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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,874 posts)
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 09:40 AM Mar 2020

Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 03-26-20

And we're off.

REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: March 26, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

5:26 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Hello. Thank you very much. Thank you. Beautiful day. Very good what you’re doing. Look at all those empty seats. Never seen it like that. Oh, boy. Well, how the world has changed. How the world has changed, right? But it’s going to end up being better than ever.

I want to thank you very much for being here. And I’d like to update you on the steps we’re taking on our ongoing fight to defeat the virus.

This morning at 7:55, I spoke to the leaders of the G20. Had a great meeting. And we have a lot of different ideas, a lot of good ideas. We’re working together.

{snip}

Somebody in the fake news said that one of the governors said, “Oh, we need Tom Brady.” I said, “Yeah.” He meant that in a positive way. He said, “We need Tom Brady. We’re going to do great.” And he meant it very positively, but they took it differently. “They think Tom Brady should be leading the effort.” That’s only fake news. And I like Tom Brady. Spoke to him the other day. He’s a great guy.

But I wish the news could be — could be real. I wish it could be honest. I wish it weren’t corrupt, but so much of it is. It’s so sad to see. Just so sad to see.

We had a great meeting. I tell you what: I’m sure you have tapes of the meeting. I’m sure that you were able to get tapes very easily. So you had 50 governors-plus. And if you had tapes, you’d see it was really — I mean, there was no contention. I would say virtually none. I would say maybe one person that was a little tiny bit of a raising of a voice, a little wise guy, a little bit. But he’s usually a big wise guy. Not so much anymore. We saw to it that he wouldn’t be so much anymore. But he is — we had a — I mean, I would rate — Mike was there; a lot of the folks in the back were there. And it was a — it was a great meeting. It took place at about 12 o’clock.

{snip}

Please.

Q Two questions for you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: No. Please.

Q Mr. President, thank you.

Q I have two questions for you.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I didn’t call you, I called this gentleman.

Q Mr. President, thank you. Thanks a lot. On Monday —

THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with?

Q — did you speak with —

THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with?

Q I’m with Bloomberg.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Bloomberg News.

Q Mario Parker.

THE PRESIDENT: How’s Michael doing? Good?

Q (Laughs.) Mr. President, on Monday, did you speak with Chinese President Xi before you urged Americans to not blame Asian Americans for the coronavirus? We noticed that you’ve backed off of that language. I know you’re speaking with him again tonight.

THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t. I’m speaking to him tonight. It’s scheduled to go tonight. I’ll have a call with President Xi of China. I have a very good relationship.

No, I didn’t like when they came up. And it — it wasn’t him. Somebody at a lower level — mid-level — we found out, pretty much. But they made a statement that our soldiers brought it into China. No, it came from China.

And, you know, we just signed a very big deal with China. They’re paying us a lot of money in tariffs and other things. They never paid us 10 cents.

Look, China has taken advantage of the United States — until I came here — with Sleepy Joe Biden and Obama and Bush and everybody else. I’m not blaming them; I’m blaming everybody. They were allowed to — $500 billion a year they were taking out. We had trade deficits that were so large nobody’s ever seen anything like it.

And we’ve changed it. Look, now we’re taking in billions of dollars. And we gave some to our farmers because China, you know, they targeted our farmers. And our farmers are very happy and our farmers got through a very rough period because of what I was able to do — took the money from China and gave it to the farmers — and we had plenty left over after that.

Now we’re going into a phase two negotiation with China. But we’re getting 25 percent on $250 billion and then we’re getting a lot on money after that.

So we’ve never had a deal with China. They — China took advantage of the United States. And you know what? I don’t blame China for that. I blame the people that were right here because they should have never allowed it to happen. But the relationship with China has been a very good one.

Q Did President Xi — Mr. President, did President Xi ask you to — to calm that language down or to not use that language?

THE PRESIDENT: He never asked me to calm it down, no. Somebody might have spoken to somebody, but nobody spoke to me about it.

Q Mr. President, earlier —

THE PRESIDENT: I think it was time though, because, you know, I talk about the Chinese virus and — and I mean it. That’s where it came from. You know, if you look at Ebola, if you look at all — Lyme. Right? Lyme, Connecticut. You look at all these different, horrible diseases, they seem to come with a name with the location. And this was a Chinese virus. But I don’t have to say it, if they feel so strongly about it. We’ll see.

But, you know, we have — we just made a great deal with China — great, hopefully, for both parties. But we’ve made a deal with China and we’re going to do another one, it looks like. They want to do it very badly. Maybe they want to wait, like Iran. They want to wait to see whether or not Trump gets beaten in the election because would they love to negotiate with Biden or somebody else other than me. They would love it. That’s their best dream in the world. So many others.

So, there are some that maybe are, you know, waiting until after November 3rd, the Election Day. But I think we’re doing very well.

It would be sad if we blew all of the advantages that we have right now because we’ve made unbelievable trade deal. Whether it’s Mexico, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, and others, we have — we have changed the whole thing around.

Please.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. In the back first, please.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Despite the jobless claim numbers today, the market rallied again. It’s up over 4,000 points in the last three days (inaudible) —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Record.

Q Yeah. The largest charge since 1931. Do you think that the economic uncertainty has passed, given the market?

THE PRESIDENT: No, not yet. It hasn’t passed, but it’s come a long way. I think they think we’re doing a really good job, in terms of running this whole situation, having to do with the virus. I think they feel that — I think they feel the administration — myself and the administration — are doing a good job with people — keeping, very importantly, people informed. Because there was a great fear.

And a lot of good things are happening. The mortality rate is at a, in my opinion — you’ll have to speak to Deborah, Tony, all of the others — but in my opinion, it’s way, way down. And that takes a lot of fear out. You know, it’s one thing to have it; it’s another thing to die.

You know, when I first got involved, I was being told numbers that were much, much higher than the number that seems to be. And remember that people that have it — many people have it. I just spoke to two people. They had it. They never went to a doctor. They had it — absolutely had it — but they never went to a doctor. They never went to anything. They didn’t even report it. You have thousands and — hundreds of thousands of cases like that. So you have to add that to the caseload also.

And the people that actually die, that percentage is — is a much lower percentage than I ever thought. That’s one of the reasons I say, “Look, we’re going to beat this and we’re going to get back to work.”

{snip}

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President.

Well, good afternoon everyone. The White House Coronavirus Task Force met today. We continue to move out on President Trump’s directive to slow the spread with mitigation, to advance and expand testing across the country, and to work on the critical supplies that our healthcare workers and our nation needs.

{snip}

And now for information on the latest on data and what we’re seeing, Dr. Deborah Birx.

DR. BIRX: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

{snip}

Please, for the reassurance of people around the world — to wake up this morning and look at people talking about creating DNR situations — do-not-resuscitate situations — for patients, there is no situation in the United States right now that warrants that kind of discussion. You can be thinking about it in a hospital — certainly many hospitals talk about this on a daily basis — but to say that to the American people, to make the implication that when they need a hospital bed, it’s not going to be there, or when they need that ventilator, it’s not going to be there — we don’t have evidence of that right now. And it’s our job collectively to assure the American people that — it’s our collective job to make sure that doesn’t happen.

{snip}

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good. We’ll do questions in a moment.

Dr. Fauci.

DR. FAUCI: Thank you Mr. Vice President. I’m going to change the topic just a little bit because there was questions that came up and I’ve been asked about this on a couple of media interactions regarding the interventions that we’re talking about. And it’s important because it’s about something that I said yesterday, about what we would likely see.

Whenever you put the clamps down and shut things down, you do it for two reasons: You do it to prevent the further spread — as we call, mitigation — but you also do it to buy yourself time to get better prepared for what might be a rebound. It may be a rebound that we get things really under control, and then you pull back, which ultimately we’re going to have to do. Everybody in the world is going to have to do that. You’re either going to get a rebound, or it might cycle into the next season.

{snip}

THE VICE PRESIDENT:

{snip}

We’ll see you back here tomorrow. Thank you all.

END

6:38 P.M. EDT
5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 03-26-20 (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2020 OP
Whoever did the transcribing jayschool2013 Mar 2020 #1
I was thinking more along the lines of Edward G. Robinson. mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2020 #2
Madness mikalcharles Mar 2020 #3
The electoral college. NT mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2020 #4
"[Trump is] so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data." mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2020 #5

jayschool2013

(2,309 posts)
1. Whoever did the transcribing
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 09:54 AM
Mar 2020

Misspelled "Tony Soprano"

"I would say maybe one person that was a little tiny bit of a raising of a voice, a little wise guy, a little bit. But he’s usually a big wise guy. Not so much anymore. We saw to it that he wouldn’t be so much anymore."

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,874 posts)
2. I was thinking more along the lines of Edward G. Robinson.
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 10:08 AM
Mar 2020


Key Largo-Wiseguy vs Dumbell
22,512 views•Jan 15, 2010

rcknhrse
811 subscribers

Key Largo.Whats worse a wiseguy or a dumbell

mikalcharles

(87 posts)
3. Madness
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 10:11 AM
Mar 2020

in plain sight. This madness is in plain sight, and there seems to be nothing the country can do about it. Trump is unable to blame himself for anything because is ego is a house of cards. He has a mental illness. And his followers can't bear to hear any criticism of Trump because if one card gets taken out the house will fall down. How the fuck did we get here?

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,874 posts)
5. "[Trump is] so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data."
Fri Mar 27, 2020, 11:42 AM
Mar 2020
"[Trump is] so attentive to the scientific literature & the details & the data. I think his ability to analyze & integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit” -- this is shocking, hackish stuff from Dr. Birx.


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