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Remarks by Trump, Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing, 04-08-2020
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 8, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:47 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. This is a holy week, when religious believers across the nation will observe Passover, Good Friday, and Easter. Millions of Jewish families begin Passover at sundown tonight, a sacred, unbroken tradition that traces back to the ancient land of Egypt. And on Sunday, we celebrate our beautiful, wonderful Easter, which we all look forward to. And we’re going to have many Easters together in churches in the future.
We’re getting closer. You see the numbers. We’re getting much closer to getting our country back to the way it was. We have now an extra two countries that have been attacked: 184. They’re being attacked as we speak, but we’ll all win. At some point, we’re going to all win. We’re going to do it sooner than people think.
Earlier today, I spoke with 10,000 of America’s faith leaders to thank them for raising the spirits of our people during these very difficult days. While we may be physically apart, we can use this time to pray, to reflect, and to focus on our personal relationship with God.
I also spoke with more than 3,000 mayors, county commissioners, and state and tribal leaders to provide an update on our administration’s ongoing drive to beat the virus, to crush the virus. And that’s happening. And it’s happening, I think if you look, a little bit more quickly than people thought. Maybe a lot more quickly, I hope. And it’s something that all over the world we’re watching, but people are watching us and seeing what we’re doing, and they’re very impressed.
We’re dealing with many countries right now. Many, many countries. And we’re giving them whatever information we’re able to glean.
{snip}
So, Mike Pompeo, please.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Mr. President. Under the President’s leadership, my team and I at the State Department are doing our part to protect the American people from the virus and, importantly, to get them home.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Go ahead, please.
Q So, there have been some calls on the World Health Organization for a leadership change there. I was wondering what your thoughts are on that. Senator Martha McSally, for example, has called for Dr. Tedros to resign.
THE PRESIDENT: Haven’t made a determination.
{snip}
So we’ll take a few questions and then Vice President will take over.
Please go ahead. Please.
Q Thank you so much, Mr. President. ABC is reporting that your intellig- — intelligence community was warning about the virus as early as November and produced a detailed report about the outbreak in China. When did you first learn about the intelligence? And could you have acted on it then?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I learned when I started — when I learned about the gravity of it was sometime just prior to closing the country to China. And when we closed up the flights coming in from China and various other elements — and then, as you know, we closed up to Europe.
So, I don’t know exactly, but I’d like to see the information.
{snip}
Yes, please.
Q Thank you, President Trump. Two quick questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Sure.
Q One on infrastructure. Members of your administration and members of Congress have pointed out that the top paid federal employee, it’s not the President, it’s the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and he made $8 million last year and some —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s ridiculous. I agree. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s the highest-paid government — long before I got here — you said Tennessee Valley Authority, right? Has to be the highest-paid man in any government; makes approximately $8 or $9 million. I don’t know the gentleman but he’s got a heck of a job. He gets paid a lot of money. He’s been there for a long while, hasn’t he?
Q This one actually is new. He came in April. But the previous one was —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s a separate — yeah, that’s separate. But I’m talking about the — the — we just have some new people going on the board, I know.
But as you know, that’s a quasi-public agency. And whoever the head of the agency is, that person makes a lot of money —
Q And if I could ask my second question —
THE PRESIDENT: — which is an amazing thing, right? And when we want them to do something, they’re not there for us. That’s not good. That’s not good. They’ve been there for a long time. That’s been a story for a long time.
Q And I assume that you would support reducing that salary as part of the infrastructure bill?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Reducing it by a lot.
Q Thank you. And my other question is —
THE PRESIDENT: That would be the greatest job in the history of government, almost. Certainly if you’re into money. Tennessee Valley Authority. That’s right.
Go ahead.
Q So —
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve been waiting for somebody to ask me about that. It’s been — it’s been bothering me for a long time too.
Go ahead.
Q So one of the biggest rating hits of the coronavirus, aside from these briefings, has been a show on Netflix called “Tiger King.”
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q And the man who’s the star of this is a former zoo owner who’s serving a 22-year prison sentence. He’s asking you for a pardon, saying he was unfairly convicted. Your son yesterday jokingly said that, you know, he was going to advocate for it. And I was wondering if you’ve seen the show and if you have any thoughts on pardoning Joe Exotic.
THE PRESIDENT: Which son? It must be Don.
Q It was.
THE PRESIDENT: I had a feeling it was Don. Is that what he said? I don’t know. I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?
Q He allegedly hired someone to murder an animal rights activist. But he said that he didn’t do that. And he was —
THE PRESIDENT: You think he didn’t do it? Are you on his side?
Q Well, I’m a reporter. I shouldn’t take sides. But —
THE PRESIDENT: Are you recommending a pardon?
Q No. I’m not advocating anything yet.
THE PRESIDENT: As a reporter, you’re not allowed to do that. You’d be criticized by these — would you recommend a pardon?
Q I’m not weighing in on “Tiger King,” Mr. President. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you would. I don’t think you would.
Go ahead. Do you have a question?
Q I do like Joe Exotic, I will say.
THE PRESIDENT: I’ll take a look. Is that Joe Exotic?
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s Joe Exotic? (Laughs.)
{snip}
Q And, Mr. President, just a follow-up on something from yesterday, and a quick just yes or no question. Yesterday, you said you had not seen Peter Navarro’s memo on the coronavirus back in January and February 23rd.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Were you ever briefed on those memos? Did you ever discuss those memos with anybody on your —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t remember that. I’ve now seen the memo. I saw it. It was — Peter sends a lot of memos. I didn’t see the memo. As you know, World Health was saying that was not correct because, at the time, they called it wrong.
But I didn’t see the memo. But I acted as quickly as — people were shocked that I acted so quickly. And everybody thought I was wrong because I did act so quickly as you know, with respect to closing the borders — with respect not only to China, but with Europe I closed the borders. And I think that was very important.
But, no, I didn’t see the memo at the time. But I have seen it since.
Yeah, please.
Q One other quick question —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute, Jim. Let me — let me do a couple of others. We’ll go back.
Q The head of the World Health Organization today warned against politicizing —
THE PRESIDENT: I agree with that.
Q And he said that the consequence of this politicization could actually create “more body bags.” It’s a pretty vivid image. What — what do you believe the consequences of the U.S. pulling out its funding of the WHO would actually be (inaudible) like this?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think when you say more body bags, I think we would have done — and he would have been much better serving the people that he’s supposed to serve if they gave a correct analysis. I mean, everything was, I said, China-centric: “Everything was going to be fine. No human to human. Keep the borders open.” He wanted me to keep the borders open. I closed the borders despite him, and that was a hard decision to make at the time.
We were all together, and we made a decision against the World Health Organization. So when he says “politicizing,” he’s politicizing. That shouldn’t be.
But, look, we spent $450 billion, $452 billion. Almost $500 billion last year. Hundreds of billions in previous years. And they got to do better than that. They got to do better. When you talk about politics, I can’t believe — he’s talking about politics when look at the relationship they have to China.
So China spends $42 million, we spend $450 million, and everything seems to be China’s way. That’s not right. It’s not fair to us, and honestly, it’s not fair to the world.
Okay. Question in the back. Yeah.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. There’s breaking news today in a couple of reports from a couple different outlets that Jared Kushner’s team is seeking to create a national coronavirus database, a tracking system for patients who’ve been diagnosed. Now, his spokesperson said that that’s not true.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. It’s not —
Q It’s not true?
THE PRESIDENT: I have never heard about it. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, actually. But I have not heard about that.
Q So you would be okay with it if were?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know if I’d be okay. I have to see it. But it sounds very scientific, and it sounds like it could be good, based on tracking. But it also has to do with rights and lots of different constitutional questions. I have not heard that at all.
Q Okay. So some people are concerned it would be like the post-9/11 PATRIOT Act, that it ultimately led to FISA abuse. Are there any — are you concerned about that?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah — the FISA abuse, of which I was the one abused. And a couple of other people, in all fairness.
No, I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t heard it. I mean, I’ll speak to him. I don’t — I don’t think so. They would have told me. I would have known about it.
{snip}
Q Yeah, I wanted to get back to something you were saying yesterday about people going to Wisconsin and voting —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — in the middle of this pandemic, really putting their lives on a line. And you said: Well, if they do that, vote by mail, perhaps we’ll have voter fraud in this country.
And I just wanted to ask you, voters in five states — Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon — all vote by mail. Can you or the White House staff or your campaign provide any evidence to back up your claim that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, like the example you gave of people working in rooms, filling out false ballots?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure. Well, what happened —
Q You’ve been talking about voter fraud —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what happened — yeah. True.
Q — since the beginning of this administration.
THE PRESIDENT: True and fair.
Q And where is the evidence of it?
THE PRESIDENT: The — I think there’s a lot of evidence, but we’ll provide you with some, okay? And there’s evidence that’s being compiled just like it’s being compiled in the state of California, where they settled with Judicial Watch, saying that a million people should not have been voting in — you saw that.
Q But all the experts say voter fraud is rare.
THE PRESIDENT: Wait, excuse me. I’m just telling you. I’m telling you, in California, in the great state of California, they settled, and we could’ve gone a lot further. Judicial Watch settled where they agreed that a million people should not have voted, where they were 115 years old and lots of things, and people were voting in their place.
What I see and — you know, every one of those states that you mentioned is a state that happens to be won by the Democrats. And if you have a position like me, where it’s registered, you’re here, and we’re voting someplace where I’m not — I haven’t left the White House in, I guess, months, other than to, you know, ask a ship to — you know, wave it goodbye to New York — which, by the way, is now going — as you know, being used for the purpose that we’re talking about, which a lot of people wanted.
Q Do you tweeted mail-in voting —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute.
Q — “doesn’t work out well for the Republicans.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well it’s — it hasn’t.
Q So isn’t your —
THE PRESIDENT: It certainly hasn’t.
Q Isn’t your concern really just political?
THE PRESIDENT: But if you’re a senior citizen and if you’re somebody that needs it, I’m all for it. But they have to be very careful, because you know the things with bundling and all of the things that are happening with votes by mail where thousands of votes are gathered. And I’m not going to say which party does it, but thousands of votes are gathered and they come in and they’re dumped in a location, and then, all of a sudden, you lose elections if you think you’re going to win.
Q But where is the proof that that’s happened?
THE PRESIDENT: I won’t to stand for it. Well, we’re going to find out about the proof, because you’re going to see what’s going on. And I’m not going to stand for it. Our voting system — first of all, we should have voter ID. When you vote, you should have voter ID. And if you send something in, you should be sure — as a state and as a country, you should be sure that that vote is meaningful and it’s not just made fraudulently, because there’s a lot of fraudulent voting going on in this country. This country should have voter ID.
Okay, let’s do another one. Go, please.
Q Mr. President, currently, the only — the only way that we can track these millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine that are being distributed across the country —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — is through the E-Health DataSystem. How systematically is your task force watching this system, understanding it’s early?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it’s very systematic. Yeah, we’re distributing the hydroxy all through the country. It’s being distributed in large amounts. We have it coming in now. We’re up to 29 million doses; then we went to 30 million doses. But we have it coming in all throughout the country, and much of it’s being distributed. In fact, it’ll start going down, what we have in our stockpile.
Q But the only (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: And, again, it’s had — you know, I — I hope it works. Again, I’m not a doctor, as you possibly have found out. I’m not a doctor, but I’m a person with common sense.
And we’ve had some very good results over the course —
Q Through the E-Health DataSystem?
THE PRESIDENT: — including a woman who just reported it two days ago.
Yes?
Q Through the E-Health DataSystem, are they — is that operating —
THE PRESIDENT: I think no. We’re looking — we’re looking to provide it in many different ways. In many ways, we’re — in certain instances, we’ve been asked — in the case of Michigan, we’ve been asked who the governor of Michigan would like to — I think she’s become a big fan of it as a medication, as a — as something that’s going to help with this horrible virus. And we’re delivering it to the governments of various states when they ask. So certain states are asking, certain governments are asking, and we’re delivering it directly to the government.
{snip}
Q Yeah, so the other question is that the world is also paying attention to the U.S. election. So we are also — we know that Bernie Sanders has dropped out today.
THE PRESIDENT: I did see that today.
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he didn’t really drop out. He didn’t really — what about his delegates? I mean, he — he said he’s going to keep his delegates and — which is sort of interesting. He’s going to keep his delegates, and he’d like to get more now.
Now, is he dropping out or not? That’s not dropping out. When you keep your delegates and then you want more delegates before you get to the convention, that’s a weird deal going on there. I don’t know what’s happening.
Q So what’s —
THE PRESIDENT: And I don’t know why President Obama hasn’t supported Joe Biden a long time ago. There is something he feels is wrong. Why isn’t — he’ll come out. I’m sure he’s got to come out at some point because he certainly doesn’t want to see me for four more years. We’re not — we think a little bit differently.
You know what? I’ll tell you, it does amaze me that President Obama hasn’t supported Sleepy Joe. It just hasn’t happened. When is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? Why isn’t he? He knows something that you don’t know, that I think I know, but you don’t know. So it’ll be interesting.
But with Bernie, I saw his standard fare today. I watched. And I hope that a lot of Bernie Sanders’s people, just like they did last time — we got a tremendous percentage of Bernie people. And I think they voted for me largely because of trade, because Bernie and I agree on trade. We agree that the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country they do business with. The difference is I’ve done a lot about it, and I’m doing more about it. And we’ve made incredible trade deals, including USMCA, the deal with China, and then, all of a sudden, that gets disturbed by this virus situation.
But China has to spend almost $250 billion on purchasing our products, $40- to $50 billion with our farmers. And the Bernie Sanders people are big believers on what I’m saying on trade. And I got a lot of them in the last election. That surprised people, but it didn’t surprise me.
No, those are great people. They’re great people. But I — I just — look, I’m looking at Bernie Sanders. I watched this morning, and I said, “What is that all about?” Like, you saw that — the delegates. The delegates. He’s not giving up his delegates. He’s keeping them, and he said he wants to get more of them. And I think he’s doing it to negotiate, I assume. But I don’t know, that’s — that’s a hard thing to do.
{snip}
END
7:32 P.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 8, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
5:47 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. This is a holy week, when religious believers across the nation will observe Passover, Good Friday, and Easter. Millions of Jewish families begin Passover at sundown tonight, a sacred, unbroken tradition that traces back to the ancient land of Egypt. And on Sunday, we celebrate our beautiful, wonderful Easter, which we all look forward to. And we’re going to have many Easters together in churches in the future.
We’re getting closer. You see the numbers. We’re getting much closer to getting our country back to the way it was. We have now an extra two countries that have been attacked: 184. They’re being attacked as we speak, but we’ll all win. At some point, we’re going to all win. We’re going to do it sooner than people think.
Earlier today, I spoke with 10,000 of America’s faith leaders to thank them for raising the spirits of our people during these very difficult days. While we may be physically apart, we can use this time to pray, to reflect, and to focus on our personal relationship with God.
I also spoke with more than 3,000 mayors, county commissioners, and state and tribal leaders to provide an update on our administration’s ongoing drive to beat the virus, to crush the virus. And that’s happening. And it’s happening, I think if you look, a little bit more quickly than people thought. Maybe a lot more quickly, I hope. And it’s something that all over the world we’re watching, but people are watching us and seeing what we’re doing, and they’re very impressed.
We’re dealing with many countries right now. Many, many countries. And we’re giving them whatever information we’re able to glean.
{snip}
So, Mike Pompeo, please.
SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you, Mr. President. Under the President’s leadership, my team and I at the State Department are doing our part to protect the American people from the virus and, importantly, to get them home.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Go ahead, please.
Q So, there have been some calls on the World Health Organization for a leadership change there. I was wondering what your thoughts are on that. Senator Martha McSally, for example, has called for Dr. Tedros to resign.
THE PRESIDENT: Haven’t made a determination.
{snip}
So we’ll take a few questions and then Vice President will take over.
Please go ahead. Please.
Q Thank you so much, Mr. President. ABC is reporting that your intellig- — intelligence community was warning about the virus as early as November and produced a detailed report about the outbreak in China. When did you first learn about the intelligence? And could you have acted on it then?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I learned when I started — when I learned about the gravity of it was sometime just prior to closing the country to China. And when we closed up the flights coming in from China and various other elements — and then, as you know, we closed up to Europe.
So, I don’t know exactly, but I’d like to see the information.
{snip}
Yes, please.
Q Thank you, President Trump. Two quick questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Sure.
Q One on infrastructure. Members of your administration and members of Congress have pointed out that the top paid federal employee, it’s not the President, it’s the head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and he made $8 million last year and some —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s ridiculous. I agree. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s the highest-paid government — long before I got here — you said Tennessee Valley Authority, right? Has to be the highest-paid man in any government; makes approximately $8 or $9 million. I don’t know the gentleman but he’s got a heck of a job. He gets paid a lot of money. He’s been there for a long while, hasn’t he?
Q This one actually is new. He came in April. But the previous one was —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s a separate — yeah, that’s separate. But I’m talking about the — the — we just have some new people going on the board, I know.
But as you know, that’s a quasi-public agency. And whoever the head of the agency is, that person makes a lot of money —
Q And if I could ask my second question —
THE PRESIDENT: — which is an amazing thing, right? And when we want them to do something, they’re not there for us. That’s not good. That’s not good. They’ve been there for a long time. That’s been a story for a long time.
Q And I assume that you would support reducing that salary as part of the infrastructure bill?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Reducing it by a lot.
Q Thank you. And my other question is —
THE PRESIDENT: That would be the greatest job in the history of government, almost. Certainly if you’re into money. Tennessee Valley Authority. That’s right.
Go ahead.
Q So —
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve been waiting for somebody to ask me about that. It’s been — it’s been bothering me for a long time too.
Go ahead.
Q So one of the biggest rating hits of the coronavirus, aside from these briefings, has been a show on Netflix called “Tiger King.”
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q And the man who’s the star of this is a former zoo owner who’s serving a 22-year prison sentence. He’s asking you for a pardon, saying he was unfairly convicted. Your son yesterday jokingly said that, you know, he was going to advocate for it. And I was wondering if you’ve seen the show and if you have any thoughts on pardoning Joe Exotic.
THE PRESIDENT: Which son? It must be Don.
Q It was.
THE PRESIDENT: I had a feeling it was Don. Is that what he said? I don’t know. I know nothing about it. He has 22 years for what? What did he do?
Q He allegedly hired someone to murder an animal rights activist. But he said that he didn’t do that. And he was —
THE PRESIDENT: You think he didn’t do it? Are you on his side?
Q Well, I’m a reporter. I shouldn’t take sides. But —
THE PRESIDENT: Are you recommending a pardon?
Q No. I’m not advocating anything yet.
THE PRESIDENT: As a reporter, you’re not allowed to do that. You’d be criticized by these — would you recommend a pardon?
Q I’m not weighing in on “Tiger King,” Mr. President. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you would. I don’t think you would.
Go ahead. Do you have a question?
Q I do like Joe Exotic, I will say.
THE PRESIDENT: I’ll take a look. Is that Joe Exotic?
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s Joe Exotic? (Laughs.)
{snip}
Q And, Mr. President, just a follow-up on something from yesterday, and a quick just yes or no question. Yesterday, you said you had not seen Peter Navarro’s memo on the coronavirus back in January and February 23rd.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q Were you ever briefed on those memos? Did you ever discuss those memos with anybody on your —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t remember that. I’ve now seen the memo. I saw it. It was — Peter sends a lot of memos. I didn’t see the memo. As you know, World Health was saying that was not correct because, at the time, they called it wrong.
But I didn’t see the memo. But I acted as quickly as — people were shocked that I acted so quickly. And everybody thought I was wrong because I did act so quickly as you know, with respect to closing the borders — with respect not only to China, but with Europe I closed the borders. And I think that was very important.
But, no, I didn’t see the memo at the time. But I have seen it since.
Yeah, please.
Q One other quick question —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute, Jim. Let me — let me do a couple of others. We’ll go back.
Q The head of the World Health Organization today warned against politicizing —
THE PRESIDENT: I agree with that.
Q And he said that the consequence of this politicization could actually create “more body bags.” It’s a pretty vivid image. What — what do you believe the consequences of the U.S. pulling out its funding of the WHO would actually be (inaudible) like this?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think when you say more body bags, I think we would have done — and he would have been much better serving the people that he’s supposed to serve if they gave a correct analysis. I mean, everything was, I said, China-centric: “Everything was going to be fine. No human to human. Keep the borders open.” He wanted me to keep the borders open. I closed the borders despite him, and that was a hard decision to make at the time.
We were all together, and we made a decision against the World Health Organization. So when he says “politicizing,” he’s politicizing. That shouldn’t be.
But, look, we spent $450 billion, $452 billion. Almost $500 billion last year. Hundreds of billions in previous years. And they got to do better than that. They got to do better. When you talk about politics, I can’t believe — he’s talking about politics when look at the relationship they have to China.
So China spends $42 million, we spend $450 million, and everything seems to be China’s way. That’s not right. It’s not fair to us, and honestly, it’s not fair to the world.
Okay. Question in the back. Yeah.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. There’s breaking news today in a couple of reports from a couple different outlets that Jared Kushner’s team is seeking to create a national coronavirus database, a tracking system for patients who’ve been diagnosed. Now, his spokesperson said that that’s not true.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. It’s not —
Q It’s not true?
THE PRESIDENT: I have never heard about it. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, actually. But I have not heard about that.
Q So you would be okay with it if were?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know if I’d be okay. I have to see it. But it sounds very scientific, and it sounds like it could be good, based on tracking. But it also has to do with rights and lots of different constitutional questions. I have not heard that at all.
Q Okay. So some people are concerned it would be like the post-9/11 PATRIOT Act, that it ultimately led to FISA abuse. Are there any — are you concerned about that?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah — the FISA abuse, of which I was the one abused. And a couple of other people, in all fairness.
No, I don’t know anything about it. I haven’t heard it. I mean, I’ll speak to him. I don’t — I don’t think so. They would have told me. I would have known about it.
{snip}
Q Yeah, I wanted to get back to something you were saying yesterday about people going to Wisconsin and voting —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — in the middle of this pandemic, really putting their lives on a line. And you said: Well, if they do that, vote by mail, perhaps we’ll have voter fraud in this country.
And I just wanted to ask you, voters in five states — Utah, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, and Oregon — all vote by mail. Can you or the White House staff or your campaign provide any evidence to back up your claim that mail-in voting is rife with fraud, like the example you gave of people working in rooms, filling out false ballots?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, sure. Well, what happened —
Q You’ve been talking about voter fraud —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what happened — yeah. True.
Q — since the beginning of this administration.
THE PRESIDENT: True and fair.
Q And where is the evidence of it?
THE PRESIDENT: The — I think there’s a lot of evidence, but we’ll provide you with some, okay? And there’s evidence that’s being compiled just like it’s being compiled in the state of California, where they settled with Judicial Watch, saying that a million people should not have been voting in — you saw that.
Q But all the experts say voter fraud is rare.
THE PRESIDENT: Wait, excuse me. I’m just telling you. I’m telling you, in California, in the great state of California, they settled, and we could’ve gone a lot further. Judicial Watch settled where they agreed that a million people should not have voted, where they were 115 years old and lots of things, and people were voting in their place.
What I see and — you know, every one of those states that you mentioned is a state that happens to be won by the Democrats. And if you have a position like me, where it’s registered, you’re here, and we’re voting someplace where I’m not — I haven’t left the White House in, I guess, months, other than to, you know, ask a ship to — you know, wave it goodbye to New York — which, by the way, is now going — as you know, being used for the purpose that we’re talking about, which a lot of people wanted.
Q Do you tweeted mail-in voting —
THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute.
Q — “doesn’t work out well for the Republicans.”
THE PRESIDENT: Well it’s — it hasn’t.
Q So isn’t your —
THE PRESIDENT: It certainly hasn’t.
Q Isn’t your concern really just political?
THE PRESIDENT: But if you’re a senior citizen and if you’re somebody that needs it, I’m all for it. But they have to be very careful, because you know the things with bundling and all of the things that are happening with votes by mail where thousands of votes are gathered. And I’m not going to say which party does it, but thousands of votes are gathered and they come in and they’re dumped in a location, and then, all of a sudden, you lose elections if you think you’re going to win.
Q But where is the proof that that’s happened?
THE PRESIDENT: I won’t to stand for it. Well, we’re going to find out about the proof, because you’re going to see what’s going on. And I’m not going to stand for it. Our voting system — first of all, we should have voter ID. When you vote, you should have voter ID. And if you send something in, you should be sure — as a state and as a country, you should be sure that that vote is meaningful and it’s not just made fraudulently, because there’s a lot of fraudulent voting going on in this country. This country should have voter ID.
Okay, let’s do another one. Go, please.
Q Mr. President, currently, the only — the only way that we can track these millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine that are being distributed across the country —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
Q — is through the E-Health DataSystem. How systematically is your task force watching this system, understanding it’s early?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it’s very systematic. Yeah, we’re distributing the hydroxy all through the country. It’s being distributed in large amounts. We have it coming in now. We’re up to 29 million doses; then we went to 30 million doses. But we have it coming in all throughout the country, and much of it’s being distributed. In fact, it’ll start going down, what we have in our stockpile.
Q But the only (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: And, again, it’s had — you know, I — I hope it works. Again, I’m not a doctor, as you possibly have found out. I’m not a doctor, but I’m a person with common sense.
And we’ve had some very good results over the course —
Q Through the E-Health DataSystem?
THE PRESIDENT: — including a woman who just reported it two days ago.
Yes?
Q Through the E-Health DataSystem, are they — is that operating —
THE PRESIDENT: I think no. We’re looking — we’re looking to provide it in many different ways. In many ways, we’re — in certain instances, we’ve been asked — in the case of Michigan, we’ve been asked who the governor of Michigan would like to — I think she’s become a big fan of it as a medication, as a — as something that’s going to help with this horrible virus. And we’re delivering it to the governments of various states when they ask. So certain states are asking, certain governments are asking, and we’re delivering it directly to the government.
{snip}
Q Yeah, so the other question is that the world is also paying attention to the U.S. election. So we are also — we know that Bernie Sanders has dropped out today.
THE PRESIDENT: I did see that today.
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, he didn’t really drop out. He didn’t really — what about his delegates? I mean, he — he said he’s going to keep his delegates and — which is sort of interesting. He’s going to keep his delegates, and he’d like to get more now.
Now, is he dropping out or not? That’s not dropping out. When you keep your delegates and then you want more delegates before you get to the convention, that’s a weird deal going on there. I don’t know what’s happening.
Q So what’s —
THE PRESIDENT: And I don’t know why President Obama hasn’t supported Joe Biden a long time ago. There is something he feels is wrong. Why isn’t — he’ll come out. I’m sure he’s got to come out at some point because he certainly doesn’t want to see me for four more years. We’re not — we think a little bit differently.
You know what? I’ll tell you, it does amaze me that President Obama hasn’t supported Sleepy Joe. It just hasn’t happened. When is it going to happen? When is it going to happen? Why isn’t he? He knows something that you don’t know, that I think I know, but you don’t know. So it’ll be interesting.
But with Bernie, I saw his standard fare today. I watched. And I hope that a lot of Bernie Sanders’s people, just like they did last time — we got a tremendous percentage of Bernie people. And I think they voted for me largely because of trade, because Bernie and I agree on trade. We agree that the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country they do business with. The difference is I’ve done a lot about it, and I’m doing more about it. And we’ve made incredible trade deals, including USMCA, the deal with China, and then, all of a sudden, that gets disturbed by this virus situation.
But China has to spend almost $250 billion on purchasing our products, $40- to $50 billion with our farmers. And the Bernie Sanders people are big believers on what I’m saying on trade. And I got a lot of them in the last election. That surprised people, but it didn’t surprise me.
No, those are great people. They’re great people. But I — I just — look, I’m looking at Bernie Sanders. I watched this morning, and I said, “What is that all about?” Like, you saw that — the delegates. The delegates. He’s not giving up his delegates. He’s keeping them, and he said he wants to get more of them. And I think he’s doing it to negotiate, I assume. But I don’t know, that’s — that’s a hard thing to do.
{snip}
END
7:32 P.M. EDT
