Press Briefing by Kayleigh McEnan; July 31, 2020

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PRESS BRIEFINGS

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 7/31/2020
Issued on: July 31, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

10:54 A.M. EDT

MS. MCENANY: Good morning, everyone. We’re going to begin with some brief remarks from Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and he’ll be giving you all an update on phase four negotiations.

MR. MEADOWS: Good morning. As you know, over the last several days, we’ve been having conversations on Capitol Hill, Secretary Mnuchin and myself, with Democrat and Republican leaders, both in the House and the Senate.

{snip}

I’m going to — I’m going to turn it over to — to the Press Secretary. And I think she’s prepared to answer all the questions.

Q Liability insurance — is that a red line for you guys? McConnell said it was.

MS. MCENANY: Thank you, guys.

MR. MEADOWS: I think she’ll address that.

MS. MCENANY: The — I’ll take your questions in just a moment. The Chief has to run to a meeting.

But earlier this week — I just wanted to start off with an overview of what we’ve been doing on COVID, the President rather — President Trump visited the great state of North Carolina to highlight the important work being done as part of Operation Warp Speed.

And thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Trump administration has made substantial investments, including investing in multiple vaccine candidates with several entering phase three clinical trials, including AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer; providing financial infrastructure for mass manufacturing of potential vaccines; guaranteeing doses of a vaccine will be available for distribution shortly after approval. The race for a coronavirus vaccine is truly moving at warp speed under President Trump.

In addition, President Trump is leading on therapeutics. Over 140 clinical trials are now underway: remdesivir, dexamethasone, convalescent plasma, and monoclonal antibody treatments.

{snip}

And on top of the more than 59 million tests that we’ve done, the FDA has authorized more than 193 tests under emergency use authorizations, including molecular and antibody tests. Under the leadership of President Trump, the U.S. is leading the world in safe and effective therapeutics and the rapid development of a potential vaccine. Together, as one American people, we will defeat the invisible enemy.

And with that, I will take questions. Paula.

Q Kayleigh, thank you. On Mark’s — on Mark’s comments about how it’s Democrats who won’t compromise: Democrats came up with a plan two months ago. The Republican plan was just presented on Monday, and in that time, the President has contradicted the Republican plan on the amount of stimulus checks, on student loans. Mitch McConnell threw you guys under the bus on funding for the FBI building.

What do you say to the tens of millions of people who are going to lose their benefits when it appears that the real issue is that the Republicans cannot agree among themselves even though they’ve had months?

MS. MCENANY: That’s not it at all. In fact, Democrats offered a $3 trillion plan. We have a very specific focus right now, and it’s not this comprehensive plan, whether it be the HEROES Act the Democrats proposed that wasn’t serious, or the HEALS Act.

{snip}

Q Kayleigh, what do you say to those that are going to lose $600 a week in unemployment payments that need that money? And also, why didn’t you start negotiating earlier? And why only the offer of an extension of one week?

MS. MCENANY: Well, what I would say to them is that this is unacceptable; that the Democrats have been fundamentally unserious. And the — you just heard the Chief of Staff say a great example of that is they had this massive $3 trillion bill that called for $100 billion in school funding. We then gave $105 billion, which then was deemed insufficient.

So if Democrats were interested in extending unemployment insurance and helping the American people, they would have endorsed the Martha McSally bill and extended this by a week to give us time as we try to extend this in perpetuity while we also focus on evictions as well.

Q So what do you say to those Americans that are about to lose $600 a week?

MS. MCENANY: That they need to be calling the offices of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and say, “Get to work and stop engaging in politics on the backs of hardworking Americans who deserve these checks, who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.”

{snip}

Yes.

Q Kayleigh, if the President is so worried about how long it’ll take to count ballots in the election, then why isn’t the President and this White House doing everything it can to secure more funding for staffing and other resources to make sure that we can have a safe and proper election?

MS. MCENANY: Look, what this White House is focused on is making sure that our election is not riddled with voting fraud and that the timetable is not hung up here. We are — there are several lawsuits that the campaign is engaged on, and I would point you to the campaign for specifics on those.

Q That doesn’t ask — answer my question, though. My question is: What is the White House doing to get more resources for funding and staff to make sure, as the President says, that it will be a secure and safe election?

MS. MCENANY: Well, as you know, Peter, states run their elections, and it is up to states to make sure that they have the capacity.

Q And they’re asking for more money.

MS. MCENANY: But what this White House is focused on is ensuring that what Jeffrey Toobin has said over at the New Yorker, a CNN contributor, notably: “New York’s Primary-Vote- Count Chaos Signals Trouble for November.” And as he noted, you want to talk about the President, but Jeffrey Toobin himself: “Democrats control the state government of New York, [and] they are responsible for creating the fiasco that is unfolding now — and that is certain to get worse in November.”

States need to get their acts together when it comes to elections. And as we see in New York, where we’re five weeks out from that election — and, in fact, we still don’t know the outcome of a congressional race, and that is certainly not what we want to see in November.

Q And I’m asking you about the President.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Darlene.

Q You asked why I was asking about the President. I’m asking about the President because you work for the President.

MS. MCENANY: Yes.

Q I guess, the question is —

MS. MCENANY: OAN.

Q — what specific —

Q Thank you, Kayleigh. So the President is meeting this morning, in a few minutes, with the National Association of Police Organizations. In 2008 and 2012, they supported Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In 2016, they didn’t support either candidate. And now, in 2020, they’re endorsing President Trump. To what does the White House attribute this change in support?

MS. MCENANY: Well, it’s clearly a change in the Democrat Party, Jen. When you look at the polling on defunding the police: ABC News/Ipsos poll, 64 percent oppose defunding the police; Huffington Post, 57 percent oppose; Rasmussen, 59 percent oppose.

But make no mistake, Democrats want to defund our law enforcement, and it comes at a time where 64 percent of Americans say they are concerned that growing criticism of America’s police will lead to a shortage of police officers and reduce public safety in the community where they live.

The American people have seen very clearly where the Democrat Party of today stands. It’s at an unacceptable place. And I think that this administration has shown great respect for our law enforcement who every day are out there defending and protecting our streets in Democrat-run cities that have turned abundantly chaotic because of their lack of support and respect for law enforcement.

{snip}

Q Can I ask about the nomination of General Tata? Is the White House still behind that?

MS. MCENANY: The President still supports General Tata.

{snip}

Q Maybe a follow-up question then. I want to change gears and talk to you about Twitter. We reported yesterday that the Israeli government wrote to Twitter’s CEO, asking him to remove tweets from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the genocide of the Israeli people. The company refused to do that because they said that the tweets were, quote, “comments on current affairs.”

I’m wondering if the White House has a response, given that Twitter has recently begun restricting the President’s own tweets for glorifying violence — quote, “glorifying violence” and spreading misinformation — and if you have spoken to the President about any further action perhaps he’s taking on social media companies.

MS. MCENANY: Yeah, it’s a great question, Ebony. I did see that New York Post story, and I thought it was very eye-opening. And it tells you where these social media company stands, where they’re not willing to assess the Ayatollah Khomeini’s tweets, but they are willing to assess President Trump’s tweets.

It’s really appalling, and it just speaks to their overwhelming, blinding bias against conservatives and against this President. And we are taking action. The administration is submitting a petition to the FCC for proposed regulatory changes to hold social media companies accountable for their censorship.

And this petition that was previously reported on earlier in the week asked the FCC to end the loophole that allows social media companies to escape civil lawsuits for their own speech, fact checks, and de-platforming. And the petition seeks to expose social media companies to liability as a speaker or a publisher if they act as editors of content on their platforms or remove lawful speech based on politics.

And very good work by the New York Post in highlighting that issue.

Yes.

Q Thanks. Can I follow up on Darlene’s question on Tata for a minute? You said that the administration is still behind him, but is — are you guys considering putting him in an acting role?
MS. MCENANY: I have no personnel announcements, other to say that the President still supports him.

Yes.

Q Thank you. It’s been a month since the reports of Russian bounties upon American military forces, and yet the White House has done nothing to push back on Putin. What is the — what is the delay?

MS. MCENANY: So, as I’ve answered probably a dozen times from this podium, that intelligence is unverified. There are dissenting opinions.

Q But why hasn’t it been verified?

MS. MCENANY: The media — I would point to the Department of Defense, saying there’s no corroborating evidence to validate recent allegations. NSC allegations and recent press articles have not been verified or substantiated by the intelligence community, and ODNI has a similar statement.

But, look, this President acts. He is not afraid to stand up to Russia. He’s done so repeatedly. When our adversaries have directly targeted U.S. or coalition — coalition partners, the President did not hesitate to act.

Q But why didn’t he speak to Putin?

MS. MCENANY: Look at Syria in 2018, when dozens of Russian mercenaries were killed in a retaliatory defensive strike. He has continually stood up to Russia and will continue to do so. And this President will always protect our troops and our men and women overseas, and he will act on verified intelligence.

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Q Yes, thank you, Kayleigh, so much. I have two questions. One, you are here saying that — how well the administration is doing in responding to different things, but the facts don’t show that, and Americans are struggling and scared. How do you — what do you tell them, the American people?

MS. MCENANY: So the one thing I would say is: The President has made clear that we’re at a place where we want all Americans to make sure that they socially distance and that they make sure they engage in mitigation tactics. And the President has been clear on that.

But, you know, one of the things I think as — when you look at the United States response, you look at the fact that we were supposed to have a ventilator shortage. In fact, we had a ventilator surplus. We were — we were told that there is a testing shortage. Well, it turns out we’ve done, at this point, almost 60 million tests.

This President led on the development of remdesivir. We just saw, this week, promising signs from convalescent plasma. Our therapeutics are advanced; I would argue the best in the world.

And that’s why, when you look at, in particular, at the case fatality rate — which the President often talks about — you see that that tells — that tells a big story. When the U.S. case fatality rate is at 3.4 percent, the world’s is at 4 percent average, and the EU at 9.7 percent, that is a testament to our therapeutics.

But we encourage every American to engage in mitigation efforts. And it’s patriotic, as the President said, to wear a mask, especially when you can’t socially distance.

{snip}

And what are Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi doing now? Stopping Americans from getting their unemployment insurance. And it’s despicable, and it’s time for them to come to the negotiating table.

Thank you very much.

END

11:23 A.M. EDT