THE PRESIDENT: We will consider that the maximum that we can consider that, because they're throwing rocks viciously and violently. You saw that three days ago. Really hurting the military. We're not going to put up with that. If they want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. We're going to consider - and I told them, consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military and police, I say, consider it a rifle.
Jeff?
Q A separate topic, sir. Did you offer Heather Nauert the job of U.N. Ambassador?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, she's under very serious consideration. She's excellent. She's been with us a long time. She's been a supporter for a long time. And she's really excellent. So she's under very serious - we'll probably make a decision next week. We have a lot of people that want the job, and there are a lot of really great people. But we'll be talking about that next week sometime.
Q Did you see Oprah Winfrey's comments today?
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't. What did she say?
Q She was campaigning in Georgia at the same time that Vice President Pence was.
THE PRESIDENT: At the same time as who?
Q Excuse me, at the same time Vice President Pence was, encouraging people to vote and -
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's okay. I mean, I was on Oprah's last week - the last week of her show. Oprah liked me very much. I've always liked Oprah. You know, Oprah is good. But the woman that she's supporting is not qualified to be the governor of Georgia, by any stretch of the imagination.
And I'll be in Georgia the next few days - the next few days - and we have a tremendous - around Macon - we have a tremendous crowd already. Nobody has a crowd like we have because people want to see a great governor of Georgia. And I think Brian is going to be a great governor of Georgia. I think he'll be a fantastic governor. He's totally qualified.
She is not qualified to be the governor of Georgia. She's not qualified. And Georgia is a great state -
Q Why is she not qualified?
THE PRESIDENT: - it's a great, great state. Take a - take a look. Take a look at her past. Take a look at her history. Take a look at what she wants to do and what she has in mind for the state. That state will be in big, big trouble very quickly. And the people of Georgia don't want that.
Question?
Q Mr. President, really quickly, just on election integrity? Can you say for a fact that our elections are secure next week? What can you tell us?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, yeah. I just met with - I just met with the FBI, with Chris; and the Justice Department; and with Secretary Nielsen. And they've spent a lot of time and effort and some money on making sure that everything with respect to the election coming up in five days is going to be perfect and safe. There will be hopefully no meddling, no tampering, no nothing. And we spent a lot -
Now President Obama had the chance to do that in September before '16, but he chose not to do that because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win. And while everybody agrees it didn't affect the vote at all, nevertheless he could have done things that probably would have made it a little more obvious, a little clearer. But he was told by the FBI in September before the election in '16 about potential meddling or potential Russian meddling, and he did nothing about it. He didn't do that because he thought that Hillary Clinton would win.
All right, one more.
Q Are you optimistic that you can still get the continuing resolution through December 7th for Homeland Security funded, even if the Democrats take the House?
THE PRESIDENT: I think if - I think we're going to do very well in the election, I must tell you. If you look at the races, if you look at the Senate, which is very important, obviously. I'm leaving today; I'll be in Missouri. And I'll be touching down at a number of places over the next five days. But I think we're doing very well in the Senate, and I think we're doing very well in the House.
The only problem is, with the House, there's so many people. I'd like to stop for every one of them, but there's so many people. But I think we're doing very well in the House. I think people want to see strong borders. I think they want to see security. They want to see good healthcare. They want to see the things that we're providing. They don't want to have their taxes increased. We're decreasing their taxes.
We just announced yesterday, you probably heard - Kevin Brady put it out - a reduction of tax. We're going for a reduction of middle-income tax or 10 percent. The Democrats want to, I mean, double up your taxes. In some cases, you'll have to pay three times what you're paying right now in order to get bad healthcare.
And so what we're doing is something that I think the people want, and I think we're going to do very well in the election, even though history says that whoever President it - whoever the President may be, it trends the other way. It certainly does seem that way.
But nobody has ever been President that has the greatest economy in the history of our country. This is the greatest economy in the history of our country. These are the greatest unemployment and employment numbers in the history of our country. Nobody has ever had that to campaign with. So I do.
Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.
