Trump's Remarks at a Signing Ceremony for H.R. 266, PPP and Health Care Enhancement Act
Remarks by President Trump at a Signing Ceremony for H.R. 266, Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act
HEALTHCARE
Issued on: April 24, 2020
Oval Office
12:11 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. Were gathered today for a very historic bill signing that will provide vital financial relief to American workers and families. Were grateful to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence, and also with us are Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Administrator Jovita Carranza, Senators Roy Blunt, John Cornyn, Dan Sullivan, as well as Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representative Steve Scalise and Liz Cheney. We appreciate you all coming. A very big moment.
{snip}
So let me once again thank everyone who helped achieve these historic victories. This is a tremendous victory. This is on top of all of other things that weve been doing, including an incredible job, I must say where Vice President Pence and with the task force the coronavirus, that we are really hitting hard. The task force has been fantastic. The ideas and the implementation has been unprecedented. We dont get the credit that we should, and I dont want it for myself, but I actually do want it for the Vice President, and I do want it for the task force. But most importantly, I want it for all of the incredible people that are working so hard.
You see what weve done on ventilators. Were now were the kings. I have many countries calling. Were the king of ventilators. Countries are calling, and theyre calling all the time now can we help them with ventilators. And we are helping some countries. We spoke to a number of them today: Indonesia, Honduras, El Salvador. We spoke to numerous countries today. You probably saw that.
I spoke to the presidents, prime ministers. Im speaking to everybody. They all want to know if we can help them with ventilators. And were capable of doing that because were making thousands and thousands of ventilators. And every governor has more than they need. In fact, some of the governors are now taking ventilators and shipping them to different states that dont even need them.
So its been an amazing story that hasnt been written about. Actually, there have been stories about why havent they written about it. Those are the stories, because the news is much of the news is not fair. But thats been incredible.
Likewise, our testing Mike just said today 5 million. Tell me, was it
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Its 5.1 million, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: 5.1 million tests. Thats more than all countries combined. All countries combined. 5.1 million tests.
And you were asked a question about that the other day. You didnt hit 5 million tests. Well, I guess Mike didnt respond, or he wasnt asked the answer. But, right now, its 5.1
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: and that was just the other day, Mike.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Some reporter named I think his name was Jonathan Karl, right? Whos a very nice actually, a very nice guy.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: One month ago, Mr. President, we had done a total of 80,000 tests nationwide.
THE PRESIDENT: And now were 5.1
THE VICE PRESIDENT: As of today, because of the partnership you forged, because of the support of leaders gathered here and governors around the country, 5.1 million Americans tested.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, and actually, I wanted to tell you this: Honduras just called, and they are in a quagmire because they dont have good testing, and they asked us to help them with their testing. We will. Theyve been helping us very much on the border. Our southern border is setting record lows for people coming through our southern border. We have that really in good shape.
In addition, were now up to our 170th mile. We want to get up to 450 early in the year, early by the end of this year. But basically, early next year, well be up to 450. Maybe even soon than that. And ultimately, what weve done on the wall is incredible.
The amount of and I can say this to John from Texas John Cornyn the numbers are incredible, in terms of coming across. Weve stopped it. And that 170-mile stretch where we have the wall, its like its like a different world. People used to just drive right across and nobody could do anything about it. Now we have a tremendous, powerful wall there, and its been its been incredible, because a country needs to have borders. And you dont have borders if you have people pouring in by the tens of thousands. And we have totally stopped it. So its been its been a great thing.
So were going to sign this right now. Before I do, I think Ill ask the Vice President if hed like to say anything, and maybe some of the people in the room. Theyve all been very instrumental in this, and theyve been great friends of our country.
Mike, please.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to your leadership, the leadership of the members of the House and Senate who are gathered here, and frankly, the bipartisan support that weve enjoyed in this effort, more help is on the way. Small businesses will be able to keep even more Americans on the payroll while our nation makes our way through the coronavirus.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: So what was the vote in the Senate?
REPRESENTATIVE SCALISE: 385 to 5.
THE PRESIDENT: What was it?
REPRESENTATIVE SCALISE: About 385 to 5.
THE PRESIDENT: There there it was. And what about the Senate?
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Unanimous.
THE PRESIDENT: And then theyll criticize me, the Democrats, for doing the bill. I said, But you voted for it. Well, that doesnt matter.
Dan, do you have anything to say?
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Yes, sir, Mr. President. And I first want to thank you and your team you, the Vice President, the Secretary of the Treasury literally working around the clock. Everybody notices that. We certainly notice it in Alaska. We really appreciate it.
You know, my state has a lot of tough, resilient people. Your grandfather is a part of that legacy, in terms of the great state of Alaska.
But, you know, some of our key industries oil and gas, the energy sector, the fishing community, the tourism community theyre facing tough times. But this bill is going to help and your administration, Mr. Vice President and Mr. President, are doing so much to help those sectors. So I just want to thank you on behalf of the people I represent.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Dan, very much.
Steve?
REPRESENTATIVE SCALISE: Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, for the leadership and for calling on Congress to pass this bill the bill youre about to sign. This is going to put another 300-plus billion dollars in the Paycheck Protection Program. This has been a lifeline not only to small businesses, but I know youre well aware youve saved over 30 million jobs just with the first tranche of that money that went out. Over 30 million people are on the payroll today that would have been unemployed.
We just saw another 4.4 [million] Americans that went on the unemployment rolls. This is going to save probably another 30 million people from going on unemployment. Theyll be able to stay in their jobs. Those small businesses will still be alive so that they can come back when we start opening the economy safely, to be able to come back.
We see all of these industries distressed the oil and gas industry, ag industry, restaurants. Everybody wants to start focusing on how to reopen the economy in a safer, smarter way. I appreciate your leadership. This bill is going to be a lifeline, again, to millions more people that will be able to stay on the payroll of their companies.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Steve.
Kevin, please.
LEADER MCCARTHY: Yes, sir. First of all, I want to thank all those on the frontline. I want to thank those in the medical community; the truck drivers; the farmers who are providing the food, making sure its safe in America; and those even in the stores. What youre doing, this country is very grateful for.
I know I was with the President the other day and I was thanking him, and he was telling me, No. What hes watching across this country are that people are making those sacrifices. And the example that you are showing every day, being in at work, is an example that America wants to see. That we know, as Americans, well get through this. Well overcome this and well be stronger.
We had a stronger economy than weve ever had before, prior to a virus that came from a distant land from a country that lied to us. We would never have to experience this. But this leadership is going to make a difference.
{snip}
ADMINISTRATOR CARRANZA: Your strong leadership really has propelled the motivation, the energy, the stability, and the tenacity of the Small Business Administration. And every small business that weve been able to touch in some way whether its answering a question, processing a loan, guaranteeing a loan, the fact that we have over $700 billion committed at this point to small businesses is herculean.
And it would not have happened if it had not been for your strong leadership galvanizing the left and the right and everything in between to make these funds possible for our small business.
{snip}
SENATOR CORNYN: So, well get through this together. But I just want to extend my appreciation to you and your administration for your leadership and your partnership with all of our mayors, our governors, and those of us who work in Washington.
THE PRESIDENT: Good job. Good job.
{snip}
Q Mr. President, 50,000 people have died today. Youre saying that you want credit for what the government has done. Do you take any responsibility for these 50,000 deaths that have happened in this country?
THE PRESIDENT: I think weve done a great job. As you know, minimal numbers were minimal numbers were going to be 100,000 people. Minimal numbers were going to be 100,000 people. And were going to be, hopefully, far below that. If we didnt take quick action, you could have lost many millions of people.
So were really being given a lot of credit for a lot of people. Im not looking for credit for myself, but I am looking for credit for people in the federal government that have done such a great job, and for the doctors and nurses and everybody else.
Please.
Q Mr. President, do you have any comment on Rick Bright, who has said hes going to file a whistleblower complaint?
THE PRESIDENT: I dont I dont the gentleman. Im sorry. I dont know him. I dont know how you sign a whistleblower complaint when is that a whistleblower complaint youre talking about? How do you sign a whistleblower complaint everybody knows who he is? I know nothing about him.
Q He says he was retaliated against because he refused to promote hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: That, I dont know. Again, I dont know anything about it. I dont know
Q Did you ever ask scientists
THE PRESIDENT: I dont know
Q to promote it?
THE PRESIDENT: Easy, easy. Just take it nice and easy. I dont know anything about him. Until yesterday, I never heard of the gentleman. Okay?
Q Have you asked anyone to look into what happened to him?
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q Have you asked anyone to look into the circumstances surrounding?
THE PRESIDENT: I have not yet. At some point, I will. I guess they moved him to a different group.
Q Mr. President, what price China should pay for spreading this virus and covering it up and lying about it?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, were looking into it. Were studying it. Were investigating it, and well see what happens. But it is something that shouldve been stopped early on. It couldve been stopped easily in China, and we dont understand why they didnt do it. So were looking into it. Were not happy about it.
Q Why dont why dont you know about
Q Mr. President, could you
THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with? Who are you with?
Q Im with NPR. Ayesha Rascoe. Im with NPR.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Go ahead. Youre not up. Go ahead, please. Question.
Q Do you support any money for the Postal Service?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: So, I can comment on that, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Postal Service.
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: So, we authorized in the last CARE Act over $10 billion of a loan. My team is already actively working on that with the Postal Service, if they need the money. And were dealing with that.
THE PRESIDENT: The Postal Service is a joke because theyre handing out packages for Amazon and other Internet companies. And every time they bring a package, they lose money on it. So Amazon and other Internet companies and delivery companies are dropping all of their not all of them, but a big portion of packages, and whatever else theyre doing, into a post office. And the post office is supposed to deliver the packages, and they lose a lot of money.
The post office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times. Because they dont raise them. For some reason these people have been in there a long time. But for some reason, theyre very cozy with some of these companies, and they dont raise the price of a package. And if they raise the price of a package, like they should, four or five times thats what it should be or let Amazon build their own post office, which would be an impossible thing to do because the post office is massive and serves every little piece of the country. The post office, if they raised the price of a package by approximately four times, itd be a whole new ball game.
But they dont want to raise because they dont want to insult Amazon and they dont want to insult other companies, perhaps, that they like. The post office should raise the price of the packages to the companies, not to the people to the companies. And if they did that, it would be a whole different story.
Do you agree with that, Steve?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I do. And, actually, we are going to put certain criteria for our postal reform program as part of the loan, and were looking forward to the board is recruiting a new Postmaster General and doing postal reform.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Ill go a step further. If they dont raise the price of the service they give which is a tremendous service and they do a great job, and the postal workers are fantastic, but this thing is losing billions of dollars; it has for years. Because they dont want to insult for whatever reason, you could imagine they dont want to insult Amazon and these other groups.
If they dont raise the price, Im not signing anything. So theyll raise the price so that they become maybe even profitable, but so they lose much less money. Okay? And if they dont do it, Im not signing anything and Im not authorizing you to do anything.
Q Mr. President, can you clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant? Theyre quite provocative.
THE PRESIDENT: No, I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen.
Now, disinfectant, for doing this maybe on the hands, would work. And I was asking the question of the gentleman who was there yesterday Bill because when they say that something will last three or four hours or six hours, but if the sun is out or if they use disinfectant, it goes away in less than a minute. Did you hear about this yesterday?
But I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters.
Okay.
Q But you were asking your medical experts to look into it. Were you being sarcastic with them?
THE PRESIDENT: No. No, no, no, no. To look into whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands but whether or not sun can help us. Because, I mean, he came in yesterday and he said theyve done a big study. This is a study. This isnt where he hasnt done it. This is where theyve come in with a final report that sun has a massive impact, negatively, on this virus. In other words, it does not live well with humidity, and it doesnt live well with sun, sunlight, heat. It doesnt live well with heat and sun and disinfectant. And thats what I brought out. And I thought it was clear.
Okay? Anything else?
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: One of the banks, I think they said, We want to be out of out of energy by 20- 2050. Thats a long time. But they want to be out of energy. Whats that all about they want to be out of energy?
So, you know, were blessed in this country because were sitting on top of tremendous wealth. Very few countries have that kind of wealth. Were bigger than Saudi Arabia, were bigger than Russia, were bigger than any other country, in terms of our energy.
And a lot of things like the Paris Accord the Paris Accord basically took your wealth away. It didnt give you the advantage. And I said, I wont sign it, because it took the wealth of this country away because they didnt want us to use our energy. They didnt want us to use our our great asset.
We have tremendous wealth. You know, one of the interesting things: If you look at Iran and you look at Saudi Arabia, and you look at the big, vast waterways that we patrol years and years and years, gratis, for nothing, so that other people got rich, so that we could get oil out of there. But so that other people got rich. We never got anything. Now we get things for it.
But we dont have ships very much in there anymore. And with all of the conflict and all of the things they kept saying, Where are the American ships? We have so much energy now. Were sitting on so much. And its happened, really, over the last three years, three and a half years. Weve (inaudible).
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: One thing that happened great, John I mean, if if you look John, you were even in favor of it because youre an energy person but we helped Alaska. But we really helped the United States with ANWR, for Dan. They did a fantastic job.
Ronald Reagan tried to get it approved; couldnt do it. Every President tried to get ANWR, and they couldnt do it. I got it approved.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Yes, sir. Great.
THE PRESIDENT: People dont even talk about it, and thats okay. They dont have to talk about it. Thats why I talk about it. (Laughter.) Because nobody else will.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: We love it in Alaska, Ill tell you that.
THE PRESIDENT: But ANWR is perhaps the largest find in the world. Right? It could be.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Could be.
THE PRESIDENT: But its certainly one of them.
SENATOR SULLIVAN: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: But its been talked about for years, probably one of the maybe the largest find anywhere in the world. And we got it approved a year ago. And youre working on it, and its incredible.
But Ronald Reagan could not do it. He said that was one of his big disappointments. He could not get ANWR approved. They couldnt get it through. And we got it through. We got it passed. And that was a great achievement for everybody in this room, and it was a great achievement, actually, for the two of you, the the big oil guys. Right? It was a big and I have to say, these senators and the people in this room, they love energy. Not that they love it; they love the jobs it produces and they like what it represents. And it gives us total independence. So its very important.
Okay. Any other question?
Q Mr. President, just to follow up on energy: Are you satisfied with the current output by the Russians and the Saudis, or do you want them further to cut production?
THE PRESIDENT: I Id wish youd because you have the mask on. So its a (reporter removes face mask.) Yeah, thats great. Just for a second.
Hes not worried. See the man in front of you?
Q Its okay.
THE PRESIDENT: Are you worried about her? Are you worried about her? Hes not worried. Look, hes protected.
Go ahead.
{snip}
Q Just a couple more on hydroxychloroquine.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
Q Have you or Secretary Azar pressured or asked scientists in the administration to promote it? And are you
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I never spoke to a scientist. But I will tell you this: I did speak with the President of Honduras just a little while ago, and I didnt bring it up; he brought it up. He said they use the hydroxychloroquine. And he said the results were so incredible with hydroxychloroquine. This happened an hour ago.
I just spoke to him, President of Honduras, and he said and I guess we made some available to them or whatever. He was thanking me. And I said, How has the result been? And he said its been incredible.
Now, I dont know hes not a doctor, I dont think. But hes he thanked me, and he said the results have been very good.
So you hear it both ways. Ive seen all negative, other than the other day. I saw some study, which wasnt good. But I saw very positive coming out of France and coming out of a lot.
But heres the President of Honduras saying how good it was. I mean, I didnt even bring up the subject. He brought it up. So the study has to be there.
Q Are you taking it?
THE PRESIDENT: Look, Im not a doctor. The study has to be done. And maybe its helping. If it helps, its great. If it doesnt help, dont do it. It does work with, as you know, malaria, lupus, et cetera. And its a very powerful drug. And I would say this: If it works, I think everybody would be in favor of it.
But check with him, call him, the President of Honduras a really nice guy. I just left him just on the phone. You know what they needed? Ventilators. He said, Can you give? I said, We can help you, because were making were going to have a hundred and were going to have 110,000 made in a very short period of time. And theyve been making them by the thousands.
Mike Pence went out to a factory in Wisconsin just the other day, three days ago. And he came back; he could not believe how incredible the factory was. Theyre making thousands of ventilators every couple of months. Thousands.
And company and countries are calling us now: France, Italy. Were sending to Italy, France, Spain. We are making thousands and thousands of very high-grade ventilators. Theres a big difference between high grade and not high grade when it comes to what those do.
And were sending them to countries as they call, as they need them. Were sending them all over the world. And when we asked the governors, Do you need ventilators? the answer is no. In fact, New York was nice. They sent some to I think they sent them to Massachusetts.
Yeah, please. Jeff.
Q Mr. President, just to follow up on the comments from yesterday, you said you were being sarcastic, but some people may have misunderstood you. Do you want to just clarify to America?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I wish they wouldnt I wish they wouldnt
Q Do you want to
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think I did.
Q Can you just clarify to Americans
THE PRESIDENT: But I do think this
Q that you dont want people to ingest that?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. I do think that disinfectant on the hands could have a very good effect.
Now, Bill is going back to check that in the laboratory. You know, its an amazing laboratory, by the way. Its amazing the work they do. So hes going to check.
Because a hard surface this is a hard surface, I guess, maybe depending on whose hands youre talking about, right? But this is a hard surface. And disinfectant the disinfectant has an unbelievable it wipes it out. You know, you saw it: Sun and heat and humidity wipe it out.
And this is from tests. Theyve been doing these tests for, you know, a number of months. And the result so then I said, Well, how do we do it inside the body or even outside the body, with the hands? And disinfectant, I think, would work. He thinks would work. But you use it when youre when youre doing your hands. I guess thats one of the reasons they say wash your hands. But whether its washing your hands or disinfectant on your hands, its very good.
So theyre going to start looking at that. And there is a way of, you know, if light if sun sun itself that sun has a tremendous impact on it. It kills it like in one minute. It goes from what was it? Hours to, like, one minute. Its dead.
So I said, You got to go back and look. But Id like them now to look as it pertains to the human body, not just sitting on a railing or sitting on a wall. Id like them to look as it pertains because maybe theres something there. They have to work with the doc Im not a doctor. They have to work with the doctors. But maybe there is something to light and the human body and helping people that are dying. Okay?
Q But just to clarify just to clarify that, sir: Are you are you encouraging Amer- youre not encouraging Americans to ingest
THE PRESIDENT: No, of course no. Of course.
Q disinfectant?
THE PRESIDENT: That was interior wise, its said sarcastically. It was it was put in the form of a question to a group of extraordinarily hostile people, namely the fake news media.
Okay. So
Q Some doctors felt they needed to clarify that after your comments.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, of course. All they had to do was see it was just, you know, the way it was asked. I was I was looking at you.
Q No, you werent, sir. I wasnt there yesterday. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: I know. I know.
Q You were looking at Dr. Birx.
THE PRESIDENT: Whats that?
Q You were looking at Dr. Birx.
THE PRESIDENT: I was looking at Bill. I was looking at the doctor. I was looking at some of the reporters. I dont know if you were there. Were you there? I dont think you were there.
Q I was there, and I watched you ask her.
THE PRESIDENT: No, not you. Not you. Not you. You were there. You if youre there, I never forget. You were
Q I wasnt there yesterday, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You were not?
Q No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I didnt think you were there.
Okay.
Q Just, Mr. President Mr. President, I know that you continue to say youre obviously
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, hold it one second.
Q Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Any other questions from any other people?
Okay, thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
END
12:53 P.M. EDT
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)So many suck ups, so little actual results. How do people get THIS brain washed? What a total waste of time. I got about half way, and could not stomach any more of this B.S. He was talking about all the other foreign leaders asking for help with supplies. Now we know why Kushner is intercepting the supplies that U.S. governors are having brought into the country, and taking charge of them. They will be selling them overseas, while the US is in need. Someone, ANYONE needs to be monitoring this. How low has this country sunk now, with these "leaders" all in the Oval Office, competing with each other to see which one can kiss dear leader's arse the most? Has anyone informed little Mikey Pence that 5.1 million tests are NOTHING in a country of over 330 MILLION? I give up. We are done as a powerful leader of the world. I have zero hope for this country. We are the world's laughingstock, with a clown for a "leader". The gop really scrapes the very bottom of the barrel for their presidential "leaders". Liz Cheney is definitely her father's daughter. Vile.