{"id":15868,"date":"2020-04-19T22:22:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T03:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/?p=15868"},"modified":"2020-04-19T22:22:50","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T03:22:50","slug":"president-donald-trump-members-of-the-coronavirus-task-force-statements-at-press-briefing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/2020\/04\/19\/president-donald-trump-members-of-the-coronavirus-task-force-statements-at-press-briefing\/","title":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump, Members of the Coronavirus Task Force statements at Press Briefing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheWashington, D.C.<\/strong> – President Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It\u2019s been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago.<\/p>\n

Dr. Birx will walk through some of these trends in a few moments, but they\u2019re very positive trends for winning. Going to win. We\u2019re going to close it out.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/a>

U.S. President Donald J. Trump<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

While we mourn the tragic loss of life \u2014 and you can\u2019t mourn it any stronger than we\u2019re mourning it \u2014 the United States has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany. And I think we\u2019re as good or better.<\/p>\n

On a per capita basis \u2014 remember that: On a per capita basis, our mortality rate is far lower than other nations of Western Europe, with the lone exception of possibly Germany. This includes the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, France. Spain, for example, has a mortality rate that is nearly four times that of the United States, but you don\u2019t hear that. You hear we have more death. But we\u2019re much bigger countries than any of those countries by far.<\/p>\n

So when the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the United States is number one \u2014 but we\u2019re not number one; China is number one, just so you understand. China is number one by a lot. It\u2019s not even close. They\u2019re way ahead of us in terms of death. It\u2019s not even close. You know it. I know it. And they know it. But you don\u2019t want to report it. Why? You\u2019ll have to explain that. Someday I\u2019ll explain it.<\/p>\n

Since we released the guidelines to open up America again \u2014 and this was two days ago \u2014 a number of states, led by both Democrat and Republican governors, have announced concrete steps to begin a safe, gradual, and phased opening.<\/p>\n

Texas and Vermont will allow certain businesses to open on Monday while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions. And I can tell you the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, he knows what he\u2019s doing. He\u2019s a great governor. He knows exactly what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

Montana will begin lifting restrictions on Friday. Ohio, North Dakota, and Idaho have advised non-essential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting May 1st.<\/p>\n

Throughout this crisis, my administration has taken unprecedented actions to rush economic relief to our citizens. As an example, you don\u2019t hear anymore about ventilators. What happened to the ventilators? And now they\u2019re giving you the other; it\u2019s called \u201ctesting.\u201d Testing. But they don\u2019t want to use all of the capacity that we\u2019ve created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that; they\u2019re the ones that are complaining.<\/p>\n

Through the Paycheck Protection Program, we\u2019ve already processed nearly $350 billion to 1.6 million small businesses across the nation to keep American workers on the payroll. So we\u2019re asking the Democrats to get it done. This should be bipartisan. This should be 100 percent vote. And it\u2019s really been incredible. The $350 billion that\u2019s been approved is so popular, and it\u2019s keeping businesses open. It\u2019ll be open hopefully forever.<\/p>\n

Our swift action is directly supporting 30 million American jobs. Amy Wright, from North Carolina, as an example, said the program is a \u201cgame changer\u201d for her and her family. It\u2019s coffee shops. And she has 120 employees, many of whom have developmental and intellectual disabilities. And now they\u2019re all staying, and they\u2019re getting paid. And she\u2019s got a dream, and it\u2019s going to take place very quickly when she opens again. So, Amy, good luck. North Carolina \u2014 great place.<\/p>\n

Scott and Julie Alderink helped lead a church and own a restaurant in South Dakota, with about 15 employees. They were already starting layoffs. Layoffs were moving along rapidly. But now they\u2019ve hired their employees back, and they can keep the restaurant open. And it\u2019ll be moving quickly \u2014 very quickly \u2014 as opposed to not having anybody and probably not having a place to have all of these people employed. She would have been out of business. She would have been done.<\/p>\n

[320left]The Paycheck Protection Program funding is now fully drained. It\u2019s out. It\u2019s gone. Three hundred and fifty billion dollars to small businesses. And, in turn, it goes to the employees of those small businesses.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers must stop blocking these funds and replenish the program without delay. The Democrats have to come onboard. I used to read that these were Democrat programs, not Republican. It seems to have switched around a lot, hasn\u2019t it? Huh? Switched around a lot. The republicans want it. I think the Democrats probably do too.<\/p>\n

But they also want other things that are unacceptable. This is about COVID. This is about the plague and what it\u2019s done to us. This isn\u2019t about extraneous things that they\u2019ve been trying to get for years and that our country doesn\u2019t want them to have.<\/p>\n

As we enter the next stage of our battle, we are continuing our relentless effort to destroy the virus. My administration is taking steps to protect high-risk communities by providing funding for 13,000 community health center sites and mobile medical stations.<\/p>\n

In order to equip them with the most advanced and robust testing capabilities, these sites are incredible. What they can do is incredible. The job they do is incredible. These centers provide care to 28 million people living in medically underserved urban and rural regions, including many African American and Hispanic communities. We\u2019re taking care of them. And it\u2019s so important, because you\u2019ve all been reading about the disproportionate numbers on African American, and you\u2019re reading a little bit less about Hispanic, but likewise Hispanic communities. The numbers are disproportionate. In fact, we\u2019re doing big studies on it right now. We don\u2019t like it. Not right.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, we\u2019ve now conducted over 4 million tests, and Deborah will be talking about that. It\u2019s double the number conducted by any other country on Earth. So that\u2019s more than two times, actually, the number conducted by any other country on Earth. You hear so much about testing. What we\u2019ve done is incredible on testing. And I started with an obsolete, broken system from a previous administration \u2014 or administrations. But I would really say \u201cadministration\u201d for a different reason because testing has become so advanced over the last number of years, and we have the most advanced of all.<\/p>\n

I spoke with other nations this morning \u2014 the leaders \u2014 and they all are talking about our great testing capability, and some of them want to know what to do; what \u2014 how can they get involved, because they need it for their own countries.<\/p>\n

In Louisiana, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and other hotspots, we have also tested more people per capita, by far, than Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, and all other major countries. So think of that. In New York, for instance, per capita testing is 6 percent higher than in Singapore. In fact, there\u2019s a typo. It\u2019s 67 percent higher. That\u2019s a big difference.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say there\u2019s a big difference between six percent and sixty- \u2014 I was looking; I said, 6 percent doesn\u2019t look too good. It\u2019s 67 percent \u2014 good job out there \u2014 higher than Singapore; 64 higher than South Korea; and 47 percent higher than Australia. So it\u2019s 67 percent higher than Singapore, which is a very advanced place in terms of what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

My administration has also been speaking frequently with many of the governors to help them find and unlock the vast unused testing capacity that exists in their states. Dr. Birx discussed yesterday the commercial and academic laboratories, and the states have tremendous unused capability, which they can use. The governors should use it. Tremendous unused capability, and they\u2019re waiting for business from these governors that \u2014 some of them complain. I must tell you, for the most part, we\u2019re getting along great with them, but some of them like to complain.<\/p>\n

But I still go back because the hardest thing of all, by far, by a factor of 20, is the ventilators. And now we\u2019re the king of ventilators. We have ventilators.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to be helping other countries very soon. We\u2019re going to be helping Mexico. I spoke with the President of Mexico. He\u2019s great. A great guy. And I told him we\u2019re going to be helping him. They desperately, in Mexico, need ventilators, and I told him we\u2019re going to be helping him very substantially. We\u2019re in a position to do that. We\u2019re building, now, thousands a week. And they\u2019re coming in rapidly, and they\u2019re very, very high quality.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019re also helping governors to develop strategies to smartly deploy their testing capacity to protect vulnerable and underserved populations, while getting Americans at lower risk safely back to work.<\/p>\n

So, again, we have tremendous testing capacity. Now, a lot of people like the Abbott test that we came up with. Abbott is a brand-new technology, brand-new test. It\u2019s great. It\u2019s five minutes, boom, you put it in. And we\u2019re making thousands of machines. Abbott is making thousands and thousands of machines. But not everybody is going to get that one, but they\u2019re going to get others. We have numerous platforms which we\u2019ll talk about in a minute.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, some partisan voices are attempting to politicize the issue of testing, which they shouldn\u2019t be doing, because I inherited broken junk. Just as they did with ventilators where we had virtually none, and the hospitals were empty. For the most part, the hospitals didn\u2019t have ventilators. We had to take care of the whole country, and we did a job, the likes of which nobody \u2014 we assembled an army of young, brilliant people. For the most part, young; a couple of older ones. But for the most part, they were young, brilliant geniuses that did a job like nobody would believe. I wish you could have seen it. Around the clock.<\/p>\n

And now the rest of the world is coming to us, asking if we could help them with ventilators because they\u2019re very complicated, very expensive. They\u2019re very hard to build. And we have them coming in by the thousands. But you don\u2019t hear that from even the governors. Nobody is complaining about ventilators. And if there was a surge, we could have ventilators to them within hours, because we have in stockpile almost 10,000 ventilators.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[470center]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t hear about hospital beds. When I first started, everyone was talking, \u201cOh, hospitals beds. Hospitals beds.\u201d The governor of New York correctly asked me for hospital beds, and we got the Army Corps of Engineers out, and they built them. He needed them. I mean, he \u2014 we went \u2014 I know he said that we were projecting. We\u2019re not projecting New York. We\u2019re listening to the governors. He wanted them. He needed them. And we gave him thousands of beds in Javits Center. We brought the ship. And then the ship, we had it converted to COVID-19. And that was a big deal, by the way, because of ventilation and all the things we had to do. But we did.<\/p>\n

And fortunately for him \u2014 and for us, all of us \u2014 they haven\u2019t used either one very much because the numbers have gone down significantly. But it was there, and it was built, and it was beautiful. Two thousand nine hundred beds. It was incredible what they did. They did it in a matter of a few days.<\/p>\n

But, unfortunately \u2014 and it was very good; the relationship was very good. And I\u2019m, frankly, glad they don\u2019t need them, but they were there. Louisiana, the same thing. I think the governor \u2014 a Democrat, good guy \u2014 and he will, I think, tell you a story that we had more than enough, and I said, \u201cWell, we\u2019re supposed to build one more.\u201d I called him and I said, \u201cYou know, if we don\u2019t have to build this hospital\u201d \u2014 it was an additional anywhere from 500 to 1,000 beds. \u201cIf you don\u2019t need it, would it be possible that we don\u2019t build it? We\u2019d like to build it someplace else, or not build it at all and save money,\u201d which is okay for government to use it someplace else. And he called call me back the next day and he said, \u201cSir, we don\u2019t need it.\u201d I said, \u201cThat\u2019s great that you say that. I appreciate it.\u201d And he didn\u2019t need it.<\/p>\n

But we were ready to go, and we took good care of Louisiana. We took good care of Michigan. We took good care of every place. We didn\u2019t \u2014 we didn\u2019t miss a trick.<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re in great shape on testing. We have different platforms. We actually have nine different platforms. And on Monday, we\u2019re going to be adding one; that\u2019ll be 9 to 10. I don\u2019t like to count on them before they\u2019re up, but we\u2019ll have anywhere from 9 to 10 platforms with a tremendous testing capability. And people can go, and especially with phase one.<\/p>\n

Now, at the same time \u2014 just like with ventilators \u2014 we\u2019re building now the best ventilators. Just like with ventilators, our testing is getting better and better. I took the first test. The first test was not pleasant. This was not a pleasant thing. I said, \u201cYou got to be kidding\u201d to the doctor. \u201cYou got to be kidding.\u201d Up your nose and then we hang a right, and it goes down here. And then we\u2019ll wiggle it around here, under your eye. And then we\u2019ll pull it out and we\u2019ll say \u2014 I said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s \u2014 there\u2019s no way that can happen. Is that the way it goes? You sure?\u201d This was a very unpleasant test.<\/p>\n

And then I was tested a few weeks later with the new test that just came out, the Abbott, where they just touch your nose, basically. And they put it in a machine, and literally, a few minutes later, they tell you if you\u2019re fine. And I was lucky in both cases, because I\u2019ve seen the damage that this does to people.<\/p>\n

But we have great tests. They\u2019ve really gotten better and better and better as we go along. But we have a tremendous lab capability \u2014 laboratory capability all over the country. And for some reason, the governors, they\u2019re not \u2014 a lot of them are, but some of the governors like to complain, and they\u2019re not using it. We have tremendous capability. We\u2019re ready for them.<\/p>\n

And, as we go along, just like with ventilators, we\u2019ll get better, more advanced, and, you know, it\u2019ll be \u2014 we\u2019ll be able to do things that nobody would have even believed possible. But we started off with a broken system. We inherited a broken, terrible system.<\/p>\n

And I always say it: Our cupboards were bare. We had very little in our stockpile. Now we\u2019re loaded up. And we also loaded up these hospitals. And, you know, we\u2019re talking about payment. We gave billions of dollars\u2019 worth of things to hospitals, and we\u2019ll have to work that out at some point. In fact, I guess they\u2019re going to be working that out with Congress.<\/p>\n

But we loaded up hospitals. The federal government loaded up hospitals with things to take care of people that are very desperately \u2014 we\u2019re not \u2014 we weren\u2019t worried about payment at that time. We said, \u201cYou\u2019ll take care of it at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But we gave billions and billions and billions of dollars\u2019 worth of medical goods and medicines and equipment to hospitals. And we\u2019ll \u2014 we\u2019ll work it out with them. But people don\u2019t like to talk about that.<\/p>\n

So we have done a job that nobody believed \u2014 this was a military and private enterprises march. We marched \u2014 and, unfortunately, with the other side, because they\u2019re viewing it as an election. \u201cHow did President Trump do?\u201d \u201cOh, he did, uh, terribly. Let\u2019s see. He did \u2014 uh, yeah, he did terribly.\u201d \u201cOh.\u201d But we just got them the ventilators that they didn\u2019t have, that they should have had. We just got them hospital beds by the thousands. We just got them testing that they don\u2019t even know how to use. In some cases, they have machines that they\u2019re only using 5 percent and 10 percent of the machine, because they have an advanced machine and they don\u2019t know how to use it. It can use \u2014 it can do much more. So we\u2019ve had people explain how to use it.<\/p>\n

So, I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t think I do that on the other side. I don\u2019t \u2014 I really don\u2019t. I think that here we have a crisis that we have to work together, and I hope we\u2019re going to work together. But we\u2019re moving along, and we\u2019re moving along well. We\u2019re moving along well.<\/p>\n

This should not be a partisan witch hunt \u2014 you know? \u2014 like the Russia hunt that turned out to be a total phony deal. Unfortunately, some of these voices, though, are attempting to \u2014 to bring this into politics. And whether it\u2019s testing or ventilators or hospital beds, or other dimensions of our sweeping public health response \u2014 we have had a sweeping response.<\/p>\n

In speaking to the leaders of other countries this morning, they said, \u201cThis is incredible the way you\u2019ve done this so quickly.\u201d You know, we\u2019re only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem. And the rest of the world is watching, and they respect what we\u2019ve done because I don\u2019t think anybody else \u2014 I know nobody else could have done what we\u2019ve done. And we started with garbage.<\/p>\n

As our experts said yesterday, America\u2019s testing capability and capacity is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country, totally. Indeed, our system is by far the most robust and advanced anywhere in the world, by far. The rest of the world will tell you that.<\/p>\n

I spoke this morning to a friend of mine, President Moon of South Korea. He just won the election. He won it by a lot. He had a big victory, which I was happy about. And he was saying what a great job we\u2019ve done in this country. I told him the same thing. He said what a great job we\u2019ve done here in this country. So I appreciated that. He had a great \u2014 by the way, he had a great victory and we\u2019re very happy about that, from the standpoint of our country. We\u2019re working very well with them \u2014 South Korea.<\/p>\n

As we approach \u2014 and the approach that we use \u2014 but as we approach, hopefully, the downward side of what\u2019s going on, I think you\u2019re going to see some incredible hard facts and evidence that what we did was right. There\u2019s a lot of talk about herd \u2014 the word \u201cherd.\u201d I don\u2019t want to show you charts of people that went a different way, but it\u2019s scary. It\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n

We would have had, I think, millions of people die had we done a different way. And I think numbers are just coming out where they\u2019re estimating 60,000 people will die. That\u2019s horrible. I always say one person is too much, especially in this case, when it could have been stopped in China. It could have been stopped in China, before it started, and it wasn\u2019t. And the whole world is suffering because of it.<\/p>\n

But this herd concept \u2014 and everybody had to think of it at the beginning, because, look \u2014 look at us: We had the greatest economy in the history of the world. Better than China; better than any country in the world; better than any country has ever had. We had the highest stock market in history, by far. And I\u2019m honored by the fact that it has started to go up very substantially. That\u2019s because the market is smart. The market is actually brilliant. I\u2019ve seen it. And they\u2019re viewing it like we\u2019ve done a good job. They view it that way.<\/p>\n

Because if you would have told me that we\u2019re at 24,000 or beyond, and the highest we were ever was \u2014 we never hit 30. We were getting close to 30, so let\u2019s say around 29,000. We\u2019re at 24. If we were heading down, I would start to say, \u201cOh, wow, we may be heading into territory where I started.\u201d I didn\u2019t like that. Now we\u2019re way up. But if you would have said to me with what we\u2019ve gone through \u2014 not caused by our country or our people or any \u2014 I mean, not caused by certainly anybody within our country. But if you would have said that, after going through this horrible plague, that we\u2019d have a stock market that\u2019s much, much higher than when I started, much higher than where I started \u2014 and I think it\u2019s \u2014 you know, I think we have tremendous momentum. We have a big election coming up, but I think we have tremendous momentum.<\/p>\n

First, we get rid of the plague. And because of what we\u2019re doing with the PPP, what we\u2019re doing with the Paycheck, as we call it, I think we have a chance to have these companies get back to action quickly.<\/p>\n

But our approach to testing is based on facts, data, and very hard evidence, not partisan agendas or coordinated political talking points.<\/p>\n

Mike Pence, who\u2019s a phenomenal guy, he\u2019s making the commencement address right now at the Air Force Academy, where they\u2019re being very politically correct. Everyone is standing not 6 feet but 10 feet apart. Okay? And it\u2019s very different. I made that speech last year. I\u2019m going to West Point. I think they\u2019re changing the date to June 13th because of what\u2019s going on in New York. They\u2019re moving into June 13th. West Point.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m doing their commencement speech, and they\u2019re going to have \u2014 it\u2019s sad because \u2014 but it\u2019s a big start \u2014 they\u2019re going to have the cadets. They may not have the parents, but they\u2019re going to have the cadets. The parents are so proud of them. I know at the Air Force Academy, where Mike is speaking right now, they don\u2019t have the parents; they have the cadets. They\u2019re very, very widespread.<\/p>\n

And you talk about social distancing \u2014 I mean, they are really spread. I looked at it. They using 10 feet. So he\u2019s \u2014 he\u2019s doing that. But they\u2019re having it. It\u2019s very important to have it. And that\u2019s a great thing. That\u2019s a great thing. That\u2019s a big start.<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s there right now. And I will tell you, they \u2014 he\u2019s a gentleman, Mike Pence. A real gentleman. And they requested \u2014 the Democrat senators requested a phone call with him yesterday. And I think they had, for the most part, all of them on \u2014 like, approximately 47. I heard it was just about all of them, whatever it might be. I don\u2019t want to be wrong by 1 or 2 or 10 and have the press say, \u201cHe lied. He told a lie. Terrible, terrible.\u201d Whatever it was. But they have 47, and I guess most of them were on.<\/p>\n

I heard they were so rude. I used a term today \u2014 I said, rude and nasty. But I heard they were so rude. No matter what he said, which was all very positive in terms of winning this battle against the invisible enemy \u2014 no matter what he said, they were fresh. They were nasty.<\/p>\n

[320left]And it was, I heard, just a terrible thing. And I said, \u201cMike, that\u2019s politics. That\u2019s what it is.\u201d If we came into this room today and said, \u201cThe battle is over. We have won. It\u2019s 100 percent gone.\u201d The Democrats would say, \u201cThe President has done a horrible job. He has done a disgraceful job. It is a shame how bad he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know, it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s \u2014 this is the talking points; this is political. And it would be nice not to have that, especially when we\u2019ve done the job we\u2019ve done. I mean, all you have to do is look at the big \u2014 the big \u201cV\u201d for victory or \u201cV\u201d for ventilator. Take a look at it. Everybody said they had us on that; they had us. They thought they had us, but we got them done at numbers that nobody would have believed.<\/p>\n

And we did use our Act, our Production Act, and we used it. But didn\u2019t use it \u2014 we didn\u2019t need it like a hammer. All we had to do \u2014 for the most part \u2014 we used it, actually, in a number of cases. But for the most part, all we had to do is talk about it. All we had to do is say, \u201cWe\u2019re going to use it if you don\u2019t do this.\u201d And everybody was, you know, for the most part, good. We used it a couple of times because it didn\u2019t work out the easy way, but it worked out the hard way.<\/p>\n

But whether it was masks or ventilator, it was incredible what we\u2019ve been able to do. So this is a very critical time for the American people, and the American people deserve real information, and responsible and thoughtful dialogue from their elected leaders and from the media.<\/p>\n

The media has been \u2014 some very honest, but some very dishonest. You know that. You know that. I mean, I even read a story where Mark Meadows \u2014 a tough guy \u2014 he was crying; he was crying. This was a Maggie Haberman. You know, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Russia, but she was wrong on Russia. So was everyone else. They should all give back their Pulitzer Prizes.<\/p>\n

In fact, it turned out that the crime was committed by the other side. The crime was not committed by this side; it was committed by the other side \u2014 a bunch of bad people. You saw the reports coming out over the last two weeks. They got caught. So Maggie Haberman gets a Pulitzer Prize? She\u2019s a third-rate reporter. New York Times.<\/p>\n

And we put her name up here last week. You saw that. People thought it was a commercial. It wasn\u2019t a commercial. It was like a commercial, but it wasn\u2019t a commercial. It was just clips. And because we exposed her as being a bad reporter, what happened is she came out and said Mark Meadows was crying. And they made it sound \u2014 I said, \u201cMark\u201d \u2014 and it\u2019s okay if he did. I wouldn\u2019t \u2014 you know, look. But I think he was crying probably \u2014 really, for the wrong reason they had it down. But he\u2019s not a crier. And if he was \u2014 I know criers. I could tell you people that you know that are very famous. They cry, and that\u2019s okay too.<\/p>\n

But it was a nasty story in so many ways. It was fake news. And she only did it because we exposed her for being a terrible, dishonest reporter. She is. I\u2019ve known her for a long while. I haven\u2019t spoken to her in a long time. I made the mistake: I take a picture with her at the desk, a long time ago. Every time she does a story, if I say \u2014 I haven\u2019t spoken to her in long \u2014 many, many, many months, maybe years. I don\u2019t speak to her. She\u2019s fake. A lot of people are fake. A lot of people We got a lot of fake people.<\/p>\n

But what happens is she writes this story as retribution. Puts it in the New York Times. And the New York Times is a very dishonest newspaper. It\u2019s my opinion. It\u2019s not an opinion. It\u2019s actually, from my standpoint \u2014 you know, the very hard thing to figure, though: Most people wouldn\u2019t know that, but I know it because I know the facts.<\/p>\n

And they make up \u2014 I said it today; they make up words. \u201cSources say\u2026\u201d Most often used: \u201cSources say\u2026\u201d You know what \u201csources say\u201d means? \u201cSources say\u201d means they have nobody. And they make it up. Okay?<\/p>\n

And they have a few other type statements that mean the same thing. But \u201csources say\u201d is the most often-used express- \u2014 in the Washington Post; New York Times, especially; CNN \u2014 fake news. CNN.<\/p>\n

They should really be mandated, and I mean mandated to use a name. If there\u2019s a source, use a name. Say that Kayleigh \u2014 \u201cKayleigh McEnany said\u2026\u201d or somebody. And you\u2019d find out that the \u2014 number one, the source wouldn\u2019t say it. The sources don\u2019t exist. I don\u2019t believe the sources exist.<\/p>\n

And I try and tell this \u2014 you know, the beautiful thing about doing these conferences is that we have tremendous numbers of viewers, and I\u2019m able to reach the viewers without having to go through fake news, where they make a good story into a bad story.<\/p>\n

So, with all of that, it\u2019s been an incredible period of time. We\u2019ve done a fantastic job. We\u2019re the talk of other nations. The leaders of other nations are calling us for help. They\u2019re calling us for equipment. They\u2019re calling us for testing capacities.<\/p>\n

Now, with the testing, we are going further. Deborah is going to talk about that now. With the testing, we have some other tests coming up that are going to be, I think, phenomenal. I think they\u2019re going to blow away everything as soon as they come out, and we\u2019re going to get them out as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d like to ask Dr. Birx to come up and say a few words about where we\u2019ve come, how far we\u2019ve come, and more importantly, where we\u2019re going from this point. Because honestly, it\u2019s \u2014 it\u2019s quite amazing. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: Thank you, Mr. President. If we could have the first slide.<\/p>\n

I wanted to give you an update on where we are as states and as counties and as cities. I know you all are watching carefully. The numbers have shifted over the last few days. What happens when nations \u2014 when states change the reporting from \u201cconfirmed\u201d to \u201cprobable\u201d? So now all probable cases are included. They had to add them back in. Even though the cases may have been from March, they were added over 14, 15, and 16th of April, and states may continue to be adding them. Eventually, we\u2019re hoping that those get accounted for on the day when the presumptive cases or the probable cases were counted. But right now, they\u2019re added in, in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n

So this is New York and New Jersey, and I think we all know how difficult and what a difficult time both New York and New Jersey have had. I call your attention to the axis; it goes up to 250,000 cases. So you can get a frame of how we\u2019re talking about some of the other metro areas.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

This is the 25 metro areas \u2014 the top 25 metro areas. And you can only see the New York metro area in this slide. Again, the axis goes up to about 300,000. It includes the New Jersey part of the metro area, as well as part of southern Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

But if I take New York out \u2014 and the reason I wanted to do that \u2014 now the axis is one-tenth of the previous axis. So that previous ax- \u2014 the previous slide, 300,000. This slide, 30,000. So that will give you a frame of reference for some of these other metros.<\/p>\n

The reason I wanted to show you this is this is cumulative cases. And we are still tracking, very closely, the issues in Chicago and Boston. But on this slide, I hope you can see the yellow line; that is Detroit. And Detroit and this mayor of Detroit has really done an extraordinary job, and the people of Detroit have done an extraordinary job with their social distancing.<\/p>\n

The other line I want to call your attention to is the line here. This is New Orleans. And I think \u2014 frankly, I was concerned about New Orleans because they had a lot of preexisting comorbidities. They only \u2014 they have two or three major hospitals, but a large cover, a very large area of geographic area.<\/p>\n

And that other blue line that you can see \u2014 it\u2019s down right here \u2014 that\u2019s the Seattle line. And you can see that their response, because of the nursing home alert, they were one of the first states and the first metro areas to really move to social distancing. And so they\u2019ve really never had a peak, like many of the other metros.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

Then I just want to take you through some of these new case graphics. That was cumulative cases. This is daily cases. And obviously, there\u2019s a lot of variability, and variability in reporting, but you get a sense over time, when you look at daily cases.<\/p>\n

So New Orleans is on the \u2014 on panel on your left, and Baton Rouge on your right. But you can see clearly, New Orleans, about a month ago, very low levels, probably less than 50 cases. Large peak and spike around the beginning of April. And they have come down, and they have it down to very few cases. Again, I showed you before how both their syndromic cases have come down, as well as their actual case \u2014 number of cases.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

This is Seattle. So you can see they had a much lower peak. And this is \u2014 when we talked about flattening the curve, this is what flattening the curve looks like. It becomes a longer, slower decline, but it ever gets very high, and then goes back down.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

And then this is Detroit. And we always look at the metros as a consolidated. So this is both Wayne and Oakland in Michigan. And we really want to thank the mayor for the incredible job that they have done to really ensure that everyone is receiving the adequate healthcare and testing, and they\u2019ve done quite a good job with testing in Michigan.<\/p>\n

But all of these states \u2014 Louisiana and New York have tested 30,000 per million inhabitants. Those are some of our highest numbers across the board.<\/p>\n

And next slide.<\/p>\n

And so the President talked about the case fatality rates, and we really \u2014 we\u2019ve lost a lot of Americans to this disease, and we pray and hope for each one of them that are in the hospitals and the excellent care.<\/p>\n

What this graph illustrates is the amazing work of the American people to really adhere to social distancing. This was some \u2014 this was nothing we had ever attempted to do as a nation, and the world hadn\u2019t attempted to do. But they were able to decrease the number of cases so that, in general, most of the metro areas never had an issue of complete crisis care of all of their hospitals in the region.<\/p>\n

And so you can see our case fatality rate is about half to a third of many of the other countries.<\/p>\n

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THE PRESIDENT: And, excuse me, does anybody really believe this number? Does anybody really believe this number?<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: I put China on there so you could see how basically unrealistic this could be. When highly developed healthcare delivery systems \u2014 the United Kingdom and France and Belgium and Italy and Spain \u2014 with extraordinary doctors and nurses and equipment have case fatality rates in the 20s, up to 45, and Belgium\u2019s extraordinarily competent healthcare delivery system, and then China at .33, you realize that these numbers, even \u2014 and this includes the doubled number out of Wuhan.<\/p>\n

And so I wanted, really, to put it in perspective, but I wanted you also to see how great the care has been for every American that has been hospitalized and how extraordinary work of our doctors and nurses in our laboratorians on the front line who have been doing an excellent job.<\/p>\n

Next slide.<\/p>\n

And then we also wanted to show \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: If I might add, though, also \u2014<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: Yeah.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 the number for Iran. Does anybody really believe that number? You see what\u2019s going on over there. Does anybody \u2014 put that slide back, if you would. Does anybody believe this number? Does anybody believe this number? You saw more bags \u2014<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: And this is why \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 on television than that.<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: This is why the reporting is so important. And I think you remember, almost six weeks ago, maybe a month ago, I was telling you what Italy was showing to us and what France was telling to us, and the warnings that they gave to us and said, \u201cBe very careful. There\u2019s an extraordinary high mortality among people with preexisting conditions.\u201d And we used their information to bring that to the American people.<\/p>\n

That came \u2014 that alert \u2014 that alert, before we even had significant cases, came from our European colleagues on the front line. And that\u2019s why we keep coming back to how important, in a pandemic and a new disease, it\u2019s really critical to have that level of transparency because it changes how we work as a nation. It allowed us on \u2014 over March 15 to make an alert out there about vulnerable individuals and the \u2014 really, they need to protect them, and my call-out to millennials to really protect their parents, protect their grandparents, and get that information out to everyone that there were preexisting conditions that put people at greater risk. That information came from our European colleagues who were in the midst of their battle themselves.<\/p>\n

And so there is never an excuse to not share information. When you are the first country to have an outbreak, you really have a moral obligation to the world to not only talk about it, but provide that information that\u2019s critical to the rest of the world to really respond to this credibly.<\/p>\n

And I really want to thank our European colleagues who have worked so hard to get us that information, even in the midst of their own tragedies. And I think that really shows how important transparency is.<\/p>\n

And we go to the next slide.<\/p>\n

We can show you this really encouraging and great news: So we know that fatalities will continue to lag because people are in hospitals still, and some are still sit in intensive care units.<\/p>\n

But these COVID-like illnesses \u2014 this is our hospitalizations that are related to flu per 100,000 Americans. This is this year\u2019s flu season. And you can see our COVID-like illnesses. And this is all of them, probable and confirmed cases. Our hospitalizations are declining.<\/p>\n

Now, I showed you metros that have made tremendous progress, and we\u2019ve been up here many times talking about it being 6, 10, 15 additional cities. And now we\u2019re really just focused on Chicago and Boston and Massachusetts, and really some issues that Providence is starting to improve now. So their relationship to the two large outbreak cities. But this is really reassuring to us, the progress we\u2019re making across the country against this disease.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m \u2014 just really want to conclude by thanking again the American people for making these type of graphics possible; thank the data team who puts these together for me. So they are working until about 3:30 every morning to make sure that we have the most up-to-date information. That\u2019s the data that goes to our supply-chain individuals to ensure that every hospital in every state and every community has what they need based on data, and to make sure that we\u2019re serving the needs of the American people as effectively as possible.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Mr. President.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Deborah. Fantastic job. Is this yours?<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: Yes.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

The fact is that we\u2019ve been learning a lot from Deborah and Tony and so many of the professionals, the director.<\/p>\n

PEPFAR: We\u2019re spending \u2014 the United States, without help, to the best of my knowledge \u2014 mostly in Africa, $6 billion a year. And that\u2019s on AIDS. What we\u2019ve done for AIDS in Africa is unbelievable. We spend $6 billion a year. That\u2019s been going on for a long time. Nobody knows that; you\u2019ve never heard that. I\u2019ve never heard that. Six billion dollars a year.<\/p>\n

Millions of people are living right now, and living very comfortably, because of the fact that we have found the answer to that horrible, horrible plague. That was a plague.<\/p>\n

But we spent $6 billion a year. And from what I hear, it\u2019s very well spent, done by professionals, including this great professional right here. That was the thing that you worked hardest on and something that was very close to her heart. So it\u2019s \u2014 you know, it\u2019s something that I think people should start hearing.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization: We\u2019re just finding more and more problems. And we spend this money really well. There are other ways we can spend the $500 million. That\u2019s $500 million; this is $6 billion. But we can find other ways to spend it where people are going to be helped, we think, in a much greater \u2014 in a much greater way.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re doing some research on certain people that take a lot of credit for what they do. And NIH is giving away a lot of money \u2014 a lot of money. We\u2019d give away for years \u2014 for many years, they\u2019d give away a lot of money. And some people complain and some people don\u2019t. Some people are extremely happy. So we\u2019re looking into that also.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re giving away approximately, as I understand it, recently, more than $32 billion a year. Thirty-two billion. And so we\u2019ve been looking at that for a while, and we\u2019re going to be having some statements to be made about that. Thirty-two billion dollars a year. It\u2019s a lot of money, and we want to make sure it\u2019s being spent wisely. And we\u2019ve been doing that, by the way, and we\u2019ll have some statements on that.<\/p>\n

And those are much bigger numbers then what we\u2019re talking about with national \u2014 if you \u2014 if you look, with the \u2014 with our friends from wherever they come from. You know, 500 \u2014 500 million is a lot of money, but it\u2019s not a lot compared to the kind of money that we give out. I think, over the years, it\u2019s been averaging about 32 billion dollars. Thirty-two billion. So we\u2019ve had our eye on that one for a while.<\/p>\n

We also talked about the lab in China where, I guess, $3.7 million was given some time ago. And we\u2019re looking at that very closely. Chief of Staff has that pretty much under control. But it\u2019s money that \u2014 too bad it got spent there. But that was spent \u2014 what year was that, Mark? That was four or five years ago?<\/p>\n

MR. MEADOWS: That was over the last six years. Yes.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Six years ago, approximately. So we\u2019re looking at that. And that\u2019s the lab that people are talking about.<\/p>\n

All right, so we\u2019re looking at a lot of things. There\u2019s tremendous waste in our government. We found it in many different ways and in many different forms. And this is one of them. This is one of them.<\/p>\n

We can spend \u2014 I was talking to Dr. Birx \u2014 we can spend $500 million using all of it in a much more efficient manner if we\u2019re \u2014 if we choose to do that. And it\u2019ll be to the good of many more people than are getting it right now.<\/p>\n

[320left]But you look at the mistakes that were made \u2014 I mean, so late, long after I said we have to close off our country. They were actually against our closing off our country to China. When I did that in January, they were against that. They didn\u2019t like the idea of closing off our country. They said it was a bad thing to do, actually, and they\u2019ve since taken that back. But it was a very lucky thing that we did it. Very lucky. We would have had numbers that were very significantly greater. Tony Fauci said that. He said it would have been very significantly greater had we not done that.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019ve made a lot of moves that were good moves, but it\u2019s still a very depressing subject because it\u2019s a lot of death. And if it was stopped very early on at the source, before it started blowing into these proportions, you have 184 countries that would have been in a lot better shape. But our country is getting back, and I expect that we\u2019re going to be bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.<\/p>\n

All right, we\u2019ll take a few questions. Jeff.<\/p>\n

Q Mr. President, you\u2019ve mentioned and the Doctor has mentioned China a few times today, that \u2014 clearly suggesting that the data has not been good and (inaudible) \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you tell me: Do you think their data is good, when you see that? Do you think that \u2014 do you think that\u2019s correct? Okay?<\/p>\n

Q It was \u2014 it was a pretty \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Do you honestly believe that\u2019s correct?<\/p>\n

Q It was a pretty dramatic contrast. So my question for your, sir \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Dramatic? Yeah, I\u2019d say it\u2019s dramatic.<\/p>\n

Q So my question for you, sir, is \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Why didn\u2019t the \u2014 why didn\u2019t the press \u2014 why didn\u2019t you people figure that out though? Why do we have to put up a chart? It\u2019s \u2014 the number is imposs- \u2014 it\u2019s an impossible number to hit. But why haven\u2019t you come up and said that?<\/p>\n

Q The question, sir, is: Is China now cooperating with the United States to figure out what happened? And what do you want from them now?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they said they\u2019re doing an investigation \u2014 that they\u2019re doing an investigation. So let\u2019s see what happens with their investigation. But we\u2019re doing investigations also.<\/p>\n

Yeah, go ahead. Please.<\/p>\n

Q Thank you, sir. You\u2019ve spoken \u2014 we heard Dr. Birx, a moment ago, say that every country has a responsibility to tell the rest of the world what\u2019s going on. You\u2019ve talked repeatedly about how this could have been stopped in the past. I know you don\u2019t want to telegraph what you would do, but do you think that there should be some consequences if, in the end, you know, China was responsible for all of this?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they were knowingly responsible, certainly. If they did \u2014 if it was a mistake: a mistake is a mistake. But if it were knowingly responsible, yeah, then there should be consequences. You\u2019re talking about, you know, potentially lives like nobody has seen since 1917.<\/p>\n

And, you know, the other thing, had we not done what we did in terms of closing \u2014 because there is that concept of, \u201cLet\u2019s let it ride.\u201d But I\u2019m \u2014 at some point, I\u2019m going to have to \u2014 I don\u2019t want to embarrass countries that I like and leaders that I like, but you have to see some of these numbers.<\/p>\n

In my opinion \u2014 so we\u2019re talking about maybe 60,000 or so; that\u2019s a lot of people. But that\u2019s \u2014 100,000 was the minimum we thought that we could get to, and we \u2014 we will be lower than that number. Anywhere from 100 to 220,000 people. But I really believe it could have been millions of people had we not done what we did. We made a lot of good decisions, but one of those things.<\/p>\n

Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Q But have you ruled out that this was an unknowing situation? Have you ruled out that there was \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: I haven\u2019t ruled out anything.<\/p>\n

Q Okay.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: I want to look at the facts as they come in. No, I want to look at the facts.<\/p>\n

Please. Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Q Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Last week, you claimed that you were in charge of everything. Yet, the American people don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re unwilling to use the awesome powers of your presidency to make American companies manufacture the PPE and also the testing equipment that you need \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Who are with?<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 to implement \u2014 to implement your recommendations \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: No, I know, but who are you with?<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 of how \u2014 I\u2019m with TMN. Recommendations for \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: TMN. What is TMN?<\/p>\n

Q Talk Media News.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: What?<\/p>\n

Q My name is Doug Christian with Talk Media News. Yes.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Talk Media News.<\/p>\n

Q Yeah. And so anyway \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Keep reading your question.<\/p>\n

Q The thing is, how to make companies build these testing equipment so that you can do what you want or what you recommended.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we\u2019re doing that. We\u2019re doing \u2014 we\u2019re doing it. We\u2019re doing it right now with ventilators. We have General Motors. We have General Electric. We have 11 different companies \u2014 great companies \u2014 building them for us all over the United States. We\u2019re starting to make our own gowns, as they call it. We\u2019re making some incredible things.<\/p>\n

And as far as the testing is concerned, most of that now is done in the United States. We\u2019re doing it in the United States on different platforms.<\/p>\n

And so I just don\u2019t think you were listening.<\/p>\n

Q But senators who are complaining to \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Which senators?<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 to Vice President Pence yesterday \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Which senators? Which senators?<\/p>\n

Q Well, independent Senator Angus King was \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: But he\u2019s not an independent, okay? Angus King is worse than any Democrat.<\/p>\n

Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Q But he \u2014 but he said that he was \u2014 that he was livid, actually, at this \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Of course he said that, because he\u2019s a \u2014 he\u2019s a Democrat. Okay? Angus King is not an independent. He uses that term for whatever reason. It\u2019s a waste of time.<\/p>\n

Q But he\u2019s not a very emotive-type of senator.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, he is. You haven\u2019t seen him. Okay? You haven\u2019t seen him. No, Angus King is a Democrat, and that was totally staged. I heard that, and it was totally staged. Just like you read the question, he read his question.<\/p>\n

Yeah, please, in the back.<\/p>\n

Q Mr. President, I wanted to ask you about one of your retweets that you \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Which one?<\/p>\n

Q The one you retweeted from Paul Sperry: \u201cLet\u2019s see if authorities enforce the social-distancing orders for mosques during Ramadan\u2026like they did churches during Easter.\u201d I\u2019m wondering \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah \u2014 no, I would like to see that. And, you know, I just spoke with leaders and people that love mosques; they love mosques, and I\u2019m all in favor of that. But I would say that there could be a difference. And we\u2019ll have to see what will happen, because I\u2019ve seen a great disparity in this country. I\u2019ve seen a great disparity.<\/p>\n

I mean, I\u2019ve seen a very strong anti-Israel bent in Congress with Democrats. It \u2014 it was unthinkable 7 or 8 or 10 years ago. And now they\u2019re into a whole different thing between Omar and AOC \u2014 I say AOC plus three. Add them on. You have \u2014 I mean, the things that they say about Israel are so bad. And I \u2014 I can\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

Q But \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Now \u2014 just a minute. So I would be interested to see that, because they go after Christian churches, but they don\u2019t tend to go after mosques. And I don\u2019t want them to go after mosques, but I do want to see what their \u2014 what their bent is.<\/p>\n

Yes, please, in the back.<\/p>\n

Q (Inaudible) Mr. President, that, in fact, are you suggesting \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, please.<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 that imams wouldn\u2019t follow social distancing?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: No, I \u2014 I think that \u2014 I just had a call imams. I just had a call with ministers, rabbis. We had a tremendous call with the faith leaders. No, I don\u2019t think that at all.<\/p>\n

I am somebody that believes in faith. And it matters not what your faith is, but our politicians seem to treat different faiths very differently. And they seem to think \u2014 and I don\u2019t know what happened with our country, but the Christian faith is treated much differently than it was. And I think it\u2019s treated very unfairly.<\/p>\n

Yes, please, go ahead. In the back.<\/p>\n

Q And I just want to ask \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 if the Department of Justice will, in fact, support \u2014<\/p>\n

Q Jenn Pellegrino with OAN.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: OAN, please.<\/p>\n

Q Okay.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: OAN.<\/p>\n

Q Thank you, Mr. President. The Paycheck Protection Program saved an estimated 15 million jobs. It\u2019s run out of money. The Democrats \u2014 specifically Nancy Pelosi \u2014 have been blocking that funding.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.<\/p>\n

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Q Do you know why Speaker Pelosi is dragging her feet on that?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, she thinks it\u2019s politics. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s good politics. Nancy Pelosi has been blocking it. Schumer has been blocking it. And I think they think it\u2019s good politics. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s good politics; I think it\u2019s bad politics. But I don\u2019t care about the politics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so great for our country because we\u2019re going to have all of these companies that are \u2014 you know, it\u2019s a bigger employer \u2014 let\u2019s say it\u2019s the same, but essentially, it\u2019s the same power \u2014 all of these small businesses added together \u2014 as the big companies. It\u2019s about 50\/50. And it\u2019s so important. And they would be scattered if we weren\u2019t able to do what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

And, essentially, we\u2019re giving these small businesses that won\u2019t make it \u2014 they can\u2019t because they\u2019re closed \u2014 we\u2019re giving them money to take care of their employees, so when we open, they can get back into business. It\u2019s been a very popular plan, even with Democrats. I think it basically passed unanimously twice \u2014 the first section \u2014 which is $350 billion. So we\u2019re trying to get $250 [billion].<\/p>\n

Nancy Pelosi is blocking it. She sits in her house in San Francisco, overlooking the ocean, and she doesn\u2019t want to come back. She doesn\u2019t want to come back. She doesn\u2019t want to come back to D.C. She\u2019s got to get back and get this thing approved. It\u2019s very important.<\/p>\n

Please. Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Q Dr. Birx, if I may: You again praised the American people for doing their bit over the past few weeks. But what goes through your mind when you see photographs of crowded beaches in Florida? Is that a concern for when we start seeing some of these restrictions being lifted?<\/p>\n

DR. BIRX: Well, as I described, we go metro by metro, county by county, and so I\u2019d have to link that with a specific county and look at their case rates.<\/p>\n

I believe the governor and the public health system that Florida has \u2014 they have some of the best county public health individuals I have ever had to deal with \u2014 they are amazing \u2014 because I had to work with them under HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n

So if the health \u2014 if the county health directors believe that that\u2019s appropriate for their county, then I\u2019m not going to second-judge an individual\u2019s approach to this, because every \u2014 I can\u2019t see into every single county and low \u2014 the low rates. I can just see there\u2019s no cases. So I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a county with very small cases or not, but I think their county health official would know.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: And many of the counties, as you know, are really free of this horrible enemy. So we\u2019re opening up. You\u2019ll be seeing a lot of this country start to open up fairly quickly.<\/p>\n

Yes, please.<\/p>\n

Q Thank you, Mr. President. You mentioned the importance of social distancing, but, for example, Stephen Moore \u2014 someone you appointed to your \u201cOpen the Country\u201d task force \u2014 is organizing a protest in Wisconsin. But aren\u2019t they, in a sense, protesting your very own guidelines?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have a flexibility. I didn\u2019t see what Stephen said. I can tell you he\u2019s a very good economist. He\u2019s been calling shots right \u2014<\/p>\n

Q Well, he said \u2014 he said \u2014 sorry, he said, \u201cWe need to be the Rosa Parks of government injustices.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there is a lot of injustice. When you look at Virginia, where they want to take your guns away, they want to violate your Second Amendment; when you look at \u2014 I mean, look, I\u2019m getting along very nicely with the governor of Michigan, but she has things \u2014 don\u2019t buy paint, don\u2019t buy roses, don\u2019t buy \u2014 I mean, she\u2019s got all these crazy things. I really believe somebody sitting in their boat, in a lake, should be okay. They shouldn\u2019t arrest people. Some of them are being unreasonable. I really believe that. They\u2019re being unreasonable.<\/p>\n

But I think Virginia is a great case, though, because they\u2019re using this \u2014 they\u2019re trying to take your guns away in Virginia. And if people in Virginia aren\u2019t \u2014 aren\u2019t careful, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen to them.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, I mean, I could see where he\u2019s coming from. I think it\u2019s a strong statement \u2014 a strong statement \u2014 because hopefully this will be over very soon for all of us. But some have gotten carried away. They have absolutely gotten carried away.<\/p>\n

Q Do you feel, though, some of these protesters are protesting your social distancing guidelines?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: I don\u2019t know. I mean, I notice there were a lot of protests out there. And I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away.<\/p>\n

You know, we have a lot of people that don\u2019t have to be told to do what they\u2019re doing. They\u2019ve been really doing everything we\u2019ve asked them. We have a few states where, frankly, I spoke to the governors and I could have gotten them to do \u2014 if I wanted \u2014 to do what would have been, perhaps, politically correct. But they\u2019ve been doing incredibly anyway.<\/p>\n

And as one of them said, everybody is doing exactly the same. In fact, our record is better than states where they\u2019re under a mandate or, you know, where they\u2019ve agreed to do certain things.<\/p>\n

No, we have some great states out there, and we have incredible people in our country. And for the most part, that \u2014 it\u2019s a strong statement, but I understand where he\u2019s coming from.<\/p>\n

And I think one of the greats would be \u2014 one of the really important places that people really have to start looking at is what\u2019s going on in Virginia, because that\u2019s a mess, where the gover- \u2014 with, really, a governor that\u2019s under siege anyway.<\/p>\n

Yeah, please.<\/p>\n

Q Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: No, with the beautiful head of white hair. Go ahead. I\u2019ll tell you if I like his hair in about a minute, after he asks the question.<\/p>\n

Q Gordon Lubold with the Wall Street Journal. On that point though, does the tweeting about, in the case of Virginia, linking the Second Amendment to some of these issues about lifting some of these restrictions in these states \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 not \u2014 potentially pose concern for the governors and civil unrest, and potentially in those cases?<\/p>\n

And I have a second question for you.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think, just for that question, I think that\u2019s an easy one. That\u2019s not even politics. We\u2019re entitled to a Second Amendment, and he\u2019s trying to take the Second Amendment. Meaning, that state is trying to take \u2014 the Democrats in that state \u2014 the Republicans are fighting it.<\/p>\n

Q (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: They\u2019re trying to take that \u2014 that Second Amendment right \u2014 that Second Amendment right away. To me, that\u2019s liberty. That\u2019s \u2014 when I say, \u201cliberate Virginia,\u201d I would say, liberate Virginia when that kind of thing happens. And where does it all stop? So I think it\u2019s a very good analogy.<\/p>\n

Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Q Well, I\u2019m just \u2014 I mean, is this the right time to, kind of, bring in a Second Amendment issue (inaudible) \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: I think when they talk about taking your guns away \u2014 and if you notice, at the beginning of this pandemic, there were more guns sold, I think, than at almost any time in history, because \u2014 so it\u2019s obviously a big issue. And then you have them working and signing documents, trying to take your \u2014 your Second Amendment away, essentially. So I do think it\u2019s an appropriate time to bring it up.<\/p>\n

Q Can I ask my second question?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead. Second.<\/p>\n

Q This past week, after an extraordinary slew of events from adversaries \u2014 North Korea, Russia \u2014<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.<\/p>\n

Q \u2014 China and Iran \u2014 all, kind of, pushing back on U.S. policy or toying with U.S. military forces, what\u2019s your messages to these countries who may be trying to take advantage?<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: I don\u2019t \u2014 I don\u2019t see it. No, I don\u2019t see it. We had a very good relationship with Russia. We worked on the oil deal together. I was with \u2014<\/p>\n

Q (Inaudible.)<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 by telephone, the King of Saudi Arabia and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. We worked out a deal on oil. That was a very important deal to them and to us and to Saudi Arabia. It was in a deadlock. You know it; you covered it very well. Actually, the Wall Street Journal covered that very well.<\/p>\n

I worked with Putin and with the King on that. And President Putin was a total gentleman, and it was very important to get that done. And the King was great. And we actually had to bring in Mexico, because Mexico was a lone holdout and they showed great flexibility. You know the story.<\/p>\n

No, I think we\u2019re doing fine. Yeah, sure, it\u2019s \u2014 North Korea, I see they\u2019re testing short-range missiles. And, you know, they\u2019ve been doing it a long time. I received a nice note from him recently. It was a nice note. I think we\u2019re doing fine.<\/p>\n

Look, if I wasn\u2019t elected, you would, right now, be at war with North Korea. Okay? I\u2019ll tell you, for your people that don\u2019t understand the world and they don\u2019t understand how life works: If I wasn\u2019t elected, you would, right now \u2014 maybe the war would be over, hopefully with a victory.<\/p>\n

But if you remember, when I first came in, we didn\u2019t have ammunition. Not a good way to fight a war. President Obama left us no ammunition. Okay? And he left us virtually no medical and ventilators. He left us \u2014 the cupboard was dry, right? The cupboard was dry.<\/p>\n

No, I think, right now, you\u2019d be at war, essentially \u2014 in some form \u2014 it would be over, it would be raging \u2014 with North Korea, if I weren\u2019t President. And we\u2019re doing just fine with North Korea. Just fine. We\u2019ll see how it all ends up.<\/p>\n

You know, in the meantime, they said, \u201cOh, Trump has given up.\u201d And then they said \u201cOh, really, what\u2019s he given up?\u201d And they said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Then they said, \u201cHe met.\u201d Oh, I met. I met.<\/p>\n

No, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. That\u2019s not a bad thing to have a good relationship. Obama wanted a relationship; he wouldn\u2019t meet with Obama. Wouldn\u2019t meet with him. Okay? I have a good relationship with him. We met at the line. I stepped over the line. The first time anything like that\u2019s ever \u2014 it\u2019s all good. It\u2019s just \u2014 it\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

But when they say \u2014 the stupid people \u2014 I call them \u201cstupid people\u201d or \u201cthe haters.\u201d They say, \u201cTrump has given up so much.\u201d Really? I\u2019ve actually increased the sanctions. China has been very good on the border. In fact, right now, the border is stone-cold closed between China and North Korea.<\/p>\n

Our relationship with China was good until they did this. Once we found out about this \u2014 once we found out \u2014 look, we just made a trade deal where China is going to have to buy $250 billion a year on our product. Fifty billion from the farmers. Forty to fifty billion from the farmers. The relationship was good when we were signing that, but then all of a sudden, you hear about this.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s a big \u2014 it\u2019s a big difference. You know, the question was asked, \u201cWould you be angry at China?\u201d Well, the answer might very well be a very resounding \u201cyes,\u201d but it depends: Was it a mistake that got out of control or was it done deliberately? Okay? That\u2019s a big difference between those two. In either event, they should have let us go in. You know, we asked to go in very early, and they didn\u2019t want us in. I think they were embarrassed. I think they knew it was something bad, and I think they were embarrassed.<\/p>\n

But, you know \u2014 no, I think we\u2019re doing very well.<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s \u2014 so you said Russia, you said China \u2014<\/p>\n

Q Iran.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 you said North Korea.<\/p>\n

Q And Iran.<\/p>\n

THE PRESIDENT: Iran? When I came in, Iran was a terror. We had 82 points of fighting. We had 18 points of major confliction. The first week, I said, \u201cTell me about Iran.\u201d \u201cSir, we have 18 points of confliction.\u201d Meaning, Yemen and Syria and all \u2014 Iraq. They were going into Iraq all over the place. They\u2019re a much a different nation right now. I stopped that horrible deal. Horrible deal.<\/p>\n

And they want to talk, except that Kerry violated the Logan Act. He made the deal, and doesn\u2019t want them to make a deal because \u2014 I would have made a deal, in my opinion, except that John Kerry, when he \u2014 who made the deal originally, which was a stupid deal to make. Gave them $150 billion. Gave 1.8 billion in cash, in green. That would be more than this room, 10 times, with hundred-dollar bills. That you could fill up this room 10 times with hundred-dollar bills. And it\u2019s not that small a room.<\/p>\n

And I say he violated the Logan Act. I think it was a major violation. I think we would have had a deal if it wasn\u2019t for John Kerry. But he doesn\u2019t want to be, number one, embarrassed. Number two, he said, \u201cLet\u2019s wait until after the election. Maybe Sleep Joe Biden is going to win. And if Sleep Joe Biden wins, you\u2019ll own the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

And China will own the United States. China has paid us \u2014 you know, from the Wall Street Journal \u2014 hundreds of billions of dollars \u2014 is that right? \u2014 tariffs. And we gave a lot of that money \u2014 a small percentage \u2014 but a lot of money to the farmers, and it kept the farmers going great. All right? But hundreds \u2014 we get \u2014 we\u2019re getting tens of billions of dollars in tariffs.<\/p>\n

And, by the way, for those of you that say, \u201cOh we\u2019re paying,\u201d China devalued their currency in order to pay these. We didn\u2019t pay. China paid. They don\u2019t like to write that. They also added money into their system. So they paid for that.<\/p>\n

No, I think you have numerous countries waiting to see whether or not Sleepy Joe wins, because if Sleepy Joe won, they own our country. They will take our country.<\/p>\n

You know, we had \u2014 go back two months \u2014 we had, by far \u2014 and China was supposed to catch us. You know better than anybody, Wall Street Journal. For years, I\u2019ve heard, \u201cBy 2019, China will catch us.\u201d There\u2019s only one problem: Trump got elected in 2016. That was a big difference. And we were going leaps and bounds above China.<\/p>\n

And before the problem with the plague \u2014 right? \u2014 China was having the worst year they\u2019ve had in 67 years. That was before the plague. Now they\u2019re getting really hurt, and so is everybody getting hurt. I don\u2019t want them to get hurt, but they\u2019re all getting hurt. Everybody is getting hurt. It\u2019s a horrible thing that\u2019s happened. But we had the greatest economy in the world, by far. China isn\u2019t even close \u2014 go back two months \u2014 and we\u2019re going to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

But when you mention Iran, Iran is a much different country than it was. When I first came in, Iran was going to take over the entire Middle East. Right now, they just want to survive. They\u2019re having protests every week. They\u2019re loaded up with the plague \u2014 which I don\u2019t want; I\u2019ve offered to help them if they want. If they need ventilators, which they do, I would send them ventilators. We have thousands of excess ventilators coming in and here.<\/p>\n

We have a stockpile of ventilators, and we\u2019re starting to send them so that hospitals can fill up their stockpile, which they should have. New York had a chance to get 16,000 ventilators, and they chose not to do it. And I understand that. It\u2019s a hard decision for a thing that may or may not happen. I fully understand that. I\u2019m not even complaining about that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m only saying this: Iran was a terror when I came into office. Right now, they don\u2019t want to mess around with us. They don\u2019t want to mess around with us.<\/p>\n

Two things: North Korea, same sanctions we\u2019ve always had, except more. We haven\u2019t given anything. I think you\u2019ll hopefully take that back to the Wall Street Journal, because they really don\u2019t understand it. They really don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And with \u2014 with Iran, I mean, that\u2019s a different country right now. And they want to make a deal. The only reason they don\u2019t \u2014 they\u2019re being shamed in, because the guy that gave them the sweetheart, didn\u2019t want to. Met with them many times. He should have never met with them. And in my opinion, he\u2019s telling them, \u201cDon\u2019t. Wait. Maybe Trump will lose and then you can negotiate with a patsy, with a weak guy. And you\u2019ll take over the \u2014 between you and Russia\u2026\u201d Nobody has been tougher on Putin. He knows it better than anybody. Nobody been tougher on Putin than me. Look at the sanctions.<\/p>\n

Look at what I did with their pipeline going into Europe. Nobody even knew about it. I exposed it. Now everybody talks about it. I think it\u2019s a terrible thing for Germany to do.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, I have a very good relationship with Putin, and I was able to get \u2014 I was able to make a deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia and OPEC Plus. They call \u201cOPEC Plus.\u201d That\u2019s going to save us Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, other states, energy states. Going to save us hundreds of thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n

And, in fact, your paper wrote an incredible editorial, for a change, that \u201cTrump made a great deal for our country.\u201d That was a nice thing. I was shocked to see it coming out of the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

Thank you all very much. We\u2019ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. – President Donald Trump: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. We continue to see a number of positive signs that the virus has passed its peak. It\u2019s been very devastating all over the world. A hundred and eighty-four countries. Probably more. That number was as of a week ago. Dr. Birx will walk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[566,12805,855,12803,12712,12945,3690,12064,71,2852,3210,3882,12946,10655,10221,2800,12830,12804,1645,1837,5577,11650,1646,2848,9273,12884,2106,9372,9275,12708,185,7093,12947,1840,3831,6487,12831,2038,12828,1648,3338,12752,3723,1631],"class_list":["post-15868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","tag-china","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-congress","tag-cornavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covidf-19-testing","tag-democrats","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-economy","tag-general-electric","tag-general-motors","tag-germany","tag-guns","tag-idaho","tag-iran","tag-michigan","tag-mike-pence","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-new-york","tag-north-carolina","tag-north-dakota","tag-north-korea","tag-ohio","tag-oklahoma","tag-opec","tag-paycheck-protection-program","tag-republicans","tag-russia","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-second-amendment","tag-small-business","tag-south-korea","tag-tarriffs","tag-texas","tag-u-s-army-corps-of-engineers","tag-u-s-president","tag-u-s-vice-president","tag-united-states","tag-ventilators","tag-virginia","tag-washington-d-c","tag-white-house-coronavirus-task-force","tag-who","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15869,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868\/revisions\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}