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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,713 posts)
Wed Apr 1, 2020, 01:58 PM Apr 2020

Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 03-31-20

PRESS BRIEFINGS

Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: April 1, 2020

March 31, 2020
5:30 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everyone. Our country is in the midst of a great national trial, unlike any we have ever faced before. You all see it. You see it probably better than most.

We’re at war with a deadly virus. Success in this fight will require the full, absolute measure of our collective strength, love, and devotion. Very important.

{snip}

Earlier today, I spoke with leading Internet and phone providers who are doing a tremendous job of keeping our Internet and lines of communication flowing under very strongly increased strain. The business is more than anybody has seen before, because everyone is inside. They’re all making calls.

Among the leaders I spoke to were Hans Vestberg of Verizon Communications, Randall Stephenson of AT&T, Mike Sievert of T-Mobile, Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, Brian Roberts of Comcast, John Malone of Liberty Media, Dexter Goei of Altice, Michel Combes of Sprint, and Aryeh Bourkoff of LionTree. Also, Pat Esser of Cox Communications and Jeffrey Storey of CenturyLink. They’re doing an incredible job.

If you look at other continents — if you look at Europe, they went a different route than we did, and much different route. We were talking about that just a little while ago. And they’re having tremendous problems. Other countries are having problems. Other continents are having problems.

But with business at a level that nobody has seen it before on the Internet, it’s holding up incredibly well, and they expect that to continue no matter what happened and no matter how much more it gains, which, if it can gain more than it already is, I don’t know, because they’re setting records.

{snip}

But with business at a level that nobody has seen it before on the Internet, it’s holding up incredibly well, and they expect that to continue no matter what happened and no matter how much more it gains, which, if it can gain more than it already is, I don’t know, because they’re setting records.

{snip}

And I spoke to some of my friends; they can’t believe what they’re seeing. And I watched the doctors and the nurses walking into that hospital this morning. It’s like military people going into battle, going into war. The bravery is incredible. And I just have to take my hat — I would take my hat — if I were wearing a hat, I’d rip that hat off so fast and I would say you people are just incredible. They really are. They’re very brave. They’re going in and they don’t know — you have — you have lots of things flying around in the air. You don’t know what you’re touching. Is it safe?

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: Mike, please.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President.

{snip}

Lastly, as the President highlighted yesterday, businesses around America are stepping up as never before. Tomorrow, I’ll travel with Secretary Sonny Perdue to Gordonsville, Virginia, to the Walmart distribution center, just so the American people can see firsthand how the food supply is continuing to roll on 18 wheels and through air freight all over America.

{snip}

Q Just to be clear, what is the projected death toll, should the people be reasonably good at following these mitigation measures?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they’re reasonably good, I guess we could say that — I’d like to have maybe Dr. Fauci or Deb come up and say. I mean, I have numbers but I’d rather have them say the numbers, if you don’t mind. It’s a big — it’s a big question.

{snip}

Q Mr. President —

Q Mr. President —

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, John.

Q If I could maybe direct a question to you and then to Dr. Fauci as well. We — you told us yesterday that you’re accomplishing — or the U.S., at least, is accomplishing 100,000 tests per day. But we’re still hearing difficult stories from the frontlines of first responders, who you praised so appropriately a little while ago, that they can’t test all of the people that they need to test. Do you have any kind of projection as to when everyone who needs a test will be able to receive one?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I can only say that we’re doing more than anybody in the world, by far. We are testing it — highly accurate tests. These are tests that work. As you know, many tests are being sent to countries, and they’re broken.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: We’re watching whatever happens around the world. We’re watching those trials very closely. Yeah.

Q Mitch McConnell had a line today. He was on —

THE PRESIDENT: Mitch?

Q Mitch McConnell. Yeah. He said that impeachment diverted the attention of the government. Do you think that, in any way? This was happening and building at the same time. Did it divert your attention or your team’s attention or the Vice President’s attention?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t like to think I did. I think I handled it very well, but I guess it probably did. I mean, I got impeached. I think, you know, I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it, right?

Q (Inaudible) the pandemic?

THE PRESIDENT: So, but think of it: It was a hoax. It was a total hoax. And when you think that I got impeached only because they had a majority in the House. They didn’t get one — they didn’t get one Republican vote — 196 to nothing. Not one Republican. It’s nev- — I don’t think it’s ever happened. The Republicans stuck together and they stuck together in the Senate — 52 to a half. A half.

So, you know, when you say that — yeah, I think it took a lot of — I see them going and saying about speed. Well, they probably illegally impeached me in the sense that, if you look at the FBI today — with what happened, the horrible things — nobody cares about that now because all they’re thinking about is the virus, and that’s okay with me.

But you look at the report that came out from IG Horowitz; it’s disgraceful what went on. It’s disgraceful. It’s a total disgrace. They got caught in the act. But you know what? We won’t talk about that now. Did it divert my attention? I think I’m getting A-pluses for the way I handled myself during a phony impeachment. Okay? It was a hoax.

But certainly, I guess, I thought of it. And I think I probably acted — I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached. Okay? And I think that’s a great tribute to something; maybe it’s a tribute to me. But I don’t think I would have acted any differently or I don’t think I would have acted any faster.

But the Democrats, their whole — their whole life, their whole being, their whole existence was to try and get me out of office any way they can, even if it was a phony deal. And it was a phony deal. And it turned out — and all you have to do is look today at the FBI reports. Take a look at what the FBI did. Take a look at the people. Take a look at Comey’s report — 78 pages of total kill. Take a look at that. Take a look at the report on McCabe. Just read it and you’ll see how horrible it was. And you know what? I don’t think this country is going to take it, if you want to know the truth.

Q Was there some call you would have had time to make? Is there — how did it take you out of the game?

Q What guidance are you offering to Florida when it comes to the two Holland America cruise ships that are seeking to dock here? Many are sick and —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, I’ll be speaking — I’m going to be spea- — in fact, he has a call in to me and we’ll be speaking to — we’ll be speaking to the governor and we’ll be speaking to him soon.

But there’s a case — we have two ships. There are people that are sick on the ship. And we don’t want to be — like, they’re going to be ghost ships. You know, people turn those ships away.

There was a ship, as you know, in a certain part of Asia, and, from port to port, nobody would take it. But in the meantime, you have people that are dying on the ship or at least very sick, but they’re dying on the ship.

Q So what is —

THE PRESIDENT: So, I’m going to — I’m going to — you know, I’m going to do what’s right, not only for us, but for humanity. I mean, these are two big ships and they have a lot of very sick people. And I’ll be speaking to — I’ll be speaking to the governor.

Let’s do just a couple of more back here. Yeah, go ahead please. We’ll get — we’ll get — go ahead please.

Q Thank you very much. I was hoping you could —

THE PRESIDENT: Do you ever run out of questions, you people? It’s the most unbelievable thing. You go through the room —

Q So —

THE PRESIDENT: But I have nothing else to do. So if you want us — I mean, if you want. Should we keep it going, John? I think so. Let’s goTHE PRESIDENT: We’re watching whatever happens around the world. We’re watching those trials very closely. Yeah.

Q Mitch McConnell had a line today. He was on —

THE PRESIDENT: Mitch?

Q Mitch McConnell. Yeah. He said that impeachment diverted the attention of the government. Do you think that, in any way? This was happening and building at the same time. Did it divert your attention or your team’s attention or the Vice President’s attention?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t like to think I did. I think I handled it very well, but I guess it probably did. I mean, I got impeached. I think, you know, I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it, right?

Q (Inaudible) the pandemic?

THE PRESIDENT: So, but think of it: It was a hoax. It was a total hoax. And when you think that I got impeached only because they had a majority in the House. They didn’t get one — they didn’t get one Republican vote — 196 to nothing. Not one Republican. It’s nev- — I don’t think it’s ever happened. The Republicans stuck together and they stuck together in the Senate — 52 to a half. A half.

So, you know, when you say that — yeah, I think it took a lot of — I see them going and saying about speed. Well, they probably illegally impeached me in the sense that, if you look at the FBI today — with what happened, the horrible things — nobody cares about that now because all they’re thinking about is the virus, and that’s okay with me.

But you look at the report that came out from IG Horowitz; it’s disgraceful what went on. It’s disgraceful. It’s a total disgrace. They got caught in the act. But you know what? We won’t talk about that now. Did it divert my attention? I think I’m getting A-pluses for the way I handled myself during a phony impeachment. Okay? It was a hoax.

But certainly, I guess, I thought of it. And I think I probably acted — I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached. Okay? And I think that’s a great tribute to something; maybe it’s a tribute to me. But I don’t think I would have acted any differently or I don’t think I would have acted any faster.

But the Democrats, their whole — their whole life, their whole being, their whole existence was to try and get me out of office any way they can, even if it was a phony deal. And it was a phony deal. And it turned out — and all you have to do is look today at the FBI reports. Take a look at what the FBI did. Take a look at the people. Take a look at Comey’s report — 78 pages of total kill. Take a look at that. Take a look at the report on McCabe. Just read it and you’ll see how horrible it was. And you know what? I don’t think this country is going to take it, if you want to know the truth.

Q Was there some call you would have had time to make? Is there — how did it take you out of the game?

Q What guidance are you offering to Florida when it comes to the two Holland America cruise ships that are seeking to dock here? Many are sick and —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, I’ll be speaking — I’m going to be spea- — in fact, he has a call in to me and we’ll be speaking to — we’ll be speaking to the governor and we’ll be speaking to him soon.

But there’s a case — we have two ships. There are people that are sick on the ship. And we don’t want to be — like, they’re going to be ghost ships. You know, people turn those ships away.

There was a ship, as you know, in a certain part of Asia, and, from port to port, nobody would take it. But in the meantime, you have people that are dying on the ship or at least very sick, but they’re dying on the ship.

Q So what is —

THE PRESIDENT: So, I’m going to — I’m going to — you know, I’m going to do what’s right, not only for us, but for humanity. I mean, these are two big ships and they have a lot of very sick people. And I’ll be speaking to — I’ll be speaking to the governor.

Let’s do just a couple of more back here. Yeah, go ahead please. We’ll get — we’ll get — go ahead please.

Q Thank you very much. I was hoping you could —

THE PRESIDENT: Do you ever run out of questions, you people? It’s the most unbelievable thing. You go through the room —

Q So —

THE PRESIDENT: But I have nothing else to do. So if you want us — I mean, if you want. Should we keep it going, John? I think so. Let’s go.

Q Would you clarify something for me, please? Andrew Cuomo, today, said that the system that you have, where governors are trying to get ventilators, “it’s like being on eBay with 50 other states bidding on a ventilator,” plus FEMA. And then you just said tonight, “They shouldn’t be doing that.”

THE PRESIDENT: You mean he was — he was complaining?

Q Well, he said —

THE PRESIDENT: Say it. Say it. What did he say exactly? What did say? Go ahead.

Q He said that when you have states competing for ventilators and medical care, “it’s like being on eBay with 50 other states bidding on a ventilator,” plus FEMA.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, he shouldn’t be complaining because we gave him a lot of ventilators. And if you take a look at the chart — it’s down — but I wish he got going a little bit sooner.

But we gave him a lot of ventilators. And you know what? He has a lot of ventilators. The problem is: With some people, no matter what you give, it’s never enough. It’s never enough. Like, they’ll say, “How’s Trump doing?” And you’re a Democrat. Some of them said, “Really good.” I’ll tell you, Gavin Newsom, from California — who is doing a good job, by the way — and others said, “Really good.”

But, you know, generally, your natural reflex — “How’s Trump doing?” You ask that question to a Democrat. “Uh, well, uh, we don’t like it.” “Oh, really? You don’t like it?” We’re getting very high marks. But I’m not doing this for marks; I’m doing this to save lives.

When John acted —

(Cross-talk.)

Wait. When John saw the numbers and when Jim saw those numbers, they’re shocking numbers. You know, you’re talking about deaths. Even at the low end, you were shocked when you see 100- and 120,000 and 200,000 people over, potentially, a very short period of time.

I want to save lives. I’m not doing this for any other reason. I want to save lives.

{snip}

Jim.

Q Back to your comments about what could have happened and — and the actions that you took. Is there any fairness to the criticism that you may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security —

THE PRESIDENT: No.

Q — when you were saying things like, “It’s going to go away” —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it is.

Q — and that sort of thing. But —

THE PRESIDENT: Jim, it’s going away.

Q But when you were saying it was going to go away —

THE PRESIDENT: It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.

Q But hasn’t your thinking on this evolved?

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, it is going — Jim, it is going away.

Q Hasn’t your thinking on this evolved? You’re taking this more seriously now.

THE PRESIDENT: I think, from the beginning, my attitude was that we have to give this country — I know how bad it was. All you have to do is look at what was going on in China. It was devastation. And all you have — look at the numbers from China, those initial numbers coming out from China.

But, you know, I read an article today, which was very interesting. They say, “We wish President Trump would give more bad news. Give bad news.” I’m not about bad news. I want to give people hope. I want to give people a feeling that we all have a chance. I mean —

Q But my —

THE PRESIDENT: — when — when you saw — when you saw the numbers and when John and all of you saw those numbers — and you’re saying, “120,000 people? You mean, that’s good?” A hundred thousand dead people within a short period of time. I want to give people a feeling of hope. I could be very negative. I could say, “Wait a minute, those numbers are terrible. This is going to be horrible.” This is a horrible thing.

Q Is it possible that people heard what you were saying —

THE PRESIDENT: Hey, Jim, this —

Q — last month and said, “Okay, let’s go to the beach, let’s go to the airport, let’s go down to Mardi Gras…”

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there were a lot of people —

Q “Let’s go do those things.”

THE PRESIDENT: There were a lot of people that could have said that. We didn’t say that. Fortunately, I didn’t say that. And that was an alternative. We talked about it. That was always an alternative. That’s what I said. “Let it rip, let it ride. Do nothing.” And we could have had 2.2 million dead people, more than that, because I didn’t do that.

And we did catch it early. And we stopped China really early, and we stopped Europe really early, because I saw what was happening. What — what happened is I stopped Italy, because Italy was really heavily infected. We started off with certain parts of Italy, then all of Italy, then we saw Spain. Then I said, “Stop Europe. Let’s stop Europe. We have to stop them from coming here.” Europe. I love Europe, but they were having problems.

I don’t think anybody did a better job than that, especially when you see the 2.2, million number. And I hope we’re going to be substantially under the numbers that you’re looking at on the minimum side. Then I think we will have — hey, look, it’s still tremendous death.

Q You weren’t just hoping that it would dissipate, that this would disappear.

THE PRESIDENT: I want to be positive. I don’t want to be negative. I have to — I’m a positive person. Somebody said, “Oh, I wish he’d be more negative.” They literally have that; it’s in one of the wonderful newspapers today. “I wish he’d be more negative.” Well, this is really easy to be negative about. But I want to give people hope too. You know, I’m a cheerleader for the country. We’re going through the worst thing that the country has probably ever seen.

Look, we had — the Civil War, we lost 600,000 people, right? Here’s the thing: Had we not done anything, we would have lost many times that. But we did something, and so it’s going to be, hopefully, way under that. But, you know, we lose more here potentially then you lose in World Wars as a country. So there’s nothing positive, there’s nothing great about it, but I want to give people in this country hope. I think it’s very important.

Q So you knew it was going to be this severe when you were saying, “This is under control” and —

THE PRESIDENT: I thought it could be. I knew everything. I knew it could be horrible and I knew it could be maybe good. Don’t forget, at that time, people didn’t know that much about it, even the experts. We were talking about it. We didn’t know where it was going. We saw China, but that was it. Maybe it would have stopped at China. We wish we could have killed it in China, but it didn’t happen. It started spreading to Europe. It started spreading here. It started spreading all over.

But — and I’m not blaming anybody. I’m just saying that we have an incredible thing. I think the people — our professionals, our military, our governors, our politicians — I think they’ve done an incredible job. I mean, with few exceptions, I think they’ve done an incredible job. But I don’t want to be a negative person. It’d be so much easier for me to come up and say, “We have bad news. We’re going to lose 220,000 people and it’s going to happen over the next few weeks.”

And with that, I did start off by saying today, long before this question, I said, “This is going to be a rough two or three weeks. This is going to be one of the roughest two or three weeks we’ve ever had in our country. We’re going to lose thousands of people.”

When I see 28, 29 people from the governor of New Jersey — 29 people. When you see 173 people died in New York yesterday — or whatever the number was; I think it was more than that. When you see the kind of numbers that we’re witnessing, we’ve never seen numbers like that. So, it’s easy to be negative. And then everybody can be negative, but I’m a cheerleader for our country and I want it to do a great job so the number can be kept — and I’ve always said it: I want as few a number of people to die as possible. And that’s all we’re working on.

Q I know you don’t — you don’t like the question, but are you now taking responsibility —

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t mind the question.

Q Do you — do you mi- —

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t mind the question. I think it’s actually —

Q Are you now taking responsibility for how things go from this point forward?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it’s not meant to be. Look, I know you well enough, so it’s not meant to be a fair question, but it is a fair question. I think we’ve done a fantastic job.

Q Actually, it’s meant to be a fair question. I —

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, fine, I’ll — I’ll accept your word. Look, Jim, I think we’ve done a great job. We’re going to see how it comes out. But when you look at minimal numbers of 120,000 people, when you look at it could have been 2.2 million people died and more if we did nothing — if we just did nothing, it would’ve gone up and it would’ve come down. As per your statement, it would have been confined. It would have been a similar time, maybe even less time. It would have been violence like we’ve never seen in this country before.

We had great professionals, great military, really great governors and politicians. I cannot say enough about what’s going on. And as per what you said, I think we’re way ahead of schedule, in terms of numbers. I think. I hope. But if we can keep it under the minimum numbers, the country is doing — not me — the country has done a great job. But I think I’ve done a really good job of mobilizing. I think Mike Pence has been fantastic. I put him in charge of the task force. We have wonderful people on the task force, Jim. Wonderful people.

They’re — this man was working, literally — he had days where he didn’t go to bed. He didn’t go to sleep. He called — he went 24 hours and then started the next day. People don’t know the job he did. I didn’t even know he was that good of a manager, to be honest with you — Mike, okay? And, you know, you never know that about somebody until they’re tested under fire. But he saw it very early also. We both did.

They saw it very early. They knew pretty soon — they probably knew sooner than anybody because that’s what they study, that’s what they do. Must be a depressing business, right? Must be a little bit depressing, but they’ve — they’ve seen it all.

Go ahead, John.

{snip}

Q One more. I have one more, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: All right, go ahead. How about over here?

Q I got a follow-up on the masks, sir. But, first, you had mentioned Franklin Graham earlier —

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q — talking to him. As you know, his father, Billy Graham, was a trusted spiritual advisor and friend to many presidents. A lot of your predecessors, in times of national emergency, reached out to pastors and other spiritual counselors. Have you done that during this national emergency?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I never say that, but Franklin Graham is somebody that’s very special. I have many very special people. And very many special — in the evangelical — evangelical Christian community. You can talk rabbis, you can talk a lot of — you know, I have tremendous support from religious leaders. And Franklin Graham, I just spoke to him today for an extended period of time. I told him what a fantastic job you’re doing. And he does this; he loves doing it. He loves helping people. And he loves Jesus — that, I can tell you. He loves Jesus. He’s a great gentleman.

Go ahead.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead.

Q So, under some of the worst-case scenarios, there is a real scarcity problem if you’ve given out, say, 7,000 ventilators and we got 10,000 around. So I’m just curious, who is — who signs off on those life and death decisions before GM and Ford ramp up?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I would say —

Q Who’s going to sign off on that?

THE PRESIDENT: — Mike Pence, myself, the head of FEMA, some of our generals that are working, that are doing an unbelievable — you know, we have generals that are working that are unbelievable talents, unbelievable leaders. And it’ll go through one of three or four people, if it comes down to that. And I hope it doesn’t come down to that because I think we’re very well equipped.

And it’s an honor to be here tonight. I appreciate it. I appreciate your interest. I think there is a great interest in it. And we’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you very much.

END

7:41 P.M. EDT
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