2:45 P.M. EDT
1.
Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Friday. I
thought I’d take some questions, but first, let me say a few words about the
economy. This morning, we learned that our economy
created over 200,000 new jobs in July. That’s on top of about 300,000 new jobs
in June. So we are now in a six-month streak with at least 200,000 new jobs
each month. That's the first time that has happened since 1997. Over the past
year, we’ve added more jobs than any year since 2006. And all told, our
businesses have created 9.9 million new jobs over the past 53 months. That's
the longest streak of private sector job creation in our history. And as
we saw on Wednesday, the economy grew at a strong pace in the spring. Companies
are investing. Consumers are spending. American manufacturing, energy,
technology, autos -- all are booming. And thanks to the
decisions that we’ve made, and the grit and resilience of the American people,
we’ve recovered faster and come farther from the recession than almost any
other advanced country on Earth. So the good news is the economy clearly is
getting stronger. Things are getting better. Our engines are revving a
little bit louder. And the decisions that we make right now can sustain and
keep that growth and momentum going. Unfortunately, there are a series of steps
that we could be taking to maintain momentum, and perhaps even accelerate it;
there are steps that we could be taking that would result in more job growth,
higher wages, higher incomes, more relief for middle-class families. And so
far, at least, in Congress, we have not seen them willing or able to take those
steps. I've been pushing for common-sense ideas like rebuilding our
infrastructure in ways that are sustained over many years and support millions
of good jobs and help businesses compete. I've been advocating on behalf of
raising the minimum wage, making it easier for working folks to pay off their
student loans; fair pay, paid leave. All these policies have two things in
common: All of them would help working families feel more stable and secure,
and all of them so far have been blocked or ignored by Republicans in Congress.
That’s why my administration keeps taking whatever actions we can take on our
own to help working families. Now, it’s good that Congress was able to pass
legislation to strengthen the VA. And I want to thank the chairmen and ranking
members who were involved in that. It's good that Congress was able to at least
fund transportation projects for a few more months before leaving town --
although it falls far short of the kind of infrastructure effort that we need
that would actually accelerate the economy. But for the most part, the
big-ticket items, the things that would really make a difference in the lives
of middle-class families, those things just are not getting done. Let’s just
take a recent example: Immigration. We all agree that there’s a problem that
needs to be solved in a portion of our southern border. And we even agree on
most of the solutions. But instead of working together -- instead of focusing
on the 80 percent where there is agreement between Democrats and Republicans,
between the administration and Congress -- House Republicans, as we speak, are
trying to pass the most extreme and unworkable versions of a bill that they
already know is going nowhere, that can't pass the Senate and that if it were
to pass the Senate I would veto. They know it. They’re not even trying to
actually solve the problem. This is a message bill that they couldn't quite
pull off yesterday, so they made it a little more extreme so maybe they can
pass it today -- just so they can check a box before they’re leaving town for a
month. And this is on an issue that they all insisted had to be a top priority.
Now, our efforts administratively so far have helped to slow the tide of child
migrants trying to come to our country. But without additional resources and
help from Congress, we're just not going to have the resources we need to fully
solve the problem. That means while they’re out on vacation I'm going to have
to make some tough choices to meet the challenge -- with or without Congress.
And yesterday, even though they’ve been sitting on a bipartisan immigration
bill for over a year, House Republicans suggested that since they don't expect
to actually pass a bill that I can sign, that I actually should go ahead and
act on my own to solve the problem. Keep in mind that just a few days earlier,
they voted to sue me for acting on my own. And then when they couldn’t pass a
bill yesterday, they put out a statement suggesting I should act on my own
because they couldn't pass a bill. So immigration has not gotten done. A
student loan bill that would help folks who have student loan debt consolidate
and refinance at lower rates -- that didn’t pass. The transportation bill that
they did pass just gets us through the spring, when we should actually be
planning years in advance. States and businesses are raising the minimum wage
for their workers because this Congress is failing to do so. Even basic things
like approving career diplomats for critical ambassadorial posts aren't getting
done. Last night, for purely political reasons, Senate Republicans, for a
certain period of time, blocked our new ambassador to Russia. It raised such an
uproar that finally they went ahead and let our Russian ambassador pass -- at a
time when we are dealing every day with the crisis in Ukraine. They’re still
blocking our ambassador to Sierra Leone, where there’s currently an Ebola
outbreak. They’re blocking our ambassador to Guatemala, even as they demand that
we do more to stop the flow of unaccompanied children from Guatemala. There are
a lot of things that we could be arguing about on policy -- that's what we
should be doing as a democracy -- but we shouldn’t be having an argument about
placing career diplomats with bipartisan support in countries around the world
where we have to have a presence. So the bottom line is this: We have come a
long way over the last five and a half years. Our challenges are nowhere near
as daunting as they were when I first came into office. But the American people
demand and deserve a strong and focused effort on the part of all of us to keep
moving the country forward and to focus on their concerns. And the fact is we
could be much further along and we could be doing even better, and the economy
could be even stronger, and more jobs could be created if Congress would do the
job that the people sent them here to do. And I will not stop trying to work
with both parties to get things moving faster for middle-class families and those
trying to get into the middle class. When Congress returns next month, my hope
is, is that instead of simply trying to pass partisan message bills on party
lines that don't actually solve problems, they’re going to be willing to come
together to at least focus on some key areas where there’s broad agreement.
After all that we've had to overcome, our Congress should stop standing in the
way of our country’s success. So with that, let me take a couple of questions.
And I will start with Roberta Rampton of Reuters.
2.
Thanks. I want to ask about the situation in the
Middle East. And why do you think Israel should embrace a cease-fire in Gaza
when one of its soldiers appears to have been abducted and when Hamas continues
to use its network of tunnels to launch attacks? And also, have you seen Israel
act at all on your call to do more to protect civilians?
3.
Well, first of all, I
think it's important to note that we have -- and I have -- unequivocally
condemned Hamas and the Palestinian factions that were responsible for killing
two Israeli soldiers and abducting a third almost minutes after a cease-fire
had been announced. And the U.N. has condemned them as well. And I want
to make sure that they are listening: If they are serious about trying to
resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as
soon as possible. I have been very clear throughout this crisis that Israel has
a right to defend itself. No country can tolerate missiles raining down on its
cities and people having to rush to bomb shelters every 20 minutes or half
hour. No country can or would tolerate tunnels being dug under their land that
can be used to launch terrorist attacks. And so, not
only have we been supportive of Israel in its right to defend itself, but in
very concrete terms -- for example, in support for the Iron Dome program that
has intercepted rockets that are firing down on Israeli cities -- we've been
trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that Israel is able to
protect its citizens. Now, at the same time, we've also been clear that
innocent civilians in Gaza caught in the crossfire have to weigh on our
conscience and we have to do more to protect them. A cease-fire was one way in
which we could stop the killing, to step back and to try to resolve some of the
underlying issues that have been building up over quite some time. Israel
committed to that 72-hour cease-fire, and it was violated. And trying to put
that back together is going to be challenging, but we will continue to make
those efforts. And let me take this opportunity, by the way, to give Secretary
John Kerry credit. He has been persistent. He has worked very hard. He has
endured on many occasions really unfair criticism simply to try to get to the
point where the killing stops and the underlying issues about Israel’s security
but also the concerns of Palestinians in Gaza can be addressed. We're going to
keep working towards that. It's going to take some time. I think it's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back
together again if Israelis and the international community can't feel confident
that Hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment. And it's not
particularly relevant whether a particular leader in Hamas ordered this
abduction. The point is, is that when they sign onto a cease-fire they’re
claiming to speak for all the Palestinian factions. And if they don't have
control of them, and just moments after a cease-fire is signed you have Israeli
soldiers being killed and captured, then it's hard for the Israelis to feel
confident that a cease-fire can actually be honored. I'm
in constant consultation with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Our national security
team is in constant communication with the Israel military. I want to see
everything possible done to make sure that Palestinian civilians are not being
killed. And it is heartbreaking to see what’s happening there, and I
think many of us recognize the dilemma we have. On the one hand, Israel has a
right to defend itself and it's got to be able to get at those rockets and
those tunnel networks. On the other hand, because of the incredibly irresponsible
actions on the part of Hamas to oftentimes house these rocket launchers right
in the middle of civilian neighborhoods, we end up seeing people who had
nothing to do with these rockets ending up being hurt. Part of the reason why
we've been pushing so hard for a cease-fire is precisely because it's hard to
reconcile Israel’s legitimate need to defend itself with our concern with those
civilians. And if we can pause the fighting, then it's possible that we may be
able to arrive at a formula that spares lives and also ensures Israel’s
security. But it's difficult. And I don't think we should pretend otherwise.
4.
Bill Plante.
5.
Mr. President, like that cease-fire, you’ve
called for diplomatic solutions not only in Israel and Gaza but also in
Ukraine, in Iraq, to very little effect so far. Has the United States of
America lost its influence in the world? Have you lost yours?
6.
Look, this is a common theme that folks bring
up. Apparently people have forgotten that America, as the most powerful country
on Earth, still does not control everything around the world. And so our
diplomatic efforts often take time. They often will see progress and then a
step backwards. That’s been true in the Middle East. That’s been true in
Europe. That’s been true in Asia. That’s the nature of world affairs. It’s not neat, and it’s not smooth. But if you
look at, for example, Ukraine, we have made progress in delivering on what we
said we would do. We can’t control how Mr. Putin thinks. But what we can do is say to Mr. Putin, if you continue on the
path of arming separatists with heavy armaments that the evidence suggests may
have resulted in 300 innocent people on a jet dying, and that violates
international law and undermines the integrity -- territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Ukraine, then you’re going to face consequences that will hurt
your country. And there was a lot of skepticism about our ability to
coordinate with Europeans for a strong series of sanctions. And each time we
have done what we said we would do, including this week, when we put in place
sanctions that have an impact on key sectors of the Russian economy -- their
energy, their defense, their financial systems. It hasn’t resolved the problem
yet. I spoke to Mr. Putin this morning, and I indicated to him, just as we will
do what we say we do in terms of sanctions, we’ll also do what we say we do in
terms of wanting to resolve this issue diplomatically if he takes a different
position. If he respects and honors the right of Ukrainians to determine their
own destiny, then it’s possible to make sure that Russian interests are
addressed that are legitimate, and that Ukrainians are able to make their own
decisions, and we can resolve this conflict and end some of the bloodshed. But
the point is, though, Bill, that if you look at the 20th century and the early
part of this century, there are a lot of conflicts that America doesn’t
resolve. That’s always been true. That doesn’t mean we stop trying. And it’s not
a measure of American influence on any given day or at any given moment that
there are conflicts around the world that are difficult. The conflict in
Northern Ireland raged for a very, very long time until finally something
broke, where the parties decided that it wasn’t worth killing each other. The
Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been going on even longer than you’ve been
reporting. (Laughter.) And I don’t think at any point was there a suggestion
somehow that America didn’t have influence just because we weren’t able to
finalize an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. You will recall that situations
like Kosovo and Bosnia raged on for quite some time, and there was a lot more
death and bloodshed than there has been so far in the Ukrainian situation before
it ultimately did get resolved. And so I recognize with so many different
issues popping up around the world, sometimes it may seem as if this is an
aberration or it’s unusual. But the truth of the matter is, is that there’s a
big world out there, and that as indispensable as we are to try to lead it,
there’s still going to be tragedies out there and there are going to be
conflicts. And our job is to just make sure that we continue to project what’s
right, what’s just, and that we’re building coalitions of like-minded countries
and partners in order to advance not only our core security interests but also
the interests of the world as a whole.
7.
Do you think you could have done more?
8.
On which one?
9.
On any of them? Ukraine?
10.
Well look, I think, Bill, that the nature of
being President is that you’re always asking yourself what more can you do. But
with respect to, let’s say, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, this administration
invested an enormous amount to try to bring the parties together around a
framework for peace and a two-state solution. John Kerry invested an enormous
amount of time. In the end, it’s up to the two parties to make a decision. We
can lead them to resolve some of the technical issues and to show them a path,
but they’ve got to want it. With respect to Ukraine, I think that we have done
everything that we can to support the Ukrainian government and to deter Russia
from moving further into Ukraine. But short of going to war, there are going to
be some constraints in terms of what we can do if President Putin and Russia
are ignoring what should be their long-term interests. Right now, what we’ve
done is impose sufficient costs on Russia that, objectively speaking, they
should -- President Putin should want to resolve this diplomatically, get these
sanctions lifted, get their economy growing again, and have good relations with
Ukraine. But sometimes people don’t always act rationally, and they don’t
always act based on their medium- or long-term interests. That can’t deter us,
though. We’ve just got to stay at it.
11.
Wendell.
12.
Mr. President, Republicans point to some of your
executive orders as reason, they say, that they can’t trust you to implement
legislation that they pass. Even if you don’t buy that argument, do you hold
yourself totally blameless in the inability it appears to reach agreement with
the Republican-led House?
13.
Wendell, let’s just take the recent example of
immigration. A bipartisan bill passed out of the Senate, co-sponsored by not
just Democrats but some very conservative Republicans who recognize that the
system currently is broken and if, in fact we put more resources on the border,
provide a path in which those undocumented workers who’ve been living here for
a long time and may have ties here are coming out of the shadows, paying their
taxes, paying a fine, learning English -- if we fix the legal immigration
system so it’s more efficient, if we are attracting young people who may have
studied here to stay here and create jobs here, that that all is going to be
good for the economy, it’s going to reduce the deficit, it might have
forestalled some of the problems that we’re seeing now in the Rio Grande Valley
with these unaccompanied children. And so we have a bipartisan bill, Wendell,
bipartisan agreement supported by everybody from labor to the evangelical
community to law enforcement. So the argument isn’t between me and the House
Republicans. It’s between the House Republicans and Senate Republicans, and
House Republicans and the business community, and House Republicans and the evangelical
community. I’m just one of the people they seem to disagree with on this issue.
So that’s on the comprehensive bill. So now we have a short-term crisis with
respect to the Rio Grande Valley. They say we need more resources, we need
tougher border security in this area where these unaccompanied children are
showing up. We agree. So we put forward a supplemental to give us the
additional resources and funding to do exactly what they say we should be
doing, and they can’t pass the bill. They can’t even pass their own version of
the bill. So that’s not a disagreement between me and the House Republicans;
that’s a disagreement between the House Republicans and the House Republicans.
The point is that on a range of these issues, whether it’s tax reform, whether
it’s reducing the deficit, whether it’s rebuilding our infrastructure, we have
consistently put forward proposals that in previous years and previous
administrations would not have been considered radical or left wing; they would
have been considered pretty sensible, mainstream approaches to solving
problems. I include under that, by the way, the Affordable Care Act. That’s a
whole other conversation. And in circumstances where even basic, common-sense,
plain, vanilla legislation can’t pass because House Republicans consider it
somehow a compromise of their principles, or giving Obama a victory, then we’ve
got to take action. Otherwise, we’re not going to be making progress on the
things that the American people care about.
14.
On the border supplemental -- can you act alone?
15.
Well, I’m going to have to act alone because we
don’t have enough resources. We’ve already been very clear -- we’ve run out of
money. And we are going to have to reallocate resources in order to just make
sure that some of the basic functions that have to take place down there --
whether it’s making sure that these children are properly housed, or making
sure we’ve got enough immigration judges to process their cases -- that those
things get done. We’re going to have to reallocate some resources. But the
broader point, Wendell, is that if, in fact, House Republicans are concerned
about me acting independently of Congress -- despite the fact that I’ve taken
fewer executive actions than my Republican predecessor or my Democratic
predecessor before that, or the Republican predecessor before that -- then the
easiest way to solve it is passing legislation. Get things done. On the
supplemental, we agreed on 80 percent of the issues. There were 20 percent of
the issues that perhaps there were disagreements between Democrats and
Republicans. As I said to one Republican colleague who was down here that I was
briefing about some national security issues, why wouldn’t we just go ahead and
pass the 80 percent that we agree on and we’ll try to work to resolve the
differences on the other 20 percent? Why wouldn’t we do that? And he didn't
really have a good answer for it. So there’s no doubt that I can always do
better on everything, including making additional calls to Speaker Boehner, and
having more conversations with some of the House Republican leadership. But in
the end, the challenge I have right now is that they are not able to act even
on what they say their priorities are, and they're not able to work and
compromise even with Senate Republicans on certain issues. And they consider
what have been traditionally Republican-supported initiatives, they consider
those as somehow a betrayal of the cause. Take the example of the Export-Import
Bank. This is an interesting thing that's happened. This
is a program in which we help to provide financing to sell American goods and
products around the world. Every country does this. It’s traditionally been
championed by Republicans. For some reason, right now the House Republicans
have decided that we shouldn’t do this -- which means that when American
companies go overseas and they're trying to close a sale on selling Boeing
planes, for example, or a GE turbine, or some other American product, that has
all kinds of subcontractors behind it and is creating all kinds of jobs, and
all sorts of small businesses depend on that sale, and that American company is
going up against a German company or a Chinese company, and the Chinese and the
German company are providing financing and the American company isn’t, we may lose
that sale. When did that become something that Republicans opposed? It
would be like me having a car dealership for Ford, and the Toyota dealership
offers somebody financing and I don't. We will lose business and we’ll lose
jobs if we don’t pass it. So there’s some big issues where I understand why we
have differences. On taxes, Republicans want to maintain some corporate
loopholes I think need to be closed because I think that we should be giving
tax breaks to families that are struggling with child care or trying to save
for a college education. On health care, obviously their view is, is that we
should not be helping folks get health care, even though it’s through the
private marketplace. My view is, is that in a country as wealthy as ours, we
can afford to make sure that everybody has access to affordable care. Those are
legitimate policy arguments. But getting our ambassadors confirmed? These are
career diplomats, not political types. Making sure that we pass legislation to
strengthen our borders and put more folks down there? Those shouldn’t be
controversial. And I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an example of where I
wouldn’t welcome some reasonable efforts to actually get a bill passed out of
Congress that I could sign. Last question, Michelle Kosinski.
16.
You made the point that in certain difficult
conflicts in the past, both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of
the bloodshed. Do you think that we are actually far from that point right now?
And is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there are
still tunnel operations allowed to continue? Is that going to cause a change of
approach from this point forward?
17.
Well, keep in mind that the cease-fire that had
been agreed to would have given Israel the capability to continue to dismantle
these tunnel networks, but the Israelis can dismantle these tunnel networks
without going into major population centers in Gaza. So I think the Israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to
be dismantled. There is a way of doing that while still reducing the
bloodshed. You are right that in past conflicts, sometimes people have to feel
deeply the costs. Anybody who has been watching some of these images I’d like
to think should recognize the costs. You have children who are getting killed.
You have women, defenseless, who are getting killed. You have Israelis whose
lives are disrupted constantly and living in fear. And those are costs that are
avoidable if we’re able to get a cease-fire that preserves Israel’s ability to defend
itself and gives it the capacity to have an assurance that they’re not going to
be constantly threatened by rocket fire in the future, and, conversely, an
agreement that recognizes the Palestinian need to be able to make a living and
the average Palestinian’s capacity to live a decent life. But it’s hard. It’s
going to be hard to get there. I think that there’s a lot of anger and there’s
a lot of despair, and that’s a volatile mix. But we have to keep trying. And it
is -- Bill asked earlier about American leadership. Part of the reason why America
remains indispensable, part of the essential ingredient in American leadership
is that we’re willing to plunge in and try, where other countries don’t bother
trying. I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that in all these
crises that have been mentioned, there may be some tangential risks to the
United States. In some cases, as in Iraq and ISIS, those are dangers that have
to be addressed right now, and we have to take them very seriously. But for the
most part, these are not -- the rockets aren’t being fired into the United
States. The reason we are concerned is because we recognize we’ve got some
special responsibilities. We have to have some humility about what we can and
can’t accomplish. We have to recognize that our resources are finite, and we’re
coming out of a decade of war and our military has been stretched very hard, as
has our budget. Nevertheless, we try. We go in there and we make an effort. And
when I see John Kerry going out there and trying to broker a cease-fire, we
should all be supporting him. There shouldn’t be a bunch of complaints and
second-guessing about, well, it hasn’t happened yet, or nitpicking before he’s
had a chance to complete his efforts. Because, I tell you what, there isn’t any
other country that’s going in there and making those efforts. And more often
than not, as a consequence of our involvement, we get better outcomes -- not
perfect outcomes, not immediate outcomes, but we get better outcomes. And
that’s going to be true with respect to the Middle East. That’s going to be
true with respect to Ukraine. That’s going to be certainly true with respect to
Iraq. And I think it’s useful for me to end by just reminding folks that, in my
first term, if I had a press conference like this, typically, everybody would
want to ask about the economy and how come jobs weren’t being created, and how
come the housing market is still bad, and why isn’t it working. Well, you know
what, what we did worked. And the economy is better. And when I say that we’ve
just had six months of more than 200,000 jobs that hasn’t happened in 17 years
that shows you the power of persistence. It shows you that if you stay at it,
eventually we make some progress. All right?
18.
What about John Brennan?
19.
The Africa summit -- Ebola?
20.
I thought that you guys were going to ask me how
I was going to spend my birthday. What happened to the happy birthday thing?
21.
Happy birthday.
22.
What about John Brennan?
23.
Africa summit?
24.
THE PRESIDENT: I will address two points. I’ll
address –
25.
And Flight 17?
26.
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on, guys. Come on. There’s
just –
27.
And Africa.
28.
THE PRESIDENT: You're not that pent up. I’ve
been giving you questions lately. On Brennan and the CIA, the RDI report has
been transmitted, the declassified version that will be released at the
pleasure of the Senate committee. I have full confidence in John Brennan. I
think he has acknowledged and directly apologized to Senator Feinstein that CIA
personnel did not properly handle an investigation as to how certain documents
that were not authorized to be released to the Senate staff got somehow into
the hands of the Senate staff. And it’s clear from the IG report that some very
poor judgment was shown in terms of how that was handled. Keep in mind, though,
that John Brennan was the person who called for the IG report, and he’s already
stood up a task force to make sure that lessons are learned and mistakes are
resolved. With respect to the larger point of the RDI report itself, even
before I came into office I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of
9/11 we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were
right, but we tortured some folks. We did some
things that were contrary to our values. I understand why it happened. I think
it’s important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the
Twin Towers fell and the Pentagon had been hit and the plane in Pennsylvania
had fallen, and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent, and
there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security
teams to try to deal with this. And it’s important for us not to feel too
sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. And a lot
of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots.
But
having said all that, we did some things that were wrong. And that's what that
report reflects. And that's the reason why, after I took office, one of
the first things I did was to ban some of the extraordinary interrogation
techniques that are the subject of that report. And my hope is, is that this
report reminds us once again that the character of our country has to be
measured in part not by what we do when things are easy, but what we do when
things are hard. And when we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation
techniques, techniques that I believe and I think any fair-minded person would
believe were torture, we crossed a line. And that needs to be -- that needs to
be understood and accepted. And we have to, as a country, take responsibility
for that so that, hopefully, we don't do it again in the future.
29.
Mr. President –
30.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, I gave you a question.
31.
All right.
32.
The summit -- the U.S.-Africa –
33.
THE PRESIDENT: We’ve got a U.S.-Africa Summit
coming up next week. It is going to be an unprecedented gathering of African
leaders. The importance of this for America needs to be understood. Africa is
one of the fastest-growing continents in the world. You’ve got six of the 10
fastest-growing economies in Africa. You have all sorts of other countries like
China and Brazil and India deeply interested in working with Africa -- not to
extract natural resources alone, which traditionally has been the relationship
between Africa and the rest of the world -- but now because Africa is growing and
you’ve got thriving markets and you’ve got entrepreneurs and extraordinary
talent among the people there. And Africa also happens to be one of the
continents where America is most popular and people feel a real affinity for
our way of life. And we’ve made enormous progress over the last several years
in not just providing traditional aid to Africa, helping countries that are
suffering from malnutrition or helping countries that are suffering from AIDS,
but rather partnering and thinking about how can we trade more and how can we
do business together. And that’s the kind of relationship that Africa is
looking for. And I’ve had conversations over the last
several months with U.S. businesses -- some of the biggest U.S. businesses in
the world -- and they say, Africa, that’s one of our top priorities; we want to
do business with those folks, and we think that we can create U.S. jobs and
send U.S. exports to Africa. But we’ve got to be engaged, and so this
gives us a chance to do that. It also gives us a chance to talk to Africa about
security issues -- because, as we’ve seen, terrorist networks try to find
places where governance is weak and security structures are weak. And if we
want to keep ourselves safe over the long term, then one of the things that we can
do is make sure that we are partnering with some countries that really have
pretty effective security forces and have been deploying themselves in
peacekeeping and conflict resolution efforts in Africa. And that, ultimately,
can save us and our troops and our military a lot of money if we’ve got strong
partners who are able to deal with conflicts in these regions. So it’s going to
be a terrific conference. I won’t lie to you, traffic will be bad here in
Washington. (Laughter.) I know that everybody has been warned about that, but
we are really looking forward to this and I think it’s going to be a great
success. Now, the last thing I’m going to say about this, because I know that
it’s been on people’s minds, is the issue of Ebola. This is something that we
take very seriously. As soon as there’s an outbreak anywhere in the world of
any disease that could have significant effects, the CDC is in communication
with the World Health Organization and other multilateral agencies to try to
make sure that we’ve got an appropriate response. This has been a more
aggressive Ebola outbreak than we’ve seen in the past. But keep in mind that it
is still affecting parts of three countries, and we’ve got some 50 countries
represented at this summit. We are doing two things with respect to the summit
itself. We’re taking the appropriate precautions. Folks who are coming from
these countries that have even a marginal risk or an infinitesimal risk of
having been exposed in some fashion, we’re making sure we’re doing screening on
that end -- as they leave the country. We’ll do additional screening when
they’re here. We feel confident that the procedures that we’ve put in place are
appropriate. More broadly, the CDC and our various health agencies are going to
be working very intently with the World Health Organization and some of our
partner countries to make sure that we can surge some resources down there and
organization to these countries that are pretty poor and don’t have a strong
public health infrastructure so that we can start containing the problem. Keep
in mind that Ebola is not something that is easily transmitted. That’s why,
generally, outbreaks dissipate. But the key is identifying, quarantining,
isolating those who contract it and making sure that practices are in place
that avoid transmission. And it can be done, but it’s got to be done in an
organized, systematic way, and that means that we’re going to have to help
these countries accomplish that. All right? Okay.
34.
Happy Birthday, Mr. President.
35.
THE PRESIDENT: There
you go, April. (Laughter.) That’s what I was talking about -- somebody
finally wished me happy birthday -- although it isn’t until Monday, you’re
right. Thank you so much.
END
3:34 P.M. EDT
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