Q Another question for you on Afghanistan. There is talk in Afghanistan by the U.S. envoy of a deal that would basically pull U.S. forces out of the country in exchange for a guarantee from the Taliban that there would be no terrorist who remained in the country. Is that a plan that has the White House's support? Does the President support that sort of plan? And would that be a victory for the United States after almost 17 years of war there?
MS. SANDERS: Our priority is to end the war in Afghanistan, and to ensure that there is never a base for terrorism in Afghanistan again. Negotiations are going to continue. For anything specific, I can't get into that right now, but I'd refer you to the State Department beyond that.
Kristen.
Q Sarah, thank you. Just to follow up quickly on your answer to Hallie: You said, "I'm not aware of that" when asked if the President has ruled out a pardon for Roger Stone. So does that mean he hasn't ruled out a pardon?
MS. SANDERS: Again, I'm not aware of any conversation even regarding that or a need for it.
Q Can you - Sarah, just to follow up, can you guarantee that the President won't pardon Roger Stone?
MS. SANDERS: Again, I'm not going to talk about hypotheticals that are just ridiculous and things I haven't talked about.
Q Marco Rubio said that it would be a crime to be in discussions with WikiLeaks.
MS. SANDERS: I never thought I would be shutting down one reporter to go to Jim Acosta, but here we are.
Q Marco Rubio said over the weekend, Sarah, that working with -
Q I'm behaving myself, by the way. (Laughter.)
Q - WikiLeaks should be considered a crime. Does the President agree?
MS. SANDERS: I'm sorry, I didn't hear the last part.
Q Marco Rubio said over the weekend that working with WikiLeaks should be considered a crime. Does the President agree?
MS. SANDERS: Look, I think every single outlet that are - that you all represent looked for and searched for information that WikiLeaks was providing, including reporting on it. So I think there is a responsibility by members of the media.
Q (Inaudible.) This is different.
MS. SANDERS: I'm not aware of anybody here ever working with WikiLeaks in any capacity, but I do know that every individual that represents a media organization here looked for that information. Most of you reported on that information, so I think you're just as accountable as anybody else in that process.
Jim, go ahead.
Q If I can jump in: Roger Stone, last week; Paul Manafort; Michael Cohen; Michael Flynn - are you concerned, is the President concerned that that as more and more of his associates, former aides, are brought into this investigation - are indicted, plead guilty in this investigation - that this presidency is in danger?
MS. SANDERS: Not at all. In fact, I think nothing could be further from the truth. The more that this goes on, the more and more we see that none of these things have anything to do with the President. In Roger Stone's case, the charges of that indictment have literally nothing to do with the President and have to do with his communications with Congress.
So, in fact, I think the further we get into the process, the more and more we see that this has nothing to do with President Trump.
Q If I could ask a quick follow-up on that -
MS. SANDERS: Sure.
Q - if I may. And can you assure the American people that, during these conversations that Roger Stone had with WikiLeaks and individuals who are tied to the dumping of that material, that at no time the President had any interactions with Roger Stone, that nobody close to the President had interactions with Roger Stone who may have told the President what was going on in those conversations?
All of this, when it comes to Roger Stone, is a complete surprise to the President. He didn't know about any of this. Is that what you're saying?
MS. SANDERS: What I can tell you is that the President did nothing wrong throughout this process. And the charges - of the indictment against Mr. Stone have absolutely nothing to do with the President.
I'll take one last question. Steve.
Q Yes, Sarah. We're expecting, in a few moments, that the U.S. government will announce some criminal actions against Huawei, the Chinese telecom company. And we're just about to have this Chinese trade delegation here. Are these two at all linked? Are you taking some sort of carrot-and-stick approach with China? What's the strategy here?
MS. SANDERS: No, those two things are not linked. They're a totally separate process. The negotiations on the trade front will continue to be ongoing.
And I believe, on that other question and thing that you mentioned may be coming. I believe they're waiting on me to finish so that they can do that. So, with that, I will say good afternoon and we'll see you next time. Thanks, guys.
