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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-22-2020
#TrumpPressBriefing today
Link to tweet
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 22, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
6:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. A lot of tremendous things are happening. The number of new positive cases continue to decline nationwide. Recent hotspots appear to be stabilizing. The hotspots are, in some cases, very interesting whats going on. And theyre going down; theyre going in the right direction. Cases in the Boston area are now declining. The Chicago curve appears to have flattened, which is terrific. And Detroit is past its peak.
{snip}
I do want to mention a man whos done a very good job for us: Dr. Robert Redfield. He was totally misquoted in the media on a statement about the fall season and the virus. Totally misquoted. I spoke to him. He said it was ridiculous. He was talking about the flu and corona coming together at the same time. And corona could be just some little flare-ups that well take care of. Were going to knock it out. Well knock it out fast. But thats what he was referring to: coming together at the same time.
And I think rather than waiting, Id ask Dr. Redfield to come up, say a couple of words just to straighten that out, because he didnt say it was a big a big explosion. The headline in the Washington Post was totally inaccurate. The statement wasnt bad in the Post, but the headline was ridiculous, which is as I say, thats fake news. And CNN is fake news like crazy, and they had just totally the wrong story, which they knew. They were asked to change it, and they wouldnt do that. And it was false.
So Ill ask Dr. Redfield, who is, you know, a real professional, to come up and explain. Please. Thank you, Doctor.
DR. REDFIELD: Thank you, Mr. President. I really do think its important to clarify this as we build the confidence of the American people.
When I commented yesterday that there was a possibility of the fall, winter next fall and winter, it could be more difficult, more complicated when we had two respiratory illnesses circulating at the same time: influenza and the coronavirus-19.
But I think its really important to emphasize what I didnt say. I didnt say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more complic- or more difficult and potentially complicated because well have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time.
{snip}
Q Could I just ask a follow-up on that, Dr. Redfield?
Q Sir, just to clarify your comments
THE PRESIDENT: But I dont know whats to follow up.
Q Well
THE PRESIDENT: He was misquoted. Totally misquoted. He said they could come together. They didnt talk about that. And his whole purpose in making the statement was to get a flu shot, so that next fall we dont have such a big season of flu and we possibly wont.
But, as you said, theres its possible, if the corona even comes back and he doesnt know that its going to and neither do I. We spoke a great length. And I think the doctor will speak, if youd like to continue. But we may have some embers and were going to put them out of corona. But we may have a big flu season. But thats different. Flu is very different from corona.
Q Can I just ask him a follow-up question?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, go ahead. Sure.
Q Okay. So, Dr. Redfield, the Washington Post which, you did the interview with them they quoted you as saying, Theres a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be much even more difficult than the one we just went through. And when Ive said this to others, theyve kind of put their head back, they dont understand what I mean. Were going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time. Is that what you said to the Washington Post?
DR. REDFIELD: Yeah, thats what I was trying to say to you just a minute ago that the issue that I was talking about, about being more difficult, is that were going to have two viruses circulating the same time.
This spring that we just went through February we had a benefit of having the flu season ended, so we could use all our flu surveillance systems to say, Whoops, this is coronavirus. We need to focus. Next fall and winter, were going to have two viruses circulating, and were going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus.
And so the comment that I made: Its more difficult. It doesnt mean its going to be more impossible. It doesnt mean its going to be more, as some people have said, worse. It just means its going to be difficult because we have to distinguish between the two.
And what I was wanting to do and what I want to do again here is appeal to the American public to recognize they can really help, like they did with mitigation, which they really helped. I need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture.
Q But that quote but that quote
THE PRESIDENT: And you may not even have corona coming back, just so you understand.
Doctor, would you like to explain that.
Q No, but but, Im sorry, but that quote that I just read was accurate right, sir? Because thats the quote from the Washington Post. You were accurately quoted, correct?
DR. REDFIELD: Im accurately quoted in the Washington Post as difficult. But the headline was inappropriate.
THE PRESIDENT: What does the headline say? What does the headline say? Go ahead, read the headline.
Q The headline says, CDC Director Warns Second Wave of Coronavirus is Likely to be Even More Devastating. And isnt that correct? Because
THE PRESIDENT: Thats not what he says.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Its not what he said.
THE PRESIDENT: Its not what he said.
Q But if you have the two things happening
THE PRESIDENT: The headline doesnt correspond to the story.
DR. REDFIELD: No. I actually think its actually going to be I think the American public is going to heed the request to relook at their vaccine hesitancy, to vaccine with confidence for flu. And Im confident that the public health infrastructure that were putting together now across this country so that we can early-case diagnose, isolate, and contact trace as I say, block and tackle, block and tackle that system is going to be there, and were going to be able to contain this virus.
Q Why did you retweet the article if it was inaccurate? Doctor, why did you retweet it?
THE PRESIDENT: You werent called.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, I
THE PRESIDENT: Is that a correct statement?
DR. REDFIELD: Correct.
Q I understand that the United States will certainly be more prepared in the fall, but how can you say that you know it wont come back in the same level that it has today?
THE PRESIDENT: What it is estimated it might not come back at all, Jeff. It may not come back at all.
Q But how how can you
THE PRESIDENT: Hes talking about a worst-case scenario where you have a big flu and you have some corona. And if it does come back, its not going to come back and Ive spoken to 10 different people its not going to be like it was.
Also, we have much better containment now. Before, nobody knew about it. Nobody knew anything about it. We understand it. Now, if we have pockets a little pocket here or there were going to have to put out. It goes out and its going to go out fast. Were going to be watching for it.
But its all possible. Its also possible it doesnt come back at all.
Q I understand the containment, but I dont understand how you know it wont come back on a big scale.
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt say its not. I said if it does, its not going to come back on anything near what we went through. But you could have a mess, where they come at the same time. And if they come at the same time the flu is not the greatest thing in the world, Jeff. Its not the greatest thing either. If they come at the same time, you have them both.
But if we have embers of corona coupled with the flu, thats not going to be pleasant, but its not going to be what weve gone through in any way, shape, or form.
Yeah.
Q If you dont think that its going to come back at the same severity it is right now, why are you still directing that taxpayer dollars be spent on emergency procurement of ventilators? Tens of thousands of
THE PRESIDENT: Because we have to have them for other reasons. Something else could come. I mean, we didnt know about corona; now we know about corona. But look at what happened. And now, we did have the H1N1 swine flu. We had that. We have other things that have happened. We had various forms of flu, but nothing like what weve had here. Nothing at all like what weve had here with the virus. But something could happen.
I think that the stockpiles were making hundreds of thousands of ventilators right now. Nobody writes about that. You know, at the one time, all they talked about was ventilators, right? Because you didnt think it was possible for me to solve that problem. And I solved it and nobody can believe it.
I just spoke to world leaders today who desperately need ventilators. They said, The job youve done And were sending 500 to Mexico, then another 500 to France. Were sending some to Spain. Were sending some to Italy. We have them theyre being made by the thousands.
And world leaders I spoke to Prime Minister I mean, I went through a lot of different calls today. I wont even tell you. But I went through I can give you a list if you want but I went through a lot of calls to a lot of leaders. Spoke with Pakistan; they would like to have some ventilators. Were going to get them some ventilators. But they all said to me one thing: It was incredible that you solved the ventilator problem because that was a big problem.
The testing problem. Weve done more than any other nation in the world. Go a step further: If you added up the testing of every nation in the world, put them together, weve done substantially more than that. You people arent satisfied.
So lets say we had 350 million people in the United States, right? Lets say. And if we gave every one of those people a test 10 times so we give 350 people a test 10 times the fake news media would say, Wheres the 11th time? He didnt do his job. Trump didnt do his job. Because you have a lot of bad reporting out there. Its very sad. And its so bad
Q But thats not true. Thats not true. That wouldnt be the case
THE PRESIDENT: But youre one of youre one of the leaders of the bad reporting. You know?
Q No, but thats not true. I mean, this is
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, lets get onto another subject. I wanted that to be
Q Mr. President, can I just follow up on this real quick?
THE PRESIDENT: I wanted that to be cleared up. If you want, we can get on to it later, but I want the Vice President to speak. But you ought to get the news accurately. You ought to write it if you if you take a look at what you wrote about the ventilators and when we became the king of ventilators were making different factories all over. Ventilators by the thousands.
{snip}
Im excited to announce that, in the coming weeks, the Air Force Thunderbirds theyre incredible and the Navy Blue Angels equally incredible will be performing air shows over Americas major cities and some of the cities that arent major cities. Theyre going to be doing a lot of work a lot of very dangerous flying. Its dangerous, you know the odds when you start going at massive speeds and youre 18 inches away from each other. Thats dangerous work.
Your son is a great pilot. And I dont know if he could be could he be a could he be a Thunderbird? I dont know.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well see.
THE PRESIDENT: I think I think he probably could, from what I hear. I dont know if Id want him to be, because it is its incredible what theyre able to do. And to sacrifice our frontline what were doing is were paying tribute to our frontline healthcare workers confronting COVID. And its really a signal to all Americans to remain vigilant during the outbreak.
This is a a tribute to them, to our warriors. Because they are equal warriors to those incredible pilots and all of the fighters that we have for the more traditional fights that we win. And we win. If we want to win, we always win. Sometimes we dont want to win, so we just go to a standstill. But thats always thats not the way this country works.
Operation America Strong was the idea of our great military men and women the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels crews who wanted to show support to the American medical workers who, just like military members in a time of war, are fiercely running torward the fight. Its going to be great. I want to see those shows. Ive seen them many times and I cant get enough of them.
And on July 4th, well be doing what we had at the Mall, as you know. Were going to be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine well do it hopefully, I can use the term forever. That was a great success as you remember, even though it was pouring. It was raining so hard. It was raining at that was about as hard as Ive seen in a while, but it was an amazing success. Didnt bother the pilots. It didnt bother the military. It didnt bother the crews that we had there. So were going to be doing that again on July 4th.
Our great military is operating at 100 percent during this crisis and thousands of troops are deployed alongside of civilians in the COVID hotspots, as you know. You see them all over. I spoke when I spoke with Governor Cuomo, and when I spoke to Gavin Newsom, and many of the other governors, they wanted to know if we could have some military help with the medical, and we we gave it to them. And in every case, they said, Fantastic. I mean, just fantastic.
In New York City, Mayor de Blasio called me to say it was inspiring to watch. He was there when the military came in. He said it gave everybody spirit when he saw the professionalism and the spirit that they had. They walked in and they helped a lot of a lot of people: doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians, and professionals. It was an incredible thing. But they all everybody that saw them going to work said that was something special.
So were going to have some tremendous air shows all throughout our country. And thats in honor of what were all going through together, and the people that are helping us so much, and, unfortunately, the people who have passed away from something that should never have been allowed to happen.
{snip}
And as you know this was an interesting story in recent days Ive called for Harvard thats Harvard University, which has a $40 billion endowment fund to return the money that it was allocated under the CARES Act. And Im pleased to announce that Harvard has announced today that they will not accept the funds, nor will Stanford University or many of the others that were involved both on a university level. Also on company level, some of the companies were bigger than people had represented or bigger than people had thought and strong enough that they didnt need the money. So theres a certain amount of money that we are not sending.
As soon as I heard it, I said, Stop funds. And for the most part, I guess, they stopped it, Mike, right? They stopped it. But were not theyre not accepting the money, and thats great. And so I want to thank Harvard, I want to thank Stanford, and I want to thank the other companies in the case. Its broken differently between colleges and companies, but I want to thank the companies and the other great universities. And theres some great ones.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about Rick Bright. Hes the head of the federal agency in charge of getting a vaccine out to to Americans once its ready. He says he has been pushed out of his job because he raised questions about hydroxychloroquine and some of your directives on that. Was he pushed out of that job?
THE PRESIDENT: I Ive never heard of him. You just mentioned the name. I never heard of him. When did this happen?
Q This happened today.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Ive never heard of him. If the guy says he was pushed out of a job, maybe he was, maybe he wasnt. I youd have to hear the other side. I dont know who he is.
Please.
Q And on the hydroxychloroquine
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on one second, please.
Q I just wanted to you said by Fourth of July you expect people be on the National Mall and well be having a celebration like we did
THE PRESIDENT: Hope so.
Q last year. Given what the doctors are just saying that, you know, coronavirus is still going to be out there might not be as bad as it is now, but its still going to be circulating is that is that going to be safe to have that many people on the Mall for July Fourth?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, were going to probably have 25 percent of what we had last year. Last year, as you know, it was maxed out maxed out. I saw a magnificent picture of Dr. Martin Luther King and I saw a magnificent picture of our event last year, and both of them were maxed out. It was beautiful to see. Beautiful. Very similar.
This year, most likely, well be standing six feet apart. Well have to do that in a very, very interesting way. And maybe well even do it greater, so well leave a little extra distance. But if we do that, wed certainly do that.
I I dont see, maybe, the purpose if we cant do that. We have to have people. Thousands we had tens of thousands most of you were there tens of thousands of people last year. It was incredible. And it was, to an extent, an air show of all the different aircraft flying over. We even had Air Force One flying over.
So ideally, it would be wonderful if we could actually have it as it was last year. But and, eventually, well we will have that. I think its important to know: Eventually, we are going to have that.
Your stadiums are going to be the way
Q You think by July youd be able to have
THE PRESIDENT: theyve been for the last hundred years.
Q By July, youd be able to have a
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know. But your stadiums as an example, sports are going to be the way they used to be. I mean, I told one of the owners. He said, Do you think I should take out seats? I said, No, you shouldnt take out seats. Were going to have it the way it was. Were going to be back.
This virus will eventually be gone. And if it should show up in the fall, were going to put it out very fast. We have great people. Were going to put it out very fast, because weve learned a lot. Weve learned a lot about how to deal with this, and well put it out very fast.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, can I ask you about your conversation with Governor Kemp? What did he say to you when you said you strongly disagreed with him? And, of course, for gym owners and tattoo parlor artists and barbers in Atlanta I mean, Georgia, generally would you advise them to listen to you and not to their governor?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, Id like them to listen to their governors. All of their governors. I have the right to do, if I wanted to clamp it down, but I have respect for our governors. They know what theyre doing, I think. And, as you know, Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, I worked very hard for his election. He beat their superstar. He beat the superstar of their party. I think you can say, I helped a lot.
Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey they all went in. They campaigned for him very, very hard, and he lost. He also was way down in a primary, and he ended up winning a primary after I came out and endorsed him. So, a lot of good things and theres a lot of good feeling between myself and Brian Kemp. I like him a lot.
I happen to disagree with him only on time and timing. I disagree. When you have spas, beauty parlors and I love these people I know the people from spas and beauty parlors, tattoo parlors. Bikers for Trump a lot of tattoos. I love them. I love these people. And barbershops. These are great people. But you know what? Maybe you wait a little bit longer until you get into a phase two.
So do I agree with him? No. But I respect him, and I will let him make his decision. Would I do that? No. Id keep them a little longer. I want to protect peoples lives. But Im going to let him make his decision. But I told him: I totally disagree.
{snip}
OAN, in the back, please.
Q Mr. President, thank you. Can we talk about Iran? You put out a message this morning making a rather big announcement for our military when it comes to Iranians Iranian aggression. Are you going to change, formally, rules of engagement for our U.S. military so that they can engage?
THE PRESIDENT: No. Were covered were covered 100 percent. We dont want their gunboats surrounding our boats and traveling around our boats and having a good time. We dont want them anywhere near our boats. And so you know the order I gave. I dont think I have to say it again, but Ive given that order.
Under the Obama administration, it was taking place all the time. Under my administration, I gave this order early on and nothing happened. They were very nice; they were no problem. But then I noticed yesterday, they did that in a much lighter form, but they did that again. I said, Were not going to were not going to stand for it.
So if they do that, thats putting our ships at danger and our great crews and sailors at in danger. Im not going to let that happen. And we will theyll shoot them out of the water.
Q So the U.S. military does not have to change its rules of engagement in order to follow your directive?
THE PRESIDENT: No, thats not rules of engagement; thats a threat when they get that close to our boat. And they have guns. They have very substantial weapons on those boats. But well shoot them out of the water. Okay?
{snip}
Q is: Earlier in these briefings, you talked a lot about giving Americans hope and you wanted to focus on that. But now that the crisis seems to perhaps be lessening, I wanted to ask you about accountability. And, of course, million millions of Americans became familiar with you as the tough boss who fired people for doing a poor job. I wanted to ask you about two specific things. There was a report from Reuters today that the HHS Secretary put a former dog breeder in charge of day-to-day coronavirus efforts, to begin with. And also on
THE PRESIDENT: He did what? What?
Q Reuters reported today that Alex Azar, the Secretary of HHS, put a former dog breeder that was his most recently former job in charge of day-to-day operations of the coronavirus.
THE PRESIDENT: That, I dont know. But I youre just telling me something. And whats the second?
{snip}
Q Theres been the now argument made that you knew about the asymptomatic transmission at the time that you said that and that you were essentially misleading the public?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think its (inaudible).
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Well, I made
THE PRESIDENT: Hes answered that question.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: The honest answer to you is: No, we did not. That was a recommendation of the World Health Organization and the CDC, and we gave you the best information we could at the time.
So I actually, a little bit, resent that implication because I work hard to try to protect the American people, and we are always going to give the American people the best information we have available at the time. And we dont and we have were humble enough to say, Look, if we dont know, were going to change. Were going to change our recommendations.
THE PRESIDENT: Just a wise-guy question, thats all.
Q Mr. President
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about the launch of the military satellite by Iran. I wanted to get your response to that. Do you see this an advancement of the missile program?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean the shot they took? Well, they say no. Okay? They say all sorts. It was for television. Does anybody really believe that? They want to have better television in Iran, so they say.
No, were watching Iran very closely. Very closely.
Q Are you concerned
THE PRESIDENT: We know more about Iran than they do. Right now, we know more than they do. So we know all about it. We watched it; we knew it was going up. We followed it very closely. They say it was for television.
Yes, please.
Q Are you concerned, though, Mr. President?
Q Mr. President, I have a question for Dr. Fauci.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Finish up there, please.
Q Yeah, very quickly. Are you concerned that they see this as a potential vulnerability on the part of the United States? There is the outbreak
THE PRESIDENT: See what? What is vulnerable?
Q Military readiness. The outbreak on the Roosevelt, the fact that youre consumed with dealing with coronavirus here in the United States.
THE PRESIDENT: Her, I read where various navies have had outbreaks of COVID. Look, were in 184 different different nations right now. A hundred and eight-four the COVID.
No, we have a problem on that just shows you how rapidly it spreads. It started off with two sailors and then 10 sailors and 20, and now I hear its 540, of which one has died and a few are very sick. But most of them are back in you know, in great shape. But we did we did lose one, and it attacked the lungs of that young person. And then we also had a number of that were quite sick, but theyre all either better or getting better. But most of them are better for a long time already.
{snip. Now it's Weijia Jiang's turn to get insulted again.}
Q Mr. President, yes, I just had a follow a question for Dr. Fauci, if you dont mind.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure.
Q And Im happy to ask you one after. So Jon had asked the President about Rick Bright, and he said he wasnt sure who that was, but Im Im sure youre familiar who he is since he was the head of BARDA. So this concern or an accusation hes raised that he was removed from his job because he protested widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, are you familiar with the situation? And do you feel like public health experts feel they are able to speak publicly or to speak out in opposition to the things?
DR. FAUCI: Here I am.
Q Yeah.
DR. FAUCI: So you dont feel like theres any concern among
DR. FAUCI: No. No.
Q people at the NIH right now or in the public health community?
DR. FAUCI: At the NIH, absolutely not.
Q Dr. Fauci, knowing Dr. Bright and knowing what his gifts are as one of the countrys leading experts on vaccines, are those gifts best suited at NIH rather than BARDA? Whats he going to be doing with you?
DR. FAUCI: What is he going to be doing at the NIH?
Q So, first of all, are his gifts best suited to work with you rather than BARDA?
DR. FAUCI: No, I I cant I dont really think I can comment on somebodys relative gifts. I mean, hes hes going to be at the NIH, and hes going to be responsible, from what I hear again, this is what Ive heard that hes going to be responsible for the development of diagnostics, which is very, very important.
The NIH is going to be involved in trying to develop new-generation diagnostics, which we feel is going to be very important for the future of being able to facilitate the kinds of things that now are sometimes problematic.
Q Are you concerned at all that he
THE PRESIDENT: And why did you say that he has great gifts or gifts? What, do you know him?
Q Well, thats his expertise. I mean, Im just looking at his résumé.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, but have you reviewed him? Have you have you studied him? Have you reported on him? You said, his gifts. His gifts. I mean
Q Hes worked his entire career developing vaccines, including the
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that doesnt mean you have gifts. I know a lot of people, they play baseball, but they cant hit 150 in the Major Leagues.
Q Well, he helped develop the flu vaccine last year.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, but you talk about his great gifts.
Go ahead, please.
Q Mr. President, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead. You can go. Please.
Q Thank you, sir. I have two questions, one for myself and then one for a colleague of ours who cannot be here today because of social distancing.
THE PRESIDENT: From where? From where?
Q Im with USA Today. First, the executive director of the National Association of Counties said today that the White House did not want to see money for local state and local governments in the latest COVID assistance package.
THE PRESIDENT: And they didnt want to say what? What does that mean? Tell me.
Q Im sorry?
THE PRESIDENT: What does it mean? Repeat it. Say it a little differently.
Q The executive director of the National Association of Counties said today that the White House objected to putting funding for state and local governments into the latest COVID assistance package.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, really? Thats interest- is he a Democrat?
Q I do not know, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, check it. How can you ask that questions without knowing?
Q Okay. Well but what
THE PRESIDENT: Check it out. Youll find out.
Q Ill check it out. But he says
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, whats the next question?
Q His question was
THE President: You know, the numbers you know, the money we put into states, local governments, everything else? And they have to be responsible for their own finances. But you check it out. Go ahead. Whats the next
Q Well, his point was he said that you felt like that this would somehow be a disincentive for states to open their economies. Is he correct about that?
THE PRESIDENT: How would he know what I felt? I never spoke to him. I dont even know who he is.
Q Im asking you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You dont know who he is either.
Q Yes, his name is Matthew Chase, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, it doesnt help me, and it doesnt help you.
Okay, go ahead, Jeff.
Q Mr. President, also a follow-up
THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to keep going a little while longer or no?
Q Yes. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Youre not going to say, Oh, he took questions all night long?
Q No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Right?
Q Yes, please. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, well, good. How many questions can you ask? Go ahead.
Q Also
THE PRESIDENT: We we all have fun, because were talking about something very important.
The main thing is I think were getting to a lot of solutions. We never want this to happen again. We never want this to happen again what happened. And if it should come back in some form, we want to snuff it out very quickly before anything can happen.
And I personally hope it doesnt come back in the fall as a combination of the flu or not as a combination of the flu. But I think we learned a lot. And, you know, some of these questions are good. Some of them are ridiculous, frankly, but some of them are very I think some of them are very important questions. Very important. You know, when you asked Dr. Fauci about the right to speak if I let him speak, Ill let anybody speak. And we love him.
Lets go.
Q Mr. President, Senator Senator McConnell said today that he would prefer to see states that have high public pensions declare bankruptcy, rather than taking on more
THE PRESIDENT: I I heard he said that.
Q federal bailout money.
THE PRESIDENT: I dont know I dont know what he said. Ill have to call him and ask him.
Q Thats what he said.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thats okay. Im going to have to look at it directly.
Q Would you agree with him on that? Or
THE PRESIDENT: I cant tell you that. I have to see I want to base it on fact and reason. I want to see what he said you know, why he said it and how he said it. Id have to watch him say it. But some of the states are not doing well, lets face it. And some are doing phenomenally well. A state where Mike was governor, Indiana I looked at their numbers. They have its incredible what theyre doing.
Some states are doing fantastically well. Iowa is doing great. You have you have states doing well, and you have some states that arent doing well. We know the ones. I dont have to mention the ones that arent doing well, but you do have states that are in trouble. And certainly theyre coming back to talk to us. Well see what happens.
Q Are you concerned are you concerned, sir, about the growing U.S. national debt as a result of these stimulus packages?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have a choice. Do we have a choice? Yeah. Im always concerned about everything. We had to fix this problem. This was we were attacked. This was an attack. This wasnt just, Oh, gee.
And this wasnt the flu, by the way. You know, they like to say the flu. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. 1917 was the last time. We were attacked. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had the greatest economy better than China, better than any place. They will tell you that. I dealt with them for a long time, and they will tell we have the greatest economy and we built it in the last three years, three and a half years we built it.
And then one day, they came and they said, You have to close it. I said, You got to be These people right here, they said you have to They came into my office into the Oval Office, and they said, We have to close the economy. I said, Lets explain this. Explain this to me. The greatest ever in history and we had to close it.
Now were going to open it again, and were going to be just as strong or stronger. But you have to spend some money to get it back open. We saved our airlines. We just, as you know, finished up with the airlines. We saved numerous companies that are great companies that, two months ago, were having the best year theyve ever had. Now, all of a sudden, theyre totally shut out of markets.
There was a great spirit today. You know, the fact is some of the governors are opening up their states. And I saw it. I feel it. I dont know if you folks feel it. I feel it. There was a great spirit today. I dont know, the stock market was up today, I guess. It was up quite a bit when I just walked out here.
And I will say I feel much different today than I did two or three days ago, and I think the world does. We spoke to a lot of leaders. The world feels that were really leading a path of optimism. The European Union is having a lot of difficulty. You know, you take a look at whats going on with the European Union; its having tremendous difficulty.
But were going to be back, and were going to be back stronger than ever. Were going to be at a level, I think, that everybody is going to be look and they do; they look up to us. They want to know what are we doing. What are we doing with therapeutics? What are we doing with vaccines? Were going to have those answers too. Were going to have them, just like we took care of ventilators, just like were taking care of and, already, as we said 100 times, we had more testing than any nation in the world. We had more testing than all of those nations put together that we mentioned the other day all of them put together. And were going to be, within two weeks, at a level that nobody has ever even seen before.
Theyve never seen where we are right now. You dont have to build new machines. You dont have to build new labs; we already have them. But some of the labs are even upgrading to be able to double and triple their capacity, in one case. No, were at a level that nobody has ever been. Were going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. So Im not concerned about that.
Thank you very much.
END
7:48 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 22, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
6:10 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. A lot of tremendous things are happening. The number of new positive cases continue to decline nationwide. Recent hotspots appear to be stabilizing. The hotspots are, in some cases, very interesting whats going on. And theyre going down; theyre going in the right direction. Cases in the Boston area are now declining. The Chicago curve appears to have flattened, which is terrific. And Detroit is past its peak.
{snip}
I do want to mention a man whos done a very good job for us: Dr. Robert Redfield. He was totally misquoted in the media on a statement about the fall season and the virus. Totally misquoted. I spoke to him. He said it was ridiculous. He was talking about the flu and corona coming together at the same time. And corona could be just some little flare-ups that well take care of. Were going to knock it out. Well knock it out fast. But thats what he was referring to: coming together at the same time.
And I think rather than waiting, Id ask Dr. Redfield to come up, say a couple of words just to straighten that out, because he didnt say it was a big a big explosion. The headline in the Washington Post was totally inaccurate. The statement wasnt bad in the Post, but the headline was ridiculous, which is as I say, thats fake news. And CNN is fake news like crazy, and they had just totally the wrong story, which they knew. They were asked to change it, and they wouldnt do that. And it was false.
So Ill ask Dr. Redfield, who is, you know, a real professional, to come up and explain. Please. Thank you, Doctor.
DR. REDFIELD: Thank you, Mr. President. I really do think its important to clarify this as we build the confidence of the American people.
When I commented yesterday that there was a possibility of the fall, winter next fall and winter, it could be more difficult, more complicated when we had two respiratory illnesses circulating at the same time: influenza and the coronavirus-19.
But I think its really important to emphasize what I didnt say. I didnt say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more complic- or more difficult and potentially complicated because well have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time.
{snip}
Q Could I just ask a follow-up on that, Dr. Redfield?
Q Sir, just to clarify your comments
THE PRESIDENT: But I dont know whats to follow up.
Q Well
THE PRESIDENT: He was misquoted. Totally misquoted. He said they could come together. They didnt talk about that. And his whole purpose in making the statement was to get a flu shot, so that next fall we dont have such a big season of flu and we possibly wont.
But, as you said, theres its possible, if the corona even comes back and he doesnt know that its going to and neither do I. We spoke a great length. And I think the doctor will speak, if youd like to continue. But we may have some embers and were going to put them out of corona. But we may have a big flu season. But thats different. Flu is very different from corona.
Q Can I just ask him a follow-up question?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, go ahead. Sure.
Q Okay. So, Dr. Redfield, the Washington Post which, you did the interview with them they quoted you as saying, Theres a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be much even more difficult than the one we just went through. And when Ive said this to others, theyve kind of put their head back, they dont understand what I mean. Were going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time. Is that what you said to the Washington Post?
DR. REDFIELD: Yeah, thats what I was trying to say to you just a minute ago that the issue that I was talking about, about being more difficult, is that were going to have two viruses circulating the same time.
This spring that we just went through February we had a benefit of having the flu season ended, so we could use all our flu surveillance systems to say, Whoops, this is coronavirus. We need to focus. Next fall and winter, were going to have two viruses circulating, and were going to have to distinguish between which is flu and which is the coronavirus.
And so the comment that I made: Its more difficult. It doesnt mean its going to be more impossible. It doesnt mean its going to be more, as some people have said, worse. It just means its going to be difficult because we have to distinguish between the two.
And what I was wanting to do and what I want to do again here is appeal to the American public to recognize they can really help, like they did with mitigation, which they really helped. I need them to help now to best prepare us by getting the flu vaccine and taking flu out of the picture.
Q But that quote but that quote
THE PRESIDENT: And you may not even have corona coming back, just so you understand.
Doctor, would you like to explain that.
Q No, but but, Im sorry, but that quote that I just read was accurate right, sir? Because thats the quote from the Washington Post. You were accurately quoted, correct?
DR. REDFIELD: Im accurately quoted in the Washington Post as difficult. But the headline was inappropriate.
THE PRESIDENT: What does the headline say? What does the headline say? Go ahead, read the headline.
Q The headline says, CDC Director Warns Second Wave of Coronavirus is Likely to be Even More Devastating. And isnt that correct? Because
THE PRESIDENT: Thats not what he says.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Its not what he said.
THE PRESIDENT: Its not what he said.
Q But if you have the two things happening
THE PRESIDENT: The headline doesnt correspond to the story.
DR. REDFIELD: No. I actually think its actually going to be I think the American public is going to heed the request to relook at their vaccine hesitancy, to vaccine with confidence for flu. And Im confident that the public health infrastructure that were putting together now across this country so that we can early-case diagnose, isolate, and contact trace as I say, block and tackle, block and tackle that system is going to be there, and were going to be able to contain this virus.
Q Why did you retweet the article if it was inaccurate? Doctor, why did you retweet it?
THE PRESIDENT: You werent called.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, I
THE PRESIDENT: Is that a correct statement?
DR. REDFIELD: Correct.
Q I understand that the United States will certainly be more prepared in the fall, but how can you say that you know it wont come back in the same level that it has today?
THE PRESIDENT: What it is estimated it might not come back at all, Jeff. It may not come back at all.
Q But how how can you
THE PRESIDENT: Hes talking about a worst-case scenario where you have a big flu and you have some corona. And if it does come back, its not going to come back and Ive spoken to 10 different people its not going to be like it was.
Also, we have much better containment now. Before, nobody knew about it. Nobody knew anything about it. We understand it. Now, if we have pockets a little pocket here or there were going to have to put out. It goes out and its going to go out fast. Were going to be watching for it.
But its all possible. Its also possible it doesnt come back at all.
Q I understand the containment, but I dont understand how you know it wont come back on a big scale.
THE PRESIDENT: I didnt say its not. I said if it does, its not going to come back on anything near what we went through. But you could have a mess, where they come at the same time. And if they come at the same time the flu is not the greatest thing in the world, Jeff. Its not the greatest thing either. If they come at the same time, you have them both.
But if we have embers of corona coupled with the flu, thats not going to be pleasant, but its not going to be what weve gone through in any way, shape, or form.
Yeah.
Q If you dont think that its going to come back at the same severity it is right now, why are you still directing that taxpayer dollars be spent on emergency procurement of ventilators? Tens of thousands of
THE PRESIDENT: Because we have to have them for other reasons. Something else could come. I mean, we didnt know about corona; now we know about corona. But look at what happened. And now, we did have the H1N1 swine flu. We had that. We have other things that have happened. We had various forms of flu, but nothing like what weve had here. Nothing at all like what weve had here with the virus. But something could happen.
I think that the stockpiles were making hundreds of thousands of ventilators right now. Nobody writes about that. You know, at the one time, all they talked about was ventilators, right? Because you didnt think it was possible for me to solve that problem. And I solved it and nobody can believe it.
I just spoke to world leaders today who desperately need ventilators. They said, The job youve done And were sending 500 to Mexico, then another 500 to France. Were sending some to Spain. Were sending some to Italy. We have them theyre being made by the thousands.
And world leaders I spoke to Prime Minister I mean, I went through a lot of different calls today. I wont even tell you. But I went through I can give you a list if you want but I went through a lot of calls to a lot of leaders. Spoke with Pakistan; they would like to have some ventilators. Were going to get them some ventilators. But they all said to me one thing: It was incredible that you solved the ventilator problem because that was a big problem.
The testing problem. Weve done more than any other nation in the world. Go a step further: If you added up the testing of every nation in the world, put them together, weve done substantially more than that. You people arent satisfied.
So lets say we had 350 million people in the United States, right? Lets say. And if we gave every one of those people a test 10 times so we give 350 people a test 10 times the fake news media would say, Wheres the 11th time? He didnt do his job. Trump didnt do his job. Because you have a lot of bad reporting out there. Its very sad. And its so bad
Q But thats not true. Thats not true. That wouldnt be the case
THE PRESIDENT: But youre one of youre one of the leaders of the bad reporting. You know?
Q No, but thats not true. I mean, this is
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, lets get onto another subject. I wanted that to be
Q Mr. President, can I just follow up on this real quick?
THE PRESIDENT: I wanted that to be cleared up. If you want, we can get on to it later, but I want the Vice President to speak. But you ought to get the news accurately. You ought to write it if you if you take a look at what you wrote about the ventilators and when we became the king of ventilators were making different factories all over. Ventilators by the thousands.
{snip}
Im excited to announce that, in the coming weeks, the Air Force Thunderbirds theyre incredible and the Navy Blue Angels equally incredible will be performing air shows over Americas major cities and some of the cities that arent major cities. Theyre going to be doing a lot of work a lot of very dangerous flying. Its dangerous, you know the odds when you start going at massive speeds and youre 18 inches away from each other. Thats dangerous work.
Your son is a great pilot. And I dont know if he could be could he be a could he be a Thunderbird? I dont know.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well see.
THE PRESIDENT: I think I think he probably could, from what I hear. I dont know if Id want him to be, because it is its incredible what theyre able to do. And to sacrifice our frontline what were doing is were paying tribute to our frontline healthcare workers confronting COVID. And its really a signal to all Americans to remain vigilant during the outbreak.
This is a a tribute to them, to our warriors. Because they are equal warriors to those incredible pilots and all of the fighters that we have for the more traditional fights that we win. And we win. If we want to win, we always win. Sometimes we dont want to win, so we just go to a standstill. But thats always thats not the way this country works.
Operation America Strong was the idea of our great military men and women the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels crews who wanted to show support to the American medical workers who, just like military members in a time of war, are fiercely running torward the fight. Its going to be great. I want to see those shows. Ive seen them many times and I cant get enough of them.
And on July 4th, well be doing what we had at the Mall, as you know. Were going to be doing it. Last year was a tremendous success and I would imagine well do it hopefully, I can use the term forever. That was a great success as you remember, even though it was pouring. It was raining so hard. It was raining at that was about as hard as Ive seen in a while, but it was an amazing success. Didnt bother the pilots. It didnt bother the military. It didnt bother the crews that we had there. So were going to be doing that again on July 4th.
Our great military is operating at 100 percent during this crisis and thousands of troops are deployed alongside of civilians in the COVID hotspots, as you know. You see them all over. I spoke when I spoke with Governor Cuomo, and when I spoke to Gavin Newsom, and many of the other governors, they wanted to know if we could have some military help with the medical, and we we gave it to them. And in every case, they said, Fantastic. I mean, just fantastic.
In New York City, Mayor de Blasio called me to say it was inspiring to watch. He was there when the military came in. He said it gave everybody spirit when he saw the professionalism and the spirit that they had. They walked in and they helped a lot of a lot of people: doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians, and professionals. It was an incredible thing. But they all everybody that saw them going to work said that was something special.
So were going to have some tremendous air shows all throughout our country. And thats in honor of what were all going through together, and the people that are helping us so much, and, unfortunately, the people who have passed away from something that should never have been allowed to happen.
{snip}
And as you know this was an interesting story in recent days Ive called for Harvard thats Harvard University, which has a $40 billion endowment fund to return the money that it was allocated under the CARES Act. And Im pleased to announce that Harvard has announced today that they will not accept the funds, nor will Stanford University or many of the others that were involved both on a university level. Also on company level, some of the companies were bigger than people had represented or bigger than people had thought and strong enough that they didnt need the money. So theres a certain amount of money that we are not sending.
As soon as I heard it, I said, Stop funds. And for the most part, I guess, they stopped it, Mike, right? They stopped it. But were not theyre not accepting the money, and thats great. And so I want to thank Harvard, I want to thank Stanford, and I want to thank the other companies in the case. Its broken differently between colleges and companies, but I want to thank the companies and the other great universities. And theres some great ones.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about Rick Bright. Hes the head of the federal agency in charge of getting a vaccine out to to Americans once its ready. He says he has been pushed out of his job because he raised questions about hydroxychloroquine and some of your directives on that. Was he pushed out of that job?
THE PRESIDENT: I Ive never heard of him. You just mentioned the name. I never heard of him. When did this happen?
Q This happened today.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Ive never heard of him. If the guy says he was pushed out of a job, maybe he was, maybe he wasnt. I youd have to hear the other side. I dont know who he is.
Please.
Q And on the hydroxychloroquine
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on one second, please.
Q I just wanted to you said by Fourth of July you expect people be on the National Mall and well be having a celebration like we did
THE PRESIDENT: Hope so.
Q last year. Given what the doctors are just saying that, you know, coronavirus is still going to be out there might not be as bad as it is now, but its still going to be circulating is that is that going to be safe to have that many people on the Mall for July Fourth?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, were going to probably have 25 percent of what we had last year. Last year, as you know, it was maxed out maxed out. I saw a magnificent picture of Dr. Martin Luther King and I saw a magnificent picture of our event last year, and both of them were maxed out. It was beautiful to see. Beautiful. Very similar.
This year, most likely, well be standing six feet apart. Well have to do that in a very, very interesting way. And maybe well even do it greater, so well leave a little extra distance. But if we do that, wed certainly do that.
I I dont see, maybe, the purpose if we cant do that. We have to have people. Thousands we had tens of thousands most of you were there tens of thousands of people last year. It was incredible. And it was, to an extent, an air show of all the different aircraft flying over. We even had Air Force One flying over.
So ideally, it would be wonderful if we could actually have it as it was last year. But and, eventually, well we will have that. I think its important to know: Eventually, we are going to have that.
Your stadiums are going to be the way
Q You think by July youd be able to have
THE PRESIDENT: theyve been for the last hundred years.
Q By July, youd be able to have a
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know. But your stadiums as an example, sports are going to be the way they used to be. I mean, I told one of the owners. He said, Do you think I should take out seats? I said, No, you shouldnt take out seats. Were going to have it the way it was. Were going to be back.
This virus will eventually be gone. And if it should show up in the fall, were going to put it out very fast. We have great people. Were going to put it out very fast, because weve learned a lot. Weve learned a lot about how to deal with this, and well put it out very fast.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, can I ask you about your conversation with Governor Kemp? What did he say to you when you said you strongly disagreed with him? And, of course, for gym owners and tattoo parlor artists and barbers in Atlanta I mean, Georgia, generally would you advise them to listen to you and not to their governor?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, Id like them to listen to their governors. All of their governors. I have the right to do, if I wanted to clamp it down, but I have respect for our governors. They know what theyre doing, I think. And, as you know, Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia, I worked very hard for his election. He beat their superstar. He beat the superstar of their party. I think you can say, I helped a lot.
Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey they all went in. They campaigned for him very, very hard, and he lost. He also was way down in a primary, and he ended up winning a primary after I came out and endorsed him. So, a lot of good things and theres a lot of good feeling between myself and Brian Kemp. I like him a lot.
I happen to disagree with him only on time and timing. I disagree. When you have spas, beauty parlors and I love these people I know the people from spas and beauty parlors, tattoo parlors. Bikers for Trump a lot of tattoos. I love them. I love these people. And barbershops. These are great people. But you know what? Maybe you wait a little bit longer until you get into a phase two.
So do I agree with him? No. But I respect him, and I will let him make his decision. Would I do that? No. Id keep them a little longer. I want to protect peoples lives. But Im going to let him make his decision. But I told him: I totally disagree.
{snip}
OAN, in the back, please.
Q Mr. President, thank you. Can we talk about Iran? You put out a message this morning making a rather big announcement for our military when it comes to Iranians Iranian aggression. Are you going to change, formally, rules of engagement for our U.S. military so that they can engage?
THE PRESIDENT: No. Were covered were covered 100 percent. We dont want their gunboats surrounding our boats and traveling around our boats and having a good time. We dont want them anywhere near our boats. And so you know the order I gave. I dont think I have to say it again, but Ive given that order.
Under the Obama administration, it was taking place all the time. Under my administration, I gave this order early on and nothing happened. They were very nice; they were no problem. But then I noticed yesterday, they did that in a much lighter form, but they did that again. I said, Were not going to were not going to stand for it.
So if they do that, thats putting our ships at danger and our great crews and sailors at in danger. Im not going to let that happen. And we will theyll shoot them out of the water.
Q So the U.S. military does not have to change its rules of engagement in order to follow your directive?
THE PRESIDENT: No, thats not rules of engagement; thats a threat when they get that close to our boat. And they have guns. They have very substantial weapons on those boats. But well shoot them out of the water. Okay?
{snip}
Q is: Earlier in these briefings, you talked a lot about giving Americans hope and you wanted to focus on that. But now that the crisis seems to perhaps be lessening, I wanted to ask you about accountability. And, of course, million millions of Americans became familiar with you as the tough boss who fired people for doing a poor job. I wanted to ask you about two specific things. There was a report from Reuters today that the HHS Secretary put a former dog breeder in charge of day-to-day coronavirus efforts, to begin with. And also on
THE PRESIDENT: He did what? What?
Q Reuters reported today that Alex Azar, the Secretary of HHS, put a former dog breeder that was his most recently former job in charge of day-to-day operations of the coronavirus.
THE PRESIDENT: That, I dont know. But I youre just telling me something. And whats the second?
{snip}
Q Theres been the now argument made that you knew about the asymptomatic transmission at the time that you said that and that you were essentially misleading the public?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think its (inaudible).
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Well, I made
THE PRESIDENT: Hes answered that question.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: The honest answer to you is: No, we did not. That was a recommendation of the World Health Organization and the CDC, and we gave you the best information we could at the time.
So I actually, a little bit, resent that implication because I work hard to try to protect the American people, and we are always going to give the American people the best information we have available at the time. And we dont and we have were humble enough to say, Look, if we dont know, were going to change. Were going to change our recommendations.
THE PRESIDENT: Just a wise-guy question, thats all.
Q Mr. President
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about the launch of the military satellite by Iran. I wanted to get your response to that. Do you see this an advancement of the missile program?
THE PRESIDENT: You mean the shot they took? Well, they say no. Okay? They say all sorts. It was for television. Does anybody really believe that? They want to have better television in Iran, so they say.
No, were watching Iran very closely. Very closely.
Q Are you concerned
THE PRESIDENT: We know more about Iran than they do. Right now, we know more than they do. So we know all about it. We watched it; we knew it was going up. We followed it very closely. They say it was for television.
Yes, please.
Q Are you concerned, though, Mr. President?
Q Mr. President, I have a question for Dr. Fauci.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Finish up there, please.
Q Yeah, very quickly. Are you concerned that they see this as a potential vulnerability on the part of the United States? There is the outbreak
THE PRESIDENT: See what? What is vulnerable?
Q Military readiness. The outbreak on the Roosevelt, the fact that youre consumed with dealing with coronavirus here in the United States.
THE PRESIDENT: Her, I read where various navies have had outbreaks of COVID. Look, were in 184 different different nations right now. A hundred and eight-four the COVID.
No, we have a problem on that just shows you how rapidly it spreads. It started off with two sailors and then 10 sailors and 20, and now I hear its 540, of which one has died and a few are very sick. But most of them are back in you know, in great shape. But we did we did lose one, and it attacked the lungs of that young person. And then we also had a number of that were quite sick, but theyre all either better or getting better. But most of them are better for a long time already.
{snip. Now it's Weijia Jiang's turn to get insulted again.}
Q Mr. President, yes, I just had a follow a question for Dr. Fauci, if you dont mind.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure.
Q And Im happy to ask you one after. So Jon had asked the President about Rick Bright, and he said he wasnt sure who that was, but Im Im sure youre familiar who he is since he was the head of BARDA. So this concern or an accusation hes raised that he was removed from his job because he protested widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, are you familiar with the situation? And do you feel like public health experts feel they are able to speak publicly or to speak out in opposition to the things?
DR. FAUCI: Here I am.
Q Yeah.
DR. FAUCI: So you dont feel like theres any concern among
DR. FAUCI: No. No.
Q people at the NIH right now or in the public health community?
DR. FAUCI: At the NIH, absolutely not.
Q Dr. Fauci, knowing Dr. Bright and knowing what his gifts are as one of the countrys leading experts on vaccines, are those gifts best suited at NIH rather than BARDA? Whats he going to be doing with you?
DR. FAUCI: What is he going to be doing at the NIH?
Q So, first of all, are his gifts best suited to work with you rather than BARDA?
DR. FAUCI: No, I I cant I dont really think I can comment on somebodys relative gifts. I mean, hes hes going to be at the NIH, and hes going to be responsible, from what I hear again, this is what Ive heard that hes going to be responsible for the development of diagnostics, which is very, very important.
The NIH is going to be involved in trying to develop new-generation diagnostics, which we feel is going to be very important for the future of being able to facilitate the kinds of things that now are sometimes problematic.
Q Are you concerned at all that he
THE PRESIDENT: And why did you say that he has great gifts or gifts? What, do you know him?
Q Well, thats his expertise. I mean, Im just looking at his résumé.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, but have you reviewed him? Have you have you studied him? Have you reported on him? You said, his gifts. His gifts. I mean
Q Hes worked his entire career developing vaccines, including the
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that doesnt mean you have gifts. I know a lot of people, they play baseball, but they cant hit 150 in the Major Leagues.
Q Well, he helped develop the flu vaccine last year.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, but you talk about his great gifts.
Go ahead, please.
Q Mr. President, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead. You can go. Please.
Q Thank you, sir. I have two questions, one for myself and then one for a colleague of ours who cannot be here today because of social distancing.
THE PRESIDENT: From where? From where?
Q Im with USA Today. First, the executive director of the National Association of Counties said today that the White House did not want to see money for local state and local governments in the latest COVID assistance package.
THE PRESIDENT: And they didnt want to say what? What does that mean? Tell me.
Q Im sorry?
THE PRESIDENT: What does it mean? Repeat it. Say it a little differently.
Q The executive director of the National Association of Counties said today that the White House objected to putting funding for state and local governments into the latest COVID assistance package.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, really? Thats interest- is he a Democrat?
Q I do not know, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, check it. How can you ask that questions without knowing?
Q Okay. Well but what
THE PRESIDENT: Check it out. Youll find out.
Q Ill check it out. But he says
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, whats the next question?
Q His question was
THE President: You know, the numbers you know, the money we put into states, local governments, everything else? And they have to be responsible for their own finances. But you check it out. Go ahead. Whats the next
Q Well, his point was he said that you felt like that this would somehow be a disincentive for states to open their economies. Is he correct about that?
THE PRESIDENT: How would he know what I felt? I never spoke to him. I dont even know who he is.
Q Im asking you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You dont know who he is either.
Q Yes, his name is Matthew Chase, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, it doesnt help me, and it doesnt help you.
Okay, go ahead, Jeff.
Q Mr. President, also a follow-up
THE PRESIDENT: Do we want to keep going a little while longer or no?
Q Yes. Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Youre not going to say, Oh, he took questions all night long?
Q No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Right?
Q Yes, please. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, well, good. How many questions can you ask? Go ahead.
Q Also
THE PRESIDENT: We we all have fun, because were talking about something very important.
The main thing is I think were getting to a lot of solutions. We never want this to happen again. We never want this to happen again what happened. And if it should come back in some form, we want to snuff it out very quickly before anything can happen.
And I personally hope it doesnt come back in the fall as a combination of the flu or not as a combination of the flu. But I think we learned a lot. And, you know, some of these questions are good. Some of them are ridiculous, frankly, but some of them are very I think some of them are very important questions. Very important. You know, when you asked Dr. Fauci about the right to speak if I let him speak, Ill let anybody speak. And we love him.
Lets go.
Q Mr. President, Senator Senator McConnell said today that he would prefer to see states that have high public pensions declare bankruptcy, rather than taking on more
THE PRESIDENT: I I heard he said that.
Q federal bailout money.
THE PRESIDENT: I dont know I dont know what he said. Ill have to call him and ask him.
Q Thats what he said.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thats okay. Im going to have to look at it directly.
Q Would you agree with him on that? Or
THE PRESIDENT: I cant tell you that. I have to see I want to base it on fact and reason. I want to see what he said you know, why he said it and how he said it. Id have to watch him say it. But some of the states are not doing well, lets face it. And some are doing phenomenally well. A state where Mike was governor, Indiana I looked at their numbers. They have its incredible what theyre doing.
Some states are doing fantastically well. Iowa is doing great. You have you have states doing well, and you have some states that arent doing well. We know the ones. I dont have to mention the ones that arent doing well, but you do have states that are in trouble. And certainly theyre coming back to talk to us. Well see what happens.
Q Are you concerned are you concerned, sir, about the growing U.S. national debt as a result of these stimulus packages?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have a choice. Do we have a choice? Yeah. Im always concerned about everything. We had to fix this problem. This was we were attacked. This was an attack. This wasnt just, Oh, gee.
And this wasnt the flu, by the way. You know, they like to say the flu. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. 1917 was the last time. We were attacked. We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had the greatest economy better than China, better than any place. They will tell you that. I dealt with them for a long time, and they will tell we have the greatest economy and we built it in the last three years, three and a half years we built it.
And then one day, they came and they said, You have to close it. I said, You got to be These people right here, they said you have to They came into my office into the Oval Office, and they said, We have to close the economy. I said, Lets explain this. Explain this to me. The greatest ever in history and we had to close it.
Now were going to open it again, and were going to be just as strong or stronger. But you have to spend some money to get it back open. We saved our airlines. We just, as you know, finished up with the airlines. We saved numerous companies that are great companies that, two months ago, were having the best year theyve ever had. Now, all of a sudden, theyre totally shut out of markets.
There was a great spirit today. You know, the fact is some of the governors are opening up their states. And I saw it. I feel it. I dont know if you folks feel it. I feel it. There was a great spirit today. I dont know, the stock market was up today, I guess. It was up quite a bit when I just walked out here.
And I will say I feel much different today than I did two or three days ago, and I think the world does. We spoke to a lot of leaders. The world feels that were really leading a path of optimism. The European Union is having a lot of difficulty. You know, you take a look at whats going on with the European Union; its having tremendous difficulty.
But were going to be back, and were going to be back stronger than ever. Were going to be at a level, I think, that everybody is going to be look and they do; they look up to us. They want to know what are we doing. What are we doing with therapeutics? What are we doing with vaccines? Were going to have those answers too. Were going to have them, just like we took care of ventilators, just like were taking care of and, already, as we said 100 times, we had more testing than any nation in the world. We had more testing than all of those nations put together that we mentioned the other day all of them put together. And were going to be, within two weeks, at a level that nobody has ever even seen before.
Theyve never seen where we are right now. You dont have to build new machines. You dont have to build new labs; we already have them. But some of the labs are even upgrading to be able to double and triple their capacity, in one case. No, were at a level that nobody has ever been. Were going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. So Im not concerned about that.
Thank you very much.
END
7:48 P.M. EDT
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