Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-21-2020

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REMARKS

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

HEALTHCARE

Issued on: April 21, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

5:46 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much everyone. We had a very big day today. I want to start by saying that our love and prayers of every American continue to be with our fellow citizens who have lost a cherished friend or a family member to the virus.

{snip}

So, Steve, please come up. Say a few words. Steve? Yeah.

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for all your work with us to get this passed. I’d especially like to thank Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and the entire Senate for passing this. I’d also like to thank Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi, who have been working with us around the clock as well, and our Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, who was also very instrumental in this.

Let me just comment. We’ve had tremendous support for the PPP. This gives us another $310 billion for the PPP. We look forward to the House passing this tomorrow and being up and running quickly after that.

This also gives us $50 billion for disaster loans, EIDL loans. That will allow the SBA to make $300 billion of disaster loans, all for small businesses. It also allows us, as the President said, more money to hospitals and an unprecedented amount of money for testing. And again, I think we understand hospitals — not only the hospitals that have been impacted by coronavirus, but more importantly, many hospitals that have been shut down, and making sure that the doctors and nurses get money.

Now, let me make just one more comment on the program. We have over a million companies that have received this with less than 10 workers. So there is very broad participation in really small business. I will comment there have been some big businesses that have taken these loans. I was pleased to see that Shake Shack returned the money. We will be putting out some FAQs. There is a certification that people are making.

And I asked people — just make sure: The intent of this was for business that needed the money. We’ll put out an FAQ. But again, the intent of this money was not for big public companies that have access to capital.

THE PRESIDENT: And not for Harvard, you might say, Steve.

Q So, Mr. Secretary, are you going to request that those other companies — because obviously Shake Shack was not alone in being a big company that got money in this. Are you going to be asking —

THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to request.

Q You’re going to ask them —

THE PRESIDENT: I’m going to request.

Q — to return that money?

THE PRESIDENT: Yep.

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Yeah, I would —

THE PRESIDENT: Harvard is going to pay back the money. And they shouldn’t be taking it. So, Harvard is going to. You have a number of them. I’m not going to mention any other names. But when I saw Harvard, they have a — one of the largest endowments anywhere in the country, maybe in the world, I guess. And they’re going to pay back that money.

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: And I just — I just want to clarify —

THE PRESIDENT: They shouldn’t have taken it.

{snip}

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Steve. See you later.

That was a nice question, actually. It’s a good question, too.

So the noble fight against the invisible enemy has inflicted a steep toll on the American workforce. As we all know, millions of Americans sacrificed their jobs in order to battle the virus and save the lives of our fellow citizens. We have a solemn duty to ensure these unemployed Americans regain their jobs and their livelihoods.

Therefore, in order to protect American workers, I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States; you heard about that last night. By pausing immigration, we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens. So important. It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker — take care of the American worker.

This pause will be in effect for 60 days, after which the need for any extension or modification will be evaluated by myself and a group of people, based on economic conditions at the time. This order will only apply to individuals seeking a permanent residency. In other words, those receiving green cards — a big factor — it will not apply to those entering on a temporary basis.

{snip}

Q Mr. President, if I can —

THE PRESIDENT: Bret, do you have a question?

Q Well, I think you wanted to follow up on the hydroxychloroquine and the —

Q Yeah, the hydroxychloroquine. I’m wondering if you’re concerned — this VA study showed that actually more people died that used the drug than didn’t. And I’m wondering if Governor Cuomo brought you back any results on —

THE PRESIDENT: No, we didn’t discuss it, and I don’t know of the report. Obviously, there have been some very good reports and perhaps this one is not a good report. But we’ll be looking at it. We’ll have a comment on it as soon —

Q And a panel of experts at the NIH is actually now recommending against the use of hydroxychloroquine in combination with Z-Pak, which is something you’ve —

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Well, we’ll take a look at that.

Q — been recommending.

THE PRESIDENT: I’m always willing to take a look.

{snip}

Q As you know, a lot of farmers rely on seasonal migrant workers that come in on the H-2A.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, that’s not going to be affected. The farmers will not be —

Q Are you going to (inaudible) carve-out —

THE PRESIDENT: That’s an important point.

Q — for the seasonal H-2A workers?

THE PRESIDENT: The farmers will not be affected. Yeah, that’s a very important point. I mean, it’s a great point, actually. I’m — I’m glad you brought it up. No, the farmers will not be affected.

Q Your EO will have a carve-out for those workers (inaudible)?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, they’ve had cases where they — where they stopped everybody from coming in, and all the farmers went out of business. They were literally out of business. You remember that, Bret. It was not so long ago. But they — it’s easy — you know, it’s easier to stop everything cold than it is to plan it so that the farmers have the people that have been working on those farms for many years. And — and that’s what we’re doing.

No, the farmers will not be affected by this at all. If anything, we’re going to make it easier, and we’re doing a process that’ll make it better for those workers to come in, to go to the farm where they’ve been for a long time.

{snip}

Q The flight ban is still in place. How confident are you that the Chinese are not going to use — invoke the natural disaster clause to just wait before getting into their —

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to see. Look, there’s nobody ever been tougher on China than me. And that means for 20 years. You go back 20 years. I probably got elected, at least partially, on the fact that I’ve been very tough. I said China has been ripping us off for years.” I’d go into Michigan, I’d go into Pennsylvania, and make speeches unrelated to being a politician. I’d be invited. I’d be speaking to people — which I like to do because I love the people, I love the people of this country. And I’d make speeches — nobody — I’d say, “How did you let this happen with China?”

I even asked the leaders of China, “How — how did this ever happen where our country loses tens of billions of dollars a year?” And I don’t mean just tens. Take a look: $200 billion, $300 billion, $400 billion, $500 billion a year. How did they ever let a thing like this happen?

Now, if you look at this last year, the deficit went way down. And I’m talking about even before; now it’s much different. But a lot of things are happening. Great things were happening, except, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, came the invisible enemy. And we think we know where it came from, and we’ll be talking about that probably a lot. But came — the invisible enemy. There’s been nobody tougher than me on China.

Q So you have no guarantee that they are going to go ahead with this phase one?

THE PRESIDENT: No, no. But if that happens, we’ll do a termination and we’ll do what I can do better than anybody.

Yeah, please.

Q Mr. President, on China: Have U.S. intelligence analysts told you that they think that the virus escaped from a Chinese research lab, that it was — infected someone?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I can’t tell you that. “Have U.S. intelligence agents told me…” I mean, what kind of a question is that?

Q Do you feel — do feel confident about it, that that happened?

THE PRESIDENT: I can’t — I can’t. You want me to tell you — oh, let me tell you what they told me. Look, they told me plenty. They told me plenty.

Bret?

Q I wanted to follow up on — you said about the small business program, Harvard is going to pay the money back. How confident are you that you can claw back money from places like Harvard?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’m going to have to look. I don’t like when Harvard — that has, I think, a $40 billion endowment or some incredible amount of money — that Harvard gets this money. Harvard should pay that money back. I want Harvard to pay the money back. Okay? And if they won’t do that, then we won’t do something else. They have to pay it back. I don’t like it. I don’t like it.

This is meant for workers. This isn’t meant for one of the richest institutions, not only — far beyond schools — in the world. They got to pay it back. I want them to pay it back.

Yeah.

Q Mr. President, your Florida clubs have had to furlough workers —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. That’s true.

Q Have you thought about, you know, asking your family members to maybe keep some of those workers on the payroll to help — sending them to the federal coffer? We’ve seen companies — other companies do that.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I — you know, yeah. In Doral, you’re not allowed to have the golf courses open. You can’t have the clubs open. You can’t have anything. It’s a — it’s a big hotel and resort. And I think there’s probably 700, 750 people. So you can’t have anything open. And you say, “What are we going to do? Have full payroll and have the whole place with…” You know, there’s no income coming in.

First of all, everyone’s home and they’re supposed to be. Second of all, in Florida, you can’t use golf courses. That one, I’m not sure I agree with. You know, you have parks and golf courses where you have open space. But that’s what it is.

So I have others also. Then I have others in different states. I have a lot of different properties. But again, my children run them, and I love my children and I wish them well. I look forward to comparing my numbers to my children’s numbers. I think I’ll do better.

Q You haven’t thought about asking them to keep these —

THE PRESIDENT: You understand that. It’s called closed property, it’s like, you know, you have to close them up and then hopefully when things get better, we’ll just open it up. But you can’t have, you know, many hundreds of employees standing around doing nothing. There’s no customer. You’re not allowed to have a customer.

So, in some places, it’s very strict. New Jersey is strict. New York is strict. And you have to do what you have to do. And it’s too bad. I feel so badly when I see that. I think that it’s a tough policy, but I go by whatever the policy — that’s a state policy, in the case of Florida.

{snip}

THE PRESIDENT: We want to have you back soon. Thank you very much.

Thank you, everybody.

END

6:56 P.M. EDT