ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states and the president of the republic of colombia. thank you very much. it's a great pleasure to welcome president santos to the white house. is one of our closest allies in the hemisphere and we reaffirm a partnership two very great nations.

we had a great meeting and will continue to work together to peace, safety, and prosperity to the hemisphere. perhaps no area is really recently we've sn highly alarmed and alarming tre. cult ear, colombia co vagus and cocaine production was ery target and eliminate drug rafficking networks, elicit

financing and cocaine production of which there's far too much. is poisoning mic too many american lives and we're going to stop it. ways, one of them will be the wall. my administration is committed drugs and gangs from pouring into our country. cssgsreborder down more than 73%. cretarelly is wi u done a ftaicob. much, mr. cretary. we have a tremendous group of people woinwith us inerms oice, the ice patrol and t bder patrol agents. th'v done faasc job and you to vehemy hight compliments, m crary. ms3ikis grole, horrible large ofangs that have bn d into frly short a

period of time. they're beinecimated byhe patrol,y e, and by police ibleocal forces. o of ou i uny d in some cases gng thrghouttprisons ourountry ver they'viteral taken towns and cities in the ute states. eyill be gone very qck. to woing wi d president sto aweart tfficki. both the unid at a colombia have stng law foement and security retionship.

>> it was an honoro meet with u d your repseatives. eoe who have bn working with us a my reesentatives. ok forwardo nyor pructive meetings such as the e ushad. i ulli to thanyou very chorei athe white house, bng our gue. and i wouldikto congratulat winning the neleace pre. aieveme.reat

much.e >> m president, i want to personallyor this wa a procte visi d r e strong support oiaas received fm ur administrati, om congress, people. amic [speaking spis for l o nions have had extraordinary friendship. we believe in the same democracy, of freedom, and rule of law. work so that the western hemisphere can be more

and safe. have supported each other shoulder to shoulder at the at the request othe united states weenntru afgnian and today comb and t unitestes ar workingoghe to suppor entral americ in their figh agns drug cartels a the of organized crim casay, mr. presint based on our conversationshi afternoon that iave no doubt united states and colombia ctieo b tod eve a supportne f other. our mosance was -- --b cooperaon has been which i can sum up in very

sile tms. when colombis re fightg to to e for our democracy rvive actually faced thhe hatf rrism and drug trafckg,he unid ates stretchedut hand d held winha battle. will never fget it. oy wlin differt countr today colbia is a mor more modern a d fairer society. year, wend longest and lt me nflict existing in our hemisphere. putng down guerilla is

puttg down- daye have thlost lels ofionce of the last 4ar we have had significant pgress for o issues such as education, houng heah,nd servis. millions of colombians have utf ate been lifted verty. next to you tinue as partners in peace colombia to in the most eace affected areas. with the robust support of your removing , we're thousands of mines that murdered mutilated children, women, and soldiers. ourre healing the wounds of victims and we are embarking on social development

program. working with your administration to take advantage opportunity peace offers. permanently the production of coco leaf in fight more lengths in the other rug trafficking including consumption. to deepen the e fight against organized crime, transnational crime. responsive to not just drug trafficking but also human illegal mining. framed within da a high level dialogue that we so much s value includes cooperation which has allowed us to have unprecedented towards quality

education for everyone. this is a priority in the policies of my government. we wish to do more with regards to innovation and technology. this is articipation of the private sector, we have reached trade greements, investment agreements that are mutually beneficial. morning we established the entrepreneurial counsel between united states and colombia. colombia will continue to be and proudly a close friend a strategic ally of the united states. dear president trump, i hope you can visit us soon that you can witness the transformation underway in our

country. i hope to be able to welcome you a colombia in peace, a better educated colombia, that you have so much contributed to. much.you so [applause] >> thank you very much. have any questions? i'm shocked. [laughter] john, go ahead. >> mr. president, thank you very much. i would like to get your deputy attorney general rosenstein's decision to appoint a special counsel on russian interference. as this the right move or is this part of a witch hunt? >> the entire thing has been a and there is no

collusion between certainly campaign but i can only speak for myself and the russians zero. it divides the country. i think we have a very divided and manyecause of that other things. so i can tell you that we want great country of ours together, john. and i will also say very trongly we've had tremendous success. you look at our job numbers and what's going on at the border as before.ussed you look at what will be happening. you're going to see some incredible numbers with respect the success of general mattis isis hers with the situation, the numbers are staggering. successful they've been, the military has been. saudi w i'm going to arabia, israel, rome. we have the g7. we have a lot of great things on.g so i hate to see anything that divides. i'm fine with whatever people

want to do but we have to get back to running this country really well. we've made tremendous progress the last 100 and some odd days. tremendous progress. numbers and all the production starting, plants opening again that haven't been years.n that's what i want to focus on because believe me there's no collusion. russia is fine. but whether it's russia or my total priority, believe me, is the united states america. much. you very >> president trump, president santos, can we say that today setting a new road map in the relationship between colombia and the united states the concrete commitments? you were talking about the --

needed for that. violations in ts venezuela. done.' plenty be >>s well as a vy, vy serious probm. eally seen a pbl like that i ulsay, mr. terms cades in t kindf violence that wee witnessing. tling me and i knew tt nezuela was a ry, very wealthyouryust about e wealtesin your wds and had trenustrgths ino ny diert ways. riennow it's poverty people don't he enou tea people havnoood. there's great vlee. d wl do whatevers necessary and we'll work do whatever is necessary to help with fixing

that. really talking on a humanitarian level. oil you look at the reserves that venezuela has, you is to sort of wonder why that -- but it's been for a vably poorly run long period of time. change.ly that will is t now, what's happening rely a disgrace to maty. ohn, i thk you also had a question for therede i to. wod le qstn abouthe commitment on president trump'sidendis adminirationasho through theppvaofhe budt.

it mes an increasen t support to fund eost conflict a. we receed fm t important organizatn atlanta council a report which includes both parties psided aeplinenor and democratic senator. a adap recommending e government o the united states colombia to foow. this estliedhe trreurl council,nid statescombia, so th the sector can also have a road p.hat thiseans warworkin on eve front that can cveentorot cotrs. wk ill continueo together weaveatie thacommitnt ding our coertion. as i said before, we have the

t orelations with united states. we're streg allie in e gi. so.contie be >> thankou, mr. presen to u, you arpresident trumay it' critical to stping t fw uted stes e will be theall he wan t bud on t mexic border. gree with him? would tt wall be pite step towds redinthe fl torr? acros best way ve that th toighe drugrafficking is clarang. th is t proem of colombia onl oa oblem the unedtas ly. it's a wld pbl. o lorhave together. declaredhe warn ugs 40 years ago. wor declad thear on ug andt's a war that'sot beenon mt me effecvend

mo efficient. we e doing aery big eace t becse of the process to have a new stregy. a stick. icby fcef ratication lready editeth 4,000 hectors whh is t wleolumeracated e're starting to radicate, t sstut luarily through a pgr t- eyre gngo substitu for lalro and is is e fir te thathis t lbeonbecause of peace. beforethe cflict did not rdsnd to ouild ve tseeoe alrnative. nowe have. advange of ke

is opportunity and continue o ucing theroction coco inhe meantime, we'or .s. anolbia wi oer countries, cera ther ca, to ght the nks ofhe chain. we have destroyed2,0 coloman ies in th jungs. record amounts of eansaseaand this dog enetr than last year. so by working together,e n effecti and that t commient we just ma this afternn. >> thawaa long ander to yo c answe question i will say it a little bit shorte wallwork. just ask iael. th wk. beeve me. wo. and we he choice peter baker. s? >> tnk you m psident.

of a ry busy ws week peoe ulli to give u a chae gonecd re. at any timerg former i director jame comey in any tback downhe investigiointo mhael fnn analso as yo looba -- >> no. no. next question. >> next question look ckvethpa x month oyear, have you had ny recollecti wreou've wondedf anyinyoha doneas been sothg at mit be wort o criminal in tse investigatis or impchnt asome on the mplyin it'ridiculo. we have to get back to working properly tt can kearf e obms th wha. heley problems. aanst jo we hava emdo group of pele, millions a millions of there loong at what you just said andai wt e they dng

rector comey w ver unpular withos people. actually out when made atecision and i also got a very stng recommendation t deputy w from attorney general, rod when i madeha decisi ictlly though it woulbeiptin decision. because you lk all the oth democtiside. t only the republicasi. t atere saying such teiblehings about direct comey. poor perfoan o weesy. pr ft that i belie and you ulhave to ask hi like to sak for hepeleut bieve attney uty genera went t d wrot his ry, very strong letternd on top of that, after the wednesday performance by comey, you had a person readjust the to record which many people have

they seen before because were misstatements made and i thought that was something that was terrible. we need a great director of the fbi. fbi.rish the it's special. all over the world no matter where you go, the fbi is special. the fbi has not had that special what happened in the campaign, what happened with campaign,o the clinton and even you could say directly or indirectly with respect to trump h more successful campaign. we're going to have a director who's going to be outstanding. announcing that director very soon and i look forward to doing it. think the people in the fbi will be very, very thrilled. concluding, we look forward to getting this whole us so that when foro for the jobs, we'll go the strong military, when we go

we'vel of the things that been pushing so hard and so successfully including ealthcare because obamacare is collapsing, dead, gone, there's nothing to compare anything to abuse we don't have healthcare country. just look at what's happening. aetna pulled out. companies are pulling out. obamacare is a fallacy. it's gone if the we need healthcare. cut taxes. xes.e going to cut

the oer is something- er noolsion and erydy veny emies have said tre is no collusn. we want get back d kp thera tt we're on bau tt 'rons record setngndhas at we wan to . weant tore vy positive record u.ank >> mr. presint, my queion is seone w l aatn hat rlly dona lot of rebuilng andado bod from an edec cmend ars, wt do u make of mr. trump'america first lindurtherou aad tgh time with nservative radio setimes beingald a puhi g. have anyu

advice for prede trump o how to do so. >> d't thi i'm in a potion to give any aice to pridt trum hean take re of himself. [laughter] we d in colomb, yorightly menon itis rsevere. doing the you coecthing,ouimplyave psere. th'sha wveone in colombiand thas why we we aailed f in ate some ars agandow wee e of t sta of the region. and that's tough hard rk perseveran, a cri o objecve and th'shawe havdo a e have to ctinueecause the over.is t

a y aut t tre. a large trade deficit wi tnid states. t ft ied about at, that could ctrut t tha tdeeficit? >> on the peace process in colombia. been long procs and it's bee great in the nsthat thpridt did aantastic b. man's n eyfter so yesf r. so i'mve, veryroud tge ou and i reay coralate you. tgher than pee. we wt me ac a or the worl great emp of someby at srt it. long, rc, that was toh situatio as u know very

wellomgrothe cnt. ihi t psint has do aagnifintob aea b i thi he's done magnificent jo ea iosble. t tde iue, oureficit oi t united stes ino large. is a mere dicit wch oth countries will try to increase the volumof n th reio. an iestmen iot dictions als s becongn poannvestohere in th united stas d is i my ppl kw have considerle vements in thenited states. have -tohe fwsf f invesen getting

togeth tse mainlayers or investors in the private sector. believthe fndatio he ld. he e freerade agreeme whh is workin wl. the number oolbian business tt eye exrtg to the utestates ow anwe bh bieve tt can greaterdvta o those agemts in order to increase directions f the benefit oboth t coman and american people. >> tnk youermu, erod thank u. anyo