sunday on c-span. >> japanese prime minister shinzo abe is on a visit with president trump. the leaders had a joint news briefing where they answered questions about a variety of topics including north korea, international trade, and the robert mueller investigation. this is 40 minutes. president trump: thank you very much. i want to begin today by expressing my deep condolences to the entire bush family on the passing of former first lady barbara bush, a wonderful, wonderful person. for decades, barbara was a titan

and american life. her presence and character were into america's identity. her strength and toughness really embodied the spirit of our country, and her warm and devotion earned the admiration of an entire nation and, indeed, the entire world. she was a tireless champion for literacy. she was a fierce advocate for the american family, and she was a woman of proud patriotism and profound faith. herhearts are saddened by passing, but our spirits are lifted by the memories of her goodness and her grace. she was a good person. send our prayers yearsbara's husband is 73 . i will never beat that record. .resident george h.w. bush

and tosurviving children their many wonderful grandchildren and great-grandchildren, this evening, i also want to send a message to all of the brave service members from the united states, france, and the united kingdom who were involved in the very successful strikes on targets associated with the syrian chemical weapons program last week. once again, the unmatched skill of the united states military and our great partners and allies was demonstrated to the entire world. missiles were shot. they tried to knock them down. they were not in the least successful. they hit none.

the purpose of our strike was to establish a strong deterrent against the use of banned chemical weapons. civilized nations must join together to prevent the horrors of chemical warfare and, in fact, warfare, and i think our absolutelyly were world-class, wonderful. we thank them for their support. today, i am thrilled to be joined by my good friend, prime minister of a -- prime minister abe of japan. minister, mama mia and i are honored to host you and mrs. again at mar-a-lago. we're grateful for the tremendous hospitality you showed us during our visit to your country last fall. it was a true privilege to be welcomed to the magnificent land of japan, or as i have heard all

my life, the land of the rising sun. so great. during our visit to asia in november, we had tremendous success in listing support for our campaign of maximum pressure on the north korean regime. as you know, i will be meeting with kim jong-un in the coming weeks to discuss the denuclearization of the korean .eninsula hopefully, that meeting will be a great success, and we are looking forward to it. it will be a tremendous thing for north korea and a tremendous thing for the world, so we will todoing everything possible make it a worldwide success, not just for the united states or south korea or north korea or japan, but for the entire world. we hope to see the day when the live korean peninsula can

together in safety, prosperity, and peace. this is the destiny of the korean people who deserve and overgone through so much the years. we hope it all works out. i want to thank the prime minister for his insight and as wet over the past year have pursued the dream of a peaceful, nuclear free korea. shinzo, we--hin -- have worked very hard with you and your people on this, and thank you. and you are a lot closer than we are, but thank you very much. your support has been critical to getting us through this important moment in time. it is a historic moment and possibly beyond that if it works out properly.

our conversations today confirm our campaign of maximum pressure. it will continue until north .orea denuclearize is we have great respect for many ,spects of what they are doing but we have to get it together. we have to end nuclear weapons, ideally in all parts of the world. a goal for all of us to hope for and to cherish. as i've said before, there is a bright path available to north when it achieves denuclearization in a complete and verifiable and irreversible way.

it will be a great day for them. it will be a great day for the world. during my visit to japan last fall, i met with japanese families, who endured the terrible heartbreak of having their loved ones of ducted -- of ducted -- abducted by the north korean regime. we want to see these families reunited as quickly as possible, and i know for a fact it's one of the most important things on shinzo's mind. we have talked about it often. so important to you and we are going to do everything possible to have them act and bring them back to japan. i gave you that promise. the united states also supports japan's efforts to improve its defense capability and we are exploring ways to expedite the sale of american military equipment to japan to the foreign military sales program. we have stepped up our effort not only with respect to japan

but other allies that when they order military equipment from us, we will get it taken care of, and they will get their equipment rapidly. it would be in some cases years before orders would take place because of bureaucracy with the department of defense, the state department. we are short-circuiting that. it's now going to be a matter of days. they are our allies. we are going to help them get great,ry important, military equipment, and nobody -- nobody -- makes it like the united states. it's the best in the world by far. we are also working to improve our economic partnership by reducing our trade imbalance and removing barriers to u.s. exports. the united states is committed to free, fair, and reciprocal -- very important word -- trade,

and we are committed to pursuing a bilateral trade relationship that benefits both of our great countries. and i haveter abe agreed to intensify our trade investment consultations. our ambassador with us today will take the lead for the united states. these past two days have been extremely productive. the relationship between japan and the united states has never been closer. i truly believe it has never been closer than it is today, and the bonds between our people been stronger. in the months ahead, we will rely on this great friendship as we face an array of old challenges and new opportunities, and we will face them together. we will work closely on trade. we will do something having to do with the imbalance that frankly should have been done for years and years and years.

to prime minister, i want thank you again for traveling tomorrow lago for these important discussions and meetings. it has been an honor to welcome you here and work with you for greater security, prosperity, trulyace for our two great and wonderful nations. thank you for being here, shinzo. thank you very much. translator: mrs. barbara bush, the former first lady, has passed away. i express my condolences to former president bush and all the family members, representing the japanese people. we express our heartfelt condolences.

pleasure to be to mar-a-lago to engage with president trump in a .ruitful discussion at the very moment i was at dinner with president trump, north korea dared to launch ballistic missiles. intolerable.ely president trump steps before the notra, even though it was planned, and send a powerful message to the world. your words on that occasion are

still deeply etched in my mind. together with my wonderful memory of my stay here in mar-a-lago. you have demonstrated that a superbly strong u.s. japan againce, and i once express my diverse respect for your remarkable leadership. the relationship in our countries is at a historic turning point. the past mistakes should never be repeated. on this point, president trump and i are in full agreement. 1994e occasion of the agreement, north korea committed to abandon nuclear weapons

development, but it's promises .ere broken based on such lessons learned, the u.s. and japan, together with the international community , will remind that for all weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, complete, verifiable, and irreversible envisioningt, by multiple scenarios, we carefully thought out our policies and directions at a concrete and detailed level. just because north korea is responding to dialogue, there

should be no reward. maximum pressure should be , and actual implementation of concrete denuclearization will be demanded. on this occasion, we also agreed to continue our effort towards the early resolution of the top abduction.sue of we are deeply encouraged by the promise just made here. half a year ago, when you visited our country, you listened intently to each and every family member of the abductees.

you carefully and kindly said you would like to help. isr image on that occasion indelibly etched in the eyes and minds of many of the japanese people. going forward, we wish to work with the united states towards the return of all abductees. we are determined to strengthen our approach vis-a-vis north korea. left witha is resources. if north korea advances in the make direction, they can people richer. if north korea takes the right possiblere could be a path to celebrate the unfortunate past and normalize diplomatic relationships. for that to happen, the

comprehensive resolution of multiple concerns would be the fundamental precondition to the upcoming summit. we strongly hope for a breakthrough in this situation. translator: a japan-u.s. to thee also contributes peace and prosperity of the world as well as the region. on the economic front, japan and the u.s. will take the lead and develop a free and fair market in the indo pacific region. i spent some time with president trump to discuss ways to make that happen in a candid manner. first of all, we must further betweenen economic ties the two countries. under president trump, exports including energy, aircraft,

amongst others, have already been increasing significantly. further, following the bold tax reform by president trump, japanese companies' investments in u.s. companies have been gaining momentum, which is creating a large number of jobs in the u.s. and contributing to the expansion of exports from the u.s. in order to benefit, both japan and the u.s. will further expand trade and investment between the two countries. building upon that foundation, we enter realize economic development in the free and open indo pacific region based on fair rules. , at thishat happen time, president trump and i agreed to start talks for free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals.

the minister and u.s. trade representative at hope will have a very fruitful discussion. over the last two days, president trump and i have spent more than seven hours together over meals and playing golf, while at the same time, we were able to hold extremely fruitful talks in a relaxing atmosphere. two days with a time when i was able to further deepen my friendship and relationship of trust with president trump. lastly, i would like to express my sincere appreciation to donald and first lady melania for their hospitality as well as the continuously warmhearted welcome from the people of the united states. president trump: thank you very much. appreciate it. questions? mark.

much, mr.ou very president. mr. prime minister, nice to see you again. sent yourent, you c.i.a. director to p'yongyang a couple of weeks ago, and he returned without three of who are being detained there and also without any visible signs of concessions north koreans had made to the united states in advance of your meeting with mr. kim. my question is -- do you intend or are you willing to sit down with kim jong-un if americans are still being held in north korea, and will you insist on from tangible concessions the north koreans in return for gestures like sending a potential future secretary of state to north korea? from the prime minister, if i make, you a moment ago alluded yourw trade talks between

minister and mr. light heiser. should we interpret that to mean you are now open to negotiating a bilateral trade deal between the united states and japan? and a second question -- japan is the only major american ally from the steel tariffs. did you ask the president to exempt, and if so, how did he reply? president trump: thank you very much. the fact is they have three prisoners. we are negotiating now. we are doing our best. as you know, they've been there and long time, and it's harsh treatment. we fought very hard to get auto armbier back.otto w we are like was fighting very diligently to get the three of american citizens back, and i think there's a good chance of

doing it. we are having good dialogue. we will keep you informed, but we are in their working very hard on that. we have come a long way with north korea. we were, as you know -- and when i say we, for many years, they've been talking to north korea and nothing has happened. this should have been taken care whenpast administrations they were not nearly so far unbelievably put powerful sanctions on and many other things. i want to thank publicly ofsident she -- president xi china who has done more than he has done for any other administration. he has clogged up the border, as you know, and he's done it very, very powerfully. he would tell you himself that he never thought he would go to and i appreciate that very much, but it has put a lot of pressure on.

93% of the goods coming into north korea come from china, and understands that this is a very important set of months that are lying ahead. he does not want to see a north korea or any career that has nuclear weapons, either, so he is also fighting china when it comes to this, but he has been terrific. can he be better? i always say yes, he can be better. you andpresident, great. can you be better? yes." we have never been in a position like this with that regime, if it's father, grandfather, or son, and i hope to have a very successful meeting. if we don't think it's going to be successful, we won't have it. we won't have it. meetingnk that it is a

that is not going to be fruitful, we are not going to go. if the meeting when i'm there is not fruitful, i will respectfully leave the meeting, and we will continue what we are doing or whatever it is that will continue, but something will happen. flexibleways remaining and will remain flexible here. i have gotten into this point. president moon of south korea was generous who said if it were not for donald trump the olympics would have been a total failure. it was my involvement and the involvement of our great country that made the olympics a very successful olympics. if you look at ticket sales prior to what took place with respect to north korea, it was going to be a big problem, and it turned out to be a very successful olympics. have gotten us here, and i think we are going to be successful, but if there any

reason i feel we are not, we end . thank you. translator: between president trump and myself, for benefiting both japan and the u.s., we have expanded the investment in trade . based on that foundation, open and fair development in the inner pacific region, we are -- have agreed to start talks for free, fair, and reciprocal trade .eals at this time 232, japanese steel and aluminum would not exert any negative influence on u.s. security. rather, it is our position that the quality of japanese products

is high. many of those products are difficult to be replaced with an are greatly contributing to the u.s. industries and employment. recognizing that, we'd like to continue to respond to this matter going forward. president trump:-like to add that the 232 having to do with aluminum and steel tariffs, 30% in one case, 25%, and 10%, that it's gotten us to the bargaining table with many nations. and in other cases, they are paying, and its billions of dollars coming into the coffers of the united states, so they've been actually very important. if you look at what we did with put 30%nels, where we tariffs on, we had 32 companies open with pretty new plans because it's a relatively new industry. of the plants, 30 were closed and two were not doing well. since putting the tariffs on,

the two are doing very well. seven or eight will be opening, and a lot more will open. same thing with washing machines. we were, believe it or not, having washing machines don't all over the country. we put tariffs on, and we are now opening up an expanding companies that create and make, which is actually a very big business, washing machines and dryers. the workers of our country know what is happening. moving up fromes mexico. automobile companies, and they are building new plants in michigan and ohio and pennsylvania and conducting in expanding their plants. a lot of things are happening. our country is doing very, very so that's going to continue. going to continue. a lot of great momentum. if you look at any chart, the enthusiasm for business and our country is at an all-time high, and unemployment for african-american workers, for

hispanic workers -- unemployment is at an all-time low -- in history, in the history of our country, it's at the lowest point. if you look at unemployment for women, it's at an 18-year low. we are very proud of our achievements, and the tax cuts are kicking in, and it's a beautiful thing to see. people are spending money where they did not have the money to spend previously, so we are very happy with that. shinzo, please. translator: i would like to ask a question about how to handle north korean issues. prime minister gave -- prime minister abe,, there is a

concern in japan that japan may be left behind, so how will you proceed with dialogue with north korea? president trump, you talked .bout the abduction issue are you going to consider the nuclear weapons disarmament the same level as the abduction issue? president trump: maybe i will go first. abduction is a very important issue to me because it is an important issue to your prime minister. we were having dinner last night, and he started talking about abduction and how horrible it was. his level of enthusiasm was unbelievable. i said to him right then and there last night at the table we will work very hard on that issue and try and bring those folks back home. very, very hard.

translator: if japan will be left behind, that is not at all .he case in the last 10 of days, together with president trump, we have spoken about north korea. there will be into korean talks and a u.s. north korean summit as planned. we have gone into really in-depth discussions about policy and direction. we have reached agreement. regarding the upcoming u.s.-north korea summit, we hope ,t will lead to the resolution and more than anything else, we hope that it will be an historic summit that will lead to the resolution of abduction, and i have seriously and thoroughly discussed with president trump, and we have fully agreed about our direction going forward, in particular regarding abduction,

.s donald has explained in our tete-a-tete, we have thoroughly discussed this matter . last year, the president met with victims of the abduction as and as the family members, their family's feelings have been strongly felt and understood by the president, and he has given a very encouraging comment that he would appeal towards a resolution. i highly appreciate it. it is encouraging, the comment. this is a very encouraging comment, and for the families of the abductees, this is a powerfully encouraging comment, and going forward between japan and the u.s., or between the trilateral japan and south cooperate to our

.tmost president trump: and we will be very loyal to japan. thank you. jennifer jacobs. >> thank you, mr. president. on the mullah probe, have you concluded it's not worth the follow-up to remove either special counsel molar or deputy general rosenstein? did thee minister abe, president ask you to provide more funding for u.s. troops in japan? and what agreement did you reach in florida on buying more military equipment from the u.s. ? president trump: jennifer, i can say this, that there was no collusion, and that was so found by the house intelligence committee. there was no collusion with russia, other than by the democrats, or as i call them, the obstructionists because they truly are obstructionists, so we

are getting tremendous amounts of paper. this was really a hoax created largely by the democrats as a way of softening the blow of a loss, which is a loss that, frankly, they should not have had from the standpoint that it's very easy for them to have a tremendous advantage in the electoral college, and this is what it is, and this is where it came from. you look at the kind of money that was paid. probably some went to russia. you look at podesta having a company in russia. you look at the fact that their server, the dnc server, was never gotten by the fbi. the fbi takes what they want. this is a hoax. as far as the investigation, nobody has ever been more -- i havet than instructed our lawyers to be totally transparent.

i believe we have given them 1.4 million pages of documents, if you can believe this, and have not used that i know of for the most part presidential powers or privilege, so we are hopefully coming to the end. it is a bad thing for our country -- very, very bad thing for our country, but there has been no collusion. they won't find any collusion. it doesn't exist. as far as the two the gentleman you told me about, they've been saying i'm going to get rid of them for the we want to get the investigation over and done with. put it behind us. we have to get back to business with negotiating with this gentleman and plenty of others. this gentleman is a very tough negotiator. we have to focus on that. think you very much. -- thank you very much. >> regarding the u.s. forces

and the peace and stability of the far east being maintained. in terms of the presence in japan, it is very meaningful and significant. in terms of paying for the expenses japan accounts for the largest percentage of stationing compared to other countries. this the president understands very well. >> i have a question. this is a follow-up question. you don't have any intention to exempt japan at this point in time.

with regard to trade, you are going to establish new talks for trade. is it going to be in the direction of fda or tpp? i would like to hear the views from both of you. but talks for a free, fair, and reciprocal trade deal to initiate that has been agreed. minister my taking and the ambassador will be the representative. they will be receiving the report of this talk. it will be in the interest of both countries.

on the u.s. side, we are our country's position is that tpp is the best for both countries. based on that position we shall be dealing with talks. pres. trump: thank you very much. the united states has a massive trade deficit. anywhere from 60 mine million dollars to a hundred billion dollars a year. that is massive by any standpoint. 232 on steel and aluminum. if we can come to an arrangement on a new deal, between the united states and japan, that would certainly be something we would discuss. aluminum tariffs and steel tariffs. i would look forward to being able to, at some point in the future, take them off. right now we have a deficit that is a minimum of $69 billion a

year. japan sends us millions and millions of cars and we tax them virtually not at all. much product so because we have trade barriers and lots of other things. these are the things of the prime minister and i are going to be discussing over the next short. of time. the media has not covered the tpp correctly. i don't want to go back into tpp. thatey offered us a deal, i can't refuse on behalf of the united states, i would do it. i like bilateral better. i think it is better for our country, our workers. i would much prefer a bilateral deal, a deal directly with japan. we already have a deal with six of the 11 nations in the tpp. we already have trade deals. the others we can make very easily. they are all calling to want to

make a deal. that is much better for us. unless they offer us a deal that we can't refuse, i would not go back bp. we will see what happens. a one-on-oneating deal with japan. that is where we are right now. i will say that the who were sitting right here are extraordinarily competent. very cap. -- tough. hopefully have a very good deal, good for japan and good for the united states. thank you all very much. we appreciate it. thank you. we will do sanctions as soon as they deserve it. we -- that is the question.

there has been nobody tougher on russia then president donald trump. between building up the military, between creating oil, weus amounts of raised billions and billions of dollars extra in nato. we had a very severe, we were talking about it, fight in syria recently. between our troops and russian troops. that is very sad. many people died in that fight. toughers been nobody than me. with the media, no matter what i did, it is never tough enough. russia will tell you, there has been nobody tougher the donald trump. the other night, we had a strike in syria which was absolute precision. i leave it with this. with all of that said, if we can

get along with china and if we can get along with russia and if we can get along with japan and other nations, that is a good thing. not a bad thing. remember that. if we got along with other nations, that is good, not bad. thank you very much. >> at 10 a.m. on c-span, the senate judiciary committee works on a bill to protect the independence of special councils. coverage from georgetown law school of a discussion about congressional oversight of the justice department and the fbi.

we have live coverage of the senate beginning at 10:00. they're scheduled to debate and vote on the nomination of james bernstein to be nasa administrator. a senate armed services committee hearing with testimony from the secretary of the navy, the chief of naval operations, and the, of the marine corps. weekend, cities tour takes you to asheville, north carolina. we will explore asheville's literary scene in history. ofvisit the boyhood home "looks wolfe who wrote homeward angel." >> there are over 200 characters in the book that we can connect to people that he knew as a boy. which youme secrets, shouldn't do in a small southern town.

he said he got death threats from his first book. >> go inside the grove park in where the great gatsby author state during the summers of 1935 and 36. >> he had lost his career at his point -- this point. he was looking for a place to recover and rest. he wanted to write again but he needed something to write about. he came to the grove park inn. he wanted to find stories and the people who were staying here. >> on sunday at 2:00 eastern. we tour the largest home in america, built by the vanderbilt family. >> a home with more than 33 bedrooms for guests and family. 65 fireplaces. an incredible staircase. architectural beauty surrounding the home. >> we will visit the late pastor grilli dams -- billy graham's

retreat. saturday at 11:15 eastern. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. sunday, a look back to the focusings year of 1968 on women's rights, the women's liberation movement challenging long-held associations about american woman would -- womanhood.

watch 1968: american turmoil, women's rights. ♪ >> this month, we feature a student contest winners. we asked middle and high school students to choose a provision of the u.s. constitution and illustrate why it is important to them. our first prize middle school eighth-graders at eastern middle school in summer spring, maryland. i think looking at the 14th amendment, it is very important. it deals with our country views people of different genders. >> they was a fun process but it was hard to start off. oncefo