Transcripts For CSPAN2 White House Coronavirus Task Force Br

Never seen it like that. Oh, boy. Oh, how the world has changed. How the world has changed, right . But its going to end up being than ever. I like to thank you very much for being here and i would like to update you on the steps were taking on her ongoing fight to defeat the virus. This morning at 7 55 i spoke to spoke to the leaders of the g20. Had a great meeting. And we have a lot of different ideas, a lot of good ideas. Were working together. The leaders gathered virtually around the world tor to discusse whole subject of the problem that right now 151 nations have got. We had president Alberto Fernandez of argentina, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of australia, president of brazil, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of canada, president xi of china, president Emmanuel Macron of france, chancellor Angela Merkel of germany, Prime Minister modi of india, president of indonesi indonesia, the Prime Minister of italy, Prime Minister shinzo abe of japan. Congratulations on japan t unmaking of great decision on olympics. Going to make it next year, 2021. President Manuel Lopez Obrador of mexico. Of what youre thank the presidet of mexico are having done such a great job with respect to the middle jigger with 27,000 27,000 exiting soldiers on our southern border, andnd very few people ae getting through, i can tell you that. Weve got to keep it that way. We have a great relationship with mexico no. President putin of russia. King solomon of saudi arabia. President of south africa. President moon of, as you know, a country that we spent a lot of time in, south korea. We are working very hard on that. Prime minister sanchez of spain, president erdogan of turkey, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of united kingdom, president of the european commission, president of the european council, United Nations secretarygeneral gutierrez, World Health Organization director, dr. Tedros. World Bank President david malpass, the International Monetary Fund Managing director krista lina. So thats of the group but its a great group. They were all there, every t one of them and we talked about the problem and hopefully it wont be a problem for too much longer. The United States is working with our friends and partners around the world to stop the fibers andhe courtney our efforts. We discussed how vitally important it is for all of our nations to immediately share information and data, and we to a largethat extent but we will do even more so, and to inform our come i guess you could say, inform each of us on the fight that weve got going onene way or the othe. Its a lot bit different but were handling it a little bit different ways. But that is great uniformity i think. It was a terrific meeting. Tremendous spirit among all of those countries. U. S. 20 m countries plus the otr people that imagine, and tremendous spirit to get this over with. After the meeting with the World Leaders i spoke with the governors of our 50 states and territories. Our team has been in constant communication with the governors, and we had a terrific meeting. Somebody in the fake i news said that one of the governor said, oh, we need tom brady. I said, yeah. He meant that in a positive way. He said we need tom brady. Were going to do great. He minted very positively but they took it differently. They think tom brady should be leading the effort. Thats only fake news here and i like tom brady. Spoke to in the other day. Hes a great guy. But i wish the news could be real. I wish it to be honest. I wish it were not corrupted, but so much of it is. Its so sad to see. Just so sad to see. We had a great meeting. Ie tell you what, im sure you have tapes of the needy. Im sure that you able to get tapes are easily. So you 50 governors plus, and you had tapes, you would see it was really, i mean, there was no contingent or i would say virtually none. I would say maybe one person i was a little tiny bit of a raising of the voice, a little wiseguy, a little bit. But hes usually a big wiseguy. Not so much anymore. We saw to it that he wouldnt be so much anymore. But he is, we had up, i mean, i would rate, mike was there. A lot of the folks in the back were there. It was p a great meeting. It took place at about 12 00. So we went from the g20 to the governors. Spoke about the Economic Relief with the governors and the package that were moving through congress to deliver muchneeded Financial Assistance to hardworking families andsi small businesses. I want to thank democrats and republicans in the senate for unanimously passing the largest Financial Relief package in american history, 960. And have to s say, the largest y far, and im profoundly grateful that both parties came together to provide relief for American Workers and families in this hour of need. The house of representatives must now pass this bill, hopefully without delay. I think its got tremendous support. Whennd youre at 960, and as yu know a couple of those people are quarantined, and one, rand paul, hes actually got it. But he will be better. Hes been a great guy. Hes been a great friend of mine actually. The massive 2. 2 trillion relief package includes Job Retention loans for smallr businesses with loan forgiveness available for businesses that keep the workers on the payroll. Its pretty good. Loan forgiveness, keepan the workers on the payroll. Thats pretty good. Direct cash games will be available to american citizens earning less than 99,000 per year, 3400 for the typical family of four. Expanded unemployment benefits. The average worker who has lost his or her job will receive 100 of their salary up to four fold months. These are things that, by the way, we are plenty more to go, but they are things that nobody has ever hadck any package like this done. And i just want to thank them. Hopefully, itll get approved equally easily in the house, really. I think it will go through pretty well. From what iua hear, virtually everybody. It could be one vote, one foot. One grandstand maybe. You might have one grandstand or. For that will have to come back and take more time and in the past and it would take a little longer. But lets see whether or not we have a grandstand or. Critical support for the hardest hit industries with a ban on corporate stock buybacks and tough new safeguards to prevent executive compensation abuse. Over 100 billion for our amazing doctors, nurses, and hospitals. 45 billion for the Disaster Relief fund, more than doubling the amount available. This is tremendous stuff. 27 billion for the coronavirus response, including 16 billion to build up the Strategic National stockpile with medical supplies including masks, respirators, and all sorts of pharmaceuticals. 3. 5 billion to expand assistance to childcare providers and childcare benefits to health care workers, First Responders, and others on the frontlines of the crisis. And these are really brave, incredible people, i have to say. And some of them are getting sick, and some of them are getting very sick, and some of them dont even recover. They are incredible people. 1 billion for defense production act procurement. We are as you using the act but we use it only when necessary. We use it as leverage. We generally dont have to use it to accomplish what we want to accomplish. As of today fema a shipped over 9 million n95 mask, 20 million facemasks and 3. 1 million face shields, nearly 6000 ventilators, 2. 6 million gallons, 14. 6 million gloves and were sending moreor every day and wee got tremendous amount of equipment coming in. A lot of Great Companies are making equipment right now. The ventilators obvious as they take a longer to make open of a lot of Companies Making them ample going to be in great shape. We took over an empty shelf. We took over a very depleted place, in a a lot of ways. As youti know, the test is going very, very well. And that wase obsolete and broken, and we fixed it and its been going really good. And i think very importantly, the stockpile, we are really filling it up, and we fill it up rapidly, but we get it out. Sometimes we have it sent directly to the states instead. And again the state has to be doing this kind of a thing also. Were sort of, we look, look from behind a little bit and look at how are they doing anything need up we do it. But its their first responsibility. Sometimes they just cant get it, but we vote it up and we sent it out. But if wete cant we have it set directly to the state. We wanted to go directly to the point where we want it. I cannot pronounce them that i think is incredible, what theyve done in the navy, because the incredible Navy Hospital ship, the usns comfort, which is incredible, actually, when you sit inside, will be underway in new york city on saturday. So its going tong be leaving on saturday rather than three weeks from now. They did the maintenance quickly, and itce was going to e there for quitefo a while longe, another three or four weeks. It should be arriving, i told thego catheter 20 minutes ago, governor cuomo, that the ship will be arriving in new york harbor on monday. I think im going to go out and ill kiss it goodbye. Ill go, ill go to, its in virginia as you know. And i will go and well be waiting together because i suspect the media will be following. John, are you going to be following . Maybe. You never know. [inaudible] at thes great ship. Its a great vessel, is right. If you want to go, ill see you there, and if you dont thats okay. After being fully little with medical supplies, its loaded up to the top and its over at the Norfolk Naval base. Thats where it departs. It is expected into, i mean, were saving about three to four weeks by the incredible work done by the navy. And actually look forward to saturday to see it go. The ship will arrive, and i believe its going to get a little bit of a ceremony. Theres something very beautiful about it. Its an incredible piece of work. Going to be landing at your 90 in minette to provide hospital Surge Capacity for the new york metropolitan area. So its a surgeac capacity. They may use for this or that mayom have of the people comingn from hospitals unrelated to the virus and then theyll use of those hospitals on land. Theyll use those hospitals for the virus. But well see how they do it. They could do it either way, one way or the other, whichever one is best. It could be, because it set up so well for regular hospital that they may take people out of hospitals and then use those rooms for the virus. The National Institute of health and the private sector, working closely with the fda, continue to collaborate to discover and test treatments e and therapies that can effectively reduce the duration and symptoms of the virus and help, very much a people to recover. And im firmly committed to bringing these treatments to market very quickly. We have, we have a lot of tests going on with regard to different medicines. And i hope, i hope we get lucky. I hope we hit. A lot of talented scientists and doctors are working on therapeutics, iq were, a vaccine. I think were doing very well. Tony may speak to that little bit later but i think were doing very well with regard to the vaccines. I think were doing well with regard to a lot of the things i just s mentioned, but well have to see what happens. Were going to know fairly soon about a lot of them. But its very advanced in the vaccines are very advanced. Prior to come as you know, a fairly reasonable long test. Of, in that case, over a year. Every american should be proud of the incredible spirit our country has brought to this effort, been credible. Citizens from all walks of lifel have come together to turn the tide in this battle. We arein witnessing the extraordinary power of american unity like a lot of people have never seen. Even getting a vote, youre talking about trillions of dollars, and you get a vote of 960. We are waging war on this virus using every financial, scientific, medical, pharmaceutical, and military resources to halt its spread and protect our citizens. I want to express our tremendous thanks to the American People for continuing to practice social distancing, like you people practicing reiki. I dont know, who may never be the same, maintaining good hygiene and follow government guidelines. Vice president pence lifts up that card every time. And its not very but hopefully you can do that. And your commitment will make all the difference in the world. And thats one of the big ones will be, for a while stay home. Just relax. Home. Were making a lot of progress. As we continue to gather more information and excitement the testing, where we are doing Record Number of tests now, far more than any other country is done. I told you yesterday, eight days here, because youre so much about south korea. The media kept talking, south korea, southko korea. We have a great relationship with president moon in south korea. Si but when i hear so much about south korea, so in eight days, in eight dayshe we do more testg than they did in eight weeks. And its a very highly sophisticated test. We will be able to the point even more datadriven and targeted approaches to slow, ultimately, you know, its a very devastating thing, but we will vanquish this virus. And its, a lot of progress has been made. Thats what earlier today i sent a letter to americas governors describing how we will be using the data to update existing distancing social which will be developed in close coordination with our nations Public Health officials and scientists. Because of the sacrifices of our great doctors and nurses and healthcare professionals, the brilliance of our scientists and researchers, and the goodness and generosity of our people, i know that we will achieve victory and quickly returned to the path of exceptional health, safety, and prosperity for all of our citizens. We have to get back to work. Our people want to work. You want to go back. They have to go back. And were going to be talking about dates. Were going to be talking with a lot of great professionals. But this is a country that was built on getting it done, and our people want to go back to work. Im hearing, im hearing a loud and clear from everybody. So well see what happens. Were going to have a lot more information early next week, and will be reporting that back. But i just want to leave it with you, we have to go back. This is the trend of america. They dont want to sit around and wait. They will be practicing, and by the way, ahe lot of people misinterpret when i say go back. They are going to be practicing as much as you can social distancing and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things we talk about so much. But they have to go back to work. Our country has to go back. Our country is based on that. And i think its going to happen pretty quickly. I think its going to happen pretty quickly. A lot of progress is made, but we have to go back to work. We may take sections of her country. Y. We may take a large sections of a country that are not so seriously affected, and we may do it that way. But we got to start the process pretty soon. So we will be talking to you all bit more about that next week. And with that, if you have any questions you can ask. And then im going to have Vice President stay behind, and hes going to take questions and also introduce some of the a people. You can ask them some questions. John, please. Mr. President , if i could go unpunished numbers out today, 3. 3 million. I think it had a surprise. No, not at all. But still ata staggering number. Im wondering about your perspective on this. Well, its nobodys fault. Certainly not in this country. Nobody sold. We got very lucky woodman made a decision not to love people infringe on at the very early date. I say that because some people dont want to accept it. That this was a great decision made by our country, or the numbers that yous talk about. Where they country. E they would be far greater, far bigger. When i heard the number, i heard it could be 6 million, 7 million. It is 3. 3 or 3. 2 but its a lot of jobs. I think well come back very strong. The sooner we get back to work, everyday we step out it gets harder to bring back very quickly. Our people dont want to stay out. I know those numbers, john, but i think youll see a very fast turnaround once with a victory over the hidden enemy, as i say. Its a hidden enemy. Sometimes a hidden enemy as lot tougher than somebody that stirs your interface, right . So well see what happens. But, i mean, they are fully expected numbers, at least. I mean, at least. Theres a proposal to deploy troops along the canadian border. Prime minister trudeau iss completing about that. Why is w that necessary . We have very strong southernt on the border as you know with mexico. We had some troops up in canada but ill find out about that. I guess its equal justice, to a certain extent. Canada we do have troops along the border. You know, we have a lot of things come in from canada. We had trade, some illegal trade that we dont like. We have very strong sanctions on some. We have very stoneneav terrace n dumping steel strong terrace. I charge a lot of tariff for steel and its been great for our still comes because now they can really go. Look whats happened with stupid its been pretty incredible will be taken and billions and billions of dollars on steel. Much of the comes in from china but they can come to the alwaysn border so were watching for that. If im reading the number scrape the trend is the best china as a country with the highest number of virus cases. Thats a surprise you at all . Is it following a predictable trajectory . Hi no, i think its a tribute to our testing. Number one, yo