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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,892 posts)
Thu Sep 24, 2020, 11:41 AM Sep 2020

Trump's Remarks in Press Briefing; September 23, 2020

STATEMENTS & RELEASES

Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE

Issued on: September 23, 2020

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
6:16 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello. Thank you very much. Thank you. Today, Johnson & Johnson announced that their vaccine candidate has reached the final stage of clinical trials. This is record time. This is the fourth vaccine candidate in the United States to reach the final stage of trial. So we have four candidates already at a very late date. “Late” being a very positive word, in this case.

{snip}

Months ago, we increased our nation’s procurement of the flu vaccine by 66 percent, and we ask Americans to go get their annual flu shot as early as possible. It’s possible, I would imagine, Scott, that the flu can get mixed up with the virus, and people can think it’s the virus when actually it’s another flu season coming on. I don’t know, it’s — I hope they can keep them separate. Can they keep them separate?

DR. ATLAS: We hope so.

THE PRESIDENT: Huh? I doubt they will. It’s going to be a very interesting time.

But we have a flu season coming up. We’ve had some flu seasons, which are really massive over the years — over many years. And we have some that are much less so. But it’s still significant, so I hope they can separate them, because it’s — it’s pretty close.

{snip}

We’ve created the fastest economic recovery in American history. You are witnessing it. You are a part of it.

Our approach is pro-science. Biden’s approach is anti-science. If you look, it’s — I don’t think they know what their approach is, although a lot of it’s copied from what we’ve done.

Biden opposed the China travel ban and the Europe travel ban. And the strategy that they have was just never-ending lockdowns. We’re not locking down. We’re actually growing at a rate that we’ve never experienced before. But they’re talking about — if you have a question, just lock it down. We’re not doing that, and you can’t do that.

Our plan will crush the virus. And actually, Biden’s plan will crush America, if you think about it. You can’t lock down. Again, we’re growing at levels that nobody has ever seen before. Our plan is unleashing a rapid recovery. Our opponent’s plan would hurt America very badly. It would send us into a depression.

And with all of that being said, we are going to be having a very exciting Saturday at five o’clock in the Rose Garden, where I’ll be putting forth my nominee for Supreme Court Justice. And I think it will be a great nominee, a brilliant nominee. As you know, it’s a woman. We brought it down to five women. It’s time for a woman to — to be chosen, with everything that’s happened and with Justice Ginsburg’s passing.

We are going to go sometime tomorrow morning, as I understand it, to pay our respects. And we’ll be over there, and I guess they probably put that announcement out. But that’ll be done tomorrow morning. The Vice President was there today.

And so, if you have any questions, we’ll take a few questions. Yeah.

Q Mr. President, real quickly: Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here, today, for a peaceful transferal of power after the election? And there has been rioting in Louisville. There’s been rioting in many cities across this country — red and — your so-called red and blue states. Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferal of power after the election?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster. And — and —

Q I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to making sure that —

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I know. I know. Yeah, no, we want —

Q — there’s a peaceful transferal of power?

THE PRESIDENT: We want to have — get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans- — we’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly; there’ll be a continuation.

The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than —

Q No, sir. I don’t know that.

THE PRESIDENT: — anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.

Go ahead.

Q No, sir. Mr. President, the second question is, will you also —

Q Thank you. Will you —

THE PRESIDENT: Please, go ahead. Please, go ahead.

Q Why won’t you commit — why won’t you —

THE PRESIDENT: You asked a question.

Go ahead, please.

Q Mr. President, why won’t you —

Q Mr. President, do you plan to —

THE PRESIDENT: Say it.

Q Mr. President, do you plan to meet with Barbara Lagoa at the White House?

THE PRESIDENT: Can you — you — I cannot hear you through your mask.

Q I’m sorry. Do you plan to meet with Barbara Lagoa in Washington? And is she still on your shortlist?

THE PRESIDENT: She is on my list. I don’t have a meeting planned, but she is on my list.

Q Do you — do you have a —

THE PRESIDENT: But I don’t really talk about the meetings planned. I — I speak to people. I talk to people. But I don’t have a meeting planned. No.

{snip}

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chimed in on the U.S. election and essentially encouraged people to vote for Joe Biden. I wanted to get your reaction to that.

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not a fan of hers. And I would say this — and she has probably has heard that — but, I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he’s going to need it.

Yeah, please. Go ahead.

Q Mr. President, the FDA is reportedly considering stricter guidelines for the emergency authorization of a COVID vaccine. Are you okay with that?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I’ll tell you what, we’re looking at that, and that has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move, because when you have Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, these great companies coming up with these — the vaccines, and they’ve done testing and everything else, I’m saying, “Why would they have to be, you know, adding great length to the process?”

We want to have people not get sick. The vaccine is very important. It’s the final step. I believe it’s going to be the final step. And no, we’re looking at that, but I think it’s — I think that was a political move more than anything else.

{snip}

Q Are you amending —

THE PRESIDENT: It sounded to me — it sounded extremely political. Why would they do this when we come back with these great results? And I think you will have those great results, because why would we —

Q Well, when do you expect this vaccine?

THE PRESIDENT: Why would we be delaying it? But we’re going to look at it. We’re going to take a look at it. And ultimately, the White House has to approve it. And maybe we will, and maybe we won’t. But we’ll be taking —

Look, I have to leave for an emergency phone call. I’m going to let Scott and Larry finish up. Larry is going to talk about the economy.

Q Mr. President, just one more question on Breonna Taylor, if I can?

Q What’s the emergency phone call about?

THE PRESIDENT: So I’ll be — I’ll be back. I will see you tomorrow. A big day.

Q Mr. President, if you can, just one more question on Breonna Taylor.

THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me.

Q We’re at a time right now where Americans —

Q Who’s the call?

Q — feel like we are on this carousel —

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q Who’s the call?

THE PRESIDENT: I have a — a big call. A very big call.

Q Mr. President, just one more question, if I can, on Breonna Taylor?

THE PRESIDENT: So I’ll let you take over.

Q People are protesting in the streets. What is your message to them? People feel like we are on this carousel where another black life is being taken.

MS. MCENANY: So, here we have Dr. Scott Atlas and Larry Kudlow. I encourage you all to be respectful and show a little bit of decorum here as they take your questions.

{snip}

Q Dr. Atlas —

DR. ATLAS: Yes.

Q Dr. Redfield today said that more than 90 percent of the population remains susceptible to coronavirus. Do you agree with that assessment?

DR. ATLAS: Yeah, I think that Dr. Redfield misstated something there. And the rea- —

Q So he misstated last time and today?

DR. ATLAS: I’m going to answer your question if you’ll let me finish.

Q Okay, please.

DR. ATLAS: The data on the susceptible that he was talking about was his surveillance data that showed that roughly 9 percent of the country has antibodies. But when you look at the CDC data state by state, much of that data is old. Some of it goes back to March or April, before many of these states had the cases. That’s point number one.

Point number two is that the immunity to the infection is not solely determined by the percent of people who have antibodies. If you look at the research — and there’s been about 24 papers at least on the immunity from T-cells — that’s a different type of immunity than antibodies. And without being boring, the reality is that — according to the papers from Sweden, Singapore, and elsewhere — there is cross-immunity, highly likely from other infections, and there is also T-cell immunity. And the combination of those makes the antibodies a small fraction of the people that have immunity.

So the answer is no, it is not 90 percent of people that are susceptible to the infection.

Q So I guess my question is for — I’m not a doctor; I defer to your expertise on this and to his. But so, Americans hear one thing from the CDC Director and another thing from you. Who are we to believe?

DR. ATLAS: You’re supposed to believe the science, and I’m telling you the science.

Q So he’s not telling us science?

DR. ATLAS: I’m telling you the science, and that’s the answer. And if you want to look up all the data, you’re free to. You can also talk to the following epidemiologists —

Q I guess, why is he still going out before Congress and speaking if you say he’s misstated it today and the President said he misstated last time? Americans are looking for the best information right now.

DR. ATLAS: Yeah. And I’m giving you the best information, and it’s confirmed by people like Martin Kulldorff, who’s a Harvard epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School —

Q So should we now —

DR. ATLAS: Let me finish, please.

Q Please. Please.

DR. ATLAS: Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannides, both epidemiologists at Stanford; Professor Gupta, University of Oxford. These are people who know the latest data on the immunology and what’s happening. And I just recited it to you.

(Crosstalk.)

MR. KUDLOW: I’m going to give — I’m going to give Scott a little time off. I’m just going to give Scott a little time off.

I want to reinforce some of the things that President Trump said about the economy because that’s very much a key part of this story. We’ve got some new numbers out late last week and this week, and I wanted to underscore that.

If we can get the charts back up, I want to show you some more examples of the “V”-shaped recovery. I — actually, I can jump in here.

This is from the Census Bureau Report: change in the number of people living in poverty. During President Trump’s first three years, pre-pandemic, 6.6 million fewer people — 6.6 million fewer people are living in poverty.

Q What’s the number post-pandemic?

MR. KUDLOW: And the —

Q What’s the number post-pandemic?

MR. KUDLOW: Well, we’ll have to wait and see on that. We’re just beginning —

Q Well, wouldn’t that be more accurate — wouldn’t that be a more accurate chart?

MR. KUDLOW: Let me go to the — under the Obama years, 787,000 people moved into poverty, so that’s a problem.

And we have the second chart —

Q Isn’t that an old chart, though?

MR. KUDLOW: — if we get — no, this a brand-new — this stuff just came out late last week.

Q But when you look —

Q It says through 2019.

MR. KUDLOW: If I — if I may, okay?

Q I just like accurate information.

MR. KUDLOW: This is the accurate information. This is —

Q It’s not 2020.

Q Doesn’t it say through 2019, Larry?

MR. KUDLOW: This is from the Census Bureau, and it just —

Q It’s not 2020. It’s like right now.

MR. KUDLOW: — came back.

{snip}

So I just want to say, we have more work to do with respect to the — to the recovery and return to economic health. We have more work to do. There is still hardship, and there is still heartbreak.

Q Do you know how many Americans —

MR. KUDLOW: But the numbers coming in —

Q Do you know how many Americans are living in poverty, right now, today?

MR. KUDLOW: The numbers — actually, that won’t be reported —

Q Do you know the answer to that question?

MR. KUDLOW: That won’t be reported —

Q Do you know the answer to that question?

MR. KUDLOW: I can only wait until the Census Bureau — I don’t know if you cover this beat or not.

Q The most recent number of the — number of Americans living in poverty right now — do you happen to know that answer?

MR. KUDLOW: No.

Q Because we’re getting a — you don’t know that?

MR. KUDLOW: I will wait —

Q You’re an economic adviser and you don’t know that?

MR. KUDLOW: Yes, right. If you’ll just stop nitpicking, and let me explain to you.

Q It’s not nitpicking.

MR. KUDLOW: These numbers —

Q I don’t want a history lesson; I want to know what’s happening today.

MR. KUDLOW: Well, you should have a history lesson, too. It would help you understand.

Q (Inaudible.)

MR. KUDLOW: But I’m going to say to you: These are Census Bureau numbers. The most accurate, comprehensive — they are not out yet. So I’m giving you the ones that were released late last week; they are the most up-to-date numbers.

{snip}

Yes, sir.

Q Today, in California, the governor issued an executive order designed to move the state to the point where there will be no gas-powered vehicles sold by 2035. What do you make of this move that’s taking place in California? Do you expect it to spread around the country? What are the poli- — the economic ramifications?

MR. KUDLOW: I don’t expect it to spread, with respect to Governor Newsom, whom I know. It just seems like a very extreme position. I don’t know how you get there.

I’ll have a look at the proposal. If there’s more detail and meat on the bones. I don’t see this happening elsewhere. I don’t think we should be taking any steps to get rid of fossil fuels, for example. And, by the way, there should be consumer choice for all automobiles, and that includes electric automobiles.

But I’d have to look at the governor’s proposal. It just sounds very extreme to me. I don’t know how you do it.

Yes.

{snip}

I’m just saying: Let’s be smart about some of these assistance measures. Thank you very much.

END 6:49 P.M. EDT
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