Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Holds a Briefing

Good afternoon, I have an announcement for you regarding the hospital funding allocated in the third phase of coronavirus relief. The Trump administration will distribute a total of $12 billion in provider relief fund payments to 395 hospitals across the country that have been hardest hit by the crisis. covid19 pandemic, these hospitals have collectively cared for more than 70 percent of the 184,000 Americans who required hospital and patient care. 10 billion of the 12 billion will go to hospitals treating 100 or more covid19 admissions. hhs is distributing an additional $2 billion to these 395 hospitals in proportion to the amount of care they provide to low-income and uninsured patients, this is consistent with our effort to ensure that Americans who most need assistance from the federal government receive it. .

We will publish a breakdown of the states receiving these funds and the counties. receive these funds before your knowledge new york new jersey and illinois received the most funds by state, while new york new york bronx new york and cook illinois receive the most funds by county as determined by our metrics than our Health care providers like President Trump have repeatedly recognized are our heroes as we work to defeat the invisible enemy, this relief funding will help these heroes defeat this virus by reacting to relief of care. I love what this provider said, so he said thank you and thank God, thank God for this relief.

I have tears. In my opinion, in gratitude for these funds, thank you very much, in addition, to date 100 additional flights have been completed as part of the airlift project. These flights have expedited nearly one billion pieces of PPE for our healthcare heroes. The third phase of coronavirus aid also included. $320 billion in additional funding for the Payroll Protection Program, which, as everyone knows, provides forgivable loans to small businesses to keep their employees on the payroll. This program has been extremely successful during the first round of PPP loans. 1.6 million loans were granted to small businesses. Of those 1.6 million loans, 1 million of them were given to businesses with 10 or fewer employees, so it went to small businesses and businesses that need it most, but the appearance of ppp is not just another government program, this is supporting ordinary Americans who through no fault of their own have found themselves in this situation, we saw it firsthand at the White House on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, President Trump welcomed small business owners and employees to the White House. These small businesses received PPP loans that helped them pay their employees during the pandemic bidding. bose was one of the small businesses welcomed to the white house bitty and bose employs 120 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a coffee shop not far from here biddy and bose had to temporarily close their doors but due to ppp loans bidi and Bose were able to rehire all of their employees. I had the true honor of meeting Michael Hoip. He is one of the employees at Biddy's Bidding Bows and offered some words of encouragement to our country.

And they really touched my heart. I think it will touch the hearts of Americans if you wouldn't mind reproducing those comments, President Trump and Ivanka, thank you very much for having us. Thank you, Mr. President, for inviting us. I love my job and I'm excited to go. Going back to work at b means we like to use the phrase called not broken, that means that all my amazing coworkers and I are not broken and have a lot to offer. I know the great country of the United States isn't broken either, so on behalf of myself, Megan, Amy, and all the employees involved, thank you for having us.

You are our family. Michael is an incredible young man. I called him yesterday and asked him what he was doing and he said that he and his coworkers were. literally writing notes by hand to put with the coffee packages they send to consumers. I get one of these notes from another company and it really makes you smile and Michael does it every day and Biddy and Bose. They represent the hope and opportunity that is on the horizon for America's workers, as their body, their business, rather embodies the American spirit. Workers like Michael show that this country is not broken and that we will recover together.

Michael, thank you, you are an American hero, thank you. you for sharing that message of hope and with that I will answer the questions welcome to the podium for the first time thank you too uh the markets have fallen substantially today after the president suggested yesterday in the east that he could use tariffs to punish China over the coronavirus, Is new tariffs on China being seriously considered, or was the president just spitballing yesterday? Look, I'm not going to preempt any announcements from the president, but I will echo the president's discontent with China, um, it's no secret. that China handled this situation badly, just some examples for you.

They didn't share the genetic sequence until a professor in Shanghai did it on his behalf the next day. China closed its laboratory to rectify the citations. They walked slowly with information about human-to-human transmission. the world health organization and they didn't let us researchers in at a very important time, so we are upset with China's actions, but I certainly won't get ahead of the president with those announcements. Is the president seriously considering forcing China to pay some kind of compensation? compensation reparations any words you want to put back when it comes to retaliatory measures um I won't get ahead of the president on that thank you kaylee and welcome to the podium too the president said yesterday that he has a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China and yet his own intelligence agencies say they are still investigating, does the president have information and has he concluded that the intelligence community is still wrong?

The president's statement is consistent with the other Intelligence assessments, although we continue to have very limited and doubtful data from China, the current assessments indicated that President Trump's statement is consistent with what some analysts believe is the epicenter where the virus and I would point out that the intelligence statement you refer to was actually made. two points one that this virus originated in china uh two that it began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident in a laboratory in wuhan so I consider that to be consistent with what the president said that he has seen intelligence that suggests it could be in the wuhan lab seemed to lean towards the idea that this started in a lab, while the statement we saw from the dni said that we are still investigating those two options that you just laid out, is the president somehow creating mixed messages by not saying we are still investigating, no, let me remind everyone, intelligence is essentially just an estimate and it is up to policy makers to decide what to do with that intelligence.

In this case, the person responsible for the policies is the president of the United States and him. I will make that decision at the right time, President, you are close to deciding what to do with China, have you received any recommendations on the consequences? Are you close to making a decision? Look again, I'm not going to preempt the president's decision or the timing of that decision. but he takes this very seriously because the Chinese decisions that I slowly referred to, some of that information puts American lives at risk and rest assured that this president has one priority and that is the safety and well-being of the American lives.

Thank you so much. Haley, welcome as it's been over 100 days since the

press

secretary

stood up there. I wanted to get a better idea of ​​what your plan is. Do you plan to do this daily right now? And also, will you commit to never doing it? lie to us from that podium I will never lie to you you have my word on that as to the timing of the

briefing

s um we plan to do them um I will announce the timing of that soon but we plan to continue with these welcomes to the to the podium, a question for you about the speed of the work of the project, can you give us more details?

The president said that he is ultimately in charge of this project, but will there be a key day-to-day person? What is the budget for this? project and when can the American people realistically expect a vaccine to be available to everyone? Well, there is a key person on a day-to-day basis and that is the president of the United States, President Trump, and with respect to vaccines, I would like to take note of the words of Dr. Fauci, what are these that are going to a phase one trial within three months of obtaining the sequence? The indoor world record is unquestionable, nothing has gone so fast, so what the president is doing and under his leadership, we are in phase one faster than ever before according to dr. fauci and that should encourage the American people on the budget and the budget and there's really no other key person I mean I know the president ultimately I guess the responsibility falls on the president but he hasn't put anyone on us On staff, no, yes, I'm not going to go into detail about exactly how it works, but rest assured that we are moving at an accelerated pace toward a vaccine, at least for this phase one of the clinical trial.

Thanks, the Fed yesterday took action that seemed designed to allow oil companies access to their landing facilities, so I'm wondering if the president has spoken to Chairman Cal about this, if he's happy with the move, and if the House Blanca was considering any additional assistance to the oil companies, so I won't get into the president's personal discussions, but I would just like to point out that the president is always looking out for the nearly 11 million American workers in the oil industry. I would also point out that we are filling the strategic oil reserve right now and we will buy 75 million barrels, so those are the only announcements I have today on the oil front.

Yes, empty, thanks Kaylee. The president tweeted this morning about the protests in Michigan. He basically said that the governor of Michigan should work with the protesters, she called them very good people and said that they were very angry with some of those protests. I'm sure she saw included, you know, heavily armed protesters, members of militia groups. I wonder if the president was talking about those specific members who stormed in? the capital in Michigan when he talked about very good people, look, the president was referring generally to the fact that in this country you have the right to protest under the first amendment, I think that's something that we all treasure here, and rightly so we should have the right to do it constitutionally. but you must protest within the limits of the law.

He encourages everyone to protest legally and also participate in our social distancing guidelines, which we believe all Americans should follow if they have any response simply to images of people they know with long guns. essentially storming the capital, confronting police officers and somehow intimidating some of the lawmakers. The president says we must protest legally and act within the limits of the law. Yes, thank you for being here when the president says. We did a spectacular job when Jared Kushner talks about a great success story. Some Americans see it as a lack of empathy. Do you understand the reaction?

Look, you know, first and foremost, Jared Kushner has done a great job for this administration and what I would do. What I'm saying is that when you talked about a success story, you were talking about the history of this administration, which is a story of mobilization for the American people, the largest mobilization of American industry since World War II, of course, we regret to every American. lives that have been lost, but we want the American people to have confidence in the response of this administration and that was referring to the fact that in an average year the healthcare industry uses 25 million in 95 masks and we have delivered on this In a little time, 75 million in 95 is more than three times what the health sector uses in a year.

That's extraordinary, it's extraordinary that some in the media said we needed a million ventilators and, this president, right? It takes much less than that, so far not a single American has died for lack of a ventilator and the fact that this president can look the American people in the eye and say: I am producing a hundred thousand ventilators this year together with the private sector . thousand ventilators, that's three times what we produce in an average year. I would consider that a great success on behalf of the American people has more to do with the toneThat with the policy itself we want to give the American people the confidence that they have a federal government that is doing everything in our power to provide the equipment necessary to help us combat this invisible enemy. um we are sorry for American lives, we have said it repeatedly, I will echo that today my heart breaks for those, I pray regularly for those who are affected by the coronavirus, but let's give confidence to the American people that we have a federal government under President Donald Trump who will step up and provide the largest mobilization of the private sector since World War II.

Yes, thank you very much, Kaylee, thank you for Being here, President Trump mentioned the situation in Brazil several times this week, in addition to talks about cutting flights from Brazil, is there talk of sending assistance to Brazil, sending personal protective equipment or fans to Brazil and President Trump plans to talk to the president? Well, the president has mentioned that he has sent ventilators around the world. Any excess supply we certainly look to help other countries, but you know, in terms of a specific announcement about Brazil, I don't have any news. Information for you on that front today Yes, Kelly, welcome, one of the most important parts of your job is to have access to the president.

Can you give us any indication that, since he was appointed

press

secretary

, what kind of access he has? to the president to know what he is thinking and convey it to us, yes I can tell you that I am around the president almost all day, I was only with him before I left to go out and talk to you, I think my staff can I attest to the fact that It's very difficult for them to find me because I'm usually with the president and in the oval office, so I'm constantly with him absorbing his thinking and my mission is to give them the president's mindset.

Deliver those facts. So this president gets fair and accurate reporting and the American people get fair and accurate reporting. Yes, thanks Kaley, I'm just following Kristen's question. China is blocking the world health organization from coming in and investigating how this started. Shouldn't outside researchers be allowed into Wuhan to determine one how the pandemic started and two, perhaps a way to speed up the search for a cure for this. Look, you know, it's no secret that China prevented American investigators from entering. It was of utmost importance that we enter China in an accelerated manner. and that didn't happen with respect to the world health organization, they have some questions of their own to answer to the United States, as the president has emphasized that he provides between 400 and 500 million per year to China, compared to about 40 million per year. anus. year, but still, the WHO seems to have a very clear bias towards China.

I mean, if you look at this timeline, it's really damning for the WHO when you consider the fact that on December 31st there were Taiwanese officials warning about human-to-human transmission, the WHO didn't make it public on January 9th, who repeated China's claim that the virus quote does not transmit easily between people, which was apparently false on January 14, who again repeated China's talking points on non-human-to-human transmission, praised the leadership from China on January 22. On the 23rd they said and this is incredible, the pandemic did not represent a public health emergency of international importance and even on February 29 there were those saying that when the coronavirus was spreading around the world they chose to apologize, political correctness. first, by opposing the travel restrictions that save lives, the travel restrictions that this president implemented, the travel restrictions that dr. falchi praised for saving lives, and we have the world health organization opposing a measure that saved american lives that is unacceptable, especially at a time when the united states was providing between 400 and 500 million dollars john haley this time the last week the president was saying he was not happy with georgia governor brian kemp for starting the reopening process and the way it was at the time a week later there have been some peaks and valleys in new cases in georgia, but overall the trend line is downward, do you know what the president thinks about reopening georgia starting today? the president the president is determined to say the states take the lead here um it's the lead the decision of the governors to decide what's best for their state that being said, you know, I talked to the experts, I talked to dr. burks, i spoke with dr. falchi and they rightly say, this president has always cited the data side, that's why he encourages all states to follow data-driven guidelines for reopening.

All states from Georgia onward must follow those guidelines, but ultimately it is the states' decision and one note I would like to make about the president in times of national emergency, we seem to have had a trend in this country where presidents add power at the federal level, but this president has transferred power, he has invested it in a principle that I appreciate and I know many others do, which is federalism and I think it was the right thing to do. decision, has he mentioned how he feels about the governor's camp in recent days? I haven't talked to you about Governor Kemp in the last few days as president about reopening life as the president moves to reopen the country, does that mean he'll be campaigning in those states where he's reopening, so I would refer you to the campaign of Trump on that question.

Yeah, yeah, thanks for being here, Kaylee. You mentioned Dr. Fauci a minute ago. Are we going to have more press conferences with Dr. Fauci and Dr. burks and health experts or the white house is changing the message to focus more on the economy and less on the public health aspect. Well, let me back up and talk to you a little bit about how we approach dissemination. information that you know when I talk to my colleague alyssa and we plan the community communications strategy for this white house together with the president um and ben you also know what we do is say what is the best way for the public to receive this information at this time and we allow the news cycle and the needs of the American people to guide us and you know right now what we see happening and I hinted at it in my group last week uh you have 35 states and probably more at this point with the plans to reopen the country, Americans are looking to reopen the country.

We have had Dr. Burks at several events this week. They have been on the waves of Dr. Burks and Fauci. They are truly amazing people and have done a great service. for this country, but we allow the news of the day to guide us on what the American people need to hear and right now we are in a reopening phase, which is why you've seen the president this week with CEOs that you've seen him with. small business owners with small business employees today with some great heroes that have emerged from this pandemic and done a lot of the hard work so every day we address this as how can we get this information out there.

There is a need for information, which is why I am here complementing this president's efforts to spread the message. I should also point out that he is the most successful president in history. Yesterday he answered questions twice, twice a day before we heard from him quite frequently, as did our medical experts. the task force still meets, I guess what the role of the crow buyers task force is. We still have, you know, hundreds of people dying every day, so what role does the task force play versus economic advice? Yes, the working group meets regularly. I go to those meetings, I listen to them, we're Dr.

Burks, I should say, we meticulously review the data and the granular details. I see them sometimes spend over two hours in these task force

briefing

s, so for those that are still ongoing, rest assured, we want a safe place. reopening, so we are prioritizing the health of the American people and we look forward to reopening this country. Yes, thank you Kaylee, going back to yesterday's DNI statement, there is a quote that I would like you to give me a response to. The intelligence community also agrees with the broad scientific consensus that the Kobit-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified.

This was from the ID declaration. How do you see this state? How do you understand this? And there was also a piece. in the New York Times that said senior Trump administration officials have pressured intelligence agencies to look for evidence to support the theory that Kobit 19 was made in a Wuhan lab. I can assure you that no one is pressuring the intelligence community to come to a determination on the The intelligence community's statement stands, it is in perfect agreement with what the president said. So, you know, I encourage the media to convey the facts to the American people, which is that we are aligned as an administration and we support the intelligence community and that is in complete agreement with what the president said yesterday look who doesn't i've come oh i've gone with almost everyone okay so we're in the second round that's great yeah thank you today former vice president joe biden denied sexual misconduct allegations against him president trump Do you take him at his word given that, as the president has said, he has denied the accusations against him?

Well, what I would say is that we are happy that the former vice president decided to record what it cost him. Less than 16 hours to follow the advice of the president of the United States and come out and publicly address those claims so he knows we're glad to see he's on the record on this. We'll ask you about something the president said a few moments ago. In an interview he said that Tara Reid is a much more compelling quote than anything you've had regarding Brett Kavanaugh, what did he mean by that? What is more convincing? You know, that's the president's assessment, so he would remind you of his words, I think so. it was a serious miscarriage of justice what happened to judge brett kavanaugh there is no need for me to mention some of these lewd, horrible and verifiably false accusations that were made against judge kavanaugh that it was a shame for the democratic party to have dragged the name of a very respectable man through the mud like that um so I'll leave it at that Kelly is the radio pooler I'm asking this on behalf of your colleague there's news that the decision to release Michael Cohen from prison to home confinement duracoba 19 has been reversed Has the Did the White House intervene directly or indirectly here? um no, absolutely not, I would say there, but I'm glad you brought up justice and because look, there is again a case of injustice that has not yet been addressed today, but I would certainly like to bring it up and that is the case of the general Michael Flynn.

What we have all learned should scare every American citizen. The fact that Jim Comey admitted in December of last year that he violated protocol by ordering agents to confront Flynn. something he wouldn't cite would have gotten away with it in previous administrations, the FBI told Flynn he didn't need a lawyer when they came to meet with him, McCabe told FBI agents he didn't think Flynn was lying, and then all that information. What we've learned over the past few months and years culminates in the fact that we have a handwritten note from the FBI that says, "We need to get Flynn to lie and get him fired." "There was an unfair and unjust target on the back of General Michael Flynn should concern all Americans every time there is a partisan persecution of an individual and that is certainly at least those questions are raised with respect to General Michael Flynn, a man honorable who served his country, john, yes, kelly, about that when the president shot Michael Flynn he said he was doing it because he had lied to the vice president and he had lied to the FBI, so given everything he just said, Isn't that true?

Isn't that still true? Doesn't the president still believe that? Michael Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and lied to the FBI. Well, first let me tell you that Vice President Pence is on the record about this. to believe that Flynn didn't intentionally mislead you and I guess I would change the question and just ask, does it bother you that the FBI said, uh, we have to make Flin lie or not, it's troubling, but, but, the bottom line is? that the president clearly said that Flynn lied to the FBI and the vice president and I'm just asking a very direct question: do you still believe that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI and lied? to the vice president and again I would point to the vice president's statement that he is inclined to believe that Flynn did not intentionally mislead him and I ask that all of you in your coverage do your best to report what is a very frightening story.

When the FBI says, "Let's get someone to lie," I've seen very little coverage of that. It is a story worth reporting and a story thatI hope the American people, if they haven't heard it yet, will hear it for the first time. It's time to return to the South China Sea. An issue arose this morning where the United States Berry was crossing international maritime waters and then China, this is in the South China Sea and Chinese officials are saying this will be a hopeless effort. Has the president spoken to any of the Chinese parties? As for what the United States is going to continue doing, the US Navy will simply ignore these threats and continue traversing these international waters.

What are his responses? to China's growing aggression in the South China Sea again, I have no news to report on the president's talks and for the details of that I would redirect you to the National Security Council (NSC). Yes, thanks. In the same podcast interview, the president said Democrats would subpoena. We have to give the states a lot of help. I'm wondering if you have any idea what specifically the White House or the president is asking for, and secondly, what you would say to someone like Governor Cuomo, who says he knows the president. You already told me a few weeks ago that he would support this type of assistance and why we are bailing out the airlines or defense contractors, but not the states that play games, that pay teachers or first responders.

Well, first you mentioned Governor Cuomo. I just thought it's a good time to remind everyone that Governor Cuomo has praised the President's response in this Coven 19 crisis saying that what the President has accomplished is a phenomenal achievement and we thank Governor Cuomo for those kind words, but about it. note regarding funding to the states, phase four is something that we want to start negotiating on, negotiate immediately and get to work on it, the president has said, look, I will certainly consider helping the states that have corona virus reasons for the financial situation that they are in, but he doesn't want this to be an excuse for decades and decades of poor democratic governance that have led some of these states into a financial situation, which is why he has mentioned that, in terms of The kind of things you want to see in this phase four.

I don't want to get ahead of the negotiations, but I do want to emphasize that he has mentioned sanctuary cities. This is a really important issue that has cost American lives this past year. The brave ice officer has arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens accused of almost 10,000 robberies, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults, 2,000 murders and, in the last year, atrocious 5,000 episodes of human trafficking, so the American lives matter. Our brave icemen and icewomen matter and it's something that he mentioned he would like to see in a phase four, I mean, you raised that and the president has been a little vague about it.

Are you explicitly conditioning state aid on states or cities without saying they would have sanctuary city policies? I am not conditioning anything, but I am saying that it is a negotiating topic that the president will certainly mention. Thank you so much. So the president has in the past denied any of the allegations from the many women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. but for that podcast today, he seemed to suggest that the allegations that Tara Reid has raised are more credible than those against brett Kavanaugh. What about the accusations that were raised against him? However, why should the public do it or what makes them less? more credible than tara reed's allegations the president has quickly denied all of these allegations that were raised four years ago he has always told the truth about these issues he has denied them immediately and you are bringing up issues as I said four years ago that they were asked and they responded and the American people gave their opinion on the matter when they elected President Trump as president of the United States, but you know the media lets the media really take an issue about the former vice president and make it the issue. . president and bring up accusations from four years ago that were made and answered in the form of the vote of the American people, just go back haley uh to john's question because kellyanne conway talked about this the other day and suggested that two things could be true at the same time we now have the vice president saying that it is his belief that general flynn may have unintentionally misled him, that is now three years after the fact, but the two things that could have been true at the same time were that flynn lied to the vice president and He also lied to the FBI, if you take away the FBI part of that, the president would still have fired Michael Flynn for believing that he lied at that time to the vice president.

I mean, I'm not going to get involved in a hypothetical situation and that's essentially what that would be, but what I would say is to repeat again that this was a serious miscarriage of justice. I am very glad that the FBI thought to keep a paper trail because what many have said for a long time pointing out the first facts, shared with you that culminated in that handwritten note. I'm glad they kept such good documentation of their intention to slowly lead General Flynn um into a trap and essentially create, as I mentioned, a serious miscarriage of justice so that the FBI can at least thank you for the great note taking, let me continue with that, although John brings up the point that General Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

I'm not going to get involved in what was a question of justice. Don't you consider it a miscarriage? of justice when you have the FBI writing we want someone to lie is that it was a miscarriage of justice, but in the end he pleaded guilty and that's what you doubted because you know what the answer is, the answer is yes, many other people and I would encourage the media to cover it because I have seen many of their networks. I have read many of your articles. I've seen a lot of scant information about Michael Flynn when there was a lot of speculation about Russia. russia russia culminating in the loss of $40 million of taxpayer money and the complete and total exoneration of President Trump.

Thank you very much to all. I'm going to cut this short now and go see my five month old here in a few hours. Let me just say this, the president at 5 pm leaves for Camp David today, there will be work on the weekend, he will talk to heads of state, elected officials, we have a big event this afternoon and of course everyone should watch the news on Fox. town hall with the president from seven to nine pm will be, I can't miss the television, as the highly rated President Trump, the coronavirus task force briefings have been thanks.