09/03/20: Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Holds a Press Briefing

good afternoon everyone two

briefing

s ago I asked where nancy pelosi is today i can announce that we have found nancy pelosi um as you can see we found nancy pelosi going to her hair salon we will play the video on loop for everyone to see for the duration from this introduction nancy pelosi was not in the halls of congress when i asked her where she was she was not working in good faith to make a deal for the american people no, nancy pelosi was found in san francisco at a hair salon where she was inside a even though salons in california are not only open for outdoor service apparently the rules don't apply to speaker nancy pelosi she wants small businesses to stay closed but only reopen for her convenience do what i say, don't do it what do i do says nancy pelosi nancy pelosi is withholding $1.3 trillion in aid for the American people while getting special access to the same type of small businesses this money would support businesses like this hair salon before she left of the city to violate their state's health guidelines.

Pelosi proposed a bill that was called the Heroes Act that contained no additional paycheck protection funds. These are funds that would help the very small businesses that she has strangely accused of conspiring against her. The president sees through the Democrats' indifference to Americans in need and took action unilaterally of their own volition provided eviction relief provided unemployment insurance suspended student loan payments and reduced the payroll tax putting money in the pockets of the American people Congress also did not authorize funds to provide free lunches to children for the 2020-2021 school year and again President Trump with his senior advisor Ivanka Trump took action and now the USDA has expanded a summer program that will ensure that children continue to have access to free meals until end of the year.

Nancy Pelosi demands an apology from a single mother and small business owner who has received threats since Nancy Pelosi comments against her salon salon owner Erica Cayas said this since this happened I have received nothing but hateful text messages threats to death saying they're going to burn down my hair salon it's sad that my community is throwing this away saying I threw her under the bus when I didn't that's painful but yeah I think I'm almost done nancy pelosi you should apologize to the American people or, better yet, go back to washington and work for hardworking Americans like the owner of this salon that you defamed and demanded an apology and with that I will accept questions yes, John Kelly, do you recognize that it is illegal in this country to vote twice in the same choice?

Are you referring to the president's comments today? I'm just asking you a basic yes or no question, do you think it's illegal? The president does not approve of the illegal vote. The president has been very clear about this. Once again, some are not surprised that the media is taking the president out of context. Do you remember what the president said about this matter? I specifically have it here, okay, maybe you should read it out loud to me, so okay, so the president said you should go to your ballot box, you should vote early by mail and you should go to early voting or voting day. try to vote. again, so it asks people to vote by mail and then go to the polling place on election day and vote again if their vote has been counted, if they can't confirm that their vote has been counted, they you are missing a very crucial line from the president's remarks if it is not tabulated, namely your mail-in vote, so you will be able to vote in person if it is not tabulated.

That's why at least five states in this country don't count any mail-in votes until Election Day. then those votes won't be counted until later so there is no way to know if they were voted or not. There is a very simple answer and this is how it works first. Many states have what are called electronic poll books and what this means. What it means is that in real time this is updated so if your vote is counted they check the electronic poll book and you will not be able to vote in person because your vote has been counted there is a secondary situation so those who do not have electronic poll books In every state in the country can be cast a provisional ballot and that is a ballot that is there and if the vote that you did not mail in is not counted, then they will count the provisional ballot and that is exactly what the president is referring to. but what Democrats are doing is saying this: we want a whole new system for voting someone subject to fraud. voter fraud so what the Democrats want you to do is say trust us but don't verify don't verify that your vote has been counted this president is trying to enfranchise Americans, which is exactly what he's been saying: he wants everyone Americans have a vote because he understands what Jimmy Carter understood and what many of us understood until the president started focusing on mail-in voting and that was that it is subject to fraud, every vote must count and every American must verify that your vote will be counted by going to the polls to the executive director of the North Carolina board of elections, who says this would create a big problem on election day.

What I would say is that the president has made it very clear that you need to verify your vote and not just that he would name them because of the fact that in 2016, before we tried this whole new system of mass mail-in voting, 319 were not counted 000 votes that were cast by mail 319,000 in an election that was actually down to 80,000 votes in pennsylvania, wisconsin in michigan that is unsustainable and hundreds of thousands more will not be counted with democrats massive bailout fraudulent voting system the president You want the right to vote plain and simple John, can I ask you a question about process and jurisdiction?

The president signed a memorandum last night directing federal agencies to examine funds that could be withheld from city and cities that do not do enough to restore a law in order. By what authority does the president believe he can do that? Yes, the president believes that what we should do is that the purpose of government is to protect. life, liberty and property, that is the purpose of the federal government and it is imperative that the federal government review the use of funds by jurisdiction, so what this memo does really does three things: one, it asks federal agencies to detail All federal funds are being provided to Seattle, Portland, New York and Washington D.C.

Second, within 14 days, the attorney general will develop a list of anarchist jurisdictions of lawless zones that allow violence and property destruction and then, within 30 days, the white house budget director will issue guidance for The agency heads on restricting eligibility or otherwise disfavoring to the maximum extent possible by law anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of federal grants and South Carolina v. Dole noted that funding may be withheld as long as it refers to the federal program that corresponds to what you We are trying to incentivize, so we believe here, when you look at New York, a 177 percent increase in shootings in Seattle, where there was a lawless court zone where two died, in Portland, where you have seen 140 officers injured, this is a dereliction of duty and If states do not act with their police power and secure their streets, this president will use every legal mechanism available to try to complement their failures and in some cases that means federal officials in Minneapolis and Kenosha, where we have been invited. another attempt to ensure that no more children like the Talifaro legend die in our streets funds allocated by Congress I hope that immediate legal action will be taken leticia james the attorney general of the state of new york warned a few minutes ago that if you try to withhold any funds , she will immediately slap him with a lawsuit.

Well, she is free to do so. We believe that what we will do will be legal within the confines of the law and we encourage states to act and cities to act in the way that Kenosha and Minneapolis did, although it was delayed a little bit, they finally came forward and asked federal support and they got it because too many Americans are dying in our streets, too many businesses are being burned, that's not the American way for long. shot well just to follow up that the president as we know tried to withhold federal money from sanctuary cities and lost in court, so why isn't this also doomed to fail?

I'm not going to get ahead of you on what exactly the final product will look like again. I just explained to you that there is a 14-day schedule for the Department of Justice and then a 30-day schedule for the Office of Management and Budget, but we think we're correct here. Let me make a couple if it can be like this? In May, the president said the United States will designate antifa as a terrorist organization. Yes or no, did the president do that? What the Department of Justice said is that they would look at the Antifa-related charges from the point of view of domestic charities.

It is clear that they did it. Don't designate anti to be clear, they will file domestic terrorism charges against anarchist Antifa individuals who are wreaking havoc throughout your country and that, uh, the suspect, at least in Portland, killed an innocent man in Portland, uh, just over the weekend, for sure. and then in 20, but they didn't testify about the terrorist organization like they said because he said they wouldn't file domestic terrorism charges in 2017 without a difference in 2017 he threatened to withhold federal funds from the University of California at Berkeley if they didn't allow it. freedom of ex

press

ion, have you done that?

I have to do it. I will continue with you. I guess the question is that the president makes many threats knowing that he is not going to follow through or that they are not legal. So is this what he is doing? trying to do here again no, the president will follow his memo is extremely clear, we are looking at every avenue within the federal government to take care of the American people when there is a one year old child murdered in New York when there is a beautiful little girl in Atlanta named Sequoia Turner who lost her life.

Yes, this federal government will do everything within our legal power and yes, the president is serious about this. Can I continue with a last one if I can? About Walter Reed, the president said in November. went to walter reed to begin his physical said he was there this week said he was there to complete his physical in fact his predecessor said the same thing back then that it was to begin so what was it when the president went to walter reed the president did his physical and two parts these are very extensive when you are doing a presidential physical and he used the two visits to walter reed to complete the physical and two stops again the media is involved in conspiracy theories about the president's health president just to be clear you said you did it in two stops but you said you completed it this week you said you were there to complete it you are saying that is not true so your statement yes senator schumer came out today with a statement saying that too Much of the evidence points to the Trump administration

press

uring the FDA to approve a vaccine before Election Day to boost his re-election prospects.

Can you assure the American people that if a vaccine comes out before Election Day, it is approved before Election Day? safe and effective and can you address your claims that you are pressuring the FDA to release the vaccine before Election Day? No one is pressuring the FDA to do anything. This is again a strange theory put together by CNN among others, let me point out that The FDA, Dr. Hanu said this. I can assure you 100 percent that the President has never pressured me to make a decision on any regulatory aspect of the FDA's work. He said that just a few months ago, it is absolutely like that.

You had Secretary Azar. saying this morning about the vaccine, whether it's October 15th or November 1st or November 15th, this is all about saving lives. um, dr. Fauci said we actually briefed the president today, this was a few weeks ago about this in the oval office. He was there for that

briefing

and Dr. Fauci said I haven't seen any political pressure to act quickly. This president wants to break down regulatory barriers to get a vaccine that is as safe as possible for the American people as quickly as possible because lives are at risk. at stake, but in no way will it sacrifice safety and make sure that it is 100% airtight before the American people receive it, so the priority here is saving lives and safety, and there will be a safe and effective vaccine in the process and again I think CNN made up this conspiracy theory, it was always based on the CDC race and brought this up, yes, and CNN was alsoselling a theory about this.

Basically, there were career officials at the CDC who made a decision and talked to the states about the distribution of the vaccines that we are preparing. early to distribute a safe and effective vaccine because unlike the Obama administration during the swine flu, they had real problems with that, the Obama administration promised 100 million doses by October and then they reduced that number to 40 million for the flu swine in mid-October. When demand for a vaccine was at its highest, the supply fell dramatically short with only 11 million doses available, even the CDC director said we are nowhere near where we thought we would be now we are nowhere near where vaccine makers as we predicted, we share the frustration of people who waited in line, called a number or checked a website and couldn't find a place to get vaccinated, unlike the obama biden administration, we plan ahead , that's why we've done it. contracts for 100 million vaccine production in advance and that's why career CDC officials have worked with all 50 states to make sure we can distribute this vaccine.

We do our homework ahead of time, unlike Obama, another. So, Vice President Joe, former Vice President Joe Biden, said about the poisoning of Alexey Navini that the mode of attack leaves no doubt where responsibility lies with the Russian state. Does the president agree with that assessment and has he made his voice known to the Russian government on this issue? That is why we are deeply concerned by the results published yesterday. The poisoning of Alexi Navalny is completely reprehensible. Russia has used chemical nerve agents. the past and we are working with its allies and the international community to hold those in Russia accountable wherever the evidence leads and restrict funding for their malign activities.

The Russian people have the right to express their opinions peacefully without fear of reprisals of any kind and certainly not with chemical agents and no one has been tougher on the Russian government than this president. Thanks Caitlin for the tick tock. The president said that ban will take effect on September 15 if an agreement is not reached. What will that be like? Google and Apple will have to remove that app from their app stores. People will have to remove it from their phones. Tell us what will happen on September 15 if there is no agreement. I won't have any problems before announcing it. those plans on September 15th I know you had some questions about the timing of everything and I told the commerce department to wait for your call because they can guide you.

I had questions about the 45 day period so I got some clarity. For you, if you stay with me we can put you in contact with the commerce department. Yes, Kaylee, I just wanted to ask you about the investigation. There are a couple of contracts that were awarded. Peter Navarro was involved in one. There is an investigation. going on in terms of Kodak, the money that went to Kodak to allow them to develop pharmaceuticals, there are other contracts now for ventilators that have received scrutiny, can you give us an update on how concerned you are that maybe some of these commercial deals are going too fast it's not getting enough scrutiny is there any particular finding you can offer at this point?

We have done many contracts using the dpa 78 times 30 times with respect to testing. We are very proud of what we have done, of course, if there are new allegations with a certain company, we certainly look at them and look at them closely as we did with the Kodak situation, but we are very proud of what we have done. We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation. challenge a new coronavirus that reached our shores from China and we are very proud that our contracts have allowed us to have a very large and growing reserve; In fact, we have rapidly increased the number of N95s available to more than 60 million.

We are on track to have 10 times more than pre-pandemic levels by the fall, significantly increase the number of gowns available to more than 27 million and we have a tremendous level of ventilators available at 109,000 and we will have tens of thousands more by the fall, by what the contracts we've done have allowed for these numbers, among others, I'm not even getting into therapies like serious death, but of course if there is ever an allegation, we take it seriously and look at it like we did with Kodak, we confirm how. how many allegations of irregularities, uh, what you're seeing, I only know one or two that you named out of the many contracts we've had.

Yes, thanks Kaylee, the herd immunity strategy for the pandemic has been considered dangerous by some experts and I wonder if President Trump has formed an opinion on this concept and if he believes it is an achievable goal. Yes, the so-called herd immunity theory was something invented in the fanciful minds of the media. It was never something that has ever been considered here in the White House, here in the White House, what we have done is a race to get a safe and effective vaccine in record time, but if we get it before the end of the year, I will overcome with you grow Ebola. which took 14 months to reach phase three clinical trial, three years to complete, this will be the fastest vaccine ever created for a new pathogen.

I'm here at the White House, we talk about therapeutics and we are very proud to have identified we have over 270 clinical trials 570 in planning stages and successful therapies that we know as dexamethasone um and rem of severe that's what we do here at the white house um the theory of herd immunity again uh with something decided on the mind of the name at the supreme court the president said he would present a list of candidates by the first of September, when can we expect to see that list? You'll see it soon, certainly in the next few weeks, but it will be after Labor Day weekend.

Thanks again to the cities, how would the president's plan to reduce funding to cities actually help protect the citizens you said was the president's goal? That's the goal and, um, the intention is to encourage cities to follow the path. from Kenosha and Minneapolis who when they were in the middle of a situation that they couldn't handle just locally applied for federal assistance and it worked within 24 hours. You saw a very different scene in Kenosha in 24 hours, a very different scene. in minneapolis, so we want the states to work with us and those two models are examples of democrats who have done it, on the contrary, you see a very different situation in new york, portland, dc and seattle, and some of the factors as noted in the memo that will be included in the lawlessness claim is whether they prohibit the police from intervening if they have withdrawn police protection from certain areas as we saw where a police station was abandoned in the lawless court zone in Seattle those are the types of behavioral changes we want to see in cities because protecting citizens should be their primary concern thanks bailey uh the government runs out of funds by the end of the month the white house is confident it can avoid another shutdown and um Is the president open to including some? of this coveted stimulus as part of the crisis.

I haven't spoken to him about that, but we do believe we will be able to obtain funds to avoid a closure. Are negotiations underway now? Well, have they started talking to Congress about? I still have to talk to the boss about this. I haven't spoken to him specifically about it, but it has been discussed internally. I know at least that is, thanks Kaylee, can you give us some insight into what last night's memo was about? give us a clearer idea of ​​the funding that would be under review and also why the white house believes this is the right time to consider restricting funding to the early dates when we are in the middle of the pandemic and some are dealing with violence Yes, again, so first to the first part of your question, you are reviewing the part of that step.

One of this memo is for federal agencies to detail what funds are being provided, so I cannot give you a readout of exactly what funds are being provided. It is analyzed until that review is done, but why now, why now? Because in New York City we have seen a 177 percent increase in shootings in July, meanwhile we have the irresponsible government of Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo taking a billion dollars with a b from the NYPD. At the same time, we learned that in a 28-day period arrests were reduced by 62 percent in New York City, in addition to the looting of 450 businesses that have been damaged in Seattle, an illegal zone where two died.

Now is the right time to look at Numbers like this because there are lives at stake and often the lives of innocent little babies who should be here today if Democrat mayors would get their act together, not defund the police, start arresting people and apply the laws. Yes, thanks to Kaylee, the president and Joe. Biden will be in Shangstow PA next Friday to commemorate 9 11. Have you talked to him about appearing with the former Vice President as you did with Secretary Clinton in 2016 in New York? I don't have details on that next event, but we plan to be in Shanksville as well, okay, and then just one more follow up on the cities again.

I know it's under review. Has the President directed Director Vaught to ensure that future coronavirus aid is exempt from this memo? I don't see in what universe that would be connected to the issue at hand which is ensuring legality or hhs or something like that, but again, I don't want to get into the specific funding before the review process that is ongoing, yeah. We're all ready, here we go, thank you. Facebook said today that it would remove the post in which the president was talking to a local journalist yesterday about voting twice if it is not corrected and if it does not indicate that the president was wrong in those claims, what do you have to say about Facebook's move in this post? um you said Facebook designated a post, I missed the first part right, they said they would remove the post from those profiles that post it and don't say that. the presidents claims are wrong, yes I have not seen the particular post you are referring to, but the president is very clear here that he will only re-read that part of his quote, if your vote is not tabulated, then being able to vote in person is about verifying that every vote is counted because we know that voters are disenfranchised just in the 2020 presidential primaries, for example, there were 100,000 rejected ballots in California mail-in ballots in New York, one in five thinks about it one in five mail-in ballots was rejected, a total of eighty-four thousand rejected ballots in New York City alone, and we know the narrow margins by which elections are decided and we also know that As research has shown, young black and Hispanic voters are more likely to reject their mail-in ballots, that's according to a Washington Post article, so the president wants to enfranchise, not deprive it, that's his goal, with the comments he made yesterday, if I can ask someone else about immigration, please, okay, the president had said. that he will issue another order in September, do you have more information on that, when he might issue that immigration order?

Yeah, no updates on the next immigration year, thanks Kaylee, uh, if you mention role model cities like Kenosha, um, if you say Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Bowser, for example, if this week they would take specific action and bring back part of the legal order under control, would this memorandum continue forward or would they continue to propagate the plans listed in this memorandum? We need to see a radical change in behavior from the mayor of DC, who allowed a church to burn, from the mayor of Portland, who supported the protesters only to be kicked out of his own home, the windows of his building broken by them protesters who I considered peaceful and who were actually anarchists who took the life of a 39-year-old man last weekend, but look, when local government acts, we use every avenue available at the federal level, I mean you mean to this memorandum as an example, another example is operation legend, of which we are very proud and we bring you new figures in this regard, since the operations began, more than 2,000 arrests have been made, including 147 homicides, more than 544 weapons have been seized of firearms, most of which are illegal weapons, and more than 7 kilos of fentanyl, 14 kilos of heroin, 12 kilos of cocaine and 50 kilos of methamphetamine have been seized and of the individuals arrested, 476 have been charged with federal crimes and there is a detailed reading by the Department of Justice of each crime and the great work that our federal law enforcement agents have done.

Done, thanks to our police, thanks to our federal authorities. You keep us safe when the mayorsDemocrats and abandoned governors do not thank them.