Trump's Remarks on Delivering Lower Prescription Drug Prices for All Americans; November 20, 2020

[mahatmakanejeeves]

REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump on Delivering Lower Prescription Drug Prices for All Americans

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: November 20, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

2:38 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. This is a very big announcement — the biggest ever, concerning drugs and drug pricing. So, today, I have to tell you it’s a great honor for me to announce that my administration is issuing two groundbreaking rules to very dramatically lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people, especially for our cherished seniors.

We’re pleased to be joined on this occasion by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma. Thank you both. Thank you both. And thank you all for being here. Appreciate it.

{snip}

Big pharma ran millions of dollars of negative advertisements against me during the campaign — which I won, by the way. But, you know, we’ll find that out. Almost 74 million votes. We had big pharma against us. We had the media against us. We had big tech against us. We had a lot of dishonesty against us.

But big pharma alone ran millions and millions of dollars in ads. In fact, I looked at it, and I said, “Who is it? Are they — I’ve never seen anything quite like it.” Because I told them, “I’m going to have to do this.” You know, I was put here to do a job. And Pfizer and others were way ahead on vaccines. You wouldn’t have a vaccine, if it weren’t for me, for another four years because FDA would’ve never been able to do what they did — what I forced them to do.

And Pfizer and others even decided to not assess the results of their vaccine; in other words, not come out with a vaccine until just after the election. That’s because of what I did with favored nations and these other elements, instead of their original plan to assess the data in October. So they were going to come out in October, but they decided to delay it because of what I’m doing, which is fine with me, because frankly, this is just a very big thing. A very big thing. What I’m doing here — I don’t know if anybody is going to appreciate it. These people can’t even believe it. Alex, even you can’t believe it, can you? Look at you.

So they waited and waited and waited. And they thought they’d come out with it a few days after the election. And it would’ve probably had an impact. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn’t have. I’m sure they would’ve found the ballots someplace — the Democrats and the group.

These corrupt games will not deter us from doing what is right for the American people. And I will always put American patients first, and I think it could never be shown better than what I’m doing today.

{snip}

Secretary? Go ahead, please.

SECRETARY AZAR: Well, thank you, Mr. President. What an extremely exciting day for American healthcare. On top of the news that you just made, today, Pfizer will be filing an application for an emergency use authorization with the FDA for their COVID-19 vaccine that appears to be 95 percent effective. Within weeks, we could have a decision from FDA, and within 24 hours of that, we will have started distributing millions of doses of safe and effective vaccine to begin protecting our most vulnerable across America.

{snip}

Thank you so much, Mr. President, for making today possible.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Alex, very much. Thank you.

Seema, please.

ADMINISTRATOR VERMA: Masks and hoop earrings don’t work well. (Laughter.)

{snip}

And so I want to thank the President for being a problem solver, willing to be — to think big and to act boldly on behalf of the American patients. His record of success over the last four years is a testimony to that mentality.

Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Seema. Thank you very much.

END

3:00 P.M. EST

[secondwind]

1. "Our cherished seniors." He's such a terrible liar....

He’s the reason tens of thousands of seniors are dead and buried all across this nation.

[Harker]

2. "...and to act boldly on behalf of the American patients"?

There's a typical clunker.