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It was a major focus of today's 
White House briefing with 
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, 
White House Press Secretary: 
The president and the 
entire administration

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take domestic violence 
very seriously and 
believe all allegations 
need to be investigated

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thoroughly.

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Above all, the president 
supports victims of domestic 
violence and believes everyone

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should be treated fairly 
and with due process.

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QUESTION: Why haven't we heard 
the president say exactly what 
you just said right there,

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that he takes domestic 
violence very seriously?

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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: I spoke 
with the president, and those 
are actually directly his words

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that he gave me earlier today.

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QUESTION: But why 
hasn't he said that?

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He had the opportunity.

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He's been active on Twitter.

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SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: 
It's my job to speak on 
behalf of the president.

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I spoke to him, and he relayed 
that message directly to me, 
and I'm relaying it directly

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to you.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And our Yamiche 
Alcindor joins me now for more.

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So, Yamiche, what the White 
House wanted to talk about today 
was the budget and something

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else, and we will get 
to that in a minute.

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But this lingering story 
is still hanging out 
there, reporters asking, 
how did the president,

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how did the White 
House handle this?

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Why is this still going on?

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YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, this 
was, as you know, supposed 
to be infrastructure week.

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This is the White House's second 
try at infrastructure week and 
each time it's been overshadowed

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by this scandal.

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We're talking about it still 
largely because President 
Trump tweeted about it over the

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weekend.

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He didn't name Rob Porter, 
the other aide that resigned 
because of domestic violence

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allegations, but he said that 
people's lives were being 
destroyed and that they needed

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due process.

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Because of that tweet 
and because of the fact 
nobody really knows 
who knew what when at

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the White House, this has 
been an issue the White House 
is continuing to deal with.

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John Kelly, who is the chief of 
staff to President Trump, has 
said as soon as he heard about

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the allegations, that 40 
minutes later Rob Porter 
was out of the job.

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But Sarah Sanders today from 
the podium said that it was 
actually 24 hours later that Rob

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Porter resigned or terminated.

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And even that detail 
is still murky.

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So there is the idea this 
President Trump continues to 
likely -- come to the defense

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of men who are allegedly 
domestically violating people.

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And you have this idea that 
Sarah Sanders said herself 
that the president dictated a

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statement to her in support 
of domestic violence victims.

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But the president, who of course 
has no qualms ever using his 
Twitter account to say whatever

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is on his mind, has 
not spoken publicly in 
support of the women here.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And people 
were pointing to a series of 
these statements over the last

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several years where he's 
spoken out in more sympathy for 
the people have been accused

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of abuse.

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So, Yamiche, let's talk about 
the other things going on 
at the White House today.

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The president did roll out -- 
they did roll out their budget 
for the coming fiscal year.

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Just give us the highlights.

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YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Some of the 
highlights are that this is a 
budget that's $4.4 trillion.

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That's 10 percent more than 
Republicans spent in -- or 
wanted to spend in 2017.

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The other thing that's happening 
here is that they're asking for 
$23 billion in border security.

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That includes 
money for the wall.

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Of course, that's the wall on 
the border of Mexico -- then 
you have -- $28 billion, sorry.

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Then you have $13 billion for 
opioid treatment services.

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That's a critical step since 
President Trump has declared 
a public health crisis about

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this issue in October.

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And then you have $200 
billion for infrastructure 
structure over 10 years.

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So, then you have 17 -- 
I'm sorry -- $716 billion 
for military spending.

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The other thing that's 
happening here is that it 
eliminates 62 agencies, 
including the Corporation

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for Public Broadcasting.

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It eliminates a lot of 
entitlement programs, 
which is something 
that Republicans wanted

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to get rid of.

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They said 64 agencies.

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Sorry about that.

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Then they have $554 billion 
are getting cut from Medicaid; 
$250 billion are getting cut

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from Medicaid; $214 billion 
is being cut from the SNAP 
program, which of course used to

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be known as the 
food stamp program.

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The other thing that's really 
being cut is here the EPA.

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It's going to be 
losing $2.8 billion.

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That's a lot of money.

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Most of those programs 
are to eliminate 
climate change programs.

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So, that's a big deal, because 
a lot of people are saying 
that this is an administration

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that has been hostile to 
climate change issues.

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And then the last thing that 
it does is that it adds $984 
billion to the deficit in 2018

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- - in 2019, which is a huge, 
huge change for Republicans 
who have really been wanting to

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balance the budget.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: It's been noted 
that they don't even make a 
pretense of getting to balance,

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of worrying about deficits.

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So, the last thing, 
just quickly, of course, 
is infrastructure.

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This has been long awaited 
and the White House did 
finally push out their plan.

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YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The 
White House pushed 
out their plan today.

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And it's a plan -- it's an 
issue, I should say, that the 
White House should be able to

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get some bipartisan support on.

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The president, when he talked 
about infrastructure, it 
was a very popular thing.

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Bernie Sanders, when I 
was on the campaign trail 
with him, also talked 
about infrastructure.

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But the way that President 
Trump is talking about 
the infrastructure 
plan is essentially

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saying that states and local 
governments are going to be 
the ones bearing the brunt and

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paying for the most of it.

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The federal government 
would spend something 
like $200 billion, but 
that's a small fraction

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of what they want to spend.

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And today Senator Chuck Schumer 
came out and basically said 
that there are going to be

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Trump tolls all across the 
country, saying that for 
President Trump to get this plan

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passed, it's going to have 
to turn into tolls and 
all sorts of fees being 
passed on to different

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Americans.

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Republicans, on the other hand, 
some of them have been saying 
they praised this program.

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And some of them, of 
course, have been saying 
that they want more 
explanation, because they're

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very worried about the fact that 
they're adding to the deficit.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot of 
discussion still about 
how this is paid for, 
in very early stages.

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Yamiche Alcindor, 
so much going on.

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Thank you.

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YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks.