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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,884 posts)
Sun Apr 19, 2020, 06:54 AM Apr 2020

Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-17-2020

Finally, he found a way to pint the blame on Obama, when he was asked about a grant in 2015. I don't know who asked the question. I'll try to find out.

They're taking longer and longer to post the transcripts. This is from Friday's dog and pony show.

REMARKS

Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 17, 2020

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: April 17, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
6:22 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. I just had a great conversation with the leading faith leaders of our country. It went extremely well. We learned a lot. I learned a lot. And we’re working on some things that are very interesting and very positive. I thank them all for being on the call.

And yesterday, we unveiled detailed guidelines for America’s governors to initiate a phased, safe, and gradual reopening of America. That’s what’s happening. The guidelines provide governors with the fact-driven and science-based metrics they will need to make the decisions that are right for their own particular state.

To view the guidelines, you can go to the website at Whitehouse.gov/OpeningAmerica. So that’s Whitehouse.gov/OpeningAmerica.

Treasury has sent out economic relief payments to more than 80 million Americans who have their direct deposit information on file with the IRS. And an incredible success it has been. If you have not received your check, please visit IRS.gov/GetMyPayment. How about that one? IRS.gov/GetMyPayment. That way, the IRS can get you your payment in days — and they’ve done a fantastic job, I have to say — and you won’t have to wait for a check in the mail.

I have some very good news: We sent out 80 million deposits, and less than 1 percent had even little problems. A couple had minor glitches, but it’s substantially less than 1 percent. So out of 80 million deposits, less than 1 percent. And that gets corrected immediately. So just please do as I say. You’ll get that very quickly, very easily.

Today, I’m also announcing that Secretary Perdue — who happens to be right next to me; handsome man — and the Department of Agriculture will be implementing a 19-billion-dollar relief program for our great farmers and ranchers as they cope with the fallout of the global pandemic. Very honored to be doing this. Our farmers, ranchers — we have — these are great people, great Americans. Never complain. They never complain. They just do what they have to do.

The program will include direct payments to farmers as well as mass purchases of dairy, meat, and agricultural produce to get that food to the people in need.

The USDA will receive another $14 billion in July that will have funding to continue help our — helping. And this will help our farmers and our ranchers, and it’s money well deserved. So not only were they targeted at one point by China — and that was over a period of time, and you saw that happening. And they never complained, but that worked out very well. Twelve billion dollars they got, and sixteen billion dollars they got. And now it’s $19 billion.

And I’m just going to ask Secretary Perdue to explain exactly how we’re going to handle it. Thank you.

{snip}

SECRETARY PERDUE:

{snip}

So today, thanks to your direction and leadership, Mr. President, USDA is announcing the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. As you mentioned, this new 19-billion-dollar program will take several immediate actions to assist farmers, ranchers, and consumers in response to the COVID-19 national emergency.

{snip}

Secondly — and this is really important as well — the USDA will be purchasing $3 billion in fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to be distributed to Americans in need through our food bank networks, as well as other community and faith-based organizations. Having to dump milk or plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing, but it’s heartbreaking, as well, to those who produce them.

{snip}

I want to thank you, Mr. President, for your unwavering support. They want to thank you for your unwavering support for America’s farmers and ranchers. And I want to commit to you, Mr. President, and to the American people that USDA will do everything in our power to implement this program as quickly and as efficiently as possible to help our farmers, ranchers, producers, and consumers during this great time of need.

So thank you very much for having me here today. And God bless you. God bless America. God bless American agriculture.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Sonny. Fantastic job. Thank you, Sonny.

{snip}

And when you look at the numbers, when you look at the possible number of death — deaths at 2.2 million people — and it could have very well been that. It could have been more. Frankly, I’ve been looking at numbers where it could have been higher than that — 2.2 million people dying. If you figure we lost 500,000, maybe 600,000 in the Civil War. 2.2 million people.

A minimum, if we did nothing, would have been 1.6 [million]. If you cut that in half, you’re talking about 800,000, 900,000, a million people dying. But we did a lot of work, and the people of this country were incredible, I have to say. And I think we’re heading to the other category, and that would be if we did work and if it was successful, they had between 100,000 and 220,000 to 240,000 on the upside. And I think we’ll be substantially, hopefully, below the hundred number. And I think, right now, we’re heading at probably around 60-, maybe 65,000.

And one is too many. I always say it: One is too many. This is a horrible thing that happened to our country. This is a horrible thing that happened to 184 countries all over the world. This is a horrible thing, and there was no reason for it. It should never, ever happen again.

{snip}

Please, go ahead.

Q Mr. President, thank you. Earlier today, Jay Inslee said that your tweets, encouraging liberation —

THE PRESIDENT: Who said this?

Q Jay Inslee said your tweets encouraging liberation in Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, were fomenting rebellion. I’m wondering how that squares with the sober and methodical guidance that you issued yesterday in terms of —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we do have a sobering guidance, but I think some things are too tough. And if you look at some of the states you just mentioned, it’s too tough. Not only relative to this, but what they’ve done in Virginia with respect to the Second Amendment is just a horrible thing. They did a horrible thing — the governor. And he’s a governor under a cloud, to start off with.

So when you see what he said about the Second Amendment, when you see what other states have done — no, I think I feel very comfortable.

Go ahead.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Just to be clear, when you talk about these states — Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia — do you think that they should lift their stay-at-home orders? Or can you talk —

THE PRESIDENT: No, but I think elements of what they’ve done are too much. I mean, it’s just too much.

Q Which elements?

THE PRESIDENT: You know the elements —

Q You cited Second Amendment.

THE PRESIDENT: — because I’ve already said. But certainly, Second Amendment, and Second Amendment having to do with the state of Virginia. What they’ve done in Virginia is just incredible.

Okay. Please.

Q Sir, are you concerned, though, that people coming out in protest are going to spread COVID to other people? They’re congregating in ways that health experts have said they should not.

THE PRESIDENT: No, these are people expressing their views. I see where they are and I see the way they’re working. They seem to be very responsible people to me, but it’s — you know, they’ve been treated a little bit rough.

Please, in the back.

{snip}

Please, in the back.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. U.S. intelligence is saying this week that the coronavirus likely came from a level 4 lab in Wuhan. There’s also another report that the NIH, under the Obama administration, in 2015 gave that lab $3.7 million in a grant. Why would the U.S. give a grant like that to China?

THE PRESIDENT: The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million? I’ve been hearing about that. And we’ve instructed that if any grants are going to that area — we’re looking at it, literally, about an hour ago, and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly.

But it was granted quite a while ago. They were granted a substantial amount of money. We’re going to look at it and take a look. But I understand it was a number of years ago, right?

Q So you are (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT: When did you hear — when did you hear it was — the grant was made?

Q 2015.

THE PRESIDENT: 2015? Who was President then? I wonder.

{snip}

Q The investigation into whether the virus escaped from this lab in Wuhan, how active is that? And when do expect to hear (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re looking at that. A lot of people are looking at it. It seems to make sense. They talk about a certain kind of bat, but that bat wasn’t in that area. If you can believe this, that’s what they’re down to now, is bats. But that bat is not in that area. That bat wasn’t sold at that wet zone. It wasn’t sold there. That bat is 40 miles away. So a lot of strange things are happening, but there is a lot of investigation going on and we’re going to find out.

All I can say is, wherever it came from — it came from China — in whatever form, 184 countries now are suffering because of it. And it’s too bad, isn’t it? And it could have been solved very easily. When it was just starting, it could have been solved really very easily.

Yeah. Please. In the back.

Q Thank you, sir. So, about the 80 million payments that have gone out —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

Q — that you mentioned, you said that less than 1 percent have had snafus, but that could be 800,000 snafus. So we’ve also seen reports of —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m just saying it’s less than 1 percent, and the snafus are very minor. And they’re — and they were fixed.

Q They’re not — you’re not talking about —

THE PRESIDENT: No. Excuse me.

Q — massive numbers of dead people who have received checks —

THE PRESIDENT: No, they were — they were — 80 million payments —

Q I mean, that could be — that could be tens of millions of people.

THE PRESIDENT: — went out over a period of a few days. And they caught certain mistakes that they made, but this is a tiny amount of mistakes. I can tell you mistakes were made in government where wrong countries were signed, okay?

Eighty million — this has been a tremendous success. And any mistake that was made, they’ve been caught. And it’s less than 1 percent. That’s a very good percentage. I can tell you, for government —

Q If how —

THE PRESIDENT: — I mean, how about — how about the Obama website? The Obamacare website, where they spent $5 billion on building a website that you could have built for — for peanuts.

Okay.

Q If money went out to deceased people, is the government going to get that back?

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Anything — anything that was sent out — it’s like, sometimes you send a check to somebody wrong. Sometimes people are listed, they die, and they get a check. That can happen.

You’re talking about — I guess the number is about 80 million people. Yeah, sure. We’ll get that back. Everything we’re going to get back. But it’s a tiny amount. They’ve done a fantastic job. This was done in a matter of a few days.

Yeah.

Q Your campaign said today that they are planning on resuming rallies before the election. Is there a timeline that you’re looking at? Would it be restricted to certain states? Have you thought about how that would work?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I hope we can do rallies. It’s great for the country. It’s great spirit. It’s great for a lot of things. It’s a — for me, it’s a tremendous way of getting the word out.

If you look at our success rate, we’ve had tremendous success. We win where we have rallies, including endorsements of candidates. Our success rate is, I think, unparalleled. There’s nothing like it.

So I certainly hope we can have rallies. We’ll find out. I don’t like the rallies where we’re sitting like you’re sitting. I mean, you got many reporters outside trying to get into this room. And I come in, I’m looking at this room and I see all this — it loses a lot of flavor. It loses, to me, a lot of flavor.

But I hope we’re going to have rallies. I think they’re going to be bigger than ever.

I will say this: The rallies that we were having — until we had to stop, with regard to the problem that we had here — the rallies were bigger than they were — I think even substantially bigger. We’d go into the biggest arena and we’d turn away 20-, 30,000 people sometimes. In — in one case, I think they said, in New Jersey, we had 175,000 people show up for an arena that holds 9,000 people. And they showed up. And the reporters even reported that. That was almost shocking to me.

But I hope we can resume rallies because I think they’re an important part of politics, actually.

{snip}

But I think the schools are going to be open sooner rather than later. And I understand and I’ve spoken — some governors are already talking about — thinking about getting the schools opened. I have a young boy who goes to school. I’d like to see him go to school. As good as home is, it’s very nice, but we’d like to see him go to school.

Please.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. I’d agree with that point. (Laughter.) I would like to know about some of these areas that you would like to open up, some of these quadrants. You singled out Virginia, Michigan. They don’t have a decline in cases yet, yet you tweeted out today that you’d like to “liberate” them.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’re going to have soon, but they’re very, very, very — what they’ve done is very powerful, in terms of — I think — you know, you can get the same result out of doing a little bit less. What they’ve done to some people is very unfair.

In Virginia, I’m going above and beyond what we’re talking about with this horrible plague. They want to take their guns away. Okay? They want to take their guns away. That’s the Second Amendment. That’s Virginia. You have a gov- — governor who really — I guess he should be under siege; he seems not to be. If he were a Republican, he’d be under siege. But he seems to have escaped something that was pretty bad, including what he said about birth, including what he said about many different things.

But he wants to take — if you take a look at what’s going on in Virginia, they want to take away Second Amendment rights. And that’s what they want to do. So when you talk about “liberate” or if you talk about a liberation, you could certainly look at Virginia as one.

Go ahead. Anybody else?

{snip}

You know, one thing that bothers me: A couple of restauranteurs called, and they said, I mean, “Sir, I barely made a living with 150 seats. Now, if I do what they want me to do, I’ll be down to 25 seats and I can’t.” I said, “Yeah, but you’re not going to be there forever.” And he didn’t really know that. He thought that they were going to take 150 seats, move it down to 25 to 50 seats, depending on the way he laid it out. I said, “Don’t worry about it. Eventually, you’re going to be back to the scene that you used to have, which was…”

Look, I could tell you about — and I’m not going to do it, because I didn’t want to bring it up — but I could tell you about events that took place. And I said things like, “You’ll never do that again” or “You’ll never do this again” or — I don’t even want to mention the events. I don’t want to mention what you’re supposed to be doing because — and you know one of them was so horrible.

I said, “A certain industry will be out of business — never happen again.” Two weeks later, it was like nothing ever happened. Hopefully, we get rid of this. We have tremendous talent up here and all over, including governors, including local governments, state governments. I look forward to the time, to me, when we can really normalize. But normalizing is being back to where we were.

Yeah, please. Go ahead.

{snip}

You know, one thing that bothers me: A couple of restauranteurs called, and they said, I mean, “Sir, I barely made a living with 150 seats. Now, if I do what they want me to do, I’ll be down to 25 seats and I can’t.” I said, “Yeah, but you’re not going to be there forever.” And he didn’t really know that. He thought that they were going to take 150 seats, move it down to 25 to 50 seats, depending on the way he laid it out. I said, “Don’t worry about it. Eventually, you’re going to be back to the scene that you used to have, which was…”

Look, I could tell you about — and I’m not going to do it, because I didn’t want to bring it up — but I could tell you about events that took place. And I said things like, “You’ll never do that again” or “You’ll never do this again” or — I don’t even want to mention the events. I don’t want to mention what you’re supposed to be doing because — and you know one of them was so horrible.

I said, “A certain industry will be out of business — never happen again.” Two weeks later, it was like nothing ever happened. Hopefully, we get rid of this. We have tremendous talent up here and all over, including governors, including local governments, state governments. I look forward to the time, to me, when we can really normalize. But normalizing is being back to where we were.

Yeah, please. Go ahead.

{snip}

And I think, with that, we’ll see you tomorrow. But really, this has been — this has been a situation where a lot of great people have been involved and a lot of great decisions have been made.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

END 8:06 P.M. EDT
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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-17-2020 (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 OP
Here's a clip of that question and answer. Who is that? mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2020 #1
The same AON True Blue American Apr 2020 #2
The Blithering Idiot LSFL Apr 2020 #3

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,884 posts)
1. Here's a clip of that question and answer. Who is that?
Sun Apr 19, 2020, 07:15 AM
Apr 2020
APRIL 17, 2020 | CLIP OF PRESIDENT TRUMP WITH CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE BRIEFING

This clip, title, and description were not created by C-SPAN.

User Clip: U.S 2015 Grant to Wuhan Lab Question

USER-CREATED CLIP

APRIL 18, 2020 U.S 2015 Grant to Wuhan Lab Question

True Blue American

(17,972 posts)
2. The same AON
Sun Apr 19, 2020, 07:44 AM
Apr 2020

Nut or whoever that was banned by the Broadcasters, yet continued to stand in the back claiming Stephanie Grisham invited her?

No matter, planted question.

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