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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-07-2020
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 7, 2020
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 7, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:43 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Today, we continue to send our love to the great people of New York and New Jersey. We support them fully. We grieve alongside every family who has lost a precious loved one. New Yorkers are tough and strong and brave. New Jerseyites are tough and strong and brave, and theyre being hit very hard right now. And for the next week, hopefully not much longer than that, its going to start to go in the other direction.
Our country is being hit hard, but some areas have done so incredibly well. Were so proud of them. They will beat this virus. Were going to beat it with the grit and the heart for which theyre known and for which our country is known. And we appreciate everything that everybody is doing.
{snip}
On Thursday, Ill be speaking to leaders and advocates from the mental health organizations all across our country. And we are going to be talking about resources and tools that well make available to them. They need help. And its a big problem.
When you take something where it was the most successful country in the world still is the whole world is shut down. Think of it: Were down to numbers that are incredible.
{snip}
The WHO, thats the World Health Organization, receives vast amounts of money from the United States. And we pay for a majority biggest portion of their money. And they actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time I did it. And they were wrong. Theyve been wrong about a lot of things. And they had a lot of information early and they didnt want to theyre very they seem to be very China-centric. And we have to look into that. So were going to look into it.
We pay for we give a majority of the money that they get. And its much more than that the 58. Fifty-eight million dollars is a small portion of what theyve gotten over the years. Sometimes they get much more than that. Sometimes its for programs that theyre doing, and and its much bigger numbers. And if the programs are good, thats great, as far as were concerned.
But we want to look into it World Health Organization because they really are they called it wrong. They called it wrong. They really they missed the call. They could have called it months earlier. They would have known, and they should have known. And they probably did know, so well be looking into that very carefully.
And were going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. Were going to put a very powerful hold on it, and were going to see. Its a great thing if it works, but when they call every shot wrong, thats no good.
Were in the midst of a great national struggle, one that requires the shared sacrifice of all Americans. In recent weeks, its been remarkable to see so many companies and organizations and individuals, like the banks that I just told you about biggest banks in the world. They stepped up to help small business. They have big business, small business. The small business will someday be the big business. But the small business is 50 percent of our economic strength. People dont realize when you add them up, but they just they just rose to the occasion. Everybody is rising to the occasion. Its been incredible to watch.
{snip}
If you look at the original projections: If we did nothing, it would be disastrous. If we we decided to do something. We closed it down; had no choice. It was a good move. That was a good move. The early China move was a good move. The early Europe move was a good move. Made a lot of good moves. But closing it down was a big statement. It was a big, important thing.
{snip}
Steve, please.
Q The Acting Navy Secretary submitted his resignation today Modly. Why did that become necessary? And what what role did you have in this, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I had no role in it. Ive heard I dont know him, but Ive heard he was a very good man. And it was a the whole thing was a very unfortunate the captain should not have written a letter. He didnt have to be Ernest Hemingway. He made a mistake, but he had a bad day. And I hate seeing bad things happen. The man made a mistake.
But, you know, you shouldnt be writing letters and you should youre in the military. Youre the captain of a great ship, and you shouldnt be writing letters and sending them to many people and then it gets out to the media. And, you know, the question is, How did it get out to the media? So theres a lot of bad things happened there.
And I had heard he did because he didnt want to cause any disturbance for our country. So that was a because he wouldnt have had to resign. I would not have asked him. I dont know him. I didnt speak to him. But he did that, I think, just to end end that problem. And I think in one in really many ways, that was a very unselfish thing for him to do.
Q What should happen now to Commander Crozier, who left
THE PRESIDENT: Well, theyre going to look at that. I think Secretary of Defense, as you know, is is you know Mark Esper, and hes very capable. And I think hes looking at that right now. Theyre theyre going to just take it under regular Navy channels to see what they want to do.
But he made a mistake, but he shouldnt have done that. And your Secretary probably shouldnt have said quite what he said. He didnt have to resign, but he felt it would be better for the country. So I you know, I think its it will end it quickly.
Yes, please.
{snip}
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, sir. Did you see these memos that reportedly Peter Navarro wrote back in January? When did you see them? And how does that these memos sort of square with what youve often said that nobody couldve predicted this. It sounds like he was predicting it.
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic. I didnt see them. I didnt look for them either.
But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it. We that was about the same time that I closed it down. I asked him about it just a little while ago, because I read something about a memo. I said, Did you do a memo? I didnt look for I didnt see it. I didnt ask him to show it to me. He said, Yes, I talked about the possibility of a pandemic. Nobody said its going to happen, but, you know, there is a possibility. There always has been a possibility, but people wouldnt talk about it.
But it was right about the time that I closed it down. And interestingly, the World Health Organization was not in favor of us closing it down. And if we didnt close it down, we would have lost hundreds of thousands more lives. So, we did a good thing. We did a good thing.
Yeah, please.
Q So at the time, though, when when Peter Navarro did circulate those memos, you were still downplaying the threat of coronavirus in the U.S. You were saying things like, I think its a problem thats going to go away within a couple of days.
THE PRESIDENT: Which Im right about. It did go it will go away.
Q You said, Within a couple of days, the cases will be down to zero.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the cases really didnt build up for a while. But you have to understand, Im a cheerleader for this country. I dont want to create havoc and shock and everything else, but ultimately, when I was saying that, Im also closing it down. I obviously was concerned about it because I closed down our country to China, which was heavily infected.
I then closed it down to Europe. Thats a big move closing it down from China and then closing it down from Europe, and then, ultimately, closing it down to the U.K. So and it was right about that time. But Im not going to go out and start screaming, This could happen. This could happen.
So, again, as President, I think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country. But at the same time Im cheerleading, Im also closing down a very highly infected place, specifically the location, as you know, in China that had the problems. And were closing it down, but we closed it down to all of China, then we closed it down to all of Europe. Those were big moves, and it was right about that time.
Q Sir, just a quick just a quick follow-up, Mr. President. Mr. President
Q Can you just clarify: Did you just learned about this today?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it?
Q You learned about the memo today?
THE PRESIDENT: I read about it maybe a day ago, two days ago.
Q You feel like someone in your among your staff or Peter Navarro himself should have told you about the memo earlier?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. It was a recommendation. It was a feeling that he had. I think he told certain people in the staff, but it didnt matter. I didnt see it, but I did I closed it down. I dont remember it even being discussed.
We had a meeting where there were a lot of people. Most people felt they should not close it down that we shouldnt close down to China. But I felt we had to do it. And that was at almost the exact same time as the memo.
Q If you had read the memo at the time, how would that have changed the steps you took or the statements that you made around the time about the dangers of the virus?
THE PRESIDENT: I dont think it wouldve changed, because I did I basically did what the memo said. And the memo was you know, the memo was a pretty good memo, from the standpoint that he talked. I guess, I didnt see it yet.
Q He was seeing that the U.S. would warning that the U.S. could lose trillions of dollars and millions of lives.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, youre not going to lose millions of lives, but youll lose plenty of money. But I couldnt have done it any better because it was about the same time, and I closed it down to China.
Q And just lastly, so you maintain confidence in him, in Peter Navarro?
THE PRESIDENT: Of course, I maintain con- he wrote a memo and he was right. And I havent seen the memo. Ill see it later on after this, but it didnt matter whether I saw it or not, because I I acted on my own. I guess I had the same instincts as Peter. Peter is a smart guy and hes a good guy, and hes done a wonderful job. But he wrote a memo and, I guess, he talked to various people about it.
But ultimately, I did what the memo more or less what the memo said just about the time the memo came out. I closed it down. I took a lot of heat. The World you know Health Organization was very much against. They didnt like it. They actually put out statements about it.
In all fairness to Joe Biden, he called me xenophobic, like I dont like China. I like China. I like the Chinese people are phenomenal people. So, I was called xenophobic, I was called racist. How could I do a thing like this?
Now, since then, Joe said that he was wrong, and he said that I was right. But I closed it down, and I was called names by some of the morning show hosts who dont have a clue what theyre talking about. Theyre not smart people. And I was called all sorts of names when I closed it down to China. Now they try and hide that you know, the tape of them saying terrible things. But that was a great decision.
If I didnt do it if I didnt do that, we wouldve had hundreds of thousands more people dying.
Yeah, please.
Q You talked a lot about the WHO, and I was wondering Dr. Fauci had discussed them earlier, so if I could ask you a question about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he respects the WHO, and I think thats thats good. And hes worked with them for a long time. But they did give us some pretty bad play calling.
Q But theyve also, I think, given lots of countries in the world accurate coronavirus testing thats been central to your guys data modeling. And so, Im
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that, I dont know. I can only say that, with regard to us, theyre taking a lot of heat because they didnt want the borders closed; they called it wrong. They called they really called, I would say, every aspect of it wrong.
Q So say that the funding freeze does not doesnt
THE PRESIDENT: No, Im not happy about it. Look, we fund it. Take a look. I mean, go through step by step. They said theres no big deal, theres no big problem, theres no nothing. And then, ultimately, when I closed it down, they actually said that I made a mistake in closing it down. And it was it turned out to be right. But at the time they you know, they did that.
So were just going to take a look at it. You know, we fund it. And and they seem to be you know, I said recently and social media said, They seem to be very China-centric. Thats a nice way of saying it. But they seem to be very China-centric.
Q But if your public health advisors are telling you
THE PRESIDENT: And they seem to err always on the side of China, and we fund it. You know, so I want to look into it.
Yes, please.
Q Thanks. A quick follow-up on that. So is the time to freeze funding to the WHO during a pandemic of this magnitude?
THE PRESIDENT: No, maybe not. I mean, Im not saying Im going to do it, but were going to look at it.
Q You did say that youre going to
THE PRESIDENT: We give a tremendous
Q You said youd put a hold on it.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didnt. I said were going to look at it. Were going to investigate it. Were going to look at it. But we will look at ending funding.
Q And to
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because you know what? They called it wrong. And if you look back over the years even, theyre very much everything seems to be very biased toward China. Thats not right.
{snip}
Yeah.
Q Thank you. And my second question from a colleague is: Congressman Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, told the local D.C. CBS station that you personally requested the CARES Act stimulus bill be stripped of $25 billion for the Postal Service. Connolly claims that unless the USPS gets that $25 billion, the agency will be run out of money by June. He accuses you of hastening the demise of the Postal Service. Could you respond to that, please?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the biggest oh, Im the reason the Postal Service the Postal Service has lost billions of dollars every year for many, many years. So Im the demise? This is a new one. Im now the demise of the Postal Service.
Ill tell you whos the demise of the Postal Service are these Internet companies that give their stuff to the Postal Service packages. And I dont know why theyre not you know, I dont run the Postal Service. You have a group of people, so-called independent people, and they run it.
But these packages are they deliver they lose money every time they deliver a package for Amazon or these other Internet companies, these other companies that deliver. They drop everything in the Post Office and they say, You deliver it. And if theyd raise the prices by actually a lot, then youd find out that the Post Office could make money or break even. But they dont do that. And Im trying to figure out why.
These are independent boards. They were appointed by other administrations. Theyre, sort of, long term. Theyre there for a long time. And Ive been talking to them also. You can look it up. Take a look. They should raise they have to raise the prices to these companies that walk in and drop thousands of packages on the floor of the Post Office and say, Deliver it. And they make money, but the Post Office gets killed. Okay? So they ought to do that, and were looking into it. And weve been pushing them now for over a year.
And you know that because youve seen the stories. Im pushing them. Its not fair for them to these great, wonderful, modern companies, they walk into our old Post Office with all these routes that could never be built; you could never build them. They go into areas that you could never do, and they say, Here. Deliver this. And they lose a lot of money per package. And they have to raise their prices, but this Postal Commission doesnt do it. Now, we just got a chance to appoint a couple of people onto the Commission, as I understand it, and thats good. But they have to raise their prices; otherwise, theyre just going to lose a lot of money.
And tell your Democrat friend that he ought to focus on that, because if he focused on that, he could truly save the Post Office. The Post Office has been losing billions of dollars a year for many, many years. And have him take a look at that, because thats the way to solve the problem.
Q Thank you so much, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Please. Go ahead.
Q Thank you so much. Mr. President, you say this week will be very painful, very difficult. But a few weeks ago, you said this was just like a flu. What have you learned
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt say two weeks ago it was a flu.
Q A few weeks ago.
THE PRESIDENT: No you know what? Can I tell you what?
Q The question is, Mr. President, what have you learned
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Ready?
Q that you could offer as advice to foreign leaders who are still skeptical about this pandemic and who are against social distancing? What is your advice? What have you learned?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. You said I said it was just like a flu.
So the worst pandemic we ever had in this world was a flu, and it was called you know that. It was in 1917, 1918. And anywhere from 50- to 100 million people died. That was a flu, okay? So, you could say that I said it was a flu or you could say the flu is nothing to sneeze at.
Q But my question, Mr. President: What can you offer as advice to foreign leaders who are skeptical about this pandemic and who are against social distancing?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there arent too many of them. If you look throughout the world, and everyone just about everyone that has practiced that is now closing up. Well, the U.K. was an example.
Now, they talk about Sweden, but Sweden is suffering very gravely. You know that, right? Sweden did that. The herd. They call it the herd. Sweden is suffering very, very badly. Its a way of doing it, but the you know, everybody has been watching everybody else. And so far, almost every country has done it the way weve done it weve chosen to do it. If we didnt do it that way, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people. Okay?
Q Mr. President, theres voting going on today in Wisconsin. There were reports of thousands of people waiting in hours-long lines as theyve had to weigh their own personal health and their civic responsibility. What do think that the Supreme Court was right in its decision, sir, that voting should go forward and that the absentee extension should not take place?
THE PRESIDENT: Of course they were right. Yeah. Look, the Supreme Court well, of course they were right, because what the Democrats wanted and you know why this happened. I supported a man named Justice Kelly, whos Daniel Kelly, highly respected justice. And I supported him just the other day social media. I know of him. Hes a just a, you know, fantastic judge, justice. And I endorsed him.
And as soon as I endorsed him, they wanted to move the election. They didnt want to move the election. As soon as I endorsed him, the Wisconsin Democrats say, Oh, lets move the election to two months later. They didnt mind having the election until I endorsed him, which is very interesting.
Now they talk about, Oh, safety, safety. Well, it was 15 minutes after I put out an endorsement that they said, We have to move the election. They didnt want to move the election before that. The other thing they wanted to do which is crazy at the end of the election, they wanted to have one week for proxies to come in or mailed ballots.
Now, mail ballots they cheat. Okay? People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because theyre cheaters. They go and collect them. Theyre fraudulent in many cases. You got to vote. And they should have voter ID, by the way. If you want to really do it right, you have voter ID.
But the Democrats and this was turned over in the Supreme Court yesterday; I give great credit to the court they actually didnt want to have an Election Day. They wanted to have Election Day, and then a week after Election Day, you choose your cand- but all of these ballots come in. These mailed ballots come in. The mailed ballots are corrupt, in my opinion. And they collect them, and they get people to go in and sign them. And then they theyre forgeries in many cases. Its a horrible thing.
And so what happened is, the Democrats in Wisconsin, they had no problem with the election being today, until I endorsed the Republican candidate, Justice Kelly Daniel Kelly. And as soon as I endorsed him, they went crazy. They went crazy. And you know thats true. And now all of a sudden
Because go back two weeks, go back two days: They didnt want to move the election. They were having the election. They were fine because they thought they were going to win the election. Then I endorsed him, and all of a sudden they think theyre not. Now I understand there are lines that go back a long way. I hope theyre going to vote for Justice Kelly. Okay?
Q Mr. President
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
Q With millions of pills of hydroxychloroquine donated, is there a plan or system in place
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q to track the potential side effects?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q There have been reports
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you saw the representative
Q of serious harm.
THE PRESIDENT: Look look, is there a plan that
Q So is there a plan to track the side effects of the clinical trials?
THE PRESIDENT: The side effects? The side effects are the least of it. You have people dying all over the place. And generally, the side effects are really with the Z-Pak having to do with the heart. The Z-Pak thats the antibiotic. Not with the hydroxychloroquine.
So, a woman last night I watched her on one of the shows a good show; Laura and she was she thought she was dead. She was a representative from Michigan. She was just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. She thought she was dead. I think she said that her doctor said shes you know, its going to be very tough.
She saw me talking about this, and she asked her husband to go to the drugstore. Now, this is a Democrat representative a person that, you know, perhaps wouldnt be voting for me. I think shell be voting for me now, even if shes a Democrat, even if shes a Democrat representative.
And they went to the store which I made available, because we have millions of doses. We have, I think, 29 million doses of this drug. And she asked her husband. She said, Please go out. Im not going to make it. You have to hear her story. Please go out. Get it. He went at 10 oclock in the evening to the drugstore. He got it. He gave it to her.
Now, you know, its I dont say it works like this at all. Four hours later, she awoke and she said, I feel better. And then shortly thereafter, she felt great. This a woman that thought she was going to die. Its I mean, shes a Democrat representative, a highly respected woman, African American woman. I dont know if you saw it. You asked a question about African American.
Q I did I did see.
{That's enough. Snip the rest.}
END 7:27 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 7, 2020
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 7, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:43 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Today, we continue to send our love to the great people of New York and New Jersey. We support them fully. We grieve alongside every family who has lost a precious loved one. New Yorkers are tough and strong and brave. New Jerseyites are tough and strong and brave, and theyre being hit very hard right now. And for the next week, hopefully not much longer than that, its going to start to go in the other direction.
Our country is being hit hard, but some areas have done so incredibly well. Were so proud of them. They will beat this virus. Were going to beat it with the grit and the heart for which theyre known and for which our country is known. And we appreciate everything that everybody is doing.
{snip}
On Thursday, Ill be speaking to leaders and advocates from the mental health organizations all across our country. And we are going to be talking about resources and tools that well make available to them. They need help. And its a big problem.
When you take something where it was the most successful country in the world still is the whole world is shut down. Think of it: Were down to numbers that are incredible.
{snip}
The WHO, thats the World Health Organization, receives vast amounts of money from the United States. And we pay for a majority biggest portion of their money. And they actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time I did it. And they were wrong. Theyve been wrong about a lot of things. And they had a lot of information early and they didnt want to theyre very they seem to be very China-centric. And we have to look into that. So were going to look into it.
We pay for we give a majority of the money that they get. And its much more than that the 58. Fifty-eight million dollars is a small portion of what theyve gotten over the years. Sometimes they get much more than that. Sometimes its for programs that theyre doing, and and its much bigger numbers. And if the programs are good, thats great, as far as were concerned.
But we want to look into it World Health Organization because they really are they called it wrong. They called it wrong. They really they missed the call. They could have called it months earlier. They would have known, and they should have known. And they probably did know, so well be looking into that very carefully.
And were going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. Were going to put a very powerful hold on it, and were going to see. Its a great thing if it works, but when they call every shot wrong, thats no good.
Were in the midst of a great national struggle, one that requires the shared sacrifice of all Americans. In recent weeks, its been remarkable to see so many companies and organizations and individuals, like the banks that I just told you about biggest banks in the world. They stepped up to help small business. They have big business, small business. The small business will someday be the big business. But the small business is 50 percent of our economic strength. People dont realize when you add them up, but they just they just rose to the occasion. Everybody is rising to the occasion. Its been incredible to watch.
{snip}
If you look at the original projections: If we did nothing, it would be disastrous. If we we decided to do something. We closed it down; had no choice. It was a good move. That was a good move. The early China move was a good move. The early Europe move was a good move. Made a lot of good moves. But closing it down was a big statement. It was a big, important thing.
{snip}
Steve, please.
Q The Acting Navy Secretary submitted his resignation today Modly. Why did that become necessary? And what what role did you have in this, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I had no role in it. Ive heard I dont know him, but Ive heard he was a very good man. And it was a the whole thing was a very unfortunate the captain should not have written a letter. He didnt have to be Ernest Hemingway. He made a mistake, but he had a bad day. And I hate seeing bad things happen. The man made a mistake.
But, you know, you shouldnt be writing letters and you should youre in the military. Youre the captain of a great ship, and you shouldnt be writing letters and sending them to many people and then it gets out to the media. And, you know, the question is, How did it get out to the media? So theres a lot of bad things happened there.
And I had heard he did because he didnt want to cause any disturbance for our country. So that was a because he wouldnt have had to resign. I would not have asked him. I dont know him. I didnt speak to him. But he did that, I think, just to end end that problem. And I think in one in really many ways, that was a very unselfish thing for him to do.
Q What should happen now to Commander Crozier, who left
THE PRESIDENT: Well, theyre going to look at that. I think Secretary of Defense, as you know, is is you know Mark Esper, and hes very capable. And I think hes looking at that right now. Theyre theyre going to just take it under regular Navy channels to see what they want to do.
But he made a mistake, but he shouldnt have done that. And your Secretary probably shouldnt have said quite what he said. He didnt have to resign, but he felt it would be better for the country. So I you know, I think its it will end it quickly.
Yes, please.
{snip}
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, sir. Did you see these memos that reportedly Peter Navarro wrote back in January? When did you see them? And how does that these memos sort of square with what youve often said that nobody couldve predicted this. It sounds like he was predicting it.
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt see them, but I heard he wrote some memos talking about pandemic. I didnt see them. I didnt look for them either.
But that was about the same time as I felt that we should do it. We that was about the same time that I closed it down. I asked him about it just a little while ago, because I read something about a memo. I said, Did you do a memo? I didnt look for I didnt see it. I didnt ask him to show it to me. He said, Yes, I talked about the possibility of a pandemic. Nobody said its going to happen, but, you know, there is a possibility. There always has been a possibility, but people wouldnt talk about it.
But it was right about the time that I closed it down. And interestingly, the World Health Organization was not in favor of us closing it down. And if we didnt close it down, we would have lost hundreds of thousands more lives. So, we did a good thing. We did a good thing.
Yeah, please.
Q So at the time, though, when when Peter Navarro did circulate those memos, you were still downplaying the threat of coronavirus in the U.S. You were saying things like, I think its a problem thats going to go away within a couple of days.
THE PRESIDENT: Which Im right about. It did go it will go away.
Q You said, Within a couple of days, the cases will be down to zero.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the cases really didnt build up for a while. But you have to understand, Im a cheerleader for this country. I dont want to create havoc and shock and everything else, but ultimately, when I was saying that, Im also closing it down. I obviously was concerned about it because I closed down our country to China, which was heavily infected.
I then closed it down to Europe. Thats a big move closing it down from China and then closing it down from Europe, and then, ultimately, closing it down to the U.K. So and it was right about that time. But Im not going to go out and start screaming, This could happen. This could happen.
So, again, as President, I think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country. But at the same time Im cheerleading, Im also closing down a very highly infected place, specifically the location, as you know, in China that had the problems. And were closing it down, but we closed it down to all of China, then we closed it down to all of Europe. Those were big moves, and it was right about that time.
Q Sir, just a quick just a quick follow-up, Mr. President. Mr. President
Q Can you just clarify: Did you just learned about this today?
THE PRESIDENT: Say it?
Q You learned about the memo today?
THE PRESIDENT: I read about it maybe a day ago, two days ago.
Q You feel like someone in your among your staff or Peter Navarro himself should have told you about the memo earlier?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. It was a recommendation. It was a feeling that he had. I think he told certain people in the staff, but it didnt matter. I didnt see it, but I did I closed it down. I dont remember it even being discussed.
We had a meeting where there were a lot of people. Most people felt they should not close it down that we shouldnt close down to China. But I felt we had to do it. And that was at almost the exact same time as the memo.
Q If you had read the memo at the time, how would that have changed the steps you took or the statements that you made around the time about the dangers of the virus?
THE PRESIDENT: I dont think it wouldve changed, because I did I basically did what the memo said. And the memo was you know, the memo was a pretty good memo, from the standpoint that he talked. I guess, I didnt see it yet.
Q He was seeing that the U.S. would warning that the U.S. could lose trillions of dollars and millions of lives.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, youre not going to lose millions of lives, but youll lose plenty of money. But I couldnt have done it any better because it was about the same time, and I closed it down to China.
Q And just lastly, so you maintain confidence in him, in Peter Navarro?
THE PRESIDENT: Of course, I maintain con- he wrote a memo and he was right. And I havent seen the memo. Ill see it later on after this, but it didnt matter whether I saw it or not, because I I acted on my own. I guess I had the same instincts as Peter. Peter is a smart guy and hes a good guy, and hes done a wonderful job. But he wrote a memo and, I guess, he talked to various people about it.
But ultimately, I did what the memo more or less what the memo said just about the time the memo came out. I closed it down. I took a lot of heat. The World you know Health Organization was very much against. They didnt like it. They actually put out statements about it.
In all fairness to Joe Biden, he called me xenophobic, like I dont like China. I like China. I like the Chinese people are phenomenal people. So, I was called xenophobic, I was called racist. How could I do a thing like this?
Now, since then, Joe said that he was wrong, and he said that I was right. But I closed it down, and I was called names by some of the morning show hosts who dont have a clue what theyre talking about. Theyre not smart people. And I was called all sorts of names when I closed it down to China. Now they try and hide that you know, the tape of them saying terrible things. But that was a great decision.
If I didnt do it if I didnt do that, we wouldve had hundreds of thousands more people dying.
Yeah, please.
Q You talked a lot about the WHO, and I was wondering Dr. Fauci had discussed them earlier, so if I could ask you a question about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he respects the WHO, and I think thats thats good. And hes worked with them for a long time. But they did give us some pretty bad play calling.
Q But theyve also, I think, given lots of countries in the world accurate coronavirus testing thats been central to your guys data modeling. And so, Im
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that, I dont know. I can only say that, with regard to us, theyre taking a lot of heat because they didnt want the borders closed; they called it wrong. They called they really called, I would say, every aspect of it wrong.
Q So say that the funding freeze does not doesnt
THE PRESIDENT: No, Im not happy about it. Look, we fund it. Take a look. I mean, go through step by step. They said theres no big deal, theres no big problem, theres no nothing. And then, ultimately, when I closed it down, they actually said that I made a mistake in closing it down. And it was it turned out to be right. But at the time they you know, they did that.
So were just going to take a look at it. You know, we fund it. And and they seem to be you know, I said recently and social media said, They seem to be very China-centric. Thats a nice way of saying it. But they seem to be very China-centric.
Q But if your public health advisors are telling you
THE PRESIDENT: And they seem to err always on the side of China, and we fund it. You know, so I want to look into it.
Yes, please.
Q Thanks. A quick follow-up on that. So is the time to freeze funding to the WHO during a pandemic of this magnitude?
THE PRESIDENT: No, maybe not. I mean, Im not saying Im going to do it, but were going to look at it.
Q You did say that youre going to
THE PRESIDENT: We give a tremendous
Q You said youd put a hold on it.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didnt. I said were going to look at it. Were going to investigate it. Were going to look at it. But we will look at ending funding.
Q And to
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, because you know what? They called it wrong. And if you look back over the years even, theyre very much everything seems to be very biased toward China. Thats not right.
{snip}
Yeah.
Q Thank you. And my second question from a colleague is: Congressman Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, told the local D.C. CBS station that you personally requested the CARES Act stimulus bill be stripped of $25 billion for the Postal Service. Connolly claims that unless the USPS gets that $25 billion, the agency will be run out of money by June. He accuses you of hastening the demise of the Postal Service. Could you respond to that, please?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the biggest oh, Im the reason the Postal Service the Postal Service has lost billions of dollars every year for many, many years. So Im the demise? This is a new one. Im now the demise of the Postal Service.
Ill tell you whos the demise of the Postal Service are these Internet companies that give their stuff to the Postal Service packages. And I dont know why theyre not you know, I dont run the Postal Service. You have a group of people, so-called independent people, and they run it.
But these packages are they deliver they lose money every time they deliver a package for Amazon or these other Internet companies, these other companies that deliver. They drop everything in the Post Office and they say, You deliver it. And if theyd raise the prices by actually a lot, then youd find out that the Post Office could make money or break even. But they dont do that. And Im trying to figure out why.
These are independent boards. They were appointed by other administrations. Theyre, sort of, long term. Theyre there for a long time. And Ive been talking to them also. You can look it up. Take a look. They should raise they have to raise the prices to these companies that walk in and drop thousands of packages on the floor of the Post Office and say, Deliver it. And they make money, but the Post Office gets killed. Okay? So they ought to do that, and were looking into it. And weve been pushing them now for over a year.
And you know that because youve seen the stories. Im pushing them. Its not fair for them to these great, wonderful, modern companies, they walk into our old Post Office with all these routes that could never be built; you could never build them. They go into areas that you could never do, and they say, Here. Deliver this. And they lose a lot of money per package. And they have to raise their prices, but this Postal Commission doesnt do it. Now, we just got a chance to appoint a couple of people onto the Commission, as I understand it, and thats good. But they have to raise their prices; otherwise, theyre just going to lose a lot of money.
And tell your Democrat friend that he ought to focus on that, because if he focused on that, he could truly save the Post Office. The Post Office has been losing billions of dollars a year for many, many years. And have him take a look at that, because thats the way to solve the problem.
Q Thank you so much, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Please. Go ahead.
Q Thank you so much. Mr. President, you say this week will be very painful, very difficult. But a few weeks ago, you said this was just like a flu. What have you learned
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt say two weeks ago it was a flu.
Q A few weeks ago.
THE PRESIDENT: No you know what? Can I tell you what?
Q The question is, Mr. President, what have you learned
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Ready?
Q that you could offer as advice to foreign leaders who are still skeptical about this pandemic and who are against social distancing? What is your advice? What have you learned?
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. You said I said it was just like a flu.
So the worst pandemic we ever had in this world was a flu, and it was called you know that. It was in 1917, 1918. And anywhere from 50- to 100 million people died. That was a flu, okay? So, you could say that I said it was a flu or you could say the flu is nothing to sneeze at.
Q But my question, Mr. President: What can you offer as advice to foreign leaders who are skeptical about this pandemic and who are against social distancing?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there arent too many of them. If you look throughout the world, and everyone just about everyone that has practiced that is now closing up. Well, the U.K. was an example.
Now, they talk about Sweden, but Sweden is suffering very gravely. You know that, right? Sweden did that. The herd. They call it the herd. Sweden is suffering very, very badly. Its a way of doing it, but the you know, everybody has been watching everybody else. And so far, almost every country has done it the way weve done it weve chosen to do it. If we didnt do it that way, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people. Okay?
Q Mr. President, theres voting going on today in Wisconsin. There were reports of thousands of people waiting in hours-long lines as theyve had to weigh their own personal health and their civic responsibility. What do think that the Supreme Court was right in its decision, sir, that voting should go forward and that the absentee extension should not take place?
THE PRESIDENT: Of course they were right. Yeah. Look, the Supreme Court well, of course they were right, because what the Democrats wanted and you know why this happened. I supported a man named Justice Kelly, whos Daniel Kelly, highly respected justice. And I supported him just the other day social media. I know of him. Hes a just a, you know, fantastic judge, justice. And I endorsed him.
And as soon as I endorsed him, they wanted to move the election. They didnt want to move the election. As soon as I endorsed him, the Wisconsin Democrats say, Oh, lets move the election to two months later. They didnt mind having the election until I endorsed him, which is very interesting.
Now they talk about, Oh, safety, safety. Well, it was 15 minutes after I put out an endorsement that they said, We have to move the election. They didnt want to move the election before that. The other thing they wanted to do which is crazy at the end of the election, they wanted to have one week for proxies to come in or mailed ballots.
Now, mail ballots they cheat. Okay? People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because theyre cheaters. They go and collect them. Theyre fraudulent in many cases. You got to vote. And they should have voter ID, by the way. If you want to really do it right, you have voter ID.
But the Democrats and this was turned over in the Supreme Court yesterday; I give great credit to the court they actually didnt want to have an Election Day. They wanted to have Election Day, and then a week after Election Day, you choose your cand- but all of these ballots come in. These mailed ballots come in. The mailed ballots are corrupt, in my opinion. And they collect them, and they get people to go in and sign them. And then they theyre forgeries in many cases. Its a horrible thing.
And so what happened is, the Democrats in Wisconsin, they had no problem with the election being today, until I endorsed the Republican candidate, Justice Kelly Daniel Kelly. And as soon as I endorsed him, they went crazy. They went crazy. And you know thats true. And now all of a sudden
Because go back two weeks, go back two days: They didnt want to move the election. They were having the election. They were fine because they thought they were going to win the election. Then I endorsed him, and all of a sudden they think theyre not. Now I understand there are lines that go back a long way. I hope theyre going to vote for Justice Kelly. Okay?
Q Mr. President
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
Q With millions of pills of hydroxychloroquine donated, is there a plan or system in place
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q to track the potential side effects?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q There have been reports
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you saw the representative
Q of serious harm.
THE PRESIDENT: Look look, is there a plan that
Q So is there a plan to track the side effects of the clinical trials?
THE PRESIDENT: The side effects? The side effects are the least of it. You have people dying all over the place. And generally, the side effects are really with the Z-Pak having to do with the heart. The Z-Pak thats the antibiotic. Not with the hydroxychloroquine.
So, a woman last night I watched her on one of the shows a good show; Laura and she was she thought she was dead. She was a representative from Michigan. She was just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. She thought she was dead. I think she said that her doctor said shes you know, its going to be very tough.
She saw me talking about this, and she asked her husband to go to the drugstore. Now, this is a Democrat representative a person that, you know, perhaps wouldnt be voting for me. I think shell be voting for me now, even if shes a Democrat, even if shes a Democrat representative.
And they went to the store which I made available, because we have millions of doses. We have, I think, 29 million doses of this drug. And she asked her husband. She said, Please go out. Im not going to make it. You have to hear her story. Please go out. Get it. He went at 10 oclock in the evening to the drugstore. He got it. He gave it to her.
Now, you know, its I dont say it works like this at all. Four hours later, she awoke and she said, I feel better. And then shortly thereafter, she felt great. This a woman that thought she was going to die. Its I mean, shes a Democrat representative, a highly respected woman, African American woman. I dont know if you saw it. You asked a question about African American.
Q I did I did see.
{That's enough. Snip the rest.}
END 7:27 P.M. EDT
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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-07-2020 (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
Apr 2020
OP
kacekwl
(7,017 posts)1. The man is illiterate. The only thing
worse is a lying, ignorant , narcissistic, compromised illiterate.