MARCH 31 2020 Coronavirus Task Force briefing excerpt.
Donald Trump & the Coronavirus Task Force held a COVID-19 briefing on March 31. Trump warned of a "painful two weeks" ahead. Full transcript here.
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Donald Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force held their daily COVID-19 press conference today, March 31. Trump warned of a “very, very painful two weeks” ahead for the United States as the virus spreads. The White House predicts that 100,000 to 240,000 will die of the virus. Read the full transcript of the briefing here.
Donald Trump: (01:36)
Thank you very much everyone. Our country is in the midst of a great national trial, unlike any we have ever faced before. You all see it. You see it probably better than most. We’re at war with a deadly virus. Success in this fight will require the full absolute measure of our collective strength, love, and devotion. It’s very important. Each of us has the power through our own choices and actions to save American lives and rescue the most vulnerable among us. That’s why we really have to do what we all know is right. Every citizen is being called upon to make sacrifices. Every business is being asked to fulfill its patriotic duty. Every community is making fundamental changes to how we live, work and interact each and every day, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this going on long into the future when this virus is gone and defeated.
Donald Trump: (02:44)
Some of the things we’re doing now will be very good practice for the future, including for not getting the flu, which is very devastating also. So some of what we’re learning now will live on into the future. I really believe that shaking hands or not shaking hands, washing hands all the time, staying a little apart. 15 days ago we published our nationwide guidelines to slow the spread of the virus. On Sunday, I announced that this campaign will be extended until April 30th. In a few moments, Dr. Birx will explain the data that formed the basis for our decision to extend the guidelines and Dr. Fauci will explain why it’s absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days. It’s a matter of life and death, frankly. It’s a matter of life and death.
Donald Trump: (03:46)
I know our citizens will rise to the occasion and they already have sacrificed a lot. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We’re the greatest economy in the world. We had the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers that we’ve ever had by far, and in one instant we said we have no choice but to close it up. Just as Americans have always done, they will do a job like few have seen before and they’re proud to do it. And I see that there’s a great pride going on right now. Before we hear from our experts, we have a few other announcements.
Donald Trump: (04:28)
Today, the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration announced for the details on the paycheck protection program, which was made possible by the $2 trillion relief bill I signed into law last week. Nearly $350 billion in loans will soon be available through lending partners to help small businesses meet payroll and other expenses for up to two months. These loans will be forgiven as long as businesses keep paying their workers. This includes sole proprietors and independent contractors. Applications will be accepted starting this Friday, April 3rd. So on Friday, April 3rd, that’s when it begins.
Donald Trump: (05:13)
Earlier today, I spoke with leading internet and phone providers who are doing a tremendous job of keeping our internet and the lines of communication flowing under very strongly increase strain the businesses more than anybody has seen before because everyone’s inside. They’re all making calls. Among the leaders I spoke to were Hans Vestberg a Verizon Communications, Randall Stephenson of AT&T, Mike Sievert of T-Mobile, Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, Brian Roberts of Comcast, John Malone of Liberty Media, Dexter Goie of Altice, Michel Combes of Sprint, and Aryeh Bourkoff of LionTree. Also Pat Esser of Cox Communications and Jeffrey Storey of CenturyLink. They’re doing an incredible job. If you look at other continents, if you look at Europe, they went a different route than we did and a much different route. We were talking about that just a little while ago, and they are having tremendous problems.
Donald Trump: (06:32)
Other countries are having problems, other continents are having problems, but with business at a level that nobody’s seen it before on the internet, it’s holding up incredibly well. And they expect that to continue no matter what happened, and no matter how much more gains, which it can gain more than it already is, I don’t know because they’re setting records. Let me also update you on the distribution of urgency needed resources and supplies and we have a lot of numbers. I’m going to let Mike Pence speak to that in a little while, but we’re giving massive amounts of medical equipment and supplies to the 50 states. We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators that we have ready to go. We have to hold them back because the surge is coming, and it’s coming pretty strong, and we want to be able to immediately move it into place without going and taking it.
Donald Trump: (07:35)
So we’re ready to go. And we’ve also distributed, I just spoke with governor of Michigan, had a great conversation and we sent a large number of ventilators to Michigan. We’re sending them to Louisiana. We sent additional ventilators to New York, additional ventilators to New Jersey. And I will say in New York, FEMA is supplying 250 ambulances and 500 EMTs to help respond to the increasing case load. That’s a lot of ambulances. In California, the Army Corps of engineers is developing eight facilities to expand hospital capacity up to 50,000 beds, 50,000. And had a great conversation last night with Gavin Newsom, he’s doing a really good job. We’re in constant communications. The USNS Mercy hospital ship is now operational. It’s in Los Angeles and receiving patients. And in New York, as you know, the Comfort, everybody watched that. It’s in place and it will be in a very short while receiving large numbers of patients over a thousand rooms and 12 operating rooms.
Donald Trump: (08:56)
FEMA has also provided a hundred travel trailers to assist with housing needs and we’re ordering hundreds more. In Michigan, FEMA will soon deliver in addition to the ventilators, 250 bed, field, hospital, and Army Corps of engineers is evaluating locations to build alternate care facilities. So we’re doing a field hospital in Michigan of 250 beds and we may be doubling it up soon depending on the need. They’re doing a good job with beds in Michigan, but they may need more than the 250, so FEMA and the Army Corps of engineers are prepared to go there quickly and get it done. In Louisiana, we’re delivering two field hospitals to provide 500 new hospital beds. I’ve been talking with the governor, John Bel Edwards and the Army Corps of engineers has been really doing incredible work establishing 3000 alternate care site at the New Orleans Convention Center, which will be operational, believe it or not this week.
Donald Trump: (10:06)
So we’re doing the 3000 bed alternate care site and we’re also doing a 500 bed new hospital, and that’s in Louisiana, which really got hit. It started off very late and it was looking good, and then all of a sudden it just reared up, came from nowhere. In addition to the supplies we’re delivering, we’re also giving hospitals the flexibility to use new facilities, including surgical care centers to care for hospital patients who are not infected. For example, I know that many expectant mothers are understandably concerned about exposing their newborn babies to the virus and they should be/ with our action yesterday, hospitals now have the authority to create special areas for mothers to deliver their babies in a very safe and healthy environment. Totally separate.
Donald Trump: (11:03)
Over the past two months, the US State Department has organized one of the largest and most complex international evacuation operations in American history. Mike Pompeo is working around the clock along with Ambassador O’Brien. Since January 29th, we have successfully repatriated over 25,000 Americans from more than 50 countries where they were literally stuck. In some cases, locked in. And I salute the incredible public servants at the Department of State as well as their counterparts at DHS and HHS who have played such an important role in doing this. You probably read about the young people in Peru, and young people in Brazil, and they were absolutely stuck and we got them out. Almost everybody is out now back home with their parents, their wives, their husbands.
Donald Trump: (12:06)
I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks. And then hopefully as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting I after having studied it so hard, you’re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel, but this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks. When you look and see at night the kind of death that’s been caused by this invisible enemy, it’s incredible. I was watching last night, Governor Murphy of New Jersey say 29 people died today, meaning yesterday, and others talking about numbers far greater, but you get to know a state, I know New Jersey so well. And you hit 29 people and hundreds in other locations, hundreds in other states. And this is going to be a rough two week period.
Donald Trump: (13:05)
As a nation, we face a difficult few weeks as we approach that really important day when we’re going to see things get better all of a sudden. And it’s going to be like a burst of light. I really think and I hope that our strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried, but America will answer with love and courage and ironclad resolve. This is the time for all Americans to come together and do our part. I appreciate a lot of the media. We’ve had a lot of really good things said. I think only good things can be said when you look at the job that’s been done. I just spoke with Franklin Graham who is an extraordinary person and a Samaritan’s Purse has been like so many others just been amazing and so fast. They did it so fast. He’s been doing that for a long time, but I think people are really seeing what they have done. Franklin Graham, very special family.
Donald Trump: (14:13)
As we send plane loads of masks and gloves and supplies to the communities battling the plague, and that’s what it is. It’s a plague. We also send our prayers. We pray for the doctors and the nurses. For the paramedics and the truck drivers, and the police officers, and the sanitation workers. And above all, the people fighting for their lives in New York and all across our land. I watched as doctors and nurses one into a certain hospital in Elmhurst this morning. I know Elmhurst, Queens, I grew up right next to it. I know the hospital very well, been seeing it all my life, my young life.
Donald Trump: (14:57)
And I will tell you that to see the scenes of trailers out there and what they’re doing with those trailers, they’re freezers and nobody could even believe it. And I spoke to some of my friends, they can’t believe what they’re seeing. And I watched the doctors and the nurses walking into that hospital this morning. It’s like military people going into battle, going into war. The bravery is incredible, and I just have to take my hat. I would take my hat if I were wearing a hat, I’d rip that hat off so fast and I would say “You people are just incredible.” They really are. They’re very brave. They’re going in and they don’t know, you have lots of things flying around in the air, you don’t know what you’re touching. Is it safe?
Donald Trump: (15:56)
And you also see where your friends are going to the hospital and you say “How is he doing?” Two days later and they say, “Sir, he’s unconscious.” Or “He’s in a coma.” So things are happening that we’ve never seen before in this country. And with all of that being said, the country’s come together like I’ve never seen it before, and we will prevail, we will win, and hopefully it will be in a relatively short period of time. With that, I’d like to ask Dr. Birx to come up and show you some of the latest data that has been, I think brilliantly put together. And right after that I’m going to ask Dr. Fauci to speak, and Mike Pence is going to give you some of the recent events that have taken place and some of the statistics that we have that I think will be very interesting here. Thank you very much. Please.
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