Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump's Remarks in Press Briefing on COVID-19; July 27, 2020
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing on COVID-19
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: July 27, 2020
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies
Morrisville, North Carolina
3:33 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Great to be in this wonderful state. So many friends, so much success, and we love being here. And we’re here, actually, today to discuss the exciting progress that we’ve achieved under the Operation Warp Speed — our historic initiative to develop, test, manufacture, and deliver a vaccine in record time. And that’s what it is, in record time. Likewise, therapeutically, we are very, very advanced. You’re hearing about it and you’ll be hearing about it a lot more in the next two weeks. We will achieve a victory over the virus by unleashing America’s scientific genius, which is what it is.
{snip}
Through our relentless efforts, we’ve completely rebuilt our stockpile, which the previous administration depleted and did not refill. The cupboards were bare. I say it often. In total, we’ve now distributed nearly 100 million N95 masks, 35 million surgical masks, 15 million face shields, and much, much more. In addition to that, ventilators, the most difficult thing of all, we are now building thousands a month, and we’re distributing them — we have all we need in our country, but to other countries that are in desperate need. Other countries are having a tremendously difficult time with the virus.
{snip}
So thank you very much. I appreciate you being here with us. And let’s get on to a few questions. Tremendous progress has been made, and it’s been made rapidly and it’s been made in areas that nothing like that has taken place before.
So, please. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.
{snip}
Q And one final question, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q You did talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And I wanted to ask if you did bring up the reports of Russia having bounties on our soldiers in Afghanistan.
THE PRESIDENT: We don’t talk about what we discussed, but we had plenty of discussion, and I think it was very productive.
Please.
{snip}
Yes, please. Go ahead.
Q Mr. President, your poll numbers suffered in recent months because of your handling on the pandemic. You’re here now today. What’s your plan, going forward, to prove to Americans that you’re the right person for this job?
THE PRESIDENT: I think the poll numbers are very good. The poll numbers we have are very good. We’re leading in North Carolina. We’re leading in Pennsylvania. We’re leading in Arizona — our numbers. We’re leading in Arizona. We’re leading nicely in Florida. I think our poll numbers are very good. We’re leading substantially in Georgia.
I mean, we get a lot of suppression polls. We get a lot of fake polls, just like we have fake news. I mean, it’s a terrible thing when you look at it.
But I had the same thing four years ago. I was losing everywhere. I had poll numbers where I wasn’t going to win any state, and I ended up winning every one of them — you know, the swing states. I wasn’t going to win any of them, and I won all of them. And I have the same thing this year. This year, they have it even closer. They have it closer, but it’s the same suppression-type polls. We have polls that show me leading in almost every swing state, and substantially in other states, by even more than I won in ’16.
When you look at Florida, as an example, you have thousands of boat out on — boats out in the ocean, out in the Intracoastal. You look at other states where, likewise, you have thousands of boats, and they’re all waving the Trump sign — Trump-Pence sign — and they’re so proud. Thousands and thousands. You’ve seen it — where you have Bikers for Trump with lines that are miles long on highways going along on weekends.
I think there’s more spirit now than there’s ever been for my campaign, and that includes 2016, where obviously there was great enthusiasm, great spirit. We had great spirit. I think there’s more today because what we’ve done, nobody has ever done before. Nobody has ever rebuilt the military, cut taxes — the most in our history — created the greatest economy we’ve ever had, cut regulations at a level that nobody has ever done, and all of these different things.
The VA — we got VA Choice. We got VA everything for the VA. Right now they had a 91 percent approval rating at — in a recent poll. I was just speaking to the Secretary — 91 percent in the VA. That’s never happened before.
I think when people see all that we’ve done — even Space Force. We created a Sp- — a force, an actual — you know, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. Right? It’s — it’s pretty amazing. Coast Guard. And now, Space Force — that hasn’t happened in 75 years. What we’ve done — working with some of those warriors over there, by the way — but what we’ve done has never been done.
If you look at Alaska with ANWR, one of the bil- — perhaps the biggest drilling site in the world. Even Ronald Reagan and Bush and Clinton — everybody wanted to get it done; I got it done — ANWR in Alaska. Probably or possibly the biggest drilling site in the world. No, what we’ve done has been incredible.
Recently, it looked like the energy business was going to be a catastrophe. We were number one in the world, and then we had the pandemic, and nobody was using energy. Nobody was driving in automobiles, no gasoline. And by the way, gasoline prices for everyone are very, very low — in many cases, less than $2. That’s pretty incredible.
And I saved the energy business. I got Russia and I got Saudi Arabia on the phone, and they cut way back. And we’re now at $40-and-plus a barrel. And we’re saving tens of millions of jobs in energy. We’re the number-one in energy in the world.
So with all that we’ve done, we made and brought this country to the greatest point in its history. We never had an economy like we had prior to the China plague or China virus coming in. We never had numbers like it. We are going to have them again. And everyone knows I’m going to rebuild it. I had to close it up. We saved millions of lives by closing it. If we didn’t close it, you would have seen numbers that would have been 15 times what you have right now. One death is too much, but it would’ve been 10 to 15 times, maybe more, than that — what you have.
We closed this greatest economy ever — far bigger than China, better than China. China was having, by the way, the worst year they had in 67 years. Tariffs — they paid us tens of billions of dollars. The worst year they’ve had — think of it — in 67 years. We were having the best year we’ve ever had.
I had to close it, and now we’re reopening it. And next year, we’ll be stronger. It’ll be the strongest year so far. It’ll be better, even than last year.
Okay, thank you very much. I’ll be heading back, and I’ll see you back at the White House. Thank you very much. We’re going to take an additional tour of the facility with your great leaders.
Thank you very much to the people of North Carolina. We love being here. Thank you.
END 3:56 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing on COVID-19
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: July 27, 2020
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies
Morrisville, North Carolina
3:33 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Great to be in this wonderful state. So many friends, so much success, and we love being here. And we’re here, actually, today to discuss the exciting progress that we’ve achieved under the Operation Warp Speed — our historic initiative to develop, test, manufacture, and deliver a vaccine in record time. And that’s what it is, in record time. Likewise, therapeutically, we are very, very advanced. You’re hearing about it and you’ll be hearing about it a lot more in the next two weeks. We will achieve a victory over the virus by unleashing America’s scientific genius, which is what it is.
{snip}
Through our relentless efforts, we’ve completely rebuilt our stockpile, which the previous administration depleted and did not refill. The cupboards were bare. I say it often. In total, we’ve now distributed nearly 100 million N95 masks, 35 million surgical masks, 15 million face shields, and much, much more. In addition to that, ventilators, the most difficult thing of all, we are now building thousands a month, and we’re distributing them — we have all we need in our country, but to other countries that are in desperate need. Other countries are having a tremendously difficult time with the virus.
{snip}
So thank you very much. I appreciate you being here with us. And let’s get on to a few questions. Tremendous progress has been made, and it’s been made rapidly and it’s been made in areas that nothing like that has taken place before.
So, please. Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.
{snip}
Q And one final question, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q You did talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And I wanted to ask if you did bring up the reports of Russia having bounties on our soldiers in Afghanistan.
THE PRESIDENT: We don’t talk about what we discussed, but we had plenty of discussion, and I think it was very productive.
Please.
{snip}
Yes, please. Go ahead.
Q Mr. President, your poll numbers suffered in recent months because of your handling on the pandemic. You’re here now today. What’s your plan, going forward, to prove to Americans that you’re the right person for this job?
THE PRESIDENT: I think the poll numbers are very good. The poll numbers we have are very good. We’re leading in North Carolina. We’re leading in Pennsylvania. We’re leading in Arizona — our numbers. We’re leading in Arizona. We’re leading nicely in Florida. I think our poll numbers are very good. We’re leading substantially in Georgia.
I mean, we get a lot of suppression polls. We get a lot of fake polls, just like we have fake news. I mean, it’s a terrible thing when you look at it.
But I had the same thing four years ago. I was losing everywhere. I had poll numbers where I wasn’t going to win any state, and I ended up winning every one of them — you know, the swing states. I wasn’t going to win any of them, and I won all of them. And I have the same thing this year. This year, they have it even closer. They have it closer, but it’s the same suppression-type polls. We have polls that show me leading in almost every swing state, and substantially in other states, by even more than I won in ’16.
When you look at Florida, as an example, you have thousands of boat out on — boats out in the ocean, out in the Intracoastal. You look at other states where, likewise, you have thousands of boats, and they’re all waving the Trump sign — Trump-Pence sign — and they’re so proud. Thousands and thousands. You’ve seen it — where you have Bikers for Trump with lines that are miles long on highways going along on weekends.
I think there’s more spirit now than there’s ever been for my campaign, and that includes 2016, where obviously there was great enthusiasm, great spirit. We had great spirit. I think there’s more today because what we’ve done, nobody has ever done before. Nobody has ever rebuilt the military, cut taxes — the most in our history — created the greatest economy we’ve ever had, cut regulations at a level that nobody has ever done, and all of these different things.
The VA — we got VA Choice. We got VA everything for the VA. Right now they had a 91 percent approval rating at — in a recent poll. I was just speaking to the Secretary — 91 percent in the VA. That’s never happened before.
I think when people see all that we’ve done — even Space Force. We created a Sp- — a force, an actual — you know, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines. Right? It’s — it’s pretty amazing. Coast Guard. And now, Space Force — that hasn’t happened in 75 years. What we’ve done — working with some of those warriors over there, by the way — but what we’ve done has never been done.
If you look at Alaska with ANWR, one of the bil- — perhaps the biggest drilling site in the world. Even Ronald Reagan and Bush and Clinton — everybody wanted to get it done; I got it done — ANWR in Alaska. Probably or possibly the biggest drilling site in the world. No, what we’ve done has been incredible.
Recently, it looked like the energy business was going to be a catastrophe. We were number one in the world, and then we had the pandemic, and nobody was using energy. Nobody was driving in automobiles, no gasoline. And by the way, gasoline prices for everyone are very, very low — in many cases, less than $2. That’s pretty incredible.
And I saved the energy business. I got Russia and I got Saudi Arabia on the phone, and they cut way back. And we’re now at $40-and-plus a barrel. And we’re saving tens of millions of jobs in energy. We’re the number-one in energy in the world.
So with all that we’ve done, we made and brought this country to the greatest point in its history. We never had an economy like we had prior to the China plague or China virus coming in. We never had numbers like it. We are going to have them again. And everyone knows I’m going to rebuild it. I had to close it up. We saved millions of lives by closing it. If we didn’t close it, you would have seen numbers that would have been 15 times what you have right now. One death is too much, but it would’ve been 10 to 15 times, maybe more, than that — what you have.
We closed this greatest economy ever — far bigger than China, better than China. China was having, by the way, the worst year they had in 67 years. Tariffs — they paid us tens of billions of dollars. The worst year they’ve had — think of it — in 67 years. We were having the best year we’ve ever had.
I had to close it, and now we’re reopening it. And next year, we’ll be stronger. It’ll be the strongest year so far. It’ll be better, even than last year.
Okay, thank you very much. I’ll be heading back, and I’ll see you back at the White House. Thank you very much. We’re going to take an additional tour of the facility with your great leaders.
Thank you very much to the people of North Carolina. We love being here. Thank you.
END 3:56 P.M. EDT
Aaron Rupar Retweeted
Setting up a post-presidency reality show...
"Boaters vs. Bikers: Who Loves Trump More?"
Link to tweet
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
