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BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: (In progress) -- neighborhood that we're focused on. We'll keep working as one team, the federal state and local to try and slow and limit the spread of the virus.
I do want to be very clear, though. Our public health experts do not expect to see the kind of widespread outbreaks of Zika here that we've seen in Brazil or in Puerto Rico.
The kind of mosquitoes that are most likely to carry Zika are limited to certain regions of our country. But we cannot be complacent because we do expect to see more Zika cases.
And even though the symptoms for most people are mild, many may never even know that they have it. We've seen that the complications for pregnant women and their babies can be severe.
So, I again want to encourage everyone American to learn what they can do to help stop Zika by going to our cdc.gov.
In addition, Congress needs to do its job. Fighting Zika costs money. Helping Puerto Rico deal with the Zika crisis costs money. Research into new vaccines, and by the way, NIH just announced the first clinical trials in humans that cost money.
And that's why my administration proposed an urgent request for more funding back in February. Not only did the republican-led Congress not pass our request, they worked to cut it. And then they left for summer recess without passing any new funds for the fight against Zika.
Meanwhile, our experts at the NIH and CDC and the folks on the frontlines have been doing their best in making do by moving funds from other areas. But now the money that we need to fight Zika is rapidly running out. The situation is getting critical.
For instance, without sufficient funding, NIH critical trials -- clinical trials and the possibilities of a vaccine which is well within reach could be delayed.
So, this is not the time for politics. More than 40 U.S. service members have now contracted Zika overseas in 50 U.S. states we know of more than 1800 cases of Zika connected to travel to infected areas and that includes nearly 500 pregnant women.
Zika is now present in almost every part of Puerto Rico. And now we have the first local transmission in Florida. And they were certainly be more.
And meanwhile, Congress is on a summer recess. A lot of folks talk about protecting Americans from threats. Well, Zika is a serious threat to Americans. Especially babies right now.
So, once again, I want to urge the American people to call their members of Congress and tell them do their job. Deal with this threat, help protect the American people from Zika.
With that, I'm going to take some questions and I'm going to start with someone who just assumed the second most powerful office in the land, Jeff Mason, the new Correspondents Association president, also from Reuters. Jeff.
JEFF MASON, REUTERS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hard week. And happy birthday.
OBAMA: Thank you.
MASON: As the Islamic state loses territory, you and other officials have said that it has becoming a more traditional terrorist group. Are you satisfied that the United States and its allies have shifted strategies sufficiently to address that change?
Secondly, given your comments this week about Donald Trump's volatility and lack of fitness to be president are you concerned he will be receiving security briefings about ISIS and other sensitive national security issues?
OBAMA: I'm never satisfied with our response because if you're satisfied that means the problem was solved and it's not. So, we just spent a couple of hours meeting with my top national security folks to look at what more can be done.
It is absolutely necessary for us to defeat the ISIL in Iraq and Syria. It is not sufficient but it is necessary. Because so long as they have those bases they can use their propaganda to suggest that somehow there is still some caliphate being born, and that can insinuate itself then in the minds of folks who may be willing to travel there or carry out terrorist attacks.
It's also destabilizing for countries in the region at a time when the region is already unstable. So, I am pleased with the progress that we've made on the ground in Iraq and Syria. We are far from securing Mosul and Raqqa.
But what we've shown is that when it comes to conventional fights ISIL can be beaten with partners on the ground so long as they've got the support from coalition forces that we've been providing.
In the meantime though, you are seeing ISIL carry out external terrorist acts and they've learned something and they've adapted from Al Qaeda, which at have a much more centralized operation and try to plan very elaborate attacks.
And what ISIL has figured out is that if they can convince a handful of people or even one person to carry out an attack on a subway or at the parade or some other public venue and killed scores of people as opposed to thousands of people it still creates the kinds of fear and concern that elevates their profile.
So, in some ways, rooting out these networks for smaller less complicated attacks is tougher because it doesn't require as many resources on their part or preparation. But it does mean that we've got to do even more to generate the intelligence and to work with our partners in order to degrade those networks.
And the fact is that those networks will probably sustain themselves even after ISIL is defeated in Raqqa and Mosul.
But what we've learned from our efforts to defeat Al Qaeda is that if we stay on it our intelligence gets better. And we adapt as well. And eventually we will dismantle these networks also.
This is part of the reason why our -- it is so important for us to keep our eye on the ball and not panic, not succumb to fear because ISIL can't defeat the United States of America or our NATO partners. We can defeat ourselves though if we make bad decisions.
And we have to understand that as painful and as tragic as these attacks are that we are going to keep on grinding away preventing them wherever we can using a whole government effort to knock down their propaganda, to disrupt their networks to take their key operatives off the battlefield and that eventually we will -- we will win.
But if we -- if we start making bad decisions indiscriminately killing civilians, for example, in some of these areas instituting offensive religious test on who can enter the country, those kinds of strategies can end up backfiring.
Because in order for us to ultimately win this fight, we cannot frame this as a clash of civilizations between the west and Islam. That plays exactly into the hands of ISIL and the perversions, the perverse interpretations of Islam that they're putting forward.
As far as Mr. Trump, we are going to go by the law, which is that in both tradition and the law that if somebody is a nominee the republican nominee for president they need to get security briefings so that if they were to win they are not starting from scratch in terms of being prepared for this office.
And I'm not going to go into details of the nature of the security briefings that both candidates receive. What I will say is that they had been told these are classified briefings.
And if they want to be president they got to start acting like president and that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around. Well, I think I've said enough on that.
Mary Bruce.
MARY BRUCE, ABC NEWS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Mr. President.
What is your response to critics who say the $400 million in cash that you sent to Iran was a ransom payment? Was is really simply a pure coincidence that of some that was a payment that was held up for almost four decades was suddenly sent at the exact same time that the American prisoners were released?
And can you assure the American people that none of that money went to support the terrorists?
OBAMA: OK. The -- it's been interesting to watch the story surface. Some of you may recall we announced these payments in January; many months ago there wasn't a secret. We announce them to all of you.
Josh did a briefing on them that this wasn't some nefarious deal and at the time we explained that Iran had pressed a claim before an international tribunal about them recovering money of theirs that we had frozen, that as a consequence of its working its way through the international tribunal, it was the assessment of our lawyers that we were now at a point where there was significant litigation risk and we could end up costing ourselves billions of dollars.
It was their advice and suggestion that we settle. And that's what these payments represent. And it wasn't a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it's interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again. That's point number one.
Point number two. We do not pay ransom for hostages. We've got a number of Americans being held all around the world and I meet with their families and it's heartbreaking. And we have stood up an entire section of inter- agency experts who devote all of their time to working with these families to get these Americans out.
But those families know that we have a policy that we don't pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now in this high-profile way and announce it to the world even as we are looking into the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage and say to them that we don't pay ransom it defies logic.
So, that's point number two. We do not pay ransom. We didn't here and we don't -- we won't in the future. Precisely because if we did then we would start encouraging Americans to be targeted much in the same way that some countries that due pay ransom end up having a lot more of their citizens being taken by various groups.
Point number three, is that the timing of this was in fact dictated by the fact that as a consequence of us negotiating around the nuclear deal we actually had diplomatic negotiations and conversations with Iran for the first time in several decades.
So, the issue was not so much that it was a coincidence as it is that we were able to have a direct discussion. John Kerry could meet with the foreign minister which meant that our ability to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time converged.
And it was important for us to take advantage of that opportunity both to deal with this litigation risk that have been raised, it was important for us to make sure that we finished the job on the Iran nuclear deal.
And since we were in a conversation with them, it was important for us to be able to push them hard in getting these Americans out.
And let me make a final point on this. It's now been well over a year since the agreement with Iran to stop its nuclear program was signed. And by all accounts it has worked exactly the way we set it was going to work.
You will recall that there were all these horror stories about how Iran was going to cheat and this wasn't going to work and Iran was going to get $150 billion to finance terrorism in all these kinds of scenarios and none of them have come to pass.
It's not just the assessment of our intelligence community; it's the assessment of the Israeli military and intelligence community.
The country that was most opposed to this deal that acknowledges this has been a game changer and that Iran has abided by the deal and they no longer had the sort of short term break out capacity that would allow them to develop nuclear weapons.
So, what I'm interested in is if there's some news to be made why not have some of these folks who were predicting disaster say, you know what? This thing actually worked. Now that would be a shock. That would be impressive.
As some of these folks who had said the sky is falling suddenly said, you know what, we were wrong and we are glad that Iran no longer has the capacity to break out in short-term and develop a nuclear weapon. But of course that wasn't going to happen.
Instead, what we had is the manufacturing of outrage in a story that we disclosed in January. And the only bit of news that is relevant on this is the fact that we paid cash which brings me to my last point.
The reason that we have to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran that we could not send them a check. And we could not wire the money.
And it is not at all clear to me why is it that cash as opposed to a check for a wire transfer has made this into a new story, now maybe because it kind of feels like some a spy novel or some a crime novel because cash was exchanged.
The reason cash was exchanged this because we don't have a bank relationship with Iran, which is precisely part of the pressure that we were able to apply to them so that they would ship a whole bunch of nuclear material out and closed down a bunch of facilities that, as I remember, two years ago or three years ago or five years ago, was people's top fear in priority that we make sure Iran doesn't have the breakout nuclear capacity. They don't. This worked.
Josh. Josh Letterman.
JOSH LETTERMAN, JOURNALIST: Thank you, Mr. President.
Now repeatedly now Donald Trump has said that this election will be rigged against him and challenging really that the core foundation of our democratic system.
Can you promise the American people that this election will be conducted in a fair way and are you worried that comments like his could erode the public's faith in the outcome of the election? And if he does win, given that you've declared him unfit, what will you say to the American people?
OBAMA: Well, at the end of the day it's the American people's decision. I had one vote. I have the same vote that you do, the same vote that all of the voters who are eligible all across the country have.
I've offered my opinion, but ultimately it's the American people's decision to make collectively. And if somebody wins the election and they are president then my constitutional responsibility is to peacefully transfer power to that individual and do everything I can to help them succeed.
It is -- I don't even really know where to start on answering this question. Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean? The federal government doesn't run the election process.
States and cities and communities all across the country they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths. And if Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country including in places like Texas were typically it's not democrats who are in charge of voting booths, that's ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. And I don't think anybody would take that seriously.
Now we do take seriously, as we always do, our responsibilities to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process. If we see signs that a voting machine or system is vulnerable to hacking then we inform those local authorities who are running the elections that they need to be careful.
If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws in terms of equal access and aren't providing ramps for disabled voters or are discriminating in some fashion or otherwise violating civil rights laws than the Justice Department will come in and take care of that.
But this will be an election like every other election. And, you know, I'm -- I think all of us at some point in our lives have played sports or maybe just played in a schoolyard or a sandbox. Sometimes folks if they lose they start complaining that they get cheated.
But I've never heard of somebody complained by being cheated before the game was over. Or before the score is even tallied. So, my suggestion would be, you know, go out there and try to win the election.
If mister Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing then, you know, he can raise some questions. It doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
Barbara Starr.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Mr. President.
On that question of ISIS expansion they've even talking about because you see them expanding around the world, because you see them trying to inspire attacks, what is your current level of concern about the homeland?
You talked about the protection measures, but what is your assessment about the possibility, your own intelligence advisors suggested it's possible about the direct ISIS threat to Americans.
And if I may follow up, somewhere along the same lines, what is your assessment today as you stand here about whether Donald Trump can be trusted with America's nuclear weapons.
OBAMA: You know, on your second question and I will sort of address this to any additional Trump questions. I would ask all of you to just make your own judgment. I've made this point already multiple times. Just listen to what Mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.
STARR: With respect, you're suggesting that you're not confident.
OBAMA: Well, as I recall I just answer the question about this a couple days ago and I thought I made myself pretty clear. And I don't want to just keep on repeating it or a variation on it.
I obviously have a very strong opinion about the two candidates who are running here. One is very positive and one is not so much. And I think you will just hear any further questions that are directed to this subject I think you'll hear pretty much variations on the same thing.
What I can say is this a serious business and the person who is in the Oval Office and who is our secretary of defense and our joint chiefs of staff and our outstanding men and women in uniform report to.
They are counting on somebody who has the temperament and good judgment to be able to make decisions to keep America safe. That should be very much on the minds of voters when they go into the voting booth in November.
In terms of the threat that ISIL poses to the homeland, I think it is serious. We take it seriously. And as I said earlier precisely because they are less concerned about big spectacular 9/11 style attacks.
Because they've seen the degree of attention they can get with smaller scale attacks using small arms or assault rifles or in the case of Nice, France, a truck.
You know, the possibility of either a lone actor or a small cell carrying out an attack that kills people is real. And that's why our intelligence and law enforcement and military officials are working around the clock to try to anticipate potential attacks, to obtain the threads of people who might be vulnerable to brainwashing by ISIL.
That we are constrained here in the United States to carry out this work in a way that's consistent with our laws and presumptions of innocence. And the fact that we prevent a lot of these attacks as effectively as we do without a lot of fanfare and abiding by our law is a testament to the incredible work that these folks are doing.
They work really hard at it. But it is always a risk. And some of you may have read the article in the New York Times today, I guess it came out last night online, about this individual in Germany who have confessed and given himself up and then explained his knowledge of how ISIL's networks work.
There was a paragraph in there that some may have caught which we don't know for a fact that this is true, but according to this reporting the individual indicated that ISIL recognize it's harder to get its operatives into the United States.
But the fact that we have what he referred to as open gun laws meant that anybody as long as they didn't have a criminal record that bar them from purchase could go in and buy weapons that made a homegrown extremist strategy more attractive to them.
And those are the hardest to stop because by definition, if somebody that doesn't have a record, if it's not triggering something it means that anticipating their actions becomes that much more difficult.
And this is why the military strategy that we head in Syria and Iraq is necessary but it is not sufficient. We have to do a better job of disrupting networks and those networks are more active in Europe than they are here but we don't know what we don't know.
And so, it's conceivable that there are some networks here that could be activated. But we also have to get to the messaging that can reach a troubled individual over the internet and do a better job of disrupting that.
And what I've told my team is that although we've we been working on this now for five or six or seven years, we've got to put more resources into it. That this is can't be an afterthought. It's something that we have to really focus on.
This is also why and how we work with the Muslim American community, the values that we affirm about their patriotism and their sacrifice and our fellow feeling with them is so important.
One of the reasons why we don't have networks and cells that are as active here as they are in certain parts of Europe is because the Muslim-American community in this country is extraordinarily patriotic and largely successful, and fights in our military, and serves as our doctors and our nurses and their communities in which they are raising their kids with love of country and the rejection of violence.
And that has to be affirmed consistently. And if we screw that up then we are going to have bigger problems.
Gregory Korte of USA Today.
GREGORY KORTE, USA TODAY WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Yesterday, you commuted the sentences of 214 federal inmates. It was the largest single day grant of commutation in the history of the American president.
So, I want to ask you a couple of questions about your clemency process. One is, you've talked about this as low-level dog offenders who got mandatory minimum sentences. Given the quarter of the commutations that they've been they also have firearms offenses.
Given your overall policy on firearms can you reconcile that for us.
OBAMA: Sure.
KORTE: And given that previously in your presence that you would sent a memo to the office of the department attorney saying there was a sort of pre-disposition against firearms (Inaudible) Why did you change your mind on that?
OBAMA: OK.
KORTE: Also, you got a title (Ph) here is part, you've created more commutations than any president since Calvin Coolidge. You've created fewer pardons than any two-term president since John Adams.
Why is that, is the focus on commutations taking energy away from pardons? Especially since, you know, these are -- you talked about second chances of full pardon would give people a better chance at those circumstances (Ph).
BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: Sure.
KORTE: And finally, just one other thing on pardon. Many of your predecessors in the final days of their presidency have say reserved that for their more politically sensitive pardons. Should we expect you to do that or would you hold that out?
OBAMA: OK. No, no. I appreciate the question, Gregory, I haven't have a chance to talk about this much. And this is an effort that I'm really proud of.
It is my view shared by democrats and republicans alike in many quarters that as successful as we've been in reducing crime in this country the extraordinary rate of incarceration of nonviolent offenders has created its own set of problems that are devastating.
The entire communities have been ravaged where largely men but some women are taken out of those communities. Kids are now growing up without parents. It perpetuates the cycle of poverty and disorder in their lives. It is disproportionately young men of color that are being arrested at higher rates, charged and convicted at higher rates and imprisoned for longer sentences.
So, ultimately, the effects on this is criminal justice reform and I still hold that hope that the bipartisan effort that's taking place in Congress can finish the job.
And we can have a criminal justice system at least at the federal level that is both smart on crime and effective on crime but recognizes the need for proportionality in sentencing and the need to rehabilitate those who commit crimes.
But even as that slow process of criminal justice goes forward, what I want to see is that if we can reinvigorate the pardon process and the communication process that have become stalled over the course of several years.
Partly because it's politically risky. Now you commute somebody and they commit a crime and, you know, the politics of it are tough. And everybody remembers that we're only holding that.
And so, the basis I think of my predecessors and frankly, a number of my advisors early in my presidency said be careful about that.
But I thought it was very important for us to send a clear message that we believe in the principles behind criminal justice reform even if ultimately we need legislation.
So, we had focused more on commutations than we have on pardons. I would argue, Gregory, that by the time I leave office the number of pardons that we grant will be roughly in line with what other presidents have done.
But standing up these commutations process has required a lot of effort a lot of energy and it's not like we got a new slug of money to do it. So, you got limited resources.
The primary job of the Justice Department is to prevent crime and to convict those who have committed crimes and to keep the American people safe.
And that means that you've had this extraordinary and peculiar effort by a lot of people inside the Justice Department to go above and beyond what they're doing to also review these petitions that have been taking place.
And we've been able to get bar organizations around the country to participate to kind of screen and help people apply and, what we've -- that the main criteria that I've tried to set is if under today's laws because there had been changes in how we charge nonviolent drug offenses.
If under today's charges their sentences would be substantially lower than the charges that they received if they got a life sentence. But a U.S. attorney for the Justice Department indicates that today they'd be likely to get 20 years than they register of 25.
Then what we try to do is to scream through and find those individuals who have paid their debt to society that have behaved themselves and tried to reform themselves while incarcerated. Then we think they have a good chance of being able to use that second chance well.
On the firearms issue, what I've done is to try to screen out folks who seem to have a propensity for violence. And so, and these are just hypotheticals but there may be a situation where a kid at 18 was a member of a gang had a firearm did not use it in the offense that he was charged than, there is no evidence that he used it in any violent offense.
It's still a firearms charge in an enhancement but he didn't use it. He is now 48 or 38, 20 years later and has an unblemished prison record, has gone back to school gotten his GED, has gone through drug treatment, has the support of the original a judge that presided in the support of the U.S. attorney that charged him, a support of a warden, has a family that loves him.
