Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, February 23, 2021 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    MS. PSAKI: Well, we certainly support the desire and the interest of members of Congress to put together a commission. It's up to them to make that determination. We've been in touch with them about a range of options, but I don't think there's anything final at this point, so I don't have anything more to read out on our particular view on which proposal.


    Q:  And would there be concern that there could be overlap or conflict with whatever the Justice Department is doing in terms of investigations and prosecuting some of these people?

    MS. PSAKI: Sure. Well, I certainly would venture to avoid that. But, of course, any investigation, any process of moving forward toward a prosecution would be done independently by the Justice Department, and that is a commitment the President is firm on.

    Q:  And in his conversations with lawmakers, have there been any other conversations about a joint address to Congress? I know you got asked about this recently. And if it's not in person, would he be willing to do it virtually if he had to?

    MS. PSAKI: Sure. Well, he's clearly willing to hold events virtually, hence the bilateral meeting today with the Prime Minister of Canada. And we're certainly open to a range of formats. I don't have any update on a date or a timeline for joint address.

    Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. And I'll come around to you. Go ahead.

    Q:  Thank you, Jen. I want to ask you about a report that's out: that the Biden administration is prepared to sanction Russia for the SolarWinds hack but also a range of other malign cyber activities.

    MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

    Q:  Are you able to confirm that those sanctions are coming down?

    MS. PSAKI: Well, first, we announced our ongoing review, and the President spoke about it in his conversation with President Putin just a few weeks ago.

    We have asked the intelligence community to do further work to sharpen the attribution that the previous administration made about precisely how the hack occurred, what the extent of the damage is, and what the scope and scale of the intrusion is. And we're still in the process of working that through now.

    But it will be weeks, not months, before we respond, but I'm not going to get ahead of the conclusion of that process.

    Q:  Any more specific on the timeline, as far as weeks? I mean, are we talking by the end of this month, or can you put any more finer point on it?

    MS. PSAKI: The end of this month is a couple days away. That would be a very short timeline.

    Q:  That's true. February does have 28 days.

    MS. PSAKI: (Laughs.) I was thinking, "Is it March yet?" "Weeks, not months" is the best definition I can give for you. Of course, we want to focus on giving our team the time they need to take additional steps to fine-tune the attribution. And we reserve the right to respond in a — at a time and a manner of our choosing.

    Q:  And then, on the Tanden nomination, Senator Murkowski said yesterday that she had not heard from the White House, even though she's undecided. Was that an oversight by the White House, and has that been rectified? I mean, has she been reached out to since then?

    MS. PSAKI: Well, again, you know, Neera Tanden has rolled up her sleeves. She's getting to work. She's working the phones. People here are working the phones. And we're just not going to provide day-by-day updates on exactly each senator and office that we've communicated with, but they can communicate on their own, of course, if they've been reached out to or — you know, or what communication they've had.

    Q:  And then, on the Canada visit, I wanted to clear up something you had said the other day —

    MS. PSAKI: Okay.

    Q:  — which is on the — on the Buy America provisions, you had said there's essentially no changes, and the Canadians had raised concerns about whether they would be able to obtain waivers like they did during the Obama administration. So when you said you didn't anticipate any changes to that policy, did you mean to suggest that the Canadian companies will not be able to obtain waivers under the policy of the (inaudible)?

    MS. PSAKI: No, I appreciate that — or I appreciate the ask for clarification, I should say. So, of course, the President signed and made — signed a Made in America executive order in the first week, I believe, of the administration, and we're still evaluating the application of that and how it will apply. I don't expect him to make any commitments during the meeting today.

    Q:  Okay. And then just one more logistical thing on the Canada visit. Usually during these foreign leader visits, obviously, as you know, there's a two-and-two element for the questions. Are we going to see that later this afternoon with Prime Minister Trudeau?

    MS. PSAKI: I don't expect that's going to be part of the program today. Obviously, there are several components, as I noted: a smaller meeting, a more expanded meeting, and then some comments at the end. But that's the program at this point in time.

    Q:  Will you commit to it for future foreign leader visits?


    MS. PSAKI: We certainly — it certainly has been standard in the past, and we'll — you can — I can assure you that, in the future, there will be one-and-one and two-and-two and other opportunities to ask questions, even when foreign leaders are not visiting.

    Go ahead.

    ...

    Read the full transcript HERE.


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