Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, mr. President , for being here today as comfort prepares to set sail for new york. On behalf of the men and women of the department of defense, i want to thank you for your leadership during these difficult times. You should know, mr. President , that the United States military is all in on this national emergency, and the great sailors and medical professionals on this tremendous hospital ship are eager to get underway and start their very important mission. As the nation aggressively responds to the coronavirus pandemic, the department of defense is focused on three priorities. First, protecting our Service Members, civilians, and their families. We are committed to taking all necessary measures to safeguard the wellbeing of our most important resource, our people. Second, remaining prepared to carry out our Core National security missions, and to defend the United States against any threat. And third, continuing to support President Trumps response to the coronavirus. For several weeks, the department of defense has been surging personnel, capabilities and equipment to help slow the spread of the virus. Thousands of National Guard troops are mobilized across the country conducting a variety of essential tasks ranging from planning to logistics to medical support. Activeduty units are moving critical supplies and equipment and medical personnel to some of the nations most heavily heavilyimpacted areas. The departments worldclass doctors and scientists are at the forefront of Infectious Disease research working , alongside our government and private sector efforts to facilitate a vaccine and therapeutics for this virus. And now, in this great time of need, the president has directed the deployment our nations most powerful symbols of medical care and compassion, the navys two hospital ships, the mercy and the comfort. Both ships have a tremendous history of humanitarian assistance and have provided care for people throughout the world. This exceptional legacy continues as they now take care of their fellow americans. The skilled medical professionals who will set sail on the comfort will play a Critical Role in freeing up capacity and hospital beds in the new york area. I would like to thank them for their sacrifices and for their commitment to the wellbeing of the American People. Finally, i would like to thank President Trump for his bold leadership and support to the men and women of the United States armed forces. This is an unprecedented time for our nation and your leadership, mr. President , is uniting the American People to defeat this virus. I am confident we will get through this together. We will prevail. Thank you, and it is my honor to welcome the president of the United States and our commanderinchief, president donald trump. President trump thank you very much. You are doing a fantastic job. And our country appreciates it very much. Thank you, everybody, for being here. I am deeply honored to be at naval station norfolk, the Largest Naval base anywhere in the world and the home to the most powerful fleet that has ever sailed the seas. I just passed some of the most beautiful and the most highly highlylethal ships i have ever seen in my life. And there were a lot of them. And they are in better shape now than they have been for many decades, with what we are doing. We are grateful to be joined by commander of the u. S. Fleet forces admiral Christopher Grady and commander of the u. S. Second fleet, vice admiral wayne lewis. Thank you both for being here. As we gather today, our country is at war with an invisible enemy. We are marshaling the full power of the american nations , medical scientific and military to vanquish the virus, and we will do that. Today, i am here to express my profound gratitude to the dedicated Service Members who will soon be on the front lines of this fight. In a few moments, the crew of the Navy Hospital ship usns comfort, which is really something, will embark to new york city, where they will join the ranks of tens of thousands of amazing doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who are battling to save american lives. This great ship behind me is a 70,000 ton message of hope and solidarity to the incredible people of new york, a place i know very well, a place i love. We are here for you and we are fighting for you and we are with you all the way, and we always will be. You have the unwavering support of the entire nation, the entire government, and the entire American People. After being rushed out of maintenance with historic speed, it was supposed to be here for four weeks and they did it in four days, the comfort will arrive at pier 90 in manhattan on monday, three weeks ahead of schedule. Its crew will begin treating patients on tuesday. It will be met in new york harbor by governor cuomo. I just spoke with him. He is very excited, and they need the help. The skilled sailors and civilian mariners aboard this ship will provide a critical Surge Capacity for the new york metropolitan area. Their mission will be to care for new yorkers who do not have the virus but who require urgent care. In other words, people will be coming out of hospitals who dont have the virus and they will be on the ship, where they have great operating rooms and great facilities, and places inbound on land will be where people with the virus will be. The virusple with will not be on the ship. The ship will be used for people pending operations and other things other than that. By serving these emergency patients away from the hospital, beds will be opened up all over the city for those who are infected. This ship can handle a lot of people, so it will open capacity all over the city. And it will be ready to address any lifethreatening medical emergencies. It is stocked to the brim with equipment and medicine and everything you can think of. Importantly, by treating noninfected patients remotely on the ship, it will help to halt very strongly the transmission of the virus. The comforts sister ship on the the usns mercy, arrived ahead of schedule in , port yesterday. Governor gavin newsom was very thankful for it. It is performing a similar mission for the people of los angeles and the people of california. As the usns comfort gets underway, it is fully loaded with 12 operating rooms and they are fully equipped. 1000 hospital beds, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, optometry lab, radiology, cat plantso oxygenproducing , and a helicopter deck which will be used very actively. It also bears our militarys greatest weapon of all a crew of nearly 1200 outstanding members of the United States navy. I thank them very much. Among the sailors departing today are some of the finest doctors, nurses, technicians, orderlies, and medical staff anywhere in the world. These are true professionals. And no one performs better under pressure when lives are on the line. These are incredible people. We will stop at nothing to protect the health of new yorkers and the health of the people of our country in their hour of need. I also want to remind everyone about the cdcs latest guidance. If you are from the new york metropolitan area and you travel elsewhere, we need you to selfquarantine for 14 days to help us contain the spread of the virus. And i am now considering, and will make a decision very quickly, very shortly, a quarantine, because it is such a hot area, of new york, new jersey, and connecticut. We will be announcing that one way or another fairly soon. This does not apply to people such as truckers from outside the new york area who are making deliveries or transiting through. It will not affect trade in any way. The army corps of engineers and fema are racing to build temporary hospitals which are now completed, by the way, in record time. Four hospitals, four medical centers, and in speaking with the governor this morning, we are giving them an additional four large tents which they need very badly. The emergency medical stations in new york are topoftheline. You have them not only in new york but in california and , illinois. We will be adding some to other states also. I have empowered the nations governors with the resources to call up the National Guard and authorized the activation of ready reserves. Two big words, ready reserves. Fema has delivered 11. 6 million n95 respirators, 26 million surgical masks, 5. 2 million face shields. We have millions and millions of new medical items being made as we speak, and purchased. 4. 3 million surgical gowns, 22 million gloves, and 8100 ventilators. We have moved rapidly to mobilize every instrument of american power. This week, i invoked the defense production act to compel General Motors to carry out federal contracts for ventilators, and i think they are going to do a great job. I have to say that. We are also working with the major Ventilator Companies in the United States, all big named companies. All companies that do ventilators, so they wont need extra time, and they are gearing up and they will be working 24 hours around the clock. And they have been. They have been doing a fantastic job to accomplish an historic rampup, and a rampup in the kind of numbers we are talking about. And if we made too many, that will be ok because i spoke with the Prime Minister of the u. K. Yesterday, boris johnson, he tested as you know positive. And before i even was able to get a word out of him, he said, i said, how are you doing, and he said, we need ventilators. The u. K. Needs ventilators. A lot of countries need ventilators badly. It is a tough thing to make. It is a very complicated and expensive piece of equipment. Would say more so than a car you are talking about expensive, complicated equipment. So i hope we will soon have enough that we can help other countries with ventilators. A lot of countries need them. In the next 100 days, america will make more acquire three times more ventilators than we do in an entire year. We are geared up. At boeing, ford, and honeywell , 3m, haynes and other Great American companies, factory floors and manufacturing lines are being converted to produce the respirators protective , masks, face shields, and other vital equipment. And those companies have been amazing. Boeing is giving us their cargomoving planes and we are going to be using that to ship certain types of equipment to various states. Hundreds of millions of americans are also making tremendous sacrifices on the home front. In a historic drive to support our great workers and businesses i signed into law the single ,largest Economic Relief package in american history. You saw that yesterday. The 2. 2 trillion, think about that, but it goes to 6. 2 trillion depending on what we decide. This legislation delivers Job Retention loans for Small Businesses to help them keep workers on payroll, extended unemployment benefits, and direct Cash Payments to american citizens. These are very substantial payments. A family of four will be getting approximately 3400. This legislation provides massive increases in funding to our hospitals who need it, for disaster relief, and critical lifesaving medical supplies. We are spending a tremendous amount of money on medical supplies. We are trying to get it to the point needed directly as to as opposed to our supply lines, so it can go directly to where they need it without having to go through a long process. I dont want to say bureaucratic , because this group of people has worked incredibly hard and the energy and the speed with which they are delivering everything has been admired by everybody. Everybody is talking about it. My administration has also taken action to suspend federal student loan payments. So we are suspending in every sense of the word student loan payments, so that the students not able to take advantage of what is going on, obviously for obvious reasons, the payments will be suspended. We have temporarily stopped federal evictions and foreclosures. We postponed tax day until july, which is a big thing. First time that has happened. And waived regulations to speed new treatments to the markets. And we have new treatments coming on rapidly. We are doing very well with very,e, and we are doing very well with, hopefully or potentially cures. , we are looking at a lot of different alternatives and medicines. That would be a game changer. The battle in which we are now engaged has inflicted many hardships on our nation and our families, tremendous hardship on much deathes, and much death. ,but through it all, the world has witnessed the unyielding resolve of our incredible American People. We are not only a country of vast resources, we are a nation of colossal strength, towering spirit, soaring patriotism and you are showing it to the entire world. At this moment, there are 151 countries throughout the world that are under attack by this horrible, invisible enemy. 151 countries. And we are in touch with a lot of them. Our professionals are the best in the world. But who would ever think 151 countries are under attack . We are one family bound together by love and loyalty, the eternal traits embodied so perfectly by those aboard the ship and the men and women at this beautiful scenic, but really tough, base. This base is something thank you, very much this base is something very, very special. With the courage of our doctors and nurses, with the skill of our scientists and innovators, with the determination of the American People, and with the grace of god, we will win this war and we will win this war quickly with as little death as possible. And when we achieve our victory, this victory, your victory, we will emerge stronger and more united than ever before. Ofare going to be at a level preparedness, in case Something Like this should never happen again, and god willing it wont, but we are prepared. Prepared. We are now the number one tester anywhere in the world by far. Dayre testing more in one than other countries are testing in weeks or months we have learned a lot in weeks or months. We have learned a lot. And i cant be more thankful to the American People. I can say this from the bottom tomy heart, i am very proud be your president. Thank you very much, and god bless you, all. Thank you very much. [foghorn] anchors aweigh being played] in in putin played]s aweigh being hell of our livess any coverage of the government response to the coronavirus outbreak, watch any time at fromn. Org coronavirus, daily briefings from the White House Coronavirus task force to daily briefings from governors. Use the map to confirm cases in the u. S. County by county. Our coronavirus webpages your fast and easy way to watch cspans unfiltered coverage of this pandemic. A reporter who is working in louisiana right now to see if we can find out more about what is going on on the ground. We will go to jeff