fmy doctor recommended ibgard. abdominal pain and bloating. now i'm in control of my ibs. nonprescription ibgard - calms the angry gut. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. live here in washington, d.c., for special coverage of president trump's first news conference in 22 days. and the first time he's facing the media since that blockbuster testimony from the now fired fbi director james comey. director comey said under oath yesterday morning that president trump lied multiple times about him and about the fbi being in quoted disarray. but today the president volleyed the liar label the other way. early this morning he tweeted this. "despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication and, wow,

comey is a leaker." the vindication that the president is referring to is the fact that comey confirmed he told president trump he was not under investigation within this whole russia probe. and the leak piece goes to director comey's admission that he did leak this one memo that detailed how the president told him he, quote, hoped comey could let the investigation of the fired national security adviser michael flynn go. moments ago, one of the senators who -- actually, he's not on the senate intel committee, he's a democrat, senator reed, told cnn that the special counsel leading the investigation may actually depose the president. >> i think director comey made a strong impression. as you noted, he did so under oath. the president, i think, if he's willing to insist upon his position, that should also be

under oath, not through an attorney or through tweets. >> i think that's ultimately what will happen. because in the course of these investigations, particularly with special prosecutor mueller, since part of this is, as indicated yesterday, goes to the rationale behind the firing of mr. comey and the rationale of trying to deflect, if not stop, the investigation of general flynn and i would expect at some point, not right away, but at some point mr. mueller would feel he has to depose the president. >> so that's significant. we'll get into that. senator reed was there yesterday and was able to question director comey. sara murray is at the white house ahead of this big news conference with the president and the president of romania. it's a two and two. what do we expect to hear from president trump? >> reporter: i think it will be interesting to hear the president's tone today.

yesterday he was pretty reserved. he did not tweet until this morning which is restrained for this president. he lashed out and called james comey a liar. i think we want to look for which version of president trump do we get today. does he lash out in front of the cameras? does he say, flat out, he believes comey lied or does he focus on the leaking and insist that comey is a leaker and try to go that route. but the other interesting thing is if the white house believes, if his lawyer believes that comey was lying, is there a recorded system in the white house or not? can the white house proof president trump's side of the story? this is a question that administration officials would not answer yesterday. so it will be interesting to see if the president himself gets that question after sort of floating that out there on twitter. refused to basically say anything about it since then. it's not something that people are going to just drop, especially considering the fact that this is an ongoing investigation and if those tapes

exist, we already have calls from members of congress to see them. >> well, it should be an interesting question to answer because they ought to know if they are recording people at the white house or not. sara murray, thank you so much. what are the other big questions out there for the president? let's go to brian stelter, host of "reliable sources." you have a list of five questions, my friend. let me guess, at the top of that, are there tapes? >> number one on my list as well. are there any recordings of any conversations the president has had in the white house with comey or anybody else. maybe that can be put to rest today. number two on my list, brooke, is again about comey and what senator reid was jued asked. and also building on the hearings from yesterday, there's reports that attorney general jeff sessions possibly had a third unreported meeting with the russian ambassador.

is that true and, if so, are you going to fire jeff sessions? i think his fate is crucial today. my fourth on this list, brooke, is about comey and russia. comey said yesterday there is no doubt russia attacked the united states and they will be back. the president, according to comey, did not seem interested in asking questions about that. so what is the president doing today to protect america and to ensure the elections are safe in the future. and then number five, i thought it was important on this list to get beyond comey and russia. a lot of americans have said that they have tuned this out. they care about the president's promises on jobs. so far, the president has not lived up to his promise of 25 million jobs in ten years. that comes out to about 208 million jobs a month. so far, the economy is under 200,000 jobs a month since inauguration day. so what is he doing to fulfill that promise? this is a joint press conference so usually two questions from american reporters, two

questions from romanian reporters. we'll see how many questions the president fields and, most importantly, the answers. >> do we know yet who he will be calling on? >> no idea. i'm very curious to see if he looks for news outlets willing to ask him tough questions. >> brian stelter, thank you so much. we just saw the arrival there in the west wing with the romanian president. with me to discuss all of this and more, william bringham, cara, a correspondent for "the washington post" and david rucker. a quiet week in washington. so glad i swung by. >> welcome. >> thank you. so let's just begin with -- we saw within the opening statements yesterday from director comey throwing in the

"lying wo "lying" word this morning. everyone waited with bated breath yesterday during the testimony. >> i guessed that he would come out. anybody that knows jim comey knows that he's a survivor and -- >> but the president's tweet where he says, "despite so many false statements and lies." >> i think that was expected and everyone was surprised we hadn't heard it the day before. >> cara? >> there was a countdown clock this morning and we thought he might beat his own record. it would have been very surprising if the president left that without weighing in at all. >> it's kinds of a big deal if he's inferring that the former director of the fbi is lying to congress. that would be a felony. david drucker? >> looking at the tweet, i was

wondering if he was still hyperfocused on the fact that he's not under investigation. if you look at which didn't have to occur, he takes it as a personal affront, he tends to take things personally, that he would be under investigation for colluding with the russians which would delegitimatize his entire presidency. when i read that tweet, he didn't specifically say that comey lied about all of these things that he said. and i wonder if he just meant for everybody who said i was under investigation and colluded with the russians. those were all lies. >> can we just be real? right. he's going to get two questions from the romanians and two questions from american journalists. we don't know who he is going to call on. how does he address it? other than the tweet this morning, didn't say anything at the press pool white house yesterday. said nothing of the infrastructure speech today. >> this is the kind of thing that he actually wants to address and likes to address. when you look at president trump has really opened up about what he thinks and how he feels,

fighting back against what he sees as personal attacks and everything with him is personal. we think, well, you're the president of the united states so you're going to take a lot of incoming. some will be fair and some is not. trump takes it all as a personal attack against donald trump, not just president trump. >> but he's lawyered up. we talked about this, mr. kasowitz, who we heard from yesterday. do you think he'll exercise discipline in answering questions from the press? >> since it's only a limited amount of time, if there was time for him to exercise discipline, this would be it. but there's a two-sided response coming out right now for comey. one is that they are trying to question his integrity which is what the president speaks to and congratulations for keeping such detailed notes if we take your notes of what the president

said, he said, i hope you can put this matter to rest but you better put this matter to rest. they are both complimenting comey and also trying to discredit him at the same time and basically taking that meeting in the middle and saying even if you take him at his word -- >> and you can't have it both ways. either comey is credible and the things that the president and his team liked are credible and we can take them honestly or he's not credible. they are trying to have it both ways. i think the big tell is who does he take on in the news conference. >> yep. what about -- i really wanted to talk to you in particular because of your outstanding interview you did of benjamin wittis. >> the friend of comey. >> yes. multi-layered interview. i'll play one quick sound bite. it's essentially how he felt, he, being director comey, in the room with the president. roll it. >> he really spent an enormous amount of energy in the period

in which both he and trump were in office trying to protect the fbi from political interference from the white house. >> you describe comey's concerns as, quote, improper context and interferences from a group of people, he, comey, did not regard as honorable. what gave you that sense that he didn't view these people as honorable people? >> it was written on every line on his face. it was evident in the disapproving tone that he took when he described them. >> including the president? >> oh, very much so. these were not honorable people and that pro equity ittitectinge fbi was not his day job. >> so he didn't want to be in a

room with him, which was clear from benjamin wittes. we've now heard from senator susan collins who put forth this theory as far as why alone versus not. >> with mr. comey in early january at trump tower, it was the fbi director who cleared the room so that he could have a one-on-one discussion with the president about that salacious dossier and i wondered if perhaps that made the president the conversation to be had with the fbi director that it should be one-on-one. >> plausible theory? >> i don't really know. the president might have thought, oh, if i'm talking with comey about something sensitive,

it should be me and him. >> i think what is interesting is that the ben wittes point adds to a pretty good body of evidence of the repeated instances where comey has made it clear that he was very uncomfortable with the pressure that he felt coming from the white house, coming from the president with regards to this investigation. and that sets up a contradictory statement and we have comey saying this on the record, under oath. with the president, we don't have his side of the story yet. until we do, i think that's still the open question, is what was the president thinking in those instances. >> but hearing susan collins, you know, not necessarily defending and i think it was interesting listening to the republican senators yesterday, none of whom discredited anything that comey said or disputed it, that so far i haven't seen a republican senator totally turn on the

president, which i think is a big piece to watch. >> i think a lot of it will depend on what they hear from other people who are not jim comey. there were many republican senators saying, nothing to see here, nothing in the way of obstruction of justice. >> essentially saying -- >> he's a new guy. >> he's a knew guy in town. >> and also that a lot of them are pointing out, he didn't say much about russian collusion and isn't that what we're here for and if we're not talking about that, isn't this over? but for the ones like collins and marco rubio who are saying i'm not going to pass judgment on this yet, what's going to matter for them a lot is if there's anybody else that tells a similar story to comey. >> corroboration. >> well, it's he said versus he said between trump and comey. we've reported and others have reported there were other conversations with other in the intelligence community and to influence coats to influence

comey to get the fbi to drop the investigation. mike rogers, head of the nsa. they were in front of the committee the day before comey was on wednesday and would not answer any questions about their conversations with the president or their conversations with -- >> nada. >> but if behind closed doors, which they said they were willing to talk about behind closed doors, if they do and if their story sounds a lot like comey's story, you're going to have senators saying, wait a second, there may be something here we have to dismiss. >> and reince priebus and jeff sessions looking out the door or, you know, all of them need to speak up to get to the facts. thank you all so much for swinging by cnn. i appreciate it. again, we're watching and waiting to hear from the president of the united states. live pictures there outside on this beautiful friday afternoon here in washington. president trump will be facing the media answering hopefully tough questions for the first time since he and director comey have called one another essentially liars. also, one question we're asking is, was it illegal for director

comey to leak one of his memos about his conversations with the president. there are two sides when you look at this. the president and his team are planning to file a complaint over that leak and a rising star in the democratic party dropping multiple f-bombs today when talking about president trump. hear what senator kristin gillibrand had to say.

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the united states postal service. priority: you thank you very much, mr. president. it's a great pleasure and honor for me to be here and i'm looking forward to our discussions and our partnership. >> yes. it's been a great partnership. thank you all very much. thank you. thank you. >> thank you. >> [ inaudible ]? >> surprising.

>> i'll be making a statement pretty soon. thank you very much, everybody. >> thank you. >> we just wanted to play out the tail end. that was the president of the united states sitting with the romanian president. they will be giving a news conference at the white house but when the president said "surprising" that was in reference to the british prime minister's theresa may's conservative party loss in the wee hours of this morning in the uk. perhaps he'll be asked about that at the news conference. theresa may was the first world leader to visit the white house after the president became president. after james comey's candid testimony, sources tell cnn that president trump's personal lawyer plans to file a complaint against comey. this is what he said right after thursday's hearing. >> it is overwhelmingly clear

that there have been and continue to be those in government who are undermining this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. mr. comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers. >> so this comes after director comey testified that he leaked this one memo of his conversations with the president, leaked it to a friend, a law professor at columbia university, because he feared the president might eventually lie about their meetings. >> president tweeted on friday after i got fired that i better hope there's not tapes. i woke up in the middle of the night on monday night because it didn't dawn on me originally that there may be corroboration for our conversation. there might be a tape. and my judgment was, i feededneo get that out into the public

square so i asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a were roer. i didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons. so i asked a close friend of mine to do it. >> let's talk about this. i've got mark geragos and james gagliano joining me. gentlemen, mark, to you first, comey is releasing this memo to a friend of his which is ultimately printed in "the new york times." illegal or not? >> it's not illegal. i've scoured, even though i always say there isn't a person walking around who the u.s. attorney can't indict for some federal felony, i can't think of any federal felony that would be violated here. the second part of what marc kasowitz said was he said it was privileged. the president until recently didn't announce that he wasn't

going to exert executive privilege. he's the one that holds the privilege. not comey. so comey releasing the memo to a friend before he was informed that it was not going to be and you say it was totally wrong? >> i do, brooke. and i have been full-throated in my defense of this fbi director on cnn. i've lauded his character and good and decent folks on both sides of the issue can come down and have a strong argument either way. where i think the fbi director lost the moral high ground yesterday, after he gave such an impassioned opening statement and had most of us -- i was choked up to him listening to him defend the institution, the apolitical nature of the fbi. he lost the moral high ground because a leak is such a benign

term. it is the unauthorized disclosure of classified information and i know i certainly am not going to argue legal aspects with mark. he knows the law far better than i do. but there are processes and protocols in place. if i have to write a book, i have to get the department of skbr justice to sign off on my own intellectual property. the ideas that were contained within those four corners, he didn't even go to "the new york times" himself. he shared it with a surrogate. i don't understand it. i'm sure there are personal reasons but to me it diminished a man who 99.9% of america looked at and said whether we agree with his actions or not, he's an honest, decent, moral man and we're not questioning his character or his words. >> okay. i'm just trying to understand the full picture. and so on the legality of this, mark, let me pose this to you.

he's a private citizen. yes, he could have walked over to the press who was camped out in his driveway, but he gave to it to his friend who ultimately leaked it to "the new york times." he's a private citizen. does that matter, mark? >> yes, it matters because if he was still employed at the department of justice, they would be able, if they actually wanted to, to do something to him that would have teeth in it. as long as we're assuming there's no classified information, it's not a violation of whatever the code section is, 641, but the fact remains that if he leaked that information and it was privileged or he did not have permission at that point, then there's an ethical issue. i don't disagree that he loses the moral high ground, but that's a different question than, number one, is it illegal. number two, is it unethical?

moral high ground is something else. >> isn't that wanting to influence the investigation in some way? here he is, yes, a private citizen but he talked about how he wanted to create outside pressure to ultimately outside counsel would be appointed which is precisely what happened. >> there's nothing illegal about trying to create a discourse which is going to force a special counsel. in fact, that is not illegal and it's not necessarily unethical. we can debate the morality of it. >> go ahead. >> brooke, again, it goes to the explanation as well. the fbi director laid out his explanation as i woke up on that monday after hearing about the president's tweet on saturday regarding whether or not there were tapes and i felt like i needed to do this to compel somebody, somebody in the government to appoint a special prosecutor. the fbi director has a direct channel to the white house, to capitol hill, to the department

of justice and if he's dissatisfied with a particular person, there are routes that you can get done what needs to get done but still within, still within the lane that's keeping a private personal conversation and a document that belongs to the department of justice outside of the media realm. >> all right. well, and regarding the complaint, the trump outside counsel has filed, it's really nothing because they don't have power over the doj and the doj can't do anything other than file a memo. thank you, mark and james. in will president trump respond on camera in minutes to james comey? the president is going to take a couple of questions alongside the romanian president. this is one day after the former fbi director testified that he lied and defamed the president. also, does attorney general jeff sessions have a director

problem? director comey suggesting there are undisclosed details about the a.g. that he could not discuss in that forum yesterday. might there be fallout? we'll discuss. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching special live coverage. umbrellas!! you need one of these. you wouldn't put up with an umbrella that covers you part way, so when it comes to pain relievers, why put up with just part of a day? aleve, live whole not part. tell you what, i'll give it to you for half off. wheyou wantve somto protect it.e, at legalzoom, our network of attorneys can help you every step of the way. with an estate plan including wills or a living trust that grows along with you and your family. legalzoom. legal help is here.

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controversial firing. director comey told senators in a closed hearing after the open one yesterday that sessions may have had a third undisclosed meeting with ambassador kislyak, something he declined to talk about in public. >> our judgment, as i recall, is that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. we also were aware of facts that i can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a russia-related investigation problematic. >> cnn washington correspondent ryan nobles joins me now. for next tuesday, what should we expect from the attorney general? >> reporter: brooke, it seems to be the season of high-profile hearings on capitol hill and this hearing on tuesday where jeff sessions will appear in front of a senate appropriations committee which is supposed to be about the justice department's budget, we're expected to get a lot of questions about russia.

you mentioned some democratic senators already promising to ask questions and they want to ask about this potential third meeting that jeff sessions may have had with the ambassador sergey kislyak on april 27th, 2016, at the mayflower hotel on the day that donald trump delivered his first major foreign policy speech. now, sessions' aides have pushed back saying that this meeting never took place. but these were picked up on intercepts with two russian entities in the intelligence gathering. so the question here for sessions is, what interactions did he have with kislyak, was it limited to just this and did it impact the trump campaign at all. he's continuing to face questions about whether or not he can hold on to his position. a number of democrats have called for him to step down but sessions has said repeatedly that he's not going anywhere. brooke? >> next tuesday in the hot seat,

ryan nobles, thank you, sir. >> thank you. any moment from now we'll be seeing president trump taking questions from members of the media. there are pictures of the media and everyone waiting and watching for this news conference. this is a huge, huge news conference because this is just a day after the now fired fbi director james comey called the president a liar. the president volleyed that back this morning in a tweet. we'll take the whole thing live. don't go anywhere.

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fmy doctor recommended ibgard. abdominal pain and bloating. now i'm in control of my ibs. nonprescription ibgard - calms the angry gut. all right. we're back here live in washington, d.c., and i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being here with

me. the president is about to take questions for the first time in 22 days. and the first time since he and james comey have called one another liars in the last 24 hours. so let's go live to cnn's senior white house correspondent jim acosta. jim acosta, obviously we'd love to get a question in to the president. it's a two and two. how do you feel he will respond? >> reporter: it will be interesting to watch. the president has been restraining himself somewhat since the testimony of james comey. a couple of tweets. we'll see how much that pent-up energy manifests itself when he comes out and speaks alongside the romanian president here in a few minutes. we should point out that the president hasn't said a whole lot in the last several weeks to reporters. it's been three weeks since that last press conference where he talked to reporters. it was during that foreign trip

where we tried to ask the president questions. in the last few seconds they did give us the two-minute warning so this may be happening fairly quickly. unanswered questions that may need to be answered, one, does the presidents have a recording system that allows him to record conversations at the white house. and what does he make of james comey repeatedly calling him a liar during that sworn testimony yesterday. and what about this notion -- and you heard this from marc kasowitz that james comey is somehow a leaker. my expectation is you'll hear the president go to that talking point during this news conference because they feel it's a potent weapon to go after james comey in terms of his credibility, of course. there are questions about whether he can even call james comey a leaker since it wasn't a classified information and it was his personal memo to disclose. he wasn't under any executive privilege order invoked by the president. but all of this is going to play out here in a couple of moments

and there's national security questions since he'll have the president of romania here. it may be asked of the president, what about your defense or lack thereof and the british prime minister theresa may is going to try to hold together her government after the loss of her conservative party. first and foremost, much of the attention will be on james comey and that clash between these two alpha males here in washington and the other question that remains to be answered is jeff sessions, the attorney general all week long we've been trying to pepper the president with questions, does he have confidence in jeff sessions. the president is confident in all of the members of his cabinet was the answer. that doesn't really answer the question. that may be asked here as well, brooke. >> jim acosta, we'll stand by.

we'll take that whole thing live. let me bring in my panel here. jim teed it up perfectly. my question to you first, dana bash, we saw the tweet from the president. is he standing up before the world in a moment? can he resist ripping director comey in what do you expect? >> that's such a great point and it's one of the first bits of evidence that we're going to see as to whether or not his legal team and the people around him who got him to sit on his phone and not tweet yesterday -- >> all day yesterday. >> -- is going to have that same discipline in the rose garden. obviously, no matter who gets the question, will ask the obvious. firsts of all, the tapes, absolutely. and just to get him to say, did james comey tell the truth, did all of that happen as far as you're concerned. >> according to his attorney --

>> exactly. >> but to hear it from his mouth. >> what's your question, number one. >> and would he say it under oath, because james comey testified under oath. he has contemporaneous memorandum. the president has essentially made a twitter and through counsel assertion that comey is a liar. >> which, to congress, is a felony. >> if you're under oath. >> if you're under oath, which he was. >> yes. exactly. and so will the president, if you will, do the same? and then we'll see sort of what spine there is behind the accusations. the other thing is, i thought that it was interesting that rogers -- admiral rogers and director coats refused to talk about what was said to them with respect to flynn in the investigation in public forum because i think they thought they couldn't breach that communication without the president's permission. will he give them permission to talk so we will know whether or

not they were both asked to intervene to push the flynn investigation off the front page of comey's investigative dossier. >> we got our two-minute warning. ann, what are you looking for? >> i'm looking for russia. that's the cloud that hangs over every one of the questions that we've been discussing here. will the president get a direct question and will he answer it that goes to comey's allegation yesterday that comey was fired and, if so, comey's clear implication was that the president had a reason for that, that he didn't like the way the investigation was going or potentially that the investigation was getting too close to something that the president didn't want him to investigate. i mean, comey wouldn't go all the way there.

he said all those are questions for the special counsel. but he left a lot on the table that i think could be put straight to trump today. >> it could put the whole he said/he said to bed. he could say, here's the tapes and the truth can come out. so how long can the white house -- they know if they have tapes or not. like, hello. >> that's a knowable thing. >> right. how long can they wait? >> well, the most -- who knows. maybe there's a new taping system that we don't know about. it's harder to imagine that than the president doing what he was doing when he was a private citizen which was maybe recording on his phone or on another recorder. >> or threatened that he did and didn't. >> that's also possible. one thing we should keep in mind as we're waiting for him, he's going to come out with the leader of romania. there is so much going on on the world stage vis-a-vis this

president. >> global warning. >> right. qatar. is global warning a hoax or not? the fact is, if this russia situation wouldn't be so big, the fact that he inserted himself between two middle east allies and did so in kind of a bumpy way -- >> the largest, you know, base in the middle east. >> to fight terror. >> right. right. >> so there are lots of those issues i'm sure we'll be asked as well. >> hi, david singer. nice to see you. we're waiting for the president. we got the two-minute warning. we'll see. just ahead of this all-important post-comey liar, liar back and forth for 24 hours, what's your question, number one? >> well, the first question is, if you're saying that mr. comey is lying on these things, did you, at any moment, pressure him to go drop this investigation and, if not, are you perfectly

happy to have the investigation against mike flynn proceed full bore and will you testify under oath in front of bob mueller. >> so senator reed was sitting here in the last hour with wolf. something he said, and let me ask you, that he, bob mueller, could depose, could have the president testify. obviously it would be behind closed doors because it would be the special counsel doing this. does bob mueller have that power over the president of the united states? >> sure. when i was in the white house and independent counsel, we deposed clinton and we did the same with jimmy carter. it's per fktly within your authority to do that. you make all of the accommodations. we did it at the white house when we deposed president bush and went down to the houston. you're very accommodating and we

took their testimony and that's what mueller will likely do here. the question is, when the president makes an assertion that the former director of the fbi lied, will he say -- and i am willing to come forward to the -- to anybody and testify under oath about that which i am tweeting about or making known through my attorney. >> you agree with senator reed that the president would testify, under oath? >> depending on where mueller's facts lead him. if mueller feels that obstruction of justice is a a mandate and feels the only way to resolve the conflict between the president and former director comey is to take the president's deposition, then, yes, absolutely it's within his power. >> so we've been talking a lot about the tapes. i want to say it was may 12th when the president, david, tweeted and sort of inferring you better wish there were tapes. >> hope there are not. >> hope with regard to comey in

testimony. so at the time thinking maybe he's inferring that there are tapes. as david chalian has pointed out, there's like this direct line between the president's tweet, three days after the comey firing, than to comey leaking this memo. here these two are. hold that thought. here's the president of the united states and the president of romania. >> thank you very much. president iohannis, thank you for being here. it's wonderful to welcome such a good friend to the white house. as you know, the people of romania and america share much in common. a love of freedom, proud cultures, traditions and a vast and storied landscape to call home. the relationship between our two

countries stretches back well over a century. but today we especially reaffirm and celebrate our strategic partnership that began more than 20 years ago. that partnership covers many did i mentions, including economic, military and cultural ties and today we are making those ties even stronger. mr. president, your visit comes at an important moment, not just in this partnership but among all of the nations in the world. i have just returned from a historic trip to europe and the middle east where i worked to strengthen our alliances, forge new friendships and unite all civilized people in the fight against terrorism. no civilized nation can tolerate this violence or allow this wicked ideology to spread on its

shores. i addressed a summit of more than 50 arab and muslim leaders in the history of nations where key players in the region agreed to stop supporting terrorism. whether it be financial, military or even moral support. the nation of qatar, unfortunately, has been a thunder of terrorism at a very high level. and in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting qatar over its behavior. so we had a decision to make. do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action? we have to stop the funding of

terrorism. i've decided, along with secretary of state rex tillerson, our great generals and military people, the time has come to call on qatar to end its funding. they have to end that funding. and its extremist ideology in terms of funding. i want all of the nations to stop immediately supporting terrorism. stop teaching people to hurt other people and filling their minds with hate and intolerance. i won't name other countries, but we are not done solving the problem but we will solve that problem. have no choice. this is my great priority

because it is my first duty as president to keep our people safe, defeating isis and other terror organizations is something i have emphasized all during my campaign and right up until the present. to do that, stop funding, stop teaching hate and stop the killing. for qatar, we want you back among the unity of responsible nations. we ask qatar and other nations in the region to do more and do it faster. i want to thank saudi arabia and my friend king salman and all of the countries who participated in that very historic summit.

it was truly historic. there has never been anything like it before and perhaps it never will be again. hopefully it will be the beginning of the end of funding terrorism. it will, therefore, be the beginning of the end to terrorism. no more funding. i also want to thank the roam main general people romanian people. they have their own difficulties with it and they've come a long way and they are doing a lot. romania has been a valuable

member of the coalition to defeat isis and it's the fourth largest contributor of troops in afghanistan. there, 23 of your citizens have paid the ultimate price, and america honors their sacrifice. i want to recognize president iohannis for his leadership in committing romania this year to increase its defense spending from 1.4% of gdp to over 2%. we hope our other nato allies will follow romania's lead on meeting their financial obligations and paying their fair share for the cost of defense. but i will say this. that because of our actions, money is starting to pour in to

nato. the money is starting to pour in. other countries are starting to realize that it's time to pay up and they're doing that. very proud of that fact. as you know, i have been an advocate for strengthening our nato alliance through greater responsibility and burden sharing among member nations. and that is what is happening, because together we can confront the common security challenges facing the world. mr. president, i want to applaud your courage and your courageous efforts in romania to fight corruption and defend the rule of law. this work is necessary to create an environment where trade and commerce can flourish and where citizens can prosper. i look forward to working with

you to deepen the ties of both commerce and culture between our two countries. romanians have made contributions to the united states and to the world very notable. among them was nobel prize lauriette who sadly passed away one year ago and i understand that earlier this week the american jewish committee presented president iohannis with its very prestigious light unto the nation's reward for his work to further holocaust remembrance and education in romania. i joined the agc in saluting your leadership in this vital cause. the people of romania have

endured many, many hardships. but they have made it truly, remarkable historic journey. the future of the romanian relationship with the united states is very, very bright. from iohannis, i thank you for your leadership and for being here today. i look forward to strengthening our alliance with your country and our bonds with your people. the relationship has been good but now it's stronger than ever. thank you very much. >> president trump, thank you so much for the words you found for romania, for the romanian people and for me. thank you very much for the invitation to be here today