Transcripts For FBC The Evening Edit 20240713

Doesnt mean anything to me because they dont tell the truth. But cdc reported, january 31st, not one person has died. And i issued a travel restriction from china. Think of it. So nobody died. And i issued. You cant get earlier than that. So we have nobody died, and i said china, you cant come in im sorry, because i saw what was going on. Wasnt so much what i was told. It was that i saw what was going on and i didnt like it. But i didnt speak to tony about it. I didnt speak to very many people about it. I didnt like it. So what did i do . Ready . January 31st, in the United States, not one person had died because of the, again, the wuhan virus. So i issued travel restrictions on that date even though nobody died and i got brutalized over it by the press, because i was way too early. I shouldnt have done it. Brutalized by the press. But you know, ive been brutalized for the last four years. I used to do well before i decided to run for politics. But, i guess im doing okay, to the best of my knowledge im the president of the United States despite the things that are said so then, first mandatory quarantine in more than 50 years we did. First mandatory in 50 years. The same restrictions that the democrats and media called xenophobic. Now joe biden said he is a racist. Called me a racist because i said were shutting down entry from china. Were shutting it down. He called me xenophobic and called me a racist and other things. Since then, on a friday night two weeks ago joe biden issued a statement it wasnt him. He didnt write it. Im sure he doesnt even know it was issued, people from campaign who are smart, people that write the pr releases are pretty smart, reasonably good, not the best but theyre not bad, they issued a statement saying that joe biden agrees that President Trump was right to close it down to china. Now he did that he issued it on friday night. We heard about that john, friday nights. In fact his was later friday night than i ever released mine on friday night. He did it pretty late. Like at 11 00 in the evening. It was pretty late. So joe biden issued, one of those things but in february nancy pelosi said we should come to chinatown. This is late february, come to chinatown. We think it is very safe. Come here. Lets all have the big parade, chinatown parade. Probably referring to san francisco. And thats it. But i took this action early. And so the story in the New York Times was a total fake. It is a fake newspaper. And they write fake stories and some day, hopefully in five years when im not here, those papers are all going out of business because nobody will want to read them. But now they like them because they write about me. With that, i have a couple of interesting, we have a few clips that were just going to put up. Turn the lights a little bit lower. I think you will find them interesting. Then well answer some questions. I will ask you some questions because youre so guilty but forget it. But most importantly were going to get back on to the reason were here which is, the success were having. Okay. Please, you can put it up, thank you. Should be more concerned right now with the flu this country. A lot of people are concerned about the coronavirus because theyre hearing a lot of news bit right now, reality comparing it to the flu, for example it is not even close to being at that stage. What if it is worse . Is this a moment where maybe countries took politics aside a little bit of pride say side, do we have u. S. Officials, should u. S. Professionals such as yourself get involved . How worried should americans be about coronavirus . Coronavirus women not cause a major issue in the United States weve asked them to accelerate whatever theyre doing in terms of a vaccine. We will be suspending all travel from europe to the United States for the next 30 days. To unleash the full power of federal government today, i am officially declaring a national emergency. Medicare patients can now visit any doctor by phone or videoconference at no additional cost. The first one Million Masks will be made available immediately. As there were more cases, it was clear it was spreading out of china where it originated, the president took this move, that he was widely criticized for by democrats and even some republican at the time, which was he halt ad number of flights from china into the u. S. The idea was to halt the spread of the disease, keep transmissions to a minimum. He was accused of xenophobia. He was accused of making a racist move. At the end of the day, it was probably effective because it did actually take a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus. His team is on it. They have been responsive, late at night, early in the morning, and they have, thus far been doing everything they can do and i want to say thank you. I want to say i appreciate it. He returns calls. He reaches out. He has been proactive. We got that mercy ship down here in los angeles that was directly because he sent it down here, 2000 medical units came to the state of california, these fms, these field medical stations and thats been very, very helpful. The president has been outstanding through all of this. The Vice President has been outstanding. Members of the Coronavirus Task force very responsive. We had asked if we could have, new jersey could have access to a piece of the beds that are on the usns comfort and president came back and called me and assured me a few minutes before i walked in here, they would indeed grant that to new jersey. So that is a big step for us in al digs to all the other capacity. That news is literally hot off the press. I thank the president and Vice President who were on the call together. President trump approved arizonas request for a major disaster declaration. I want to thank the president for a quick turnaround. We requested this on a wednesday and we had approval by saturday morning. We are grateful to the administration for their continued support and responsiveness. Well, first of all i want to thank the president and the Vice President for doing a really good job of communicating with all the governors. So we could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors, including democratic or democrat as i call them governors which is actually the correct term. We could give you hundreds of clips just like that. We have them. We didnt want this to go on too long. But i just want to say its, you know very sad when people write false stories like in that case i guess gotten mostly from the New York Times which is a highly, i mean, if you had libel laws they would have been out of business even before they end up going out of business. So its too bad but we could have given you some other statements. We have hundreds of statements, hundreds of statements including from democrat and democrat governors. An if you look, they were all saying we need ventilators. You dont hear ventilators anymore. They have all the ventilators they need which we were right b we were saying youre asking for too many that you dont need that. In all fairness, these people right here, dr. Birx, dr. Fauci i dont think they need that many ventilators. I said i agree. I after the one point, im not docking new york for this, they were asking for 40,000 ventilators. That is more than they have all over the country. We got them a lot of ventilators and nobody has complained. We got them as you know, beautiful, we built hospital rooms all over the country. The governor of louisiana, John Bel Edwards was very nice, you know what . You dont have to build the Second Hospital. Good news is happening. Theyre not able to fill the beds. They needed two hospitals. We built one. It was perfect f i called him up do you think we need to build the second one, i dont think youll need it . He got back we dont need it. With Governor Cuomo and all good spirit and faith he wanted to have the Jacob Javits Center done and we built 2900 incredible beds, incredible. Then we make it, we made it covid and, to be exactly accurate, covid19 and which was a lot of work. We had to change the ductwork. We had to seal up certain areas. We had to put areas of rooftop things over the beds. We did a lot of work and we had it but they never really had too much use for it. And they called also, mayor de blasio, rightfully, he called, he said would it be possible to get more medical help . So now only building facilities, theyre asking us for help because theyre unable to man it. And we got him the help. We got mayor de blasio a lot of help. Then when the Javits Center wasnt used much, then as you know the mercy, we took the mercy and we took the comfort and we made them both los angeles and new york, we made them covid adaptable, which was not easy to do. And we didnt got almost any people sent there. They didnt need them at the beginning because they didnt need it for anything but this because there were fewer accidents. Motorcycles. What we did was, like an incredible job but they didnt need them. Turned out, they were there, we were ready. You know the expression, they have an expression, ready, willing and able. We were ready, willing and able, what the army corps of engineers was a miracle. What fema did was a miracle, what the doctors did. So i got a call two days ago from the mayor of new york. He said could you help us, even more with medical personnel . And we sent, i think it was 448 doctors, nurses and respiratory experts, real experts. And i got a call from the mayor, he said i want to tell you, incredible, these people are incredible. They lifted the spirits of the hospital workers from new york city like nothing i have ever seen. He was unbelievable what he said. It was really appreciated. I let them know that. I let the military people, they went in there so brave, so incredible. They lifted the spirits of everybody. We did all of this work but when you read the phony stories, nobody, nobody acknowledges this. And it doesnt have to be acknowledged from my standpoint but it does have to be acknowledged from the great work that these doctors, nurses, the army corps of engineers, team, all these people they have done this incredible job and they shouldnt be abused because, you take a look at whats happened. Nobody is asking for ventilators, except outside of our country. Outside of our country theyre calling me ever country, theyre calling me, some countries. Im going to try to help them because we have thousands of ventilators being built. But nobody is asking for ventilators. Nobody is asking for beds because we built hospitals. I think we built 20,000 beds in a period of a couple of weeks. The job they have done is incredible. With all of that being said im getting along very well with the governors. If i wouldnt, mike pence had a call today with the governors and it was like a 10. I said, how was it . He said it was a 10. He used one of my expressions actually. He said it was like a 10. Im sure you people were probably on the call although you werent supposed to be. You were livessenning to somebodys office listening to it, every time, for weeks those calls have been very good. But there wasnt a raised voice. There wasnt even a statement of like, we think you should do this or that. I heard it was like a perfect phone call. It middle east not be reported that way. I have thought that somebody maybe slightly raised didnt even raise a point. My only point, i want to get back to here, the press has not treated these incredible people who have done such a great job, they havent treated them fairly. Theyre way off. We were way ahead of schedule. And remember this, because the times story was a fake, remember this, everything we did i was criticized because i was too early. If i waited longer it would have been, if i went way early, if i went three month earlier, i would have been criticized being way too early. So with all of that being said, we understand it. I think i have educate ad lot of people as to the press. I would love to say we have honest press. Honestly john, there would be nothing i would be more proud of if the press would work i dont mind being criticized but not when theyre wrong. Not when people have done a great job. Reporter about videos. I never seen a video like that played in this room. It looked a bit like a campaign ad. Who produced that video . That was done by a group in the office t was just done, we put some clips together. I could give you, i bet you i have over 100 more clips, even better than them. They were pieced together over the last two hours. That was just, we have far better than that. That is nothing compared to sound bites. Reporter produced here in the white house . This was done by dan, a group of people. They put it together in period of probably less than two hours. Reporter why do you feel need to do that . Because we have fake news. I like it corrected. Theyre saying what a great job were doing. These are governors of california, governor of new jersey, governor of new york. Look in new york, we work very closely with andrew. In new york ventilators, we didnt, they didnt have a problem. We got them tremendous numbers of thousands but got them tremendous number of ventilators. You dont hear ventilators are a problem. Beds were going to be a problem. Im happy about it. The Javits Center which is incredible is almost empty. At that they doesnt need them. That is good news, not bad news. Im not saying wish more people were there, i dont want people there. We brought in the boat, the comfort. The comfort was originally not supposed to be for this at all, coronavirus, not supposed be for that at all. They called and said we could have it, a number of weeks ago. We said we dont think you need it but if you need it well do so. They said could you get the medical personnel to run the Javits Center, could you get medical personnel to run the ship . We said if it is necessary we will. That is military personnel. That is ones mayor de blasio were great to with his statements. I am appreciative of the statements he was so impressed and i am too. The level of genius and bravery, theyre great people. The military people. And we pieced that together. I would say it took less than two hours. Now reporter this was produced by government employees, people here at the white house, this campaignstyle i wouldnt used word produced. They took some clips, ran them for you. The reason they did to keep you honest. I dont think that will work. Not have any impact. I this of it. You heard the clips. You heard what i said. They said i acted late, im closing down the country. Some people wish we never closed it down. If we didnt we would have lost hundreds of thousands of people. Interestingly, im against it. We did the right thing. Everything we did was right. If we would have closed down reporter any mistakes along the way . You think everything did was right . Look, governors should have had ventilators. They chose not to have them. We were able to get vern regulators, a lot of panic, we want ventilators. The surge is supposed to be coming now. If they need ventilators, john, we have almost 10,000 ready to rock. We have people standing withingh those ventilators right now. If you needed 2000 in new york but you dont, but if you did, we cohave them here less than 24 hours this is a great, military, great, beyond that operation. Lets get back to the regular. Should we get back to the regular. We could talk about this, all im doing is this, i could have given you like four or five clips we just played for you. I could have given you hundreds of people, i mean, gavin was on Television Two days ago with one of your competitors, singing praises. Look, you know the question was asked in a negative way. He said look, i know what you want to say, want me to say he has been really good. It is hard for me to say that. In fact it is impossible for me to say. Gavin newsom, the governor of california. I have many clips from, i have some clips from anthony that i didnt want to put up which were really good. I think anthony would be the first one to say, when i closed the country to china, when i closed the china ban, whatever you want to call it, anthony said i saved a lot of lives by doing that. Am i correct . I dont want to put words in anthonys mouth by the way. I like him. Today i walk . I hear im going to fire him. I retweeted somebody. I dont know. They said fire. Doesnt matter. Reporter did you notice that when you retweeted it. I notice everything. Reporter retweeted time to fire . That that is somebodys opinion. No. I was called about that i said im not firing. In fact if you ask your friends in the office, Public Relations office, i was immediately called upon that and i said no, i like him. I think he is terrific. Because this was a persons view. Not everybody is happy with anthony. Not everybody is happy with everybody. But i will tell you, we have done a job, the likes of which nobody has ever done. The mobilization, getting of equipment. All of the things that weve done, nobody has ever done a job like this. We have 50 governors and territories by the way, people dont ever mention that, we have territories, we have 50 governors and territories and many of those governors are democrats and they cant find anything to complain about. Honestly many of them didnt do their jobs. I will let you know some day, lets see what happens. I may let you know who is not doing their job. I can tell you ones that are good, republican and democrat and ones that dont know what theyre doing. We helped some of the ones that dont know what theyre doing. They should have had their own stockpiles. Now if they want we can build them stockpiles of ventilators. Hardest thing is a ventilator because it is expensive. It takes a while to get, we got them and nobody believed we did. Now, many of the governors were asking for far too many. We said they were asking for far too many. We talked, you said very strongly, they dont need that many. You said they dont need that many beds. Deborah. Thats it. Steve. Reporter you and dr. Fauci on the same page. We have been from the beginning. I dont know exactly, what if i put somebodys opinion up, i dont mind controversy. Controversy is a good thing not a bad thing but i want it to be honest controversy. When i got a call, i got a call, not very quickly, nobody saw that as being any big deal, how are you doing with dr. Fauci . I said im doing great. And i didnt talk to dr. Fauci, eastern until we just got here. Dr. Fauci asked one of the people if he could get up and speak. Around he did. They totally misinterpreted him. I saw what they did. Reporter question was hypothetical. About what he was just acknowledging lives would have been saved if the mitigation practices were put into place earlier. That seems obvious. Do you not agree with that . Here is the thing, what is he really saying though, hue could you have done it . I just went over stats with you, right here . How do you close it up, you have no debts and no cases on january 11th. Doctor, would you recommend closing the United States of america, oh, this must be terrible, how many cases do we have . None. How many deaths do we have . None. January 17th, go back another week. On january 17th, this is 10 days before i did the little bet less than 10 days before the ban. I did a ban on china. You think that was easy . I did a ban on europe. A lot of of people said that was incredible thing to do. With spain, by the way were doing well. If you look at the flat graphs, the United States is doing very well, per capita were doing very well. How do you close up the United States of america . So on january 6th, no debts. On january 11th, no debts and no cases. Deaths. On january 1th, no cases, no deaths. Im supposed to close up the United States of america when i have no cases. Reporter didnt close down middle of march. Could you have closed down earlier. Excuse she. I close i had down from china. Around by the way, some people think i should have waited longer and maybe ridden it out. I disagree with them. It was thought of. That was alternative. There are a lot of people side would have said lets ride it out. I will give you the good news. If i would have done that, it would have, i think catastrophic because their numbers are, anthony, 1. 6 to 2. 2 Million People would have died if we tried to do that. And i did this last time. Cut it in half. Dont say 2. 2 million. Cut it more than half, say a Million People died. That is much more than the civil war. Cut it in half. Take the million, cut it in half. That is 500,000 people would have died. Now that number we would have reached, okay . That would have been easy to reach if we did nothing. So we did the right thing. Our timing was very good. But heres the one thing, and you have to say this, when you asked me why didnt you do this . How come when i did the ban on china, and some very, very instituted very tough things, how come nancy pelosi a month later is in chinatown saying lets all march, this is not going to happen . How come we have many of the experts from cnn, and many other networks, if you call cnn a network, i dont personally, but we have cnn, we have many other places and theyre all saying, he doesnt need to do it . He doesnt need to do it. All im saying is this, how do you close down the greatest economy in the history of the world when on january 17th, you have no cases, and no deaths . When on january 21st, you have one case and no death, one case . Think of that. Were supposed to close down the country. But heres what happened. When on january 31st i instituted the ban, joe biden went crazy. He said you dont the ban. He didnt go crazy like this, he incident even know what the hell the ban was. He didnt go crazy. Owe did call me, wait a minute. He called me xenophobic. He called me a racist because he has since apologized and he said i did the right thing. So when you say why didnt you this, every democrat thought i made a mistake when i did it. I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. Reporter the time you bought, the arguement you bought yourself on h some time. You didnt use it to prepare hospitals or ramp up testing. Youre so disgraceful. Youre so disgraceful the way you say that. Listen, i just went over it. Reporter were supposed to make people in unprecedented crisis. Nobody thought we should do it and when i did it reporter what did you do with the time you bought . You know what we did . You know what we did . What do you do, what do you do when you have no case in the whole United States and reporter you had cases in february. You reported it. Zero cases, zero deaths on january 17th. Reporter january. I said in january. Reporter you have a complete gap. Reporter what did your american station do in february, between the time of the travel ban . A lot. In fact well give you a list. In fact part of it was up there. It was a lot. Look, you know youre a fake. You know that. You Wheel Network the way you cover it is fake. Not all of you but the people are wise to you. That is why you have a lower Approval Rating than you have ever had before times probably three. When you ask me that question, let me ask you, this why didnt biden, why did biden apologize . Why did he write a letter of apology that was very important. Why did the democrats think that i acted too quickly you . Know why . Because they really thought that i acted too quickly. We have done a great job. Now i could have, i could have, kept it open. And i could have done what some countries are doing. Theyre getting beat up pretty badly. I could have kept it open. I thought of keeping it open because nobody has ever heard of closing down a country, let alone the United States of america. But if i would have done that, we would have had hundreds of thousands of people that would right now be dead. We have done this right. We really, we really have done this right. The problem is the press doesnt cover it the way it should be. One more question, steve. Reporter there is debate over what authority you have to order the country reopened. What authority do you have . Well i have the ultimate authority. Well get into that in a minute. Well finish this up. Well tell you about other things that weve done right. But i will say this, had we said keep going, lets not do a closing, whether it is 2. 2, at one point predicted as an outside or 1. 6 at a lower number, you cut it all the way down to 6 or 7 or 800,000, take a fraction of the number that could have happened. It literally would have been more than the civil war. It would have been a disaster. So the minimum number was 100,000. And i think, i feel pretty good that were going to be substantially below, anthony, the 100,000. I hope we will. So today the department of health and Human Services announcing five new contracts to procure large numbers of additional ventilators under the defense production act which we used a lot by the way, which you didnt like to talk about. In addition to the 1300 we received today. We received today 1300 additional ventilators. Now, were probably not going to need them but we can add that to our stockpile which is very big and we can move it around, should a surge take place and be substantial surge. Were ready to rock. Contracts with general electric, hilrom, mode electronic, viad and announced with the contracts we announced with General Motors and phillips and two other contracts with hamilton and soule, were adding 6,196 vent latetores to the strategic stockpile which we have a lot already, thousands, close to 10,000. This will be added by may 8th. Another 29,000 by the end of may and more than 120,000 total we will have by the end of the year. Now were going to help other countries. Well help states if they need it. We may help some states stockpile. They are supposed to have their own stockpiles. Theyre supposed to be using that. Unfortunately moist of the states werent there a lot of people didnt want to talk about it, but they werent there we will talk about it at the right time, if you want to. I at this point im more focused on getting past this nightmare of a epidemic or a pandemic, anything you want to call it. We got to get past it. No one who needed a ventilator has not gotten a ventilator. Think about that you heard about, we need ventilators, we have didnt have them because the state didnt have them. No one who has not needed a ventilator has not gotten a ventilator. No one who needs a hospital bed has been denied a hospital bed. That is not really our responsibility. If we can help, were going to do it. That is where the army corps of engineers did such a great job. We built over 20,000 beds. We built thousands more than we actually needed to be safe. We wanted to be safe, really they rose to this incredible occasion. We built more beds than we thought. We thought in louisiana we were going heavy. Again when i called the governor, i said maybe we shouldnt build that Second Hospital because we dont want to build it if you dont need it. He called back, he said i dont think were going to snead it. They had 1000 rooms, 1000 beds and they used a lot of them but they didnt need the other one. So we stopped it because we dont want to waste. Were prepared to build thousands more should we need it. I dont think well need it. It looks like were plateauing and maybe in many cases coming down. In addition we ordered a total of 16 mobile decontamination systems so the decontamination system from batille in ohio is an incredible thing because it takes, mask, up to 20 times you can decontaminate a mask and ive been asking from the beginning, why cant we sterilize or sanitize these masks . And it turned out we can. There was a Great Company in ohio. They sent us some great equipment and theyre doing that now. And now were going to have more than 33 million n95 masks per week will be cleaned, decontaminated and it will be great. It is something that frankly i think people should have thought of a long time ago. Five more flights landed today as part of project air bridge, our massive airlift operation to bring personal protective equipment into the United States which is now delivered nearly half a million n95 masks, 370 million gloves, 25 million surgical masks and 4. 9 million gowns. So we have millions of gowns, gloves, masks, all Surgical Equipment coming in, should the states need it. Now the states are supposed to be buying their own stuff but should they need it we are ready to give them because were building up the stockpile again like crazy. Remember, you saw the stories, i inherited, this administration, mike, myself, the whole administration, we inherited a stockpile where the cupboards were bare. There was nothing. I say it and i will say it again just like we didnt have ammunition, we didnt have medical supplies, we didnt have ventilators, we didnt have a lot of things that should have been had. You can read your own stories on that because you know what happened. They didnt want to spend the money but we did. To date we facilitated the supply of more than 38 million n95 masks nationwide. This week well be sending two million n95 masks to the commonwealth of pennsylvania. The Vice President will go into more detail. He has got great detail on that. And i think it is Pretty Amazing story. We have a lot of masks already in stock and we have more coming. Were further expanding hospital Surge Capacity and in key areas of the opening and we have a portion of certain va hospitals and nonveteran coronavirus patients including at the east orange, new jersey, Medical Center as well asfa silts in manhattan and brooklyn, theyre ready, able and beautiful. Hopefully we wont need too many of them, frankly we built everything the governors wanted and in many cases it was too much. We told them it was too much but we wanted to err on the side of caution. The United States has now conducts nearly three million tests for the virus, three million, the most of any nation. Were performing approximately 115,000 tests every single day. And our rate of test something especially high in areas hardest hit by the virus f you look, that is really, and it hit some areas, the virus, very, very hard. For example, per capita testing in new york is higher than rest of the world. Nih, cdc, are currently evaluating several antibody tests that will allow us to determine whether someone already had the virus and potentially become immune to infection. Were looking at that the antibody tests are going to be very interesting over the next short while. A lot of things are being developed as we speak. In the race to develop effective treatments the Drug Company Gilead announced its drug remdesivir has shown promising results, very promising in compassion in the use settings. In addition the fda just granted emergency authorization for a device that removes certain proteins from the bloodstream, possibly preventing a patients immune system from overreacting to the virus and damaging vital organs which is a big problem. Furthermore over the last seven days my administration has deployed roughly 28 million doses of hydroxychlorquine from our national stockpile. We have millions of doses that we bought and many people are using it all over the country and just recently, a friend of mine told me got better because of the use of that drug. So who knows. You combine it with zpack, you combine it with zinc, depending on your doctors recommendation. Having very good results i tell you. If anybody recommended it other than me it would be used all over the place to be honest with you. The fact i recommended it probably set it back a lot but a lot of good things are happening with it. A lot of good tests. Scientists are also pursuing a blood therapy known as convalescent plasma. Con velez ant plasma. This therapy uses an antibodies from the blood of patients who were sick. This is old procedure but done in very modern way. During this difficult time were also working to ensure that the 2020 census is is completed safely and accurately. We may ask for extension because obviously they wouldnt be doing very much right now. They wouldnt be allowed to do it. Were asking for a delay, major delay. How can you possibly be knocking on doors for a long period of time now . The Census Bureau recently made the decision to temporarily suspend its Field Operation Data Collection activities to help stop the spread. In addition while millions of americans continued to complete their questionnaire online, the Census Bureau asked congress for 120 extension. I dont know that you have to ask them. This is called an act of god. This is called a situation that has to be, they have to give in. I think 120 days isnt nearly enough. My administration is also taking bold action to help American Workers. On friday americans began receiving Cash Payments authorized by the historic two trillion dollar relief bill. By the end of the week nearly 80 million americans will receive a total of 147 billion. From what the secretary of the treasury tells me, very much on time going very nicely, he will be speaking in a moment. In payments, these payments go directly into the banks and Bank Accounts of these people. Millions of additional payments will follow. The typical family of four will receive 3400. That is for a family of four. Thats something. Additionally through our Paycheck Protection Program which is a tremendous success, they should extend it and increase it. This has been a tremendous success, so successful that the banks are taking a little bit longer to distribute the money but it is going rapidly. Weve now processed over 200 billion in loans to help Small Businesses retain their workers. Now we urgently need lawmakers to set aside the partisan agendas and replenish this program with new fund because it is really something that has been an incredible success. And they need more money to keep it going to take care of these businesses and keep them open. I want to thank the many governors, health professionals, scientists and Business Leaders for their incredible hard work and input over the past month. Even long beyond a month, mike, i would say. Weve been working together with a lot seems like forever. Ive been having many discussions with my team and top experts and were very close to completing a plan to open our country, hopefully even ahead of schedule. And that is so important. We will soon finalize new and very important guidelines to give governors the information they need to start safely opening their states. My administrations plan and corresponding guidelines will give the American People the confidence they need to begin returning to normal life. Thats what we want, we want to have our country open. We want to return to normal life. Our country is going to be open. And it is going to be successfully opened and well be explaining over it a very short number of days exactly what is going to be. We have also as you probably heard, developed a committee. Were actually calling it a number of committees with the most prominent people in the country, most successful people in various fields. Well be announcing them tomorrow. This weekend the United States also helped facilitate among 123 nations of opec plus. Opec plus Additional Energy producing nations, representing many of the Worlds Largest oilproducing countries to stablize all markets. We have in fact, i think you have seen a big stabilization over the last couple of days. Together countries around the world will cut Oil Production by approximately 20 Million Barrels. People are saying 10 million but we think the number they will actually hit be closer to 20 Million Barrels a day. That will help a lot. Were saving jobs all over texas and oklahoma and north dakota and many other big energy states. This historic action will help nearly 11 million American Workers supported by the u. S. Oil and gas industry. This is very monumental agreement. I want to thank saudi arabia and king of saudi arabia, crown prince of saudi arabia, both, i want to thank president putin of russia and i want to thank a very good friend of mine, a man who has become a friend of mine, the president of mexico showed great flexibility. President lopez obrador. Showed great flexibility and, tremendous intelligence doing what he did. It was not that easy for him. I want to thank mexico and the president. This is a very historic deal, very historic. Well see how it all goes. In this time of challenge and we are certainly in a time probably like we havent been in many, many decades, we are strengthened and sustained by the bonds of love and loyalty that unite all americans. Im so proud of the American People. Everywhere you look you see the patriotism of our people shining through and courage of our doctors and nurses on the front lines, in he had dedication of our food supply workers and commitment of every citizen to achieving victory over the virus. That is what is going to happen. It will happen sooner than people think. Well be mart about it, very, very smart about it. Well be safe about it. Well listening to the great doctors and medical professionals. Together were beating back the invisible enemy and were paving the way for great resurgence, really a great resurgence for american prosperity. Our country wants to go back, they want to go back to work. Theyre going to go back safely around thats what we want. I would like now to ask Vice President pence to say a few words, followed by dr. Fauci and dr. Birx. I think before we, before we do this, because i know there is an emergency where they are want steve to come, so what i will do, i will ask steve to come up, secretary of the treasury. You can talk a little bit. Then maybe take a couple questions whats happening. Tell them the success were having. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. President , and you, mr. Vice president. As you announced were ahead of schedule delivering Economic Impact payments. These were what is known as the checks in the mail that we want to deliver and direct deposit. This is ahead of schedule. We started processing those last friday. We expect that over 80 million hardworking americans will get the direct deposit by this wednesday. And we know how important that is to all of those hardworking americans. Many of which are at home, not working at the moment. If you do not receive them by wednesday, on wednesday we will be launching at irs. Gov. Lou click on irs. Gov, go to get your payment. If you filed a tax return in 2018 around 19, or 19, have that Information Available you will be able to i. D. Yourself. You are able to put in the direct deposit information. Within several days we will automatically deposit the money into your account. We want to do as much of this electronically as we can. It is very important in this day and age. It is more secure. You dont have to go to the bank. If youre a Social Security beneficiary, you do not need to do anything. You will get a direct deposit. If you have not filed and did not need to file a 2018 or 19 return, you can go to irs. Gov now, enter your information and authenticate yourself. We are very pleased that is ahead of schedule. I would also like to announce the progress were making on the new sba program, the ppp. Let me remind everybody, this is a Brand New Program that is now one week old. We have distributed and confirmed 230 billion of loans to over 4600 lenders participating. That is multiples and multiples of anything the sba has ever done in one year before and i especially want to thank the broadbased Community Banks that are participating. Again over 4600 banks. If you havent had your loan processed, you will get a process this week, as the president said, weve gone back to congress to ask them for more money to make sure every business has access to this. Let me also comment for the states. Were distributing out half the money to the states. Thats a week ahead of time. Well deliver the other half of the money to the states next week. Then let me finally comment, were working very closely with the federal reserve. Last week we announced expanded facilities and new facilities that total 2. 3 trillion of liquidity. In particular i would just like to highlight a main Street Lending facility that will be for companies between one worker and 10,000 people. So midsized businesses. And also a municipal facility for states and local governments to be able to access funds given the shortages that they have. So with that im happy to answer any questions. Any questions for steve, please . Reporter thank you, sir. Speaker pelosi and minority leader schumer said theyre in negotiations with you right now on additional funding for the Small Business loans, that package. Leader mcconnell though has said nothing should be added to the package, should just be specific to Small Business loans. What is the opinion of your administration . Should there be some sort of horsetrading here or just be Small Business loans . It is president s view and Vice President east and my viewth was a bipartisan program. This sba program, it wasnt a republican program, it wasnt a democrat program. It was a bipartisan program. We committed it Small Businesses we should top up the program now. The democrats want to talk about more money for hospitals and states. Were just sending money out to hospitals and states. They havent come close to using that money. I know the president and Vice President said, once we get the sba done, we can go into other funding bill. The president talked about potentially adding infrastructure and other things. We think there is a likelihood we will need more money and we will sit down to try to get a bipartisan bill. But this is important we deliver on Small Businesses. 50 of the people work for Small Businesses. Reporter thank you, sir. Reporter whats the emergency said you had to go for . President said you had an emergency . Negotiation . Reporter over this bill . Because we dont want to run out of money. We used about 220 billion of the 350 billion. We dont want to run out of that money. We dont want to create panics that people wont get it. So that is why we want to top that up. We asked for another 250 billion for that program. Again, let me just remind you, every dollar we spend in this program we save a dollar of unemployment insurance. Even though were asking for 250 billion, it really wont cost that much. Reporter follow up . Do you have concerns about listing the guidelines too soon . What is the Economic Impact, i understand the economic argument getting people back to work, but what is the economic risk of lifting them too early and seeing then a spike in cases . There is Economic Risks in both directions. We reviewed with the president today, very broad list of over 100 Business People that are going to help advise the president on what needs to be done to reopen the economy. We want to make sure, again, the combination of Economic Impact payments, Small Business payments, enhanced unemployment insurance. The president made very clear we want to make sure hardworking americans have liquidity while we wait to reopen the government. Reporter do you believe the government or country should be reopened on may 1 . I had discussions with the president. I know he is considering it. And i believe he will make a decision later in the week. Everything has to be safe. Reporter what is your advice to the president . My advice as soon as it is ready to open, based on the medical professionals and again were working very closely with the president and outside Business Leaders to develop a plan. Reporter what do you think, could you sketch for us what the economy looks like . Do you think everything open or i will do that over the next few days because we will probably make the statement and exactly what it looks like. I know that what looks like but i also want to get advice in a sense. We have some of the biggest from every business on this council. Were actually settings up number of Different Councils or committees, i guess you could call them. We have a lot of smart people. I think that they will give us some also good advice. No, we want to be very, very safe. At the same time we got to get our country open. Reporter do you think there is a possibility than what you do open it incrementally, will people go back to restaurants, cinema. I think eventually they will. I think eventually they will do that. I think were going to boom. I think it is going to be quickly. Our people want to get back to work. There is pentup demand like there hasnt been a long time. That is why you see the stock market, to think that the stock market is at the level it is right now with all this world and this country has gone through. Look at european union, how badly decimated they have been. Look at other countries. Look at china, by the way. Ive seen the numbers. Look at china. Look how these countries have been decimated by this to think that the stock market is at this tremendous high number . Not that much, you know, looking a little bleak for a while but hit a certain point and then started going up. I think that is a great tribute to the fact there is demand. Reporter mr. President , thank you, sir, in regards to some of your tweets earlier today, i think it was eves question, my question to you, what provision in the constitution gives the president the power to open or close state economies . And then numerous provisions. Well get you a legal brief if you want. Reporter well be looking forward to that, sir. Following up what happens if you say, for instance, we want states to reopen but california or new york do not open, what would you do . I think everybody wants to open. I have mean that could happen but i dont think that would happen. Reporter ordered schools closed in state has ordered businesses because i let that happen. I would have preferred that. I let that happen. If i wanted to i could have closed it up. I let that happen. I like the way they have done it. The seven remained really in sort of a semilockdown, if you look at those states they have really done a very good job. Theyre very much different from a new york or from other places where they have hit very hard. Reporter open your schools, i other you to . Reporter mr. President , following up on that, there are two consortiums of states, california, oregon, washington the west coast, northern eastern states, totally representing 100 Million People who said they are going to cooperate and decide when to reopen. They can decide reporter undermined what youre trying to do. Not at all. I will put it very simply, the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots. If we werent here for the states, you would have had a problem in this country like you never seen before. We were here to back them up and we, more than backed them up. We did a job that nobody ever thought was possible. It is a decision for the president of the United States. Now with that being said, were going to work with the states because it is very important. You have local governments, theyre pinpointed, it is really, talk about, it is like a microchip. Theyre pinpointed. We have local government that hopefully will do a good job. If they dont do a good job, i would step in so fast. But they cant do anything without the approval of the president of the United States. Go ahead, please. Reporter some states refuse to reopen, you order them to, the tenth amendment of constitution, powers dont reside in the president and congress dont how would you. If the states dont refuse to open, i would like to see that person run for election. They will open. I think that is something they will not happen. They have to open. They have stow get open. Everyone much those states, people want to go and some will be are in a different situation. You have, i wont name states now but you will over the next two or three days, im going to be very specific but you have some states where this is not kind of a problem that it is in new york or louisiana or michigan or other places that got hit very hard. Illinois got hit very hard. But all states want to open and they want to open as soon as possible but they want to open safely and so do i. Yeah, please. Reporter mr. President , today the french president Emmanuel Macron if you would keep the shutdown in france till may. Does that u. S. Will france got hit very hard. France got hit very hard. France has to do what he has to do. A friend of mine. France, spain, just has been decimated. Look what happened in italy. Very wellknown fact what happened in italy. They were hit very hard. Reporter question for secretary mnuchin. Has everybody that you would like to have the 100 Business People on the all been invited already . Have they agreed . We havent been invited yet. We reviewed the names with the president today. Reporter all second exectores. Basically vertical. Every area of economy we want to be represented. Reporter great. Is there anything need to work on Oil Industry Jobs, to save Oil Industry Jobs after there is always things. Were working with larry kudlow. We have. Reporter specifically we have economic plans for every area of the economy n the case of the oil industry they have been hit especially hard. You have both the supply issue and you had the demand issue. Reporter bail out money for the airlines with the allocations for the airlines . Im pleased to say we worked very hard. I think as you probably have seen, we put out a press release we have now had discussions with almost all the airlines. I personally had discussions with all the Major Airline ceos. We specifically created an exception for Small Airlines we could process very quickly. I think you will see very quickly, decisions coming out. Im very pleased with the discussions weve had. Reporter [inaudible]. Reporter mr. Secretary, do you see a need for more stimulus steve, i, excuse me one second. Weve had very good discussions with the airlines. Very good discussions. Reporter is it possible to reopen the economy on may the 1st . I dont want to say that you will be hearing over next few days. Let me just comment to answer your question. Reporter this push in lieu of another stimulus. Let me just comment. Congress on a bipartisan basis approved an unprecedented amount of money to help American Workers and American Business because it was no fault of their own that business was closed down. We have been very diligently executing on that. You know, everybody said it was going to take months to get people money. We are executing very quickly. We created a new whole new sba program in a week. Our job right now is to execute the 2. 3 billion which we can add several trillion dollars with the fed. The one area we are particularly concerned about is the Small Business program. Quite frankly it is even more incredibly popular and successful than we anticipated. So the president wants to be very clear. We have money for that. Once we get done with that, well review with the president. If there is more money needs to be to support this economy, to support hardworking americans we will work with congress to get that. Steve, you want to talk about phase four . Phase four, the president has talked about infrastructure for a long period of time. We talked about to the extent that the hospitals need more money because of the medical issues well monitor that. We want to make sure there are incentives for restaurants, entertainment, people to get back to those types of things. So well be looking very specifically provisions to stimulate parts of the economy. Some of them may be money issues. Some may be regulatory issues. Reporter just to clarify your understanding of your authority visavis governors, just to be very specific, for instance if a governor issued a stayathome order you say my order. The president s authority, not mine. Not me. When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that is the way it has got to be. Reporter authority is total. Its total. The governors know that. The governors know that. Now you have a couple, excuse me, excuse me, you have a. Reporter [inaudible] you have a couple of bands of democrat governors but they will agree to it. They will agree to it. Reporter [inaudible] the authority of the president of the United States having to do with the subject were talking about is total. Please, go ahead. Reporter president s authority is total . Go ahead. Reporter what we saw in the video, travel ban from europe. Part of reopening america do you want to reopen the borders so people from europe, uk at the right time. Very good question, actually. I will have to take a look. I wouldnt say italy is doing great right now. I wouldnt say spain is doing great right now. We heard france was extending stay inside order, right . They extended it, i have just seen that i think for a short period of time. When theyre back, we want to do it very quickly but we want to make sure everything is good. Right now we have, right now we have a very strong ban. Well keep it that way until they heal. Reporter weeks, months . I cant tell you that. I have to see. How are they doing . France went for another two days, another two weeks. We have to see. John . Reporter talking about you said you took his advice on question of mitigation. He made the recommendation, you accepted it, put into place. As you make this next decision im not sure, john, im not sure who really gave me advice on the ban. I think i took my own advice on the ban. I have dont know. Reporter social distancing im talking about, shutting down, not of travel but of activity. So my question is, do you make this next decision which you said may be the most difficult oar important decision of your presidency, will you assure the American People you will again take the advice of the doctors, of doctor fauci of dr. Birx . Will you take the advice of the Health Experts before you do that. I will, many other people also. I will absolutely take their advice. Reporter would you go against, go against their recommendation, say you need another 15 i dont think that is likely. I dont think were he is far from being on the same page, yes, please. Reporter one thing Governor Cuomo said today, states dont have to do massive covid19 tests ahead of reopening. They have to do it. Lou reporter purchasing diagnostic equipment they ned federal hope. Liz closing out one of the most free whiling fiery Task Force Briefings on the coronavirus at the white house. Youre watching the earning heed did. Thank you for watching. Evening edit. Thank you so much. See you tomorrow night as we say stay on the developing story. Have a good evening. The opening of part of the economy. That could come next week in a number of conditions are in place. Safety of all americans. The decision to restart the economy will be balanced against the success of halting the advance of the wuhan virus. Worldwide 1. 9 people have been infect 1. 9 million