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Trump, White House Coronavirus Task Force Hold Briefing | NBC News

May 31, 2021
My deepest condolences and we are with you all the way. It's a tough deal. I was a bad bed level 5. That was a bad group that is as high as possible. It's a bad set of tornadoes. Something that is something incredible. The power. The horrible destructive power. The United States continues to make critical progress in our war against the virus over the weekend. The number of new daily infections remained stable across the country. Flat hospitalizations are slowing in hot spots like New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Louisiana. This is clear evidence of our aggressive strategy to combat the virus.
trump white house coronavirus task force hold briefing nbc news
The virus is working and Americans are following the guidelines. What they have done has been incredible. You looked at the graphs and the graphs and the models from the beginning, the predictions are 100 and 120 thousand people. If they did well, there would be 100 and 120 thousand people. Unfortunately, we are going to perish and hopefully we will be well below that number, so it will be a sign that people are doing things right, but it is still a horrible thing around the world. 184 countries. All of this is a tribute to our wonderful health. care advisors and experts who have been with us from the beginning, we really appreciate it, in fact, disgusting doctor, maybe you could ask Tony to say a few words before we continue.
trump white house coronavirus task force hold briefing nbc news

More Interesting Facts About,

trump white house coronavirus task force hold briefing nbc news...

Thank you very much Tony, please. Thank you, Mr. President, just a couple of things and then I would like to make a comment about something that happened yesterday. You'll hear from Dr. Burke soon about the numbers that we've been talking about about how things are starting to balance out and I think the more we go through each day, I think we'll see that and again I'll never like to get ahead of myself or Dr. . Burks, but it seems like even though we had a really bad week last week, remember when I was talking to you before I said this was a really bad week?
trump white house coronavirus task force hold briefing nbc news
There will still be a lot of deaths, but we are starting to see some areas now flattening out, particularly in a place that was a hot spot like New York, that's the first thing, the second thing is that I had a really, very, very productive conversation with the Congressional Black Caucus this morning for about an hour and I really wanted to know what exactly are we going to do in the short term and long term regarding the health disparities and the discrepancies in both infection and poor outcomes in minorities in general, but specifically on African Americans, and I mean, I made that very clear. tell them that what we need to do is focus on getting the resources where the vulnerable are so that we can do testing and we can get proper identification, proper isolation and, where appropriate, and contact tracing if we can, but also to help to mitigate in a community that is suffering and suffering much more disproportionately, so I just wanted to understand that in the way that the other point I wanted to make is that yesterday I had an interview where I was asked a hypothetical question and the questions Hypotheticals can sometimes get you into some difficulty because it is what would have or could have been, depending on the nature of the hypothetical question, if we had in fact mitigated sooner, good lives have been saved and the answer to my question was as I always do and I'm doing it now.
trump white house coronavirus task force hold briefing nbc news
Honestly, say yes. I mean, obviously, if mitigation helps, I've been here many times telling you that mitigation works, so if mitigation works and you've instigated it and started it earlier, you probably would have saved more lives if you had started it later. you probably would have lost more lives. You started it at a certain time and it was taken as a way that maybe somehow something was here, so let me tell you from my experience and I can only speak from my own experience, is that we have been talking. Before any meeting we had about the pros and cons, the effectiveness or not of strong mitigations, discussions were primarily among the medical staff about what that would mean the first and only time dr.
Burks and I went in and formally made a recommendation to the president to close an appointment in the sense of not actually closing but to have strong mitigation. We discussed it, obviously some would be concerned that that might, in fact, have happened. some negative consequences, however, the president listened to the recommendation and moved on to mitigation the next second time I went to dr. Burks turned to the president and told him that 15 days is not enough, we have to go 30 days, obviously there were people who had a problem with that because of the possible side effects, however, at that time the president followed the health recommendations and we extended them for another 30 days so I can only tell you what I know and what my recommendations were but clearly, as happens all the time, there were interpretations of that answer to a hypothetical question that I simply thought would not be very nice of me to clarify why not I don't have the opportunity to clarify it.
Thank you. I would be honest with you. I don't even remember what the date was, but I can tell you the first and only time I came in and said we should do mitigation. resoundingly the answer was yes, we will, no, the travel restriction is separate, meaning whether or not we wanted to go into a 15-day mitigation phase of mitigation, travel was another recommendation when we went in and we said we should probably do it. . that and the answer was yes and then another time it was we should do it with Europe and the answer was yes and the next time we should do it with the UK and the answer was yes, no, no that was the wrong choice of words. .
You know what it was like when people argued, not necessarily in the face of the present, when people argued, they said, well, you know this will maybe have a detrimental effect on this or that, so it was a bad choice of words, there was no one to say no, you shouldn't do that, no, I'm doing it. Everything I do is voluntarily. Please don't even imply that if you look at the stats, I write a couple of them down, so when it's January 6th, that's what it will be. Well before the dates you're talking about, the CDC issued a travel advisory for Wuhan, China, an advisory even before there was a confirmed case of the virus in the United States, on January 6, it's all documented because we have a lot of fake

news

.
I would like to document things on January 6th long before the dates we are talking about. The CDC issued a Wuhan travel advisory for Wuhan on January 11. We have zero cases in the United States. Zero, we don't have any cases, so no cases have been reported. I know if this is January 11, the CDC issued a level 1 health by health travel advisory while there were still no confirmed cases, so we had zero cases, people want me to act. I'm supposed to close the economy and the history of the world. and we do not have a single confirmed case in the United States, that is on January 11 January 17 the CDC began implementing Public Health entry controls at three major US airports that received the highest volume of passengers from Wuhan, according to my instructions there was not a single case. of corona virus in the United States, so on January 17 there was no case and the fake

news

says oh, he didn't act fast enough.
You remember what happened because when I performed, Nancy Pelosi criticized me. I'm sleepy. Joe Biden, I was criticized by everyone, but in fact they called me a xenophobe. I was asking Biden to please define that for me the Democrats called me other things and some others, not many more, actually, so by the media it's definitely now January 21st. Well before the time we spoke because when Tony Tony is talking, I think he's talking about the end of February, January 21st. It's okay, we're still early. There was a case of the virus at that time. We call it Wuhan virus, right, Luhan? there was a case in the entire United States we had one case all of this is documented or it all comes from you a lot comes from your people on January 21 the CDC activated an emergency operations center there was only one case one person that's why The announcement was so fake that there was a person in the United States, you know they use it.
There is only one person who was made Saber at that time. A case throughout the United States. A case. I'm supposed to shut down the government. The biggest. The largest economy in the history of the world shut it down. We have a case. Seven cases occurred on January 31. Now, on January 21, there was a case. No person had died here in that state. Not a single person. So we have this huge country, the United States. In the United States of America we have the largest economy in countries larger than China, quite rightly because of what we have done over the last three and a half years before the virus, but including the virus, so we have the biggest economy, the biggest economy we have.
I've had the highest employment numbers, the best employment numbers, the best unemployment numbers, also the best ever, so on January 31st, think about it, not a single person has died, not a single John I don't think you'll find anything. this is reported by the CDC, confirmed by the news, which means nothing to me because they are not telling the truth, but the CDC reported on January 31st that not a single person has died and I issued a travel restriction from China, think about This so that no one has died and I said that you can't get there before, so no one died and I said that you can't enter China.
I'm sorry because I saw that what was happening was not so much what I was told, but what I saw. what was going on and I didn't like it, but I didn't talk to Tony about it, I didn't talk to many people about it, I didn't like it, so what did I do ready on January 31st in the United States? person had died due to the Wuhan virus again, so I issued travel restrictions and that date, even though no one died and the press brutalized me for it because I arrived too early, I shouldn't have been brutalized by the press, but you know that I have been brutalized in the last four years.
I used to do well before I decided to join politics, but I guess I'm doing well because as far as I know, and the President of the United States regardless. that's what they say then the first mandatory quarantine in over 50 years we did the first mandatory quarantine in 50 years the same restrictions that Democrats in the media called xenophobic now Joe Biden said it's racist call me racist because I said we're going to close three of China We're closing it he called me a xenophobe and called me a racist and other things since then on a Friday night two weeks ago Joe Biden broadcast and says it wasn't him, he didn't write it.
I'm sure you don't even know it was issued, but your campaign people who were smart people who write to your little PR releases are pretty smart, reasonably good, nothing better, but they're not bad, but they issued a statement saying that Joe Biden agrees that the press says that President Trump was right to close it to China, now he has done it, even though he issued it on a Friday night. We've all heard of John's Friday nights, in fact his was the later Friday night than I posted. mine on Friday nights, he's fine, so he did it, he did it pretty late.
I mean, you know, at 11 o'clock at night or something, you know it's pretty late anyway, so Joe Biden issued and it's one of those things, but in February Nancy Pelosi said. We should come to Chinatown this is the end of February come to Chinatown we think it's very safe come here let's say I'll do the big parade The China Town parade probably refers to San Francisco and that's it, but I took this action early and so the story in The New York Council is totally fake, it's a fake newspaper and they write fake stories and hopefully one day in five years, when I'm not here, all those newspapers will go out of business because no one will want to read them, but they like them now. because now they write about me with it, I have a couple of interests and we have some clips that we are going to post, we could dim the lights a little bit, I think you will find them interesting and then I will answer some questions.
I will ask you some questions because you are very guilty, but forget it, but the most important thing is that we will return to the reason why we are here, which is the success that we are having. Okay, please, would you? Put it, people should be more worried right now about the flu in this contract, more worried about the corona virus because they are hearing a lot of news about it right now, but the reality is that when comparing it to the flu, for example, neither It's not even close. to be at that stage, what if it gets worse?
Is this a time when perhaps countries put politics aside a little pride and have American officials in case American professionals like you get involved? How concerned should Americans be about the

coronavirus

? It's not going to cause a big problem in the United States. We have asked them to accelerate what they are doing in terms of a vaccine. We will suspend all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days to release full power. of this effort today I am officially declaring a national emergencyMedicare patients can now visit any doctor by phone or video conference at no additional cost The first million masks will be available immediately As there were more cases and it became clear it was spreading outside of China, where it originated, the president took this A move for which he was widely criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans at the time, and halted several flights from China to the US, the idea being to stop the spread of the disease kept transmissions to a minimum.
They accused him of xenophobia. They accused him of making a racist move. At the end of the day, he was probably effective because he actually took a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus. His team is on it. they have responded late at night early in the morning and so far they have been doing everything they can do and I want to thank them and I want to say I appreciate you returning calls, reaching out to them, you have been proactive, we got that ship of mercy here in Los Angeles , that was directly because 2,000 medical units sent him here. came to the state of California these FMS these field medical stations and that has been very helpful the president has been outstanding through all of this the vice president has been outstanding members of the

coronavirus

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very responsive they asked us if we could have New Jersey could I have access to a portion of the beds that are in the U.S., and just as a convenience, the president called back a few minutes before I came in here to say that they were actually going to give it to New Jersey, so it's a big step for us.
In addition to all the other capabilities that News has literally taken off the press, and I appreciate the president and vice president being on the call together, President Trump approved Arizona's requests for the presidential major disaster declaration. I want to thank the president for a quick turnaround. I applied for this on a Wednesday and we got approval on Saturday morning and we are grateful to the administration for their continued support and responsiveness. First of all, I want to thank the president and vice president for doing a very good job of communicating with all the governors. So we could give you hundreds of clips like that of governors, including Democrats or Democrats, as I call them governors, which is actually the correct term.
We could give you hundreds of clips like that, we have them, we didn't want this to continue too. long, but I just want to say that you know, it's very sad when people write fake tours like in that case, I guess it was mainly obtained from the New York Times, which is very, I mean, if you had had libel laws, they would have been out of business even before they end up closing, so it's a shame, but we could have given them the statements, we have hundreds of statements, hundreds of statements, including from Democrats and Democratic governors, and if you look, they all said we need ventilators.
We need you to know that there are already ventilators here, they have all the ventilators they need, which we were right about, we said you're asking for too many, you don't need them, and to be fair, these two people here, dr. Burke's doctor said: I don't think they need that many ventilators. I said I agree at one point and I'm not a doctor in New York for this, but they ask you to remember 40,000 ventilators and that's more than they have everywhere. the country and we got them a lot of ventilators and no one complained, we got them, you know, beautiful, we built hospital rooms all over the country, the governor of Louisiana, John bel Edwards, who was very nice, said, you know what we don't you have to do. build a second hospital because good news is happening, they can't fill the beds, they needed two hospitals, we built one, it was perfect, we're getting it, we were just starting the other one.
I called him and said, do you think we should build the? the second one, I don't think you're going to need it, he said, let me go back, he came back, we didn't need him with Governor Cuomo, in all good spirit and faith, he wanted the Jacob Javits Center finished and we built 2,900. incredible incredible beds, so we made them, we made them kovat or to be exact kovat 19 and it was a lot of work, we had to change the ducts, we sealed certain areas, we had to put areas of the ceiling stuff over the beds we did a lot of work and we had them but they never really used them a lot and they also called Mayor de Blasio rightly called and said that it would be possible to get more medical help so now they are not only building facilities with They are asking us for help because they can't handle it and we got it to help.
We have Mérida Blasio very helpful when the Javits Center was not used much and then, as you know, Mercy we took the Mercy and we took the consolation and we made them both in Los Angeles and in New York, we made them adaptable to kovat, which It wasn't easy to do and we didn't get almost any people sent there, they didn't need it at first because they didn't need it. I don't need it for anything other than this because there are fewer accidents your bikes your everything and what we did was like an incredible job but they didn't need it it turned out that they were there we were ready you know the expression they have an expression ready willing and able we were ready willing and capable what the Army Corps of Engineers did was a miracle what FEMA did was a miracle what the doctors did so two days ago I received a call from the mayor of New York and he said: could you help me? we even more with medical staff and we sent were 448 doctors nurses and respiratory experts real experts and I got a call from the mayor and he said I want to tell you incredible these people are incredible he said they lifted the spirits of the New York City hospital workers like nothing I've ever seen, it was incredible, what he said was really appreciated and I let them know that I let the military, he said, came in there, they were so brave, so incredible, they lifted the spirits of everyone we did. of this work, but when you read the false stories, no one-no one recognizes your help and it doesn't have to be recognized from my point of view, but it does have to be recognized for the great work that these doctors take care of the Army Corps of Engineers.
These people have done this incredible job and they should not be abused because you look at what happened, no one asks for ventilators except outside our country, outside our country, they call me in every country, they call me that. "There are many countries and I am going to try to help them because we have thousands of ventilators under construction, but no one asks for ventilators, no one asks for beds because we build hospitals. I think we invoiced 20,000 beds in a period of a couple of weeks. The work they do. What I've done is incredible, having said all that, I get along very well with the governors and if not, Mike Pence had a call today with the governors and it was like a 10.
I told him how it went. He said it's 210. he used a from my expressions section but he said it was like a 10 and I'm sure you guys were probably in the Kolo you weren't supposed to be in but you were sitting in someone's office listening to it because every time we have This you know and you would know that for weeks those calls have been very good, but there was no raised voice, there was not even a statement that we think you should do this or that. I heard it was like just perfect. phone call may not be reported that way they will say I thought someone maybe stood up a little not even raised their voice my only point for sending this because I want to get back to why we are here the press has I haven't treated these amazing people who have done a great job, they haven't treated them unfairly, They are very wrong, we were way ahead of schedule and remember this because the timing, sir, was false, but everything, remember this, everything we did, they criticized me. because I was too early, if I had waited longer, you would have been the one who would have ordered the credit if I had gone too early, if I had gone three months early, I would have been criticized, you know, criticized for arriving too early, so, with all that said , we understand.
I think I have educated a lot of people about the press and I would love to be able to say that we have a very honest press. Honestly, John was nothing I would be prouder of if the press worked and I didn't. I don't mind being criticized, but not when they're wrong, not when people have done a great job. Yeah, I've never seen a video like that playing in this room. It's a bit like a campaign ad about who produced that video and where it was made. by a group in the office and he did just put together some clips that I could give you.
I bet you I have over a hundred more clips, even better than them. They were assembled over the last two hours. just oh we have so much better than that, that's nothing compared to someone that was produced here in the White House, yeah this was done by a Dan and a group of people and they put it together in a period of probably less than two hours , you feel? I need to do that because we are getting fake news and I like to see it corrected. They are saying that we are doing a great job and the media.
These are the governors of California. The governor of New Jersey. The governor of New York. York we work very closely with Andrew in New York ventilators we are going to have a problem, no they didn't have any problem, we got them a huge amount of thousands, but we got them a huge amount of ventilators, you can't hear the fans. Problematic beds were going to be a problem. I mean, I'm happy about that, the Javits Center, which is amazing, is almost empty because they don't need it, that's good news, not bad news. You know, I'm not saying, geez, I wish.
There were more people there I don't want more people there we brought on the ship we brought comfort and originally comfort was not supposed to be for this at all the karana virus is not supposed to be for that at all they called said could we have it? That was a few weeks ago. We said we don't think you need it, but if you need it, we will do it. So they said, could you get the medical staff to run the Javits Center? Could I get it? medical personnel to run the ship we said if necessary we will do it and we did it, there were military personnel that Mayor DeBlasio was so good to in terms of his statements.
I mean, I really appreciated his statements, he was very impressed with them and at the level of genius and bravery, the military are great people and we rebuilt it. I'd say it took less than two hours. This was produced by government employees by people here in the White House. campaign style I'll use the word produced all they did was take some twists and they just ran them for you and the reason they did it is to keep you honest now I don't think that's going to work it won't have any impact but just think You heard the clips about that, you heard what I said, they said he acted late in shutting down the country.
Some people wish we would never close it. If we hadn't, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of people. You know, funnily enough, so I. I'm against it, we did the right thing, we did the right thing, if we had closed here a long time ago, you think everything you did was right, look, the governor should have had ventilators, they chose not to have them, we could get ventilators, you have ventilators. I didn't hear anything else you know there was a lot of panic, a lot of screaming, we won Finley, they got the ventilators, you don't have them anymore and the surge is supposed to come now and if they need ventilators, John, we've done it.
We have almost 10,000 that are ready to rock, we have people standing with those fans right now, if you needed 2,000 in New York, which you don't need, but if you did, we can have just one in less than 24 hours, we are ready to rock this. It was great, it was a great army and beyond that operation, let's get back to normal. What should we get back to normal? We could talk about this, but all I'm doing is this. I could have given you like four or five. clips that we just played you, I could have given you hundreds of people, I mean, Gavin was on TV two days ago with one of your competitors singing a prayer, he says, look, you know, the question was asked in a negative way, he said, look , I know what you're saying.
I mean, but what we've said, but it's been really good, it's hard for me to say, in fact, it's impossible for me to say Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. I have many clips of anyone. I have some clips of Anthony not. I don't want to post which ones were really good. I think Anthony would be the first to say when I closed the country to China, when I closed the China gang, whatever you want to call it. Anthony said I saved a lot of lives by doing that. I mean, I'm right. By the way, I don't want to put words in Anthony's mouth and I like him today.
I walk in and hear that I'm going to fire him. I'm not going to fire him. I think he is a wonderful cop and firefighter. I retweeted someone. here they go, they said it doesn't matter, that's someone's opinion, oh that's a pinion and you know, I thought about that. I said that I am not going to fire effective friends of USQ in the office and in the public relations office. They immediately called me about it and I said no, I like them, I think it's fantastic because it was one person's opinion,Not everyone is happy with Anthony, not everyone is happy with everyone, but I will tell you that we have done a job like no one has done before in mobilizing and obtaining equipment.
Of the things we've done, no one has ever done work like this: we have 50 governors and territories, by the way, people never mention that we have territories, we have 50 governors and territories and many of those governors are Democrats and they can't find nothing to complain about and honestly many of them didn't do their job. I'll let you know one day, let's see what happens, but I'll let you know who's not doing their job. I can tell you the ones that are good, both Republicans. and Democrats and those who don't know what they are doing, but we helped some of those who don't know what they are doing, they should have had their own reserves and now, if they want, we can build them reserves of ventilators the most difficult thing as a ventilator because it is expensive it takes a while to get it we got it and no one believed we did it now many of the governors were asking for too many and we said they were asking for too many we talked and said you said very strongly that they just don't need me you said they don't need that many beds Deborah so that's it everything, Steve, well, you're on the same page, yeah, what happened from the beginning.
I don't know what it is exactly, but if I put someone's opinion on it, you know, I don't care about the controversy. I think controversy is a good thing, not a bad thing, but I want it to be honest. controversy now, when I got a call, I got a call not very quickly and no one, you know, saw that as something important, they said, how are you, what, fat doctor, I said I'm fine and I didn't talk to Dr. Fetcher . even or until we got here, doctor, he asked one of the people if he could get up and speak and he did and they completely misunderstood him.
I saw what they did. He said the question was hypothetical, but what he was simply acknowledging is that he lives. He would have been saved if mitigation practices had been implemented sooner. That seems obvious. Don't you agree with that? Yes, since I know what he is really saying, but how could you have done it? Look, I just went over the statistics with you, right? Yes, thanks. How do you close it? has no deaths or cases on January 11 doctor, I would recommend closing the United States of America oh this must be terrible how many cases we have none how many deaths we have none January 17 come back another week, January 17, this is ten days before it was a little less than ten days before the ban was made.
I banned China. Do you think it was easy? I did not ban Europe and many people. He said that it was something incredible because we look at Spain and by the way, we are doing very well because when you look at all those flat graphs and you add it all up, the United States is very low and the per capita is very low, we are doing very well , but how do you close the United States of America so that on January 6th there are no deaths when on January 11th there is no this and note that there are no cases on January 17th there are no cases, there are no cases, there are no deaths?
I'm supposed to close the United States of America, when I have no cases, in mid-March I closed from China, excuse me, I closed it from China and by the way, some people think I should have waited longer and maybe held on, I'm not according to them, okay, but it was contrived, I mean it was an alternative, you know, there are a lot of people who would have said, let's write it now. I'll give you the good news, if I had done that, it would have been, I think, catastrophic because their numbers are something between 1.6 and 2.2 million people would have died if we had tried to do that and I did it last time, cut it to half, don't say 2.2 million, cut it by more than half, say a million people died, well that's a lot more than Civil.
The war cut it in half, take the million and cut it in half, meaning 500,000 people would have died by now, we would have reached that number. Well, it would have been easy to reach if we did nothing, so we did the right thing and our timing was very good. but here is one thing and you have to say this when you ask me why you didn't do this. How come when I did the China ban and some very, very instituting things, some very difficult things? How come Nancy Pelosi is in Chinatown a month later? saying let's all march this is not going to happen how come we have a lot of the experts from CNN and a lot of other networks for people to watch a network that I personally don't know but we have CNN we have a lot of other places and they all say that he?
You don't need to do it You don't need to do it All I'm saying is this, how do you shut down the largest economy in the history of the world when on January 17th there are no cases or deaths when in January? 21 you have a case and there is no death a case to think about that now we are supposed to shut down the country but this is what happened when on January 31 I instituted the ban Joe Biden went crazy and said you don't need the band that We didn't meet any prince like him, he didn't even know what the hell the ban was, but he didn't go crazy, but he said he called me Xenophon in a minute, he called me a xenophobe, he called me a racist. because he since then he apologized and said I did the right thing, so when you say why didn't you do it, all the Democrats thought I made a mistake when I did it.
I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. The argument is that you bought yourself some time, you didn't use it to prepare hospitals, you didn't use it to increase testing, so you're so embarrassing, it's so embarrassing the way you said it, let me hear. I just went over it. Nobody thought we should do it and what I did. What are you doing? What do you do when you don't have any cases in the entire United States? When you listen, sorry, you reported it: zero cases, zero deaths on January 17th. Daniel I said a lot on Jenny or January 30th and we'll actually give you a list of what we did actually part of who was up there we did a lot you know you're fake you know your whole network The way you cover it is fake and the most of you and not all of you, but the wise people with you, that's why you have a lower approval rating than ever before, probably three times and when you ask me that question, let me.
I ask you this: Why did he invite? Why didn't he do it? Why did Biden apologize? Why did he write an apology letter? Oh, that's very important. Why did Democrats think I acted too quickly? You know why? Because they really thought I acted too. quickly we have done a great job now we could have kept it open and we could have done what some countries are doing, they are taking a pretty bad beating. I could have kept it open. I thought I'd keep it open because no one has ever done that. I have heard of shutting down a country, the United States of America, but if it had been done, we would have had hundreds of thousands of people who would now be dead.
We've done this well and we've really, really done this well. The problem: Is the press not covering it as it should? One more question. Steve Dios has a debate about what authority you have to order the country to reopen. What authority do you have? Well, I have ultimate authority, but let's get in. that in a minute we're going to wrap this up, we're going to tell you about other things that we've done well, but I will say this if we had said, let's move forward and let's not do it by closing, whether it's 2.2 that at one point you predicted as an outside or a point six in a lower number, you cut it down to six or seven hundred or eight hundred thousand, take just a fraction of the number that could have happened, literally it would have been more than During the civil war it would have been a disaster, so the minimum number was one hundred thousand and I think I feel pretty good that we're going to be substantially below Anthony's hundred thousand and I hope that everything is fine, so today, the Department of Health. and Human Services is announcing five new contracts to procure a large number of additional ventilators under the Defense Production Act that we use a lot by the way, which she didn't like to talk about, in addition to the 1,300 that we received today, today we received 1,300 additional ventilators.
Now we're probably not going to need them, but we can add them to our reserve, which is very large, and we can move them in case there is an increase, and in case it is a very substantial increase, we are ready to shake it out. The contracts are with General Electric Hill ROM Medtronic rest med and VY air combined with the DPA contracts we announced last week with General Motors and Phillips and two other contracts with Hamilton and Salt, we are adding six thousand one hundred ninety ventilators to the strategic national stockpile of which we already have thousands close to ten thousand, but this will be added before May 8, another 29,000 by the end of May and more than 120,000 in total by the end of the year, now we are going to help other countries we are going to help the states if they need it we can help some states stop by you know they're supposed to buy their own reserves they have state reserves they're supposed to use them and unfortunately most states weren't there and a lot of people didn't want to talk about it but They weren't there, we'll talk about it at the right time if you want.
At this point I am more focused on overcoming this nightmare of an epidemic or pandemic whatever you want to call it we have to get over it no one who has needed ventilators didn't get a ventilator think about it you know you heard all about ventilators ventilators we need ventilators because they didn't have them because the state should have had them no one who needs a ventilator hasn't gotten a ventilator no one who needs a hospital bed has been denied a hospital but that's not even really our responsibility now if we can help we're going to do it but that's where the Army Corps of Engineers did a great job, we built over 20,000 beds, in fact, we built thousands more than we really needed to be safe, we wanted to be safe and they really rose to this incredible occasion, I mean, we built more beds than we thought , we thought we were going heavy in Louisiana and again, when I called the governor, I told him maybe we shouldn't build that second hospital because we don't want to build it if you don't need it, he called.
On the way back he said: I don't think we're going to need it. They had a thousand rooms, a thousand beds and they used a lot of them but they didn't need the other one, so we stopped it because we don't want to waste. but we are prepared to build thousands more if we need it. I don't think we're going to need them because it seems like we're stagnating and maybe even going down in many cases. Also, we have ordered a total of 60 mobile decontamination systems, so the Patil decontamination system in Ohio is something incredible because it takes the masks and up to 20 times you can decontaminate a mask and I have been asking from the beginning why we can't Sterilize and disinfect them. masks and it turned out that we can and there was a great company in Ohio, they sent us a great team and they are doing it now and now we are going to have over 33 million n95 masks a week that will be cleaned, decontaminated and It will be great, it's something Which, frankly, I think people should have thought about a long time ago.
Five more flights landed today as part of Project Airlift, our massive airless lift operation to bring personal protective equipment to the United States, now delivering nearly half a million n95 masks 370 million gloves 25 million surgical masks and five point nine million gowns, so we have millions of gowns, gloves, masks, all the surgical equipment that will come in case the states need it now, the state where the states are supposed to buy their own things, but if they need them, we are ready to give them to them because we are building up our reserves again like crazy. Remember it's me and you saw the stories.
I inherited this administration, Mike, the entire administration, we inherited a reservation where the cupboards were bare. there was nothing and I say it and I say it again just like we didn't have ammunition, we didn't have medical supplies, we didn't have ventilators, we didn't have a lot of things that they should have had and you can read your own stories about that because you know what happened. They didn't want to spend the money, but we did. To date, we have facilitated the supply of more than 38 million N95 masks nationwide. This week we will send two million. n95 masks for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the vice president will go into more detail, he has a lot of detail on that and I think it's a pretty amazing story.
We already have many masks in stock and have more on the way. We are expanding the hospital surge even further. capacity in key areas of the opening and we have a portion of certain VA hospitals and non-veteran coronavirus patients, including New Jersey's East Orange Medical Center, as well as facilities in Manhattan Brooklyn, are ready, can, are beautiful. Hopefully we won't need too many of them because, frankly, we built everything the governor wanted and in many cases it's too much. We told him it was too much, but we wanted to err on the side of caution. The United States has already conducted nearly 3 million tests for the virus, three million more than any nation, we are conducting approximately 115,000 tests every day and our testing rate isespecially high in the areas most affected by the virus, if you look, and that is really, and the virus has affected some areas. very, very difficult, for example, testing per capita in New York is higher than the rest of the world.
The NIH CDC and FDA are also currently validating several antibody tests that will allow us to determine if someone has already had the virus and potentially becomes immune to the infection. We are seeing that antibody testing can be very interesting in the next short time as many things are being developed as we speak in the race to develop effective treatments. Pharmaceutical company Gilead announced that its des aveer drug room has shown promise. The results are very promising in compassionate use settings. Additionally, the FDA just granted emergency authorization for a device that removes certain proteins from the bloodstream, possibly preventing the patient's immune system from overreacting to the virus and damaging vital organs, which is also a big deal.
In the last seven days my administration has deployed approximately 28 million doses of hydroxychloroquine from our national stockpile, we have millions of doses that we purchased and many people are using it across the country and recently a friend of mine told me that he got better from using it of that medicine, who knows, and he has combined it with z-pak, he combines it with zinc according to his doctor's recommendation and he gets very good results. I will tell him to think of anyone else recommended besides me. I used the place to be honest honey I think the fact that I recommended it and I put it off a lot but there are a lot of good things.
A lot of good testing is going on with this. Scientists are also carrying out a blood therapy known as convalescent plasma. This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to treat those who are sick and this is something that is actually a very old procedure, but it is done in a very modern way during this difficult time, we are also working to ensure that the 2020 census is completed safely and accurately, we may ask for an extension because they obviously can't be doing much right now, they wouldn't. allowed to do so, so the census is going to ask for a delay, a significant delay.
I think how is it possible that they are knocking on doors for a long period of time now that the Census Bureau recently made the decision to temporarily suspend their field operation. data collection activities to help stop the spread, plus as millions of Americans continued to fill out their online questionnaire, the Census Bureau is asking Congress for an extension of 120. I don't know if you even have to ask them. This is called an act of God. This is. It's called a situation where they have to compromise and I think 120 days is not enough. My administration is also taking bold steps to help American workers on Friday.
Americans began receiving cash payments authorized by a historic $2 trillion relief bill. At the end of the week, almost 80 million Americans will receive a total of 147 billion dollars and, from what the Secretary of the Treasury tells me, that is very inappropriate and going very well, he will talk in a moment about payments, these payments they go directly to the banks and these people's bank accounts millions of additional payments will follow the typical family of four will receive $3,400 that's for a family of four that's something extra through our paycheck protection program which is a tremendous success and they should extend it and increase it This has been a tremendous success, so successful that the banks should take a little longer to distribute the money, but it is going quickly.
We have already processed more than $200 billion in loans to help small businesses retain their workers. Now we urgently need lawmakers to put aside partisan agendas and replenish this program with new funding because it really is something that has been an incredible success and they need more money to keep it going to take care of these businesses and keep a note to keep them open. I want to thank the governor's many health professional scientists and business leaders for their incredible hard work and contributions over the last month and even well beyond a month Mike. I would say that they know that we have been working together with many of them because it seems like forever.
I have had many conversations with my team and top experts and we are very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even sooner than planned and that is so important that we will soon finalize new and very important guidelines to give governors the information they need. begin to safely open your states my administration's plan and the accompanying guidelines will give the American people the confidence they need to begin returning to normal life, that is what we want, we want to have our country open, we want to return to normal life, our country is going to be opened and it will be opened successfully and we will explain in a very short number of days exactly what it will be.
Also, as you probably heard, we have developed a committee that we are actually convening several committees with the most prominent people in the country, the most successful people in the various fields that we will announce tomorrow this weekend, the United States also helped facilitate an unprecedented agreement between the 23 OPEC nations plus OPEC plus additional energy producing nations representing many of the world's largest oil producing countries to stabilize all markets and, in fact, we have seen a great deal of stabilization in the last few days, and I think we've seen a lot of stabilization in the last few days.
Countries around the world will reduce our oil production by about 20 million barrels, people say. 10 million, but we believe that the number they will actually reach will be closer to 20 million barrels per day and we will go a long way to saving jobs throughout Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and many other of our countries. big energy states this historic action will help almost 11 million American workers who are supported by the US oil and gas industry it is a very monumental agreement I want to thank Saudi Arabia and the king of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince from Saudi Arabia to both I want to thank President Putin of Russia and I want to thank a very good friend of mine who has become a friend of mine.
The President of Mexico showed great flexibility. President López Obrador showed great flexibility and tremendous intelligence. By doing what he did, it was not so easy for him and I want to thank Mexico and the president. This is a very historic, very historic agreement, so we will see how everything goes in this moment and challenge, and we are certainly in a moment like we probably haven't been in for many decades. We are strengthened and sustained by the ties of love and loyalty that unite all Americans. I am very proud of the American people. Everywhere you look, you see the patriotism of our people shining and the courage of our doctors and nurses on the front lines. the dedication of our food supply workers and the commitment of every citizen to achieve victory over the virus, that's what's going to happen, it's going to happen sooner than people think and we're going to be smart about it, very, very smart, We will be sure about it, we will also listen to the great doctors and medical professionals together, we are defeating the invisible enemy and we are paving the way for a great resurgence, really a great resurgence of the American prosperity that our country wants.
They come back, they want to go back to work, they are going to come back safe and sound and that is what we want. Now i would like to ask vice president pence to say a few words, followed by dr. Fauci and dr. Burks, I think before we do this because I know there's an emergency where they want Steve to come, so what I'll do is ask Steve to come, Secretary of the Treasury, you can talk a little bit and then maybe have a couple of questions about what is happening tell them the success we are having thank you very much sir. president mr. vice president, as you announced, we are very happy that we are ahead of schedule in delivering the economic impact payments, these were what were known as the checks by mail that we want to deliver in direct deposit, this is ahead of schedule, we began process them last Friday we expect more than 80 million working Americans to receive direct deposit by this Wednesday and we know how important it is for all those working Americans, many of whom are at home not working right now if they don't receive them by Wednesday. on Wednesday we will be launching on irs.gov click on irs.gov go to receive your payment if you filed a tax return in 2018 and 19 or 19 you have that information available you will be able to identify yourself you will be able to enter your direct deposit information and within several days we will automatically deposit the money into your account.
We want to do all of this electronically as we can. It is very important nowadays. It's safer and you don't have to go. to the bank if you were a social security beneficiary you don't need to do anything you will get a direct deposit if you haven't filed and didn't need to file a return 2,000 or 18 and 19 you can go to irs.gov now and enter your information and authenticate yourself so again we are very happy that this is sooner than expected. I would also like to announce the progress we are making on the new SBA program, the PPP, let me remind everyone that this is a brand new program.
Now a week ago, we have distributed and confirmed 230 billion loans to more than 4,600 participating lenders, that's multiples of everything the SBA has and in a year before, and I want to especially thank the broad-based community banks that are participating again over 4,600 banks, if they haven't processed their loan, they will get a process this week as the president said we went back to Congress and asked them for more money to make sure that all businesses have access to this. Also comment for the states: we are distributing half of the money this week to the states a week in advance and we will give the other half of the money to the states next week and then let me finally comment that we have been working very closely with the Reserve Federal last week we announced expanded facilities and new facilities totaling $2.3 trillion of liquidity and, in particular, I would like to highlight a Main Street line of credit that will be for businesses between one worker in every 10,000 people by mid-2000. -large businesses and also a municipal facility so that state and local governments can access funds given the shortages they have, so I will be happy to answer any questions, decisions, thank you sir, both Speaker Pelosi and the leader of the Schumer minority have said that. are in negotiations with you right now about additional funding for these small business loans, although the leader of the package, McConnell, has said that nothing should be added to the package that should be specific to small business loans, what is the opinion of your administration?
Would there be some kind of horse-trading here or should it just be a small business from the point of view of the president and the vice president, in my opinion, this was a bipartisan program, this SBA program, it was not a Republican program, it was not a Democrat, it was a bipartisan program that we have committed to small businesses, we should supplement that program now. I know Democrats want to talk about more money for hospitals and states right now, we're just sending the money to the hospitals and states they haven't come to. close to using that money and I know the president and the vice president, once we're done with the SBA we can get into another funding bill, the president talked about the possibility of adding infrastructure and other things, we think there is a possibility that we need more money and we will do it.
We will sit down and try to get a bipartisan bill, but this is important. We deliver for small businesses. 50% of people work for small businesses. Hey mister, what's the emergency the president said you had to do? You had an emergency negotiation for this bill. Yeah, well, because we don't want to run out of money, we've used about 220 billion of the 350 billion, we don't want to run out of that money, we don't want to create panic that people won't get it. So we want to supplement that and we've asked for another 250 billion for that program and again let me remind you that every dollar we spend on this program we save a dollar of unemployment insurance, so even though we're asking for 250 billion, it really won't cost that much.
Were you concerned about lifting the guidelines too soon? What is the economic impact? I understand the economic argument for getting people back to work, obviously, but what is the economic risk of getting them back up too soon? Seeing an increase in cases, there are riskseconomical in both directions. Today we reviewed with the president a very extensive list of over a hundred business owners who will help advise the president on what needs to be done to reopen the economy and we want to make sure. and again the combination of economic impact payments paid to small businesses improved unemployment insurance the president made it very clear that we want to make sure that working Americans have liquidity as we wait to reopen the government so do you think the government should be reinstated?
Are you the country's excuse? I and on May 1st I had conversations with the president. I know he's considering it and I think he'll make a decision later on how safe everything needs to be. My advice is as soon as you are ready to open and based on medical results. professionals and again we are working very closely with the president and external business leaders to develop a plan, mr. President, what do you think they have outlined for us? What will the opening of the economy be like? Do you think that's all I've ever done? What do you think you'll be there in the next few days because we'll probably make a statement? about that and exactly what it looks like, I know what it looks like, but I also want to get advice in a sense, we have some of the biggest companies on this council, we're actually creating several different boards or committees I guess you could call them and we have a lot of people intelligent.
I think they will also give us good advice, but no, we want to be very, very safe at the same time that we have to open our country. There is a possibility then that what you do is open incrementally. Do you think people come back to Rose's concert at the movies and say, let me dig? Eventually they will and I think we're going to explode. I think we are. I think it's going to be quick, our people want to get back to work and I think there's pent-up demand like that that hasn't existed in a long time, that's why and that's why you see the stock market, I mean the stock markets at the level of this moment with everything that this world and this country has received and look at the European Union how decimated it has been look at other countries look at China the way I have seen the numbers In China, look at how these countries have been decimated for this and to think that the stock market is at this tremendously high number, it's not much, you know, it looked a little bleak for a while, but it got to a certain point and then it started going up.
I think it's a great tribute to the fact that there is Adam, yes, sir. President, thank you sir. Alright.Regarding some of your tweets today and I think it was Steve's question, my question to you is what provision of the Constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies and then review what we expect Sir, but we keep track of what happens. If he says, for example, we want states to reopen but California or New York won't open, what would you order schools to close? It's been the states that have ordered businesses like restaurants because I let that happen because I would have preferred that to happen, but if I wanted to, I could have closed it, but I let that happen and I like the way they did it and the seven that They really remained in a kind of semi-confinement.
If you look at those states, they really did a very good job, they are very different from New York or other places where they have been worried about opening their schools. I order you to leave. Yes sir. The president went on to say that today there are two consortiums of states - California, Oregon, Washington, on the West Coast, northeastern states representing a total of about a hundred million people - who said they will cooperate and decide. A real window they can decide, but what they are trying. For our part, let me tell you something very simple.
I'll put it very simply: the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do what is very powerful. The president of the United States makes the decisions if We were not here for America. You would have had a problem in this country like you've never seen before. We were here to support them and we supported them. We have done more than support them. We did a job that no one had ever done before. I thought it was possible, it is a decision of the President of the United States, that said, we are going to work with the states because it is very important that you have local governments, that they are identified, what you are really talking about, it is like a microchip.
It's been pointed out that we have a local government that will hopefully do a good job and if they don't, I would intervene very quickly, but no, they can't do anything without the president's approval. Some states refused to reopen. and you order them to the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution says that all the powers that the president of Congress does not renounce resides in the States as it is well overcome that some States refuse to open I would be I would like to see that person run for the elections go to open to collect everything at the polls, right, I think that is something that is not going to happen, they want to open to have to open, they have to open each of those states that people want to go to and want now some will be in a different situation.
I won't name states now, but I will in the next two or three days. I'm going to be very specific, but there are some states where this is not the type of situation. The problem is that you are in New York, Louisiana, Michigan or other places that were hit hard. Illinois was hit hard, but every state wants to open and they want to open as soon as possible, but they want to open safely and so do I, yeah. today the French president on the menu and McCullen said here we will maintain the lockdown in France in mid-May, does that mean the United States will maintain that ban?
The French received a very hard blow. France received a very hard blow and once again has to do what it must. You have to see my friend but France Spain has just been decimated look what happened in Italy it is a well known fact what happened in Italy no, they were hit very hard question for the secretary Venetian has everyone who would like to have the hundreds of entrepreneurs in economic problems, what have they been invited to? Have they already believed that they have not been invited yet? We only reviewed the names, but the president today has sectors, yes, there are basically verticals, so each area of ​​the economy that we want. being represented great another thing is that something more needs to be done to work in industries jobs in the oil industry to save jobs in the oil industry after last weekend's agreement well I think there are always things so we are working with Larry Kudlow.
I mean, we have that the Greens have the economic plans for each part of the economy, obviously, in the case of the oil industry, they have been especially affected because they have had the problem of the supply of coke and they have had the problem of demand. bailout money for the airlines with the allocations for the airline, so I'm pleased to say that we have worked very hard. I think, as you've probably seen, we put out a press release saying that we've now had conversations with almost all the airlines. I personally had conversations with all the CEOs of the major airlines, we specifically created an exception for small airlines that we were able to process very quickly and I think you will see decisions being made very quickly.
I am very satisfied with the discussions we have had. Very good. I just want to say that we have had a discussion, wait, excuse me for a second, we have had very good conversations with the airlines, very good discussions, is it possible to reopen the economy first? I'm not saying you'll hear The Next Days for this boost instead of another boost, so again let me comment. I mean, Congress, on a bipartisan basis, approved an unprecedented amount of money to help American workers in American businesses because it wasn't their fault that businesses closed. down, we had been very diligently executing that, you know, everyone said it would take months to get money to people, we are executing very quickly, we created a whole new SBA program in a week, our job right now is to execute the 2, 3 billion that we can add several trillion dollars with the Federal Reserve, the area that we are particularly concerned about is the small business program, frankly, it is even more popular and successful than we anticipated, so the president wants to make it very clear that we have money for that and once we have Once this is done, we will review it, the president, if more money is needed to support this economy, to support working Americans, we will work with Congress to get it done.
In phase four, the president has talked about infrastructure for a long time. period of time that we've talked about to the extent that hospitals need more money because of medical issues that we will monitor and we want to make sure that there are incentives for restaurant entertainment people to go back to that type of thing, so We will look at very specific provisions to stimulate parts of the economy, some of them may be monetary issues, some may be regulatory issues, just to clarify, you were your authority, these are the governor's, just be very specific, for example, if a governor issued a stay at home when you say my authority the authority of president rapmon because for me this is when someone is the president of the United States the authority is total and that is why the governor's Senate has to be at home total but now you have a couple of bands of excuse me, excuse me, you have a mug, you have a couple of bands of Democratic governors, but they will agree with her, but the authority of the President of the United States has to do with the issue we are talking about.
The total that we saw in your video was the ban on traveling from Europe, that is part of reality. America, do you want to reopen the borders so that there are people from Europe from the United Kingdom at the right time? You know, very good question, in fact, I'm going to have to do it. take a look, I wouldn't say Italy is doing very well right now and I wouldn't say Spain is doing very well right now and we just heard that France is extending its stay-in-order, it's just that have extended. I just saw that and I think for a short period of time, but no, when they come back we want to do it very quickly but we want to make sure everything is okay.
No, now we have everything. Now we have a very strong band that we are going to maintain. like this until they heal weeks months what would you like I have to see how they are doing I mean France it was only for another two days another two weeks we have to say jack about her he said you took his advice on the mitigation issue he You made the recommendation, you accepted it , you put it into practice while making the next decision, well, I'm not sure who really gave me the advice about the band. I think I followed, I think I followed my own advice, so man no.
Know social distancing. I'm talking about closure, okay, but not a trip of more than a foot of activity, so my question is: will you make the next decision, which you have said, may be the most difficult or important decision of your presidency. Will you assure the American people that you will again follow the advice of Dr. Copy's doctors. Burks, will you follow the advice of health experts before you know it and many other people too, but I will definitely follow their advice. Would you go? Would you help against their recommendation if they told you you needed another 15 or 30?
I don't think so. It would probably be because I think we're not far from being on the same page, yes, sir. President, one thing that Governor Cuomo said today is that states do not have the capacity to massively deal with nineteen tests before a reopening and they have to do it as much because diagnostic testing or equipment and federal health needs do as well. they will need. help but they are there they are on the ground they have local mayors local representatives they have people who do it and what we did last time is unprecedented we literally rebuilt the body of evidence we rebuilt an entire industry because we didn't inherit anything that we inherited from the previous administration it was totally broken, which someone should say eventually not only were the cupboards empty like I say, but we inherited failed tests now we have great tests.
I just left Abbott's top executives who would have thought that would have happened where it did. a big test is, in fact, what I'll do, I think, unless I have more questions for the Secretary of the Treasury, do you have anyone to see if anyone is for the secretary and treasurer? If there are tests for me, we can wait, that is the second time we have to go back to work for the secretary position. A question from one of my colleagues. He can't be in the room. They are curious about the SBA rule that prevents small casinos from getting some of this relief.
It's something you're seeing if there will be a change. She said no, not small casinos, but there are things like small taverns and restaurants that literally know little things about gaming, and we're going to offer additional guidance. about it,But I want to make it clear that these are not small casinos. The secretary knows that there was a letter that some House Republicans sent this weekend about quidity for mortgage servicers. Oh, sorry, can you explain what you're seeing on that front? I commented on this about a week ago. We had a subcommittee working group at F Sock that specifically studied this issue.
We have all the right people in it. Ginnie Mae automatically took some action. We've had conversations with the FHFA about what they do. We are going to do for Fannie and Freddie and we have said that to the extent that they need certain Treasury authorities, we will adapt to that, so we are very aware of the issue, frankly, we have been studying this issue long before Kovat and I was concerned that Some of these non-bank managers were not well capitalized, but we are fine, we are going to make sure that the market works correctly. Thank you, sir, we've seen in several of these relief bills that Democrats and Republicans have put forward. capable of driving different non-road related issues through our specific funding priorities.
Are you trying to maintain coronavirus-specific funding and then whether there are going to be other additions, for example a change in labor standards is something that many on the left when it comes to someone on the right are wondering if they should do that too. , if you should also press to know your preferred plugins. I think our expectation has always been that this is related to Kovac. Some people have a pretty broad view of what is related to Kovac because he has impacted almost everyone. One business, I mean, I think the president talked about the Kennedy Center, which is a good institution, obviously, that wasn't the top priority of the bill, but they got hit with issues related to Kovat, so know that the President has ordered that we want to be very specific in the next bill, its articles related to Kovat, the Kennedy Center, just so that you understand that that was done the way they wanted, that is, we had to agree in order to be able to do something to the workers, but we want this to be for the workers and for companies that employ the workers that is what we are looking for, we are not looking for superfluous nonsense, what did they argue at the time it was being discussed, but that was too damaging to the global economy?
I had nothing to do with the China Ban. I wasn't on the

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force

at the time, I'm not even sure I was. I think I was traveling at the time, but I never had any. I wasn't part of it. I became very active and after the China ban, but that. The New York Times report was not accurate. I was not tough in the work group at that time and was not involved. In fact, I think I'm riding with Senator Holly to get direct payments to employers to pay the people I've been laid off and to keep people on the payroll, does the administration support that being the PPP?
The PPP is basically sending money to small businesses, fifty percent of American workers to support those people. Hey, and it's the most efficient use of every dollar, like I said. We do it, it's a dollar less unemployment and more importantly we want those people to be associated with the companies so that as soon as the president is ready to open the economy, those companies are together, we don't want those companies fall. aside that's why this is such a successful program but he assisted on unemployment he said indirectly to the states, we would have preferred it to be sent directly to the people that the Democrats wanted to be sent through the unemployment system and you know, I told you about So we have 40-year-old teams in a lot of those systems that work with the state, but I heard they're pulling the money out and he said some of them are and some of the states aren't, and we recommend that you know that we're working with the states to try to upgrade their computers, but it's It's a long haul phase for Steve, phase four, come on, Steve, you said someone is president of the United States, his authority is total, that's not true, okay, you know if we go to write articles about this, it is not.
It's going to be necessary because the governor needs us in one way or another because ultimately he comes with a federal government, that being said, we get along very well with the governors and I'm very sure there won't be any problems, yes please . Go ahead, has any governor accepted that you have the authority to decide when your state? I haven't asked anyone because it's you know why because I don't have to move forward please please you mentioned the vice president's call with the governor today. Governor Hogan of Maryland has urged his administration to ask Congress for $500 billion to help stabilize budget deficits created by Corporate Governor Hogan himself.
We greatly appreciate Governor Hogan's statement as he said that attention is an ignored act by state government that fuels deficits. Do you see that request, mr. Boyd Worship said the Cares Act ignored budget shortfalls. Well, they're looking at things in phase four where they have, you know, where they're talking about states and they're also talking about hospitals, they're talking about states that have been hit and they're also talking about hospitals, so we're certainly willing to look at it in Congress and we will see what turns out, but they are talking about states and they are talking about hospitals that the governor of Moines, Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has.
On Thursday he signed an executive order prohibiting the sale of non-essential goods if other states have non-essential goods. She has banned the sale of non-essential goods. Many call this draconian unconstitutional. As president, do you think if other states followed her? For example, in the next few weeks intervene well, I don't think that's going to happen, I think it's very extreme, but she is doing it and I think it will be a long way before we have to start thinking about it too much, she is strong, It's a very It's a strong position to take, but they're making a lot of progress in Michigan, so let's see how it all works out.
Financing for the World Health Organization is established. We'll talk about that very soon, when we get a full report. I won't do it. happy with the World Health Organization not happy with the World Trade Organization or we have all been scammed and we have this country for so many years it has been scammed by everyone whether it is global health or global trade and they say I call them the Twins Bobbsey, you look at our country for years and years, we had people who did nothing about it, we are doing a lot about it, so we will have a report and we will also talk about the World Trade Organization, but we have made a lot of progress there and now we are winning cases for the first time because they know I will leave if they don't treat us fairly.
This country our country was at a point where we rarely if ever won lawsuits within the World Trade Organization, but now we are winning a lot because they know I'm not playing, we will withdraw if we have to, we just won a lawsuit for seven billion dollars which was a very good respective decision this week about cutting funds for itself, I would say that by the end of the week I will make a decision on that, there are a lot of things going on right now, a lot of things are happening in China, why are there no consequences for China?
No, there are no consequences for misinformation, we have been asking how you know there are no cuts. I wouldn't tell you that China we will discover. Why would I tell you worried because they still know that you started by saying why there is? no consequences why do you know how do you know there are no consequences? you will find out. I wouldn't tell you. You'd probably be the last person on earth I would tell to move on, mr. Vice President, do you agree with the President's statement and your understanding of federalism that the power of his is total life in a way that describes there anything that you would like to add or any context that you would like to have to wait?
I was discussing that I support the president's leadership under the national emergency declaration that he signed, we are before you today for the first time in American history all 50 states and territories have issued emergency declarations, this is an unprecedented time in the life of the nation and, fortunately, as presidents we reflect and our health experts will continue to reflect because the American people have paid attention to the president's coronavirus guidelines for the United States because the state governors have taken them and implemented them even in states where there was no significant outbreak and implemented additional measures as we provide them with data on cases and best practices we are making real progress as a country how about our most hopeful circumscribe today? well, make no mistake about it in the long history of this country the authority of the president of the United States during national emergencies is unquestionable plenary session and you can look back to times of war and other national emergencies and as you said the president, I will be happy to tell you that, but in the coming days what the president has charged us to do is work with our health experts, we are going to bring together an extraordinary group of American business leaders to advise the president and then Working with the CDC, we will produce new data-driven guidelines for every state and territory in this nation, give them guidance, and, as The presidents indicated, they will continue to respect the leadership and partnership we forged with every governor in the United States, but this It's an unprecedented time, but I have to tell you when you look at the fact despite the heartbreaking loss of more than 22,000 Americans and you look at the fact of what health experts told us it could be.
I think I can only feel a sense of gratitude to the American people, gratitude to the extraordinary team that has advised this president with the actions that President Trump has taken and the policies that the governors have adopted. implemented throughout the United States. I mean, today we were discussing in the task force that when you look at the European Union as a whole, they have almost three times the mortality rate as the United States of America and that is a tribute to our extraordinary healthcare. workers their dedication their tireless work, but it is also a tribute to the fact that the American people implemented the mitigation efforts that the president advised the nation to do on the advice of our best scientists more than a month ago and our hospitals They weren't I'm overwhelmed and I'm not overwhelmed right now and I have to tell you, standing here today, I couldn't be more proud to stand alongside this president and be a part of this team that has served the American people during this difficult hour. -I just told all Americans watching how we see the numbers leveling off and maybe even starting to go down.
I encourage you to continue doing what you are doing because of the sacrifices that Americans and American families have made. With these mitigation efforts you are saving lives and you are seeing our nation to this day. The states tell you that you have been talking to the governors enough. Those coalitions of states on the west coast and in the north, did they tell you? what they were going to announce before they announced him as governor phil murphy and the governor of Connecticut expressed today that they were going to talk about it and discuss at the regional level what their recommendations would be and we assure you today we showed them to you today In our conference call with I believe that 48 governors who were with us today for almost an hour and a half, we told them that what the president would be producing is aimed at being a true producer.
Additional guidance for states certified by the CDC that would inform those governors, local communities, and mayors about the best path forward based on the unique circumstances facing those states and those communities. I think what's clear is that the American people have seen the experience in Washington state, where this all really began for us, and in California and now the extraordinary challenges in the New York City metropolitan area, including New Jersey and Connecticut, the challenges in New Orleans, Louisiana and Detroit, still Chicago, parts of Houston, but they're also seeing that in each of those cases the mitigation efforts are really working, so we'll work with those, we'll work with those states and in some cases it makes a lot of sense for them to work together now that it was regionally based, but the president will be the president, sorry.
I didn't hear you ask a question, can you tell us if they let you know that Jerry was very threatening? Look, I'm not just DISA. The president said firmly that we heard it again today and what I think was our ninth conference call with the governor, I believe. all Americans would be proud to see the partnership this president hasforged with governors from all over the country. I mean, it's an extraordinary statement and you'll see some data when the Admiral's extraction object goes up in a few moments, but the flow of resources from around the world we have made progress in areas that have faced challenges.
I mean, this president has directed us to ensure that every state has what it needs when it needs it and the spirit that I heard again today from Republican and Democratic governors reflected that partnership and as we move toward the president's goal of reopening America, we hope the same type of partnership in the interest of the nation. Sir, please can you hear me through the mask early. Can the District of Columbia argue that they were defrauded in most cases? recent funding bill because they were treated as a territory instead of a state, that will be moved directly to phase four, well we are seeing that complaint, but the mayor seems to be very happy with everything she was doing, actually is and was in today I say very good things, okay, yes, go ahead and do that, yes, sir.
President, you talked about this being the most difficult decision you will have to make about whether to reopen the economy. I wonder how much the idea weighs on your mind that if there is a second way, you will have reopened the economy and you may have to shut things down again, that's the way it is and I hope that doesn't happen. I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but it weighs on my mind. Okay, basically, yes, thank you. A question for one of my colleagues who was not there. able to be here China deployed an aircraft carrier on Southern time and she, except China, saw this weekend amid claims by Chinese state media that Kovat has reduced US military preparedness in the region.
What kind of answers are you thinking of? Will you have an answer? to this action China has its own difficulties, we have a relationship with China and we are not happy with certain things that happened during the last period of time, as you know, you have been very explicit about it, but we know all about it and we know China . I've seen what they've done, we've seen a lot of other things they've done, both pro and con, and we'll be fine if you said they were forming the economic task force and then you thought the recommendations were happening sooner than expected, you want suggest it could be before May 1st when you start recommending?
I don't want to say that, but we'll be releasing guidelines and recommendations pretty quickly in a few days. it would be earlier, I'm not going to say it, but look, certain states are doing very well, certain parts of the country are doing very well, they are doing very well, so we will be releasing recommendations and guidelines very soon. Steve, your guidelines are where they fit in each area or would they be a uniform, you see, I don't want to tell you right now, but right now we have a very strong indication that we pretty much know that we have some good ideas that I want to pursue as well. we will have to have a video conference or at least the conference will be with a lot of very good people who have to do with certain fields, whether it is energy or entertainment and restaurants, etc., we have to get people back to restaurants.
What we have to do, whether it's deductibility or not, we'll see, but it should be deductibility. You will get them back so quickly. I mean, they used to have deductibility, the restaurant business, it was one of the most popular businesses and then they ended it. a long time ago, many years ago, but we may need that to get people back into restaurants please yes Michelle Obama behind me today foreign vote nationwide as a possible solution for the states , you said it should be a partisan issue, did your advisors tell you that? that's saving lives having right the EU absentee vote talking I don't know what massive scale because of the Quran Bible oh I don't know what he did I mean I didn't see that when did that happen today?
Yes, today she is part of what we have to play yes, sir. President: There is a bit of confusion about your phone calls yesterday with President Putin: the Kremlin says that you discussed current issues to ensure strategic security that were not referred to in the White House readout, can you enlighten us on a lot of things we discussed about China, we discussed a lot of different things, but we were mainly a call and oil, as you can imagine, and they were a big help in getting a stabilization of the price of the number of barrels, I think? the numbers will be closer to 20, maybe 15, but closer to 20, it will be 10 and I think that was a very important call.
I also spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia and that was a very important call and the bottom line. The line is OPEC plus, it's called OPEC plus because there are other states and other nations, we reached a very good agreement, so the part on strategic security was that I would say that mainly we were talking about China, we were talking about its borders and We were talking a little bit about our borders, our borders with Mexico because, as you know, Mexico was a big part of the agreement and Mexico really was a very complex agreement from Mexico's point of view, it was not an easy agreement for Mexico and the president who We appreciate. a certain amount of flexibility, but we talked about borders, we talked about China, we talked about Mexico, it's like, well, I mean, we talked about weapons, yeah, we did, that was a very important part of the call, actually, yes, good point, you said testing will be done.
Great, we know that they have these machines that have been sent to some of the governors, but what they were saying is that they haven't really cleaned the materials well, they have to get the material, you know, the governors have to get the material now. They can't understand it, they will see us talking about local governments. I'm talking about the governors having to get the material now that they have machines. In fact, we're going to go digest the microphone to get into it as soon as I can. Go away they have very powerful machines that they don't even know they have I'm not talking about Abbott I'm talking about the governor's they have machines that are used for this you know what I took you know what I mean They are very, very powerful machines, in a certain case In the United States, they only use 10% of their capacity and they didn't know it.
It turns out that John, in Illinois, those 15-minute tests that he sent out, these new ones that he had in the Rose Garden, they say, including Governor Sununu, they took the cartridges, they actually did the test, so are they going to get those cartridges? What do you think are increasing rapidly? It increases quickly so you quickly have other machines where they can actually work and many states have large machines that can do a lot of things. They didn't even know they had them. They didn't even know they had them. Mike is going to talk about that when you mentioned several weeks ago that Google was putting together. that website or that would handle drivers like and Apple, will you humbly give me an apple coke?
A lot of people don't like it from a constitutional rights standpoint. I mean a lot of people don't like it and some people think it's cool no they're working on it as I'm testing the most represented website on the Google website and it's just about copper and I think in five counties in California right now no booth is analyzing it, but Google is also working with Apple or Looking at something we have the largest companies in the world looking at things that within a year everything we are seeing now is going to be obsolete, so It's good that things are happening that are incredible.
I saw a presentation today. I can't talk about that yet, but it's incredible. Also, I think they're doing it Tony. I think he is doing very well with the vaccines. They are working hard on the vaccines and I believe they will have an answer for the vaccines. I think there are some great things coming up with that. Now you need a trial period, but you will have some great things. Please, Google and Apple are doing such different themes in the cabin. Now, this is Google and Apple. I don't know if it's a partnership or what, but they're working on something good, they're working on more than one element, they're working on a couple of different things.
Google and Apple. Google is also working on something, as you know. which has to do with testing, I think they are doing it in a unique way, so my question is not about the drive testing website, it is not okay on Google Apple contact tracing, they don't want to go out, now they have this process where they can put in You know, contactors, you have your phone, if you choose to sign up, you can get an alert if you've been in contact with some of the clarifyers, how are you feeling? Well, it's something incredible, but many people have something very big. constitutional problems with that, you know it's an amazing thing and actually it would be like you know other countries are thinking about using something similar but not as good.
I heard that Singapore is Singapore. Know? Singapore had a little bit of a setback because they had a break, you know, but they'll take care of it. I know the people in Singapore are doing a great job and will restore it very quickly, but Singapore and other countries are watching. other things and some countries are doing other things besides the Americans, some, I don't want to get into that because we have a whole constitutional issue, we have more of a constitutional problem than a mechanical problem, but we will make a determination on that. something we're going to discuss with a lot of people over the next four weeks, which would be a very accurate way to do it, but a lot of people have problems with it.
Yes, ask about the Lascaux test, maybe for Dr. Patchi too, can you talk about where the antibody test is? Well, it's moving forward. I think, kids, because I have to go. very incredible versions of this, but that's moving along the antibody test moving along very well, okay, plus kovat nineteen Kovac nineteen captain Crozier the reformer well, that's going through the Navy, as I understand it, the Navy is going to make decisions about all that and they had a pause. I don't think the ship should have stopped in Vietnam when there's a pandemic, to be honest, you know, I don't think the captain should have been writing letters.
He is not Ernest Hemingway as I said before. and he should have been writing letters and I don't think he doesn't know who gave the orders to stop in Vietnam, but they stopped in Vietnam and all of a sudden they got on and now you have over 500 sailors and people on board. The ships that are affected, I don't know whose idea it was, but it was not such a good idea in the middle of a pandemic on this question of constitutionality. I'm just wondering what changed your opinion because nothing changes, no, no, I know. exactly what you are going to say nothing changes the fact that I want to depend on the States or maybe I will or maybe I have done it and the fact that we have achieved it is one thing the fact that I do not want to use power is another thing look look at the point of view of the Constitution yes because you follow the tax you can look constitutionally you can look at federalism you can see it in another way John the fact that I do not want to exercise my power is very different that we have the power you as well as the federal government has the power the federal government has absolute power it has the power whether or not I use that power we'll see I prefer to stay John I prefer to work with the states because like going to a local government, that's why I guess now there are seven states, not eight , because South Carolina knew they moved away from what we discussed last time, so I looked to the individual states to do a very good job.
They are really doing a very good job. I would rather have made the decision now. The fact that I prefer to do it is fine, but I have the absolute right to do it if I want. I may not want to. We have a very good job. relationship, so we'll see what happens if you notice that the few states you're talking about all have Democratic governors, but if the governors are doing a good job and they control it better because you don't have anyone in Washington saying to set up a testing site in Deedle's parking lot of a Walmart and we are in Washington and they are in a state that is very far away, that's the way it should be and it always should have been and I've always said it was, but the relationship we have now with the states and the governors is very good and we will announce in the next short period of time exactly what we are going to do, well a couple of items, he is the presumptive one, do you have any plans yet for when you will do it? start sharing or when will the White House start sharing some of that information about the corona virus no, well, no one has a cold with the coronavirus from their point of view, look, they had the h1n1, which is the swine flu, and that was a great failure, they had a tremendous failure. a lot of failures and you take a look at what you take a look at history and you know that 17,000 people died and you talk about late, they were so late that they were late as if it had never existed, that was a big problem.
It also causes a lot of trouble for a lot of other people, so you know, if Joe Biden wanted a

briefing

, he would certainly give him a

briefing

. I don't know what he would do with it, yes please, or Jenna vodka to pour into it. new task force and how are you going to define what different councils or task task forces? Can you justexplain exactly what your position is? What is the White House Task Force that really got us to this point brilliantly? I have to say he dealt with governors and I dealt with governors all the time and I was on a lot of those calls and every call got better and better.
He was hostile at first when we broke up. I mean, the call today was a very good call, a very friendly call, I think. everyone is online and again, you don't have anyone driving you crazy saying they're not getting ventilators and they're not getting all the different things, they need more beds, they have a lot of beds right now and we always hear that I think it's important. We know that we always win in order to give more, even when we didn't think we didn't believe New York needed the beds they asked for, we didn't believe they needed the ventilators they asked for and we were right now. on ventilators we are ready for March I told you this we are ready for March with 10,000 ventilators we are ready to move them to any part of the country when we need them if we need them we are also building many ventilators and that will be used at some point.
I think you know that we will have reserves, including state reserves, if they want to reach some kind of agreement with us, but we will also help other countries, whether it is Italy, Spain or others. France is having a big problem, everyone desperately needs Germany they also need ventilators, so we are going to have a lot of ventilators, we have a lot, you heard the numbers, we have a lot for next week, we have a tremendous and it's okay. final question, see No, so we have in addition to that, we have several committees, we will have a transportation committee, we are going to have a manufacturing committee, you will see it tomorrow, we will also have a committee of religious leaders, we have a large group of religious leaders, We are having committees with religious leaders, they have been looking at what is happening with the churches and all that, and we are going to have a committee of religious leaders, and we are going to have some committees I will call them committees and then ultimately we will make decisions , so we're going to make decisions pretty quickly and I think they're going to have to be the right decision.
I hope so, Steve from the economic department. working group tomorrow, when do you want them to have recommendations soon and you know what I want? When we form, when you say for them, I don't have to give them instructions, these are very sophisticated people, these are the best people in their fields, so I would have to say, wow, we just met and we're meeting in two weeks and this This is what I said, this is what I want, we've already told you and that the best names in the various businesses and professions and religions, I mean, these are the biggest names, the people that I think probably know the best, so We have called them and we are going to talk to them very soon and we want them to have questions or statements that we want. that they have that for us and we will have an answer or maybe I want to say that the ideal is that we learn from them and we are able to do that and put them in our new guidelines so that they put everything that we learned from those calls in our new guidelines.
We will have new guidelines soon. I think it will be very good. I think it will be very simple and I hope it will be very safe. Thank you very much to all. Unfortunately, Shara has been a friend of mine for a long time. he's a great real estate person passed away he was a great real estate person a great great kind of legend in New York real estate. He called me a couple of weeks ago and said he had tested positive. Stanley was in his 80s, yes, and Stanley went to the hospital and he never came out, he went into a coma, he was unconscious for a long period of time and he never became a great man, he went away very charitable, really a great philanthropist. , a very, very successful person in Manhattan in the real estate business, so I got to know him a lot.
He was very excited when his friend from New York became president of the United States. He was like a child and he wasn't a child, but he was like a child. He was so excited that he thought. he would do a good job and he was very happy and he was very proud of what we have done in this administration, but he tested positive and unfortunately he didn't make it, he is versatile, he is a see, I think thank you all very much, thank you very much. Thank my Lord. . The president as president mentioned that today's task force spoke with 48 governors of the nation.
On that call, we reflected on the fact that all 50 states had emergency declarations in place, which was the first in American history. $5.2 billion had been distributed to states under the Stafford Act and it was a productive call

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