Transcripts For FBC The Evening Edit 20240713

Is even there has prevented me from using the Constitutional Authority that were given, that were given under the recess provisions. The senate should either fulfill its duty and vote on my nominees or it should formally adjourn so that i can make recess appointments. We have tremendous number of people that have to come into government and now more so than ever before because of the virus and the problem. We have to do it and we have to do whatever we have to do. They have made it very, very difficult to run government. I dont think any administration has done anywhere near what weve done in 3 1 2 years but every block, every week, they put up roadblocks, whether it is russia, russia, russia, or whether its impeachment hoax or whatever it may be it is always roadblocks and a waste of time. If the house will not agree to that adjournment, i will exercise my Constitutional Authority to adjourn both chambers of congress. The Current Practice of leaving town while conducting phony proforma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American People cannot afford during this crisis. It is a scam, what they do. Its a scam and Everybody Knows it and it has been that way for a long time. And perhaps it has never been before, never been done before, nobody even sure if it has. Were going to do it. We need people here. We need people for this crisis and we dont want to play anymore political games. Ive been waiting for 2 1 2 years, three years, some of these people and theyre great people. They left law firms. They left jobs. They gave up everything to do it and they have been waiting for three years, 2 1 2 years, two years, one year to get approved. It is ridiculous. Everyone knows theyre going to be approved but there is only so many hours in the day when you go through judges and you go through lengthy hearings on judges that they know should be approved immediately and they could do it in one session, one, and they could do it in one hour. And instead it takes them many days. In order to advance the health and security of our nation and all nations as we announced yesterday the u. S. Government has put a hold on funding to the w. H. O. , World Health Organization, pending a review of the organizations coverup and mismanagement of the coronavirus virus outbreak. Over objections of the we took Decisive Action and early lifesaving action to stop travel from china. They didnt want to do it. They were angry that we did it. It took a long time to have them boeing but i have a feeling they knew exactly what was going on. Tragically the other nations put their you trust in the w. H. O. And they didnt do any form of ban. You see what happened to italy. You see what happened to spain. You see what happened to france. W. H. O. Guidance failed to control the borders at crucial phase, quickly unleashing the contagion around the world t was a horrible, tragic mistake or perhaps they knew. Im sure they didnt know the gravity of it but perhaps they knew. Because if they knew the gravity, that would be an even worse offense. To ease the economic pain of millions of American Families we have now processed 300 billion in loans to more than one million Small Businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program. This action has saved millions of american jobs. It has been an incredible success, and they want to replenish it now but again the democrats dont want to do that. This is money that goes to the workers of our country. Phase one was 350 billion and now phase two, we want to do 250 billion. This goes to workers and it goes to Small Businesses so we can save all the Small Businesses around our nation. Mike mcfarland from nebraska recently said this historical relief has been a godsend for his small factory and the 136 americans who work there. Saved those jobs. Another Small Business owner, tim miller, from oklahoma, called the program a total lifesaver for his auto repair shops four employees. Stories like these underscore why Congress Must replenish the Paycheck Protection Program immediately. The republicans want to do it immediately. They want to do it immediately, they want to do it now and the democrats are stopping it. A short time ago cdc issued Public Health guidelines for Critical Industries. In a few moments agricultural secretary sonny perdue will elaborate on how these guidelines apply to our nations dedicated workers in the Food Processing profession, because it is a profession. It is incredible what they do. God Food Processing and theyre keeping Grocery Stores full. The shelves are not bare like the shelves i inherited when we took over the stockpile, the medical stockpile where the shelves were bare. The cupboard was bare i say. Tomorrow i will also be leading a call with elected officials who will consult with my administration as we work to restore our economy to full speed and we really think with all the stimulus and all the pentup demand well have an economy that really comes back quickly and would like to see it more than match what we had before. What we had before was a miracle and we think this will be even more than a miracle. We are going to do it because we have the greatest people in the world. Well also be speaking to americas governors tomorrow and then well be announcing exactly whats happening. You already know well be opening up states, some states much sooner than others. We think the states can open up before the deadline of may 1st. And i think that will be a very exciting time indeed. Governors are looking for it, theyre chomping at the bit to get going. Again not all states are the same. Theyre very different. Some are verying very little problem. Some have done such a good job theyre having very little problem and theyre ready to go. Vice president pence and you will be speaking with the governors tomorrow. Well be discussing procedures. Today i spoke with the leaders of many of our nations most reknown companies and organizations how to achieve the full resurgence of the american economy. My discussions included top leaders in health and health care, transportation, technology, financial services, food, beverages, hospitality, real estate, retail, agriculture, construction, energy, labor, manufacturing and sports industries. We want to get our country open again. We want to have our sports leagues open. You want to watch sports. It is important. We miss sports. We miss everything. We want to get back. These experts and innovators provide extremely productive feedback how to safely reboot our economy. They gave us a lot of great ideas. We spoke to a lot of very, very smart people, the highest of the hightech. The level of i. Q. On some of those calls was about the highest you ever seen on a phone call, that i can tell you. But we have a lot of great thought went into those calls and a lot of questions came out and also statements, very strong statements, as to what they recommend. It was, i think it was a great day. I, we did a lot of calling with a lot of very prominent people but more importantly very smart people and people that love our country. They talked about the vital importance of our wide array of relief measures to address the present crisis and they provided valuable insights how to move forward including on the role of protective gear where we have tremendous amounts of protective gear coming in. We have robust testing and the future use of therapies and treatments. They also underscored the crucial importance of strong supply chains and communications infrastructure. Were talking about infrastructure for the middle of our country. Talking about broadband and things that, frankly they dont have and havent had for a long time because a lot of politicians forgot about them. Cant forget about them. Theyre really the heart and soul, cant forget about them. And were talking about the telemedical, a new thing and its incredible what they have been able to do. This is an industry that is just growing but it has grown by leaps and bounds over the last five weeks. People are learning so much, without the ability to see a doctor theyre learning so much. A lot of good things are happening. Thats something that is really Going Forward i think going to be very important for our country. As weve seen throughout our proud history america has never greater than when our people are working in unison toward a common goal. That is what is happening right now. Well go ahead, well forge an even Brighter Future today than we had and will be, along with other nations hopefully. Were working with other nations. Well be the comeback kids, all of us, all of us. Its incredible whats going on. Im very proud of the people of this country. Im very proud of the people i spoke to today. These are truly great, brilliant people. And we gained tremendous insights. Tomorrow will be a very big day. Well be speaking with the governors. Well have some information on some openings. Again well have some openings that will be, will exceed our expectations and they will be safe. They will be strong but we want to get our country back. We want to get our country back and were going to do it and were going to do it soon. With that i would like to ask dr. Birx to come up and say a few words. And then secretary sonny perdue. And then Vice President pence. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, mr. President and thank you for summarizing the states and what were seeing. So over the last five to six days weve seen declines in cases across the country and this has been very reassuring for us. At the same time we know that mortality and the fatalities that were facing across the United States continue. We know the number of people who are still in the hospitals, in the icus, we want to continue to recognize the Health Care Workers who are on the front loons and really recognize how low the United States case fatality rates are compared to other countries and this is really due, not only to our technology but how that technology is utilized to save lives. At the same time im inspired by the American People who continue social distancing. These cases continue to decline because of the strong work of the American People. Also wanted to let you know we do have nine states that have less than 1000 cases and less than 30 new cases per day. So were looking at states and metro areas as individual, individual areas. We talked before about how each of these curves are different. Each of the cases experiences are different. We have some states like california and washington state, oregon, that never really had a peak because of so much work that their populations did to decrease and keep the new cases down. So each much these individual states and individuals metros are being studied. It is very specifically. I do want to highlight. We are remaining concerned and we have been having discussions with rhode island. Rhode island and providence are in unique situation. They had increasing cases from new york city area. They have increasing cases from the boston area. Theyre caught between two incredible hot spots in the country. Theyre doing extraordinary job caring for individuals on the front line but providence continues to have new cases. Were working with states that have individual occurrences. I remind the American People again, this is highly contagious virus. Coming together there is always a chance that asymptomatic person can spread the virus unknowingly. No one is intending to spread the virus. We know if youre sick you stay home. All of you would like to join together, have the dinner party for 20, dont do it yet. Continue to follow the president ial guidelines. We really appreciate the work of the American People. We see as a country were improving we see as metro areas were improving. We see as communities, counties, states, were improving but that also still requires everyone to still continue to social distance. In the end we have states with very few cases and very new few new cases. These are the ones that the president is referring to, that have been silent, relatively silent throughout this epidemic and pandemic many of us faced. These are the groups working with very specifically and each much these governors and each of these mayors will have to make decisions after generalized guidelines are put out so that they can do whats best for their communities. They are at the front line. I wanted to conclude by really thanking my pet pepfar teams throughout the world, working tirelessly throughout the world that africa and asia doesnt experience levels we have seen here. They turned overcapacities of their embassies. Our u. S. Hires throughout the world, our ambassadors are on the front line with the local staff, working with ministries how to confront this virus around the globe and i assure you theyre continuing to invest in the health structures, the laboratory, the front line care to insure all of the work that we have done against tb, hiv and malaria continues but that we use our capacity, our laboratories, our clinics, our hospitals that have been built by the American People and the generosity of the American People to really combat this covid19 around the globe. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, doctor. Sonny, please. Thank you, mr. President. For the opportunity to be with you here today and to, i want you to know it is an honor to represent you leading the department of agriculture and represent constituency who are crucial in maintaining our nations food security, enabling us to keep food on the table of our American Families, not only just food, but wholesome and safe food as well. I would like to start my remarks today by echoing what my colleagues, the cdc, have been saying regarding the health and safety of our essential employees across the United States. Cdcs provided strategies there that are aimed at helping our most critical workers both in health care and in Food Processing, quickly and safely return to work after potential exposure to covid19, provided those workers are symptomfree and this guidance will help these Critical Industries in the food sector protect the health and safety of essential workers while keeping critical functions working throughout the covid19 response. As we know any employee who develops symptoms while on the job should go home up immediately and interim guidance is in line with cdcs recommendations for Health Care Workers, caring for those sick with covid19. We appreciate the dedication and commitment of all of the brave men and working women working to keep their communities fed. Well continue to work with the cdc to keep those individuals as safe as possible during these challenging times. In that vein there has been a lot happening this week as covid19 is impacting Food Processing facilities as you know. For americans who may be worried about access to good food because of this, i want to assure you the American Food supply is strong, resilient, and safe. In fact our Food Supply Chain has shown tremendous agility and shifting production and logistics, suddenly from restaurant and institutional settings to retail settings. To all the employers out there in this sector, it is critical that you follow cdc guidelines and guidance and best practices to keep all of your employees and people safe and healthy. To employees and local Public Health officials, advising them, the cdc has issued guidelines on how to mitigate a situation, if you have a positive case in one of your facilities. We need our local Health Authorities and our state Health Authorities to do everything they can to balance the demand of keeping our facilities operational and our Critical Industries going while at the same time keeping the health and safety of employees as a top priority as well as our communities. So i want also to take this time to thank all of our critical essential Food Supply Chain workers. The entire country is counting on these patriotic individuals by doing the work in our Food Supply Chain. These dedicated workers include obviously farmers and producers but also processers, truckers and Grocery Store workers as you know. America is depending on whether you have the food we need to feed our families and youre the ones making that happen, thank you. As an entire nation were truly thankful for the work youre doing and we recognize youre the true patriotic heroes during this National Emergency along with our Health Care Workers. Before i sign off here, mr. President , i want to remind you, all of us of one more thing. In the United States we have plenty of food for all of our citizens. I want to be clear. The Bare Store Shelves you may see in some cities in the country are demand issue, not a supply issue. The way food is prepared and packaged to be sold in a restaurant or a school is significantly different than the way it is packaged for you to buy in the Grocery Store. Our supply chain is sophisticated, efficient, integrated and synchronized and it has taken us a few days to relocate the miss alignment between institutional settings and grocery settings but that does not mean we dont have enough food in this country to feed the American People. You might think of it as an interstate. When it is flowing along well and you have a crash in one place, it backs up and that is what happened in the Food Supply Chain but were working through that. All this, through all of this our Food Supply Chain has proven to be very resilient just like American People. To the extent we have challenges, we have and continue to work through it all together and we can and we will get through this with a whole of american approach, mr. President , Critical Partnership between state and local Health Officials, management of companies and the employees and we will meet any challenges we face by working together. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. Thank you very much, and before the Vice President comes up i just wanted to say, speaking of sonny, china has paid us billions of dollars, many, many billions of dollars in tariffs which weve distributed, some to the farmers because they were targeted. We have many billions of dollars being held by sonny, i told him to distribute much of that money to the farmers. Our farmers were targeted and now theyre benefiting by the amount that they were targeted. And we are very honored to do that and sonny, you will start that process very soon. You will let the farmers know . Nobody can take advantage of our farmers. So we have a lot of money weve taken in from china well be distributing that money from from sonny to the farmers and there is tremendous money over and above that that money was paid directly into the treasury of the United States. This has never happened to china before. They never gave us 10 cents. Now theyre paying us billions of dollars and we appreciate it so thank you very much, sonny. Great job. Mike, please. Thank you, mr. President. The White House Coronavirus task force met today. It is reported to us that weve conducted and completed 3,324,000 tests across the nation. More than 619,000 americans have tested positive but as you reflected yesterday when we welcomed coronavirus survivors here to the white house from across the country, more than 45,000 americans have fully recovered. Sadly we mourn the loss of more than 27,000 of our countrymen. Our hearts are with their families and with the families of all of those that continue to struggle, with serious consequences of this illness but as dr. Birx just reflected despite the heartbreaking losses, were getting there, america. Because of the efforts of people all across this country to put into practice the president s coronavirus guidelines, because of their adherence to the direction of state and local authorities, as dr. Birx just reflected, we see great signs of progress from the west coast to the east coast. President trump has directed our team to develop new guidelines so that well be presented tomorrow, to our nations governors and released to the American People thereafter. The American People will be encouraged to know that as we stand here today, 24 of the counties of this country have no reported coronavirus cases. In fact, half of the states in america have less than 2500 cases per state. This is a great tribute to the efforts by the people of those communities. But as the president suggested when we unveil the guidelines that the team has been working to present tomorrow to our nations governors, were going to reflect on the fact that as the president said there will be areas of the country that will require continued mitigation and strong efforts and there will be other areas of the country that will be given guidance for greater flexibility. The president has so directed our team. When we think of more than 619,000 americans having tested positive, more than 45,000 having recovered, we wanted to announce today that the fda recently announced efforts to facilitate the development and access to convalescent plasma, mr. President. Youve spoken about this people who have recovered from the coronavirus have antibodies in your bloodstream that can attack the virus. The mayo clinic today is working with the red cross to make sure that coronavirus patients have access to the convalescent plasma treatments and over 1000 institutions across america have joined this program and we want to urge every american who has recovered from the coronavirus for at least two and preferably four weeks, to contact your local blood or Plasma Donation Center and arrange to donate. It is one more way that the American People can do their part and step forward and, thousands have already done so and we know that tens of thousands will join them. On the subject much supplies, mr. President , i will be very brief because you detailed a great amount. As the president mentioned the air bridge is completed 44 flights, 56 more are scheduled but on the subject of facial masks which are so important for the protection of critical infrastructure, pleased to report that the average daily delivery through the commercial networks of our air bridge is 22 million facial masks coming into the marketplace. The average inventory in the network over a sevenday period is 80 Million Masks and fema is actually working as we speak to move facial masks to priority infrastructure, food supply, firstresponders. There will be 6. 5 Million Masks that go out before the end of this week. An additional 20 million before april the 20th. Then well be adding 6. 5 million each and every week. At the president s direction were going to insure all of those that work in food supply, all of those firstresponders have access to masks and were increasing those every day. Finally, i know i speak for the president when i say how proud we are of all of our healthcare workers across the country and how proud we are of the men and women in uniform. Our medical professionals who have been deployed across the nation, literally by the thousands. In fact as we stand here today, 576 doctors, nurses and other military medical professionals have been deployed to 13 hospitals across the nation, 10 in new york, and one in connecticut, texas, louisiana each and as the president reflected a few days ago, because of we did not have the, happily did not have the demand on the Javits Center around on the comfort in new york city, at president s direction we have deployed doctors and nurses from those two facilities to hospitals. In fact the president and i were just speaking to mayor de blasio just before we came out and he expressed his great admiration and appreciation for the relief that these medical military personnel have provided to incredibly dedicated people in our hospitals, 258 medical personnel just yesterday were deployed off the ship and out of the Javits Center into new york. With that, mr. President , i will step aside but it is remarkable to think of all we accomplished over the last month since you first issued the president ial guidelines for america. The truth is, because of what the American People have done over the last 30 days, we are slowing the spread. We are insuring that every American Family have access to the health care that we want any member of our family to have with the greatest health care proeggs professionals in the world. Were saving lives and healing our land. We have want to thank the American People for all you have done and tomorrow well be presenting new guidance to the governors of this country, how we build on our progress and reopen america in a safe and responsible way. Reporter recess appointsment, if i could . Steve please. Reporter you mentioned possibility of adjourning both chambers about of congress. Can you explain what you meant by this. Very simple if they dont act on people we need, we need them anyway, we need them because of the pandemic, we do something i prefer not doing which i should do i will do if i have to. Kaitlin, go ahead. Reporter question for you, call with Business Leaders today they said testing has got to be ramp up significantly before the feel comfortable reopening stores and restaurants, what not. Isnt that what Health Officials and state governors are that is what i want to. We have great states. We have want the state to administer these tests for the most part. Were standing behind them. We have great tests. We have more testing than any country in the world by far. We have the best tests of any country in the world nobody has the quality of tests, if you look at abbott what they have come up with in a short period of time. They have been incredible. Roche has been incredible. We have the best tests in the world. Were working very much with the governors of the states. We want them to do it. Were not running a parking lot in arkansas. Well not be running a parking lot where you have a walmart which has been great by the way, walmart has done a fantastic job but where you have a Testing Center and running that pro washington, d. C. The states are much better equipped to do it. Were working with the states. Were standing behind the states. Were working closely with the governors in terms of that, getting additional equipment. It used to be three, four weeks ago, two weeks ago, could we get more ventilators, more ventilators, right . We got them ventilators, and you dont hear that anymore. Pretty amazing what weve been able to do. Go ahead, john. Reporter [inaudible] firstresponders, Health Care Workers who have when will it be widespread enough so Companies Feel comfortable enough being open . I think companies will determine that. The governors will determine that. And federal government. If were not happy well take very strong action against a state or a governor. If were not happy with the job governor is doing well let them know about it. As you know we have very strong action we can take, including a closedown. We dont want to do that. Were working with governors and working closely with the governors. The relationship has been very good. The Vice President had a lot of conversations over the last two weeks with either 50 or almost 50 governors on every conversation and they have been really positive conversations. Reporter [inaudible] we have the right to do whatever we want but we wint do that. We have the right to close down what theyre doing if we want to do that but we dont want to do that. I dont think there will be any reason to do that but we have the right to do that. Steve . Reporter mr. President , why did you have name added to Coronavirus Relief checks . I dont know too much about it, but i understand my name is there. I dont know where theyre going, how theyre going. I do understand it is not delaying anything and im satisfied with that. I dont imagine it is a big deal. Im sure people will be very happy to get a big be fat, beautiful check and my name is on it. Go ahead, please. Go ahead, please, please. Go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President , dr. Birx said rhode island is seeing increase in cases people coming from boston and new york. You said you would like to reopen states before may 1. How will you stop a second people traveling between states, how will you control the flow of people well the governors can control that flow as an example. I saw a little while ago it was reported that certain borders are being controlled already by states. Theyre starting to take control of their borders which is good. So they will be controlling. They may do testing for people wanting to come in. I read that about rhode island. So they have to watch it. They have to be very careful. Yeah, please . Reporter mr. President , reopening the country again you said along with other nations, what form would it take . Are you considering also relaxing the border between canada and u. S. . So our relationship with canada is very good. Well talk about that. It will be one of the early borders to be released. Canada is doing well. Were doing well. Well see. After the some point well be doing that. Meantime nations that are heavily infected, we have a lot of nations heavily infected. Some are getting better. Some are still on the way up unfortunately. Were keeping strong borders with those nations but with canada were talking about different things. Yeah, please. Reporter you said evidence suggests that nationwide we passed peak on new cases . What are your evidence for that . Were looking at numbers. Were looking at our graphs. Were looking at models. Were getting a great response from deborah and tony and from many professionals working. We have great professionals working with us. I think based on that were doing very well. Based on that, it looks like were headed absolutely in the right direction but some states are looking at other states an theyre saying, i cant imagine what theyre going through because theyre not in that position. Theyre in very good shape. I would say we have 20 states at least but you have really 29 that are in extremely good shape. You have others getting much better. I think with almost few exceptions you have every state that is either doing better on the way to doing better. Yeah, please. Go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President. On your threat to adjourn or congress, clearly you have the power, article 2, section 3, but that would be quite radical to do. Earlier last month you were in the oval office talking about now is not the time for partisanship. How will that act lower the partisanship in this town and could it potentially hinder your ability to get something done on coronavirus . Well it is, look, it has been a very partisan government for a long period of time, not just this administration. You can go back until the last two administrations, youve seen a lot of partisanship. You would know you would think we wouldnt have. As an example with the paycheck plan, that is going so well, it is so smooth, so beautiful, almost without a hitch, all of that money is being distributed to Small Businesses. Theyre giving it to their employees. It is keeping them ready viable, when we open and now it has been so good, it is almost depleted and we want to replenish it. Around we cant get the democrats to approve it. That is a program they and everybody else admit are great. So you do have partisanship. We have been trying for years to get people approved for positions. People have left, one man left a law firm. One man left a big chain. He was very successful executive. He left. It was two years ago. We have people that have been waiting for three years. And we cant get them approved by the democrats in the senate because theyre taking so long to approve our judges. Now you have to tell you, that im totally in favor of what mitch is doing with judges because that is always seems to be a priority and it is a very important priority. I think it is one of the great trademarks of this administration. Weve approved record numbers of federal judges and appellate judges and two Supreme Court judges, but rather than approving somebody who is highly qualified, somebody that Everybody Knows is going to be approved, rather than going quickly, they take the maximum amount of time, whatever that time may be and what theyre doing by doing that is taking days to approve somebody that could be approved in a quick vote. People that get phenomenal reviews in committee are going maximum number of hours and what they do, there is only so many hours in a day. Now we could have said, lets stay. I would have been in favor of that. They didnt choose to do it. But i have a very strong power. I would rather not use that power but we have way over 100 people that we very badly need in this administration, that should have been approved a long time ago and one of them is the head of voice of america. If you look at what theyre doing, and what theyre saying about our country, it is a disgrace, the people that are running that. We have somebody that is really good, really talented and that loves our country. And i want to get these people approved. That is one of many. We have professionals. Sonny youve been waiting how long have you been waiting for the man were talking about coming in . 2 1 2 years. So sonny purdue happens to be here talking about something else, youve been waiting for one of the most important positions as secretary of agriculture is the position. It is distribution. We need it now. Were talking about shelves. Were talking about cupboards. He needs it. He has been waiting, he didnt know he would get this question, youve been waiting 2 1 2 years. The person is exceptional. That person left a very good job and it is embarrassing to me. He say do you think you get that man approved . He has been saying that for a long time. It is because of the democrats and what were doing and i think anybody here would do it, judges are a priority. Federal judge is going to sit for 50 years potentially, young judge, will be sitting, that is always going have to be a priority but because theyre taking so much time in approving theyre trying to put us through the mill. That is, when you talk about partisanship and it has never ever happened before. You can look at every administration in the history of this country, nobody, nobody has ever had hundreds of people not approved after 3 1 2 years. Go ahead, please. Reporter timeline for that. Well they know. They have been warned an being warned right now f they dont approve it well go this route. Well be challenged in court. Well see who wins but when the occur hears that we are not getting people approved as sonny would say 2 1 2 years of person position we needed this crisis. We needed these people before but now we really need these process. Reporter back to the numbers for a second, talk about the numbers, jobless claims will come out tomorrow, likely five million more americans putting their names in for Employment Benefits yet there are still a couple thousand people as well dying a day because of coronavirus. When you talk about opening up the american economy, at least in parts now, how do you balance that decision out given both of those figures . Well, we are. There has to be a balance. You know, there is also death involved in keeping it closed. I have gone over this with you. I believe this so strongly. When you look at mental health, when you look at suicides, suicide hotlines, which are exploding. People losing their jobs. You look at drugs, people didnt take drugs, now theyre becoming drugaddicted. Theyre going through a problem, they have no job, they have no money coming in other than money were getting them. We opened up the coffers to a large extent. Were helping people. I wish the democrats would help us a little bit with it because they should. It is purely partisan what theyre doing. It is bad for our country, you know there is death by doing, by having this stronglyclosed country. We have to get back to work. With all of that being said, were going to start with states and with governors that have done a great job and they are going to open it up as they see fit. Well be right line them. Well be working, supplying them with things if we dont have them. We want them to have them. Well be helping them with ventilators after this is over so they cant say, oh the federal government, we want them to have, they have had a lot of options, many of the governors had a lot of options over the years to buy ventilators. They didnt choose to do it. Well be helping them fill up their stockpiles. Well have plenty. And as i said im very proud to do it. Well be helping other nations. Well be helping italy, spain, france, other nations. And were going to be helping them strongly. I think russia is going to need ventilators. Theyre having a hard time in moscow. Were going to help them. Well help other countries that need ventilators. We have a lot. You see it with general motors. You see it with other countries that are producing well have hundreds of thousands of ventilators a great thing to have. In the back, please. Is anybody freezing . You know it is very cold out here. We can leave early, right . Couple much more, go ahead, please. Reporter thank you, mr. President , why do we have 20 of the worlds death from the coronavirus and only 4 of the worlds population . You dont know what you have. You think youre getting honest numbers from some of these countries. Do you believe the numbers in the vast country called china and certain number of cases . Does anybody really believe that . Heres the story. We report everything. Were reporting cases and our reporting is god. Were reporting every death. I see this morning new york added 3,000 deaths because they died and theyre now saying rather than it was heart attack, theyre saying a heart attack caused by this so theyre adding if you look at it, thats it. And everything we have is documented, reported. And what they are doing is just in case, theyre calling it, and that is okay, thats okay. But we have more cases because we do more reporting. We have more cases because everything is down. But does anybody really believe the numbers of some of these countries that youve been watching and youve been reporting on and then it is like, they didnt have the big thing . There have been some really, really bad, heavily, really, some countries that are in big, big trouble an theyre not reporting the facts and thats up to them. All i know is we report the facts and were a country that is getting better. John, go ahead. Reporter mr. President , multiple sources are telling fox news today that the United States government now has high confidence that while the coronavirus is a naturallyoccurring virus it eminated from a virology lab in wuhan. Because of lax safety protocols an intern was infected who later infected her boyfriend and then went to the wet market in wuhan where it began to spread. Does that correspond what you have heard from officials . I dont want to say that, john, more and more were hearing story. When you say multiple sources that is case where you can use sources but were doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened. Go ahead, please. Reporter in your many conversations with president xi, mr. President , did you ever discuss with them state department concerns lax safety protocols reported to the state department from the embassy in beijing about the laboratory . I dont want to discuss with him what i discussed about laboratory. It is inappropriate. Go ahead. Reporter from australia. There are have been calls in our current through for Prime Minister Scott Morrison make funding for w. H. O. Conditional on reforms to the organization. I wanted to get your thoughts on that, and if you have any advice for mr. Morrison . I feel very badly about the World Health Organization but it has been a tool of china. It has been as i say totally china centric. You take a look everything that has happened. They have been wrong. I was all for it at beginning. What do i know . World health organization, isnt that wonderful. Then you start to see all the mistakes. They didnt want us to close our borders to china, to wuhan specifically. They didnt want our borders closed. You take a look. Mike was there. Were all there and theyre crist sizing me for closing the border. I did that very early. I did that very early while nancy pelosi was trying to have in San Francisco parties in chinatown because she thought it would be great. She wanted to show this thing doesnt exist. These are people, we have some politicians on the other side that dont know what theyre doing. Look at timelines. You have to look at some timelines, but the World Health Organization just like the world trade organization, im telling you i call them, they have been treating the United States for decades so badly and they have been so in favor of china. China took off when it joined the world trade organization. Because of whats happened. Think of it, theyre considered a developing nation and because and were not. Were a developing nation too in my book, okay . Were developing too. But the fact is we have been treated so badly by these organizations, and believe me, im looking at that one too. Were winning a lot of lawsuits right now that we never won before in the past. Were winning a lot of money that we never won in the past. That is with the world trade. But with the World Health Organization, whats happened there is a disgrace. Here is the other thing. We pay 400 to 500 million a year, china is paying 38, 39 and 40 million a year. And, it us like they control this group. I could do that too if i wanted devote full time to it or have very capable people dealing with dr. Tedros, okay . I could do it too. I could do very well with that but there is something going on, something going on that is very bad. Now the 500 million we save well determine, well make a determination over a little period of time. But theyre going to either have to make massive changes, i dont even know if they will be automobile to do that or were going to give money to people, we want to help people. What we do in africa with aids, people have no idea what we do and money we spent. We were talking about it the other day, doctor. We are spending billions of dollars to help people in the case of, one that dr. Birx is very much involved in, aids, billions of dollars. You know what it is a great thing. Nobody talks about it. Nobody gives us credit. We do that and do it very directly but were spending billions of dollars to help people live and all over the world but were spending 500 million to the World Health Organization and theyre something very bad going on. You know what . Ive gotten very much involved. It has been going on for a long period of time and we dont want to be the suckers anymore. So it is cold out. Well talk to you tomorrow. Big day tomorrow. Very big day. Reporter if dr. Tedros is removed would you change your mind . Thats a good question. Liz okay, that is the president wrapping up the Coronavirus Task force presser. Im elizabeth macdonald. Welcome to the evening edit. For reaction White House Press secretary sarah sanders. Basically sarah, great to hae you on. Nine states with less than 1000 cases. Half the country has less than 2500 cases. The reopening plan may be announced tomorrow. The president says ramping up protective kits, personal protective gear, phase opening of churches schools, restaurants. Your take on the plan that could come tomorrow . Look i think the president is doing all the right things in terms of taking in massive amount of data both from Health Care Professionals and Health Care Experts like dr. Birx, dr. Fauci as well as taking in information from his economic advisors. The president is very focused on doing two things, saving american lives and saving american livelihoods. Weve seen that in every action that he is taking. He continues to do that. I have no doubt that he is going to continue going through this process over the next 24 hours. Maybe they roll out the plan tomorrow, maybe they push it off but one thing i know for sure they will do everything they can to make sure they are making the best decision to protect the American People both in terms of health care as well as in terms of just Overall Economic impact. Liz were hearing that germany is looking to reopen, possibly by april 20th. Governor cuomo moving on an executive order today, for people to wear facemasks when theyre outside in new york. We know about the big constitutional tenth amendment fight but, sarah, were seeing pushback in various states in places like mississippi, in florida, in michigan, massive protests against the democrat Governor Whitmer there for draconian shelter at home orders. She is being accused after major power grab. She banned gardening and stopped businesses from selling nonessential goods. So your take, there is push back inside of states right now against what various governors have done. I think that the most important thing we need to do as americans is remember the tremendous pressure that our leaders are under. They are trying to make the best decisions possible. This is an unprecedented time and theyre trying to do everything they can to make sure theyre protecting individuals. Certainly nobody wants their rights unfringed upon. At the same time we want to do what we can to protect the most vulnerable in our society and i think the actions that youre seeing from the president and from governors is to do that. And i think a sometime right now, the best thing we can do, instead of attacking one another, trying to fine a vision, look for reasons to come together. Weve seen remarkable moments across this country of neighbors helping one another, kepts stepping companies stepping up big and small, to help business across this country. We need to look at a lot more opportunities like that. Lets look for ways america can come together. Pray for our doctors, nurses, our president , our governors. This is time to come together, not look for reasons to fight one another or tear each other apart. Liz as former White House Press secretary you have been at the forefront of a lot of fights and youve been involved in fights too. Democrat House Speaker nancy pelosi is attacking the president over cutting funding to w. H. O. , saying it was quote, almost sinful the problems of nationwide testing. Democrat adam schiff is talking about wanting to probe the Administration Response still. Congressman jim jordan, republican, is saying there is a big task force not working, it is congress. Fighting inside of congress right now, your reaction . Im not surprised. There is never a moment when there isnt fighting in congress. Unfortunately we learned a long time ago a lot of democrats in Congress Care a lot more about destroying this president than they do building this country up. We saw it day after day in the time in the white house every day since. Democrats like nancy pelosi and adam schiff have a singular focus. They wake up every morning and go to bed every single night looking for ways to destroy this president. Instead of waking up every morning, instead of going to bed every night looking for ways to build the country up, looking for ways to help the president. They have to stop coming after him every single time he tries to do something to help people. Instead find out ways they can join in, being part of the solution, instead part of an attack squad that spends every single second going after the president. Liz the Senate Homeland security run by ron johnson, senator ron johnson is probing both the w. H. O. And china. China is now rebuking the president for pushing back to suspend funding to the w. H. O. China is not saying whether it will step in and help fund the w. H. O. Your reaction on what we just heard from john roberts and fox news, his question, to the president . The president is saying he is not going to discuss right now what he discussed with the leader of china, when it comes to growing concern that this coronavirus, sars cov2 came from wuhan or another lab in china or may have been reverse engineered and has different genetic strains inside it, what we thought to be from the wuhan wet market. So your reaction to the joint chiefs of staff, saying there is concern about that. Secretary of state, mike pompeo saying china will not release any details about the virus and its origin . I think certainly one the important factors here we have a president who is tough on china and if anyone is to blame in this process china has certainly not stepped up they have not been coming forth with information. There were a lot of things they could have done on the front end to prevent this becoming Global Pandemic it is today. President has been tough and Holding China accountable for any actions that they took or didnt take for that matter that could have prevented the situation that were all in right now. Youve seen him do that time and time again even smaller eschews. Much less, how tough he will be on china as well learn more and more about ways they could have prevented where we are right now. Liz sarah sanders, thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Liz for his reaction, same here. For his reaction, lets bring in former navy seal, he is an author, he is republican from texas dan crenshaw. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Great to be with you. Thanks for having me. Liz congressman this is turning now into a story of reopening our economy, it is a story what is exactly going on in laboratories in china. Studying pathogens at unsafe, biosafety levels. There is growing concern that this virus looks like it may have escaped from a lab if you listen to scientists writing in various medical journals and scientists around the world. Certainly in places like asia and, out, countries in asia are pushing back against chinas narrative that it is natural in origin. Your reaction to that story . Looks like it has a lot of legs to it. I wish democrats and media would push back against chinas lies. We are as republicans in congress. Ultimately it came out after lab or not, here is what we do know. China deliberately hid the virus and deliberately allowed the spread of it around the world. We could have prevented a lot of death and destruction that we have seen. We do know that for sure. You asked about reopening the economy. That is not an option. We have to. And we can. We have to tell people the truth about what is about to happen. We have to be able to live our lives and reopen society alongside fighting pandemic. You can do that. We have to remind people why we flattened the curve in the first place t was to allow the Health System to catch up and not get overwhelmed. It was strained but not broken. Related here in houston, our Health Care System is empty. Our hospitals are completely empty. Were looking at peaks obsessing when the peak is reality that peak is very, very low and werent overwhelm the hospital system. We have to encourage leaders to take data into account and make better judgments accordingly. I worry greatly that were not striking that balance. Im glad to hear that the white house is coming out with a staged reopening plan. Our own governor plans the same thing. Local leaders across the country have to think harder about what makes sense and what doesnt. Talking about michigan a week ago banned the sale of seeds and gardening. That is insane. She deserves people protesting her. We have to be smart about this, be honest with people. How to mitigate the risk and live with recivilian sy as American People. We can do it. I see it every day the ground level and were going to do it. Liz here is the next shoe to drop in this developing story. This is going to turn into a emerging debt crisis story. Were seeing countries 100 countries to reach out to the imf to access one trillion dollars in loan. We had rolling debt crisis hit mexico, hit russia in decades past. Mexico has a severe, central america, growing covid19 outbreak. Are you for restricting our borders permanently until all of this is under control . Because we see china doing that . We see countries in asia doing that. We see countries in europe saying well sit tight and restrict our borders from now . That is one of the first actions taken and probably will be one of the last to be lifted, for obvious and good reason. So you know, again, the im absolutely in favor of what we need to do to keep the American People safe and prevent further outbreaks seeding into the United States. Liz we are, i want to turn back to china. Will you or are you hearing anybody on the house side doing what ron johnson is doing in the senate, and that is investigating both china and the w. H. O. . Because state Department Officials had warned about poor security at the Wuhan Institute of virology in 2018 and an article in, a group of scientists reported in the journal nature medicine last month that they cannot rule out that it could have been an accidental release of this virus by chinese researchers. Congressman, we saw that with the sars virus in 2003. It accidentally escape ad lab in china and killed eight people. Off the top of my head i cant tell you who is sponsoring those bills in the house but i assure you there will be companion bills to that. There should be an investigation into china panned how they hid the virus and why. I will be sponsoring a bill that would give executive authority to disallow chinese officials into the United Nations if they had been a part of propaganda techniques that they did. Liz okay. Congressman, thank you so much. We have a hard wrap there. Great to see you. Im elizabeth macdonald. Thanks for joining the evening edit. Well stay on the developing story tomorrow night. We hope you have a good evening. . Are we there yet . [ ] lou good evening, President Trump spending much of his time and energy on preparation for the reopening of americas economy. President trump speaking to a number of members of his economic revival institute. A list of 200 Industry Leaders encompassing financial services, retail, healthcare, big tech and more, the president s discussions a precursor on a larger meeting tomorrow on the opening of the economy with the governors of all 50 states attending by telecould be forensic and about when by