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The Lead with Jake Tapper

President Trump Holds Coronavirus Press Conference. Aired 4:30- 5p ET

Aired May 11, 2020 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: And we have deployed over 235,000 of these tests to the state public health laboratories in every state of this country to make sure that that point-of-care testing capability is there to research outbreaks, like in nursing homes or in certain industrial capacities, and well over 90,000 to the Indian Health Service, so they can test at point of care in remote locations.

[16:30:19]

The president also talked about a new first-in-class test. It's listed there as an antigen-based test. This is very important. And you have Ambassador Birx talk about this multiple times, because antigen testing, although complex, is much less complex than the nucleic acid testing that we have had.

Quidel had this authorized by the FDA. And as the president said, we will soon be making over 300,000 tests per day. Do the math. That's nine million point-of-care tests that we will have every month in just a few weeks.

It will clearly add to a certain degree transform our landscape.

What you don't see up here is the important work the FDA did. I'm a swab guy now. I'm very interested in swabs. In order to make all these tests work, you have to show a certain swab made of a certain material performed in a certain way delivers a highly accurate result.

And what you're seeing up here are some of the fruits of that labor. Without the authorizations of, for example, the foam nasal swab, we would be blowing through PPE all across the country because of the need for full PPE just to take a test.

That has really been changed by this diverse authorization and a recent authorization that allows the great manufacturer U.S. Cotton to join our foundational industry of Puritan.

Next slide.

Last week, we did over 1.9 million tests. And that number is growing. And, again, as the president said and Brad will talk about, our states aspire to do well over 12 million tests over the next four weeks. You see the graph growing. What you also see, very importantly, is that little orange bar on the bottom is the cumulative number of positives. Our percent positives are going down. And that's what we want to see.

In fact, in 31 states as of last night, the positivity rate is less than 10 percent, which is not a litmus test, but is a good idea that we're doing plenty enough testing that we can enter phase one for careful reopening.

I also want to take the opportunity to say this doesn't happen by accident. I'm seeing everyone in the audience here, and I'm so pleased that they can be here. People sitting in the front have been working literally 18 to 20 hours a day, every single day of the week, for at least the past two months.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because their hard work, their sacrifice, their sacrifice of their family, all for a common good. And I'm very, very honored to consider to you all as my colleagues.

And my last slide, as the president said, on $11 billion are now being announced to be delivered to the states for the sole support of testing. This will give them the resources to partner, as they have, with the federal government, with the president, the vice president's task force, with Brad and I, to achieve their testing goals.

And we're going to be very specific -- and they know it -- that there needs to be minimum numbers to be planned to test. They have to have plans for their vulnerable communities, including nursing homes, including those who are disabled, including those who are in prisons or who have working environments that they may have a more likelihood to spread the infection.

And combined with that, the secretary's Office of Minority Health will soon be awarding a large contract to guarantee a national network of state, local and community-based organizations to assure that those underserved, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, are linked to the services they need, not only testing, but in care as well.

And with that, I'd like to hand it over to Brad Smith, who's the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, but has really been the chief operating officer to make all of this come together.

Brad.

BRAD SMITH, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Thank you, Admiral.

I want to talk through a little bit specifically the work that we have been doing with the states.

So, as the admiral mentioned, over the past few weeks, we have been working with each state to set a target for their testing goal for May. Within -- over the series of a couple of different calls, we have aligned on what those goals are.

And as the admiral mentioned and the president mentioned, they add up to over 12.9 million tests in the month of May. For every state, this is greater than 2 percent of their population in the entire state being tested in May. And for many states, it's a much higher number than that.

When you compare this, as the president mentioned, to South Korea, South Korea is actually below that 2 percent not for a month, but for their total tests to date since the start of the year.

And so our states have come together to set really ambitious goals that we're excited to support them in meeting.

[16:35:03]

If you go to the next slide, as I talked about last time in the press briefing, there are really three parts to making sure that a test can happen. The first part is the specimen collection supplies. The second part is the machines. And the third part are the lab supplies that the machines need to run.

And what we have been working to do is to make sure that each state has all three of those parts to be able to conduct the number of tests. The first part is the specimen collection supplies. The commercial market today is providing a large number of these supplies already to states and already to hospitals.

But we wanted to ensure that every state had more than what they needed to be able to conduct the number of tests they're aiming at May. So, what we have done is, we have purchased enough tests to support the state testing goals for May and June. So, we will be sending more than 12.9 million swabs and over 10 million media to the states over the course of May and a similar greater number over the course of June.

In addition, we have several million in reserves. So, if states are able to exceed their goal, in the third and fourth week of May, we can provide them even more swabs and transport media.

And, again, this is in addition to what's already available on the commercial market.

If you go to the next slide, there are large numbers -- it's been talked about many times -- a large number of testing machines across the country, over 5,000 different machines that can conduct these tests.

The key part is making sure that the machines and that the labs have enough supplies to run the machines. There will be in the month of May commercially produced over 25 million test kits, which is either the PCR and extraction kits or the cartridges, to be able to support test in their -- in their effort -- states in their testing effort.

And what we have been working to do with each state is understand their total goal. And each of the manufacturers has been a great partner with us and told us how many tests they're shipping to each lab and each state over the course of May.

And what we know is that, in the aggregate, the number of test kits the state is getting is greater than their testing goal for the month of May. In addition to what the states have already purchased, there's over seven million additional tests that remain unpurchased, the majority of those from Thermo Fisher, which is the most common machine in the country.

So, we feel very confident the states will not only have the specimen collection supplies and the machines, but also the extraction kits and the reagents they need, to be able to hit or potentially exceed their testing goals.

And if you go to the last slide, the last piece of the puzzle is making sure that Americans have access to these tests. Health care providers, hospitals, primary care physicians are already providing these tests today.

And we, for the past six or seven weeks, have been partnered with the retailers, who have massively been ramping up their effort. Today, there are over 240 retail sites. We have been working with the retailers to make sure that they're specifically targeting low-income and other vulnerable communities across the country.

And we're talking with them about potentially opening more than another 1,000 additional sites over the next month or two. So, we hope that we have put together the right pieces of the puzzle, having access points for patients and Americans across the country, having the specimen collection supplies needed to take the tests, having the machines, and then also having the lab testing supplies with the machines.

So, thank you very much.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much, Brad.

Maybe you will both stay there. Could be some questions.

OK, please, Jon, go ahead.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) you can't hear me.

We had a situation here at the White House on Friday where a member of the vice president's staff tested positive for coronavirus, which has now caused three of top U.S. officials involved in the coronavirus response to self-isolate.

Two-part question. Where did the system break down to allow that to happen? And where -- what would you say to employers who look at the experience here at the White House and say, are we ready for this?

TRUMP: I don't think the system broke down at all.

One person tested positive, surprisingly, because, the previous day, tested negative. And three people that were in contact, relative contact, who I believe they have all tested totally negative, but they are going to for a period of time self-isolate.

So, that's not breaking down.

It can happen. It's the hidden enemy. Remember that. It's the hidden enemy. So, things happen. But the three tested negative. The one who tested positive will be fine, will be absolutely fine.

Yes, John.

QUESTION: And what do you say, Mr. President, to other companies who may look at this and say, I don't know if we're ready for all this?

TRUMP: Well, I think we have a lot of people in the White House. And we had one. Basically, we had one person.

So, we had a lot of people that work here. This building is shocking, if you look at the numbers. And it's also tremendous numbers of people coming in. Normally, you wouldn't do that. But because we're running a country, we want to keep our country running.

So, we have a lot of people coming in and out. Many of those people, most of those people are tested, depending on what portion of the Oval Office area they're going in.

Everybody coming into the president's office gets tested. And I felt no vulnerability whatsoever, John. But the two people, as I said, and three people are -- they have been tested. And it's negative. And they will be probably out of quarantine very quickly. OK?

[16:40:08]

Jon?

QUESTION: Mr. President, if I can follow up on that, your staff, your senior staff, as you just referenced, is able to get tested every day.

When will it be that Americans across the country will be able to get tested every day as they go back to work?

TRUMP: Very soon. I mean, really, very soon.

It's an interesting question, because, normally, you would have said that you are not tested, and you would have been knocking us for not getting tested. So, if we get tested, it's a problem. And if we don't get tested, it's a problem.

But I like the way your question was phrased better this way, because it is a positive. We are tested. We have great capability. You look at all of these machines here. They're incredible machines, the best anywhere in the world. No -- no place in the world has this kind of equipment.

Other countries are calling, sophisticated countries, and they're calling, lots of countries. And we're trying to make as much as we can available to them, because there's nothing like what we have been able to do in a -- literally a couple of months, what they have been able to do, the private sector, what they -- how they got it done. This is a five-to-15-minute test, as an example, the Abbott

Laboratories test. These tests are highly sophisticated, very quick, very good.

This is things that didn't even exist a short while ago. So, we do have a great testing capability. At the White House, we're doing it. And I think, generally speaking -- we had a call with a governors the other day. Generally speaking, without exception, they were all extremely happy with what's going on with respect to their testing.

OK?

QUESTION: But should people be told to go back to work until they have that assurance that they and their co-workers are able to get a test, which we're still not there?

TRUMP: No, we're leaving that up to the governors, as you know. And if we see something wrong, we will call them out and we will stop it. But we are leaving it up to the governors.

Some are being not aggressive enough, in my opinion, and some are being a little bit aggressive. But they're being very careful. And the people of the country, they have learned a lot over the last two months.

They have learned about social distancing and washing your hands and other things that we have all learned and talked about. They have learned about -- I see everybody, just about everybody has a face mask on. They have learned about face masks, the good and the bad, by the way.

It's not a one-sided thing, believe it or not. But our country has learned. Our country has been incredible. And you see the numbers. They are dropping very substantially. The numbers are dropping around our country very, very substantially.

So, we leave that, Jon, up to the governors. And I think they're making a lot of good decisions. We have had, as I said, a great relationship with governors, Democrat and Republican.

And I think, overall, they're making very good decisions.

Nobody in this group? All the ones behind the rope. That's interesting, please.

QUESTION: Yes, thank you, Mr. President.

You said in your comments earlier: "We have met the moment. We have prevailed."

To you, sir, is the mission accomplished, even with 1.3 million...

TRUMP: No, we prevailed on testing is what I'm referring to. That was with regard to testing.

You never prevail when you have 90,000 people, 100,000 people, when you have 80,000 people as of today, when you have this -- the kind of death you're talking about, when you have potentially millions of people throughout the world that are dying. That's not prevailing.

What I'm talking about is, we have a great testing capacity now. It's getting even better. There's nobody close to us in the world. And we certainly have done a great job on testing. And testing is a big -- is a very big, important function.

By the way, some people consider it more important than others, to be honest with you. But testing certainly is a very important function. And we have prevailed. We have the best equipment anywhere in the world.

OK, please. Yes, please go ahead.

QUESTION: There are a variety of reports that Chinese hackers are attempting to steal technology related to vaccine research. Is this something you're concerned about? What can you say?

TRUMP: So, what else is new with China? What else is new? Tell me.

I'm not happy with China. They should have stopped this at the source. They could have stopped it right at the source. So, now you're telling me they're hacking. So, I just say this, Steve. What else is new?

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Sir...

TRUMP: We're watching it very closely.

QUESTION: The -- if I could follow up, sir, "The South China Morning Post," the Beijing newspaper, says that China would like to reopen negotiations on the trade deal to make the terms more favorable to them.

Is this something you would be interested in doing?

TRUMP: No, not at all. Not even a little bit, no. I'm not interested.

We signed a deal. I had heard that too. They'd like to reopen the trade talk to make it a better deal for them. China's been taking advantage of the United States for many, many years, for decades, because we had people at this position, right here where I'm standing, sitting right in that office, the Oval Office, that allowed that to happen.

[16:45:03]

No, I'm not interested in that. Let's see if they live up to the deal that they signed. OK?

Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what are your thoughts about a second round of direct payments to Americans that's included in the House Democratic bill?

TRUMP: Well, we're talking about that with a lot of different people.

I want to see a payroll tax cut. I want to see various things that we want. I want the workers to be taken care of. But we are talking about that. We're negotiating with the Democrats. We will see what happens.

But, as I said, it's a transition. And it's -- this is really going to be, in my opinion -- we will see, but I think it's going to be something that's going to be very special. It's a transition to greatness.

And greatness is next year, right from the beginning. I think we're going to do fantastically well. I view the third quarter, as I said, as a transition quarter. Could be pretty good, but a transition quarter.

Toward the end of the fourth quarter, you're going to see some numbers that are going to be tremendous, I think. And next year, you're going to have potentially the kind of numbers that you saw before, and maybe even better, because there is that pent-up demand that is -- a lot of people wanted to do things.

They were ready to do things. And they have had to hold back because of the virus. So, I think you're going to have, with that pent-up demand, a phenomenal year next year, unless somebody messes it up by coming along and raising taxes, doubling, tripling, quadrupling your taxes, like a certain party, namely, the Democrats, want to do.

You will mess it all up. You know, we had the greatest in the world. I presided, this administration presided over it. It got great for a reason. And we will do it again. And we will do it again very quickly and very easily. I see that happening.

Yes, ma'am, please.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

Almost everyone, as you noted, in the Rose Garden is wearing a mask today. Why haven't you required everyone at the White House to where masks before now?

TRUMP: Well, if they're a certain distance from me or if they're at a certain distance from each other, they do.

In the case of me, I'm not -- I'm not close to anybody. I'd like to be close to these two gentlemen. They're hardworking, great men, but they just said, frankly, let's keep it this way.

So, obviously, in my case, I'm very far away from everyone. But if you look at all of those people over there, every one of them, from what I see, these are White House staffers. They're White House representatives. They're White House executives, and everybody has a mask on.

We have had -- just about everybody I have seen today has worn a mask. Yes, please, go ahead.

QUESTION: That -- were you the one who required that, sir?

TRUMP: Yes, I did. I did. I required it, yes.

Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. President, you're now promising that everyone who needs a test will be able to get one at some point soon.

Can you give us some figures on what you're changing to ramp up testing? When will that be a true statement exactly? And how exactly are you going to accomplish that?

TRUMP: Well, it's a true statement already. We have more testing than any country in the world, by far.

But I'll let Admiral go into a little bit of the future.

GIROIR: When you look at the testing numbers that we worked with collaboratively with the -- with the state leadership -- it's not just with the governor, but the state health officers, the state epidemiologists, the public health labs -- it's really a combination of testing those who need something for diagnosis, diagnostic testing, tracing, so testing those who have been around the people with a diagnosis.

But the largest fraction of that is really moving into surveillance, that is, testing those who are asymptomatic. And when you do the numbers, this amount of testing on a state-to-state basis really is in the range that we need to accomplish all of that, certainly within the range that we need.

So, it really encompasses those three things. The other thing I would say is, particularly as we move into the summer, there are surveillance mechanisms -- and I talked about them before -- like a weather radar.

And just think about that weather radar, the Influenza-Like Illness Network, which is at about 75 percent of health care institutions, and syndromic surveillance, so if we see a blip on that weather radar, combined with CDC personnel in every single state, and with contact tracers, we really run to the fire, right?

And that's when you detect, you trace, and you shut off that outbreak right when it starts.

TRUMP: Phil?

QUESTION: Mr. President...

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: There does seem to be a double standard here, Mr. President, where members of your own staff can get tests frequently, when they need it, but ordinary Americans cannot.

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: So, when will the rest of America have the same access that members of your own White House have to testing?

TRUMP: And you know what? If we didn't get the tests, if we did no tests in the White House, you would be up complaining, why aren't you getting tests for the White House?

See, we can't win, because, if we didn't get the test, you would be up -- I understand you very well, better than you understand yourself. And, frankly, if we didn't get tests done, you would be up complaining about the fact that we didn't have the tests done.

[16:50:07]

Now that we're doing so well on tests and so quick and so fast, five minutes, et cetera, and so accurate, you're complaining that we're getting too many tests. So you can't win.

Go ahead, Phil.

QUESTION: Yes.

Mr. President, many Americans who wants to return to their normal lives, but they're afraid to do so. How can you ensure Americans that it's safe to go to their own workplaces, when the most secure workplace in the country, the White House, cannot contain the spread of the coronavirus?

It's infected some of your own staff.

TRUMP: Well, when you say some, so we have a person, and the person got -- something happened right after a test was done.

Three other people met that person, came into relative contact, very little contact, and they're self-quarantining. That is not exactly not controlling it.

We -- I think we have controlled it very well. We have hundreds and hundreds of people a day pouring into the White House. It's a massive office complex, including the very large building right behind us that you know so well. So I think we're really doing a very good job in -- in watching it.

And I think it's very well-contained, actually. And part of the reason it is because of all the tests we're able to give. But it was one person. And the other people were only people -- they're quarantined -- you understand this, Phil. They're quarantined for a specific reason.

The reason is, they were in the general proximity of the one person. And the one person, I believe, will be fine in a very short period of time.

QUESTION: Why hasn't Vice President Pence followed the CDC guidelines of self-isolation and other people who might have been exposed to...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, that, I'm going to have to ask -- ask that. He -- he will give you that information.

Whatever he is proceeding and doing, he will give you that information. I will make sure that they put out a notice.

John, go ahead, please.

QUESTION: Mr. President, up until now, it's thought that the most vulnerable people were those above the age of 60 or 70 or 80, and that children were pretty much, I don't want to say immune from this, but were not affected by it.

But all day long in the news today, we have been hearing and seeing this terrible syndrome...

TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: ... that some 85 children have now. Three of them have died.

What is the task force talking about in terms of that and what could be done about it?

TRUMP: Yes. We're seeing that all over the world now with young children, very, very tiny percentage, but it's still -- it's the swelling and the skin rash.

And we're looking at that very closely, John. It's a phenomena that's just been brought to everyone's attention a couple of weeks ago.

Admiral, you may have something to say about that.

GIROIR: So, thank you for pointing that out.

And, again, I have said many times, I'm a pediatrician and a pediatric ICU doctor.

This syndrome, which we call -- or to Kawasaki syndrome, it has been seen in a novel coronavirus before. And it's associated with illnesses. So, we have a very strong activation on this.

We do know treatments for this. But the CDC is act -- is interacting actively with the pediatric intensive care unit network to create case definitions and to understand how this is going and if there are predispositions.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, I spoke to Dr. Gary Gibbons, who directs that, who is advancing many research projects based on that.

The ASPR, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, has a team out in several areas looking at if there are any special treatments. We know what the basic treatment is, but this is a little bit different than we normally see.

So, there really is an activation among all the branches within HHS, working with networks, at children's hospitals and ICU nets. It is a small percentage, but it is quite frightening. And this reflects the fact that this virus affects the vasculature. We see clotting. We see strokes.

And this is a vasculature phenomena of inflammation we see in children.

QUESTION: Mr. President, with this newly emerging syndrome now among young children, what do you say to parents who would like to get their children back to school, but are now looking at this and potentially afraid to do that?

TRUMP: Well, again, it's a tiny percentage.

But you're right. So, we're looking into it very strongly. And the admiral, as he said, he's known about this for long before this happened. But it is a very, very small percentage. And people recover from that. The children recover from that, right?

GIROIR: Yes, sir. Most do recover from this.

But it is a -- it is a serious and it can be a fatal condition. So, we do want to make sure that parents understand that high fevers, red rashes, particularly in your child, you may need to contact your health care provider.

There are treatments for this. They work very effectively, if -- if gotten early, at least for the vast majority of the cases.

TRUMP: We're studying that very closely. And it's been on the radar for weeks, actually, because we have seen this for quite a while.

But it's been very rare. But we're -- we're looking at it very closely. It's very important to us.

[16:55:03]

I think one of the things we're most proud of is, this just came out, deaths per 100,000 people, death. So, deaths per 100,000 people, Germany and the United States are at the lowest rung of that ladder, meaning low is a positive, not a negative.

Germany and the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which, frankly, to me, that's perhaps the most important number there is.

Please. Go in the back, please.

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.

I have two questions, one on the Ahmaud Arbery case and one on the coronavirus, the first on the coronavirus.

The president -- the vice president is said to be in some sort of self-isolating -- keeping his distance from people.

What do you say to Americans who say, how can you -- how can you keep me safe, how can you reopen the government if even the vice president is self-isolating? And why hasn't testing gotten up to the point where every American who wants a test can get a test?

TRUMP: Well, the vice president, first of all, has been tested, and he's negative, and was tested yesterday, tested today.

And he's negative. He is in very good shape. And I think that that's going to be fine.

As far as Americans getting a test, they should all be able to get a test right now. They should be able to get a test. That's the problem with a question like that. We go through a whole announcement saying we're number one in the world by far, by a factor of two and even three and four, depending on where you're looking, and I get a question, when will everybody be able to get tested?

If somebody wants to be tested right now, they will be able to be tested.

As far as the incident of you're talking about, I think it's horrible. And it's certainly being looked at by many people. I'm speaking to many people about it. He looked -- I saw the picture of him in his tuxedo. It was so beautiful. I mean, he looks like a wonderful young guy, would have been a wonderful, I mean, just a wonderful guy.

I think it's a horrible thing. I think it's a horrible thing. Now, with that being said, as you know, they're studying the case very carefully. They're interviewing everybody involved. And we will see what happens.

To me, it's a very sad thing. I spoke to a number of people that are very much involved in it. I have been following that one very closely. It breaks your heart to watch it. It breaks your heart.

And, certainly, the video was -- it was a terrible looking video to me. But you have a lot of people looking at it. And, hopefully, an answer is going to be arrived at very quickly.

But it's something that is heartbreaking.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) question about the case, if I could ask it.

TRUMP: Go ahead.

QUESTION: The specific question I have is, you have said that there are -- possibly are things that happened that -- that were not recorded on the tape.

Could you expound on what you mean by that and your thoughts on what...

TRUMP: Yes. Well, I saw the tape. And when they moved left, I don't believe, when

they move left, outside of the tape, nobody saw what was going on. Nobody saw. It's an empty spot on the tape, I guess.

Now, do they have additional tapes, I hope? But I will say that it's something that, based on what I saw, doesn't look good.

Somebody that I have a lot of respect for is Senator Scott of South Carolina. You know who I'm talking about. He's a great gentleman. He's a great senator. He is a great gentleman, Tim Scott.

And I called him two days ago. I said: "Tim, what do you think? Tell me. What do you think?"

He's very disturbed by it. He's very disturbed. And I'm very disturbed also.

Please, go ahead.

QUESTION: President Trump, thank you.

I have two questions, one on testing and one on Democratic states that you have tweeted about.

First, the money for this new testing support today comes from the CARE Act -- CARES Act, which you signed into law 42 days ago.

Did your delay in embracing widespread testing have anything to do with a desire to suppress the official number of U.S. cases and deaths as you try to reopen the country?

TRUMP: No, we just wanted to make sure that we had the proper machinery, apparatus, and everything else out there before people started wasting money.

It's a method of saving money. We wanted to make sure we had even things like this. Plus, they have machines that are far more complex than this. They have massive machines at some of the laboratories that can do millions of tests.

We wanted to make sure everything was in place, OK?

Go ahead.

QUESTION: And, earlier today, you tweeted that Democrats are moving slowly for political purposes.

Why do you believe that their motive is politics, rather than public safety? And how do you respond to criticism that you're also motivated by politics to try to grow the economy ahead of the election?

TRUMP: Well, I think that, if you look at Pennsylvania, as an example, if you look at various other states, I -- I won't get into them -- the people want to go back.

The numbers are getting to a point where they can. There just seems to be no effort on certain blue states to get back into gear. And the people aren't going to stand for it. They want to get back. They're not going to stand for it.

They want our country open. I want our country open too. I want it open safely.

[17:00:00]