good afternoon the images from the Honorable Kerry ceremony at Joint Base
pearl harbor this month made us all proud to be Americans President Trump is
committed to getting the almost 8,000 left behind from the Korean War home and
bringing closure to the families who have been waiting for more than 60 years
the process of identifying and verifying the remains is challenging but one that
this administration is committed to overseeing this process its Kelley mikeg
the director of Defense for powa MI a accounting agency leading DoD's
worldwide operation of research investigation recovery and
identification and supporting functions director mikeg strives to provide the
fullest possible accounting of our missing personnel the director along
with his colleagues dr. John bird the defense Pio w in MI accounting agency
laboratory director and dr. Timothy McMahon director of DoD DNA operations
have joined us today to offer remarks and take their questions on this topic
after this I'll be back up to address other questions and news today ladies
and gentlemen good afternoon the August 1st repatriation and homecoming in
Hawaii of the remains of the Korean War unaccounted for was a poignant
manifestation of the commitment secured by President Trump and pledged by
Chairman Kim at the Singapore summit for the families of the 7700 still
unaccounted for from the Korean War this first step in fulfilling this commitment
has undoubtedly provided a seed of hope last week over 700 of these family
members gathered in Arlington Virginia to receive government updates and they
were resoundingly appreciative of the successful advocacy of the president and
his administration two of those family members who attended Charles and Larry
McDaniel were the recipients of the dogtag their father Master Sergeant
Charles McDaniel of Indiana it was a sole personal effect
by the North Koreans the remains of those 55 cases are well into the
painstaking multifaceted analyses by dr. John bird and his forensic science team
in Hawaii and in the coming weeks dr. Tim McMahon and his dedicated DNA
specialists in Delaware will begin their meticulous testing the mettle of our
scientists and the capabilities of our labs will be challenged but in the
months and years ahead they will make identification from these
remains and give families long sought answers we are guardedly optimistic the
one august repatriation is the first tangible action of others which with
with which we will be able to account for more of our missing from the korean
war the second aspect of the korean of the singapore commitment was the
recovery of remains in North Korea which DPRK officials reaffirmed last month we
are in the midst of exploring next steps as well as discussions with the Korean
People's Army for the express purpose of resuming joint field operations and
having additional repatriations but our mission to search for find an account
for missing Department of Defense personnel from World War two through
Operation Iraqi Freedom is one not limited to the Korean Peninsula today
186 personnel from DPA and private partners are deployed in seven nations
and yesterday 50 of those members returned from Laos and the Philippines
our global mission is humanitarian in every respect because the impact of a
missing American to their family is not constrained by time or generations and
it leaves an enduring pain and void this is why former enemies like Vietnam use
cooperation on the PIO wmia mission as a bridge to normalization and today's
thriving bilateral relationship with the United States the fact that the United
States of America vigorously pursues the fullest possible accounting of our
missing reflects our values as a nation the sacred obligation if not moral
imperative remains a high priority for the Department of Defense
inherent to the exceptional teamwork resources and resoluteness provided by
multiple agencies is a solemn vow that those who were sent off in harm's way
and are missing will not be forgotten and their families will receive answers
to their decades of uncertainty my colleagues and I welcome your questions
gentlemen I was with President Clinton in 2000 when he went to a place in
Vietnam north of Hanoi where one of these recovery efforts were under
underway so I some familiarity with this even there when things are discovered it
takes a long time to establish the trail forensics a I'd like to ask you both
what condition are the remains or the parts of remains you've received so far
and how challenging will the forensic work be ahead of you a long long way or
with what you received something to get you close to identifying and confirming
we we would characterize the preservation of the remains as moderate
to poor as a general consideration however what our lab specializes in is
making identifications in circumstances where you have very little to work with
and so I'm confident that we're going to do well with the remains in these 55
boxes over the coming months and and maybe the next several years when you
look at what's at stake we're going to be doing a lot of DNA sampling and
that's what dr. McMahon's lab does is they process the samples and then they
go into a mass database where they can be compared to all of the other samples
that we've generated from remains from North Korea and also compared to the
family members and so it takes some time to get the samples process through the
lab at athletes takes some time to get them into the mask comparison but once
they're in there we'll start looking for the the quick identifications that can
be made where you have compelling matches that showed themselves early on
we also look for comparisons to dental records that can
be distinctive we look for individuals that are unusual in the sense of being
very tall very short very old anything that distinguishes somebody we can
usually get a good clue and identify them faster but because of the
preservation of the remains that will just sort of guide the kinds of methods
that we can bring to bear on the case and and the case will be very DNA our
very DNA intensive in terms of the way that we're going to go about this what
does that number represent lives individual no it's the number of boxes
that the remains came in and at no time did did we expect there to be one body
one box nor did the North Koreans try to pitch it that way to us when we were in
one we have a high confidence so in the early 90s for five years the North
Koreans would reap a treat unilaterally remains that they had recovered out of
those 208 boxes over those five years we estimated after DNA sampling 400
individuals now from that 200 were Americans so the likelihood is you're
correct there may be some of un sending forces there may be some South Korean
soldiers remains as well as Chinese and North Korean what our laboratories both
DNA and the forensic laboratory have the technology and the capabilities by which
to differentiate those remains over the course of the next several years I think
you mentioned you're in some discussions with the north
about potential future actions maybe to search for more remains and joint
efforts as such I think the Pentagon and the Secretary Madison mentioned that
what if I find if I'm to understand right the Bush administration ended the
program in which the US officials would be helping search for the remains in
part because of security concerns our own forces there
can you describe kind of what you're looking for from the north that could
resume those kind of operation join operations and you know what steps you
need to talk those who are there may be so for ten years we operated between
1996 and 2005 over time collect conducting 33 joint activities with the
North Koreans security is primarily our responsibility for our personnel we also
pay attention to communications having communications abilities as well as
having an ability to medevac our personnel should they get hurt what we
would be looking for from the North Koreans is again a commitment from them
that communications medical evacuation requirements can be met and more
importantly that we can conduct these joint operations in a collaborative way
as we had done for 10 years it all comes down back into 2005 to their behavior on
the international stage the president rightfully so was concerned that their
nuclear activities their missile activities were countermanding and
counterproductive to our joint operations which is why we suspended
talks that are going on or is it specifics about being in the field that
you're really looking at both so secretary Pompeo and getting a
reaffirmation from the North Koreans last month affirm that they do want to
establish communications with us and to conduct joint operations we have not
started those negotiations we will do so it is on a separate track however as you
well pointed out it could be drawn into the greater geopolitical stream but for
now we're treating it as a military-to-military contact but more
importantly as a humanitarian endeavor that's separate and distinct from
anything else and by the way the 45 countries that we work with
all right felices as a humanitarian endeavor including countries like Russia
and China where we have a tremendous cooperation with them the recent death
of former congressman bill hinden of North Carolina brought back a lot of the
rehashing of serious charges he made that those were in Vietnam either as
prisoners or dead were not fully accounted for has the book finally been
closed on those Americans who served in Vietnam and were prisoners of war it has
so right now there are close to 1,700 1,600 that are remain missing and
unaccounted for within that set of unaccounted for is what we call last
known alive it's a small subset of individuals who for whatever reason
we're seen alive that's a certain point during the war and we remained
unaccounted for our priority with the Vietnamese is to get at that subset
small subset I think it's down to 25 not necessarily prisoners of war but again
last known alive at the time that they were seen
of the remains in the 55 boxes can we confirm for a fact that all of them are
human remains or are we still questioning that yes we we did a cursory
inspection of the remains and once on before we loaded them on to our military
aircraft just to ensure that at least some of what was in each box was human
when we got to asan in South Korea we spent two days going through every box
in detail conducting what we call a field forensic review purpose of that
review is to ensure that every item is consistent with being human and if there
were any animal remains we would have cold them out at that point as it was we
did not find any animal remains do we have any idea how many people that we're
looking at yeah no we don't you know there is a scientific process to
estimate that and I wish it were very fast because I think a lot of people
would really like to know the families would love to know that information but
unfortunately it's going to take months of analysis to start to get a refined
estimate do you have timeline
can you characterize what it has been like to work with
a particular part of this process have they been working with
okay so the the first question is mr. mikeg mentioned we're in the process of
planning next steps so we can't say we have any timeline today for bringing
back more remains we're hopeful that we will be in the not-too-distant future I
will say though in terms of having worked there I worked there in the past
during the 1996 to 2005 years I spent a lot of time in the field there and then
I went into once on with our team on July 27th and there was a very different
feel to it this time it was a a much more friendly welcoming and collegial
approach this time compared to the way it used to be looking ahead to next week
ambassador Bolton will meet with officials in Israel and Ukraine as well
as with his Russian counterpart in Geneva as a follow-up to the Helsinki
summit to discuss a range of important national security issues lastly we
extend our prayers to the families of those injured and deceased after the
tragic bridge collapse in Genoa Italy as well as to the victims of this morning's
attack in London the president condemns this horrible attack on innocent
civilians instead is ready to provide assistance to the United Kingdom and
with that I'll take your questions Jonathan from the president via Twitter
on Omarosa describing her as crazed a crying
lowlife a dog is this any way for a president to talk about any American let
alone somebody that he hired and made the highest-ranking african-american
in his white house I think the president is certainly voicing his frustration
with the fact that this person has shown a complete lack of integrity
particularly by the actions following her time here at the White House the
president wanted to give her a chance and he made clear when General Kelly
came on and he voiced concerns that this individual what didn't have the best
interest of the White House and the president in the country at heart
the president said do what you can to get along and if you can't he gave him
full authority to carry out the decision to let her go look I think he's made
again the frustrations III think all not only those of us here in the White House
but frankly I think most of America would be happy to ignore it
unfortunately the individuals in this room continue to create a large platform
for somebody they know not to have a lot of credibility for someone they frankly
refuse to give a platform to when they worked here at the White House it wasn't
until this individual started to negatively attack this president in this
administration and try to tear this entire place down that she received the
type of platform and rollout that she's getting I think it would be great if
every single person in this room and every single person in the
administration never had to talk about this again and we actually got to focus
on the real policies and the real things that not matter just to people in this
building but certainly all Americans african-americans Hispanics and
everybody in between I think that would be the best thing that we could
certainly do for our country Jill
see his attacks on Omarosa as part of a pattern of insulting prominent African
Americans people he's taken four decides recently improved on lemon Mexican water
is his claim that football players protesting racial injustice don't know
their protests look the president this has absolutely nothing to do with race
and everything to do with the president calling out someone's lack of integrity
the idea that you would only point a few of the things that the president has
said negative about people that are minorities the fact is the president's
an equal-opportunity person that calls things like he sees it he always fights
fire with fire and he certainly doesn't hold back on doing that across the board
I'm not gonna get into the back-and-forth on who has signed an NDA
here at the White House I can tell you that it's common in a lot of places for
employees to sign NDA's including in government particularly anyone with a
security clearance John may have to be happy to go by any of that means he gets
to take your question but um the president said he kept tourists on
despite complaints from my colleagues because she was personally supported by
then sorry are you he said he kept her on despite complaints about her behavior
because she was personally supportive of Hammonds
nice things about him is that true any other officials that are working in this
White House right now I'm not aware of them Jessica since you
don't want to talk about it tomorrow I have a bunch on Turkey that hopefully
you want make the period oh I don't know we'll do our best
you have a reaction to president hairdo on calling for a ban on u.s. electronics
like iPhones and what the president encouraged a similar ban on Turkish
products by her I certainly don't have a policy announcement on that front at
this point sort of the same thing there was a report from our colleague of
Reuters that the u.s. is a warning turkey of increased pressure so on any
details on how that was conveyed what additional steps might look like and the
US would take additional steps before that you're in for the detained American
pastor on my token law how the information from Turkey was received or
how the information from the United States to Turkey we can tell you that at
the Turkish ambassadors requests as you know Ambassador John Bolton
met with the ambassador of Turkey yesterday here at the White House and
continue to raise and point out the concerns that we have one last one the
president encouraged Israel's government to release a Turkish citizen in July and
today this frustration with apparent anomaly
sameness American past certainly the president has a great deal of
frustration on the fact that pastor Brunson has not been released as well as
the fact that other US citizens and employees of diplomatic facilities have
not been released and we're going to continue to call on Turkey to do the
right thing and release those individuals sugar does the President or
this White House believe that it is a violation of Department of Justice
protocol if the special counsels investigation goes beyond September
first I'm not going to say that we would say necessarily a specific violation but
I think we've been very clear that not only do we but all of the American
people want this to wrap up John thank you Sarah two questions on Turkey as the
relationship between the president and President Erdogan grows peripheries my
question very simply is are we going to see the restoration of the readouts of
honey halls between the president and other world leaders that was terminated
on the day after president Erdogan's election and although we know that he
are the president made a congratulatory call to him there's been no readout
sense is that going to be restored certainly we'll continue to keep you all
posted not just on calls with Turkey but other hit up state calls as well and
provide readouts when we have them date first and the speak has been on a
surprise offensive that have killed about a hundred Afghan
security forces a couple dozen and civilians as far as we know the
president was visiting with the 10th 10th Mountain Division yesterday at Fort
Drum they've served in Afghanistan does this new offensive as he still
committed to his strategy that he outlined a year ago for Afghanistan or
is this new offensive give them the idea that maybe a different approach it might
be needed certainly no announcements or changes in
policy from the president's rollout last August the president addressed that
question directly via Twitter I'd refer you back to him I can certainly say I've
never heard him use that term or anything similar
you asked the president I didn't have to because he addressed it to the American
people all at one time you asked him direct again the president
answered that question directly on Twitter earlier today I can't guarantee
anything but I can tell you that the president addressed this question
directly I can tell you that I've never heard it I can also tell you that if
myself or the people that are in this building serving this country every
single day doing our very best to help people all across this country and make
it better if at any point we felt that the president was who some of his
critics claimed him to be we certainly wouldn't be here this is a president who
is fighting for all Americans who is putting policies in place that help all
Americans particularly African Americans just look at the economy alone this
president since he took office in the year and a half that he's been here has
created 700 thousand new jobs for African Americans that's 700,000 African
Americans that are working now that weren't working when this President took
place when President Obama left after eight years in office eight years in
office he had only created 800 or 195,000 jobs for African Americans
President Trump in his first year and a half has already tripled what President
Obama did in eight years not only did he do that
for african-americans but for Hispanics 1.7 million more Hispanics are working
now this is a president who cares about all Americans who is committed to
helping them and is putting policies in place that actually do that Kevin
started Kristin I'm gonna go ahead a Kevin coming away go ahead just to be
clear you can't guarantee it look I haven't been in every single room I can
tell you the president has addressed this directly he's arrested directly to
the American people and I can tell you what the focus and the part of the
president is and that's on helping all Americans and certainly this is somebody
who has been in business for decades and you're just now hearing some of these
outrageous accusations after the fact he's dealt with people all over the
world it wasn't until he became a candidate for president that you started
to hear some of these salacious and ridiculous claims and certainly I think
if you look at the actions that this president has taken certainly the
policies that he's enacted you can see the heart of who he is and you can see
exactly what he has done and the type of president person he is Kevin if you
Sarah just a very quick one on something that palmarosa said today she called the
president unfit mentally unfit for the office as someone who worked with her
how surprised are you at the the level of her animus toward this president
toward this White House and if I could father I'm certainly I think like most
people that worked with her very disappointed that she would go to such a
self-serving and somebody who blatantly cares more about herself than our
country to make up some of these outrageous claims and accusations look
she worked here for a year and it didn't have any of these things to say in fact
everything she said was quite the opposite and not just the year that she
worked here but the time that she spent on the campaign trail and I think it's
really sad what she's doing at this point very quickly I wanted to ask you
just very briefly we read earlier this afternoon that the Trump campaign
has made an arbitration action against omorosa
and I'm just curious and I know there's separate entities but is it likely that
the White House is considering pursuing something in the way of possible action
toward Omarosa for violating it I certainly wouldn't go on to comment on
any potential ongoing legal matter major moment ago you said one of the motives
from roast was to tear this entire place down what do you mean by that and do you
have or others here have ongoing concerns that while she was here she
taped other conversations that could either be damaging to the reputation
this White House or relevant or is something you'd rather keep right I
think the greatest concern we have is the lack of integrity that this
individual has shown I think Sarah she played a tape recording of a
conversation with the president you have any doubt that that is an authentic
conversation that she had with the president I don't the president said he
was unaware in that conversation is that was that a truthful representation of
what he knew at the time what was he just trying to make all neurosis feel
that as I said moments ago the president had had a direct conversation with
general Kelly asked him to try to work things out if it didn't he gave general
Kelly the full authority to make decisions about hiring and firing
including with respect to Omarosa because he knew what would have happened
he knew he'd approve on the timing I think is he knew that it was certainly a
possibility but as to the fact whether or not general Kelly had called the
president I don't think he had at that point we've heard the president declare
that the so-called Islamic state terror group has been
practically vanquished you know especially in Iraq and Syria
well the Defense Department yesterday lead Inspector General for operation
inherent resolve in fact says that their forces are estimated to be anywhere
between twenty eight thousand six hundred and thirty one thousand six
hundred fighters which would be about the number that they had at their peak
so has Isis been practically backpack certainly we know that the Caliphate has
been practically destroyed certainly there are continued to be Isis fighters
and that's why we continue to take all of those threats seriously and look for
ways every single day to defeat them and protect American people and our allies
to the question again I get that you can cite things statistics that might be
positive statistics for policies the president has done he's V other
minorities what do you say to people who look at the pattern of comments that the
president has made specifically about African Americans and feel like he is
singling those folks out because of their race are they are they missing
something are they deluding themselves what what do you say to them because
there are lots of people out there who look at the pattern and say yes he's he
says negative things about a lot of people but there seems to be a
particular pattern of singling out African Americans and commenting in
particular about their their intelligence or lack thereof and their
looks I certainly don't think so I think as I said that the president has said
similar things about a number of individuals certainly that are not
African American or any other minority I can simply talk to you about the
policies and the person that the president is I think if again the person
that a lot of his critics say he is certainly wouldn't have been in business
with him for decades certainly he wouldn't have had Bill and Hillary
Clinton they attended his wedding a number of Democrats begged him for
campaign contributions I mean if they were who he said he was why did they
have these relationships with him I think it is very convenient that these
accusations started the president became someone running for
office he has shown time and time again through his actions through his policies
that he wants to be a president for all Americans that he wants to do everything
he can to make America better and not just for a certain group of people but
for everybody I think that he has made a number of comments about plenty of
people and to try to single that out to one group is frankly silly because I
think if you did a comparison he's probably got a lot more nasty things out
there about some other people I'm sorry do you think that I mean the president
is somebody who's always gonna fight fire with fire
this is something that isn't new and it's something the American people knew
when they voted for him and they overwhelmingly elected him to be the
president of the United States and since he took office he has governed in a way
that is helping all Americans frankly if we want to look at who's creating
divisions in the country I think the media has done more to divide this
country certainly far more than this president ever has by elevating people
like the author of this book by focusing on a sparsely attended rally instead of
all of the policies that this administration and that this president
are enacting that are helping people not just on the economy but on school choice
on prison reform that's disproportionately affected African
Americans and Hispanics this is a president who is governing to help all
Americans and I think we'd all be better off if the media gave that just a little
bit more attention John Robin thanks a lot Sarah you expressed how you feel
about Amoroso since the publication of this book how was she you
by fellow staff members here at the White House while she worked here what
she did she pull her own weight which include is untrustworthy did you trust
her I'm just trying to get a sense about whether your view of her has changed
with the publication of this book certainly I've expressed some
disappointment I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth on personal feelings
that I have with a former colleague I think that the focus not only of my time
here but of this administration is looking forward and how we can actually
implement policies that matter to the American people not who like to in the
building behind me Brian when the first time the moment investigation indicted
some Russians this administration sanctioned those Russians the twelve
that were recently indicted twelve Russian nationals
does this administration plan to also level sanctions against them I don't
have any announcements all right what quick follow-up you said you would like
everyone to stop talking about this particular subject including the
administration so are you saying you would like the President to stop
tweeting about Omarosa I think if the media continues to give
it wall-to-wall coverage the administration in some cases will be
forced to respond but I think it would be better off for all of us to walk away
and focus on some things that matter
salanas professional secretary max he's in Brazil right now and visiting all
their concerts in South America and how much this his trip has to do with
countering the growing presence of China in the region certainly we have a lot of
shared values with the countries that he's visiting we would always like to be
the priority partner for those countries and we hope that those relationships
will continue to bail up and we'll keep you posted if he has any updates from
the truth last questions Steven bearing in mind
that the Trump campaigns announcement that it's pursuing arbitration
necessitates attention can we talk and it can actually wants more about the
practice of assigning people to non-disclosure agreements because all
right let me ask you what it says about the expressions of loyalty or lack
thereof the people who worked on that wall why do people need to be
contractually obligated to forever after in perpetuity never say anything
negative about the president any member of his family any product they should
produce why is that necessary again it's common in a lot of protect
the corporate interests what what's the particulars also despite contrary
opinion it's actually very normal and every administration prior to the Trump
administration has had in DA's particularly specific for anyone that
had a security clearance this White House is
treating someone like Omarosa silent because right now what with the Trump
campaign is doing is he's forcing her essentially to defend herself and
potentially even pay damages why is that necessary that's a question you would
have to ask the Trump campaign it's certainly not a question that I could
answer as somebody that's an official government capacity
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