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White House Holds Briefing On Coronavirus Response; U.S. Reached Deals With Canada And Mexico To Halt Spread Of Virus; Donald Trump: We're Working On Massive Relief Measure For Americans; Mike Pence: Member Of Staff Who Tested Positive Is Doing Well, He Had No Contact With Me Or The President. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired March 21, 2020 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:00:13]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. We continue to stand by for this briefing at any moment.
Now you see him position. Members of the Cabinet and also Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of Infectious Diseases there. You're seeing HUD Secretary Ben Carson, many of them in place, perhaps now waiting for the president and the vice president. And we're also told earlier that perhaps a female administrator would also be there today, the number of cases in New York has jumped by nearly 25 percent, this as the president now enters the room along with the vice president. Let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much. A lot of things going on, and we're going to be -- going over to the Hill, and we're having a lot of meetings. And from the financial, this is a medical situation, not a financial situation. The financial though is moving along very nicely.
I want to thank you for being here, and update you on the progress we've made after a week of extraordinary mobilization in our war against the virus. Governors, mayors, the businesses, charities and citizens are all working with urgency and speed toward one common goal, which is saving American lives.
We're in communication with foreign countries. It's now at 148 foreign countries. Can you believe that? 100. You talk about a spread, you talk about a violent spread, 148 countries, not even believable.
There's been a week of national action and of great national solidarity, people are getting along. We're getting along with the Republicans and Democrats and Independents and Liberals and Conservatives, and actually it's a very nice thing to see. We're all one beautiful big American family, and that's taking place right now.
Last night I approved Major Disaster Declaration for the state of New York. I worked very closely with Governor Cuomo. And this is the first time in our nation's history that a president's used the Stafford Act to declare a major disaster in response to a public health crisis, never happened before.
I'm considering other areas where we may or may not be doing it. And working very closely with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and others. We may be doing the same thing depending on their needs, depending on what they're asking for. It's been unprecedented action in New York, and we've had a tremendous federal response all over the country.
And I want to thank all the people in the federal government and obviously in the state governments and local governments. We are working hard, everybody is working hard, and the people standing alongside of me are working very hard, that I can tell you.
We've also reached agreements with Canada and Mexico on new travel rules at our Northern and Southern borders to halt the entry of the Chinese virus while continuing trade and commerce. And we've had very good talks of -- with Prime Minister Trudeau, and today, this morning with President Lopez Obrador. We talked about joint measures that we're taking to prevent the spread of the virus in our countries and to temporarily suspend non-essential travel. We had a great conversation this morning, president of Mexico. And our close cooperation with Mexico and Canada will keep our people healthy, keep their people healthy, keep everybody safe.
Yesterday, I had a call with 12,000 small businesses , representatives of these businesses. That's the engine of our country. People don't realize that. You know, you read all about the big ones, but the small business, when you add them up together are really the engine, economic engine of our country. And I assured them that my administration is doing everything within its very considerable power frankly to support them and their employees. Nobody's ever done what we've done.
Likewise, I had calls during the week with all sorts of representatives and systems like the hospital system. We spoke to many of the hospital systems throughout the country, nurses and doctors, representatives representing hundreds of thousands of nurses and doctors, airlines and cruise ship companies. The business round table, which was fully attended and it's all of the top CEOs of our country and beyond, frankly, the businessmen of -- really these are world styled businessmen, these are businessmen that control the biggest companies in the world.
[13:05:14]
TRUMP: Many of them have taken hits and many of them are just -- you know, going forward that they -- that their businesses have been -- have been great. Some have been very badly affected, some haven't been affected at all, and frankly, some are doing very well. They continue to do very well.
It's a -- Walmart as an example has been really helpful to us. Doug McMillon, the head of Walmart, really helpful to us. And I guess, I assume they're doing pretty well because people are certainly buying more than even a clip at Christmas by substantial numbers, pretty amazing. But they're doing incredibly. They put on tremendous extra staff. You don't have empty shelves. A lot of things have happened that are very good.
Restaurants, fast food executives, grocery stores, all retailers, literally all of them in groups. And we spoke with the G7 leaders at length, as you know. You probably know about that. Spoke to many of the governors, spoke to almost all of the governors at conference calls and many of the governors individually.
And very importantly, the religious leaders. We had a great conversation yesterday, the vice president and myself with the religious leaders of our country, many of the religious leaders. And we've had a number of them during the course of the last two weeks actually, but yesterday we had a very significant call with the religious leaders of our country.
I signed legislation providing American workers with paid sick leave and paid family medical leave at no cost to employers, and free testing for those who need it. The testing's going very well and the admiral will speak to that, along with Tony.
We're working quickly to pass additional legislation that will provide massive relief to small businesses and affected industries and give direct payments to our great workers and hardworking American families.
There's never been anything like we're doing on the Hill right now. The negotiating, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, they're all up there, Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi. They're all negotiating and everybody's working hard and they want to get to a solution that's the right solution. I think we're getting very close.
We've also announced that we've moved tax day from April 15th to July 15th which is a big deal, giving businesses and individuals extra time to file and pay without interest or penalties. So we moved the date way back and so it'll be July 15th instead of your traditional April 15th.
And very importantly, you will have a lot of time, but you're not going to have interest penalties or any kind of penalties by filing at that later date.
HUD announced that foreclosures and evictions are suspended for single family home owners with FHA insured mortgages for the next 60 days. And our great head of HUD who is with us today, Ben Carson, is going to say a few words in a moment.
The Department of Education will not enforce standardized testing, which is another big deal requirement for students in elementary through high school for the current school year. Not fair to do that. So we are waving that.
I would imagine it's probably the first time ever that's been waived, but I think it's only fair to the students and to the parents of the students.
It is also waiving interest and other things that we're discussing right now on federally held student loans and directed that borrowers be allowed to suspend their student loan payments without penalty for at least 60 days. And we'll be talking about student loans, got to help the students. They are under a great burden right now. So we will be talking about that further, but we're waiving during the 60-day period, various elements and very important elements on student loans, big subject.
I signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act as you all know, giving us powerful new authorities to help state cities and hospitals procure needed supplies. There's been a clear call to action to the private sector. And the call is made right here. It's been really pretty amazing what's happened with the private sector. They are really in sixth gear, I think, which has responded in full force, helping to produce and supply much needed masks, swabs, sanitizers, ventilators and everything else. There's a move on that's incredible right now.
And by way of example, Hanes, everybody knows Hanes, great company, great consumer, cotton products company, is retrofitting its manufacturing capabilities in large sections of their plants to produce masks. And they're in that process right now.
[13:10:14]
TRUMP: And at my direction, the FDA has taken rapid steps to make these items available for medical use right now. And most excitingly to me is what the FDA has done in order to get a possibly a very successful number, it's not just one or two, number of therapeutics, medicines that can help people that are already sick, help people not get sick.
And obviously you know about the vaccine and Tony will discuss that a little bit later. But the vaccine is moving along. But this is something that right now, for right now, like this is what we really -- it's incredible.
And what the FDA has done and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who's highly respected came as a just a highly respected man. He's been fantastic. He's only been here for a couple of months and he's gotten thrown into this swim of it. And he's really standing up, but the FDA has really moved the mountains. I said it this morning. They moved mountains to get approvals on things that may be work. We'll find out very soon. It won't take long.
An example of the Pernod Ricard, which is a -- this is really an example where we're repurposing alcohol. They went out and repurposed their alcohol production capabilities in Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, and West Virginia to make hand sanitizer. It's a big difference. And they've been unbelievable.
They really -- Pernod Ricard, their first delivery will be on Tuesday. It's going to go to various states. They're going to start I think in New York, and they're going to work their way around. They're making a tremendous amount of hand sanitizer at a very high level too, by the way.
We've activated the National Response Coordination Center to level one, that's your highest level. It is the nerve center of all of our government response to crisis and it's coordinating very closely with our nation's governors -- our nation's governors. Many of you were at the call yesterday with the governors. And I think you can see the relationship and we've had numerous calls with governors by the way. But the relationships are pretty amazing. They like -- they're loving what we're doing and the coordination between the federal government and the governors states, and even local has been pretty incredible.
FEMA administrator, Pete Gaynor who is with us, will soon be providing you with an update on the center's operations and FEMA has been incredible. We got them involved last week, very much involved, and now they're involved nationwide.
We've dramatically expanded Telehealth so Americans can see a doctor without leaving home, something which more and more people are using. And now they're really using it. And now the ones that are using it are loving it. And I think we're going to change the way our country functions medically and probably in other ways because of what's going on right now. This will reduce the chance of infection and preserve hospital capacity. So it solves a lot of problems.
Every American has a role to play in defending our nation from this invisible, horrible enemy. It really is. It's an invisible enemy. And we will be successful, very successful, hopefully very much sooner than people would even think.
So we say, stay at home and save lives. This is a time of shared national sacrifice, but it's also a time to treasure our loved ones and to take stock of what is most important, our faith, our families, our neighbors, and our great country.
And I want to thank all of the incredible people of our country, the citizens of our country. That what you've done and the way you're responding has just been very special, something that we will never forget, that the history books will never forget. And then we're going to have a great victory. We are going to be celebrating a great victory in the not-too-distant future. And I just want to thank everybody.
And now I'll introduce our Vice President Mike Pence, who's led the task force. And I will tell you this, he has not slept much, maybe a tiny bit, maybe a little bit, but not much. And he's done an incredible job. Mike, thank you. Please.
[13:15:09]
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon all, and thank you, Mr. President. The White House coronavirus task force met today. We briefed the president on our latest recommendations. We continue at president's direction to lead not a whole-of-government approach, but a whole of America approach.
You just heard the president described one inspiring story after another. At the way the American people are responding, the way American businesses are responding -- religious communities across this country. The American people are coming together. They're responding with commonsense, compassion and generosity.
People are heeding the advice of state and local authorities and tens of millions of Americans are putting into practice. 15 days to slow the spread. We are officially -- and Mr. President, at six days into our 15 days.
And as we look across the country, while we strongly support the decisions that governors in states where we have significant outbreak have taken, we encourage every American to listen to those state and local authorities.
For every American, this is what you can do to make a difference. Over the next week and a few days to protect your health, protect your family's health, but most especially, slow the spread and the potential for the coronavirus to impact the most vulnerable.
As the president said, we've been -- we've almost been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from American businesses. The president spoke yesterday to thousands of small businesses. We spoke to manufacturers yesterday. And, in fact, as the president indicated, the FDA.
In record time, just approved one manufacturer, they'll be producing millions of surgical masks in a matter of weeks for the American people. The pastors we spoke to, we want to thank all of the religious leaders from every community, faith in the country, making the hard choice to suspend services, to have online services. Even while those ministries are continuing to support food banks and come alongside to the most vulnerable.
And, of course, the chorus of prayers that is coming up from communities of faith around the country is making the difference that it always has in the life of this nation. One thing the president and I promised was to remind people that on the weekends that you're not in the pews, it's still a good -- it's still a good idea to, if you can, to go ahead and make that donation. Because all the ministries are continuing to play a vital role in our communities, and we encourage your continued support.
The president and I are grateful that the American people are listening to state and local authorities and putting into practice all of -- all of the recommendations in the president's coronavirus guidelines.
And as you will hear in just a few moments from Admiral Giroir, testing is expanding rapidly across the United States of America. State-run drive-thrus are expanding across the country.
And as you will hear detailed this morning, now, more than 195,000 Americans and more who have been symptomatic, have been tested. That number does not include county hospitals or health care labs around the nation, some 15,000 in number.
And among the number of the more than 195,000 that have been tested, it's important to remember that only 19,343 at this moment have tested positive for the coronavirus. We want to -- we continue to urge state and local health authorities to contact FEMA for all of the latest developments and innovations in testing.
But we want to remind Americans as Dr. Fauci will emphasize in a moment. If you don't have symptoms, don't do a test. It is another way that the American people can make sure that we are preserving the resources that our healthcare workers need to minister and to support those who are dealing with the coronavirus and other illnesses.
In a moment, Pete Gaynor will detail the efforts at FEMA. Since the president's national emergency declaration, we have FEMA in the lead. Stood up the National Response Coordination Center, as the president said, and we are working closely literally hour-by-hour through FEMA, processing requests from states most impacted, like New York, Washington State, and California, and we'll continue, and to work very, very closely with those states through the very traditional means of Federal Emergency Management at FEMA.
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As Secretary Carson will describe decisive actions the president alluded to, to bring foreclosure relief to Americans. And on the subject of supplies, in a moment, you will hear of not only the progress that we're making on testing, but on Monday, we'll be detailing for the American people the progress that we are making on the president's strategy of procuring more personal protective equipment and medical supplies, allocating them through the system of FEMA, and continuing to urge conservation by Americans.
In fact, I'm pleased to report to the President today that HHS just placed an order for hundreds of millions of N95 masks that will be being made available to healthcare providers across the country.
On behalf of the president, we do renew our call for Americans to postpone elective medical procedures, including dental services. And remember, this is another way that you're going to make sure that medical supplies are available. Because by postponing elective medical procedures, you're freeing up medical supplies for those dealing with the coronavirus.
As president mentioned, our team is on Capitol Hill, as we speak, working with members of Congress in both political parties. They're making progress by all accounts on a bipartisan bill. They worked late into the night last night and started early this morning and we are working to pass that legislation on Monday in both the House and the Senate.
Now on a personal note, many of you may have been made aware that a member of my staff has tested positive for the coronavirus. We learned of that late yesterday. I am pleased to report that he is doing well. He had a mild cold-like symptoms for about a day and a half. Has not been to the White House since Monday.
Neither the president nor I had direct contact with that staff person. We worked immediately with the White House physician and the CDC, we've done all contact tracing. And all the White House doctor has indicated that he has no reason to believe that I was exposed and no need to be tested, given the unique position that I have as vice president and as the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, both I and my wife will be tested for the coronavirus later this afternoon.
Let me say again how grateful the president and I are that every American has acted on the president's coronavirus guidelines. We are six days into 15 days, and as Dr. Fauci may well reflect in a moment, it's an opportunity for us here on the foot holes of this epidemic curve in our country to literally lower the impact in our nation and save lives.
Every American can do their part to slow the spread and we encourage you each to continue to do that. As the president says often, remember, we're all in this together. And also remember that for most Americans, the risk of serious illness from the coronavirus remains low.
The reason we want to put into practice the president's coronavirus guidelines is because no American would want to inadvertently expose someone who is vulnerable, a senior with a serious underlying health condition to the coronavirus with the potential threat.
I did hear one story this morning, Mr. President, about a senior named Geneva Wood. She actually is at the life care center in Kirkland, Washington. She is not only a grandmother, she is a great, great grandmother, 90 years young and she tested positive for the coronavirus on March 6th. But by all accounts, she's doing well, and she wanted America know there is hope. And her strength and her enthusiasm is truly an inspiration to the nation.
As the president said many times, we're all going to get through this and come out stronger than ever before. And we'll get through this as Americans together. Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you, Mike.
ADMIRAL BRETT GROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice president. As I told you earlier last week, we are in the process and are effectively transitioning to large scale testing by leveraging all the components of the American healthcare system.
When we started, it was CDC only. Then it was the State Public Health Laboratories. Now, we're transitioning into the mainstream of American testing with many of the companies that the president invited in the Rose Garden just a week ago.
So, currently, 91 public health laboratories, state public health laboratories are up and running in 50 States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
[13:24:52]
This is our curve and I want to be very clear about this that this only accounts for CDC State Public Health Laboratories, and the laboratories that are members of the American Clinical Laboratory Association. These are the main reference laboratories, LabCorp, Quest, Mayo, ARUP, Bio-Reference Labs, and Sonic Healthcare.
It does not account for the well over 10,000, 15,000 hospital-based labs, many of which are doing testing for whom we will get data this week to give you an overall roll-up.
As you can see, over 195,000 people in America have completed their testing. That means test plus results. This does not count the people whose tests are in process. And as you see, this curve is going, it will continue to rise dramatically over the next period of time.
So again, this is utilizing all the components of the great American healthcare system, the state and local public health laboratories, the hospital system which is not represented here, and the main reference laboratories.
Now I do want to make it clear that although testing is becoming more available and Dr. Fauci will definitely emphasize this more, there are priorities for testing. And clearly, everyone across the country should understand that those hospitalized, are in an ICU are a priority for testing.
Symptomatic healthcare workers for obvious reasons, we want to make sure that they -- their health is preserved and that they are not going to spread to those who may be seriously ill.
Symptomatic people in long-term care facilities. As the vice president has highlighted and we've said many times, elderly in our society have a much higher mortality rate, much higher serious complication rate.
Symptomatic individuals over 65, symptomatic individuals who have underlying conditions like chronic heart disease, or liver disease, or other types of chronic diseases. Patients in public health investigations and there are local priorities around the country, particularly healthcare workers for testing.
And Dr. Fauci is going to emphasize this about the types of people who may not be to be testing. Testing is going well. It's ramping up, but we should still have priorities.
Finally, I want to talk about the community-based testing sites. I know they're popular now because there's now an acronym, which I'm sure the vice president doesn't appreciate. CBTS or CBT sites. We talked about these earlier in the week and I wanted to emphasize again that these are state-managed and locally executed.
The federal government is there to provide support, know-how, blueprints on how to do this, but these are really springing up at dozens and dozens of sites all over the country adapted to the local needs. Some are drive-thru, some are walk-up, some are geared to healthcare workers, and emergency responders.
So, again, what we see in the upcoming week is this curve will continue to increase as testing becomes more widely available as the great American healthcare industry continues to increase the availability of tests and the throughput of those tests. Thank you, sir. TRUMP: Thank you very much, (INAUDIBLE). Dr. Fauci.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you very much Mr. President, Mr. Vice President. What I'm going to do just over the next minute or so is maybe connect some of the dots, of the things that you've heard today.
First, the status of the dynamics of the -- of the outbreak. I mean, you all know the numbers, you've seen them. We have a widespread infection but to varying degrees throughout the country.
So, for example, when you talk about the kinds of mitigation issues that we have put forth and have emphasized, just as I mentioned the other day, there were two dynamic forces that are going on at the same time.
You're having the natural course of an outbreak trying to peak at a high level, and then you have the mitigation strategies which are aimed at dampening that. We've mentioned that multiple times. We often get asked, how do you know you're having an effect? Because there are two things that are going on at the same time, they may be confounding.
Well, I can tell you for sure from a public health standpoint and experience with other outbreaks, we know we are clearly having an effect, but we can't quantitate it for you accurately now because looking forward you'll know what the impact of the rate of the steep inclines will be. So, that's why we're going to come back to you every day and keep you up-to-date about that.
Getting with regard to the disproportionate of the response, everyone is right here. I'll get the -- open up the vice president's book with his permission.
This is baseline for everyone. In other words, throughout the country. But then there will be areas, and you've heard them, Washington State, California, New York City, in which the dynamics of the outbreak are clearly different and much more robust, if you want to use that word. And that's the reason why we're seeing the mitigation ratcheted up in that regard.
And again, hopefully, and I have confidence it will happen, you will see impact on that.
Next, getting to testing. You saw the numbers with testing.
[13:30:00]
Remember there was always an issue with testing. I think we're getting to the solution that everybody in the country is looking for. But I want to emphasize one thing that Admiral Giroir mentioned, is that not every single person in the United States needs to get tested. He gave you the priorities. I don't want to repeat them. But let me tell you one of the unintended consequences of individuals who don't need to get tested, that flood the desire to get tested.
Currently, and I hope we'll be able to change it and make it much less reliable on PPEs, when you go in and get tested, you are consuming personal protective equipment, masks and gowns. Those are high priority for the health care workers who are taking care of people who have the coronavirus disease.
So what we don't want to do is to have a situation where we will, we do have disparities in availability of PPEs now. And we're working hard to correct that. But currently today, we want to make sure that the people who are taking care of people with coronavirus disease do not endanger themselves because they don't have the personal protective equipment.
And then finally, one last thing, was just mentioned, the Surgeon General has been pushing this -- please, put off, cancel elective medical and surgical procedures. You don't want to not ever do them. But for the time being, don't do them because they also, not only consume personal protective equipment, they may also consume some of the things like ventilators that you might need. So let's pull in this together. And we will get through it, I promise you. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you (inaudible).
PETER GAYNOR, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President. FEMA is now leading the federal operation, of the federal response for all operations on behalf of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, who oversees these whole of nation response. HHS will continue to provide their experts, matter of expertise on health and pursuant to the Nationwide Emergency Declaration FEMA, in coordination with HHS, is assisting state, local, tribal, territorial governments in their other eligible entities with health and safety emergency protective measures on behalf of the American public.
As of yesterday, 50 states, the District of Columbia, five territories and one tribe are working directly with FEMA under the Nationwide Emergency Declaration for COVID-19. In just 24 hours we've obligated $100 million to states, territories and tribes.
A little bit about supplies. It is of the utmost importance that request for assistance, especially for critical supplies, get routed through proper channels as soon as possible. And we ask everyone to follow the normal procedures, the normal procedures FEMA uses in a natural disaster. There's no different procedure for the COVID-19 pandemic.
But remember, you can still order supplies from your regular vendors and buy it on the open market. Buy it where you can find it. We will reimburse you. If you buy medical supplies from foreign sources, it is reimbursable. Buy American does not apply to the Stafford Act, except for Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
If you can't buy it on the open market, make a request through the FEMA system. Requests for assistance at the local and county levels should first go to states, from states to the regional FEMA offices, and then from those offices right here in D.C. where the National Response Coordination Center is open and running.
We are getting requests for masks, PPEs, swab sets, test site supports, ventilators, hospital capacity assessments and many more. We are in lock step with HHS to answer these requests. But we will do whatever is necessary to get states, tribes, territories and others what they need.
And then finally, what we are doing here in Washington, D.C., again, this is a whole of government response, like all emergency responses, most successful when it is locally executed, state-managed and fairly supported. We can't say that enough.
On Thursday, our federal partners fully integrated with our National Response Coordination Center. And additionally, all 10 FEMA regions across the country have been activated. The FEMA Regional Administrators will continue to coordinate closely with governors, state emergency managers, state public health officials to determine the type and level of support needed to respond to this dynamic threat.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Pete. Appreciate it. Ben, please.
BEN CARSON, SECRETARY, HUD: Thank you, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, for your tireless leadership here. I also want to thank the fellow task force members who have been working around the clock in a very patriotic way to serve their fellow Americans. You know, part of the American dream is having a home.
[13:35:00]
And sometimes people say, well what does housing have to do with health? It has everything to do with health, having a safe home. And that is the reason that the president has authorized the immediate cessation of foreclosure and eviction proceedings for American citizens, single family, forward mortgages as well as reverse mortgages.
And as you know, FHFA has also decided to do the same thing for 60 days. And the CFPB is very happy with all of this as well. And it's really all about helping our people, recognizing that they're being severely impacted by the coronavirus.
And we've also asked the various services of mortgage loans to exercise forbearance for anybody who's having difficulty. It is important if you're having difficulty to actually contact the people who have made the loan, who established the mortgage because it doesn't happen automatically.
What does happen automatically is that we cover all 8.5 million people in terms of the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. We want also for the PHAs to be protected. HUD does not have authority to mandate that evictions can occur. But we are in contact with all the PHAs across the country and are petitioning Congress for the power to be able to actually enforce that.
But the fact of the matter is, most of the PHAs are run by people who actually care about other people. So we really haven't seen much of a problem there. We haven't seen much of a problem with forbearance and needing to try to force people to do it because they want to do it.
People are stepping up and saying, what can we do to be helpful?
As far as housing choice vouchers, section 8, is concerned, the April vouchers will be sent out next week and May vouchers are already being worked on. And we're also staying in contact with all the stakeholders, the advocates for low-income housing as well as other stakeholders, to make sure that we're doing things that are most helpful to them.
And additionally, we've extended the deadlines for health care and multifamily financial reporting requirements. And that's for over 20,000 multifamily and health care borrowers until April the 30th.
And that provides them with a lot more flexibility to deal with the issues that they're dealing with.
I also want to thank our FHA commissioner, Bryant Montgomery, as well as the FHFA director, Mark Calabria and Kathy Kraninger, the director of CFPB, who have all worked tirelessly with us to make this happen.
What we're trying to do is bridge the gap, recognizing that it's a lot easier for us to take these measures and for Congress to take the measures that they're taking so that we don't destroy a very excellent system and have to start all over again.
So for those who are worried about the money that's being spent, if you don't spend the money and deal with this now, it's going to cost a whole lot more to try to build all this up again.
And as was mentioned by the president, there's been a sense of unity that we haven't seen for a long time in this country. And let's hope and pray that that unity lasts far beyond this crisis.
TRUMP: OK, Ben, thank you very much.
Questions, please.
QUESTION: Mr. President, a few questions if you don't mind, sir. If you've lost your job now or you're worries that you're going to lose your job tomorrow, restaurants, something like that, what do you want people to do immediately?
The second question, sir, we heard from the vice president that he's going to be tested.
Are you -- have you taken a test since last Saturday?
TRUMP: I just took one.
QUESTION: How do you feel?
TRUMP: I feel great. I hope --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Have you taken more than one --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: OK. So for those people who have lost their job already or they are worried that they're about to lose it tomorrow and next (ph), what do you want them to do right now?
TRUMP: What they do right now is keep receiving their paycheck. And hopefully, their companies are going to be in a very strong position. We want to keep everything together because we think we're going to have a tremendous bounceback.
Now, some people agree with that very strongly. Some of our top economists, they think we're going to have a very -- once we solve the problem that we're working on, the medical problem, so we want them to keep their jobs, stay where you are and we'll see what happens.
[13:40:02]
Now if they don't, we have unemployment. We have checks. We have a lot of things happening, a lot of very positive things.
Nobody has ever done -- now this is working with Democrats, this is Republicans and Democrats and myself working together. Nobody has ever done a package like this. It's a great package. But ideally, we want them to be able to keep their jobs, keep the pay coming. And I think that's going to happen.
Kelly, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, on your Defense Production Act power, one of the features of that is that the federal government would be able to control the output, whether it's masks or ventilators, get it to the most areas of need and control the pricing to keep it at a market level so it's not price gouging.
TRUMP: Right.
QUESTION: One of the things we're hearing from governors, they can't find supplies and prices have gone up. So you've talked about the act, sir, but you have not yet compelled any companies.
Why not?
TRUMP: Because we have so many companies making so many products. Every product that you mentioned plus ventilators and everything else, we have car companies without having to use the act, if we don't have to use specifically -- we have the act to use in case we need it.
But we have so many things being made right now by so many -- they've just stepped up. In fact, Mike Pence and I were discussing it before, we've never seen anything like it, where they are volunteering. We want to make masks for (ph) -- like Hanes, I brought that up as an example -- and General Motors, I bring that up as another --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: -- markets, sir, right?
TRUMP: -- Ford -- they're going to go into the open market. We want them on the open market from the standpoint of pricing. Because otherwise, it's going to be -- we could be very unfairly --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: How do you direct them to the places in greatest need?
TRUMP: We're directing states and sometimes we'll be competing against states which I don't want and we'll drop out of the bidding. We want the states to go first. And you know what we're doing is we're helping states. That's what we want to do.
Same thing with the testing. We're helping states. We're helping states get to where they want. And we've made tremendous progress in every aspect --
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: -- for a governor that needs equipment today --
TRUMP: Well, it's happening fast right now and the governors are out there trying to get -- and if they are competing with us, we immediately drop out.
Please.
QUESTION: Mr. President, forgive me if I heard you wrong at the beginning, but you said something, we are going to be going over to the Hill.
Are you going yourself to --
TRUMP: My people are. And I'll be staying here. I'll be in the Oval Office and various other places in the White House.
QUESTION: And on that matter, you're asking Congress to essentially pass a series of legislation that's going to amount to about $2 trillion, 10 percent of the GDP.
What do you say to members in both parties who say this is too expensive, this is just too much to debate and get done in 48 hours or so?
And also, have you spoken directly with Speaker Pelosi at all about any of this?
TRUMP: So I've spoken with -- I'm not going to say who I speak with. But I've spoken with directly or indirectly everybody many, many times. We're doing very well. I think the Democrats and the Republicans are going to come up with a package that's going to be really something very special. It's going to help people.
This is the first time there's ever been a case where you want people not to work. It's always, you know, you want to create incentives to work. We're creating not an incentive not to work but the fact is we're asking people not to work because of -- we have -- they to stay away from each other. If we're going to kill this horrible hidden enemy, we have to stay away.
So there's never been a thing like this in the history of the world. And other nations are doing similar things, some effectively, some not effectively. They're doing similar things. We are creating a package that's going to keep companies together, keep workers paid so they can live and sustain.
We'll see what the timing is. The biggest thing we can do is get rid of the problem. The problem is exactly what we know, the medical problem. We want to have this whole incredible situation, that it can start right away, not that all of these companies break up, all the workers are out of jobs, you can't put them back together and it would take years to put them back together.
Because we have the greatest economy in the history of the world until we got hit by this problem and we can be back very, very quickly. And it's our intention to be back very, very quickly so we're doing a package, the likes of which nobody has ever done before. I'm obviously the one that has to approve the different things and the recommendations of the different things and like buybacks as an example and stock buybacks.
I didn't like it the first time. And this time, I'm saying, you're not doing it. I don't want money to be used for that. I want money to be used for workers and for opening businesses, keeping businesses open, not buybacks and --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, I would -- I am strongly recommending a buyback exclusion. You cannot buy back your stock. You can't take $1 billion of the money I just and just buy back your stock and increase the value.
Please.
QUESTION: On the subject of masks, the vice president announced HHS was ordering hundreds of millions of them.
Was that order just placed today?
How is that going to be distributed and when can doctors and nurses expect to actually receive those masks?
PENCE: Yes, HHS is completing a half a billion dollar order of N-95 masks. And all of this is being coordinated through FEMA and we're -- we are responding specifically to state requests where the needs - [13:45:02] PENCE: And we're -- we are responding specifically to state requests where the needs arrive. As Dr. Fauci said, we want to make sure that the people that are providing health care services to people who may have contracted coronavirus, have the protection to keep themselves and their families healthy.
But I want to emphasize the supply of so-called N95 masks has been vastly increased in the country because the president insisted that we extend liability protection to industrial masks. What all the experts told us early on is that industrial masks that are used on construction sites, which the president is very familiar with from his past life, are perfectly appropriate to protect health care workers from respiratory illness.
But they didn't have the liability protection because they weren't created for hospitals. We worked with leaders in both parties, we've added that protection that runs through 2024, that now the industrial N95 masks can be purchased by hospitals, purchased by states, purchased by HHS and distributed through our system.
So we're making those available. The supply has been, as I said, vastly increased and it's -- it's another step forward in a bipartisan accomplishment.
And we're continuing to use all the kind of creative means of American industry to make sure that we're leaning into this effort and that we do whatever it takes to make sure that our health care providers have the protective equipment.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: We're hearing from doctors and nurses about the shortage.
When exactly can they expect to receive these masks?
PENCE: Let me let -- let me let Pete Gaynor speak to that because FEMA will be -- HHS is now fully integrated into FEMA. And so as the requests come in -- but, obviously, as I'm sure the administrator will say, they're being prioritized to those areas with the highest need.
PETER GAYNOR, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: So within the National Coordination Center, we have a supply chain task force and in a basic sense we're trying to identify the universe of what's out there so whether we hold it at the federal level, we hold it in the private sector and then match that up with demand and asking people to be creative.
We're asking again this is a shared responsibility. We're asking locals and states to do your share locally, try to take a little bit of the burden off of us and then we'll prioritize those scarce resources. Because every single governor across the country is looking for the exact same thing. So there's a balance but we're examining the entire supply chain to make sure that --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: When will the masks start coming in?
GAYNOR: They're out there now. So again, we want to match -- we want to get out of the middle, I think.
(LAUGHTER)
GAYNOR: So we're trying to match supplies with demand. So that's what we're trying to do right now. It's happening today.
QUESTION: It's happening (INAUDIBLE). They can expect them today or they're matching supply and demand.
GAYNOR: There's a range of requests across the country and we're trying to match those against supply and demand every day.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: A lot have already come in. I have to tell you, the throwing away of the masks, being in private business, the throwing away of the masks right away, they're throwing it away. When you hear 55 million masks, where I'm saying 55 million, how could it possibly be such a number, and they say, oh, that's just a small fraction of what we need.
And I said, why are we sanitizing masks?
You know, you look at the masks. I looked at all the different masks. Some don't lend themselves to doing that, I think. But many do. And I said why don't we -- we have very good liquids for doing this, sanitizing the masks. And that's something they're starting to do more and more. They're sanitizing the masks. And I don't know if anybody would like to speak to that.
(CROSSTALK)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Yes, there are CDC guidance about how you can minimize the use of masks by different things that you could do with testing. And then when you have masks, how you might reuse them, which ones you can reuse.
QUESTION: Do you think there's a solution to this, other than buying more masks?
Do providers need to change how they're using them?
FAUCI: Well, there are a couple things. One, for example, we're moving towards getting testing where you don't have to have PPE. I'm not going to tell you the day it's going to be there. But it's going to be a swab that you can stick in the nose of the person who is either infected or not. But that person doesn't need PPE. The person who is administering the test.
So if you could do a self-administered test, stick it in a vial, hand it over. You don't need a mask. You don't need PPE. That's one of the things we're trying to do.
TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE) personally -- go ahead.
PENCE: And one other -- this is another story about great American industry. The president and I literally heard directly from Apple, that they're donating 2 million industrial masks to this effort around the country and working with our administration to distribute those.
And it might be a good opportunity for us to renew our call for -- as the president and I delivered this message to businesses yesterday, manufacturers and small businesses.
[13:50:05]
This is a great time to go to your storeroom. And if you have N95 masks, if you've got a hundred of them, if you got 10,000 of them, just to load them up, drive them over to your local hospital.
That story is literally happening all over the country. And now with more Americans stepping away from elective surgery, including elective dental care, we're urging dentists around America to look at their supplies of N95 masks and make those available to our hospitals.
But the great news is as the president said the American people are all doing this now, so allow me to say on behalf of the president, thank you for what you all are doing today.
We want to encourage people in business, encourage people in dentistry in particular. Look at those supplies of N95 masks. Pack up as many as you can spare. Drop them off at your local hospital. Be a great service to the country.
QUESTION: Mr. President, I just want to read you some of what some of the doctors on the front lines of the crisis are saying.
TRUMP: You mean the ones saying good things or bad things?
QUESTION: These are doctors were talking about the shortage of medical supplies that they are facing.
Dr. Fasenbach (ph) in Kentucky says there is absolutely no way to protect myself.
A surgeon in Fresno, California, says we are at war with no ammo.
Dr. Mel in Illinois says, if this is a wartime situation, then now is the time to act.
I know you're talking now about increasing production at so many of these facilities to get the masks out. But given this is one of the wealthiest, most powerful countries in the world, should this even be happening? Shouldn't this have been resolved months ago?
TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you the way I look at it. So many administrations preceded me. For the most part, they did very little in terms of what you're talking about. This is unprecedented. You can speak to Tony. You can speak to anybody. This is unprecedented or just about unprecedented.
As time goes by we're seeing it's really at a level that nobody would have believed. Nobody would have thought possible that this could happen. And we are making much of this stuff now and much of it is being delivered now.
We've also gotten tremendous reviews from a lot of people that can't believe how fast it's coming. When I hear they have an order of 55 million masks and that is just one order out of many and that there are many millions of masks beyond that and I keep saying, how is it possible to use so much?
But that's the way it is. Part of that is because they'll use the mask for a short period of time and then they throw it. The fact is that we are doing a tremendous amount. We started with very few masks. We had some but nothing for an event like this.
And now we're making tens of millions of masks and other things. And I think it's unprecedented what we've done and what we're doing. And many doctors -- and I've read many, many doctors -- they can't believe the great job that we've done.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: It's been nearly three months since your administration learned about this virus.
TRUMP: Well, if you remember, I was the one that closed the country down. I was the one that closed -- you don't write that or say it too much, certainly on CNN -- but I just read an article yesterday -- I just read an article yesterday that, by closing the country down so early, still very early, we saved tens of thousands and much more than that lives. So you know, you might want to report that, too.
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, M.D., ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: Mr. President, I'd just like to address that for a moment. Again, I am an ICU physician and I first of all want to thank everyone who is on the front line in the emergency room and the ICUs and the hospitals.
I speak to my colleagues daily. We need to preserve our PPE to the degree that we can. CDC guidelines has had that. The president has talked about it. But I also want to say we are making product as the president said. But we are also responding through the FEMA system to distribute the strategic national stockpile resources, according to requests that come in.
Stockpile has been distributed to many states; first order, second orders and on a daily basis adjudicating that. If there are shortages in your hospital system, I can't tell you if Dr. X, Y, Z, that needs to be clearly iterated to the local emergency management.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: -- hospitals talking about this two nights ago or --
GIROIR: We were on the phone two nights ago or three nights ago with over 2,000 hospitals or hospital systems sharing best practices from Seattle, where they've been very innovative pioneering some of these areas.
When there is a shortage, they need to go through their emergency management. It goes directly up to the FEMA system, which really rocks.
[13:55:00]
It really works very, very well. And then there's the distribution of the stockpile. Now the stockpile isn't infinite. That's why it's being replaced by all the orders. But masks, supplies go out on a daily basis as they are needed and requested through the FEMA system.
I don't know, Administrator Gaynor, if you want to add to that.
(CROSSTALK)
FAUCI: Just to reiterate what Brett said, we don't take lightly what you just read. I get the calls every night the way you get emails. It is a serious issue. We don't want that to happen. But it is happening. We're not making things up. I know that because I'm experiencing it myself.
But what you just heard about the different avenues, some of which aren't even recognized about how you can get help through the FEMA process, in addition to the large amounts of additional PPE that is coming into the system, we hope that very, very, very soon we're not going to get those kinds of real-life difficulties.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: There's a question about the timeline here. Even FEMA can't quite answer what the timeline is.
Days, weeks?
FAUCI: Sooner than weeks. It's going to be days, I would hope. We're going to try to make it days to the best possible way we can.
TRUMP: Again, what we're doing is we're trying to help the states get things faster. And that's what we're doing. We're implementing. And the magnitude of this -- it is a tragedy, it's an absolute tragedy -- but the magnitude is something that, no matter who you were, no matter where you come from, nobody ever thought a thing like this could happen.
You read about 1917 and you read about certain things but you think in a modern age a thing like that could never happen. Well, it comes back.
It is genius. It comes back. And it's too bad. But I think the people working on this have been incredible. The job they've done has really been incredible.
But there is a tremendous amounts of not only masks but of ventilators, of respirators, and everything you can think of, it's all being -- much of it and almost I can say all of it is being manufactured right now.
Steve, please.
QUESTION: Yesterday there were questions about the use of this malaria drug. Have those questions now been resolved?
TRUMP: Well, I don't know that resolved. I can say that it is going to be distributed. I know New York is getting I think 10,000 units and numerous other people. It's really -- it could be the malaria drug plus the Z-Pak. But and we're going to find out. We're going to find out.
I feel -- look, I feel, as the expression goes, what do we have to lose?
Because you know, I feel very -- I feel very good about it. Tony would feel like he'd like samples done in a certain way. I understand that, too. Many doctors agree with that. We don't have much time. We have a lot of very sick people right now in hospitals all over the place. And speaking with the governor of New York, Cuomo, I said, how does it look?
He said I've got a lot of sick people. So we're going to be delivering and a lot of samples to New York and other places and we're going to find out very shortly whether or not it is going to work. I feel very confident. I've seen things that surprised me, frankly.
There are, as Tony said, there are other things we're looking at, too. The vaccine is, of course, incredible. But this is more immediate. Right now this to me would be the greatest thing that could happen. This would be a gift from heaven, this would be a gift from God if it worked. So we're going to pray to God that it does work. It would be a fantastic thing.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President, on the economic front, there are reports that the coronavirus is really hurting your businesses, especially your hotels.
TRUMP: My businesses?
Sure.
QUESTION: Is that true?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: -- decide to close down your hotels and your businesses. No, I would say -- you know, but I'm very under levered in everything so that is good.
But is it hurting?
Yes. It's hurting me and it's hurting Hilton and it's hurting all of the great hotel chains all over the world. It's hurting everybody. I mean, there are very few businesses that are doing well now. Now there are some that are like, as an example, the Walmarts of the world because everybody is lined up to get things and stock up their house and this and that. But, sure. It hurts my business. But --
QUESTION: And did you or anyone in your administration talk to anyone at the Trump Organization about the potential effects of the coronavirus?
TRUMP: No. I didn't speak to anybody. I speak to my sons. But I talk about the coronavirus but not as it pertains to my business. They basically follow the rules. When they say close them down in New York, we close them down or wherever they may be. I actually have them all over the world. And when they say -- and when they say close them down, we close them down.
What, Kelly?
QUESTION: Will you no longer go to Mar-a-Lago or -- ?
TRUMP: Well, I have nothing planned at Mar-a-Lago but right now I think Mar-a-Lago, I guess, I haven't even asked but I imagine that's closed down just like a lot of other businesses in Florida.
Go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Do you expect your family companies to seek government assistance if it's eligible?
TRUMP: I don't know.
[14:00:05]
