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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-18-2020
We have mourning the likes of which you've never seen.
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 18, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:09 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It’s been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago.
Dr. Birx will walk through some of these trends in a few moments, but they’re very positive trends for winning. Going to win. We’re going to close it out.
While we mourn the tragic loss of life — and you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it — the United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany. And I think we’re as good or better.
On a per capita basis — remember that: On a per capita basis, our mortality rate is far lower than other nations of Western Europe, with the lone exception of possibly Germany. This includes the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France. Spain, for example, has a mortality rate that is nearly four times that of the United States, but you don’t hear that. You hear we have more death. But we’re much bigger countries than any of those countries by far.
So when the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one — but we’re not number one; China is number one, just so you understand. China is number one by a lot. It’s not even close. They’re way ahead of us in terms of death. It’s not even close. You know it. I know it. And they know it. But you don’t want to report it. Why? You’ll have to explain that. Someday I’ll explain it.
{snip}
Throughout this crisis, my administration has taken unprecedented actions to rush economic relief to our citizens. As an example, you don’t hear anymore about ventilators. What happened to the ventilators? And now they’re giving you the other; it’s called “testing.” Testing. But they don’t want to use all of the capacity that we’ve created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that; they’re the ones that are complaining.
{snip}
So, again, we have tremendous testing capacity. Now, a lot of people like the Abbott test that we came up with. Abbott is a brand-new technology, brand-new test. It’s great. It’s five minutes, boom, you put it in. And we’re making thousands of machines. Abbott is making thousands and thousands of machines. But not everybody is going to get that one, but they’re going to get others. We have numerous platforms which we’ll talk about in a minute.
Unfortunately, some partisan voices are attempting to politicize the issue of testing, which they shouldn’t be doing, because I inherited broken junk. Just as they did with ventilators where we had virtually none, and the hospitals were empty. For the most part, the hospitals didn’t have ventilators. We had to take care of the whole country, and we did a job, the likes of which nobody — we assembled an army of young, brilliant people. For the most part, young; a couple of older ones. But for the most part, they were young, brilliant geniuses that did a job like nobody would believe. I wish you could have seen it. Around the clock.
And now the rest of the world is coming to us, asking if we could help them with ventilators because they’re very complicated, very expensive. They’re very hard to build. And we have them coming in by the thousands. But you don’t hear that from even the governors. Nobody is complaining about ventilators. And if there was a surge, we could have ventilators to them within hours, because we have in stockpile almost 10,000 ventilators.
You don’t hear about hospital beds. When I first started, everyone was talking, “Oh, hospitals beds. Hospitals beds.” The governor of New York correctly asked me for hospital beds, and we got the Army Corps of Engineers out, and they built them. He needed them. I mean, he — we went — I know he said that we were projecting. We’re not projecting New York. We’re listening to the governors. He wanted them. He needed them. And we gave him thousands of beds in Javits Center. We brought the ship. And then the ship, we had it converted to COVID-19. And that was a big deal, by the way, because of ventilation and all the things we had to do. But we did.
{snip}
And, as we go along, just like with ventilators, we’ll get better, more advanced, and, you know, it’ll be — we’ll be able to do things that nobody would have even believed possible. But we started off with a broken system. We inherited a broken, terrible system.
And I always say it: Our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile. Now we’re loaded up. And we also loaded up these hospitals. And, you know, we’re talking about payment. We gave billions of dollars’ worth of things to hospitals, and we’ll have to work that out at some point. In fact, I guess they’re going to be working that out with Congress.
But we loaded up hospitals. The federal government loaded up hospitals with things to take care of people that are very desperately — we’re not — we weren’t worried about payment at that time. We said, “You’ll take care of it at the right time.”
But we gave billions and billions and billions of dollars’ worth of medical goods and medicines and equipment to hospitals. And we’ll — we’ll work it out with them. But people don’t like to talk about that.
So we have done a job that nobody believed — this was a military and private enterprises march. We marched — and, unfortunately, with the other side, because they’re viewing it as an election. “How did President Trump do?” “Oh, he did, uh, terribly. Let’s see. He did — uh, yeah, he did terribly.” “Oh.” But we just got them the ventilators that they didn’t have, that they should have had. We just got them hospital beds by the thousands. We just got them testing that they don’t even know how to use. In some cases, they have machines that they’re only using 5 percent and 10 percent of the machine, because they have an advanced machine and they don’t know how to use it. It can use — it can do much more. So we’ve had people explain how to use it.
So, I don’t know, I don’t think I do that on the other side. I don’t — I really don’t. I think that here we have a crisis that we have to work together, and I hope we’re going to work together. But we’re moving along, and we’re moving along well. We’re moving along well.
This should not be a partisan witch hunt — you know? — like the Russia hunt that turned out to be a total phony deal. Unfortunately, some of these voices, though, are attempting to — to bring this into politics. And whether it’s testing or ventilators or hospital beds, or other dimensions of our sweeping public health response — we have had a sweeping response.
{snip}
The media has been — some very honest, but some very dishonest. You know that. You know that. I mean, I even read a story where Mark Meadows — a tough guy — he was crying; he was crying. This was a Maggie Haberman. You know, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Russia, but she was wrong on Russia. So was everyone else. They should all give back their Pulitzer Prizes.
In fact, it turned out that the crime was committed by the other side. The crime was not committed by this side; it was committed by the other side — a bunch of bad people. You saw the reports coming out over the last two weeks. They got caught. So Maggie Haberman gets a Pulitzer Prize? She’s a third-rate reporter. New York Times.
And we put her name up here last week. You saw that. People thought it was a commercial. It wasn’t a commercial. It was like a commercial, but it wasn’t a commercial. It was just clips. And because we exposed her as being a bad reporter, what happened is she came out and said Mark Meadows was crying. And they made it sound — I said, “Mark” — and it’s okay if he did. I wouldn’t — you know, look. But I think he was crying probably — really, for the wrong reason they had it down. But he’s not a crier. And if he was — I know criers. I could tell you people that you know that are very famous. They cry, and that’s okay too.
But it was a nasty story in so many ways. It was fake news. And she only did it because we exposed her for being a terrible, dishonest reporter. She is. I’ve known her for a long while. I haven’t spoken to her in a long time. I made the mistake: I take a picture with her at the desk, a long time ago. Every time she does a story, if I say — I haven’t spoken to her in long — many, many, many months, maybe years. I don’t speak to her. She’s fake. A lot of people are fake. A lot of people We got a lot of fake people.
But what happens is she writes this story as retribution. Puts it in the New York Times. And the New York Times is a very dishonest newspaper. It’s my opinion. It’s not an opinion. It’s actually, from my standpoint — you know, the very hard thing to figure, though: Most people wouldn’t know that, but I know it because I know the facts.
And they make up — I said it today; they make up words. “Sources say…” Most often used: “Sources say…” You know what “sources say” means? “Sources say” means they have nobody. And they make it up. Okay?
And they have a few other type statements that mean the same thing. But “sources say” is the most often-used express- — in the Washington Post; New York Times, especially; CNN — fake news. CNN.
They should really be mandated, and I mean mandated to use a name. If there’s a source, use a name. Say that Kayleigh — “Kayleigh McEnany said…” or somebody. And you’d find out that the — number one, the source wouldn’t say it. The sources don’t exist. I don’t believe the sources exist.
And I try and tell this — you know, the beautiful thing about doing these conferences is that we have tremendous numbers of viewers, and I’m able to reach the viewers without having to go through fake news, where they make a good story into a bad story.
So, with all of that, it’s been an incredible period of time. We’ve done a fantastic job. We’re the talk of other nations. The leaders of other nations are calling us for help. They’re calling us for equipment. They’re calling us for testing capacities.
Now, with the testing, we are going further. Deborah is going to talk about that now. With the testing, we have some other tests coming up that are going to be, I think, phenomenal. I think they’re going to blow away everything as soon as they come out, and we’re going to get them out as soon as possible.
But I’d like to ask Dr. Birx to come up and say a few words about where we’ve come, how far we’ve come, and more importantly, where we’re going from this point. Because honestly, it’s — it’s quite amazing. Thank you very much.
{snip}
Q Thank you, sir. You’ve spoken — we heard Dr. Birx, a moment ago, say that every country has a responsibility to tell the rest of the world what’s going on. You’ve talked repeatedly about how this could have been stopped in the past. I know you don’t want to telegraph what you would do, but do you think that there should be some consequences if, in the end, you know, China was responsible for all of this?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they were knowingly responsible, certainly. If they did — if it was a mistake: a mistake is a mistake. But if it were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You’re talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody has seen since 1917.
And, you know, the other thing, had we not done what we did in terms of closing — because there is that concept of, “Let’s let it ride.” But I’m — at some point, I’m going to have to — I don’t want to embarrass countries that I like and leaders that I like, but you have to see some of these numbers.
In my opinion — so we’re talking about maybe 60,000 or so; that’s a lot of people. But that’s — 100,000 was the minimum we thought that we could get to, and we — we will be lower than that number. Anywhere from 100 to 220,000 people. But I really believe it could have been millions of people had we not done what we did. We made a lot of good decisions, but one of those things.
Go ahead.
Q But have you ruled out that this was an unknowing situation? Have you ruled out that there was —
THE PRESIDENT: I haven’t ruled out anything.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: I want to look at the facts as they come in. No, I want to look at the facts.
Please. Go ahead.
Q Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Last week, you claimed that you were in charge of everything. Yet, the American people don’t understand why you’re unwilling to use the awesome powers of your presidency to make American companies manufacture the PPE and also the testing equipment that you need —
THE PRESIDENT: Who are with?
Q — to implement — to implement your recommendations —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know, but who are you with?
Q — of how — I’m with TMN. Recommendations for —
THE PRESIDENT: TMN. What is TMN?
Q Talk Media News.
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q My name is Doug Christian with Talk Media News. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Talk Media News.
Q Yeah. And so anyway —
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Keep reading your question.
Q The thing is, how to make companies build these testing equipment so that you can do what you want or what you recommended.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re doing that. We’re doing — we’re doing it. We’re doing it right now with ventilators. We have General Motors. We have General Electric. We have 11 different companies — great companies — building them for us all over the United States. We’re starting to make our own gowns, as they call it. We’re making some incredible things.
And as far as the testing is concerned, most of that now is done in the United States. We’re doing it in the United States on different platforms.
And so I just don’t think you were listening.
Q But senators who are complaining to —
THE PRESIDENT: Which senators?
Q — to Vice President Pence yesterday —
THE PRESIDENT: Which senators? Which senators?
Q Well, independent Senator Angus King was —
THE PRESIDENT: But he’s not an independent, okay? Angus King is worse than any Democrat.
Go ahead.
Q But he — but he said that he was — that he was livid, actually, at this —
THE PRESIDENT: Of course he said that, because he’s a — he’s a Democrat. Okay? Angus King is not an independent. He uses that term for whatever reason. It’s a waste of time.
Q But he’s not a very emotive-type of senator.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, he is. You haven’t seen him. Okay? You haven’t seen him. No, Angus King is a Democrat, and that was totally staged. I heard that, and it was totally staged. Just like you read the question, he read his question.
Yeah, please, in the back.
{snip}
Yes, please, go ahead. In the back.
Q And I just want to ask —
THE PRESIDENT: Let’s go.
Q — if the Department of Justice will, in fact, support —
Q Jenn Pellegrino with OAN.
THE PRESIDENT: OAN, please.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: OAN.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. The Paycheck Protection Program saved an estimated 15 million jobs. It’s run out of money. The Democrats — specifically Nancy Pelosi — have been blocking that funding.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Do you know why Speaker Pelosi is dragging her feet on that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, she thinks it’s politics. I don’t think it’s good politics. Nancy Pelosi has been blocking it. Schumer has been blocking it. And I think they think it’s good politics. I don’t think it’s good politics; I think it’s bad politics. But I don’t care about the politics.
It’s so great for our country because we’re going to have all of these companies that are — you know, it’s a bigger employer — let’s say it’s the same, but essentially, it’s the same power — all of these small businesses added together — as the big companies. It’s about 50/50. And it’s so important. And they would be scattered if we weren’t able to do what we’re doing.
And, essentially, we’re giving these small businesses that won’t make it — they can’t because they’re closed — we’re giving them money to take care of their employees, so when we open, they can get back into business. It’s been a very popular plan, even with Democrats. I think it basically passed unanimously twice — the first section — which is $350 billion. So we’re trying to get $250 [billion].
Nancy Pelosi is blocking it. She sits in her house in San Francisco, overlooking the ocean, and she doesn’t want to come back. She doesn’t want to come back. She doesn’t want to come back to D.C. She’s got to get back and get this thing approved. It’s very important.
Please. Go ahead.
{snip}
Yes, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned the importance of social distancing, but, for example, Stephen Moore — someone you appointed to your “Open the Country” task force — is organizing a protest in Wisconsin. But aren’t they, in a sense, protesting your very own guidelines?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have a flexibility. I didn’t see what Stephen said. I can tell you he’s a very good economist. He’s been calling shots right —
Q Well, he said — he said — sorry, he said, “We need to be the Rosa Parks of government injustices.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there is a lot of injustice. When you look at Virginia, where they want to take your guns away, they want to violate your Second Amendment; when you look at — I mean, look, I’m getting along very nicely with the governor of Michigan, but she has things — don’t buy paint, don’t buy roses, don’t buy — I mean, she’s got all these crazy things. I really believe somebody sitting in their boat, in a lake, should be okay. They shouldn’t arrest people. Some of them are being unreasonable. I really believe that. They’re being unreasonable.
But I think Virginia is a great case, though, because they’re using this — they’re trying to take your guns away in Virginia. And if people in Virginia aren’t — aren’t careful, that’s what’s going to happen to them.
So, yeah, I mean, I could see where he’s coming from. I think it’s a strong statement — a strong statement — because hopefully this will be over very soon for all of us. But some have gotten carried away. They have absolutely gotten carried away.
Q Do you feel, though, some of these protesters are protesting your social distancing guidelines?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I mean, I notice there were a lot of protests out there. And I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away.
You know, we have a lot of people that don’t have to be told to do what they’re doing. They’ve been really doing everything we’ve asked them. We have a few states where, frankly, I spoke to the governors and I could have gotten them to do — if I wanted — to do what would have been, perhaps, politically correct. But they’ve been doing incredibly anyway.
And as one of them said, everybody is doing exactly the same. In fact, our record is better than states where they’re under a mandate or, you know, where they’ve agreed to do certain things.
No, we have some great states out there, and we have incredible people in our country. And for the most part, that — it’s a strong statement, but I understand where he’s coming from.
And I think one of the greats would be — one of the really important places that people really have to start looking at is what’s going on in Virginia, because that’s a mess, where the gover- — with, really, a governor that’s under siege anyway.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: No, with the beautiful head of white hair. Go ahead. I’ll tell you if I like his hair in about a minute, after he asks the question.
Q Gordon Lubold with the Wall Street Journal. On that point though, does the tweeting about, in the case of Virginia, linking the Second Amendment to some of these issues about lifting some of these restrictions in these states —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — not — potentially pose concern for the governors and civil unrest, and potentially in those cases?
And I have a second question for you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, just for that question, I think that’s an easy one. That’s not even politics. We’re entitled to a Second Amendment, and he’s trying to take the Second Amendment. Meaning, that state is trying to take — the Democrats in that state — the Republicans are fighting it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: They’re trying to take that — that Second Amendment right — that Second Amendment right away. To me, that’s liberty. That’s — when I say, “liberate Virginia,” I would say, liberate Virginia when that kind of thing happens. And where does it all stop? So I think it’s a very good analogy.
Go ahead.
Q Well, I’m just — I mean, is this the right time to, kind of, bring in a Second Amendment issue (inaudible) —
THE PRESIDENT: I think when they talk about taking your guns away — and if you notice, at the beginning of this pandemic, there were more guns sold, I think, than at almost any time in history, because — so it’s obviously a big issue. And then you have them working and signing documents, trying to take your — your Second Amendment away, essentially. So I do think it’s an appropriate time to bring it up.
{snip}
Look, if I wasn’t elected, you would, right now, be at war with North Korea. Okay? I’ll tell you, for your people that don’t understand the world and they don’t understand how life works: If I wasn’t elected, you would, right now — maybe the war would be over, hopefully with a victory.
But if you remember, when I first came in, we didn’t have ammunition. Not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition. Okay? And he left us virtually no medical and ventilators. He left us — the cupboard was dry, right? The cupboard was dry.
No, I think, right now, you’d be at war, essentially — in some form — it would be over, it would be raging — with North Korea, if I weren’t President. And we’re doing just fine with North Korea. Just fine. We’ll see how it all ends up.
You know, in the meantime, they said, “Oh, Trump has given up.” And then they said “Oh, really, what’s he given up?” And they said, “I don’t know.” Then they said, “He met.” Oh, I met. I met.
No, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. That’s not a bad thing to have a good relationship. Obama wanted a relationship; he wouldn’t meet with Obama. Wouldn’t meet with him. Okay? I have a good relationship with him. We met at the line. I stepped over the line. The first time anything like that’s ever — it’s all good. It’s just — it’s good.
But when they say — the stupid people — I call them “stupid people” or “the haters.” They say, “Trump has given up so much.” Really? I’ve actually increased the sanctions. China has been very good on the border. In fact, right now, the border is stone-cold closed between China and North Korea.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Iran? When I came in, Iran was a terror. We had 82 points of fighting. We had 18 points of major confliction. The first week, I said, “Tell me about Iran.” “Sir, we have 18 points of confliction.” Meaning, Yemen and Syria and all — Iraq. They were going into Iraq all over the place. They’re a much a different nation right now. I stopped that horrible deal. Horrible deal.
And they want to talk, except that Kerry violated the Logan Act. He made the deal, and doesn’t want them to make a deal because — I would have made a deal, in my opinion, except that John Kerry, when he — who made the deal originally, which was a stupid deal to make. Gave them $150 billion. Gave 1.8 billion in cash, in green. That would be more than this room, 10 times, with hundred-dollar bills. That you could fill up this room 10 times with hundred-dollar bills. And it’s not that small a room.
And I say he violated the Logan Act. I think it was a major violation. I think we would have had a deal if it wasn’t for John Kerry. But he doesn’t want to be, number one, embarrassed. Number two, he said, “Let’s wait until after the election. Maybe Sleep Joe Biden is going to win. And if Sleep Joe Biden wins, you’ll own the United States.”
And China will own the United States. China has paid us — you know, from the Wall Street Journal — hundreds of billions of dollars — is that right? — tariffs. And we gave a lot of that money — a small percentage — but a lot of money to the farmers, and it kept the farmers going great. All right? But hundreds — we get — we’re getting tens of billions of dollars in tariffs.
And, by the way, for those of you that say, “Oh we’re paying,” China devalued their currency in order to pay these. We didn’t pay. China paid. They don’t like to write that. They also added money into their system. So they paid for that.
No, I think you have numerous countries waiting to see whether or not Sleepy Joe wins, because if Sleepy Joe won, they own our country. They will take our country.
You know, we had — go back two months — we had, by far — and China was supposed to catch us. You know better than anybody, Wall Street Journal. For years, I’ve heard, “By 2019, China will catch us.” There’s only one problem: Trump got elected in 2016. That was a big difference. And we were going leaps and bounds above China.
And before the problem with the plague — right? — China was having the worst year they’ve had in 67 years. That was before the plague. Now they’re getting really hurt, and so is everybody getting hurt. I don’t want them to get hurt, but they’re all getting hurt. Everybody is getting hurt. It’s a horrible thing that’s happened. But we had the greatest economy in the world, by far. China isn’t even close — go back two months — and we’re going to keep it that way.
But when you mention Iran, Iran is a much different country than it was. When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East. Right now, they just want to survive. They’re having protests every week. They’re loaded up with the plague — which I don’t want; I’ve offered to help them if they want. If they need ventilators, which they do, I would send them ventilators. We have thousands of excess ventilators coming in and here.
We have a stockpile of ventilators, and we’re starting to send them so that hospitals can fill up their stockpile, which they should have. New York had a chance to get 16,000 ventilators, and they chose not to do it. And I understand that. It’s a hard decision for a thing that may or may not happen. I fully understand that. I’m not even complaining about that.
I’m only saying this: Iran was a terror when I came into office. Right now, they don’t want to mess around with us. They don’t want to mess around with us.
Two things: North Korea, same sanctions we’ve always had, except more. We haven’t given anything. I think you’ll hopefully take that back to the Wall Street Journal, because they really don’t understand it. They really don’t.
And with — with Iran, I mean, that’s a different country right now. And they want to make a deal. The only reason they don’t — they’re being shamed in, because the guy that gave them the sweetheart, didn’t want to. Met with them many times. He should have never met with them. And in my opinion, he’s telling them, “Don’t. Wait. Maybe Trump will lose and then you can negotiate with a patsy, with a weak guy. And you’ll take over the — between you and Russia…” Nobody has been tougher on Putin. He knows it better than anybody. Nobody been tougher on Putin than me. Look at the sanctions.
Look at what I did with their pipeline going into Europe. Nobody even knew about it. I exposed it. Now everybody talks about it. I think it’s a terrible thing for Germany to do.
But at the same time, I have a very good relationship with Putin, and I was able to get — I was able to make a deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia and OPEC Plus. They call “OPEC Plus.” That’s going to save us Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, other states, energy states. Going to save us hundreds of thousands of jobs.
And, in fact, your paper wrote an incredible editorial, for a change, that “Trump made a great deal for our country.” That was a nice thing. I was shocked to see it coming out of the Wall Street Journal.
Thank you all very much. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much.
END
6:16 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 18, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:09 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It’s been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago.
Dr. Birx will walk through some of these trends in a few moments, but they’re very positive trends for winning. Going to win. We’re going to close it out.
While we mourn the tragic loss of life — and you can’t mourn it any stronger than we’re mourning it — the United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany. And I think we’re as good or better.
On a per capita basis — remember that: On a per capita basis, our mortality rate is far lower than other nations of Western Europe, with the lone exception of possibly Germany. This includes the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France. Spain, for example, has a mortality rate that is nearly four times that of the United States, but you don’t hear that. You hear we have more death. But we’re much bigger countries than any of those countries by far.
So when the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one — but we’re not number one; China is number one, just so you understand. China is number one by a lot. It’s not even close. They’re way ahead of us in terms of death. It’s not even close. You know it. I know it. And they know it. But you don’t want to report it. Why? You’ll have to explain that. Someday I’ll explain it.
{snip}
Throughout this crisis, my administration has taken unprecedented actions to rush economic relief to our citizens. As an example, you don’t hear anymore about ventilators. What happened to the ventilators? And now they’re giving you the other; it’s called “testing.” Testing. But they don’t want to use all of the capacity that we’ve created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that; they’re the ones that are complaining.
{snip}
So, again, we have tremendous testing capacity. Now, a lot of people like the Abbott test that we came up with. Abbott is a brand-new technology, brand-new test. It’s great. It’s five minutes, boom, you put it in. And we’re making thousands of machines. Abbott is making thousands and thousands of machines. But not everybody is going to get that one, but they’re going to get others. We have numerous platforms which we’ll talk about in a minute.
Unfortunately, some partisan voices are attempting to politicize the issue of testing, which they shouldn’t be doing, because I inherited broken junk. Just as they did with ventilators where we had virtually none, and the hospitals were empty. For the most part, the hospitals didn’t have ventilators. We had to take care of the whole country, and we did a job, the likes of which nobody — we assembled an army of young, brilliant people. For the most part, young; a couple of older ones. But for the most part, they were young, brilliant geniuses that did a job like nobody would believe. I wish you could have seen it. Around the clock.
And now the rest of the world is coming to us, asking if we could help them with ventilators because they’re very complicated, very expensive. They’re very hard to build. And we have them coming in by the thousands. But you don’t hear that from even the governors. Nobody is complaining about ventilators. And if there was a surge, we could have ventilators to them within hours, because we have in stockpile almost 10,000 ventilators.
You don’t hear about hospital beds. When I first started, everyone was talking, “Oh, hospitals beds. Hospitals beds.” The governor of New York correctly asked me for hospital beds, and we got the Army Corps of Engineers out, and they built them. He needed them. I mean, he — we went — I know he said that we were projecting. We’re not projecting New York. We’re listening to the governors. He wanted them. He needed them. And we gave him thousands of beds in Javits Center. We brought the ship. And then the ship, we had it converted to COVID-19. And that was a big deal, by the way, because of ventilation and all the things we had to do. But we did.
{snip}
And, as we go along, just like with ventilators, we’ll get better, more advanced, and, you know, it’ll be — we’ll be able to do things that nobody would have even believed possible. But we started off with a broken system. We inherited a broken, terrible system.
And I always say it: Our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile. Now we’re loaded up. And we also loaded up these hospitals. And, you know, we’re talking about payment. We gave billions of dollars’ worth of things to hospitals, and we’ll have to work that out at some point. In fact, I guess they’re going to be working that out with Congress.
But we loaded up hospitals. The federal government loaded up hospitals with things to take care of people that are very desperately — we’re not — we weren’t worried about payment at that time. We said, “You’ll take care of it at the right time.”
But we gave billions and billions and billions of dollars’ worth of medical goods and medicines and equipment to hospitals. And we’ll — we’ll work it out with them. But people don’t like to talk about that.
So we have done a job that nobody believed — this was a military and private enterprises march. We marched — and, unfortunately, with the other side, because they’re viewing it as an election. “How did President Trump do?” “Oh, he did, uh, terribly. Let’s see. He did — uh, yeah, he did terribly.” “Oh.” But we just got them the ventilators that they didn’t have, that they should have had. We just got them hospital beds by the thousands. We just got them testing that they don’t even know how to use. In some cases, they have machines that they’re only using 5 percent and 10 percent of the machine, because they have an advanced machine and they don’t know how to use it. It can use — it can do much more. So we’ve had people explain how to use it.
So, I don’t know, I don’t think I do that on the other side. I don’t — I really don’t. I think that here we have a crisis that we have to work together, and I hope we’re going to work together. But we’re moving along, and we’re moving along well. We’re moving along well.
This should not be a partisan witch hunt — you know? — like the Russia hunt that turned out to be a total phony deal. Unfortunately, some of these voices, though, are attempting to — to bring this into politics. And whether it’s testing or ventilators or hospital beds, or other dimensions of our sweeping public health response — we have had a sweeping response.
{snip}
The media has been — some very honest, but some very dishonest. You know that. You know that. I mean, I even read a story where Mark Meadows — a tough guy — he was crying; he was crying. This was a Maggie Haberman. You know, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Russia, but she was wrong on Russia. So was everyone else. They should all give back their Pulitzer Prizes.
In fact, it turned out that the crime was committed by the other side. The crime was not committed by this side; it was committed by the other side — a bunch of bad people. You saw the reports coming out over the last two weeks. They got caught. So Maggie Haberman gets a Pulitzer Prize? She’s a third-rate reporter. New York Times.
And we put her name up here last week. You saw that. People thought it was a commercial. It wasn’t a commercial. It was like a commercial, but it wasn’t a commercial. It was just clips. And because we exposed her as being a bad reporter, what happened is she came out and said Mark Meadows was crying. And they made it sound — I said, “Mark” — and it’s okay if he did. I wouldn’t — you know, look. But I think he was crying probably — really, for the wrong reason they had it down. But he’s not a crier. And if he was — I know criers. I could tell you people that you know that are very famous. They cry, and that’s okay too.
But it was a nasty story in so many ways. It was fake news. And she only did it because we exposed her for being a terrible, dishonest reporter. She is. I’ve known her for a long while. I haven’t spoken to her in a long time. I made the mistake: I take a picture with her at the desk, a long time ago. Every time she does a story, if I say — I haven’t spoken to her in long — many, many, many months, maybe years. I don’t speak to her. She’s fake. A lot of people are fake. A lot of people We got a lot of fake people.
But what happens is she writes this story as retribution. Puts it in the New York Times. And the New York Times is a very dishonest newspaper. It’s my opinion. It’s not an opinion. It’s actually, from my standpoint — you know, the very hard thing to figure, though: Most people wouldn’t know that, but I know it because I know the facts.
And they make up — I said it today; they make up words. “Sources say…” Most often used: “Sources say…” You know what “sources say” means? “Sources say” means they have nobody. And they make it up. Okay?
And they have a few other type statements that mean the same thing. But “sources say” is the most often-used express- — in the Washington Post; New York Times, especially; CNN — fake news. CNN.
They should really be mandated, and I mean mandated to use a name. If there’s a source, use a name. Say that Kayleigh — “Kayleigh McEnany said…” or somebody. And you’d find out that the — number one, the source wouldn’t say it. The sources don’t exist. I don’t believe the sources exist.
And I try and tell this — you know, the beautiful thing about doing these conferences is that we have tremendous numbers of viewers, and I’m able to reach the viewers without having to go through fake news, where they make a good story into a bad story.
So, with all of that, it’s been an incredible period of time. We’ve done a fantastic job. We’re the talk of other nations. The leaders of other nations are calling us for help. They’re calling us for equipment. They’re calling us for testing capacities.
Now, with the testing, we are going further. Deborah is going to talk about that now. With the testing, we have some other tests coming up that are going to be, I think, phenomenal. I think they’re going to blow away everything as soon as they come out, and we’re going to get them out as soon as possible.
But I’d like to ask Dr. Birx to come up and say a few words about where we’ve come, how far we’ve come, and more importantly, where we’re going from this point. Because honestly, it’s — it’s quite amazing. Thank you very much.
{snip}
Q Thank you, sir. You’ve spoken — we heard Dr. Birx, a moment ago, say that every country has a responsibility to tell the rest of the world what’s going on. You’ve talked repeatedly about how this could have been stopped in the past. I know you don’t want to telegraph what you would do, but do you think that there should be some consequences if, in the end, you know, China was responsible for all of this?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they were knowingly responsible, certainly. If they did — if it was a mistake: a mistake is a mistake. But if it were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You’re talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody has seen since 1917.
And, you know, the other thing, had we not done what we did in terms of closing — because there is that concept of, “Let’s let it ride.” But I’m — at some point, I’m going to have to — I don’t want to embarrass countries that I like and leaders that I like, but you have to see some of these numbers.
In my opinion — so we’re talking about maybe 60,000 or so; that’s a lot of people. But that’s — 100,000 was the minimum we thought that we could get to, and we — we will be lower than that number. Anywhere from 100 to 220,000 people. But I really believe it could have been millions of people had we not done what we did. We made a lot of good decisions, but one of those things.
Go ahead.
Q But have you ruled out that this was an unknowing situation? Have you ruled out that there was —
THE PRESIDENT: I haven’t ruled out anything.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: I want to look at the facts as they come in. No, I want to look at the facts.
Please. Go ahead.
Q Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Last week, you claimed that you were in charge of everything. Yet, the American people don’t understand why you’re unwilling to use the awesome powers of your presidency to make American companies manufacture the PPE and also the testing equipment that you need —
THE PRESIDENT: Who are with?
Q — to implement — to implement your recommendations —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know, but who are you with?
Q — of how — I’m with TMN. Recommendations for —
THE PRESIDENT: TMN. What is TMN?
Q Talk Media News.
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q My name is Doug Christian with Talk Media News. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Talk Media News.
Q Yeah. And so anyway —
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Keep reading your question.
Q The thing is, how to make companies build these testing equipment so that you can do what you want or what you recommended.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re doing that. We’re doing — we’re doing it. We’re doing it right now with ventilators. We have General Motors. We have General Electric. We have 11 different companies — great companies — building them for us all over the United States. We’re starting to make our own gowns, as they call it. We’re making some incredible things.
And as far as the testing is concerned, most of that now is done in the United States. We’re doing it in the United States on different platforms.
And so I just don’t think you were listening.
Q But senators who are complaining to —
THE PRESIDENT: Which senators?
Q — to Vice President Pence yesterday —
THE PRESIDENT: Which senators? Which senators?
Q Well, independent Senator Angus King was —
THE PRESIDENT: But he’s not an independent, okay? Angus King is worse than any Democrat.
Go ahead.
Q But he — but he said that he was — that he was livid, actually, at this —
THE PRESIDENT: Of course he said that, because he’s a — he’s a Democrat. Okay? Angus King is not an independent. He uses that term for whatever reason. It’s a waste of time.
Q But he’s not a very emotive-type of senator.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, he is. You haven’t seen him. Okay? You haven’t seen him. No, Angus King is a Democrat, and that was totally staged. I heard that, and it was totally staged. Just like you read the question, he read his question.
Yeah, please, in the back.
{snip}
Yes, please, go ahead. In the back.
Q And I just want to ask —
THE PRESIDENT: Let’s go.
Q — if the Department of Justice will, in fact, support —
Q Jenn Pellegrino with OAN.
THE PRESIDENT: OAN, please.
Q Okay.
THE PRESIDENT: OAN.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. The Paycheck Protection Program saved an estimated 15 million jobs. It’s run out of money. The Democrats — specifically Nancy Pelosi — have been blocking that funding.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Do you know why Speaker Pelosi is dragging her feet on that?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, she thinks it’s politics. I don’t think it’s good politics. Nancy Pelosi has been blocking it. Schumer has been blocking it. And I think they think it’s good politics. I don’t think it’s good politics; I think it’s bad politics. But I don’t care about the politics.
It’s so great for our country because we’re going to have all of these companies that are — you know, it’s a bigger employer — let’s say it’s the same, but essentially, it’s the same power — all of these small businesses added together — as the big companies. It’s about 50/50. And it’s so important. And they would be scattered if we weren’t able to do what we’re doing.
And, essentially, we’re giving these small businesses that won’t make it — they can’t because they’re closed — we’re giving them money to take care of their employees, so when we open, they can get back into business. It’s been a very popular plan, even with Democrats. I think it basically passed unanimously twice — the first section — which is $350 billion. So we’re trying to get $250 [billion].
Nancy Pelosi is blocking it. She sits in her house in San Francisco, overlooking the ocean, and she doesn’t want to come back. She doesn’t want to come back. She doesn’t want to come back to D.C. She’s got to get back and get this thing approved. It’s very important.
Please. Go ahead.
{snip}
Yes, please.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned the importance of social distancing, but, for example, Stephen Moore — someone you appointed to your “Open the Country” task force — is organizing a protest in Wisconsin. But aren’t they, in a sense, protesting your very own guidelines?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have a flexibility. I didn’t see what Stephen said. I can tell you he’s a very good economist. He’s been calling shots right —
Q Well, he said — he said — sorry, he said, “We need to be the Rosa Parks of government injustices.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well, there is a lot of injustice. When you look at Virginia, where they want to take your guns away, they want to violate your Second Amendment; when you look at — I mean, look, I’m getting along very nicely with the governor of Michigan, but she has things — don’t buy paint, don’t buy roses, don’t buy — I mean, she’s got all these crazy things. I really believe somebody sitting in their boat, in a lake, should be okay. They shouldn’t arrest people. Some of them are being unreasonable. I really believe that. They’re being unreasonable.
But I think Virginia is a great case, though, because they’re using this — they’re trying to take your guns away in Virginia. And if people in Virginia aren’t — aren’t careful, that’s what’s going to happen to them.
So, yeah, I mean, I could see where he’s coming from. I think it’s a strong statement — a strong statement — because hopefully this will be over very soon for all of us. But some have gotten carried away. They have absolutely gotten carried away.
Q Do you feel, though, some of these protesters are protesting your social distancing guidelines?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I mean, I notice there were a lot of protests out there. And I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away.
You know, we have a lot of people that don’t have to be told to do what they’re doing. They’ve been really doing everything we’ve asked them. We have a few states where, frankly, I spoke to the governors and I could have gotten them to do — if I wanted — to do what would have been, perhaps, politically correct. But they’ve been doing incredibly anyway.
And as one of them said, everybody is doing exactly the same. In fact, our record is better than states where they’re under a mandate or, you know, where they’ve agreed to do certain things.
No, we have some great states out there, and we have incredible people in our country. And for the most part, that — it’s a strong statement, but I understand where he’s coming from.
And I think one of the greats would be — one of the really important places that people really have to start looking at is what’s going on in Virginia, because that’s a mess, where the gover- — with, really, a governor that’s under siege anyway.
Yeah, please.
Q Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: No, with the beautiful head of white hair. Go ahead. I’ll tell you if I like his hair in about a minute, after he asks the question.
Q Gordon Lubold with the Wall Street Journal. On that point though, does the tweeting about, in the case of Virginia, linking the Second Amendment to some of these issues about lifting some of these restrictions in these states —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — not — potentially pose concern for the governors and civil unrest, and potentially in those cases?
And I have a second question for you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, just for that question, I think that’s an easy one. That’s not even politics. We’re entitled to a Second Amendment, and he’s trying to take the Second Amendment. Meaning, that state is trying to take — the Democrats in that state — the Republicans are fighting it.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: They’re trying to take that — that Second Amendment right — that Second Amendment right away. To me, that’s liberty. That’s — when I say, “liberate Virginia,” I would say, liberate Virginia when that kind of thing happens. And where does it all stop? So I think it’s a very good analogy.
Go ahead.
Q Well, I’m just — I mean, is this the right time to, kind of, bring in a Second Amendment issue (inaudible) —
THE PRESIDENT: I think when they talk about taking your guns away — and if you notice, at the beginning of this pandemic, there were more guns sold, I think, than at almost any time in history, because — so it’s obviously a big issue. And then you have them working and signing documents, trying to take your — your Second Amendment away, essentially. So I do think it’s an appropriate time to bring it up.
{snip}
Look, if I wasn’t elected, you would, right now, be at war with North Korea. Okay? I’ll tell you, for your people that don’t understand the world and they don’t understand how life works: If I wasn’t elected, you would, right now — maybe the war would be over, hopefully with a victory.
But if you remember, when I first came in, we didn’t have ammunition. Not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition. Okay? And he left us virtually no medical and ventilators. He left us — the cupboard was dry, right? The cupboard was dry.
No, I think, right now, you’d be at war, essentially — in some form — it would be over, it would be raging — with North Korea, if I weren’t President. And we’re doing just fine with North Korea. Just fine. We’ll see how it all ends up.
You know, in the meantime, they said, “Oh, Trump has given up.” And then they said “Oh, really, what’s he given up?” And they said, “I don’t know.” Then they said, “He met.” Oh, I met. I met.
No, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. That’s not a bad thing to have a good relationship. Obama wanted a relationship; he wouldn’t meet with Obama. Wouldn’t meet with him. Okay? I have a good relationship with him. We met at the line. I stepped over the line. The first time anything like that’s ever — it’s all good. It’s just — it’s good.
But when they say — the stupid people — I call them “stupid people” or “the haters.” They say, “Trump has given up so much.” Really? I’ve actually increased the sanctions. China has been very good on the border. In fact, right now, the border is stone-cold closed between China and North Korea.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Iran? When I came in, Iran was a terror. We had 82 points of fighting. We had 18 points of major confliction. The first week, I said, “Tell me about Iran.” “Sir, we have 18 points of confliction.” Meaning, Yemen and Syria and all — Iraq. They were going into Iraq all over the place. They’re a much a different nation right now. I stopped that horrible deal. Horrible deal.
And they want to talk, except that Kerry violated the Logan Act. He made the deal, and doesn’t want them to make a deal because — I would have made a deal, in my opinion, except that John Kerry, when he — who made the deal originally, which was a stupid deal to make. Gave them $150 billion. Gave 1.8 billion in cash, in green. That would be more than this room, 10 times, with hundred-dollar bills. That you could fill up this room 10 times with hundred-dollar bills. And it’s not that small a room.
And I say he violated the Logan Act. I think it was a major violation. I think we would have had a deal if it wasn’t for John Kerry. But he doesn’t want to be, number one, embarrassed. Number two, he said, “Let’s wait until after the election. Maybe Sleep Joe Biden is going to win. And if Sleep Joe Biden wins, you’ll own the United States.”
And China will own the United States. China has paid us — you know, from the Wall Street Journal — hundreds of billions of dollars — is that right? — tariffs. And we gave a lot of that money — a small percentage — but a lot of money to the farmers, and it kept the farmers going great. All right? But hundreds — we get — we’re getting tens of billions of dollars in tariffs.
And, by the way, for those of you that say, “Oh we’re paying,” China devalued their currency in order to pay these. We didn’t pay. China paid. They don’t like to write that. They also added money into their system. So they paid for that.
No, I think you have numerous countries waiting to see whether or not Sleepy Joe wins, because if Sleepy Joe won, they own our country. They will take our country.
You know, we had — go back two months — we had, by far — and China was supposed to catch us. You know better than anybody, Wall Street Journal. For years, I’ve heard, “By 2019, China will catch us.” There’s only one problem: Trump got elected in 2016. That was a big difference. And we were going leaps and bounds above China.
And before the problem with the plague — right? — China was having the worst year they’ve had in 67 years. That was before the plague. Now they’re getting really hurt, and so is everybody getting hurt. I don’t want them to get hurt, but they’re all getting hurt. Everybody is getting hurt. It’s a horrible thing that’s happened. But we had the greatest economy in the world, by far. China isn’t even close — go back two months — and we’re going to keep it that way.
But when you mention Iran, Iran is a much different country than it was. When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East. Right now, they just want to survive. They’re having protests every week. They’re loaded up with the plague — which I don’t want; I’ve offered to help them if they want. If they need ventilators, which they do, I would send them ventilators. We have thousands of excess ventilators coming in and here.
We have a stockpile of ventilators, and we’re starting to send them so that hospitals can fill up their stockpile, which they should have. New York had a chance to get 16,000 ventilators, and they chose not to do it. And I understand that. It’s a hard decision for a thing that may or may not happen. I fully understand that. I’m not even complaining about that.
I’m only saying this: Iran was a terror when I came into office. Right now, they don’t want to mess around with us. They don’t want to mess around with us.
Two things: North Korea, same sanctions we’ve always had, except more. We haven’t given anything. I think you’ll hopefully take that back to the Wall Street Journal, because they really don’t understand it. They really don’t.
And with — with Iran, I mean, that’s a different country right now. And they want to make a deal. The only reason they don’t — they’re being shamed in, because the guy that gave them the sweetheart, didn’t want to. Met with them many times. He should have never met with them. And in my opinion, he’s telling them, “Don’t. Wait. Maybe Trump will lose and then you can negotiate with a patsy, with a weak guy. And you’ll take over the — between you and Russia…” Nobody has been tougher on Putin. He knows it better than anybody. Nobody been tougher on Putin than me. Look at the sanctions.
Look at what I did with their pipeline going into Europe. Nobody even knew about it. I exposed it. Now everybody talks about it. I think it’s a terrible thing for Germany to do.
But at the same time, I have a very good relationship with Putin, and I was able to get — I was able to make a deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia and OPEC Plus. They call “OPEC Plus.” That’s going to save us Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, other states, energy states. Going to save us hundreds of thousands of jobs.
And, in fact, your paper wrote an incredible editorial, for a change, that “Trump made a great deal for our country.” That was a nice thing. I was shocked to see it coming out of the Wall Street Journal.
Thank you all very much. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much.
END
6:16 P.M. EDT
