President trump thank you very much everybody. Thank you very much. Before i begin, i would like to extend my deepest con doleancees to the families in milwaukee, wisconsin. A wicked murderer opened fire at a Brewing Company plant, taking the lives of five people. A number of people were wounded, some badly wounded. Our hearts break for them and our loved ones. We send our condolences and its a terrible thing. Terrible thing. So our hearts go out to the people of wisconsin and to the families. Thank you very much. I have just received another briefing from a great group of talented people on the virus that is going round to various parts of the world. We have from early decisions, decisions that were ridiculed at the beginning. We closed up our borders from flights coming in from certain areas, areas that were hit by the coronavirus and hit pretty hard and we did it very early. A lot of people didnt think we should do it early and we did. And it is a good thing. The importance is the health and safety of American People and thats the way i viewed it. Because of all we have done the risk remains very low. We have the greatest experts in the world, really in the world right here. People that are called upon other countries when things like this happen. We are ready to adapt and do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads, as most of you know, the level that we have had in our country is very low and those people are Getting Better or we think in almost all cases, we have a total of 15. We took in some from japan. You heard about that. They are american citizens and they are in quarantine and they are Getting Better, too. But we thought we had an obligation to do that. We thought there could be as many as 42. And it was just an obligation we felt that we had. We could have left them and that would have been very bad, very bad, American People. And they are recovering. Of the 15 people, the organization 15 as i call them, eight of them have returned to their homes to stay in their homes until fully recovered. One is in the hospital and five have fully recovered. And one is we think in pretty good shape and its in between hospital and going home. We have a total of 15 people and they are in the process of recovering with some already having fully recovered. We started out by looking at certain things. We have been working with the hill, very, very carefully and very strongly and i think we have good bipartisan spirit. We were asking for 2. 5 billion and we think thats a lot, but the democrats and i guess senator schumer wants to have much more than that. And well take it. Well take it. If they want to give more. Well do more. We will spend more. Hopefully we wont spend so much because we have taken it down to a minimum and we have had tremendous success. At the same time, you have outbreaks in some countries, italy and various countries. China, you know about, where it started. And i spoke with president xi and he is working very hard, he is working very, very hard. And if you can count on the reports coming out of china, that spread has gone down quite a bit. The infection has gone down over the last two days as opposed to getting larger. It has gotten smaller and we can be reliable and seems to have gotten quite a bit smaller. With respect to the money thats being negotiated. They can do whatever they want. We are requesting 2. 5. Some republicans would like us to get 4 and some democrats would like us to get 8. 5 and we will be satisfied. We are bringing in a special lift tomorrow who works at the state department. Very, very tremendously talented in doing this. I wanted you to understand something that shocked me and i spoke with dr. Fauci on this and i was really amazed and most people amazed. The flu in our country kills from 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year. That was shocking to me. And so far, if you look at what we have with the 15 people and they are recovering, one is pretty sick. But hopefully will recover. But the others are in great shape. Think of that 25,000 to 69,000 over the last 10 years and lost 360,000. These are people that have died from the flu. Hey, did you get the flu shot. And that is something. What we have done, we have stopped nonu. S. Citizens coming in from china. And we are screening people. Screening people coming into the country from infected areas. We have quarantined those infected and those at risk. We have a lot of great quarantined facilities. And the professionals can speak to you. The vaccine is coming along well. And this is something we can develop fairly rapidly a vaccine for the future and coordinate with the support of our partners. We have great relationships with all of the countries that we are talking about, some fairly large number of countries. Some with one person and many countries have no problem whatsoever. And well see what happens. But we are very, very ready for this, whether its going to be a breakout of larger proportions or whether or not we are at that very low level and want to keep it that way. As they get better, we take them off the list and pretty soon be at five people and just one or two people over the next short period of time. We have had very good luck. Johns hopkins is highly respected, great place, they did a study, comprehensive, the countrys best and worst prepared for an epidemic and the United States is we are rated number one, rated number one for being prepared. This is a list of different countries. I dont want to get in your way especially since you do just a good job. This is a list. The United States is rated number one, most prepared. United kingdom, australia, thailand, finland, sweden. These are the best countries in the world by johns hopkins. We are doing Something Else that is important to me because he has been terrific and very good on health care and we really followed him very closely, a lot of states do, mike pence, they accomplished Great Health Care and a lot of the other states having looked to and changed their statements and want to base it on the indiana system. And he is very expert in the field. And what i have done, im going to be announcing exactly right now that im going to be put our Vice President mike pence in charge and mike will be working with the professionals, doctors. The team is brilliant. I spent a lot of time with the team but they are totally brilliant and mike is going to be in charge and mike will report back to me. But he has a certain talent for this and i ask mike pence to say a few words. The Vice PresidentPresident Trump has made clear from the first days of this administration we have no higher priority than the safety, security, health and wellbeing of the American People. And from the first word of an outbreak of the coronavirus, the president took steps to protect the American People from the spread of this disease. He encountered those briefly but the travel restrictions and quarantine effort of americans returning, Public Health emergency and establishing the White House Task force are reflective of the urgency that the government has brought to a whole of government approach. As a former governor from the state where the first mers case emerged in 2014. I know full well the importance of president ial leadership and the importance of leadership and the vital role of state and local governments and health thaurts in responding to dangerous Infectious Diseases and i look forward, mr. President , to serving in this role and in bringing together the members of the corona task force, h. H. S. , c. D. C. , department of transportation and state. This team has been at your direction, mr. President , meeting every day since it was accomplished. My role will be to continue bring that Team Together to bring to the president the best options for action to see to the safety and wellbeing and health of the American People and we will be continuing to reach out to governors, state and local officials. In fact, in recent days, the white house met with over 40 state, county and Health Officials in 30 states in how to respond to the potential threat of the coronavirus. We will be working with them in renewed ways to make sure they have the resources to be able to respond and as the president said, we will be adding additional personnel to support our efforts on the president s behalf and working with members of congress to make sure that the resources are available and we will be working very closely with secretary azar and his team that have done an outstanding job to assure the American People have the best information on ways to protect themselves and their families and the public has the most timely information on the potential threat to the American People. Mr. President , as we have been briefed, while the threat to the American Public remains low, the spread of the could reasono ha virus, you have directed to take all steps to ensure the health and wellbeing of the American People and the American People can be confident under your leadership, we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government in coordination with our state and local partners to see to the health and wellbeing and Effective Response to the coronavirus here in the United States of america. With that, the president has asked me to recognize the secretary of health and Human Services and the director of health services. Thank you, mr. President for gt they aring your Public Health experts in keeping america safe and i want to safe i couldnt be more delated that you asked my old friend and colleague to lead this approach with us under the emergency function number eight. As of today, we have 18 cases that have been detected in the United States. With only one new case detected in the last two weeks. We have three cases among americans repatrioted from wuhan and those who have been stuck on the diamond princess in japan. The president s actions have succeeded in buying us invaluable time. This has helped us to contain the virus and prepare for the need we will need to mitigate broader spread of infections. The president s actions with the the scientific advisers have been appropriate and well calibrated. We are grateful to health care workers, first responders, communities have put into the response. Because of this hard work and the president s leadership the immediate risk has been and continues to below. At the same time, what every one of our experts have been saying for more than a month now remains true. The degree of risk can change quickly and we can expect to see more cases in the United States. We have been reminding the American Public that they should be aware of what a broader response would look like. C. D. C. Has recommended that the American Public and state and local governments, businesses and businesses should refresh themselves how they should respond. And encouraging americans to learn what might be necessary to keep themselves in the community safes. This can help the risk to you and your community low. Americans can find useful information at cd drnch. Gov and working with partners to educate them about preparedness. We have begun working with congress to secure the funding. There are five major priorities that the white house made on monday. These priorities are first, expanding our surveillance network, second, support for state and governments network, third and fourth, therapeutic vaccines and fifth, protective equipment like gowns and masks. I will be providing updates. We have had our top Public Health leaders like those joining me today speaking to the public. The Trump Administration is going to be egress iffle transparent keeping the media apprised of the situation. With that, im going to hand it over to the senior career official at the centers for Disease Control the Deputy Director with over 30year career and member of the United StatesPublic Health corps. Thank you so much. This has been a difficult and challenging time and our hearts go out to the individuals who have been directly affected by the virus and to all those who have been working tirelessly in responding to it. Our containment strategy here in the United States has been working and responsible for the low level of cases that wetch so far. However, we do expect more cases. And this is a good time to prepare. As you heard, its the perfect time for businesses, health care systems, universities and schools to look at their pandemic preparedness plans and dust them off and we have more information on how to do that but it is a good time for the American Public to prepare and what it means for you. The coronavirus that we are talking about is a respiratory virus and spread in a similar way to the common cold or to flu. It is spread through coughing and sneezes. Those measures we tell people what to do with the flu are important here. Covering your cough, staying home when you are sick and washing your hands. Tried and true, not very exciting measures, but really important ways that you can present vent the spread of respiratory viruses. The tra recollect ferject tower of what we are looking at is very uncertain but many of the steps we have taken over the past 15 years to prepare for pandemic influenza and our experience going through reminds us of the health care systems, our communities and schools may need to take. We are in this all together, government and public and private sector and we want to make sure you have the best Information Available every day. I want to give you a very quick update my name is dr. Tauchy. Just a very quick update on the countermeasure in the form of vackeeps and they are putics. I have told this audience at a recent press briefing, we had a number of candidates and give you a field of the time frame and what its impact might be now and in subsequent years. We would have a vaccine to see if it induces a response that is protective in three months. I think it will be less than that. It will be probably closer to two months and three months to determine if its safe, which gives us six months. Then you graduate from the trial, which is phase one of 45 people to a trial that involves hundreds to not low thousands of people to determine efficacy. At the earliest, it will take six to eight months. Although this is the fastest that we have gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it would not be any applicable to the epidemic unless we wait for a year to a year and a half. That means two things, the answer to containing Public Health measures. We cannot rely on a vaccine from the next several months to a year. This virus which we think it will happen will go beyond a season and come back and recycle next year, if thats the case, we hope to have a vaccine. They are putics, there are a number of antiviral drugs that are being tested. We initiated a randomized control of a drug trial which has invitro in an animal model and if that is true and drug of standard of care, we will know reason apply soon if it works and if it does, we will have an effective therapy to distribute. \[indiscernible question] mr. President , where do we go from here, u. S. And india relations . President trump we wont talk much about that, i just got back, long flight. Hes a great gentleman, a great leader. Its an incredible country. We were treated very, very well. We really enjoyed it. A lot of tremendous progress was made in terms of relationship. Our relationship is india is extraordinary right now. Well be doing a lot of business with india, theyre sending billions and billions of dollars to the United States. Wed rather talk about this right now. Reporter the c. D. C. Said they believe its inevitable that the virus will spread to the United States and its not a matter of if but when. Do you agree with that . President trump i dont believe its inevitable. Its possible. Could be at a smaller level of a larger level. We have the best people in the world. You see that from the study. We have the best prepared people, the best people in the world. Congress is willing to give us much more than were even asking for, thats nice for a change, but we are totally ready, willing and able. Thats a term we use. Ready, willing and able. Its going to be very well under control. Now it may get a little bigger, may not get bigger at all. Regardless of what happens were totally prepared. Reporter you talked about the travel restrictions from china, at this point has the virus spread at this point, the virus has spread from italy, are you going to restrict from those countries . President trump im the president of the United States. Im not a president of other couldntries. Other countries are very respected for what they do. I want to be responsible for this country. If it means placing a very strong situation on the border so our people cant come in to our country from a country that is infected, were doing that weve done that with countries that are affected. I dont think its right to impose ourselves on others. But if others arent taking care of, if we think theyre doing it incorrectly. Were dealing with world health. C. D. C. Does go around and help other countries, give them recommendations of what to do. Were working on our country, theyre working on their countries. So far its worked out well. Reporter are you considering restricting travel to and from south korea, italy and other countries that have been infected . President trump we may do that, right now its not the right time. We are checking people as they come through specifically for the problem, the problem we are dealing with. Were checking people as they come south korea has been hit hit hard, italy has been hit pretty hard. Its obvious what happened in china. But the numbers are leveling off and going down in china. Well see what happened. Reporter why do they deny theyre going to run point going to have a czar to run thing. President trump im having everybody report to mike. Mike has been very good, very adept, anybody that knows anything about health care they lack at the indiana model and its been a great success. Its a tremendous model in terms of health care and this is really an offshoot of that. So this isnt a czar. Mike seasons a czar. Hes part of the administration. But im having them report to mike, mike will report to me. Theyll also be reporting in some cases to both. Ill be going to meetings quite a bit depending on what they want to do, what message they want to get out. Weve done an extraordinary job. When you look at this country this size, with so many people pouring in, were number one in the world for people coming into a country by far and we have a total of 15 cases, many of which, within a day i will till you most of whom are fully recovered. I think thats really a pretty impressive mark. Now we did take in 40 people that were americans and they are also recovering. But we brought them. In thats a different group. But we felt we had an obligation to american citizens outside of the country that were trying to get back. In we thought that was very important. Reporter the stock market has taken a big hit other the last few days. What can you do about that . And if the c. D. C. Is right that the spread is inevitable, will you be dealing with with stock market issues and economy issues . President trump the stock mark is market is something i know a lot about. I think it took a hit two hit for two reasons, one they looked at the people debating last night and said if thats even possible, they took a hit and then this. I think the stock market will recover. The economy is very strong. Consumer is the strongest its ever been. Our consumers are incredible. Thats why were doing well and other countries have not even before the virus. Other countries have not been doing great. Our consumer is very, very strong, powerful economically. Reporter mr. President. Have you been thinking about any plan that would quarantine cities like they did in china, what would have to happen for that . President trump we do have plans, were working with virtually every state. We do have plans on a larger scale. We dont think were going to need it. But you have to be prepared. Again, congress is talking to us about funding. Were getting far more than what we asked for. I guess the best thing to do is take it. Well take it. Reporter how much money are you willing to give congress . Toip we have to see. But well give money to states. We have hospitals in states that are making rooms available, theyre building quarantine areas to keep people safely. Were working really well with states, thats a big part of it. My attitude if Congress Wants to give us the money so easy, wasnt easy for the wall but we got that one done. They want to give us the money, well take the money. Well just do a good job with it. Reporter mr. President , should americans be going out and getting protective equipment such as masks and so forth and if so, what is the u. S. Doing to boost production of masks. President trump we can get a lot of it, ordered a lot of it in case we need it. We may not need it. But were looking at worst Case Scenario were going to be set very quickly. I dont think well ever be anywhere near that i dont believe well be anywhere near that our borders are very controlled. Our flights in from certain areas are very controlled. I dont think well ever be anywhere near that reporter back to the stock market, travel related stocks have especially been hammered the last couple of days. What would you say to americans out there who are looking forward to the summer, the upcoming months and saying to themselves, should i make my summer plans . Should i travel abroad . President trump hopefully theyll be able to do that we think, we hope itll be in good shape by that time. You know, theyre going to have to remain a little flexible. Travelrelated companies certainly right now that would be they would be hurt. At the same time, this ends. This is going to end. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I think the business affected most will be picked up at a litter date. Right now i think theyre probably not going to be going to china. Not going to certain countries where the problem is far greater than it is in the United States. What its going to do is keep people home. Theyre going to travel to places that we have. We have the greatest its the greatest tourism country in the world. Instead of leaving our country and leaving our shores theyll stay here. When you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, thats a pretty good job weve done. What is your response to Speaker Pelosi saying earlier today that you dont know what youre talking about with the coronavirus and do you want to address critics . President trump i think Speaker Pelosi is incompetent. She lost the congress once, shes going to lose it again. She boosted my poll numbers up 10 point, i never thought id see that. Were leading everybody, dont want to do it that way, its almost unfair. But i think shes incompetent and not thinking about the country. Instead of making a state pt like that where ive been beating her routinely at everything, she should be say, we need to Work Together because we have a big problem potentially, i hope its going to be a very little problem. We have to Work Together. Instead she wants to do the same thing as schumer, the president only asked for 2. 5 billion, he should have 8 billion. This is the first time ive been told to take more. We should be working together. He shouldnt be making statements like that because its so bad for the country. Nancy pelosi, she should go back to her district and clean it up. Its the number one, you look at pever centage down, that was one of the finest in the world now look at whats happening. Im just say, we should all be working together. Shes trying to create a panic. And theres no reason to panic. Because we have done so good. These professionals behind me and over here and over there and back here and some Conference Rooms i just left, a group of 45 people that are the most talented people in the world. Parts of the world are asking us in a very nice way can they partake an help them. So nancy pelosi should she knows. All theyre trying to do is get a political advantage. This isnt about political advantage. Were all trying to do the right thing. They shouldnt be saying this is terrible. President trump isnt asking for enough money. How stupid a thing to say. If they want to give us more money thats ok, well take more money. Some republicans think we should have more money too. Thats ok, well take more money. But they shouldnt demean the people in the United States, theyre the finest in the world. Theyre not demeaning me, theyre demeaning the greatest Health Care Professionals in the world and people who do exactly what were talking about. Your Campaign Today reporter your Campaign Today, sit your opinion or contention that if people have an opinion contrary to yours they should be sued . President trump if theyre completely wrong. But lets see, lets work it through the courts. Thats something much more than an opinion. They did a bad thing. Therell be more coming. Reporter do you think tokyo [inaudible] President Trump i hope. So i like shinzo, a good friend of mine. You have a number of people in japan that have been infected. I hear theyre doing a very good job. I think theyre going to handle it very well. Its a little tight. They spent billions of dollars building one of the most beautiful venues ive ever seen and your Prime Minister is very proud of it. I hope its going to be fine. We hope it will. Reporter thank you very much, mr. President. The doctor at c. D. C. Talked about dusting off preparedness plans. Coming from you it has more weight. Do you feel like u. S. Schools should be preparing for a coronavirus threat . President trump i would think so, yes. I havent spoken specifically about that with the various doctors but i would think so, yes. Every aspect of our society should be prepared. I dont think its going to come to that, especially with the fact that were going down, not up. Were going very substantially down, not up. I think schools should be preparing. Get ready just in case. The words are just in case. We dont think well be there, dont think well be anywhere close. But some countries are starting to go in the other direction. This will end. This will end. You look at flu season, i said 26,000 people, i never heard of a number like that. 26,000 people going up to 69,000 people, 69,000 people die every year from from the flu. Think of that its incredible. So far, the results of all of this that everybody is reading about, and part of the thing is you want to keep it the way it is. You dont want to see panic. Because theres no reason to be panicked about. But when i mentioned the flu i said, actually, i asked the very doctors, is this like flu . Because people die from the flu. And this is very unusual. And it is a little bit different but in some ways its easier, in some ways its a little tougher. But we have it so well under control, we really have done a very good job. Go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President. You mentioned the stock mark, to go back to that to be clear the dow jones dropped more than 2,000 point this is week have you suggest that was overblown . Are Financial Markets overreacting . President trump i think the Financial Markets are upset when they look at the democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves and they say, if we have to have a president like this and theres always a possibility, its an election, you know who knows what happens, i think were going to win, i think well win by a lot. But when they look at the statements made by the people standing behind those podiums, i think that is a huge effect. Reporter so it doesnt have to do with the coronavirus . President trump i think it did. But theyre seeing the potential, again, i think were going to win, i feel very confident of it. Weve done everything and much more than i said we were going to do look at what weve done. What weve done is incredible with the tax cuts and regulation cuts and rebuilding our military, taking care of vets, getting them choice and accountability. All of the things we have done, protecting our second amendment. The second amendment, theyre going to destroy the second amendment. People look at that, they say, this is not good. So you add that in. I really believe thats a factor. But no, this is what were talking about is the virus. Thats what were talking about. I do believe in terms of cnbc and fox business, i think i do believe thats a factor. I think after i win the election i think he stock market will boom like its never boomed before. Just like it did, by the way, after i won the last election. The stock market the day after went up like a rocket ship. At what point would you be considering loosening the travel restrictions . President trump when were at a point where we we dont have a problem. Were not going to loose then travel restribses. Had i mot made mike alluded to it. Had i not made a decision early on to not take people from a certain area, we would not be talking this way, i took a lot of heat. Some people called me racist because i made a decision so early. And we had never done that as a country before, let alone early. So it was a bold decision. It turned out to be a good decision. But i was criticized by the democrats. They called me racist because i made that decision if you can believe that. We have to all Work Together. We cant say bad things and especially when we have the best Team Anywhere in the world and we really gave it an early start. We gave it a very early start. Reporter the system called for cuts to the c. D. C. , we heard a lot today about how these officials are excellent. Did this give you pause . President trump no, we can get money and increase staff, we know all the good people. A question i asked the doctors before, some of the people we cut they havent been used for many, many years. If we ever need them we can get them very quickly. Rather than spending the money, and im a businessperson. I dont like having thousands of people around when you dont need them. When we need them we can get them back very quickly. For instance were bringing some people in tomorrow that are already in this great government that we have. Very specifically for this. We can build up very, very quickly and weve already done that we have built up. We have a great staff. Using mike, im doing that because east in the administration. And hes very good at doing what he does. And doing as it relates to this. Reporter so far theyre only testing less than 500 people an Health Officials are questioning whether thats enough compared to other countries who have tested tens of thousands of people. Are you planning to test more people . President trump were testing everybody that we need to test. Were find very little problem. Very little problem. Now, you treat this like a flu. In fact, i might ask one of the doctors to come up and explain it, you want to wash your hands a lot, want to say, if youre not feeling well if you feel you have a flu, stay inside. Quarantine yourself. Dont go outside. But there are certain steps that you can take that we wont even be necessary. In many cases, when you catch this, its very light, you dont know theres a problem. Sometimes they just get the sniffles. Sometimes they just get something where theyre not feeling quite right. And sometimes they feel really bad. But thats a little bit like the flu. Its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And well essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairy quick manner. Two weeks ago, mr. President. Your acting o. M. B. Director was in this room talking about this coming year, g. D. P. Growth, 3 . We talked about the effects of coronavirus on the supply chain and declines in the financial market. Are you still going to see that kind of Economic Growth . President trump we have tremendously low unemployment. Its the lowest average unemployment of any administration in history. Our numbers are very good. 3. 5 , 3. 6 . But you cant see what this does in terms of g. D. P. It could affect it. But thats irrelevant compared to what were talking about. We want to make sure its safe. This would have, you know, an impact on g. D. P. But were still very, very were doing great. This, just like boeing has a big impact, a year ago, all of a sudden that happened. I think that took away a half point to a point. Its a massive company. Boeing, we had the General Motors strike that was a big impact on g. D. P. And of course were paying interest rates. I disagree with the fed. Im not happy with what that is because hes kept interest rates, president obama didnt have near the numbers and yet if you look at what happened he was paying zero. Were paying interest. Now its more conservative and frankly people that put their money away are getting return on their money as opposed to not getting anything. But i think were the greatest of them all, we should be paying the lowest interest rates. When germany and other countries are paying negative rates, mean tharge getting paid to put out money. They borrow money and get paid. When it gets paid back. Whoever heard of this before . We dont do that i disagree with our fed. I think our fed has made a terrible mistake and it would have made a big difference, as good as we have done, even without the 2,000 point we started off at 16,000 and well be at 28,000, were going to crack 30,000, we have had increases like nobody has seen before. But were doing well. But we have to watch in other words, even despite the ,000 point, sounds like a lot but its nothing, very little compared to what weve gone up. But well be watching it very closely. We have been hurt by General Motors and boeing, weve been hurt in my opinion very badly by our own Federal Reserve who has also created a very strong dollar. Something nice about a strong dollar but it makes it harder to do business outside of this country. Reporter a number of your supporters online have embraced the series that c. D. C. May be exaggerating coronavirus to hurt you politically. Rush limbaugh said its weaponized against you. President trump you dont mean my supporters, you mean people against me. Id like it to stop. I think people know that when Chuck Schumer getsup set, he said the same thing with a couple of trade deal, phenomenal deals now, people acknowledge it, before we saw the deal, he said i dont like it, i dont like it. He talked about tariffs. I left the tariffs on, 25 , 250 billion. He said he took the tariffs hasme didnt even know the deal. He was out there knocking it. Because thats a natural thing to say. But when youre talking about especially Something Like this, we have to be on the same team. This is too important. We have to be on the same team. Reporter do you think the c. D. C. Is trying to hurt you . President trump now theyve been working really well together. They really are. Theyre professional. I think theyre beyond this. They want this to go away and with as little disruption, they dont want to lose life. I see the way theyre working, these people bind me and others in the other room. Theyre incredible people. I dont see that at all. Reporter thank you, mr. President. President trump thank you very much. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Tonight youre minimizing the danger of the virus. Are you telling the americans except for the ones who are sick not to change any of their behaviors . President trump i think you have to always i do it a lot anyway as you probably heard, wash your hands. Stay clean. You dont have to necessarily grab every handrail unless you have to. You know. You do certain things that you do when you have the flu. Treat it the same as the flu. When somebody sneezes, i try to bail out as much as possible with the sneezing. Had a man come up to me a week ago, i hadnt seen him in a long time, and i said how you doing . He said fine, fine. He hugs me. I said are you well . He said no. [laughter] [laughter] he said, i have the worst fever and the worst flu. An hes hugging and kissing me. I said excuse me. I went and started washing my hands. You have to do that. You know. This is you want to treat this like you treat the flu. You know, its going to be [inaudible] nice of you to say thank you very much. Give me a nice question. Dont ruin it with a bad question. Reporter i want to talk to you about 2014. You said you wanted to quoteunquote full travel ban you said obama was a quoteunquote stubborn goat for not doing it. Just stop the flights, dummy. You also said it was not good to appoint someone with no medical experience. President trump this is a much different problem than ebola. Ebola, you disintegrated at the beginning. Theyve made a lot of progress. But you got ebola, that was it. This one is different. Much different. This is a flu. This is like a flu. And this is a much different situation than ebola. Were working on ebola right now, were working on certain areas of the congo, certain areas of the congo have ebola. Largely because they have war and people cant get there we can treat ebola at that time you couldnt treat it. Nobody had heard about it. Its a much different situation. Reporter in just the course of the last couple of minutes you have disputed some of what the officials that are working in your administration mind you have said about the risk of coronavirus and its spread. Do you trust your officials to give you information of do your trust your instippingts. President trump they said it could be worse, i said it could be worse. I dont think its inevitable. I think were doing a good job in terms of maintaining borders, in terms of letting people, in in terms of checking people. And also thats one of the reasons im here today getting the word out. So people can theyll know. I dont think its inevitable. I think that theres a chance it could get worse. Theres a chance it would get fairly substantially worse. But nothing is inevitable. Reporter mr. President , brazil has its first case. President trump thats right, brazil. Reporter and you have Many Americans now in brazil for carnivale. What are your concerns . What are the procedures and practices you plan to implement as those americans try to come back home . President trump weve gotten strong on people coming in from brazil. Its a big country but only has one case. Still, its a case. We deal with brazil very well. The president is a very good friend of mine. He ran on exactly, make brazil great again. We get along well, i know youre thrilled to hear that we get along very, very well. Were working with brazil. We have much worse instances than brazil. You have other countries where they have much more they have one person right now, as of now, just a little while ago, one person in brazil. Italy is, you know, a deeper problem. And were checking people coming in very, very strongly from those. And at some point we may cut that off. At some point, depending on what happens, we may cut certain additional countries off like weve had to do with china. We hope we can open it up to china as soon as possible and we hope the numbers weve been get, we hope the numbers we have been getting are true on china. Where it really has leveled off and started to go down. Eventually sometime thats going to happen. Go ahead. Reporter you said repeatedly that you think the federal government is very prepared, youre ready for this. If you think secretary azar is doing such a great job why did you feel the need to make a change and put Vice President mike pence in charge of the federal response to the virus . President trump i think secretary azar is doing a fantastic job but he has many other things, were working on many, many things together. If you look at his schedule of what hes doing, including drug prices, i think its perhaps the complicated job that we have in government. I want him to be able to focus on that and mike is really good at it. Theyre going to Work Together. Theyre going to work very closely together. Theyre both in the administration. I see them all the time. It really works. This isnt a czar. This isnt going out and getting somebody thats never been in the administration. I have a few people who are very talented and its something i feel good about. I dont want to scare the horses. I have very talented people. I want to use them on this. I want it to stay low or as low as possible. Reporter thank you, mr. President. China. At the beginning of this outbreak the Chinese Communist party covered it up. Thats been the general consensus of everyone. How can you now legitimately trust president xi and the communist party to be forthcoming and forthright with information . President trump i speak to him, talked with him recently, he is working so hard on this problem. He is working so hard. And theyre very tough and very smart and its a significant group, a very group of very talented people. Theyre calling up dr. Fauci, calling up our people, were dealinwith them, giving them certain advice. We have, through world health we have them over there also and we have a lot of our people making thaup group that went over there. You know, hes work very hard, it would be easy for me to say it doesnt matter what i say really. I can tell you hes working, i had a long talk with him the other night. Hes working really, really hard. He wants it to go away from china and go away fast and he wants to get back to business as usual. Reporter the flu has a fatality about 0. 1 . This has between 2 and 3 . President trump we dont know exact numbers and the flu is higher than that. The flu is much higher than that. Reporter but its going to spread within communities. Thats the expectation. President trump were ready for it. It is what it is, were ready for it. Were really prepared, we have as i said, we have the greatest people in the world, were very ready firt. We hope it doesnt spresmed theres a chance it wont spread, too. Theres a chance that it will. That is the question of at what level. So far we did a great job. 15 people in this whole world coming into the United States and the 15 people are either better or close to being better. Thats pretty good. Well do one more. Go ahead. Reporter mr. President. Mr. President , there have been gouging on thee sales of medical equipment, masks and so on. Should the government be investigating that, looking into it . President trump if you tell me thats happening well investigate. We dont want that. Reporter are you working with china and in what areas . President trump were working with china, just did the biggest trade deal in history. We did two of them between usmca and the china deal, the biggest in history. The relationship with china is a good one. I can tell you that again president xi is working really hard, he want this is problem solved, as hard as you can work. Thank you all. I may leave you behind and you can answer a few more questions. [many people speaking] reporter secretary azar i think youre not getting the point here. Im still chairman of the task force. Mick mulvaney has been serving an invaluable role for me as acting chief of staff helping to coordinate across the government with my colleagues and the whole government approach. Having the Vice President give me the biggest stick one could have in the government on this whole of government approach. Reporter you dont feel youre being replaced . Secretary azar not in the least. When it was mentioned to me, i was delighted to have had the Vice President helping. Reporter will you answer some more questions . Secretary azar i testified for eight hours today in three hearings. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] journals washington live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. , illinoisthursday democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky discusses the u. S. And Global Response to the coronavirus outbreak. Then ohio congressman Warren Davidson will talk about his proposal to reform government surveillance programs. An former u. S. Senate candidate and author neil simon discusses his book contract to unite america. Be sure to watch live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern thursday morning. Join the discussion. Here is a look at our live coverage thursday. Cspan, thean on house meets for general speeches, legislative business at noon. A bill that would ban the flavor allll flip sale of flavored tobacco programs. The senate is back at 9 30 a. M. To consider a traditional nomination for the u. S. Tax court. On cspan 3, education secretary betsy devos is on capitol hill testifying on the 2021 budget request for her department. Then in the afternoon, cdc director Robert Redfield appears before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee with state department officials, talking about the u. S. And International Response to the coronavirus outbreak. That gets underway at 2 00 p. M. Eastern. So, this november, we are going to take back the house, we are going to hold to the senate, and we are going to keep the white house. President trump speaks that i rally in South Carolina on friday ahead of the primary. Watch our coverage live on cspan. Watch ondemand at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Ahead of South Carolinas democratic president ial primary, former Vice President joe biden received the endorsement of congressman jim clyburn, the third highest ranking democrat in the house of representatives. There are 54 delegates at stake in South Carolina. And a recent poll from Clemson University shows the former Vice President with a doubledigit lead over his closest primary opponent. Mr. Clybur l