Washington DC - 23 January 2018
1. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders walks in to press briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"I'd like to leave no doubt, no doubt where the White House stands on the Flake, Graham and Durbin agreement on immigration reform. In a bipartisan meeting here at the White House two weeks ago, we outlined a path forward on four issues, serious border security an end to chain migration, the cancellation of the outdated and unsafe visa lottery and a permanent solution to DACA. Unfortunately, the Flake, Graham, Durbin agreement does not meet these benchmarks. In fact, it would not secure our border encourage more illegal immigration, increase chain migration and retain the visa lottery system."
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"In short, it's totally unacceptable to the president and should be declared dead on arrival. The president has been extraordinarily consistent on the immigration and what his priorities are. His views are shared by the vast majority of the American people and have bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives."
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"We certainly think that there are a lot of things that we agree on and I think if we focus on what we agree on, a lot more than what we disagree on, we can have a lot of progress and hopefully get to something that helps everybody and solves a big problem."
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8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"Look, I think the president has stated what he would like to see happen and at this point the president is willing to sign something to find a permanent solution for DACA and he has placed the responsibility, which the Constitution has placed and he has reminded Congress that it is their job to actually get that legislation passed and send it to him. Again, he's going to play a big role in the process, but it's on Congress to get that legislation through the two bodies and hit the president's desk."
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10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"But you can't fix the problem if you just tinker with the immigration in a small way. We want to make sure that we're not having this problem and this conversation and this fight in two years and three years and four years. We want to address making a permanent solution to DACA, but at the same time closing the loopholes so we don't have to continue having this battle, but we also want to put some things in place with border security, because if you don't you're not actually solving the problem, you're just extending it and making us have to deal with it in a later time."
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12. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"As we've said it probably just about every day this year since we've been here, that we're going to be fully cooperative with the special counsel and we're going to continue to do that throughout the process. But we're also not going to comment on who may or may not or could be interviewed at any point but we're going to continue to be fully cooperative with the process."
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14. SOUNDBITE (English) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House Press Secretary:
"We want to see this come to a complete and full conclusion. I think we all know what everybody in this room would do if the president did that and I don't think that's helpful to the process. The president wants to see this end and he wants to see them finally come to the same conclusion that I think most everyone in America has, that there is nothing to this. They've spent the better part, most of you've spent the better part of a year looking, digging, obsessing over trying to find something and I have yet to find anything."
15. Sanders leaves briefing room
