Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Jake Sullivan Gaggle Aboard Air Force One 3/23/23 Transcript

… job because of CFIUS, but did people in the White House watch the hearings, have any reaction to what was discussed and said at those hearings?

So look, I know there’s been questions about what’s on the table about what the actions administration could take or could not take. So I’m not going to speak to any specific actions that the administration could pursue to address national security concerns associated with TikTok, and you’ve heard us say this over and over again, that is one of our concerns when it comes to this particular app.

(00:37)
And so look, not going to comment because particularly given that there’s a subject of ongoing negotiations with the ByteDance, as I’m sure you guys are following, but that said our national security concerns about TikTok related to data security and content manipulations are well established as we have said many times. There has been public reporting that PRC based employees of ByteDance have access to user data on US TikTok users, including journalists as well. We are also concerned that the PRC could require ByteDance to censor certain contacts of TikTok or spend information that undermines US national security.

(01:18)
So we strongly support the legislation that you’ve heard us speak to multiple times, a restrict act, and so that’s where I’m going to leave it. As you know, CFIUS is continuously to review this, but I just can’t speak to any internal conversations or anything specific to what we saw today with the hearings.

Senator-

Literally everyone was watching, it was on the news today, but I don’t have anything to share.

There were reports that the US and Canada are going to have a migration pack to close the road connecting New York and Quebec. Can you confirm the US has signed on to that and talk about the parameters and how many migrants the Canadians have agreed to accept as part of that deal?

So although we have seen an increase of encounters on the northern border as you guys have been reporting, the numbers coming from the South into the United States from Canada remain very modest. A few hundred a month, is that what we’re seeing currently? That’s what the data shows. So again, we’re seeing an increase in irregular migration going north into Canada, which reflects the regional and global migration challenge as we have been talking about. We’re committed to working with them to address it, including by prioritizing orderly and safe migration through regular pathways. So we continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove these without a legal basis to remain in the US and DHS continues to efficiently process these individuals.

(02:46)
So look, we feel like we have had great success with our partners in Canada and we expect to continue that coordination. The President and the Prime Ministers certainly will have more to share tomorrow, don’t want to get ahead of any specific announcements.

So you’re not confirming anything?

Well, I’m not going to to confirm anything at this time, but we will hear more from the prime minister and the president tomorrow. I’m just not going to confirm any announcements.

On Haiti, the United States’ hope that Canada would kind of lead this military force to kind of try to bring some stability to Haiti among the violence. Is the United… I mean, Trudeau doesn’t seem like he’s very interested anymore. Is the United States giving up on that particular, having Canada lead that?

So look, as you know, when the President was at the summit in Mexico City with the President of Mexico and also the Prime Minister, this conversation came up with Canada and their bylaw that they had on the ground. So look, we believe the security and humanitarian situation in Haiti is worsening and the situation on the ground would not improve without arm security assistance from international partners, we’ve been clear about that. Any decisions about military force would be done in consultation with the UN and with the Haitian government. Those discussions are still ongoing. We will remain in coordination with our partners, including of course Canada, on next steps on the force and other actions to address urgent security needs in Haiti, including support of the Haitian National police, you’ve heard my colleagues say this yesterday at the podium from National Security Council.

(04:22)
But look, in the meantime we’re going to continue to support the people of Haiti as we have been doing since we’ve been in office with humanitarian support, and so I’ll just leave it there. But again, there’s going to be conversations about this obviously when the president arrives in Canada, just don’t have anything more to share.

On the banking crisis, can you expect Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden to talk about the banking situation? Can you say a word about this CEO meeting, the bank CEOs that were in town. There have been conversations, Buffett, Jamie Dimon. Just give us an update on where you are. And there’s also a feeling out in the market that the White House and the administration have been slow to respond.

So there’s a couple of pieces there. Look, I’m not going to get ahead of the conversation that the President’s going to have with the Prime Minister. Maybe it comes up, maybe it doesn’t, I’m just not sure. So I’m certainly not going to get into hypothetical there.

(05:27)
Look, you’ve heard us speak to this as far as our response and the President’s direction, he was very clear when we saw what was happening with the banking situation, the banking system, 12, 14 days ago, and we’ve taken decisive, enforceable actions to strengthen the public confidence in the US banking system and give banks access to resources to meet depositors’ demand.

(05:51)
And so just a couple of things. You saw that on Friday, March 10th when the FDIC quickly took control of Silicon Valley’s Bank assessment, you saw that over that weekend when they took control of Signature Bank’s assets and moved to protect all depositors at both banks. And you saw that with the Fed’s new lending facility to help banks meet the needs of all of their depositors.

(06:13)
So our admin administration, because of the President’s direction, took decisive action to promote the safety of regional and community banks while ensuring taxpayers are not on the hook, right? That was something that the president was very clear about.

But other banks remain in danger, like First Republic.

I mean look, I’m not going to get into specifics on any other institutions. I’m going to speak to that at this time. But the actions that we took, that the Federal Government took, that the Treasury Secretary took, and also the banking regulators, those actions demonstrate that we will use tools we have to give the American people confidence that their deposits will be safe. And look, it is important that we use those tools that we have to support community and other banks. But again, you’ve heard this from Jerome Powell, you’ve heard this from the Secretary, that because of the decisive actions, we have seen deposits stabilize at regional banks and we think that’s important. I’ll leave that there.

And Karine, can I ask you to preview the President’s address to parliament tomorrow? But I’m also curious too, is he going to bring up Canada’s defense spending? That’s something President Obama mention when he addressed Parliament, especially given Canada’s not hitting its NATO targets and questions about its NORAD contributions, especially in the wake of the balloon.

So I’ll answer the last one first. Look, I’m sure that’s going to come up. We believe that Canada is a important, critical NATO ally, and so we feel that they have done their part to do what they can for Ukraine. But I’m sure that conversation will come up as it relates to NORAD, I just don’t have anything to share.

(07:52)
As it relates to the address that the President’s going to give to Parliament tomorrow, look, Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton and other and others including Obama, all addressed the Canadian Parliament during their visit to Canada. President Biden is looking forward to continuing this tradition of speaking to Canada’s elected officials and public to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the US Canada partnership. During the speech, he will promote our shared domestic and foreign policy goals by highlighting the mutual benefits of the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the US Mexico Canada Agreement for promoting prosperity and clean energy. So he very much looks forward to having that [inaudible 00:08:35].

Did you say that the president watched the TikTok hearings today himself?

No, I did not say that.

Did he?

I cannot confirm that he watched it, I’m just saying that it clearly was well covered. But I have not spoken to him about if he watched the hearings.

Just real quick, do you have any updates on a possible Biden Xi call now that the Chinese leadership is in place?

So that is something that we were looking forward to doing and we’ve been working on, I just don’t have anything to confirm or lay out or anything to preview at this time.

On the banking situation, just what role do you expect the private sector to play ensuring of confidence in the banks? So there have been reports that Jamie Dimon’s been in, the White House has been talking, you’ve had conversations or someone had a conversation with Warren Buffet. Can you just say what you expect from the private sector?

I just don’t want to get ahead of any potential conversations or getting just into any hypotheticals from here. I can say that when it comes to our actions and how we reacted to what we’ve seen the last 14 days, we have seen the banking regulators and the Treasury Secretary take action at the direction of the President to make sure that the banks would continue to be resilient, and that we saw stabilization. And I think that’s important, to make sure that the American people have confidence and that’s what was the priority of this President, and make sure that taxpayers are not on the hook. And so that’s important here. I’m not going to get into it.