we also like to give a big thank you to
our whaling in Chronicle thanks so much
for sharing the livestream thank you
very much everybody
before we begin I'd like to congratulate
all of those incredible people that have
worked for so long on our endless war in
Afghanistan 19 years going on 20 years
and that hasn't been a moment like this
we've had very successful negotiations
we think they'll be successful in the
end the other side's tired of war
everybody is tired of war that's been a
particularly long and gruesome one and
want to congratulate president Ghani and
the people of Afghanistan I want to
remember all of the people all of the
great great men and women that have lost
their lives in the war and to their
parents and wives and husbands and
Families brothers and sisters it's a
great great people many lives over such
a long period of time have been lost I
want to thank our wounded warriors
people that are still bearing pain and
all of the problems that they've had to
go through and they're incredible people
incredible spirit I'd go to Walter Reed
and see them so often and the spirit
they had they wanted to go back despite
their wounds they always said I want to
go back wounded warriors they're
incredible people
I guess most of all I want to thank all
of the people in the United States for
having spent so much in terms of blood
in terms of treasure and Treasury the
money that has been spent the lives that
have been lost and we just signed an
agreement that puts us in a position to
get it done bring us down to in the
vicinity of 8,000 troops the United
Nations was informed of everything and
NATO has been great secretary
Stoltenberg has been fantastic I want to
thank the United Nations for the help
they gave and I also want to thank and
congratulate secretary Stoltenberg of
NATO 29 countries involved and all
approving all very happy with what's
going on I want to also thank and
congratulate Secretary of State Pompeo
and Secretary of Defense mark Casper and
I'll be meeting personally with Taliban
leaders in the not-too-distant future
and we'll be very much hoping that they
will be doing what they say they're
going to be doing they will be killing
terrorists they will be killing some
very bad people they will keep that
fight going we've had tremendous success
in Afghanistan and the killing of
terrorists but it's time after all these
years to go and to bring our people back
home we want to bring our people back
home and again it's been it's been a
long journey in Afghanistan in
particular it's been a very long journey
it's been a it's been a hard journey for
everybody we're very largely a long
horsemen group and that's not what our
soldiers are all about their fighters
are the greatest fighters in the world
as you know we've destroyed in Syria and
Iraq 100% of the Isis Caliphate 100% we
have thousands of prisoners we've killed
Isis fighters by the thousands and
likewise in Afghanistan but now it's
time for somebody else to do that work
and that'll be the Taliban and it could
be surrounding countries there are many
countries that surround Afghanistan that
can help we're 8,000 miles away so we'll
be bringing it down to 8,000 to
approximately 8,000 600 in that vicinity
and then we'll make our final decision
some point in the fairly near future but
this was a very spirited agreement there
was a lot of a lot of talk there was a
lot of everything they've been trying to
get this for many years and just it's
time so I just want to thank everybody I
want to congratulate everybody I really
believe the Taliban wants to do
something to show that we're not all
wasting time if bad things happen we'll
go back I let that people know we'll go
back and we'll go back so fast and we'll
go back with a force like nobody has
ever seen and I don't think that will be
necessary I hope it's not necessary and
so I just wanted to bring that up before
we begin on a topic that has become very
very important to everybody first of all
the amount of work that these
professionals behind me and many other
professionals in many rooms behind us
who are watching right now don't have
the room here to bring them all in but
they have been working round-the-clock
so hard
on the corona virus it's a it's a tough
one but a lot of progress has been made
I want to provide an update to our
people to our citizens to the world
frankly on our action to address the
corona virus and those that have been
hurt badly by it
at this moment we have 22 patients in
the United States currently that have
corona virus unfortunately one person
passed away overnight
which was a wonderful woman a medically
high-risk patient in her late 50s four
others are very ill thankfully 15 are
either recovered fully or they're well
on their way to recovery and in all
cases they've been let go in their home
additional cases in the United States
are likely but healthy individuals
should be able to fully recover and we
think that will be a statement that we
can make with great surety now that
we've gotten familiar with this problem
they should be able to recover should
they contract the virus so healthy
people if you're healthy you will
probably go through a process and and
you'll be fine since the early stages of
the foreign outbreak my administration
has taken the most aggressive action in
modern history to confront the spread of
this disease we move very early and was
one of the decisions we made that really
turned out to be a lifesaver in a sense
big lifesaver on January 31st I imposed
travel restrictions on foreign nations
who had and anybody that had been to
China or people coming out of China and
I want to say that China seems to be
making tremendous progress their numbers
are way down and if you read Tim Cook of
Apple said that they are now in full
operation again in China the numbers are
way down experts now agree that the
decision to move so quickly despite a
lot of opposition on that decision was a
wise one it greatly slowed the spread of
the virus to the United States and it
really gave us time to do some of the
critical moves that we've done and it
allowed these great professionals to get
together and figure it all out and we
think they've done that we've taken the
most aggressive actions to confront the
corona virus they are the most
aggressive taken by any country and
we're the number one travel destination
anywhere in the world yet we have far
fewer cases of the disease than even
countries with much less travel or a
much smaller population as an important
part of our efforts on Monday I'll be
meeting with the largest pharmaceutical
companies in the world actually they'll
be coming to the White House and we're
talking about a vaccine and developing
very quickly and they've already started
working on it developing very rapidly a
vaccine for the virus to combat the
virus and we're having very good initial
feedback but the these companies will be
coming to the White House on on Monday
tremendous amounts of supplies are
already on hand we have 43 million masks
just far more than anyone would have
assumed we could have had so quickly and
a lot more coming today the White House
corona virus task force led by Vice
President Mike Pence
they met for two and a half hours I
spent a lot of that time with them also
and we came up with some ideas
recommendations and frankly some pretty
strict edicts that we're going to be
going by and Mike's going to be
discussing that but we are really having
a group of people that is so talented
and they are working around the clock
and for that reason I really would wish
that we could really that we could
report exactly what's happened how how
well we're doing under quite adverse
circumstances but we're doing really
well
very very professionally handled our
country is prepared for any circumstance
we hope it's not going to be a major
circumstance it'll be a smaller
circumstance but whatever the
circumstances we're prepared and I'd
like to just ask and caution that the
media we would respectfully ask the
media and politicians and everybody else
involved not do anything to incite a
panic because there's no reason to panic
at all this is something that is being
handled professionally I also want to
thank by the way governors and
representatives of our various states in
some cases some more than others because
they've really been working very hard in
areas where we've seen indication of the
virus but I want to thank the governors
and all of the representatives from all
of our state's the the rooms they've
made available the speed with which
they've worked is really been incredible
so again thank you to everybody I'm
going to ask Mike Pence now to discuss a
little bit about travel and we have some
restrictions on some travel from other
countries that are having a hard time
and I want to thank everybody we'll take
some questions as soon as we're finished
thank you very much
Thank You mr. president
let me begin as the president did by
expressing our deepest condolences to
the family of the woman in Washington
State has lost her life to the
coronavirus I want to assure that family
that they were on the hearts of every
American and those that are continuing
to struggle in some cases in ICU units
can be assured of the prayers of
millions of Americans from the moment
that this country learned of the spread
of the corona virus president Donald
Trump took decisive action established
the White House coronavirus task force
and as the president just described the
president took unprecedented action to
suspend all travel into the United
States from China simply had never been
done before by any previous
administration and it is among the
reasons why the threat to Americans of
coronavirus remains low despite today's
tragic news from Washington State the
task force met this morning and brought
the president a range of options and at
his direction we will be doing the
following first the president authorized
action today to add additional travel
restrictions on Iran we will be using
section 212 °f on banning travel from
Iran Iran is also already under a travel
ban but we are expanding existing travel
restrictions to include any foreign
national who has visited Iran within the
last 14 days in addition to moving Iran
we are going to increase to the highest
level of advisory which is level for
advising Americans do not travel to
specific regions in Italy and South
Korea let me say again the president
today
has authorized the State Department to
increase the travel advisory for
Americans to level four we are urging
Americans to not travel to the areas in
Italy in the areas in South Korea that
are most affected by the coronavirus
president's also directed the State
Department to work with our allies in
Italy and in South Korea to coordinate a
screening a medical screening in their
countries of any individuals that are
coming in to the United States of
America and we look forward to working
with them in a collaborative and a
cooperative way now with regard to the
task force I'm just a few days into this
job but I can tell you having spent time
with these extraordinary professionals
that the president just alluded to
having spoken directly to more than a
dozen governors including governor jay
Inslee this morning in Washington State
I am I think every American would be
proud to know what I've heard about the
work of HHS the work of CDC the work of
all of our agencies at the president's
direction
this team has been working seamlessly
with health officials at the state and
local level and I can assure the
American public that we will continue to
live out the president's admonition a
few days ago that we're all in this
together and as we work with members of
Congress I've had the opportunity to
speak with Republican and Democrat
leadership in the Congress we'll be
working very closely on a supplemental
funding bill to make sure they're not
only to all these agencies have the
resources that they require but will
also make sure that that state and local
health officials have the resources and
the reimbursement to take such actions
that are necessary to protect the health
of the American people the president
mentioned masks this morning we talked a
great deal about additional medical
supplies let me be very clear and I'm
sure the physicians who are up here will
reflect this as well the average
American does not need to go out and buy
a mask
but this administration is going to
always put first our patients first and
second we're going to make sure and
protect the health of our health care
providers as the president said we have
more than 40 million masks available
today we've contracted now with with 3m
to 35 million more mass per month will
be produced and we're also going to be
working with other manufacturers in
addition to that the assistant secretary
for preparedness and response will be
announcing today courses of action to
increase the availability of masks as
well as prioritizing availability to
high risk health care workers modifying
guidance and developing a hold of
nation's communications plan the
president wants us to be certain that
our health care providers have the
support they need to do their job and to
do their job safely with that I'm going
to yield the podium to the Secretary of
Health and Human Services and then we'll
hear from some of our medical experts
but let me assure every American at
president Trump's direction this is an
all-hands-on-deck effort and while the
risk to Americans remain low the
president's actions today with regard to
Iran with regard to Italy and with South
Korea and with regard to making medical
supplies more available
I hope gives evidence to the fact that
at his direction we're going to continue
to lean into this effort and put the
health and safety of the American people
first mr. secretary thank you mr. vice
president let me begin by on behalf of
all of the officials at HHS and our
whole team's expressing our sadness for
the loss of this patient in the state of
Washington any single death for us as a
real tragedy and our sympathy to her
family and our solidarity with all those
who are and will suffer from the novel
coronavirus from day one this is what we
predicted this is what we expected the
risk to any average American is low from
the novel coronavirus
iris the risk remains low thanks to the
unprecedented actions President Trump
has taken and the actions he's
announcing today that risk remains low
but this can change rapidly we have
always said from the first moment that
we have spoken about this that we would
see more cases we are seeing more cases
we will see more cases but it's
important to remember for the vast
majority of individuals who contract the
novel coronavirus they will experience
mild to moderate symptoms and their
treatment will be to remain at home
treating their symptoms the way they
would a severe cold or the flu for some
individuals a smaller percentage
especially those who may be medically
fragile they will require medical
attention including possibly
hospitalization our basic message in
terms of the containment of this disease
and the measures that we have and are to
take and enter today announcing is we
want to lower the amount of travel to
and from the most impacted areas this is
a basic containment strategy that is the
philosophy behind the moves that we have
taken the moves were announcing today
and any moves that we will consider in
the future with that said let me turn
things over to dr. Tony Fauci
the director of the national institute
of allergy and infectious disease at NIH
thank you very much dr. Khatri
thank you very much mr. secretary I want
to first again as the entire team feels
to extend our our sympathies to the
family of the individual who expired as
a result of this particular virus in
this particular disease but I also want
to underscore and emphasize the points
that the secretary made about what is
evolving here you've heard of the
terminology community spread well
community spread is when you have
infection in the community in which you
don't have a direct link
index case that really challenges us
with something that we need to do and
that we do very well the state and local
health authorities in collaboration with
the CDC would need to identify isolate
and contact trace and that's what's
going on right here in the country with
regard to the particular area that's
involved now in Washington the country
as a whole because we get asked that all
the time still remains at low risk but
when we say that we want to underscore
that this is an evolving situation and
in real-time we will keep you appraised
of what is going on just the same way as
that we are doing it today so how do you
address this new challenge there's what
we do from within and what we do from
without i harken back to the original
decision that was made by the president
of making sure that we knew the the the
scenario that was going on in China we
prevented travel from China to the
United States if we had not done that we
would have had many many more cases
right here that we would have to be
dealing with so in that spirit the
approach is going to be as we address
this challenge which is going to revolve
by the day and by the week to do what
was just mentioned to try and keep our
citizens from going to places that are
active infection and to prevent places
where their active infection that
necessarily easily get here
that's the getting it from without to
within from within we will very
aggressively do the kind of public
health measures that would hopefully
contain this but as we say this we need
to prepare for further challenges and we
will have them you will hear about
additional cases that will be coming on
you should not be surprised by that but
to realize that that is something that
is anticipated when you get community
spread so when you have cases throughout
the world the way we're seeing now South
Korea Italy Iran and places like that
the United States can
be completely immune to that the
challenge is how we deal with it and I
can assure you all the resources that
are necessary are going to be put into
dealing with what we see evolving right
now again we'd be happy to answer any
questions later but Bob you want to save
yours I also want to add my prayers and
sympathies for those that are sick and
obviously our citizens that
unfortunately died last night
currently as said there's 22 cases in
the United States and these initial
cases were really leaked linked to
travel to China and and their contacts
recently as was stated we've confirmed
new cases with no link to travel history
or contacts and health department's
under the leadership of the states and
local health department's supported by
CDC are aggressively evaluating these
cases in California Oregon and
Washington as we said we should
anticipate to see additional cases and
clusters in the days of head and we will
continue to aggressively evaluate them
and by the state and local and
territorial tribal health department's
in conjunction with CDC by embracing
early case recognition isolation contact
tracing and begin to do that to limit
the further spread I want to also add my
emphasis to what was said that as we
stand here today the risk of the
American public remains low as was said
we should anticipate more cases but
again the current risk the American
public remains low you said the other
day in the Cabinet Room with African
American leaders you've got to get away
from politics I you were down in
Charleston last night using the word
host when talking about Democrats
somebody now is dead from this do you
regret that kind of no no hoax referring
to the action that they take to try and
pin this on somebody because we've done
such a good job the hoax is on them not
I'm not talking about what's happening
here I'm talking what they're doing
that's the hoax
just a continuation of the hoax whether
it's the impeachment hoax or the Russia
Russia Russia notices what I'm talking
about
certainly not referring to this how
could anybody refer to this this is very
serious but the way they refer to it
because these people have done such an
incredible job and I don't like it when
they are criticizing these people and
that's the hoax that's what I'm talking
about
Thank You mr. president and I'm just
gonna ask you directly about this with
regard to the flow of information from
the very beginning you received a lot of
criticism regarding that in particular
about dr. Anthony pouchy he is world
renowned in contagious diseases and
there were reports out there that he was
being muzzled can you tell us that this
widely respected expert dr. pouchy will
have every opportunity to tell us the
truth no that's a very dishonest very
dishonest question because he has
because he has had that ability to do
virtually whatever he's wanted to do and
in fact in fact he was never muzzled I
think I can speak you can speak what are
you speak today very dishonest question
but that's okay clarify I want to
Clarence oh so let me let me clarify it
I have never been muzzled ever and I've
been doing this since the administration
of Ronald Reagan I'm not being muzzled
by this administration
what happened which was misinterpreted
is that we were set up to go on some
shows and when the Vice President took
over we said let's regroup and figure
out how we're gonna be communicating so
I had to just stand down on a couple of
shows and we submit for clearance and
when I resubmitted for clearance I got
cleared so I have not been most a little
that was a real misrepresentation of
what happened are you considering other
travel restrictions and yes what about
closing the southern border we are
looking also southern border in fact
some of the folks are here right now ken
is here someplace and yes we are
thinking about southern border we have
we have received a lot of power on the
southern border over the last couple of
years from the courts but we are looking
at that very strongly Americans prepare
for this virus should they go out of
their daily lives change their routine
what should what you live well I hope
they don't change their routine but
maybe Anthony I'll let you I'll let you
answer that above thank you I think it's
really important that as I said the risk
at this time is low the American public
needs to go on with their normal lives
okay now we're continuing to
aggressively investigate these new
community links we're going to continue
to be transparent in relating that to
the American public but at this stage
again the risk is low we need to go on
with our normal lives and to worry about
the US troops in South Korea now how did
you consider the death of trapped lead
in various well we care very much for
the troops we're in constant touch with
the troops
we've been speaking to the general as
you probably know 32,000 troops in South
Korea and that's all working out fine
and we're in touch we were in touch with
the authorities in South Korea changes
responsibilities do you feel as you're
communicating about this or the public
to follow your directions and to take
the prudent steps and then when you did
use the word hopes couldn't that cause
some people to not take the
precautionary steps because they're
linking what you're saying when you use
the word hoax in the context okay so
again the hoax was used with respect to
Democrats and what they were saying it
was a hoax what they were saying and
that was very clear if you'd read the
words and I think you know that too as
far as what responsibility my great
responsibility I think the biggest
decision we made was going very early
and that was a decision made against a
lot of people that though we shouldn't
do that that's why we're at 22 instead
of a much higher number would have been
a much higher no that was a big decision
it was a hard decision because it had
never been done before anyway I mean not
even early or late it had never been
made
like that so that was big and my next
thing is really getting the best people
with the best people in the world
they're standing behind me these people
are so talent that I've seen them in
action now for a number of weeks
actually but four in particular for the
last four or five days and I want to
thank Mike Pence and everybody for the
job they're doing we have a great team
we have great people and this too will
end you talk about people going about
the routine I did want to ask though
with you and the vice president is the
White House taking any precautions to
make sure that you don't come in contact
with the virus either through your
travel or with who you meet well I think
so I mean we we lead a life I've I get
around I was in South I did I was in
South Carolina last night we had a
tremendous rally I've been around I
think we're we're gonna be in very good
shape you know you're talking about 22
people right now in this whole very vast
country so I think we'll be in very good
yes there's no virus doctor patchi's
what do you now understand about the
morbidity secretary refers to medically
fragile people are you confident that if
you are a relatively healthy young
person that this will not be fatal for
you okay so the n the number in our
country currently is low but when you
look at the pattern it seems to be
following the experiences that others
have had it's never 100% if you look at
the totality of the cases that have been
reported particularly from China about
75 to 80 percent of them would do really
quite well they would just sort of like
a bad flu or a cold you get anywhere
from 15 to 20 20 some one percent who
are going to go on to require advanced
medical care hospitalization possibly
intensive care for the most part the
people who get in trouble and ultimately
tragically would die from this are
people who are elderly
or have underlying conditions heart
disease chronic lung disease diabetes
obesity because of the difficulty in
breathing back and forth however every
once in a while you're gonna see a
one-off you're gonna see a 25 year old
person who looks otherwise well that's
gonna get seriously ill but the vast
majority of the people who get into
trouble do have these underlying
conditions and that's why it confuses
people because they say well you just
said that and then there's a report of a
40 year old physician from China who
died that's gonna happen that happens
with influenza most of the time
influenza kills people who are advanced
age and underlying conditions but you
hear in the media every once in a while
a college student would get infected and
ultimately die but the majority is in
that risk group whether there are any
variants of this virus so that person
who may have gotten it and then gotten
over it could get it again no there's no
indication that that's going on at all
if this virus acts like other viruses
which I have no reason to believe it
won't once you've gotten infected and
recovered you're not gonna get infected
with the same I want to ask you about
the peace deal in Doha between the
Taliban and the US does this mean the
war in Afghanistan is over is the
Taliban in charge and secondly
Congressman John Radcliffe why are you
re na Minh a ting him he's a terrific
man he's been fantastic and everything
he's done he's highly respected he
wanted to wait till after the IG report
came in as you saw originally I don't
think he was officially or formally
nominated his name was thrown out but he
wanted to wait till after the IG report
the IG report has now come and we've
learned a lot of very bad things from
the IG report as you know very well and
I think he'll go through a process and
it'll go fairly quickly he's very
respected man somebody that I've gotten
to like somebody who really has he's
someone who's extremely distinguished
himself and I think over the last year
and a half two year
in particular so we're very happy with
that as far as the Taliban is concerned
everybody wanted this to happen
the Taliban wanted it to happen
President Ghani was very much involved
in this as you know and he's now dealing
with the Taliban but we're talking about
19 years who have been there in 19 years
and other presidents have tried to do
this the Taliban has given a pledge in a
very strong pledge so we'll see how that
all works out we hope it's going to work
out very well I think they have big
incentives to do it but they have to
take care of the terrorists and kill the
terrorists we'll be working in a
different kind of a fashion toward that
end but the job we've done has been
fantastic one in terms of terrorists and
terrorism and it's time for our people
to start coming home you mentioned the
tribe of spread in China corn wires kids
it's the US government's considering
evaluating similar matters in the u.s.
in cases situation some measures we've
been in very close contact with China
including myself with President Xi he
very much wanted this to happen he
wanted this to get out and finished and
be done he worked he's been working very
very hard I can tell you that and
they're making a lot of progress in
China you probably saw Starbucks are now
opened again you probably saw that as I
mentioned Tim just came out and he said
Apple is back to normal in terms of
production and their facilities in China
they've made a lot of progress couple of
questions one of them technical the
woman who passed away did she travel to
South Korea or she occasion community
spread yeah the case again this is why
we're talking about none of the
community cases with no link to travel
so the investigation at this time shows
no evidence of link to travel or unknown
contact you said that Americans as a
whole are at a low risk our Americans on
the west coast of the United
States at a low risk and are you
considering restricting travel within
the United States so I just want to
emphasize again that the Americans
independent of where they live in this
nation are at low risk all right and
we're going to continue to evaluate
aggressively these on-link cases as we
see them and as we learned will
obviously communicate that why are you
considering closing the border with
Mexico since there are so many more
cases here than there in another
questions are you working with God with
the government's from Brazil and Mexico
to try to coordinate a response about
easy to talk to president also not oh
well we have a great relationship as you
know with Mexico we have 27,000 soldiers
their soldiers on our border doing a
fantastic job
our numbers are way down people coming
into our country illegally
we have ports of entry that we are
keeping open and we're not talking about
if we're thinking about all borders we
have to think about that border but
right now that is not a border as it
pertains to what we're talking about
here this is not a border that seems to
be much of a problem right now we hope
we won't have to do that yes you look
like right now and does the experience
and lessons come in from China without
the u.s. dealing with a karma situation
well I think our relationship with China
is very good we just did a big trade
deal we're starting on another trade
deal with China very big one and we've
been working very closely they've been
talking to our people we've been talking
to their people having to do with the
virus know our relationship with China
is very good maybe it's closer because
of what's happened here because it was
you know in a certain way this can bring
the world closer if you want to know it
can really do that good you pride
yourself on a dealmaker but your former
national security visor john bolton has
said that this is an obama style deal
and sent the wrong message to Isis and
al Qaeda what did the Taliban give up
here
will you be hosting the Taliban in
Washington to Camp David or will you
meet them abroad we'll look at that look
nobody should be criticizing this deal
after 19 years
he had his chance he didn't do it he was
very much in favor of going in we should
have never gone in in the first place
when they went into when when they went
into Iraq listen listen when they went
into Iraq when they went into the Middle
East in such a fashion I was very much
against it into God gun and he
thought we should have that's been
proven wrong I'm surprised that anybody
would be against something where we try
and end a 19 year war were 8000 miles
away from our home we've done a great
job in the sense that we've killed a lot
of terrorists we've put them out of
commission who knows what they would
have done if we didn't do that but it's
time for us to come home now the Taliban
working with other nations perhaps
because you're surrounded by other very
strong nations and whether it's Pakistan
or Iran or lots of other places
including Russia they can all work on
this we've been doing it for nations
that are surrounding Afghanistan now
it's time for us to start coming home
and I think it's a very good situation
President Ghani is working on it very
hard we'll see how that works out but
the United States has done great
services for people all over the world
that frankly I don't think they've been
given the the really the kind of respect
that they should be given for what we've
done what we have done for the world is
incredible
and usually we don't even get a thank
you in Afghanistan we did something and
I will tell you for the most part I
noticed he was negative but he should
have tried to do something better he was
here for a year he could have done
something better I was all ears and he
wasn't able to do that the the deal has
a chance to be extremely good but what
it does do is we start bringing our
people back home the other day you spoke
about the impact of the financial impact
the economic impact of the corona virus
on our country yesterday there was a
letter that was sent out publicly by the
Federal Reserve chair
and talking about steps that the Fed may
do to prevent economic impacts to
happening good what what's your reaction
is that enough that kind of a lender I
think the Fed is a very important role
and especially psychological I mean if
you look at the the Fed has a massive
impact lots of it is psychological and
lots of it as fact this is something I
think they should have done even beyond
this and before this because other
countries that are not as nearly as
Prime with the the greatest in the world
it's our currency everything we have
everything we should have the lowest
interest rates we don't have the lowest
interest rates our Fed rate is higher
you look at Germany you look at Japan
you look at other countries they have
many of them have negative rates and we
are not put in that position because of
our fed and now we have this problem
you saw where Germany is lowering and
also infusing a lot of money into their
economy a tremendous amount I haven't
heard our feds say they should do this
or Fed should start being a leader not a
follower our Fed has been a follower
we need a Fed that's going to be a
leader we should have at least the same
rates and ideally lower rates than other
countries we shouldn't be paying more
but we're forced to pay more on interest
and we we are the most prime think of it
biggest economy in the world by far
China would have overtaken us in this
year they were expected to for five
years 2019 they were going to overtake
us they're not even close and they won't
be close as some as long as somebody
smart is right here they won't be close
but I will say this the relationship
with them is good but as far as the Fed
is concerned our Fed should be a leader
our Fed has not been a leader at all
frankly we should have known we should
have we could refinance our debt at even
lower rates where the rates are very low
but we should be refinancing debt at
even lower rates our Fed is making us
pay more than we should and that's
ridiculous
president thank you you mentioned you're
having the meeting on Monday with the
pharmaceutical executives as you know of
a process of them approving medicines is
complex and time-consuming what I think
this process will go very quickly Thank
You Emma grant Republican liberal
conservative this process is going to go
very quickly and you know that was
excuse me yeah we can do that okay would
you like to say something so we are
working very diligently with with
industry we're using our authorities in
an expedited fashion to help with the
development of therapeutics particularly
around the corona virus as you probably
know we issued a policy this morning
that allows us to have a lot of
flexibility around the development of
diagnostic tests our colleagues at the
CDC have done a great job to have an
increase in those tests and we expect
this policy to have a significant impact
on that as well by the way the meeting
with the pharmaceutical companies was
actually set up before being over drug
pricing because we want prices to go way
down but it turns out to be a very
convenient meeting as it pertains to the
vaccine Thank You mr. president
you put the vice president in charge of
coronavirus coordination across the
government when he was governor of
Indiana the vice president allowed an
HIV outbreak to spiral out of control
because he did not need the advice of
his public health professional advisors
who said the needle exchange was
necessary at the beginning of the
outbreak what guarantee can you give
Americans that political considerations
and ideological issues will play no role
in your government's response to this
virus well let me just respond quickly
and then I'm going to have Mike say
something about that because I've heard
very good explanations actually when it
came to health care Indiana has been a
leader and
absolute leader and it was really
started with others but by Mike Pence
and he's done a phenomenal job on health
care one of the best if not the best in
the country
and with that I'll let Mike respond
specifically if you want to sure Thank
You mr. president when I was governor of
the state of Indiana we actually had two
experiences with the spread of
infectious diseases the first was in
2014 when Indiana was where the very
first MERS case in the United States
arrived obviously an infectious disease
much more deadly than the corona virus
that we're dealing with today it was
then when I was governor that I learned
of the extraordinary capabilities of CDC
worked with my health officials in the
state of Indiana worked with federal
officials and maybe most importantly
learn the invaluable role that local
health officials play in dealing with
the spread of infectious disease I'm
proud to say that the state of Indiana
secured that patient found out everyone
they'd ever contacted there were no
additional infections in that patient
recovered there was only one other MERS
disease the other incident was in 2015
we had a we had an outbreak of HIV in a
very small town then emerged in early
2015 my health officials came to me we
immediately deployed health resources
the truth was is hiv/aids was being
spread by people sharing needles in
intravenous drug use and the state of
Indiana did not allow for providing a
needle exchange to citizens but the CDC
came in and made a recommendation and I
declared a public health emergency and
made for 30 days a needle exchange
available in the state of Indiana I'm
proud to say that every one of those
patients was treated
we ended spread of the hiv/aids virus in
that community but again as I've said
before I think as president I have
discussed I think my experience as a
governor dealing with two different
infectious diseases and seeing the vital
role that
local health care providers play that
federal officials play it has really
informed me it's one of the reasons why
I've been spending a lot of time talking
to governor's I met yesterday with state
health officials and the governor in
Florida and I'm proud of the work that
we did in the state of Indiana and I
hope to continue to bring all of the
best minds together to deal with this
issue doing a great job soldiers were
killed in it that Syria and today
Turkish foreign words that were two days
ago okay
and today Turkish Foreign Minister mucho
shows that Turkey wants a pen through
their differences and from United States
arguing the Turkish government I got it
we're speaking to president Erdogan a
lot and we are talking to him about
exactly what you're referring to
anything from a policy or reassurance
standpoint to try to deal with the
market will come back the markets are
very strong the consumer is unbelievably
strong the companies are very strong we
have one problem we have to get this
problem brought into focus and it is
right now I think our professionals are
doing a great job I'm not thinking I'm
not thinking in terms well it's it's
certainly it's certainly not a good
situation when you lose travel that's a
big part of market but for a period of
time we're gonna have to do whatever is
necessary safety health number one and
we were the markets will take care of
themselves the company companies are
very powerful our consumers never been
in a better position than they are right
now Larry Kudlow was telling me before
that the numbers I said don't even bring
it up what difference but that the
numbers are very strong he's got numbers
from Friday very strong you see the
numbers but but our focus our focus is
on exactly this it's not on that that
will take care of itself considering any
tax breaks to help
the pain I think the big thing we're
looking for is the Fed to do its job if
the Fed does its job that's what we are
really looking for we're prior to this
we as you know we announced that we're
going to be at the end of the year we're
going to be toward the end of the year
we're gonna be announcing a
middle-income tax cut in order to get
that through I don't think the Democrats
are going to be approving any tax cuts
because they'd like to raise taxes of
said of lower taxes but we'll be in a
not too distant future announcing a very
major middle-income tax cut and food
supplies and also medical supplies your
hair and their news about some of the
items are out of stock or do you think
they should get prepared and also I
think it's always good to be prepared I
think it's always good but we are super
prepared when you hear 43,000 43 million
masks as an example I will do one more
go ahead two gentlemen report that
yesterday that you are willing at this
point to meet with leaders of Russia
China the UK and France but to discuss
arms control you should is just among
other things they all want to discuss
arms control and that's a wise thing
we're spending now over twenty billion
dollars on nuclear and on the superspeed
missiles and many other things and they
have come to me and they all want to now
discuss arms control and that it was
China and that includes Russia and I
think it's very smart of them to want to
do it and I think it's very smart of us
to want to do it and we will be
discussing that in New York
God one one final question guys you see
them returning in this US Taliban
agreement how much do you expect troops
to be coming back like today okay today
they'll start immediately so ladies and
gentlemen we'll be doing this quite
often we're going to keep you abreast of
all of the facts and again I want to
thank the professionals they are great
professionals I've gotten to really know
them and see them under very interesting
and tough and trying conditions we have
the finest in the world I will say this
other countries call us and they ask
would it be possible for them to speak
to Anthony and Bob and the people that
you're you're talking to on a daily
basis now so we're going to be very
transparent we'll be meeting you
probably tomorrow the next day we'll
keep you abreast thank you very much
all right folks thank you so much for
joining us and choosing us as your
stream of choice president Trump doing a
press conference on what's going on with
the coronavirus as you guys can see the
fake news is still trying to create a
panic so that way the stock market
crashes and then it gets blamed on Trump
it's just another hoax like he said not
the coronavirus is a hoax the whole
panic that the the fake news and also
the Democrats are trying to create
around this coronavirus pandemic that is
the hoax that's what President Trump
said so President Trump is said to
deliver a speech at CPAC in just a few
moments it was scheduled to start in 15
minutes but obviously that's not gonna
happen so we're gonna start our live
stream coverage of CPAC 2020 so make
sure you guys stay tuned live here at
Golden State Times for more coverage of
President Trump President Trump is said
to deliver a speech once again at CPAC
in just a little while in just a few
moments so make sure you guys stay tuned
we're gonna start our live stream of
CPAC in like five to ten minutes so
don't go anywhere we're gonna shut this
livestream down and then we'll start the
new CPAC livestream so stay tuned live
here at Golden State Times
you
once again folks President Trump is
delivering a speech at CPAC right in
just a few moments today
so right now President Trump is set to
address CPAC so if you want to watch
that speech just give us a few minutes
we're gonna put up that live stream in
just a few moments and we'll go on from
there thank you so much for choosing
Golden State Times as your stream of
choice once again President Trump will
be delivering a speech at CPAC 2020 in
just a few moments
you