hi, craig. >> good to see you. good afternoon to you. craig melvin here. trump can provided sort of. president signing an executive order today aimed at dismantling obamacare. long on promises, short on details. what the executive order means for insurance and what more can the president do without congress? also pulling out of puerto rico. the president threatening to pull out the military and federal emergency resources from the hurricane ravaged island. will the president turn his back on puerto ricans? and hostages released after five years in captivity, an american woman, her husband and three children are now free. the latest on their harrowing ordeal and that stunning release coming up and new details this afternoon on why the husband is refusing the military's offer to get them out of the country. but we start with president trump going to alone on health

care, his party tried and failed repeatedly to pass repeal and replace legislation, so today he did something for the 50th time since taking office. just a short timing ae ago, pret trump signing an executive order. critics worry that this one could ultimately unravel obamacare. >> today is only the beginning. in the coming months, we plan to take new measures to provide our people with even more relief and moore freedom. and by the way, on another subject, that will include massive tax cuts. >> as you heard there, he even got in a plug for his tax reform agenda, the event following a series of tweets this morning in which he basically threatened to end the federal assistance being provided to puerto rico. also a new article by gabe sherman in "vanity fair" says the following. several people close to the

president have recently told me in private that trump is unstable, losing a step and unraveling. we start with kelly he o'donnell at the white house. tom costello is in washington. tom, let's start with you. tell us about the new plan. >> the administration has been concerned for some time and saying very publicly that they believe that the obamacare is falling under its own weight and they cite the fact that premiums somewhere gone up across the country, in some cases 25%, in some cases more. what they have failed to do of course on capitol hill in terms of actually repealing and replacing boom caobamacare now, president taking it upon himself. so here are the steps that they are taking as it relateses to obamacare. number one, they say that they will increase choices and lower the costs. how will they do that? the bottom line is that they are going to allow expanding the availability of short term plans is one way and allow for we might call skimpier coverage at cheaper prices. in other words, not requiring all of the minimum insurance

coverage that obamacare has required and therefore if so many can buy an insurance plan that doesn't have all of those requirements, in theory it should be cheaper. critics say that it will drive up the cost for people with serious medical issues because as you know, generally the people who would look for skimpier coverage, in other words, coverage that didn't cover everything like for example made stern tern cover everything like for example made stern terity care,e somebody young and healthy and isn't married thaenld onand so only look for the kind of coverage that would coverage a real emergency like if they were hit by a bus. they don't want the bigger package and therefore they don't want to have for-to-pay for other people's coverage. but that really is the essence of what insurance is. to-pay fo other people's coverage. but that really is the essence of what insurance is.to-pay forr people's coverage. but that really is the essence of what insurance is. we all join a pool. some years i'm healthy, some years you're healthy and we pay for each other. that is the same idea of obamacare. s younger healthier people will be offsetting the cost of the older people who generally

require more medical care. so if you syphon off the younger people, the concern is now medical care gets very expensive for that orlando section of the population that may be in more need of medical care. expect on that thinks from many health care groups, medical groups, perhaps even lawsuits from states. >> tom costello, thanks for helping us break that down. kelly o, puerto rico. what is the president thinking here? >> we are hearing very mixed messages from the president and vice president on puerto rico. we've heard the president talking about building, trying to help the people of puerto rico, being there for the distance. the vice president also saying similar things. and then the twitter head scratcher where president trump who has been criticized by the may have of san juan and he's been critical of her, we've seen that drama play out, that the latest act in that play reads this way from the president's twitter feed. "puerto rico survived the hurricanes. now a financial crisis looms. largely over their own making

says sharyl attkisson. a total lack of accountability says the governor, electric and all infrastructure was a disaster before the hurricanes. con to deci congress to decide how much to spend. we cannot keep fema, the military and first responders who have been amazing under the most difficult circumstances in puerto rico forever. that last bit is what set off alarm bells. the notion that the president might pull back on some of the federal resources that have been deployed to this island that is an american territory. very worrisome for those who are still in grave need there. at the same time, the president is talking about what was a pre-existing financial crisis in puerto rico. that is actually a problem that has been years and years in the pipeline. so one of the reasons that compared to wealthy states like florida and texas, the response had some of its own problems on the local level. critics are saying this is not the time to be making that case, there is a critical human need,

this is the responsibility of the united states government do what it can and it sounds like the president is threatening to pull back. that is raising a lot of alarm bells in puerto rico and criticism here in the united states very sensitive on this issue. a question of what did the president mean when he said we would help the people in puerto rico and then tweet the federal officials conditions stay there forever. obviously there would be a point when some of the effortsstay th forever. obviously there would be a point when some of the efforts in terms first responders get dialed down, but not at a point when there are people still in critical need. so a mixed message coming from the president's twitter feed at a timing when he had been feeling a lot of criticism about his response and that may be part of where he is snapping back frustrated by the criticism.

>> former chairman of the rnc and also one of the principal authors of obamacare. gabe sherman may be joining us shortly. but yvette, let's start with trumpca trumpcare. what do you see as the practical effect of the executive order that was signed just a few hours ago? >> thanks, craig. the problem with the executive order is the intent is obviously to get cheaper products on the market. but the problem is that these bare bones products while cheaper, they don't actually provide sufficient coverage to people. so there are questions like would these products offer mental health coverage or substance abuse coverage, coverage for opoid treatment or maternity care. and once those products that are cheaper come on the market but don't have enough coverage for people, the healthier people as

some have pointed out will actually buy those products and leave the sicker people to pay much higher premiums in the existing risk pool. so it does segment the risk pool and will leave people with brie sk pre-skising condition in the. higher cost pool and they won't ultimately be able to afford their coverage. so that is the impact on the swrid m individual market. >> what more could the president do via executive order to obamacare as it is commonly known without congress' help? >> well, we've already seen expensive steps from the white house to undermine the upcoming open enrollment period like cutting the assistance for a people who are trying to enroll by almost 90%. so there are a number of other steps that they could take. in fact one of them that people are particularly worried about is what they could do to

undermine what is currently the essential health benefit package which does require lunch for things like maternity care and inpatient hospitalization and prescription drug coverage. they could act through executive order and regulation to say that those essential health benefits while you have to cover the category, you don't have to cover anything in particular under that category. so a person could get maternity coverage that really is meaningless. they could easily do that through executive order. >> michael, the president has been actively undermining this law since he took office. shortened open enrollment period, slarkshed the ad budget the navigator budget. they are essentially folks who help figure out which plans are right for them. used the outreach budget to produce testimonials about people being burdened by

obamacare, he will shut down the enrollment site for 12 hours on all but the final sunday of enrollment, stop paying firms to provide website assistance, signed eo weakening the mandate, and today the eo allowing cheaper skimpier plans. is this something that enough swing voters will care about in 2018 to make a difference? >> they will when they start seeing what they have to pay for what they are getting. and in fact what they are in fact getting may be less. there are a lot of variables that will come into play starting next month. in fact i know i just got my notification of a substantial increase in the premiums that i pay for me and my wife. so, yeah, it's starting to hit people under the current system. what this then does becomes another element that we don't know what the final result will be. we don't know how this plays out. i like the idea of the associations, have advocated for that for quite some time giving

individuals to move into various pools that may fit their lifestyle, their community, whatever. but as was just pointed out, there are ramifications to that. and i don't think that that aspect of this is really thought out because the general goal here is to basically cut off the head of obamacare as much as possible. and if you can't do that efficiently, at least strangle it. that to me is not a really good smart policy because there are people's lives and health that are entangled in all of that. and i think that that is something that really needs to be thought through but there doesn't seem to be a real center or synergy around doing that. >> what about the idea of separation of powers? here is a president who if you recall had a lot to say when president obama would sign executive orders. in fact he said at one point why

is blarack obama constantly issuing executive orders that are major grabs of authority? there is a tweet for everything. >> of course. >> this is a tweet from july of 2012. what is the difference now? >> there is no difference. now he knows why obama was doing all those executive orders, because he had a congress that wouldn't do anything. and now president trump's congress has failed not once but twice new in getting a health care bill to his desk, recognizes that the congress won't move. the result is the same. the reason may be different, but the results are the same. so he is using the tools of the office very much as president obama did and, you know, probably is not looking at it as like, well, this is somehow hypocritica hypocritical, but recognizing that because the congress has not moved on a health care plan or strategy, has not put something that he can sign on his desk, he is doing what he

can to affect the system. obama did that, this president is doing that and that's what the chief executive has at his disposal. >> does the president have the authority to make these changes via executive order, yvette? >> well, i mean, the president directs the departments do what they can through regulation. that is what his previous executive orders have done as well. and so the departments will issue regulations that try and push the envelope on how much they can disrupt the marketplace. i do think though one of the particular problematic down sides of the timing of this executive order is that there is a serious effort going on right now in the senate to get to a bipartisan agreement on thousand stabilize the marketplace. which is what is really needed right now.thousand stabilize the marketplace. which is what is really needed right now. and i worry about the impacts of this executive order on the possibility of having any bipartisan agreement in the

future. >> yvette, michael, thank you both so much for your time. sarah huckabee sanders will likely be fielding questions on health care, on puerto rico as well in the white house briefing. that is coming up shortly. when it does start, we will bring to you live. also ahead here, an american woman and her family freed, terrorists had been holding them hostage for five long years in pakistan. now they don't seem to want u.s. help getting out. why? and president trump again threatening to pull the military and emergency workers from puerto rico even as that hurricane ravaged island struggles to recover. we will go to san juan for the latest reaction.

the president angering several members of congress with his suggestion that federal aid be pulled out of puerto rico. congresswoman representing the virgin islands -- >> the virgin islands and puerto rico are the responsibility of congress. we're in debt. we have a lot of these issues because washington and congress has not treated us fairly. i don't want fema and the military and the others to be there forever either. but we need their support right now as we work through the recovery. >> meanwhile the death toll on puerto rico has risen to 45, most of the island, vast

majority of the island still does not have power. they also the majority don't have clean safe water. gabe guttierez is in puerto rico with more. >> reporter: acting home land security secretary elaine duke is expected here in a short time to meet with local officials. this as strong reactions pouring into the president's tweet this morning regarding puerto rico. governor rossello tweeting the u.s. citizens in puerto rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our nation. and the mayor of san juan in stronger language saying it is not that you do not get it, you are incapable of fulfilling the moral imperative to help the people of puerto rico. shame on you. your comments about puerto rico are unbecoming of a commander in chief. certainly this is strong reaction coming in after the president's comments. yesterday when we were in the western part of the island, we

found many people there that said that the federal government, they haven't really seen much of a federal response. there were some communities there that were still trapped, cut off from the rest of the island because of dangerous mudslides and they still hadn't seen any humanitarian aid except for a group of military vets who were volunteers bringing them supplies in the absence of fema. now, some of them felt that the federal response needed to be stronger. the mayor however said that aifd was starting to trickle in after initially -- after initially a slow response. as for fema, it says 19,000 workers, civilian and military service personnel, are working in puerto rico and in the u.s. virgin islands, and they are also hiring 1200 puerto ricans in job fairs here to work as part of the relief effort. but craig, again certain people in remote parts of this island say this is all just not enough and they were certainly not happy to hear the president's

tweets this morning. >> gabe guttierez there from our newly established bureau in puerto rico. let's bring in puerto rico's former governor padilla joining me from san juan. before we talk about what is happening on the ground, your reaction to the series of tweets by the president of the united states saying fema can't stay forever. >> well, i think it shows his lack of knowledge of federal law. the law requires from fema to stay on the ground until the job is done. so fema cannot get to a position and work for a couple of days and just hang around and then leave. that is first thing. second, he i think shows his lack of knowledge in history. we are u.s. citizen not because

we asked for it. it was imposed by congress just prior to the first world war. so our young puerto ricans back then can go to the military service. so it's a duty of the united states to put their boots on the ground here in puerto rico. it's not like we are begging. it's what we deserve. we have been in every war, we have been fighting very hard, so now we deserve for them to be here. at the tweend of the day, two m things. he is talking to his electoral base. he is not talking law. he is showing that he is racist. let's call it the right name. >> governor, that is a pretty bold assertion there to call the president of the united states racist. >> it is. it is. it is the way it is.

i respect the institution, but the way he handle it just shows i think what he stands for. why he doesn't -- why there is no same argument from president trump after hurricane irma hit. why he doesn't address the same issue in houston after hurricane harvey. he is talking to his electoral base. tomorrow speaker ryan will be in puerto rico. i'm democrat, but i have to say that speaker ryan is i think a fine man that is doing a very good job with puerto rico. so it's not an issue of democrats or republicans. i think that speaker ryan tomorrow as well as vice president pence last week, they show real american values when

they come to puerto rico. but the president i think it's a smam for the united states not only the way he treat puerto ricans, the way he is handling the presidency. i think that he do not embodyie the land of the free and hoechlt braves. home of the braves. >> the house is twhaweighing th6 aboutme 36$.5 billion bill for all the damage from the devastation of the hurricanes. do you think that that will be enough money to help the people of puerto rico get back on their feet? >> not at all. it is a good beginning, it is a step in the right direction, it's of course will help, but

didn't crack the surface. more has to be done. and i just met with the governor here even though that we are from different parties here, but we are working together. but it doesn't scratch the surface. we will be in washington addressing the issue and just with the facts. it will take a lot more, but again, you will see speaker ryan and the delegations in the house as well as leader mcconnell and the delegations in the senate with more accurate approach to the crisis. >> former governor of puerto rico padilla, governor thanks for your time, sir. >> thank you so much for having me. president trump criticized today not just for those tweets on puerto rico, but a lot of folks criticizing him for the executive order on health care

as well. i'll get some reaction from vice president mike pence's former spokesman who just left the administration. he will join me. also an american woman and her family rescued from a terrorist infested area of pakistan. we are new learning that they did not want u.s. military help getting out. details next. patrick woke up with a sore back. but he's got work to do. so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that.

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got some breaking news out of pakistan right now. we are learning that the pakistani military now says an american woman, caitlin coleman and her husband and three children have been rescued from a taliban group. president trump talking about it just a short time ago. >> yesterday the united states government working with the government of pakistan secured the release of caitlin coleman, joshua boyle and their three children from captivity from the haqqani network, a terrorist organization with ties to the taliban. the pakistani government's cooperation is a sign that it is

honoring america's wish that it do more to provide security in the region. >> nbc producer waj kahn is on the ground with the latest. this was not a release, this was a rescue, is that right? all right. we're having some sort of technical difficulty there in islamabad. we'll try to get him back up. when we do, we'll go back to him there in islamabad. but let's turn to that vani"van fair" piece. according to the article, people close to president trump say he is, quote, unstable, losing a step and he is unraveling. the guy who wrote that piece is also an msnbc contributor and joins me on what has become a ritual of sorts here during the 1:00 hour. let's talk about this new

reporting here. tell us a little more about what your sources say. >> yeah, it's good to be here. and i think today the tweets that we saw the president direct at puerto rico is emblematic of this erratic behavior. and especially general kelly his chief of staff has been trying to bring odd to this chaos. and i hear that the relationship between both men is strained and the words i've heard is untenable. and so all our eyes are on chief of staff kelly about how long he actually does stay in this position. >> in terms of what is driving this, the impetus behind this unraveling, your reporting indicates that a lot of this goes back to alabama? >> well, this is really for president trump, you know, he thrives on the adulation of his fans. and he traveled to alabama to back luther strange in the republican primary there. and that was a candidate who

lost. and donald trump is used to getting his base to do what he wants. and in-people who work with him especially one very close confidant said that he emerged from alabama really shaken, that the cultive personality was broken. >> alabama was a huge blow to his psyche one person close on to trump said to you, he saw the cu cultive personality was broken. so he took it personally. >> yeah, and when trump returns to mar-a-lago, he will start going to the winter white house. and as i also reported, general kelly wants trump to be separated from the guests. he doesn't want the president holding court and mingling and getting policy advice from members and friends. and i've been to mar-a-lago. anybody knows that is donald trump's home. he does not like the idea of being told where he can and can into the go in his home. so i think that will be also a

very interesting tension to keep an eye on. >> the president's chief of staff john kelly you described the relationship as untenable, a synonym for irreparable. is it just a matter of time? >> everyone that i talk to says that general kelly is a patriot, he is not n. thin this job not own personal ambitions. he is doing it because he thinks that he can help keep the administration on track. when he realizes that he can no longer serve this country because of his limits, i think we may see him make an eye for the gexit. >> has he been successful to a certain extent? sg >> he has brought order to the white house. obviously the tweets he can't control. but the way that the information get to the president, who can get access to the president is something that general kelly as brought a lot of order to. i was he speaking to somebody

this week who donald trump calls up on the phone and really you can tell this president is hungry for human contact because general kelly has beaeeen so successful at sequestering him. >> he's put the president in the corner. >> a little bit, yes. >> already. gabe sherman, thank you so much. maybe we'll see you tomorrow. mark lotter is a former spokesman for mike pence, he was a spokesman up until just last month. good to have you, sir. thanks for being with me. >> thank you for having me. >> mark, as we heard there, folks close to the president telling reporters that he is unraveling. his secretary of state told folks in july that the president is a moron. how would you character lize th mood inside the white house when you were there? >> it's filled with people who are dedicated to fulfilling the president's vision, the president's mission and agenda to make america great again.

what i'm reading coming out of "vanity fair," it's about vanity of the liberal elite and it's anything but fair. this is just not what is going on in the white house. the white house that i worked at -- >> so it's just -- >> the first nine months h-hf--- >> so it's made up? >> you are getting people saying things, their own voices and it's not what is actually happening in the white house right now. today was a big success for the american people. the president signed an executive order that is going to expand choice for americans to be able to provide health insurance for their families. it will allow businesses to be able -- particularly small businesses to be able to pool their resources together, lower their costs and provide their employees in many cases with less than 50 employees, it will be able to bring them more health insurance coverage. you're seeing isis on the run, record stock markets and tax cuts on the way. those are things that the white house is focused on and that's what they are focused on every day. >> i want to play something that your former boss mike pence said

while he was in puerto rico last friday. take a listen. >> we are with you today, we will be with you tomorrow, we will be with you every day until puerto rico rebuilds and recovers bigger and better than ever before. >> now, that would appear to clash with what his boss said today about federal assistance in puerto rico. would it not? >> no, i disagree completely. what the vice president was saying is that the federal government is willing to be there with puerto rico and we're going to be there with puerto rico, but what you saw the president say today is that you're not necessarily going to have the u.s. military and the 17,000 federal workers there forever. >> that's not what the president said and you know that. you know that the president -- i think we have the tweets. this is from the president trump. puerto rico survived the hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms large live their

own making. total lack of accountability says the governor, electric and infrastructure was disaster before. congress decides how much to spend. we cannot keep fema, the military and first responders who have been amazing in puerto rico forever. he's talking about fema. he's talking about first responders. pulling them out of a hurricane ravaged territory of the united states of america. >> the president is referring to the 17,000 u.s. troops, first responders and others who cannot stay there forever. it is not the federal government's position and has never been the federal government's position to have 17,000 u.s. military fema workers on the ground indefinitely. what they are there to do is to deal with the immediate crisis, which is what they are doing. you are seeing power being restor restored, you are see being electricity being restored, water is being restored and those first responders, those fema personnel, the u.s. military, are working

hand-in-hand to get those services restored and they are continuing to make progress on that. what the president is saying is that the long term recovery once the initial crisis is over is going to be something where the federal government partners and empowers local units of government, state government -- >> that's not what he said. >> that's exactly what he said. there that's what you wanted him to say. >> i'm telling you what the president is saying. or trying to tell me that -- >> i'm reading a tweet from -- >> you read a tweet that said first responder, fema and the military. that is what we are saying. the federal government is there, they will continue to be there will and they will continue to work to restore facilities and critical infrastructure long term rebuilding is going to be something where the federal government is a partner with state and local government and they will continue doing that in partnership with them, but you may not necessarily have 17,000 federal troops and fema people on the ground indefinitely for years to come on.

>> how long should they stay? >> until the job is done. they will continue to do the great work that they are doing restoring power, making sure hospitals, gas stations, grocery stores are open. 80% of the gas stations are open. 75% of grocery stores. these things are -- >> more than half the banks or not? >> they are working to get the banks back up and running. schools will be reopening in a matter of weeks. this was a devastating storm. actually two devastates storms in an area that already had many critical infrastructure issues going into it. there will need to be long term infrastructure investments that are made by the local leaders and state government and local cities and towns do that long term. >> and i think a lot of folks would agree with that, but i think a lot of folks are confused why the vice president of the united states on friday would go to puerto rico and promise full throated promise and full support and backing of the mainland, if you will, and then just a few days later the president of the united states

threatening to pull out federal assistance. >> i think you're overreading. when you say the president threatened to pull out, he said that we are not going to be there forever. the president and vice president are saying we are their partners forever in this long term relationship in rebuilding, but it may not necessarily involve the united states military in years to come. >> i don't remember after houston or a tweet after what we saw in florida of that kind from the president. do you? >> you are dealing with completely different situations though. florida and texas -- that's what you're trying to make this. you are doing what the liberals are always trying to do which is to try to make this a divisional issue. what we saw in florida, what we saw in texas, you had much different infrastructure needs. you had much more fully robust infrastructures in place to withhold -- to hold up under the storm and then quickly be restored. we know for a fact that the puerto rican infrastructure was

crumbling before these storms hit. >> yes, the administration has reminded us of the crumbling infrastructure in puerto rico ever since a few hours after the storm hit. we were all fully aware that puerto rico's infrastructure is antiquat antiquated. who is to blame for that, we could probably spend another 20 or 30 minutes talking about that. but i think a lot of folks, and again i know you will blim tame elate liberal bias, but a lot of people look to the president to comfort and console occurriduris like these and when you have thousands without pow water and water, a tweet is a business tone deaf. >> i think you see the president making sure everyone whether in puerto rico or back here in the mainland are understanding that this is a long term process and that what we have to do is start thinking long term. while the recovery efforts, the rebuilding efforts are going on in the ground right now, 17,000

people, we also have to think long term and making sure that the local units of government, the state government is stepping up to reassert its authority, to reassert its abilities to take over direct governance of the area and guide the long term rebuilding so when we're talking about not just getting power back on, but what are we going to do about making infrastructure investments to make sure that the next time a hurricane comes that the power grid can withstand or better withstand a storm such as that? that is why you did not see the devastation like that in florida or in texas. we've got to make that. but those are local decisions to be made and not something that the federal government can just come in and do. we can partner with you, we can help you out, we can help you out financially. but at the end of the day, fema and all of these response incidents are always the partner with local units of government and state governments. and in this case we've pretty much had to take oefrd becauverf

the lack of infrastructure. the president is setting the tone to say we need you to get back up on your feet yourselves. >> mark, i appreciate your time. thanks for coming on. hope you'll come back. >> i will. thank you, kricraig. you are looking at live pictures where sarah huckabee sanders is expected to take reporters' questions any moment now. when she takes to the podium, we will take you there live. also high winds threatening to erase the progress made fighting the fires raging in northern california. the death toll there continues to climb. steve patterson still on duty for us monitoring those fast moving developments. steve. >> reporter: four days later and there is still a firestorm threatening wine country california. we'll take you to one of the largest evacuation centers and concerns from evacuees, that's next. but it was lik e, "honey, i am way too decadent for you!" so i came up with o, that's good!

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circumstances of their release is that this has been a family that had been in afghanistan in captivity under the haqqani network which is closely affiliated with the taliban for almost five years. and just a couple days ago, u.s. intelligence picked them up heading into pakistan. it's at that point they informed the pakistan counterparts and we're also trying to figure out just the is ircircumstances of their release. was it a raid, was it a peaceful handover. we'll get more. >> do we know where they are right now? >> reporter: the latest information is that they are still in pakistan and they have not left the country. they are in the custody of u.s. embassy officials. >> okay. hans nichols. it is a curious story and something that will probably come up at the white house press briefing which is just getting understa under way. sarah huckabee sanders is at the podium. >> -- that today we might call in one of our favorites general kelly. so i'll turn it over to the chief of staff and let him make

opening comments and answer your questions today. and after he concludes of course our team will be around later this afternoon to answer any further questions. thanks. >> good afternoon. great to be here. a couple afternoon, great to be here. a couple comments and then open it up for q and a. coming in as chief of staff, i decided not to do too much with the press nil got my feet on the ground. prior to this when i was at dhs and certainly as a marine general officer interacted with the press a great deal. but coming into this job i needed to get to know the lay of the land. i have done i think three off the records, the first one, of course, was violated. but thank you for all of you that didn't violate the trust from those off the record

periods. i would just offer to you that although i read it all the time pretty consistently, i'm not quitting today. i don't believe, and i just talked to the president, i don't think i'm being fired today. and i'm not so frustrated in this job that i'm thinking of leaving. i would tell you, this is the hardest job i've ever had. this is, in my view, the most important job i ever had. i would offer, though, it is not the best job i ever had. the best job i ever had, as i said many times when i was an enlisted marine, sergeant, infantryman. so unless things change, i'm not quitting, i'm not getting fired. and i don't think they'll fire anyone tomorrow. john? >> you're not so frustrated

you're thinking of leaving but are you frustrated? >> no, i'm not. this is really, really hard work running the united states. i don't run it, but i'm working for someone who is dedicated to serving the country in the way that he's talked about for a number of years. there are incredible chall eng, economic challenges, health care challenges, international challenges that have to be dealt with. i don't mean any criticisms to mr. trump's predecessors but there were an awful lot of things that were kicked down the road that have come to roost right now that have to be dealt with. this is hard, hard work, john. and my only frustration, with all due respect to everyone in the room, is when i come into work in the morning and read about things i allegedly said or things mr. trump allegedly said or people who are going to be

fired. it's just not true. that's my frustration. i mean no disrespect to you all. i don't know your names, you. >> thank you for being here today. let's go to one of the hard things that is facing you right now, the situation in puerto rico. since you're here to speak for the president let's talk about his tweet this morning. does president trump believe the people of puerto rico are american citizens -- >> yes. >> -- who deserve the same access to federal aid as people who live in texas and florida? >> yes. >> what is his tweet about snen. >> what tweet. >> that we can't be in puerto rico forever. >> i think he said the u.s. military and fema can't be there forever. >> yes. >> the minute you go anywhere as a first responder, and this would apply certainly to the military, you are trying very hard, working very hard to work ourself out of a job. there will be a period which we hope, sooner rather than later,

which the u.s. military and fema generally speaking can withdraw because then the government and the people of puerto rico are recovering sufficiently to start the process of rebuilding. i just got off the phone i've talked to the governor of puerto rico many times, great relationship, the president deals with him periodically. we saw him when we were down there last week. this country, our country will stand with those citizens in puerto rico until the job is done. but the tweet about fema and dod, read military, is exactly accurate. they're not going to be there forever and the whole point is to start to work ourself out of a job and transition to the rebuilding process. in light of the president and support of pulling out of u necessary ka, what was the

president's response to funding, which is an u.n. agency, and are tax dollars going into that? do you have any statement with that? >> i'm not as familiar probably as i should be with it. i would offer the responsible way to look at any program, and certainly when i went to dhs and i did this in iraq and other places i've been. when we're spending u.s. taxpayer money we should look at every program and decide whether it's being successful. if it's not being successful, change it so it can be. sometimes you just say it's not going to work. >> the follow up to that, would be the prime minister came out today, there's a release from israel, the prime minister welcomed the withdrawal from unesco. he made a statement not too long

ago denouncing. unra? >> i'd have to get more familiar, sorry. >> thank you very much for coming out and doing this. you focussed a lot on process and establishing proses here at the white house -- >> is this the iron hand i brought to the staff? >> no, but did you? you don't see you have an iron hand. >> just put some organization to it with a smile on my face. although you guys with the camera catch me when i'm thinking hard and it looks like i'm frustrated and mad. >> what is your frustrated face? back to the question. can you explain what the process was with the pakistan raid -- >> the pakistan raid? >> to release indicate lycaitly

and her family. >> with four of them, the three children being u.s. citizens and the mother, we've now reduced -- i'm not making a joke here. but we've now reduced the number of hostages by a third, that's not to take away from the people still being held hostage. i'll use the the term, our partners in pakistan, we've been watching for the family -- what can i say? i'm not making up a lie here, i'm just staying within the classification. let me say the pakistanis are a great partner, and i hope there will be a change in the cooperation between the united states and pakistan. but the good news is the pakistani officials got custody

of the four american citizens, three children one adult female and then, of course, the husband is a canadian citizen, took them into custody, held them for us -- not for us. held them. we had arrangements to transport them back to the united states or canada, anywhere where they wanted to go, medical treatment on the way, of course, a lot of this is psychological treatment. they've been living in a hole. luckily the pakistan officials have taken them into custody so to speak from the forces of evil in that part of the world and they're being cared for as we speak. >> can you speak to the president's role? >> certainly you know the quote from prime minister mcmillen events, events, events, what are the events that keep you

concerned, awake at night in terms of global affairs? >> the big ones naturally. we have a nuclear threat from north korea, a possible nuclear threat in time by the iranians. probably the biggest concern, it's not an immediate concern, if this continues in north korea, if eventually other countries let it go at that, become nuclear powers, we have some out there, there would be a real impe dus for countries to develop or buy nuclear weapons. i'll tell you this, in spite of what someone reported the other day about the president, i don't think he'll mind my sharing this, what he said many, many times. i hear him most say about nuclear weapons, wouldn't it be

great if we could get rid of them all, as opposed to we need ten times more. even more than when he references the maintenance of nuclear weapons, wanting modernization, that doesn't mean increase in numbers. i hear him talk about wouldn't it be great, how could we get rid of nuclear weapons. not a lot keeps you up at night. the good news is out there we have a great state department doing the diplomacy thing night and day, as jim mattis and i said many times in uniform, if we don't fund the state department, buy us more bullets. so we have the state department doing what they do every day, and you have the u.s. military, the greatest military on the plan net. we don't like to think in terms of things turning military, but that's always an option. the great thing about our military is it's