Yet really have a strategic plan. They have little pieces that are supported by some republicans and thats part of the difficulty. But were making progress. Answer President Trump gave an update on the legislation being negotiated on capitol hill. President trump hello, everybody. Thank you very much. Let me begin by sending americas deepest sympathies to the people of lebanon, where reports indicate that many, many people were killed. Hundreds more were very badly wounded in a large explosion in beirut. Our prayers go out to all the victims and their families. The United States stands ready to assist lebanon. We have a very Good Relationship with the people of lebanon and we will be there to help. It looks like a terrible attack. I also want to provide the latest on Tropical Storm isaias. Approximately 600,000 are without power along the east coast. And Utility Companies are working around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible. I spoke to governor cooper, i spoke to Governor Desantis and i spoke to all of the people at fema and theyre working very hard. Coastal areas in the storms path can expect to see the storm surge and rip currents, while inland areas could see flooding and very, very high winds. Fema is responding to states that have requested the assistance. We have a list of those states. We can give them to you in a little while. My administration is monitoring the situation very closely. We have the military on guard, but fema is there in all cases. Corps of engineers is ready if needed. The army corps of engineers. Very talented people. I urge everyone in the storms path to remain alert and to follow the guidance of your state and local authorities. I now want to update you on the i now want to update you on the path forward having to do with the china virus. To give do that, i want you some numbers which are rather spectacular, that just came out. The Manufacturing Index of the institute for supply management, thats i. S. M. , most of you know it by i. S. M. , increased for the third month in a row, rising nearly two points in july to 54. 2. That was fantastic. The highest rating since march of 2019. This is remarkable considering the survey was conducted throughout july and showed significant improvement, despite the southwest in particular virus hot spots. The i. S. M. Measures and its a very strong measure of new orders rose five points in july to 61. 5. And its highest rating, that would be since september of 2018, thats a big number. Since the april low, new orders are up over 34 points, which is the largest increase in the history of the i. S. M. , dating back all the way to 1948. So 34 points, thats the largest since 1948. Similarly, the i. S. M. s measure of production is up 35 points from its april low, to a reading of 62. 1, which is the largest threemonth gain in over 70 years. Thats some number. These were somewhat surprising. But ive been saying, were doing well and those numbers are really spectacular. Automobile sales, likewise, are a key factor in the resurgence of manufacturing. Since the march low of 8. 8 million units, with sales and all of the numbers that are going up stunningly, its 65 increase since then. To 14. 5 million units, which is a massive number. The great strength and great news is really for states like, in particular michigan and ohio, south carolina, pennsylvania, very good, florida, little bit. These are great numbers. Recordsetting numbers. The strength in new car sales is also evident in the used car market where soaring demand, literally soaring demand is putting upward pressure on the used car prices. This is a leading indicator of the Motor Vehicle industry. The need to restock depleted shelves will further galvanize the factory sector and we think very substantially based on the numbers. Were very, very happy with these numbers. And i think most people are anywhere from surprised to shocked by these numbers. In a very positive way. Economywide, inventories crashed at a near 320 billion annualized rate last quarter. Thats a good thing, not a bad thing. Homebuilder sentiment likewise is soaring, as are home sales. Sentiment is now higher than last year and new homes recently made a 13year high. So we have a 13year high in new home, new home construction. New Business Applications are very strong, that just came out. The widely followed atlanta fed g. D. P. Its something that they have just come out with now, forecast the new data point and incorporates it into quarterly estimates. It looks like its showing 20 annualized growth in the current quarter. So 20 in the current quarter, well take that all day long. Well see if thats right. The atlanta fed, very respected. The virus, back to that. We are continuing to monitor and monitor particular hot spots across the south, southwest and the west. And were seeing indications that our strong mitigation efforts are working very well, actually. Especially to protect those who are most at risk, which is really has been our primary focus, ever since weve gotten to understand this horrible, horrible plague thats been unleashed on our country by china. As of yesterday, cases are declining in 70 of the jurisdictions, compared to 36 last monday. Thats a big, big number. 11 out of 13 states with the positive rate above 10 have seen a decline in daily cases since mid july. In other states, the data suggests that the need for continuing vigilance always is strong, even though the numbers are getting very good. States that have a test Positivity Rate between 5 and 10 , and in the states with the lowest Positivity Rates, we also see slight increases in daily cases, in a couple of them. We must ensure these states do not become new flareups. Were watching them very, very closely. Fortunately thanks to substantial improvements in treatment and the knowledge we have gained about the disease itself, the recent rise in cases has not been accompanied by a significant increase in deaths. Fatalities nationwide are at roughly half the level of the april peak. So the death, the number of deaths or fatalities are at half the level. One is too much. One death. Because it should have never happened to us. It should have been stopped very easily by china, in wuhan. Thanks to our major advances in treatment, weve seen vast improvements in recovery rates across all age groups, compared to april, mortality rates are 85 lower among individuals aged 18 to 69. And 70 lower among individuals over 70 years old. Weve also made significant strides in sheltering those at highest risk, especially the elderly. Approximately 85 of all current cases are individuals under the age of 65. Just getting some very accurate numbers on this. And these are people who are generally at a much lower risk of complications. Since the pandemic began, nearly half of all fatalities have been at Nursing Homes or assisted living centers. Thats an incredible statistic when you hear that number. This data underscores that the best path forward is an aggressive strategy focused on protecting americans at highest risk. As we race toward the development of a vaccine, we must continue to take extraordinary precautions to shield the elderly and were doing that, were doing that at a level that weve never even dreamt possible. Both with testing and with common sense. And those with underlying conditions especially, the elderly with the underlying, whether its heart or diabetes, those seem to be the two most prominent conditions that cause tremendous problems, while allowing those at lowest risk to carefully return to work and to school. Where embers flair up, we must engage immediately and thats what were doing. This is the sciencebased approach and its good with us. Working very hard on that. Extended lockdown would fail to target resources at the highest risk populations, while inflicting massive economic pain, long lasting damage on society and Public Health as a whole. So there wont be lockdowns but we watch specific areas, were very careful and were putting out embers, were putting out flames. When you look at whats happening with miami and its going the numbers are going down. But floridas going down very significantly. Texas and california are going down. Rather significantly. On telemedicine, as we discussed the last time, and as i said numerous times during this day, its an incredible thing thats happening. A central part of our effort to protect the elderly is to greatly expand access to telehealth. So seniors can be treated from the safety of their homes. Thats whats happening. The number of Medicare Beneficiaries using telehealth increased from roughly 14,000 a week to nearly 1. 7 million. So from 14,000 to 1. 7 million per week in total. 10 million Medicare Beneficiaries have accessed Telehealth Services since the pandemic began. Thats a tremendous thing thats happened with telehealth. As we shelter those at highrisk, we are also pouring every resource at our disposal into the development of therapies and vaccines. Two vaccine candidates are currently in the final stage of Clinical Trials, with several more vaccine candidates entering phase iii in the coming weeks and youve read and seen whats happened today. Todays news was very exciting. Through operation warp speed, were also mass producing all of the most promising vaccine candidates and were determined to have a vaccine very quickly. Were going to have something very soon. We have great companies. These are among the greatest companies in the world. But right now they dont like me so much because im forcing them to drop drug prices, Prescription Drug prices, very massively. Some of these companies are involved in that. Some of them arent. Were having a tremendous youll see a tremendous drop in price. Were using favored nations. Were using the rebates, were using everything. So long ive heard about how wealthy the middlemen are. They call them the middlemen. And they are very wealthy. Nobody even knows who they are. But theyre very wealthy people. And were doing the rebates, were doing purchases from other countries like canada, which buys drugs for much less money than the United States is allowed to under a very bad system. I dont call it archaic, i call it bad, because its meant really for Drug Companies to get higher prices. But under the system of matching that we have, if germany has a pill for 10 cents and ours is 2, were allowed to say, we want favored nations and we want the pill for the same. The same is the lowest country in the world. If they sell to one country lower than anybody else, thats the price were going to get. Drug companies arent too happy about that. Big pharma. Weve also dramatically accelerated the availability of plasma therapies, steroid treatments, antivirals and other therapies to treat the illness. Today the n. I. H. , very exciting, announced theyre beginning the trial of two new antibody treatments which will take place in 40 cities across the country. Going to move very quickly. Results look very good already. Incredible results. More than 230 Clinical Trials with potential treatments are under way and weve secured 500,000 courses of treatment for remdesivir. Were really doing a job with it and its helping a lot of people. Thats why you see the fatalities and mortality numbers looking very good, relatively speaking, that is. But thats for hospitals through the month of september. So we have that drug at a very high level. For hospitals. Through the month of september. Thats big news. The United States also is far and away the most robust Testing Capacity in the world. Testing has been incredible, what weve been able to do. Nobodys even close. Since march 12, weve increased daily testing by 32,000 . Hows that . 32,000 . Somebody would say, that must be a typo. Its not. 32,000 . We now have conducted over 61 million tests nationwide. Averaging over 820,000 tests per day. And nearly five million tests per week and now that were understanding the virus, were understanding very much what were doing with respect to who it effects, who its destroying and who gets away with it, like young people, very young people, well be having some interesting statements having to do with testing and focused testing. I call it focused testing. By comparison, mexico, so were doing numbers that are incredible. But by comparison, mexico, as you know, the president is a great guy, but their numbers are much different. They do about one million tests. France has done 2. 9 million tests. Canada is around the four million mark. Australia is around the four million mark. The United States is testing more people in a single week than in many cases large segments or large wellknown countries all put together. Its been an amazing achievement, the testing. And the quality of the testing also. And now were doing testing where you can have results in five minutes and seven minutes and 15 minutes. As opposed to waiting to come back from labs, for it to come back from labs. Over the next several weeks, h. H. S. Has opened surging testing sites in baton rouge, new orleans, phoenix, miami, jacksonville, florida, mcallen, texas, bakersfield, california. And this week were opening new surge sites in houston, texas, atlanta. To date, more than 130,000 tests have been conducted at these sites. Last week the f. D. A. Also authorized the first two tests that display an estimated quantity of antibodies present in the individuals blood, which is a big deal, allowing us to learn more about the immune response. Fema and h. H. S. Has worked with the private sector to deliver more than we have new numbers, more than 200 million n95 masks, 855 million surgical masks, 36 million goggles, and face shields, 364 million gowns and coveralls and 21 billion gloves, billion. Can you believe that . Billion gloves. And we distribute that to the governors of different states and when we get on the phone with them, theyre very happy, that i can tell you. No complaints from any of them. Theyre very, very happy. What they say to you separately maybe will change for political reasons but they are very happy with the job weve done. In our national stockpile, weve tripled the number of n95 masks on hand. To more than 40 million, tripled the number of gowns to 15 million and quadrupled the number of ventilators to nearly 70,000. These numbers are growing every day and were now making thousands of ventilators, many thousands of ventilators a month and were getting them to other countries who are desperately in need of ventilators. Theyre very hard to produce. Theyre very complicated machines. So were fully stocked here and weve made sure that every state is fully stocked. But were getting them to a lot of countries that need help. We continue to work with the governors and local authorities to help them ensure significant hospital capacity, protective equipment, supplies and medicine. Im more confident than ever that we will get a vaccine very soon and we will defeat the virus and i want to thank you all for being here. Well take a few questions. Yeah, please. Reporter i wanted to ask but about kodak. You had a big announcement the other day about getting kodak into the pharmaceutical business. But the s. E. C. Is now investigating what happened. Can you say a word or two whether you think there might have been some kind of a problem in terms of how those arrangements were made . Is there any grounds for concern from your perspective . President trump i dont know. I wasnt involved in the deal. The concept of the deal is good. Ill let you know. Well do a little study on that. Well find out. If there is any problem, well let you know about it very quickly. I wasnt involved in it. Its a big deal. Its a way of bringing back a great area too, in addition to pharmaceuticals. Kodak has been a great name, but obviously pretty much in a different business. And so well see what thats all about. But well let you know very quickly. Yeah, please. Reporter i want to follow up, before i ask a coronavirus question, on lebanon. You called this an attack. Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident . President trump it would seem like it, based on the explosion. Ive met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a seems to be, could be according to them, they would know better than i would, but they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind. Yes. Reporter on coronavirus, youve talked a lot about, when you talk about the mortality rate, the death as a proportion of cases. I understand that is significant when you look at how deadly the virus is or how good a country does at keeping people alive. But when youre talking about the scope of this virus, you will get the percentage of the population thats died, theres only three countries that have more deaths than the u. S. How do you explain that . Why the percentage of population has died is so much higher in the u. S. . President trump i think actually the numbers are lower than others. Ill get back to you on that. But we proportionally are lower than almost all countries. Were at the bottom of the list. And relative to cases also were at the bottom of the list, which is a good thing. But i can get back to you. We have four or five different lists on that and were generally speaking at the very bottom of the list. Reporter when i look at the Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center, on their website, it says the most affected countries when you look at deaths per 100,000 people, how many of the population have died, you have the u. K. , peru, chile and then the u. S. Canada has 8,000, 9,000 deaths. Obviously theyre smaller than us. But thats only 6 of the population. Of the 6 of our total cases. So why are the deaths so much higher in the u. S. . President trump a lot of our numbers were based on that new york had a very tough time. New york, new jersey, that area. And when you take them out, just as an example, take a look at florida relative to new york. Thats not to say anything wrong with new york, it was just a very tough place. People are close together, its crowded. Its not easy. But when you take that out, our numbers are among the lowest and even with it in i will get back to you, but we have among the lowest numbers. Theyve done a fantastic job. Yeah. Reporter mr. President , i would like to ask a question about the election. But one thing on unemployment. Are you considering taking executive action to send or rather reinstate the Unemployment Benefits that expired last week if congress cant get a deal by the end of the week . And as a general point, what rate then would you want . A percentage or flat rate . President trump we are looking at it. Were also looking at various other things that im allowed to do under the system. Such as the payroll tax suspension. And so were allowed to do things. Were talking with the democrats, they seem to be much more interested in solving the problems of some of the democratrun states and cities that have suffered greatly through bad management. I mean, really bad management. So that seems to be whether theyre looking for 1 trillion to help out with cities that are run by democrats, in some case radical left democrats, that have not done a good job. I appreciate today the wall street journal said very good things that we did a great job in portland by having our people go in, homeland security, chad wolf, the folks, we went into portland and weve done a great job. And they had that in an editorial that we really won that situation. But we want the whole we did save the courthouse. The courthouse was going to be burned down or knocked down. It was in tremendous danger. We went in and took care of it. And we appreciated what the wall street journal said. As far as the various things that i may or may not sign, i may not have to sign. I mean, progress is being made, as you know very well, on the hill. Well see what happens. Including the payroll tax suspension. We may do some things. We want to take care of the eviction problem. People are being evicted very unfairly. Its not their fault. Its chinas fault. Its not their fault. And people are being evicted and we can do that with an executive order. So if we dont get and we want to do it relatively quickly. Even from the standpoint of covid, people get evicted and then they go into shelters and there are thousands of people in the shelters and this is not a time you never want to be in a shelter but this is not a time to be in a shelter with the covid. They catch it. They get it. Its no good. So i may have to do something on evictions too because the democrats amazingly dont want do it. We offered them shortterm deals and we offered them lots of alternatives. But so far the only thing they really want to do is bail out states that have been poorly managed by democrats. Reporter if i could on the election, sir. Reporter President Trump, on the sale of tiktok, youre basically arguing that the u. S. Government is going to collect transaction between two companies in which it doesnt hold a stake. Thats unprecedented and has never happened in u. S. History before the. The administration has offered Little Information about how thats going to work. Can you back your statement up and put out specifics about how President Trump you say thats impressive . Did you use that term . Reporter i said its unprecedented. President trump almost the same thing. Not quite. I like it. I like impressive. [laughter] not quite. Close. So tiktok. Tiktok is very successful. It does tremendous business in the United States. People are riveted by it. I have many friends when they saw that announcement, theyre calling. I think their kids love it. They dont. Because they dont get to see their kids anymore. But its an amazing thing, whatever it may be. I told microsoft and frankly others, if they want to do it, if they make a deal for tiktok, whether its the 30 in the United States or the whole company, i say its ok. But if you do that, were really making it possible because were letting you operate here. So the United States treasury would have to benefit also. Not just the sellers. And i said, inform reporter how . President trump very simple. We have all the cards because without us, you cant come into the United States. Its like if youre a landlord and you have a tenant. The tenants Business Needs a rent. It needs a lease. So what i said to them is, whatever the price is, a very big proportion of that price would have to go to the treasury of the United States. And they understood that. And actually, they agreed with me. I think they agreed with me very much. Yeah, please. In the back. Reporter thank you, sir. President trump that deal may or may not happen. Weve given them until september 15 or so. Well see. If we can have it and if they can be great security, meaning the obvious security, microsoft would be a company that would be good in that respect. Theyre approved in that respect at many levels, including working with the department of defense. Theyre very high level approvals. It would be good but there are other companies also. Reporter thank you, sir. Have you or anyone in the administration reached out to other companies besides microsoft to see if theyre interested President Trump weve had other Companies Call us. Microsoft called me. Directly. And weve had other Companies Call. I dont know where they are. It sounds like microsoft is along the way of doing something. I dont blame them. Its a great company. Its really a great company. But we cannot take the security risks of any of those companies. Including huawei, which we put a halt to. We cant take the security risk. Our attitude on china has changed greatly since the china virus hit us. I think it changed greatly. It hit the world and it shouldnt have. They should have been able to stop it. We feel differently. I just dont know. When you lose so many thousands of people, you know, ultimately it will be millions of people around the world. Its a terrible thing that happened to the United States and europe and the entire world. Really a terrible thing. Yes, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Two quick questions. One on the virus and one on policing. On the virus, you said recently that theres going to be too much testing. Can you explain what the down side would be from test to go Many Americans for the virus and why you havent provided a date by which all americans might have the same kind of testing we have here at the white house . President trump we do more testing than anybody in the world, as i explained. I dont mean just a little bit. If you look at india, theyre about 11 million and were at 61 million. There comes a point when you just you want to focus your testing in a different way. Well be announcing what weve done is incredible with the testing. Not only the testing not only the numbers of tests but the quality of the tests and the machinery itself to do the testing. Nobody thought it would be possible to get a fiveminute and 15minute result. Thats a very accurate result and we do, with Abbott Laboratories has done a great job. Many of these companies have done an incredible job. So were looking at that very strongly. And were looking at doing something that if we do it, look, right now what the testing is doing is helpful. But were spending massive amounts of money and we want to have it channeled very accurately. We want to be able to help the most people we can. But we are testing at a level that no country in the world, ive spoken to the leaders of the world, and theyll ask me about it, no country in the world thought it would be its even believable that were able to test so much. 61 million versus most countries dont even test. You know when they test, when somebodys feeling badly. If somebodys feeling badly, theyre symptomatic, thats when they test. Thats a big difference. With us, we go around and look. Because if we find, we find spots, we find hot spots, one problem is from the standpoint of the media, we end up with far more cases than we would normally show. So as i called it the other day, i said its called media gold. For the media its gold. But the truth is its weve done an incredible job on testing. Nobody in the world has done the job. Other leaders have told me the same thing. They cant believe were able to do it. And we will continue. But we want to really be able to test very specifically the people that are in most danger. Most in need. [talking simultaneously] reporter thank you, mr. President. I want to ask you first about you what tweeted out earlier today in regards to florida. And your comfortableness as it relates to mailin ballots in florida. Why does that apply to florida but not as the country . Not across the country . President Trump Florida has a great republican governor and it had a great republican governor, scott, ron desantis. Rick scott. Two great governors. Over a long period of time, theyve been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Floridas different from other states. In nevada, where you have a governor, he said, lets just send out millions of ballots and the post office cannot be prepared. I havent spoken to the post office about it. But i dont know how they could possibly be prepared. Florida has been working on this for years. And they have a very good system of mailin. And that would be absentee or even beyond absentee. So in the case of florida, there arent too many people that would qualify. Theyre so well run, florida is a very wellrun state. Low taxes, low everything. Theyve done a great job. Really a great job. And the two governors, between the both of them, theyve really got a great system of absentee ballots and even in the case of mailin ballots. The Postal Services are built up there. It takes a long time. When you look at the Carolyn Maloney election, i think ill give you the story. I think you have to do that election over. That elections no good. You have to take a look in new york. They have thousands of ballots, they dont know what happened to them. Is there fraud . Its a disaster. Thats only for a relatively small number of ballots. But i think they have to do the election in new york over. The times wrote a big story about it yesterday. From page story. It is a disaster. Its a mess. And they have to do that i think they have to do that election over. Nobody can know what the election result is. So, in the case of florida, theyve done a great job. So, in the case of florida, theyve done a great job. Theyve had tremendous success with it. But theyve been doing this for many years and theyve made it really terrific. So for florida, you can mail in your ballots, you dont have to go. Maybe a couple of other states theyve worked out a system. But this took years to do. This doesnt take weeks or months. In the case of nevada, theyre going to be voting in a matter of weeks. You cant do that. I cant imagine the post office could do it, all of a sudden theyre supposed to be dealing in millions of ballots but florida has done a great job and we have total confidence that if you mail in your ballot in florida its going to matter. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Reporter what about in other states . Do you encourage voters in other states to mailin vote . [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this week marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic anding of hiroshima nagasaki. Watch washington journal, live thursday at 8 00 a. M. Eastern, for discussion about the bombings with author of twilight of the gods. And the grandson of president harry truman. Then on sunday, watch American History tv and washington journal live at 9 00 eastern as we look at it at look back at how the bombings ended world war ii in the decades ahead with professor atand a American UniversityNuclear Studies institute. Join the discussion with your calls, texts, facebook questions and tweets. Watch the 75th anniversary of the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki this thursday and sunday on washington journal, on cspan, and American History tv on cspan3. Of our livee coverage on wednesday. Sally gates testifies before the Senate Judiciary committee as part of a republican probe into the russian investigation. Thats live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. The National GovernorsAssociation Summer meeting gets and the at 2 30 p. M. , senate meets at 10 00 p. M. Talks continue off the floor on the next Coronavirus Relief bill. On cspan3, the Senate Commerce committee holds an oversight hearing with all members of the trade commission. Companies like google, facebook, and amazon. Final preparations are underway for the Democratic National convention later this week and milwaukee. Cspan will have live