Speaker 1: You're listening to taking stock with bim Box and dathe
Speaker 1: nays on Bloomberg Radio. President Obama is at the Pentagon.
Speaker 1: He will be giving an update on his administration's battle
Speaker 1: against Islamic State against ISIS, but he will be opening
Speaker 1: up the post briefing statement to questions from the press,
Speaker 1: potentially giving him another chance to weigh in on the election.
Speaker 1: Angela Greyling keene Are, a White House reporter for Bloomberg News,
Speaker 1: joins us now from Washington, d C. Home to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and one oh five point seven h D two. Angela,
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Tell us why is
Speaker 1: the President going to the Pentagon in order to tell
Speaker 1: the nation about the efforts on the administration's part to
Speaker 1: battle ISIS. The President has been meeting with his National
Speaker 1: Security Council this afternoon at the Pentagon. He's done these
Speaker 1: meetings with the National Security Council at a variety of locations.
Speaker 1: This time he returns to the pen gone where he's
Speaker 1: done them before. Sometimes they're at the White House, sometimes
Speaker 1: they're at other parts of the defensor intelligence community, but
Speaker 1: he likes to move them around, and this time he's
Speaker 1: taking the different step of having a press conference afterwards,
Speaker 1: so we expect him to address not only national security
Speaker 1: concerns in Islamic State, but also all the other issues
Speaker 1: of the day. Well, let's start with Islamic State UH
Speaker 1: and the the expansion of the US led coalitions military
Speaker 1: UH mission against ISIS IS, the US bombs targets in
Speaker 1: and around Uh, a key Libyan city. Undoubtedly, Libya will
Speaker 1: be one of the questions. This will be the first
Speaker 1: time that President Obama is likely to address Libya at
Speaker 1: a press conference. We expect him to be asked about
Speaker 1: his decision to use more US UM air power against
Speaker 1: Islamic State targets in Libya. It was a key decision
Speaker 1: to expand the US mission and take air strikes in Libya,
Speaker 1: and clearly that's not been well received by everybody, and
Speaker 1: he will undoubtedly be asked about that. As far as
Speaker 1: any new policies, will there be any indication of any
Speaker 1: other UH sort of roots or strategies to battle Islamic
Speaker 1: State or waves of terrorism around the world. We don't
Speaker 1: expect new policy announcements out of this press conference. He
Speaker 1: lucinely speaks after these meetings and does not denounce any
Speaker 1: new policy. But it's unusual for him to take questions
Speaker 1: from the press, so that that's what's different. But there's
Speaker 1: been no telegraphing of any changes in strategy or other
Speaker 1: increases in the US involvement against Islamic stage. Is there
Speaker 1: any particular reason to to do this at this time?
Speaker 1: Is this routine and this is the right time to
Speaker 1: talk about isis you say you haven't been telegraphing any
Speaker 1: big announcement or he hasn't. That's what you're got picking
Speaker 1: up on. Uh So what how should we understand the messaging?
Speaker 1: And I guess we would say the optics of the
Speaker 1: president's appearance today, Well, the meetings are routine. He meets
Speaker 1: with his National Security Council regularly, and these meetings at
Speaker 1: different locations have been happening approximately a quarterly basis that
Speaker 1: what use has chosen to draw attention to these meetings,
Speaker 1: and part of that is making sure that the president
Speaker 1: is out there and people are paying attention to his
Speaker 1: message against Islamic state. The President is about to head
Speaker 1: on vacation for the next two weeks, so starting on Saturday,
Speaker 1: he'll be on Martha's vineyard on vacation. A lot of
Speaker 1: golf and for sure the White House wants to keep
Speaker 1: the optics that the president's working hard, that he's paying
Speaker 1: attention to world events, and that I would guess as
Speaker 1: part of the timing of this particular meeting in press conference,
Speaker 1: tell us about the questions. One question sure to be
Speaker 1: the authorization of the four million dollar cash payment to
Speaker 1: Iran that coincided with the release of those American prisoners
Speaker 1: that was back in January around is likely to come up.
Speaker 1: We've heard a lot from the White House in the
Speaker 1: past day and a half on that. The White House
Speaker 1: line is that they did announced this payment back in
Speaker 1: January when they released the hostages. Of this payment wasn't
Speaker 1: the secret and the White House line is that this
Speaker 1: also was not ransom. Of course, the President is likely
Speaker 1: to still be asked about that, but he may not
Speaker 1: say anything different than what his administration surrogates have been
Speaker 1: saying already. The other topics that are likely to come
Speaker 1: up are Russia. He talked a little bit the other
Speaker 1: day about to be increasingly tense relationship with Russia and
Speaker 1: President Putin, And of course there will be some sort
Speaker 1: of question or questions involving the presidential election and Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: President Obama had a press conference just two days ago,
Speaker 1: and he declared that press conference Donald Trump quote unfit
Speaker 1: to service president. But he will surely have more to
Speaker 1: say on that topic today. Well, certainly our reporters are
Speaker 1: gonna question on on that and it's always hard to
Speaker 1: tell in his on some mean, occasionally when the president
Speaker 1: has a press conference, he goes and goes and goes
Speaker 1: until every last person in that room has had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to ask at least one question. So in all that,
Speaker 1: we've got a figure that there will be maybe even
Speaker 1: more than one version of that question asked. There certainly
Speaker 1: could be. We're expecting about five to six questions today,
Speaker 1: which is but an average amount of questions for a
Speaker 1: full press conference. It's it is fairly unusual for a
Speaker 1: President Obama, who can go a month without a press conference,
Speaker 1: to have two in a week. Just on Tuesday, he
Speaker 1: held a press conference with the Singapore Prime Minister Lee
Speaker 1: at the White House and both Obama and Lee took
Speaker 1: uh They took a total of four questions too, from
Speaker 1: each country. So this is a fir amount of questions
Speaker 1: for the press for the public from President Obama in
Speaker 1: a single week. Will the president also be asked about
Speaker 1: Russia's influence on US elections, he very well could be.
Speaker 1: He did address Russia on Tuesday. He said that, Uh,
Speaker 1: he certainly did not link Russia to the hacks of
Speaker 1: the Democratic National Committee in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
Speaker 1: but he didn't steer away from those either. He said
Speaker 1: it's too early to say for sure. He also said
Speaker 1: that he essentially said that anything that Russia does won't
Speaker 1: make the relationship any worse. He said things are already
Speaker 1: pretty bad between him and putin between the US and Russia,
Speaker 1: and that even if Russia is found to be responsible
Speaker 1: for that hack, that he doubts it will change anything.
Speaker 1: The US wants to work with Russia to improve things
Speaker 1: in Syria, but beyond that, there's fairly little cooperation right
Speaker 1: now between the two countries. Uh. You know a story
Speaker 1: that you also were part of this week has to
Speaker 1: do with political hacking. Uh. And this possibility of actually
Speaker 1: designating elections is national critical infrastructure right after the recent
Speaker 1: hacking attacks on obviously on political groups on the d N. See,
Speaker 1: how is this just something that you know? Someone answered
Speaker 1: in been a question Homeland Security Secretary Johnson actually or
Speaker 1: is there some serious push in this direction. Do you think, uh,
Speaker 1: it is important? Um, you're right. So Homeland Security Secretary J.
Speaker 1: Johnson is the person who talked about whether the US
Speaker 1: may designate elections as quote national critical infrat structure and
Speaker 1: that means that they would get extra homeland security protection.
Speaker 1: Um what J. Johnson was talking at a breakfast for reporters,
Speaker 1: So it was certainly not something he mentioned off hand.
Speaker 1: You don't mention something like that to a table full
Speaker 1: of reporters if you don't want it to get attention.
Speaker 1: So that was definitely a calculated move by the administration
Speaker 1: to say that they are paying very very close attention
Speaker 1: to election security and probably that they're concerned about it. Well.
Speaker 1: One of the things that has changed, at least this
Speaker 1: week is we all were able to learn about the
Speaker 1: interview of a German Man who joined the Islamic State
Speaker 1: and then really revealed the workings of the various lieutenants
Speaker 1: of Islamic State and their plans to carry out its
Speaker 1: tacks around the world. Will that whole idea of radicalization
Speaker 1: be a focus of the President's strategy. It probably will.
Speaker 1: Lone wolves are something that the President and many other
Speaker 1: world leaders are very concerned about. We saw just yesterday
Speaker 1: here in Washington where a Metro Transit police officer was
Speaker 1: arrested for trying to um cooperate with or work with
Speaker 1: Islamic States, and that that was not a lone wolf incident,
Speaker 1: but it certainly could have been if it progressed. So
Speaker 1: the President will likely talk about the lone wolf issue,
Speaker 1: maybe some of his strategy. UM. That's for sure something
Speaker 1: that was discussed with his National Security Council. UM. He
Speaker 1: normally at these sorts of events, he's taken a sort
Speaker 1: of reassuring tone, telling people to you know, carry on
Speaker 1: with their daily lives, not not be afraid or curtail
Speaker 1: their activities because of risks or threats posed by Islamic
Speaker 1: State or um it's adherents. Uh. I don't expect him
Speaker 1: to change that today, but given what we've seen in
Speaker 1: Europe this summer and this arrest yesterday in Washington, that
Speaker 1: got to be front of mine for him as well
Speaker 1: as for the reporters who will be asking him questions.
Speaker 1: In addition, the United States has about five thousand troops
Speaker 1: in Iraq currently in a few hundred in Syria. Will
Speaker 1: it be further calls to either increase in American presidents
Speaker 1: in those countries, or will there be a sort of
Speaker 1: concerted effort to try to, you know, to have him
Speaker 1: draw those numbers down. Uh, inasmuch as there's political opposition
Speaker 1: around the world to having those troops there. Yeah, President
Speaker 1: Obama faces pushing pull from both sides on the troops issue.
Speaker 1: He ran for president promising to get the US out
Speaker 1: of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the administration
Speaker 1: would say they've been largely successful given the number of
Speaker 1: troops today versus the number of troops eight years ago.
Speaker 1: But clearly we're not out of u Ghanistan and Iraq,
Speaker 1: and like you said, there are now some troops in
Speaker 1: in Syria. So the President has said that he has
Speaker 1: backed off. He's publicly said already that he's backed off
Speaker 1: of plans to completely draw down troops, and he uh
Speaker 1: may he could potentially increase numbers, but that's fairly unlikely.
Speaker 1: But he for now is sticking with his plans to
Speaker 1: to keep the troop levels that we're at, and we
Speaker 1: have seen him increase slightly numbers of troops overseas. So
Speaker 1: I I don't expect announcements along those lines today because
Speaker 1: he's unlikely to make that sort of announcement in this
Speaker 1: public of a forum, but he he for sure is
Speaker 1: under pressure from some people that think there should be
Speaker 1: no troops and from some people that think there should
Speaker 1: be a lot more. And he's resigned to not making
Speaker 1: everybody happy. That's part of the job of president. You
Speaker 1: only have at this point. How much in fact, how
Speaker 1: much at this point are President Obama's hands not exactly tied,
Speaker 1: but you know, maybe restrained by the fact that he's
Speaker 1: got a few more months in office and someone else
Speaker 1: is taking over. If he makes a significant move up
Speaker 1: or down in troops at this point, is that is
Speaker 1: that the correct thing to do is that presidential etiquette, right,
Speaker 1: absent any big, big shift in the external factors that
Speaker 1: he's dealing with in the Middle East. Right, And under
Speaker 1: a normal presidential transition, of course, we could look and
Speaker 1: be looking at a fairly unique presidential transition depend on
Speaker 1: who is elected. But under a normal transition, the successor
Speaker 1: will follow on for a while at least what the
Speaker 1: what the predecessor did. Clearly when President Obama were to
Speaker 1: ramp up now and certainly if he keeps the same levels,
Speaker 1: no changes happen the first day that a new president
Speaker 1: takes office, so anything he does now last for at
Speaker 1: least a little while. Is this also an occasion for
Speaker 1: the president to reiterate his comments about the Republican nominee
Speaker 1: for president, Republican candidate Donald Trump. I mean, he has
Speaker 1: said previously, and you've reported this, that he had never
Speaker 1: had a reason to question the qualifications or fitness of
Speaker 1: other Republicans who ran against them, such as John McCain,
Speaker 1: Senator from Arizona and former Massachusetts government Romney. I think
Speaker 1: it's very fair to assume that the President will continue
Speaker 1: his line of attack against Donald Trump. He has had
Speaker 1: increasingly strident language against him, including calling him quote unfit
Speaker 1: for the presidency on Tuesday. It's hard to get a
Speaker 1: lot stronger than that. What will be interesting to see
Speaker 1: is whether he continues today his line of reasoning from
Speaker 1: Tuesday about encouraging prominent Republicans to back away from their
Speaker 1: support of Donald Trump. What the President seemed to be
Speaker 1: doing was to ask Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan
Speaker 1: to back away. Even though Ryan has criticized Trump, he's
Speaker 1: still officially supporting him, and the President Obama was basically
Speaker 1: challenging those sorts of Republicans about whether they're going to
Speaker 1: keep publicly supporting Trump. Angela brylantein Think So Very Much,
Speaker 1: White House reporter for Bloomberg News in Washington,