Trump holds press briefing amid backlash over Woodward tapes
Thank you very much. Wow we have some. Big ones today, this is a room. Loaded up wow, paula reed. Jonathan, carl. Phil rucker hi phil, how are you. Caitlin. We've got the all-stars, a lot of all-stars, today. Youtube. You too. That's good well that's fine. Thank you very much in the past, four months we've added 10.6. Million jobs. Including, 643. Manufacturing. Jobs and. 658. 000, construction. Jobs it's far. Beyond, expectations. We've experienced, the smallest, contraction. Of any western, nation. Meaning, we've been affected, less. Than any other nation. Western nation and probably, almost i think you can put us in i just saw some numbers i think you can put us into just about any category, anywhere. And the fastest, recovery, by far and that's anywhere. Nobody's recovered, like we're recovering. If we followed, joe biden's, strategy, we shut down the entire country, after just having. Set records, on. Growth. And we also did have tremendous, retail, growth as you probably, noticed. We're witnessing, the fastest, labor market recovery, from. An economic, crisis, in our history. By contrast. The obama. Biden administration. Had the slowest, weakest, and worst recovery, in american history, as you know. We continue, to make, progress, in our fight against the china virus. New weekly, cases, have declined, by 44, percent. Since july. Deaths declined. By 20. Compared to just last week, it's going down very rapidly. Really rapidly. This is in contrast, to nations, in the european, union. Which have recently, experienced. A sharp increase, in cases, they're having a very big spike over there we're. We're hopefully, beyond our spike, we'll see but we're doing very well all over our country. In the past five weeks per capita, cases, doubled in france. Surged, to over. 300, percent in spain. Which i've been hearing about and. Speaking, to, some of the leaders of spain, and they are having a hard time. And increased, more than 400, percent, in italy again. And as you remember, i, stopped. I put a ban on people coming in from europe. After the ban i imposed on china, wuhan. But, because of wuhan primarily, because that area was very. Infected. We. We also put a ban on. Europe. So spain is uh. Being, heavily, impacted, france, and. 400, percent in italy. Yesterday, european, nations, experienced, 50 percent more deaths. Than the united, states. And you don't hear these things you don't hear these statistics, but the united, states has done really well.
Very Proud of everybody, that worked on this. And i really do believe we're rounding, the corner and the vaccines, are right there but. Even not even discussing, vaccines, and not discussing, therapeutics, we're rounding the corner. We already have therapeutics. Out there by the way which are having obviously, a very big impact, because you look at that, you look at the. The way people are recovering. It's so much better than. In the past before we knew about the disease, and had anything, to fight the disease. On schools, as part of our science-based. Approach. We want schools, to. Safely. Open and stay open. Children are extremely, low risk, of. Complications. From the virus, less than 0.2, percent. 0.2, percent. Of, the, coronavirus. Deaths have occurred and those. Under the age of, 25.. And most had underlying, conditions, where there was a problem. There's no substitute, for in-person, learning according to a recent study student progress, in math. Decreased, by half. And using online, education. Compared, to. In-person. Or campus, education. So online, we think of, so many things online, and how. Great it is there's nothing like being in the classroom, that's what we've learned from this whole. Ordeal. According to the cdc. School closures, disproportionately. Harm, low income and minority, children as well as those with disabilities. And i think you see some slides behind, me. That are. Uh, new very. Current. It's also. Crucial, for colleges, and universities. To stay open and. We hope that they do indeed stay open we want to see big ten football, we hope it's coming back we have a lot of the. Colleges, that we're talking about they want to come back we hope that, michigan, agrees, we hope that. And i know the governor will have a lot to say about it we hope she. Approves, it but. We have a couple that maryland's, another one we hope. The governor puts a little pressure on so that we can have it but. I have a feeling they may do it they may do it without. Having everybody but i think they're going to have, maybe. Michigan, maybe maryland we have a couple of. Of uh. States that. Might not participate. But, people are working very very hard to get big ten football, back and i'm pushing it. And it'll be a great thing for our country, and uh the players. And the coaches, want to do it really badly the, players are missing they only have so many years of this and the players are missing a big opportunity, including the chance in some of the cases. To have some of the best players. College players, in our country. And they want to get into the nfl, and they want to make money in the nfl, and they're not going to be able to do that too easy if. You don't get to see them play. It's much safer, for students to live on campus, at. Low-risk, young people. Would rather, than. Uh. The alternative. It's, the alternative, is no good. Than going home spreading the virus to high-risk, americans, it's, they want to be on campus they want to go back to school and the parents want them back in school maybe, more so than they want to be back in school. And they want to back safely, and they want to go back safely but they have to go back based on. The recent data from more than 20 colleges, not a single student who tested, positive for the virus has been hospitalized. So that's a lot of people that's a lot of students, not one has been hospitalized. As we continue, to follow the science-based. Approach to. Protect, our people and vanquish, the virus, joe biden continues, to use the pandemic. For political, gain every time i see him he starts talking about their pandemic, he's reading it off a teleprompter. I'm not allowed to use a teleprompter. Why is that phil. They ask questions and he starts reading the teleprompter. He says move the teleprompter, a little bit closer please. I don't know i think if i did that i'd be in big trouble. I think that would be, that would be the story of the year. When i took early action in january, to ban the travel. And all travel. To and from china. The democrats. And biden, in particular, called it xenophobic. You remember that. Joe was willing to sacrifice, american, lives to placate, the radical, left. Open border, extremists. And. We saved. Tens of thousands of lives probably, hundreds of thousands, of lives and we saved millions of lives by. Doing the closing and now the opening the way we did it joe's decision, to, publicly, attack the china ban proved he lacks the. Character, or, intelligence. Or instinct, to do what is, right. Now. Biden's, launched a public campaign, against the vaccine, which is so bad. Because we have some vaccines, coming that are incredible. Scott was telling me about. Some of the things that are happening and it's very exciting scott thank you for being here. But. You don't want to have. Anything, having to do with the political.
Purposes. Being an anti-vaxxer. You don't want to be, talking about the. Vaccines, in a negative way especially, when you, see the statistics. That. We're starting to see they're incredible, actually. Uh. Biden's perfectly, happy to. Endanger, the lives of other people, by. Doing something that he thinks is going to help him politically, because his polls are getting very bad they're getting very shaky. This was an election that was going to be very easy very quick and then the china virus came in and, i had to go back to work politically, unfortunately. I had to devote more time politically, than. The other things we do which are very important for our country but i had to go back to work and. It looks like. Looks like we're going up very rapidly. More rapidly, than. The media wants to admit and biden's, had to go out he's gotten out of his basement, and he's. Working let's see what happens, but. We've got to talk about how great these vaccines, are if in fact they're great and i think you're going to see numbers that are going to be very very impressive. The. Approach, to the virus, is a very. Unscientific. Blanket, locked down by the democrats, that's what they're talking about. Which takes all of these incredible, statistics. Records. And it throws them out the window now they did say it would be based on. The recommendation. Of the experts, but, you know whether expert or not. We're not doing any more shutdowns, we did the shutdown. And now we're doing the opening and there won't be any more shutdowns. There could be a little section a small section we have a breakout, but we're not talking about shutdowns, like. They were talking about depending on experts we're not going to be doing that. The. Swine flu was a disaster, you remember, when. Not nearly as deadly, not a not the same world but, when joe biden was vice president. His failed approach to the. Swine, flu. Was disastrous. He called it. He called it n1h1. It's actually h1n1. You know you remember the h comes before the. End so it's sort of easy to remember right but, joe always calls it the opposite, way but it was call it the swine flu it was, disastrous. And his own chief of staff said that when biden helped. Manage, the, swine flu in 2009. They quote. Did everything, possible. Wrong. And 60 million americans, got. H1n1. In that period of time this is a quote from his chief of staff. And it's just purely. A fortuity. That this isn't one of the great mass casualties. Of events. It had nothing to do with us doing anything right because we did everything wrong it was a disaster. It was a disaster. And now he's telling us. He had a manner he can't manage himself. 270. 000 americans. Were hospitalized. During. This, attack. The outbreak, was so rampant that the obama administration. Told states, to stop testing, we don't want any tests, because they don't want to show all of the, things that show by the way we're setting a record on testing. Our testing is at a level that nobody's. Ever seen before, we're. Substantially. Greater than the second, country which is india by the way which has 1.5, billion people but we're. 50 million. Tests ahead 50 million, ahead. And, they ordered the cdd, to stop. Counting, tests. And stop. Counting, cases. And then left us. A depleted, stockpile. Which is what i inherited, i inherited, a depleted. A very badly depleted, stockpile, in other words biden's. Record demonstrates, that if he had. Been in charge, of this very serious. Highly, highly contagious. Epidemic. Or pandemic. The china virus. Countless, more americans, would have died. And if we didn't do what we did. And i say it all the time now because. The media likes to belittle, what we've done has been incredible, now you can look at europe and you can look at other places and you can start comparing.
Biden Is weak on china. Yesterday, it was revealed, that, a fund partly owned by joe biden's son hunter. Facilitated. The sale of. A michigan, auto parts producer, to a leading chinese, military, defense, contractor. You don't want to write about that do you. Biden spend his entire career selling michigan, jobs to china. Now the biden family is selling. Out our. Country, directly, to the chinese, military. Which has to do with this company, that hunter here we go with hunter again he didn't have a job now all of a sudden he's selling. Companies, from michigan, to china. China's military, got american, manufacturing. Jobs and the biden family. Got paid a lot of money. And. I said if joe biden. Ever got elected, china will own. America. He will, they will own america. Finally i can. Announce, with great pride that secretary, of state mike pompeo, will be departing, this evening on a historic, trip to duha. That's qatar, for, the beginning, of, intra, afghan, peace negotiations. We've been negotiating, with them for quite some time. Getting along with them. Moved a lot of soldiers, out. I got a report this morning, that there's been nobody. Killed in afghanistan. Since, early february. It's a long time. There's been no. Deaths, no problems. And, a. Lot of progress, is being made in afghanistan. But. We'll be down to, 4 000 soldiers. In a very short period of time likewise, iraq. Will be down to about 2 000 soldiers, in a very short period of time. And, in syria for the most part we're out other than we kept the oil. As we have soldiers, guarding the oil not too many i think, small. Number. But they're, guarding the oil. And we're helping the kurds, and we're, making their lives. Much more pleasant. Because of the fact that we have the oil. So we're. Pretty much out of, syria. We're pretty much out of iraq. And we're down to the smallest, force that. We've had in. Will be very shortly, down to that number, in, afghanistan. The negotiations. Are a result of a bold diplomatic. Effort. One part of my administration. In recent months and years the united, states will play an important role in bringing the parties together. To end the decades-long. War it's been going on for almost 20 years. Long before i got involved, i can tell you, that. And, had they not been wasting our time with all of the. Phony witch hunts, and all of the things we probably could have done this even faster. But a lot of time had to be spent wasted, like that. But the parties, are together, right now and, we're. Negotiating. And uh we're really making tremendous, progress. Next week, at the white house we'll be having a signing between. Uae, and israel, and we could have another country added into that and i will tell you countries are lining up that want to go into it. As you know uh. Uae, is headed by a very very highly respected. Gentleman. And. Respected, by everybody. And he's a warrior, too he's a great warrior. And muhammad's, very excited, about this. And. You'll be hearing other countries coming in over, a relatively, short period of time. And you could have peace in the middle east i think what ultimately, will happen is you're going to have. Quite a few countries, come in. The big ones are going to be coming in i spoke to, the king of saudi arabia, so we're talking we're starting. We just started the dialogue. And. You'll have them come in and i think. Two things are going to happen iran will. If we win the election, iran will come and.
Sign A. Deal with us very very rapidly, within the first. I would say week but let's give ourselves a month. Because their, gdp, went down 25, percent which is like an unheard of number. And they'd like to be able to. Get back to having a successful, country again. So i think that'll happen, and i think very importantly. The palestinians. Will, get back into. The fold, and, when they see all of these countries that frankly have been supporters, of the palestinians. Very big supporters, and certainly financial, supporters. As you know we used to pay the palestinians. 750. Million dollars a year and i ended that. Some time ago, on the basis, that. They didn't seem to want to make peace, and. We'll. Think about it once, we have a deal but i've ended that. Quite a while ago, i'm frankly surprised they haven't been to the table. Earlier. But this is the best way this is a way that's going to be great this can really bring the middle east together. And again. Since february. We haven't had a death in afghanistan. Which is. That's a record for many years. Not a death. And we're getting along very very well with the taliban, and very well with. Afghanistan. And its. Representatives. And we'll see how it all goes it's a negotiation. But, secretary, of state mike pompeo, will be. Departing. In a little while. So i think that's very exciting, news. And a lot of people thought that. My natural, instinct, is war no my natural instinct, is actually. Peace when we were on the debate stage people used to say will it be one week or two weeks before, president, trump gets into a war. But that's not i did rebuild, our military. We have a military, that two and a half trillion dollars, new. Jets and rockets, and, tanks, and. Ships and a lot of things we have we have. The newest best military, we've ever had so. Hopefully we won't have to use it, our nuclear, program, has been put into gear. Like never before, and. In particular. Hopefully. We won't have to use. That. Because that's a whole new level. Of, destruction, and we never want to just have to pray to god we never have to use that. All right please john. Thank you mr president. Why did you lie to the american, people, and why should we trust what you have to say now terrible, question, and the phraseology. I didn't lie. What i said is we have to be calm we can't be panicked. I knew that. The tapes were these were a series of phone calls that we had mostly phone calls. And, uh. Bob woodward, is somebody that. I respect, just from, hearing the name for many many years. Not knowing too much about his work not caring about his work but i thought, it would be interesting, to talk to him, for a period of you know calls. So we did that. I don't know if it's good a bit i don't even know if the book is good or bad. But, certainly, if, he thought, that was a bad statement. He would have reported, it because he thinks that you know you don't want to have anybody, that. Is going to suffer, medically, because. Of. Some fact. And he didn't report it because he didn't think it was bad, nobody thought it was wait a minute women. And your question the way you phrase that is such a disgrace, it's a disgrace, to abc, television, network it's a disgrace, to your employer. And that's the answer are you ready. Because. Are you thinking i, i, love. And then you went out and told the american public. That this was just like the flu let me tell you something, we've had four years you told everybody else something else no and five times, right five times do you ever hear the expression, five times we've had flu years where we lost a hundred thousand people.
The Flu is a very serious problem for this country also. And we've been losing, them. Scott what kind of a number have we lost over the years with fluz, into the hundreds of thousands. Well i mean the the, last five years have been something like 35, to 80 000 per year every year. Even with antiviral. Drugs and even with flu is a very serious problem also, but just. This is worse than the most friendly, deadlier, than the most strenuous. Flu okay, and then you went out and said it's just like the flu. What i went out and said is very simple listen, what i went out and said is very simple. I want to show. A level of confidence, and i want to show. Strength, as a leader and i want to show that our country is going to be fine one way the other. Whether we lose. One person we shouldn't lose any because this shouldn't have happened this is china's, fault this is nobody's, fault but china china should not have allowed it to happen. Whether you have a one person. 180. 000 people. Or two and a half or three million people, which it could have been very seriously, if we didn't make the moves. And when you look at the opposition, where they said. Oh why did he put the ban on. Dr fauci said we saved hundreds of thousands, of lives by putting the ban on china and then ultimately, putting the ban on, europe, there was no lie here, what we're doing is we're leading, and we're leading in a proper, way, and if frankly, somebody else was leading it, they wouldn't have closed, it, if you look at nancy, pelosi. You look at cuomo, you look at de blasio. You look at biden. Months later they said there's no problem, they're talking about me. Months later. And before, any statement, was made you have to remember, i put the ban on china, so obviously. Outwardly. I said, it's a very serious, problem. And it's always a serious, problem, that doesn't mean i'm going to jump up and down in the air and start saying people are going to die people are going to die no. No i'm not going to do that, we're going to get through this and we're right now i hope, really think we're going to we're rounding the final turn. And a lot of good things are happening with vaccines, and with therapeutics. But there's no lying and the way you ask that question is very disgraceful. Go ahead please, go ahead yeah. I think we did a great job i think we did a great job. And the people that did, our generals, our admirals. Mike pence, all of the people. That have worked so hard. And now dr, atlas. And all of them dr, fauci. Dr, burks. They should be respected, for the job they've. Done. No i don't want to jump up and down and start screaming, death, death. Because that's not what it's about. We have to lead a country, we're leading a great country, and we're doing a great job, and the people that have done such a good job, should be given the kind of credit that they deserve, we possibly, have done the best jobs, when you start looking at what we're doing with the vaccines, and therapeutics, and ventilators. We had no ventilators, john, we make thousands, of ventilators, now a month and we're supplying, them to the whole world. The job we've done is the best job. And. Don't give me any credit. Give the people that have done this the credit, they've done a great job yeah phil go ahead yeah mr president you talked about the need to stay calm, and not just up and down and and, scare people. A lot of other world leaders, were calm. German chancellor, angela merkel was very calm as she presented, information, to the german people, so that they could stay safe and protect their families. So why is you as president of the united states. Did you not level with the american people did you not share the information. That you knew at the time in real life you know what what uncle is doing but if you look at the european union right now. They're having breakouts, like you've never seen before. And frankly their numbers, are a level that, are much worse than the numbers here we are we have done. We have phil we have done much much better. Than the european, union i just read you numbers, that are, not good on their behalf, that are very good at ours and we have rounded, the final turn, and we have. We we're going to have vaccines, very soon maybe much sooner than you think listen maybe much sooner than you think. But we have done a phenomenal, job and the people that have done this job, including. The american, public that's had to put up with a lot. With the lockdowns, and all of the things that they had to do, they have to be given credit, they have to be. Virus given credit. It was airborne, you knew on february, 7th you told bob woodward, how it transferred, from person to person in the air how deadly it was. Why did you not come to the podium, well let me ask you this if bob woodward thought that was bad because this is stuff that everyone knew, there's a report.
That I have here someplace. Where china said it was airborne, earlier, than. The statements, i made people knew it was airborne this was nothing. This was no big when i say it was airborne, everybody knew it was airborne this was no big thing, in february. Read the reports. China, came out with a statement that it was an airborne, disease. I heard it was an airborne disease i assumed it early on, the fact is, there has to be a calmness, you don't want me jumping up and down screaming there's going to be great death there's going to, and. Really, causing, some very very serious problems, for the country. If, bob woodward, thought. What i said was bad. Then he should have immediately. Right after i said it, gone out to the authorities, so they can prepare, and let them know but he didn't think it was bad, and he said he didn't think it was bad, he actually said he didn't think it was bad, the only one that said it was bad or thinks it was bad were the fake news media because they take it and they try and put it a certain way, if bob woodward. Thought it was bad. Then he should have, immediately. Gone out publicly. Not wait four months you know he's had that statement for four months maybe five months he's had it for a long time, it was a series of taped interviews. Mostly by telephone. Quick ones not long ones quick ones. And it was i did it out of curiosity. Because i do have respect, and i want to see, i wonder whether or not somebody like that can write good, i don't think he can but let's see what happens. Thank you mr president. Um. We're just about 50 days out from the election and we haven't seen a lot out of the durham investigation. Yet yeah where is that and do you do you have confidence, in the investigation. Well i can't tell you that yet i have to see i'm not involved in it i purposely, stayed uninvolved, i'm. I guess considered, the chief law enforcement. Officer, of the country i could be involved if i wanted to i thought it would be. Better if i wasn't i think it's better if. Our great attorney general handle it he has, durham who is a. Very very respected, man and we're going to see what it is i can't tell you that, i can tell you this, i can tell you this, they. Uh. They lied. They. Cheated. They, leaked. They got caught they spied on my campaign. Never in history has there been anything like this. And i guarantee, if the roles were reversed, and i was on the democrat, side. People would have been in jail, at the very highest, level, people would have been in jail for, two years already. Nothing like this has ever happened, and the term would be for many many years, because it's treason, and, other words can be used also, do you think there should be more indictments. As a part of this well i think just on what i read in your wonderful papers, i think and and see what you know just looking at the media. Not even what i know. I think comey, is a disgrace, to our country. I think strzok. Who just wrote a book which is a total fake. Is a disgrace. I think page, lisa page his lover. Is a disgrace, to our country.
I Think that when you look at mccabe, where his wife got seven hundred thousand dollars in campaign, contributions. From hillary clinton. Right, and then hillary clinton is under investigation. And yet she paid the head of the fbi. One of the top people but actually the head because he took over for. For, the other guy who fortunately, i fired i made a good move when i fired that was a smart move. Because they were looking to take down. This administration. Duly elected, administration. So i fired him that was a great move when i fired him because maybe if i didn't i wouldn't be here talking to you as president. But when mccabe's, wife. Gets, seven hundred, thousand dollars, in campaign, contributions. When she was running for whatever, office she was running from from virginia. And yet he's in charge of the investigation. Of hillary clinton now he says well i wasn't really in charge of course he was a judge, he was totally in charge he knew exactly what was going on. These people got caught. In. The, probably, the biggest political, scandal, in the history of our country. They got caught. Now, what the durham report is going to say i can't tell you. But, if they say, half as, much as i already know just from, seeing it you know you have people i watch. Some of the, shows i watch liz mcdonald, she's fantastic. I watched. Fox business. I watched. Lou dobbs last night. Sean hannity, last night. Tucker last night. Laura. I watched. Fox and friends in the morning you watch these shows. You don't have to go too far into the details, they cover, things that are, it's really an amazing, thing, they got caught. In the biggest, political, scandal, in the history, of our country. They were spying. On. Their opponents, campaign. Not only spying they were making up fake dossiers, you have the dirty dossier, they were making up, the dirty, it was all made up it was all fiction, it turned out to be fiction, and then they were using that in the fisa courts, this revered. Court. What's not so revered, anymore. Because, when you look at what they did and how they played it and they heard a lot of people, general flynn is still being hurt, and he's being hurt very badly. He's a wonderful, person, i spoke to, general milley about general flynn two weeks ago i said what do you think of, general flynn he said he's a great soldier, sir he's a wonderful, wonderful human being he's been destroyed.
He's Been destroyed. No. I think that, this. Without knowing anything about what durham is going to release the durham report we'll call it. Uh or maybe it's going to be more than a report. Maybe it's going to be much more than a report i don't know maybe it's a report or maybe it's much more than that. But when i look at the uh. The things that everybody in this room knows just from reading about it from yourselves, back and forth. I think it's a disgrace, to our country. And i think if people. Don't pay a very very substantial. Price. It'll happen again and this should never ever happen to another president. Thank you very much thank you very much. Do you understand, that you're saying this airborne is different than china saying it's where is your, president, president.
2020-09-12 21:44
