Trey.
Q Thanks, Sarah. Two quick questions for you. You said you spoke to the President last night regarding these stories about potential staff turnovers here at the White House and -
MS. SANDERS: We spoke specifically about the story with General McMaster.
Q What was the President's reaction to all of these stories? Did he see any truth in the reporting that was out there?
MS. SANDERS: As I said, the President has said that that was not accurate and he had no intention of changing, that they had a great working relationship, and he looked forward to continue working with him.
Q And if I could ask you about Syria. The President, last month, called the situation on the ground at Syria, "a humanitarian disgrace," particularly in the suburb east of Damascus. Is the President taking any steps to try to correct this humanitarian disgrace, other releasing statements by the administration?
MS. SANDERS: We're continuing to look at all different ways. The U.S. continues to denounce the Syrian regime and their violations of United States Security Council and we're going to continue to look at this and we'll make determinations and announcements as we go forward.
John.
Q Thank you, Sarah. Turning away from personnel within the administration - and personnel in the midterm elections. Danny Tarkanian, the insurgent candidate against Senator Heller, abandoned his candidacy to run for the House, he said, at the urging of the President. Will the President be involved in other contested primaries involving Republican incumbents and try to discourage these kinds of challengers, who, I might add, more often than not, are backed by Steve Bannon, and Sebastian Gorka?
MS. SANDERS: I can't get into any specific races due to a little thing called the Hatch Act, but I can tell you that the President is going to continue to support people that support his policies and his agenda, and certainly those will be the type of candidates he would look to support.
Olivier.
Q Thanks, Sarah. A couple on North Korea. One, I want to go back to Shannon's question, has the United States received any direct or indirect confirmation that the North Koreans are interested? Or is the United States still acting on the South Korean representation of their negotiations?
MS. SANDERS: Again, I can't get into the details of the preparations and the progress being made, but I can tell you that we're continuing to move forward in hopes of having the meeting take place.
Q And then seizing the opportunity offered by Marc's presence here today, my understanding from talking to people in Congress is that the administration has been asking lawmakers to hold off on any new package of North Korea sanctions, telling them both that the executive branch powers are sufficient in case - should the need arise to impose more, but also to avoid inflaming the situation. Would either you or Marc address that?
MS. SANDERS: I know that we are continuing our maximum pressure campaign on North Korea. We're continuing to ask our allies to engage in that maximum pressure campaign not to let up at any point for any reason until we see real progress on the promises that have been made by the North Koreans. Beyond that, I can't get into any conversations.
I'll take one last question. Jeff.
Q So we are about to enter the 15th month of this administration. Why is it that there is still a need for change inside the President's Cabinet or among his circle of advisers?
MS. SANDERS: Look, as we've said many times before, you want the right people for the right time, and as policy priorities change, that means that sometimes you're going to have personnel change. That's not different for this administration as it has been in any other administration, and we're going to continue to add new staff regularly.
I'll take one last question.
Q Does the President enjoy the drama?
MS. SANDERS: Sorry Jeff, I'm going to go to your colleague, here.
Q Thank you. Britain, France, and Germany have proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran, maybe in a bid to preserve the nuclear deal. Do you have any response to that or any response to their proposal to put new sanctions on Iran?
MS. SANDERS: We don't have any new announcements on sanctions at this time. But as always, we're continuing to look at the best ways to promote and protect the American people and certainly push the President's agenda.
Thanks so much guys, hope you have a great Friday and Happy St. Patrick's Day.
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