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Trump's Remarks on Protecting Seniors with Diabetes; May 26, 2020
Last edited Wed May 27, 2020, 08:52 AM - Edit history (1)
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump on Protecting Seniors with Diabetes
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: May 26, 2020
Rose Garden
4:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: You definitely have plenty of distancing. Ive never seen distancing like that. Thats really thats really very impressive.
And welcome to the Rose Garden as we take powerful action to lower healthcare costs for Americas seniors. Today, Im proud to announce that we have reached a breakthrough agreement to dramatically slash the out-of-pocket cost of insulin. You know whats happened to insulin over the years, right? Through the roof. Insulin so many people, so necessary.
For hundreds and thousands of seniors enrolled in Medicare thats a big deal participating plans will cap cost at just $35 a month per type of insulin, and some plans may offer it free. So for everybody that was getting ripped off and paying tremendous prices senior citizens and, Seema, I want to thank you because you brought this to my attention a long time ago, and you worked very hard on this day. And the press wont even cover it, but theyll cover things that are unimportant.
But this is a big day for seniors. This is a tremendous saving. And it allows people that you know, if you dont take insulin I just wrote this down go blind, stroke, amputation, kidney failure, and other things. So were getting it down $35 per month. And it would be anywhere from $50 to $150 to over $200 a month. So its a massive cut I guess, 60, 70 percent. Nobody has seen anything like this for a long time.
Sleepy Joe cant do this that, I can tell you. In fact, it was his problem with Obamacare that caused part of your problem. This will save impacted Americans an average of minimum $446, just on insulin costs a year.
Were pleased to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. I also want to thank Seema again. Thank you very much for the job youve done helping achieve the incredible victory for Medicare patients nationwide.
In the past, Obamacare prevented insurance providers from competing to offer lower costs for seniors. There was no competition, there was no anything, and they ran away with what took place, and the seniors were horribly hurt. Many people couldnt take insulin; they couldnt even think about it.
As a result, Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage paid an average of $675 for a years supply of insulin, and sometimes as high as $1,500. Harmful laws also meant that seniors often paid a different amount almost every single month. They had no idea what they were paying they were billed. Every month, they were billed a different amount, and it was a massive amount.
One in every three seniors on Medicare has diabetes, and over 3.3 million beneficiaries use at least one type of insulin. Over the past 10 years, these seniors have seen their out-of-pocket costs for this lifesaving treatment almost double.
I dont use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.
Thats why my administration acted decisively. We slashed Obamacares crippling requirements and opened up competition like theyve never seen before. Theyve never seen competition like this. Between transparency and all of the other things were doing, nobody has ever had a competitive competitive situation created like weve done it. And the prices, you will see very soon, theyre going to come tumbling down.
Then we brought all the parties to the table insurers, manufacturers, and other key players and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out-of-pocket costs for our seniors.
I hope the seniors are going to remember it, because Biden is the one that put us into the jam because they didnt know what they were doing. They were incompetent.
{snip}
Id like to also invite up David Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company a very big and a very great company.
Please. This is another young guy.
MR. RICKS: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, David.
MR. RICKS: A pleasure to be here. Really, an honor to be a part of this announcement to improve the lives of so many patients who live with diabetes in our Part D program.
For several years, Lilly has worked hard to improve insulin affordability, and this has been a missing piece thats now been filled in by the great collaboration from our plan; companies like Bruces, who are here; Seema Verma, your administration. Vice President Pence, President Trump, thank you for your leadership to make this happen. This is the kind of collaboration that solves real problems for people with serious issues like diabetes.
{snip}
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And and let me say what a what a privilege it is to be here with business leaders and activists who have been standing with you, standing with the White House Coronavirus Task Force from the very beginning.
{snip}
But the good news is, Mr. President, that because of the steps the American people have taken, heeding your leadership and the guidance of state and local officials, were getting there. And were starting to reopen America, as we speak, in a safe and responsible way.
{snip}
ADMINISTRATOR VERMA:
{snip}
But no longer. Thanks to the Presidents leadership, Medicare seniors will pay no more than $35 for their insulin and thats per month and thats for all forms of insulin through all phases of the Medicare Part D program. I also will say that some plans are free to even go below the $35, and so they could even see lower premiums as well.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, two questions about a couple of things youve tweeted about in the last few days. Were you meaning to criticize Vice President Biden for wearing a mask yesterday? And can you explain why youve been tweeting about a conspiracy theory that has been proven to not be true?
THE PRESIDENT: No, Biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife perfect conditions, perfect weather. Theyre inside, and they dont wear masks. And so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on. But I thought that was fine. I wasnt criticizing him at all. Why would I ever do anything like that?
And your second question was? I couldnt hear you. Can you
Q The second
THE PRESIDENT: Can you take it off? Because I cannot hear you.
Q Ill Ill just speak louder, sir. The
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, okay, because you want to be politically correct. Go ahead.
Q No, sir. I just want to wear the mask.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Q The second question was about your tweets, about the woman who died who youre suggesting that Joe Scarborough was responsible.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, a lot of people suggest that. And hopefully, someday, people are going to find out. Its certainly a very suspicious situation. Very sad. Very sad and very suspicious.
Question, please.
Q Her husband has asked you not to tweet about it anymore, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, please. Go.
Q Mr. President, though, have you seen the letter that was written by her husband, begging Twitter to to delete your tweets, talking about how hard its been for his family, for him to deal with that?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I have. But Im sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and its a very serious situation.
I also saw a clip with with Joe and Imus where they were having a lot of fun at her expense, and I thought it was totally inappropriate.
No, its a very suspicious thing, and I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it. Itll be a very good thing. As you know, theres no statute of limitations. So it would be a very good very good thing to do.
Okay, whos next? Any questions on insulin?
{snip}
Q Yes. Is there any reason why someone who does not have diabetes would take insulin? Is there any sort of medical reason for that?
THE PRESIDENT: I could ask that question to anybody like to discuss that? Do you want to discuss it? Please, go ahead. Do you know the answer? Either one of you or both. Come on. Lets get these highly paid executives up here to give the answer. Seema?
Please, Jerome. We picked a good one. We got it right.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Well, thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: And I think its important for everyone to know that, as Tracey Brown highlighted earlier, one in three Americans is actually either diabetic or pre-diabetic. And I would encourage folks to go to Diabetes.org/Risk Risk-Test. So Diabetes.org/Risk-Test to find out if you are at risk for diabetes.
As far as insulin goes, we know that, again, 7 million people actually are dependent on insulin. We know that from a type 1 diabetes standpoint, 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, and most all of them are dependent on insulin.
Your body, Mr. President, actually makes insulin endogenously. And people such as you and I, we make our own insulin. So, yes, we do utilize insulin, but we make it ourselves.
THE PRESIDENT: Ah.
{snip}
Q What can you tell us about the documents reportedly declassified by Ric Grenell, just before he stepped down as DNI? Are you prepared to release the transcripts of the Flynn-Kislyak conversations?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, Id like to hear it too. I mean, Id like to hear it. The FBI, as you know, said that he didnt lie. And certainly, the conversation, almost regardless it was a good conversation. He was allowed to do it.
And the Mueller people who are have been proven theyre very bad. Very bad things they did. Very bad things. A lot of bad things are being found out about the hoax. Greatest hoax in the in history of our country. And it was an illegal hoax and a very dangerous hoax. And a lot of bad things have been found out about Mueller and the gang.
So I would like to hear that conversation. Yeah, I would like to hear it, personally. So whatever they want me to do, Ill do.
I think Ric Grenell has done an incredible job. And things are happening now that I always knew this was the answer. This was a a an attempted coup by a bunch of dirty cops and others. These are dirty cops, dishonest slime bags.
All right, yeah. Question? Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, on Friday, you announced that you wanted governors to reopen churches and synagogues and mosques. And you said you would overrule them if they if they declined to do so. Can you explain what authority you had in mind when you said that you would do that?
THE PRESIDENT: I can absolutely do it if I want to. And I dont think Im going to have to, because its starting to open up. We need our churches and our synagogues and our mosques. We want them open: churches, synagogues, mosques and other. We want them open, and we want them open as soon as possible.
Now, I can tell you, I know a lot of pastors, a lot of rabbis, imams, and they want to take care of their people. They want to take care. They dont want anyone getting hurt or sick, and theyre going to take care of their people. We need we need these people. We need we need people that are going to be leading us in faith. And were opening them up.
And if I have to, I will override any governor that wants to play games. If they want to play games, thats okay, but we will win. And we have many different ways where I can override them. And if I have to, Ill do that. But we want our churches and our synagogues and our mosques, et cetera we want them open.
Now, there may be some areas, by the way, where the pastor, or whoever, may feel that its not quite ready. And thats okay. Thats okay. But let that be the choice of the congregation and the pastor.
John, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, how long will you give North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to provide you with the information that you and the RNC are asking for before you decide to look elsewhere for a venue for the RNC convention in August?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as you know, we dont have much time because we have to know that if were going to spend millions of dollars on an arena we want to be in North Carolina. I love North Carolina. I won North Carolina. We just had a big two races that we won recently for Congress in North Carolina. Two very big races that the press didnt want to report on. If we would have lost them, it would have been the biggest story in political history.
But we just won two races. Its a very important place to me. I love North Carolina. In fact, my son, Eric, and Laura named their baby Carolina and came from, I think, both. But she was born in North Carolina, as you know Laura. So, its a very important place to me.
But at the same time and I think that people understand this we have a governor that doesnt want to open up the state. And we have a date of August at the end of August and we have to know before we spend millions and millions of dollars on an arena to make it magnificent for the convention. And we have tremendous people. I mean, the economic development consequences are tremendous for the state. We have to know that when the people come down, theyre going to have the doors open.
Now, if the governor cant tell us very soon, unfortunately, well have no choice. This has nothing to do with us; this is between the governor and North Carolina and the people of North Carolina.
But the people want it, and well have to see whether or not the governor now, hes a Democrat, and a lot of the Democrats, for political reasons, dont want to open up their states. So well see if that works, but I dont think it will. Id love to have it in North Carolina; that was why I chose it Charlotte. But were going to see. Were going to see. And at the end, we need a fast decision from the governor. Hes going to have to because hes hes been acting very, very slowly and very suspiciously. But well find out.
All right? Question, please.
Q So in terms of soon, are we talking a week, two weeks, a month?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we need yeah. I mean, we cant take were talking about a very short period of time. Its a massive expenditure, and we have to know. Yeah, I would say within a week that certainly we have to know.
Now, if he cant do it, if he feels that hes not going to do it, all he has to do is tell us, and then well have to pick another location. And I will tell you, a lot of locations want it. But I picked North Carolina because I do love that state, and it wouldve been a perfect place for it and it still would be.
But hes got to say that, you know, when thousands of people come to the arena, that theyll be able to get in. Does that make sense? I mean, you know, well spend millions and millions of dollars on this magnificent design. But in the end, they have to be able to get in. I dont want to have it where we get there and then they announce, after all the money was spent, all the work was done, all the people traveling guess what? you cant put anybody in the arena, or you can put a tiny number of people in the arena. We cant do that, John.
Yeah. Please, go ahead.
Q There are now more than still more than a dozen states in this country where case numbers are rising. So why is it suspicious if a governor says, Look, we dont want to move that quickly. We still think we need to shut down?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think its fine. They have to do it. Look, the governors, in certain ways, they have to do what they want to do, but they have to tell me what theyre doing. And when it comes to churches, et cetera, they will be overridden by me. When it comes to other things and, you know, many other things, they wont. If I think something is being done incorrectly or wrong, Im going to do it. But you have different governors, and they have very different views on where they are and where theyre going. So well see what happens.
{snip}
Q Thank you. About mail-in voting, youve been speaking out against a lot against that a lot.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean, mail-in voting, not ballot?
Q Yeah. Youve been speaking a lot about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Why should somebody who is afraid of getting coronavirus going to public places, standing in a line, et cetera why should they not
THE PRESIDENT: First of all
Q Why should they not be allowed to do mail-in?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thats going to be in a long time from now, number one. You know, its quite a ways away, number one.
But when you do all mail-in voting, ballots, youre asking for fraud. People steal them out of mailboxes. People print them and then they sign them, and they give them in. The people dont even know where theyre double counted. People take them where they force people to vote. They harvest. You know what harvesting is. They take many, many ballots and they put them all together, and then they just dump them, and nobody has any idea whether theyre crooked or not.
Look, if you do mail-in voting now its another thing to do absentee voting or if somebody has a medical condition where they go through a process and they get an absentee ballot thats okay; thats different.
But in California, the governor sent, I hear or is sending millions of ballots all over the state. Millions. To anybody. To anybody. People that arent citizens, illegals. Anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot.
Were not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen. Were not destroying our country. This has more to do with fairness and honesty and, really, our country itself. Because when that starts happening, you dont have a fair you have a rigged system. You have a rigged system, and thats what would happen.
So mail-in ballots and the governor of California did better than any that I could ever do in terms of explaining. When he sent out or will send out and I dont know, I think its maybe partially already done millions and millions of ballots to anybody in California thats walking or breathing, many of those people dont have the right to vote. Well, theyll be voting. And you know what? Were not going to let it happen, because youre subverting our process and youre making our country a joke.
And the Democrats are doing it because, in theory, its good for them. Although, last week, we won two big races. We won in Wisconsin and won in California. California-25. We won a tremendous race in California. That was that was interesting, because at the end of the race, they brought in the Democrat the Democrat governor, same governor; he brought in voting booths not mail-in voting booths, because they were losing. They saw that through the ballots.
But, no, you cant do that. You cant do the mail-in ballots because youre going to have tremendous fraud. And remember what I said: Theyll be grabbing them from mailboxes. Theyll even be printing them. Theyll use the same paper, the same machines, and theyll be printing ballots illegally. And theyll be sending them in by the hundreds of thousands, and nobody is going to know the difference. We cant do that. You want to vote? You really have to.
Absentee is okay: Youre sick. Youre away. As an example, I have to do an absentee because Im voting in Florida, and I happen to be President. I live in that very beautiful house over there thats painted white. So thats okay. And its okay for people that are sick and they cant get up. Something. You know, something.
But voting is a great honor. Its a great honor. And people love to go out and vote, and I want to keep it that way. And if we dont keep it that way, well have nothing but a rigged system in this country, and we cant do that.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END
5:22 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump on Protecting Seniors with Diabetes
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: May 26, 2020
Rose Garden
4:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: You definitely have plenty of distancing. Ive never seen distancing like that. Thats really thats really very impressive.
And welcome to the Rose Garden as we take powerful action to lower healthcare costs for Americas seniors. Today, Im proud to announce that we have reached a breakthrough agreement to dramatically slash the out-of-pocket cost of insulin. You know whats happened to insulin over the years, right? Through the roof. Insulin so many people, so necessary.
For hundreds and thousands of seniors enrolled in Medicare thats a big deal participating plans will cap cost at just $35 a month per type of insulin, and some plans may offer it free. So for everybody that was getting ripped off and paying tremendous prices senior citizens and, Seema, I want to thank you because you brought this to my attention a long time ago, and you worked very hard on this day. And the press wont even cover it, but theyll cover things that are unimportant.
But this is a big day for seniors. This is a tremendous saving. And it allows people that you know, if you dont take insulin I just wrote this down go blind, stroke, amputation, kidney failure, and other things. So were getting it down $35 per month. And it would be anywhere from $50 to $150 to over $200 a month. So its a massive cut I guess, 60, 70 percent. Nobody has seen anything like this for a long time.
Sleepy Joe cant do this that, I can tell you. In fact, it was his problem with Obamacare that caused part of your problem. This will save impacted Americans an average of minimum $446, just on insulin costs a year.
Were pleased to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. I also want to thank Seema again. Thank you very much for the job youve done helping achieve the incredible victory for Medicare patients nationwide.
In the past, Obamacare prevented insurance providers from competing to offer lower costs for seniors. There was no competition, there was no anything, and they ran away with what took place, and the seniors were horribly hurt. Many people couldnt take insulin; they couldnt even think about it.
As a result, Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage paid an average of $675 for a years supply of insulin, and sometimes as high as $1,500. Harmful laws also meant that seniors often paid a different amount almost every single month. They had no idea what they were paying they were billed. Every month, they were billed a different amount, and it was a massive amount.
One in every three seniors on Medicare has diabetes, and over 3.3 million beneficiaries use at least one type of insulin. Over the past 10 years, these seniors have seen their out-of-pocket costs for this lifesaving treatment almost double.
I dont use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot of people are very very badly affected, right? Unbelievable.
Thats why my administration acted decisively. We slashed Obamacares crippling requirements and opened up competition like theyve never seen before. Theyve never seen competition like this. Between transparency and all of the other things were doing, nobody has ever had a competitive competitive situation created like weve done it. And the prices, you will see very soon, theyre going to come tumbling down.
Then we brought all the parties to the table insurers, manufacturers, and other key players and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out-of-pocket costs for our seniors.
I hope the seniors are going to remember it, because Biden is the one that put us into the jam because they didnt know what they were doing. They were incompetent.
{snip}
Id like to also invite up David Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company a very big and a very great company.
Please. This is another young guy.
MR. RICKS: Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, David.
MR. RICKS: A pleasure to be here. Really, an honor to be a part of this announcement to improve the lives of so many patients who live with diabetes in our Part D program.
For several years, Lilly has worked hard to improve insulin affordability, and this has been a missing piece thats now been filled in by the great collaboration from our plan; companies like Bruces, who are here; Seema Verma, your administration. Vice President Pence, President Trump, thank you for your leadership to make this happen. This is the kind of collaboration that solves real problems for people with serious issues like diabetes.
{snip}
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. President. And and let me say what a what a privilege it is to be here with business leaders and activists who have been standing with you, standing with the White House Coronavirus Task Force from the very beginning.
{snip}
But the good news is, Mr. President, that because of the steps the American people have taken, heeding your leadership and the guidance of state and local officials, were getting there. And were starting to reopen America, as we speak, in a safe and responsible way.
{snip}
ADMINISTRATOR VERMA:
{snip}
But no longer. Thanks to the Presidents leadership, Medicare seniors will pay no more than $35 for their insulin and thats per month and thats for all forms of insulin through all phases of the Medicare Part D program. I also will say that some plans are free to even go below the $35, and so they could even see lower premiums as well.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, two questions about a couple of things youve tweeted about in the last few days. Were you meaning to criticize Vice President Biden for wearing a mask yesterday? And can you explain why youve been tweeting about a conspiracy theory that has been proven to not be true?
THE PRESIDENT: No, Biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife perfect conditions, perfect weather. Theyre inside, and they dont wear masks. And so I thought it was very unusual that he had one on. But I thought that was fine. I wasnt criticizing him at all. Why would I ever do anything like that?
And your second question was? I couldnt hear you. Can you
Q The second
THE PRESIDENT: Can you take it off? Because I cannot hear you.
Q Ill Ill just speak louder, sir. The
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, okay, because you want to be politically correct. Go ahead.
Q No, sir. I just want to wear the mask.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Q The second question was about your tweets, about the woman who died who youre suggesting that Joe Scarborough was responsible.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, a lot of people suggest that. And hopefully, someday, people are going to find out. Its certainly a very suspicious situation. Very sad. Very sad and very suspicious.
Question, please.
Q Her husband has asked you not to tweet about it anymore, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, please. Go.
Q Mr. President, though, have you seen the letter that was written by her husband, begging Twitter to to delete your tweets, talking about how hard its been for his family, for him to deal with that?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I have. But Im sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and its a very serious situation.
I also saw a clip with with Joe and Imus where they were having a lot of fun at her expense, and I thought it was totally inappropriate.
No, its a very suspicious thing, and I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it. Itll be a very good thing. As you know, theres no statute of limitations. So it would be a very good very good thing to do.
Okay, whos next? Any questions on insulin?
{snip}
Q Yes. Is there any reason why someone who does not have diabetes would take insulin? Is there any sort of medical reason for that?
THE PRESIDENT: I could ask that question to anybody like to discuss that? Do you want to discuss it? Please, go ahead. Do you know the answer? Either one of you or both. Come on. Lets get these highly paid executives up here to give the answer. Seema?
Please, Jerome. We picked a good one. We got it right.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: Well, thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
SURGEON GENERAL ADAMS: And I think its important for everyone to know that, as Tracey Brown highlighted earlier, one in three Americans is actually either diabetic or pre-diabetic. And I would encourage folks to go to Diabetes.org/Risk Risk-Test. So Diabetes.org/Risk-Test to find out if you are at risk for diabetes.
As far as insulin goes, we know that, again, 7 million people actually are dependent on insulin. We know that from a type 1 diabetes standpoint, 1.6 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, and most all of them are dependent on insulin.
Your body, Mr. President, actually makes insulin endogenously. And people such as you and I, we make our own insulin. So, yes, we do utilize insulin, but we make it ourselves.
THE PRESIDENT: Ah.
{snip}
Q What can you tell us about the documents reportedly declassified by Ric Grenell, just before he stepped down as DNI? Are you prepared to release the transcripts of the Flynn-Kislyak conversations?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, Id like to hear it too. I mean, Id like to hear it. The FBI, as you know, said that he didnt lie. And certainly, the conversation, almost regardless it was a good conversation. He was allowed to do it.
And the Mueller people who are have been proven theyre very bad. Very bad things they did. Very bad things. A lot of bad things are being found out about the hoax. Greatest hoax in the in history of our country. And it was an illegal hoax and a very dangerous hoax. And a lot of bad things have been found out about Mueller and the gang.
So I would like to hear that conversation. Yeah, I would like to hear it, personally. So whatever they want me to do, Ill do.
I think Ric Grenell has done an incredible job. And things are happening now that I always knew this was the answer. This was a a an attempted coup by a bunch of dirty cops and others. These are dirty cops, dishonest slime bags.
All right, yeah. Question? Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Thank you, sir. Mr. President, on Friday, you announced that you wanted governors to reopen churches and synagogues and mosques. And you said you would overrule them if they if they declined to do so. Can you explain what authority you had in mind when you said that you would do that?
THE PRESIDENT: I can absolutely do it if I want to. And I dont think Im going to have to, because its starting to open up. We need our churches and our synagogues and our mosques. We want them open: churches, synagogues, mosques and other. We want them open, and we want them open as soon as possible.
Now, I can tell you, I know a lot of pastors, a lot of rabbis, imams, and they want to take care of their people. They want to take care. They dont want anyone getting hurt or sick, and theyre going to take care of their people. We need we need these people. We need we need people that are going to be leading us in faith. And were opening them up.
And if I have to, I will override any governor that wants to play games. If they want to play games, thats okay, but we will win. And we have many different ways where I can override them. And if I have to, Ill do that. But we want our churches and our synagogues and our mosques, et cetera we want them open.
Now, there may be some areas, by the way, where the pastor, or whoever, may feel that its not quite ready. And thats okay. Thats okay. But let that be the choice of the congregation and the pastor.
John, go ahead.
Q Mr. President, how long will you give North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper to provide you with the information that you and the RNC are asking for before you decide to look elsewhere for a venue for the RNC convention in August?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as you know, we dont have much time because we have to know that if were going to spend millions of dollars on an arena we want to be in North Carolina. I love North Carolina. I won North Carolina. We just had a big two races that we won recently for Congress in North Carolina. Two very big races that the press didnt want to report on. If we would have lost them, it would have been the biggest story in political history.
But we just won two races. Its a very important place to me. I love North Carolina. In fact, my son, Eric, and Laura named their baby Carolina and came from, I think, both. But she was born in North Carolina, as you know Laura. So, its a very important place to me.
But at the same time and I think that people understand this we have a governor that doesnt want to open up the state. And we have a date of August at the end of August and we have to know before we spend millions and millions of dollars on an arena to make it magnificent for the convention. And we have tremendous people. I mean, the economic development consequences are tremendous for the state. We have to know that when the people come down, theyre going to have the doors open.
Now, if the governor cant tell us very soon, unfortunately, well have no choice. This has nothing to do with us; this is between the governor and North Carolina and the people of North Carolina.
But the people want it, and well have to see whether or not the governor now, hes a Democrat, and a lot of the Democrats, for political reasons, dont want to open up their states. So well see if that works, but I dont think it will. Id love to have it in North Carolina; that was why I chose it Charlotte. But were going to see. Were going to see. And at the end, we need a fast decision from the governor. Hes going to have to because hes hes been acting very, very slowly and very suspiciously. But well find out.
All right? Question, please.
Q So in terms of soon, are we talking a week, two weeks, a month?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we need yeah. I mean, we cant take were talking about a very short period of time. Its a massive expenditure, and we have to know. Yeah, I would say within a week that certainly we have to know.
Now, if he cant do it, if he feels that hes not going to do it, all he has to do is tell us, and then well have to pick another location. And I will tell you, a lot of locations want it. But I picked North Carolina because I do love that state, and it wouldve been a perfect place for it and it still would be.
But hes got to say that, you know, when thousands of people come to the arena, that theyll be able to get in. Does that make sense? I mean, you know, well spend millions and millions of dollars on this magnificent design. But in the end, they have to be able to get in. I dont want to have it where we get there and then they announce, after all the money was spent, all the work was done, all the people traveling guess what? you cant put anybody in the arena, or you can put a tiny number of people in the arena. We cant do that, John.
Yeah. Please, go ahead.
Q There are now more than still more than a dozen states in this country where case numbers are rising. So why is it suspicious if a governor says, Look, we dont want to move that quickly. We still think we need to shut down?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think its fine. They have to do it. Look, the governors, in certain ways, they have to do what they want to do, but they have to tell me what theyre doing. And when it comes to churches, et cetera, they will be overridden by me. When it comes to other things and, you know, many other things, they wont. If I think something is being done incorrectly or wrong, Im going to do it. But you have different governors, and they have very different views on where they are and where theyre going. So well see what happens.
{snip}
Q Thank you. About mail-in voting, youve been speaking out against a lot against that a lot.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean, mail-in voting, not ballot?
Q Yeah. Youve been speaking a lot about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Why should somebody who is afraid of getting coronavirus going to public places, standing in a line, et cetera why should they not
THE PRESIDENT: First of all
Q Why should they not be allowed to do mail-in?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thats going to be in a long time from now, number one. You know, its quite a ways away, number one.
But when you do all mail-in voting, ballots, youre asking for fraud. People steal them out of mailboxes. People print them and then they sign them, and they give them in. The people dont even know where theyre double counted. People take them where they force people to vote. They harvest. You know what harvesting is. They take many, many ballots and they put them all together, and then they just dump them, and nobody has any idea whether theyre crooked or not.
Look, if you do mail-in voting now its another thing to do absentee voting or if somebody has a medical condition where they go through a process and they get an absentee ballot thats okay; thats different.
But in California, the governor sent, I hear or is sending millions of ballots all over the state. Millions. To anybody. To anybody. People that arent citizens, illegals. Anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot.
Were not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen. Were not destroying our country. This has more to do with fairness and honesty and, really, our country itself. Because when that starts happening, you dont have a fair you have a rigged system. You have a rigged system, and thats what would happen.
So mail-in ballots and the governor of California did better than any that I could ever do in terms of explaining. When he sent out or will send out and I dont know, I think its maybe partially already done millions and millions of ballots to anybody in California thats walking or breathing, many of those people dont have the right to vote. Well, theyll be voting. And you know what? Were not going to let it happen, because youre subverting our process and youre making our country a joke.
And the Democrats are doing it because, in theory, its good for them. Although, last week, we won two big races. We won in Wisconsin and won in California. California-25. We won a tremendous race in California. That was that was interesting, because at the end of the race, they brought in the Democrat the Democrat governor, same governor; he brought in voting booths not mail-in voting booths, because they were losing. They saw that through the ballots.
But, no, you cant do that. You cant do the mail-in ballots because youre going to have tremendous fraud. And remember what I said: Theyll be grabbing them from mailboxes. Theyll even be printing them. Theyll use the same paper, the same machines, and theyll be printing ballots illegally. And theyll be sending them in by the hundreds of thousands, and nobody is going to know the difference. We cant do that. You want to vote? You really have to.
Absentee is okay: Youre sick. Youre away. As an example, I have to do an absentee because Im voting in Florida, and I happen to be President. I live in that very beautiful house over there thats painted white. So thats okay. And its okay for people that are sick and they cant get up. Something. You know, something.
But voting is a great honor. Its a great honor. And people love to go out and vote, and I want to keep it that way. And if we dont keep it that way, well have nothing but a rigged system in this country, and we cant do that.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END
5:22 P.M. EDT
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Trump's Remarks on Protecting Seniors with Diabetes; May 26, 2020 (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
May 2020
OP
kacekwl
(6,993 posts)1. I really don't know why this guy
after a press conference like that is not lead away in restraints to a mental health facility and removed from power. I sadly haven't understood anything since he revived more that one vote (his own) for president. What happened to this country ?