said abortion is abominable, he would be a pick that would likely overturn Roe versus Wade. That will send up a big fight with Democrats. Judge Neil Gorsuch (ph) is also taking on some interest in the SCOTUS betting pools. He has not weighed in on the abortion fight, which might be something that could work for both Democrats and Republicans. Wolf, we should point out, we're told by the White House that President Trump will be meeting with Senate leaders later on this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and then Senator Chuck Grassley, who is on the Judiciary Committee, along with Dianne Feinstein, who is the ranking Democrat. This is going to be a big test for President Trump. Does he pick someone who can get through the Senate without a huge confirmation fight, or does he want to rumble? That's something we'll find out next week.</s>BLITZER: The president also this morning signed more executive actions or orders, including reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. That clearly puts him on a collision course with environmentalists. That was a campaign commitment he made. Now he's living up to a promise, right?</s>ACOSTA: That's right, Wolf. This is a product of the election. President Obama, as we all know -- we covered this pretty thoroughly -- he blocked the Keystone Pipeline, even after the State Department said the project would not contribute significantly to global warming. Donald Trump said during the campaign that he was going to get that project going again. And also, the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been the subject of numerous protests. There are still protesters out there to this today. President Trump saying he's going to get that project moving. He signed executive orders this morning. He told reporters in the room that he wants to build pipes. "The way they used to back in the old days," is the way he described it. He wants American workers working on these pipelines, building these pipelines, and he made that pretty clear when he signed those executive orders this morning.</s>BLITZER: Jim Acosta, we're going to get back to you. We're standing by. Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary's briefing is about to begin. We'll have coverage of that. I quickly want to get back to the Senate Finance Committee. Claire McCaskill is asking some tough questions of Congressman Price.</s>SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As you know, we've had a tremendous amount of activity here in the last 24 hours. Really focused on the American worker, buy America and hire America is at the core of the president's plan to create an economy that works for everyone. And I think by every indication, you've seen that focus in the past 24 and 36 hours. Before we begin going through the events of today, I wanted to start off with a quick rundown of all that the president and his administration have done with just one official working day under our belts. I don't know about everyone else, but I think it's been a pretty impressive first and second full days here. President Trump's meetings yesterday with top business and union leaders, including frontline union workers, went very well and I think was a signal to every American worker that jobs and the economy are truly the president's top priority. A few of the participants noted afterwards in each one of these groups that we meet with that this was the first time, in some cases ever, that they've been reached out to. In almost every case, the first time they were invited into the Oval Office. And I really think that when you look at the level of concern and interest that he has in the American worker, it's been clearly on display in the last 24, 36 hours. In addition to these productive meetings, the president also took major steps towards fulfilling some of his biggest campaign promises to the American people. He ushered in a new era of U.S. trade policy by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and restored respect for taxpayers by instituting a hiring freeze on the executive branch. He also reaffirmed his commitment to life by re- establishing the Mexico City Policy. And the president ended his day yesterday with a bipartisan, bicameral meeting of congressional leaders where he made it clear that he expects there to be no delay in getting an agenda -- his agenda through Congress and action out of Washington. This morning, the president began his day with a breakfast listening to key automobile executives. They spoke about the importance of increasing manufacturing capabilities specific to the automotive industry. They touched on the need for regulatory reform and modernized safety standards, which will advance the industry leading (ph) technology and job creation here in the United States. I think you've been briefed on the attendees, but real quickly; Mary Barra was the -- is the head of General Motors was here; former Governor Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council; Mark Fields of Ford; Craig Glidden of General Motors; Roger Carr (ph) of Fiat Chrysler; Sergio Marchionne of Fiat Chrysler; Zio Jockey (ph), the head of Government Affairs for Ford. And then from the administration, Jared Kushner was on hand, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Gary Cohen (ph) and Hope Hicks. Then the president signed a series of executive actions that will move our country towards energy independence, but more importantly, really continue to get Americans back to work. The president started by signing a memorandum to fulfilling a major promise to secure swift approval for the Keystone pipeline. The memorandum invites TransCanada to resubmit their proposal, and directs agencies to approve it without delay. There's an energy revolution that's going to happen in this country. And in spite of the bureaucratic and political barriers that have been in place in the past, we're ready to move forward. Oil and gas production is up significantly in the last decade, and our imports have been cut in half. The president's actions today will create tens of thousands of new jobs for the American workers, and move us greater toward energy independence, while at the same time ensuring that we keep the environment as a top priority. The president also signed in a memorandum regarding the Dakota Access pipeline. This memorandum directs agencies to expedite reviews and approvals for the remaining portions of this pipeline, which the previous administration held up for political reasons. The $3.8 billion pipeline, already 90 percent complete, will carry over 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil from areas in North Dakota to oil markets in the U.S. And in both of these areas, as the president remarked this morning, he's going to ensure that we continue to negotiate both areas to provide the best deal for the American taxpayer. The president signed an executive order establishing a framework for expediting environmental reviews for high-priority infrastructure projects, delays in other inefficiencies in the environmental review and permitting process are severely impeding critical important projects that will help us re-modernize and rebuild our nation's infrastructure. This order will help put an end to the crippling delays caused by bureaucratic red tape. The president also signed a memorandum requiring the Commerce secretary to submit a report recommending how best to streamline manufacturing permitting. The president has been hearing from manufacturing -- manufacturers, rather, that excessive regulation are driving them out of the U.S. As part of his commitment to making America work again, the president has directed the Commerce secretary to reach out to manufacturers and the public to identify regulations that are hurting them from moving forward. The president also signed a memorandum directing the Commerce secretary to lead a study looking into building the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, as well as any other future pipeline with U.S. made steel and pipe and accessories. This is the first step, and the president really delivered on his campaign promise to put American steel back at the backbone of the U.S. economy. The U.S. has lost nearly one-third of its manufacturing base since 1997. Even though the country's population has increased by 50 million people. We're going to rebuild our infrastructure, and we're going to do it with American workers and with American resources. As many of you recall, the buy American theme was a major part of the president's inaugural address. This is clearly an immediate action and extension of that promise that he made to the American people last Friday. We sorely need these infrastructure jobs. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, without improvements to our transportation systems, "the United States will lose more than 2.5 million jobs by 2025." Creating jobs and boosting wages is the president's top priority and it has been made very clear over the past 36 hours this is an area where he's taking immediate action. At 1:00 the president will -- is -- was speaking with Indian Prime Minister Modi. We'll have a readout as soon as that's available. If we can get it to you during the briefing, we will. This afternoon the president will hold a bipartisan meeting with key Senate leadership, including the majority leader, the minority leader, the majority whip and the minority whip to discuss his nomination for associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. As he noted earlier today, he intends to have a decision by the end of the week and an announcement early next week. The president has made it incredibly clear that he will appoint justices who protect our liberty and hold the highest regards for the Constitution. He continues to carefully consider potential future justices based on the commitment to upholding these principles. This meeting is an important opportunity for the president to consult with Senate leaders from both sides of the aisle on his potential choices for the bench. As you may have heard, Speaker Ryan extended an invitation to the president to address a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28. I'm pleased to inform you that the president has accepted that invitation, and he looks forward to sharing his plans for moving the country forward. I have a feeling by the time we get to Feb. 28 we will have a lot to talk about. It was great to see the nominations of Dr. Carson, Sec. Chao, Mr. Ross and Gov. Haley were advanced out of committee today. Just as a reminder, by the end of the first week of President Obama's first week in office he had 12. So, Senate's got a little catching up to do. And I hope the Senate Democrats do their job and help us catch up to that number. One quick follow-up on our storm relief efforts that have plagued the Southeast, White House staff is in touch with officials in the states, and will continue to provide assistance to the recovery. A FEMA team is on the ground in Atlanta, Georgia to support response and recovery activities. FEMA liaison officers have been deployed to emergency support centers in both Mississippi and Georgia for response activities. With that, I'd be glad to take a few questions. Jim Stenson (ph), (inaudible).</s>QUESTION: Today immigration enforcement organizations and activists expressed concern that they haven't seen immediate action on EACA and EHEA (ph), and I was just wondering -- that was a key campaign plan of President Trump on the campaign trail. When can it -- when can the people expect action on -- on that? It wouldn't require -- it would only require stopping -- to renewing the applications. It wouldn't actually be retroactive in this, anyway. So what's the holdup?</s>SPICER: Well, as I think I mentioned yesterday, I think when it comes to immigration and the promises that the president made during the campaign to both ensure that we build a wall and enforce our southern border, as well as reform our entire immigration system, his priority is first and foremost focused on people who pose a threat to people in our country, to criminals, frankly. And that's where he wants ICE to focus their efforts. With respect to DACA, I think he's continuing to make sure that his cabinet level team starts to organize and create a plan to move forward with respect to that issue, and that's -- that's where we are right now. David Jackson?</s>QUESTION: Sean, there's a -- there are stories out there that the EPA (ph) officials have been gagged from talking to the press, talking to the media. Basically it's the gag order. It's the same kind of thing we had from the interior department over the weekend. First of all, is that true? And secondly, why is that being done, if it is?</s>SPICER: Well, I don't know. That story, literally, is breaking as we were entering the briefing room. We're looking into it. I don't think it's any surprise that when there's an administration turnover, that we're going to review the policies. But with respect to the question you're asking, I don't have any information at this time. We asked the team to go look into it as we were entering the briefing room. If I have an update while we're here, I'll be glad to get back to you.</s>QUESTION: What about (ph) the interior department? Did they have the same kind of thing over the weekend? Supposedly, they were banned from tweets?</s>SPICER: I -- I -- I read that. My understanding is, is that because they had inappropriately violated their own social media policies, there was guidance that was put out to the department to act in compliance with the rules that were set forth. Steve Holland (ph).</s>QUESTION: Oh. In signing the orders on Keystone and Dakota access this morning, he said he would like to renegotiate some of the terms. What exactly was he talking about there?</s>SPICER: That's a great question, Steve. I think one of the things that the American people clearly know about Donald Trump is he's a successful businessman, and a successful negotiator. And as he looks at these deals, what he's trying to ensure is that these -- these projects that are great in the sense they're going to create jobs and help our economy, but in a lot of cases, they're going to make these organizations a lot of money. And what he's ensuring is that the American taxpayer gets the best deal possible. So he's asking his team to review those deals, and to make sure that if we're going to do all of these things to expedite these projects that go over or under a piece of, you know, U.S. soil, that the American taxpayer is considered in this process, and that we get the best deal for our country not just in terms of jobs, and future economic growth, and a little bit more energy security, but also in terms of making sure that the taxpayers at large who own some of these lands or access to these lands -- and waters and rivers, in case of Dakota -- are get (sic) the best deal possible. Charlie Sparing. (ph)</s>QUESTION: As you know, the March for Life is on Friday, and President George W. Bush had a tradition of addressing the marchers through a phone call on the mall. Will he be -- will the president be continuing that tradition on Friday?</s>SPICER: I know Kellyanne is going to attend the event. I think we're still working through details, but we'll -- we'll have further for you on the president's potential participation in that. I think it's no secret the president has campaigned as a pro-life president. It's something that is very important to him, as evidenced by the Mexico City policy reinstatement that he issued yesterday. Obviously, we're going to have heavy administration presence there. It's no secret that -- that this administration and this president are going to do what they can to fight for life. What the exact participation level of the president -- we'll -- we'll find out whether it's a greeting of some sort, or a call. I'll have a further optic for you. Cecilia?</s>QUESTION: Does the president believe that millions voted illegally in this election? And what evidence do you have of widespread voter fraud in this election, if that's the case?</s>SPICER: The president does believe that. He has stated that before. I think he's stated his concerns of voter fraud, and -- and people voting illegally during the campaign, and he continues to maintain that belief based on studies and evidence that people have presented to him.</s>QUESTION: But exactly what evidence?</s>SPICER: I -- I -- feel --</s>QUESTION: Even Ryan said there's no evidence. The National Association of Secretaries of State say that they don't agree with the president's assessmen. What evidence do you have?</s>SPICER: As I said, I think the president has believed that for a while based on studies and information he has. John Roberts?</s>QUESTION: In the waning hours of the Obama administration, they quietly transferred a lot of money out of the country, including $221 million to the Palestinian Authority. Does the president -- is the president OK with that transfer? And if he is not, would he seek to claw-back some of that money?</s>SPICER: Well, I think when it comes to how U.S. taxpayer money is spent in general, whether it's overseas or here at home, you've seen through the hiring freeze and other actions that he's going to take -- you know, I just mentioned to Steve, I mean, he is very concerned about how taxpayer money is spent; whether it's sent overseas and what -- what we get for it in terms of the relationship or our support for democracy or aid to another country for their defenses. But he's going to be examining all aspects of the budget and how we look at all money. Because I think that there is a new-found respect for how the American people's tax dollars are spent in this administration. And I think with his background as it is as a businessman, and one who scrutinizes projects to bring them under budget, on time, he's bringing that business acumen to the White House to the benefit of the American taxpayer.</s>QUESTION: Is he OK with that particular...</s>SPICER: I -- I don't think I want to go any further, to say that he is going to make sure that every deal, every dollar that is spent on behalf of the -- by the government is done in a way that respects the American taxpayer.</s>QUESTION: Sean, when you were talking about that voter fraud, are you going to ask for an investigation? Is the White House going to formally ask for a probe into (inaudible)?</s>SPICER: I think we -- he won very handily with 306 electoral votes, 33 states. He's very comfortable with his win. But I think...</s>QUESTION: ... trouble him if he's bringing it up...</s>SPICER: I think he was having a discussion with some folks and mentioned something in passing, which has been a long-standing belief that he's maintained. This isn't the first time that you've heard this concern of his.</s>QUESTION: It's not, but I think it's worth clarifying were there illegal ballots or illegal...</s>SPICER: I think there's been studies. There's one that came out of Pew in 2008 that showed 14 percent of people who voted were non- citizens. There's other studies that have been presented to him. It's a belief he maintains. I mean...</s>QUESTION: ... counted improperly, as Dick Durbin said the president personally told him last night. It was that the people who voted...</s>SPICER: ... an answer. It's a belief that he's maintained for a while, a concern that he has about voter fraud. And that's based on information that's provided.</s>QUESTION: Thanks, Sean. Following President Trump's executive actions earlier today, is he concerned about large-scale protests around the construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, like we saw at Standing Rock? And how will he address the concerns of those who oppose those plans?</s>SPICER: I think he is going to make sure that he is looking or working with all parties involved. That's part of -- to Steve's question -- there's a way that you can continue to negotiate that, whether it's the Native Americans, concerns that they have on some of the lands in the Dakota pipeline. You're 93 percent there with Dakota. And I think that the president has shown through his business life that he knows how to negotiate a great deal where parties come out ahead. And he's willing to sit down with all of the individuals that are involved in the Dakota pipeline to make sure that it's a deal that benefits all of the parties of interest, or at least gets them something (inaudible) we want. So that's part of it.</s>SPICER: We'll stick with the M's for a while.</s>QUESTION: I'd like to ask you about Jim Comey, but I also very quickly want to follow up on (inaudible) question about the pipelines and the renegotiation. The president I think sort of suggested that some of those renegotiations might -- renegotiations might already be happening or that they would start happening. And I'm just wondering if you can clarify, like, are the mechanisms for that set? Have those discussions already begun?</s>SPICER: Well, he just signed the executive order today. And part of it was that as he moves these things forward, he wants to make sure that he gets the best deal for the American taxpayer and works with the parties involved to ensure that people who might have concerns have an opportunity to come back to the table and see if there's -- there's a way to...</s>QUESTION: ... still being fleshed out ...</s>SPICER: Yes.</s>QUESTION: ... the negotiations have not started again?</s>SPICER: Yes. That's correct.</s>QUESTION: ... what I wanted to ask was, could you make it official what has been reported by U.S. officials all day long, which is that the president has asked (inaudible) wants Jim Comey (inaudible) and that Jim Comey has told him he will stay on. Did they discuss kind of the Russia investigation and the parameters of that?</s>SPICER: I don't have anything for you. I don't know what the status is. I'll have to follow up with the president.</s>QUESTION: OK. Just a question about the executive -- the hiring freeze yesterday.</s>SPICER: Yes?</s>QUESTION: It doesn't exempt the V.A. And there are 41,500 unfilled medical jobs at the V.A., which is really an extremely large number.</s>SPICER: Right.</s>QUESTION: The V.A. is one of his top priorities.</s>SPICER: Right.</s>QUESTION: So...</s>SPICER: Remember, it's a freeze. And part of it is to ensure -- hold on. But part of it is to get our V.A. secretary in there and to figure out how we can best -- because hiring people when you have a system that's not working, and then just going out and hiring additional people, doesn't seem to be the most efficient way of solving the problem. [14:00:]