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The Situation Room
White House Holds Coronavirus Task Force Briefing; Interview With Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD). Aired 6-7p ET
Aired April 20, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The vice president, Mike Pence, tried today to reassure the governors that they will get federal help to obtain testing supplies.
But the president has been passing the buck to state leaders, insisting they are primarily responsible for coronavirus testing, which is considered crucial to efforts to reopen the country safely.
Let's go to CNN's Nick Watt. He is joining us from Los Angeles right now.
Nick, you're watching what's happening all over the country. Georgia is now joining some other Southern states in announcing some very dramatic plans to reopen very quickly.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Wolf.
We have heard from Louisiana, where the governor says he hopes sooner, rather than later, they can open. In Tennessee, they're planning to open some businesses a week from today. We also heard from the governor of Michigan, who says, is there anybody who actually believes they care more about jet skiing than the lives of the elderly and the vulnerable?
It is clear we're going to see a lot of different things in a lot of different places, and it could get a bit messy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (voice-over): Reopening this Friday in Georgia, gyms, bowling alleys, barbershops and some other businesses that can't do work from home.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): This measure will apply statewide and will be the operational standard in all jurisdictions.
WATT: Monday, restaurants will also reopen. Kemp says all businesses that are reopening must screen employees for illness and practice social distancing.
KEMP: By taking this measured action, we will get Georgians back to work safely. WATT: There is some relaxation some places, South Carolina expected
to open stores and beaches Tuesday, which were open all weekend in Jacksonville, Florida, with social distancing rules flagrantly flouted.
REP. DONNA SHALALA (D-FL): I think that decision was reckless. It shows you how undisciplined the leadership of this country has been, because we do not have a consistent message.
WATT: And there are still hot spots, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia.
One more pork plant just closed indefinitely in Minnesota after an outbreak. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. pork production is now shut down. And cases continue cropping up at nursing homes, the CDC now mandating that residents and their families are informed about outbreaks, along with the CDC.
SEEMA VERMA, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: And we are also paying for labs to go out to nursing homes to collect samples.
WATT: Meanwhile, our leaders struggle to balance the pain of the virus....
DR. ARNOLD WEG, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: I had the sense that I was drowning at certain points. I was unable to even stand.
WATT: ... with the pain of the shutdown.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): You don't need protests to convince anyone in this country that we have to get back to work and we have to get the economy going and we have to get out of our homes, nobody. The question is going to become, how, when, how fast?
WATT: One influential model suggests just these four states can safely open first on May 4, still two weeks from today.
ALI MOKDAD, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: What we are reporting is a level that a state can comfortably move to a containment stage.
WATT: That level is one new case per day per one million people. So, for example, New York state would need fewer than 20 cases per day. Right now, they're still seeing more than 5,000. All large events in the city, concerts, parades, were just canceled through June.
The governor now wants a bump in pay for essential workers.
CUOMO: When you were home with your doors locked, dealing with cabin fever, they were out there dealing with the coronavirus. I would say, hazard pay, give them a 50 percent bonus. And I would do that now.
WATT: Apparently, at one new case per million per day, a state will have the capacity to care for that patient and also trace and test their contacts.
Bottom line?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: Now, Governor Kemp in Georgia says he will give us some more details in the coming days about just how this will work.
I would like to know if it is possible to social distance while getting a haircut, a manicure or a massage -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, good point, Nick Watt reporting from Los Angeles. Thank you.
Joining us now, the governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan.
Governor, I know you're incredibly busy right now, but thanks, as usual, for joining us.
GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): Sure.
BLITZER: I don't know if you heard, but the president just a few moments ago spoke about how the White House actually provided a list to the governors of additional testing capacity in their states.
And then he singled out you, saying you didn't really understand that list. He said: "Some of the governors, like, as an example, the governor from Maryland didn't really understand the list. He didn't understand too much about what was going on."
[18:05:05]
It was bipartisan criticism, by the way. You're a Republican. He also criticized Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.
How do you respond to the president at a time like this? He's singling you out and Governor Pritzker for criticism.
HOGAN: Well, I don't want to get into criticizing back and forth, Wolf.
The president was not on the call. I thanked Vice President Pence and the president's team that was there for all the progress that they have been making.
But I actually started off the discussion on behalf of the governors and thanked all of them for the progress in many different areas.
I think what the president may be referring to is that they sent out a list to each of the governors of all of the different lab facilities in their states, which most of the governors already knew where the lab facilities were in their states.
I happened to bring up at the beginning of the meeting, well, we appreciated that list. More than half -- most of the ones that they sent me in Maryland were all federal facilities and FDA and Walter Reed and multiple -- Fort Detrick and Aberdeen Proving Ground.
So they were either federal health facilities that we have been desperately trying to get help from or military installations, none of which were state-owned labs or facilities where we could actually do any testing.
But I'm not sure what the president's referring to. I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on. And I appreciated the information that was provided by his team. But he wasn't there for -- I'm not sure what he was trying to say.
BLITZER: Yes. Well -- and you're the chairman of the National Governors Association, so you're the leader of all 50 of these governors who were on the call with the vice president.
Earlier today, you announced the shipment of tests coming into Maryland from South Korea that will allow you to conduct half-a- million tests. This is a dramatic development. How did this deal come through?
HOGAN: Well, as you know, the -- the president has been repeatedly saying that the states should really be on their own -- or not on their own, but they should take the lead on doing testing, that the federal government would back us up, but that the governors needed to go out and get their own testing.
And we have all been out there, the governors, trying to compete with one another all around the country and around the globe to try to get testing. This is a huge development for us. We have been working on this for about 22 straight days and nights.
My wife, who's originally from South Korea, we have a pretty good relationship with the president of South Korea, with the ambassador here in Washington. And we have been negotiating back and forth with Korean companies. We were able to get a half-a-million tests that landed at Baltimore Washington International airport on Saturday.
It was a tremendous accomplishment for us. We're very excited. Still got a lot more work to be done. But that's a -- that's more than the total amount of testing that has been done in four of the five top states in America so far.
BLITZER: Because testing is so, so critical right now.
But what does it say, Governor, about the state of testing in the country right now that you, the governor, had to turn to South Korea to get what you needed, because, normally, the federal government would be dealing with South Korea?
HOGAN: Well, look, I -- we're just happy to have the help from the Republic of Korea.
And we want to thank the federal government for their assistance as well. We're going to need some pieces and components, things like swabs, which we talked about today on the call. The president says that they're ramping up production of swabs, which is critically needed, about reagents, and some of the things that we still need help on from the federal government.
But we're happy to have made progress. I know that some of my fellow governors are all out there working hard, doing the best they can to find testing capabilities wherever they can find it, anywhere in the domestic market or anywhere around the world.
BLITZER: Your colleague Governor Kemp of Georgia, Brian Kemp, he announced today -- and it's pretty dramatic -- we have been reporting it, and I want to get your reaction -- that there will be, in Georgia, what he called an incremental reopening of certain businesses, including gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, hair and nail salons, massage therapists, as early as this coming Friday, and that theaters and restaurants can open in Georgia next Monday, a week from today.
He says bars, nightclubs and music venues will remain closed for now.
What -- is Maryland even close to any of that? What's your reaction to that?
HOGAN: Well, I -- I -- the governor of Georgia is a friend and a colleague. And I can't really speak to what the situation is on the ground in Georgia.
But I can tell you that, here in Maryland, we're going to be announcing later this week kind of a well-thought-out, gradual plan that's based on the sciences. We're trying to get our economy opened as quickly as we possibly can, but we want to do it in a safe way.
And we're following the guidelines that were just put out by the president on Thursday evening, which call for downward numbers for -- over a period of 14 days, which we don't have.
[18:10:11]
I'm not sure what the situation is in Georgia. But a number of states are still not at that point where we're able to do that quite yet.
BLITZER: The president has been praising people for protesting measures meant to protect their health.
You have seen some of the protests emerge. Some are here in this area, including Maryland, D.C., Virginia, for example.
What do you think about that? Does that put pressure on governors to start opening up potentially too quickly right now, when the president is going out of his way to say, these protesters are doing what they should be doing?
HOGAN: Well, I think it was unfortunate to send out conflicting messages, because the president's own plan, as I just said, tells states that they should not even consider opening until they have 14 days of downward numbers, which most states don't have, including mine or any of the states where they're doing the protests.
So, I think the president was kind of sending out messages encouraging people to protest against his own plan, which doesn't seem to make any sense.
But, today, they attempted to stage protests in Annapolis. Only three people showed up. And it hasn't put any pressure on me to open up any earlier than we have to.
BLITZER: Governor Cuomo, the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, of New York, he says they're looking at budget cuts right now in New York of 20 percent to hospitals, to schools, unless the states start getting some federal funding.
If Congress doesn't get money to the states in the next stimulus deal, are other states, including Maryland, going to have similar budget cuts? Do you have enough cash on hand to deal with the critical issues in the state of Maryland?
HOGAN: For sure, this is a top issue for the National Governors Association and one we have been pressing very hard on.
I was happy to hear the president yesterday in his press conference. The question came up about, would he support the $500 billion stimulus to -- funding out to the states? And he said he would in the fourth stimulus package, which we're very happy to hear.
We have been pressing that issue for quite some time. There's bipartisan support among that, both in the Senate and among the governors. And it's encouraging to hear.
I think, look, in our state, we may have as much as a $2.8 billion shortfall just in the fiscal year that ends on July 1. And we have got a AAA bond rating and a billion-dollar rainy day fund, but that's not nearly going to be enough to take care of the downturn in revenues from all the tough decisions we have had to make.
BLITZER: I keep hearing the same thing from governor after governor after governor, Democratic governors, Republican governors all over the country.
Governor Larry Hogan, you have been on the front line in fighting this coronavirus pandemic. We are all grateful to you for what you're doing.
Thanks so much for joining us.
HOGAN: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: I want to go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, right now.
Jim, the president is at odds with a lot of these governors, as I said Democratic governors, Republican governors, over this critical issue of testing. What's the latest?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right, Wolf.
The president is sounding very defensive on this issue. And as you were just talking about this with Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland a few moments ago, he is taking swipes not only at his fellow Republican Larry Hogan, but also J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, who was a Democrat, saying that these governors simply don't understand the information that the administration is passing along to governors about testing capacity in their respective states.
And you heard Governor Hogan just a few moments ago respond to that and say he certainly does know where all of the testing is taking place in the state of Maryland, as he is the governor, but Governor Hogan being frustrated, as a lot of governors are right now, Wolf, went out of his way, as we have been reporting over the weekend, and secured enough equipment to conduct some 500,000 coronavirus tests.
That's just an example of how these governors are having to go out on their own to try to accomplish something that the federal government can't seem to get a handle on. And the president was just talking about this a few moments ago.
He did say he's going to be invited down to the White House to meet in the Oval Office tomorrow Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York. As you know, Governor Cuomo and the president have been going back and forth at one another over the last few weeks over this coronavirus response.
So, perhaps we will see these two leaders make peace to some extent; perhaps we won't have. But that's the other piece of news coming out of this White House briefing.
One thing that we will be listening for, Wolf -- and Governor Hogan was just mentioning this, talking about this at the end of your interview with him is, whether or not the president will continue to encourage these anti-social distancing protests that have been breaking out at state capitals around the country.
As Governor Hogan was just mentioning to you, in many cases, these protests are demonstrating against the president's own guidelines, the administration's own guidelines.
And so while the president is stoking these protests and egging these protesters on, he's essentially egging on protesters who are demonstrating against his administration's own guidelines.
[18:15:00]
We're were waiting to see if the president will comment on that, whether he will be asked about this. But as you saw at that briefing yesterday, Wolf, the president at one point said that he believes that these protesters are practicing social distancing, that they're staying six feet apart from one another.
And, as you can see in this video, and as we have seen in clips across the country, they're just not doing that, Wolf.
BLITZER: They certainly are not. I don't know where the president got that information, but, clearly, it was not true.
All right. Jim Acosta, we will get back to you. Thank you very much. Just ahead, we will have more on the state of Georgia's plans for
reopening in the coming days. Is it essential right now for nail salons, body art studios, among others, to reopen as soon as this week?
And we're also getting new information about the Trump administration's flawed early testing effort, which delayed widespread virus testing for weeks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:09]
BLITZER: Vice President Mike Pence is talking about his conference call earlier today with the nation's governors.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The truth is that, as we stand here today, we are slowing the spread.
And, as the president reflected, we continue to see steady progress in less cases, lower hospitalizations, even in hot spots around the country. And we commended America's governors for their efforts in that regard.
We are preserving our health care capacity, as -- as the general with the Army Corps of Engineers reflected. At the president's direction, we have built a great number of hospitals around the country. But the utilization rate has been fairly low. Because of the mitigation efforts, the cooperation of the American people, we have not had to use them.
And that, as the president said, is very good news.
In a word, we thank the governors across the country for taking actions, decisive action, to save lives and to make a difference.
I reminded them that we're all in this together, and we have one mission, we're one team. And we spoke on the conference call about last week's guidelines to open up America again. And we heard from governors across the country about the progress that they're making.
We spoke to governors from New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Michigan about their ongoing efforts at social distancing, and -- and addressed questions that they had about needs that have been spoken of already in this -- in this presentation today.
In addition, as we promised last week when we spoke to governors on Thursday about the guidelines to open up America, our team presented every governor in the country, states and territories with a memorandum detailing laboratory capacity and all locations of laboratory equipment for diagnostic tests that can perform the coronavirus test. We also provided, as Dr. Birx will -- will elaborate in just a few
moments, literally a map about where these -- these testing devices are located.
And -- and I must tell you, Mr. President, I was very impressed at the way governors, as we speak, are scaling testing in their own states using these resources. Our hope is that, by providing this information and by our team that we have enlisted out of Walter Reed that is contacting every one of the laboratories in the country to find out what their needs are and to encourage them to activate those testing machines to do coronavirus testing, that we will continue to be able to support a state-managed effort to increase testing even more.
But a few highlights.
Governor Doug Ducey announced antibody testing for 250,000 health professionals this week and first responders, a partnership between the state and the University of Arizona.
We spoke today about Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement that he set up a task force for testing at five to seven high-capacity testing hubs, in partnership with U.C. San Diego and U.C. Davis, to increase testing in high-capacity labs around the state of California.
We heard from Governor Ron DeSantis, Mr. President, about -- about the efforts of the state of Florida. I believe he said that, at this time, Florida had conducted 275,000 coronavirus tests, and they are in the process of a major expansion of statewide testing, with the goal of opening up additional sites and using the Florida National Guard to test residents at nursing homes and long-term care facilities in Florida.
We also recommend -- recommended today to every governor's attention the public health Web site that the state of Florida established, which has useful information on a county-by-county level about where testing is happening.
Mr. President, as you said, governors are utilizing testing assets. They're managing and deploying these resources as they see fit. And, at your direction, we're going to continue to work very closely with them.
Other governors that we spoke with include Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. There are 13 new or expanded coronavirus drive-through testing sites in Michigan that her team has stood up with Michigan Primary Care Association. And we -- we assured her that we would continue to work, as Brad and Admiral Giroir are literally working around the clock to make sure that they have the supplies to support all of that testing.
As the president said, Governor Hogan, who always begins our conference calls, as he's chairman of the National Governors Association, expressed appreciation for last week's guidelines to open America up again, and -- and his appreciation behalf of all the governors for the list of laboratories in each individual state. He did raise the issue that we had included on the list Department of
Defense facilities that have laboratories and machines, and also other federal facilities, many of which are in Maryland.
[18:25:03]
And I was able to assure Governor Hogan and every governor on the call that we will make all of those laboratories available across the country to every state, as the need for testing capacity continues to scale.
And so this is one more step where you see the Army Corps of Engineer, where you literally see thousands of military doctors and nurses on the streets of New York and other cities around the country.
This is one more step where we're literally -- as the president said from early on, are leaving no stone unturned. And we are delivering a whole-of-government approach for our states, as they -- as they deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
Governors are continuing to expand testing. And we assured them that we're going to continue to work in every way to support their efforts to do just that.
And I will say again, as we said have before, as Dr. Birx comes up to explain to you what we delivered to the governors today, we told the governors once again today that, by our best estimates, we have enough testing capacity today for every state in America to go to phase one, if they meet the other criteria of 14 days of reduced cases and sufficient hospital capacity to prepare for any eventuality that may occur.
Once again, we have enough testing capacity for every state in America to go to phase one. But we assured the governors today that we're going to continue to work around the clock to expand the testing capacity, support supplies, and to support their efforts to encourage social distancing and the very mitigation efforts that the American people have been doing that have brought us the progress that we see all across the country today.
With that, Mr. President, I'll just let Dr. Birx describe what we distributed today.
TRUMP: Thank you, Mike.
Deborah?
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Thank you, Mr. Vice President and Mr. President.
We just wanted to show you a couple of additional slides, but also to remind all of Americans that we still have a significant number of cases both in the Boston area and across Massachusetts and Chicago, to -- really, that our hearts go out to those cities as they continue to struggle with coronavirus and the consequences at the hospitalization, to all the health care providers that are on the front lines. We wanted -- so these are the -- just an illustration of the different types of equipment that are out there, describing them both as low- speed, but quick turnaround time, to high-speed and taking three to four hours to actually run 100 or more tests.
And so the equipment range from those different -- and that's why there's 5,000 of them, as noted by the president in this list.
We wanted every governor and every state and health laboratory director to have a clear understanding of the full capacity within the state, both for the capacity, but also where technical assistance and additional supplies may be available.
And we were proud to put the federal labs on that list, because the military and the VA has stepped up every step of the way to provide support both in testing and care. And we have many military members on the front lines. And I'm sure the military would offer their facilities to the governor of Maryland or any governor who wanted to utilize those to expand testing.
So, the next slide -- I'm just going to run through them very quickly. So, every governor not only received the Excel spreadsheet with the complete list of the equipment and the zip code of the location and the laboratory to really be able to create a mosaic of laboratories of the high-speed and low-speed equipment together to meet the needs of their clients, depending if they're drive-through or hospital needs.
So, this is what Florida looks like.
Next slide.
This is what Louisiana looks like.
Next slide.
Maryland with significant capacity.
Next slide.
Virginia with significant capacity throughout the state.
Next slide.
New York, obviously, a lot of capacity in New York City, with overlapping capacity. It's important to know where this is, because then the hospitals and labs can support each other when they need surge capacity.
Next slide.
This is New Jersey.
Next slide.
Pennsylvania.
Next slide.
Massachusetts.
Next slide.
Ohio.
Next slide.
Oklahoma.
Next slide.
Washington.
Next slide.
I think that's Wyoming.
So, we wanted to show both in states that have large populations and in states that have lower populations, you can see that, in general, the number of machines match their population.
And we're working with the Walter Reed group and the American Society of Microbiologists and all the lab directors to really create a web of understanding of what the capacity is currently, what the capacity can be, and how the federal government can support them in developing their strategies linked to the overarching federal strategy of testing, as outlined in our guidelines.
[18:30:08]
Thank you Mr. President.
REPORTER: A question for Dr. Birx.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes.
REPORTER: Dr. Birx, the University of Southern California and L.A. County Public Health put out a report today that suggest that the penetrance of the virus is as much, it's almost 40 times. It's what it was believed to be, that as many as 442,000 people in L.A. County may have been infects, which suggests two things. It suggests that you have a lot more people out there who could be spreading the virus. But it also suggests that the case fatality rate is more in line with the 2017-2018 flu than what we have seen in some other areas of the world. I'm wondering if you have seen that and what your thoughts are?
BIRX: So we're looking at all the studies very carefully. And I think you will remember over the last three weeks, I've been talking about the level of asymptomatic spread and my concern about asymptomatic spread. Because with flu and other diseases, when people are sick, it's easy to contract trace.
When people are not the sick and shedding virus, you have to have a very different approach, a very different sentinel surveillance approach, of sentinel monitoring approach which we outlined in the guidelines. And it's why the guidelines took that very seriously. We knew that was unique for respiratory diseases but it was because we were very concerned about the level of asymptomatic.
And if you remember, we used to -- we talked about younger age groups may have more asymptomatic disease and your asymptomatic disease may decrease with your older age groups and that your symptomatic disease might increase with age groups. This is still our working hypothesis. We have no data right now still to support that.
But it's these kinds of studies that help that. we know that New York and Detroit and other cities are very interested, which we want to also support them in testing frontline responders, first responders and healthcare workers because we think their exposure may have been greatest.
What we don't want to do, and I'm just going to do another 30 seconds on testing, these tests are not 100 percent sensitive or specific. And I'm going to go over this over and over again. So if you have 1 percent of the population infected and you have a test that's only 99 percent specific, that means that when you find a positive, 50 percent of the time will be a real positive and 50 percent of the time it won't be.
And that's why we are really asking people to start testing in among the first responders and the healthcare workers that may have had the greatest exposure because that's where the test will be the most reliable. And then when we have the luxury, we can go out to broader and broader communities.
But this has been the fundamental question to begin with and has been persistent. And we will emphasize to the American people, again, this is a highly contagious virus. And we don't know by looking at the someone, whether they have pre-existing conditions or not. And so, all of us, as far as protecting others, must continue to do all of the recommendations to ensure that when we're in asymptomatic state, we're not passing the virus to others.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I have a question for you as well, the governor of South Carolina announced today they're going to open some stores with restrictions. But they just told my colleague, Natasha Chen, that they have not achieved that criteria in the White House guidelines about the downward trajectory for 14 days. So shouldn't they not be reopening stores today?
BIRX: We have asked every governor to follow the guideline, just as we've ask every American to follow the guidelines put up by the president. But each of the governors can decide for themselves whether they reached specific guidelines in specific areas.
I had a question, I think, on Saturday about Jacksonville and their beaches. So I did spend about five hours going to every state website. And I will tell you that Florida's Department of Health website is extraordinary. And this is what every department of health should have. Because when you go to that website, you can see that most of the cases are in Southern Florida, in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Broward County area.
And if you look in Jacksonville, they had less than 20 cases per day and less than 800 in four weeks. And so these are the kinds -- when you inform the public and give them the information that they need, then they can make decisions along with the local government on governors.
So I'm not going to say specifically with South Carolina because I don't know their specific website right now and I don't talk about data unless I have seen it myself. But I know from Jacksonville that they had less than 20 cases a day.
And so this is how we need to start informing the community. These websites are critical. It's by zip code and it's by county. They can see cases, they can see cumulative cases, they can see new cases, they can see hospitalizations, they can see mortality, they can see age groups of mortality and they can see where every testing pieces.
[18:35:01]
This is how we have to inform the American public and this is where the American public will develop confidence in each of their counties and local governments.
REPORTER: I just want make a comment (INAUDIBLE) there is enough testing capacity right now to proceed to phase one. Well, what about phase two or phase three? Are there enough machines? Are there enough cartridges? Are there enough reagents right now for the sort of reopening the administration is envisioning taking place over the next month or two?
BIRX: So you can see the current machine outline and you can see that both of these gentlemen have prepared to have everything ready for phase two and preparing it now for what we will need in the future. And I think that's what you saw with the ventilators, that's what you're seeing with PPE. It's not just for today, it's for tomorrow. And our federal planning is not just for this instant. It's making sure that we need the needs of this instance, but we're planning for 30, and 60 and 90 days ahead.
TRUMP: Go ahead, Admiral.
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, HHS ASSISTANT SECRETARY: All right. I would just agree with Dr. Birx completely. We are ready right now to enter phase one. And we are ramping up all our capabilities across the board not just to achieve what's necessary for phase two, but 2X, 3X, 4X, so that we will be absolutely over prepared when the nation is ready to go into those phases.
TRUMP: And by the way, not everybody agrees that we have to do that much testing. We're going maximum, you understand. There are some people who don't want to do that much testing. But we're going maximum. We're going to the outer limits and I think that's way it probably should be.
Jeff, go ahead. REPORTER: Mr. President, to return to a topic that you opened at the press conference with oil, U.S. crude features today went below zero, it went into negative territory.
TRUMP: It went negative, like interest rates, they go negative.
REPORTER: Does that make you want to see Saudi Arabia and Russia, and OPEC Plus do more to reduce supply?
TRUMP: Well, it's for short-term. Much of it has to do with short sellers. Much of it has to do -- if you look a month into the future, I think it's a $25 or $28 a barrel. So a lot will of people got caught. They got caught. And there are a lot of people that are not too happy because they got caught.
So if you take a look at it, you'll see it's more of a financial thing than an oil situation. But because you take, I believe, in a month or so, it's gone a little bit out, it's $25 and $28 a barrel. So it's largely a financial squeeze, and they did get squeezed.
REPORTER: So would you like to see, however, Saudi Arabia and other countries make more cuts?
TRUMP: Well, we have already done that. Saudi Arabia is cutting back, Russia is cut back, Mexico is cutting back, and the OPEC Plus, it called, OPEC Plus additional states are cutting back. And, you know, the problem is nobody's driving a car anywhere in the world, essentially, 184 nations. Factories are closed and businesses are closed.
And so all of a sudden, we had really a lot of energy to start off with, oil in particular, and a lot. And then all of a sudden they lost 40 percent, 50 percent of the market, so it just stopped. So it's going to be picking up and the energy business will be strong. But they cut back -- it could be 20 million barrels, but, let's say, 15, and that was between Russia and Saudi Arabia. But this had to do with the squeeze, and it was a very tough squeeze. So a lot of people got --
REPORTER: -- they could do more right now.
TRUMP: Well, they're going to do more by the market, to be honest. Look, same thing over here, if the market is the way it is, people are going to slow it down or they're going to stop. That's going to be automatic, and that's happening.
Yes?
REPORTER: Mr. President, on criminal justice reform and these SBA loans, I got an email early this morning from a fellow in the northwest who owns a supply business. And he has a felony on his record, non-violent felony in the past five years, which under SBA guidelines makes him ineligible for one of these PPP loans. So he has now had to let go 50 employees, many of whom are criminals trying to get back into society. I don't believe there's anything in the CARES Act, that would restrict this. TRUMP: Can you give me the name of the company and his name? I will have that checked out. I'll do that. Is he a friend of yours?
REPORTER: No, not a friend of mine. It's just somebody who contacted me out of the blue.
TRUMP: He called to you and say he is a criminal and why did get a loan (ph) and what was --
REPORTER: Because he wanted to apply for an SBA loan and couldn't, and wondered how that squared with --
TRUMP: Okay, if you give me the name, I'll look into it. I would like to look into that, okay? Kaitlan, go ahead?
COLLINS: If these companies that open and they have employees come back to work, and they get sick, will these companies be liable?
TRUMP: Which companies are you talking about? Under what?
COLLINS: Companies that have been manufacturing, any kind of company that opens and employees that work, they get get sick --
TRUMP: I will give you an answer to that. I'll give you a legal answer to that when we look it up. But we have tried to take liability away from these companies. We just don't want that. Because we want the companies to open and open strong, but I'll give you a legal opinion on that.
COLLINS: Will be that viable?
TRUMP: I'll give you -- well that's what I'm saying, I'll get you a legal opinion on that.
COLLINS: Have you guys, doesn't discussed that yet?
TRUMP: Nobody discussed it, but no, but we will, now.
COLLINS: Have any business executive have voiced their concern to you about being liable?
[18:40:00]
TRUMP: Not one, no one, not at this point. But we're going to look, because they have talked about general liability. So, I'll get you specific answer from the lawyers, okay?
Go ahead please?
REPORTER: Thanks. I want to the follow on oil. When you were talking earlier, you were talking about the PPP deal and then mentioned DSPR in the first stimulus package even though you don't ask. But the --
TRUMP: Well, but you know the price of oil right now, don't you?
REPORTER: I do. Do you know the price of oil? TRUMP: I do, I actually do.
REPORTER: It's negative $37.
TRUMP: Of course, nobody has ever heard of negative oil before, but it's for a short term.
REPORTER: In your opening remarks, you were talking ability the PPP deal, and then you mentioned the 75 million barrels of oil that you previously have said you want to purchase. You were not able to get funding for that in the first deal, so I'm wondering are you --
TRUMP: Well, with the price you are talking, you don't need funding. They pay you. See? You got it?
REPORTER: -- go get it in the next --
TRUMP: If you can get it. That's true. If you can get it.
REPORTER: So my question, my first question is, are you asking for funding --
TRUMP: No. At a minimum, we'll let people store, so we'll store it. We'll use it as storage and charge for it. But people need storage desperately. And we have massive storage under the petroleum.
REPORTER: So you are not going to make it a requirement for the PPP interim funding deal --
TRUMP: It's not, of course, a requirement. If we could buy it for nothing, we are going to take everything we can get. The only thing I like better than that is when they pay you to take the oil. But that's a short term squeeze. You understand that. So I don't think you're going to see that.
But, no, we would like to have Congress -- this a great time to buy oil. And we would like to have Congress approve it so that we can instead of just storing it for the big -- usually the big companies. Because I think we have 75 million gallons right now, capacity. That's a lot. It's -- we've been building it up over a period of time. But that's a lot, 75 million barrels. So we're going to get either ask for permission to buy it or we'll store it. One way or the other, it will be for all, okay?
Please, go ahead.
REPORTER: Mr. President --
TRUMP: We didn't finish up. We'll go right back with you.
REPORTER: Some senators, including Senator Cramer, have called on you to stop Saudi oil shipments that on the way right now. Is that -- you can do that under section 232. Was that something that you would consider?
TRUMP: Well, we'll look at it. I heard just as I'm walking into the room. We certainly have plenty of oil. So I will take a look at that, okay?
Yes, please.
REPORTER: My question, first on testing though, the second on the SBA loan program. Why will you or will you, in fact, invoke the DPA to force that company you mentioned to ramp up production of cotton swabs.
TRUMP: Well, we don't, we really don't need it. We use it, we go up. And I've used it a lot. But we use it and then sometimes all they have to do is see it coming. Do you want to talk about that, Admiral? Please?
GIROIR: I think this is -- I don't think any of us knew about the DPA, but there is sort of a force side of the DPA where you force a company to do something. But there is a second side of it, which is really a hand up.
The company we're talking about has done everything to support this effort and have ramped up production. I'm on phone with them multiple times a day. This is the hand up. This is the government coming in and saying, how can we help you expand your lines. There is no asynchrony here at all. So this is the hand up side of the DPA, which is exactly what the small American heroic companies need. They don't need to be forced. They're all in. Their employees are all in.
TRUMP: And we don't embarrass people either. Please go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So today, we were on site. There were folks on site with that company finishing out what their capital projections will be in order to be able to ramp up these additional four lines that we spoke about. The company will then turn in a white paper to the DOD that will then help move the process forward. But it's actively in process.
REPORTER: And I fully understand that the need is enormous. But on March 21st, the administration promised 27 million tests by the end of March. So far, roughly 4 million have been tested. So where are the other 23 million or so tests? Do they not materialized? Are they in the pipeline? Help us understand that discrepancy.
GIROIR: So since I was the one who said that, let me explain where we are, where we were. So I was getting my information, correct information, about the actual testing that are in the marketplace. So if you want to use those metrics, there is over 40 million, quote, in the marketplace. But we have an end-to-end issue that we needed to deal with, and that's what we've been dealing with, the swabs, the transport media.
If we don't have people utilizing the machines the way Dr. Birx is talking about -- we have some of our main platforms that are only 10 percent being utilized. You can have a lot of tests in the market and those are correct numbers. But if the machines aren't utilizing them and they're not organized at that level, then they're not being utilized to its fullest.
TRUMP: So what you meant, if the machines were utilized, that would be --
GIROIR: You would have a lot of those millions of tests already being done.
[18:45:03]
I think Ambassador Birx has estimated that we have another million tests a week just on one platform. that could be -- that could be done if the machines were utilized more fully.
REPORTER: The question for Admiral Giroir.
You say that there -- and the vice president has said this -- Mr. Smith said it -- that there will be enough tests in place for phase one.
GIROIR: There are.
REPORTER: There are?
The question is, what is the standard of testing that you now have the capability for? Is it to test people who are only very ill? Is it test people who have sniffles? Is it test people who come in just because they want to get a test? I mean, what is the standard here?
GIROIR: It is the guidelines. But I tried to be a little specific about this on Friday, and we all try to. Number one is you need to test everyone who's symptomatic, right? And you need to over-test them because --
REPORTER: How symptomatic?
GIROIR: We're talking any symptoms that would be consistent with COVID, right? So there's a wide range of symptoms. You want to test them and you want to over test. When we talk about the approximate metric with Ambassador Birx fully supports, because this is a good metric that you want to get one positive for every 10 tests, then you know you over-sample.
Second, and this is a really important part of the strategy, is because so many people are asymptomatic, there's no way that you can test enough people to pull one asymptomatic out of 300 people in the population. So the strategy which Ambassador Birx offered, and, you know, I talked to epidemiologist around the country and they go, wow, I wish I thought of that, is to really focus on the vulnerable population where we know that the asymptomatic rate could be much higher than the rest of the population.
And we are going to be focused -- and this is what my office does, during normal times, focusing on the underserved populations, particularly in inner cities and urban areas. They have a higher rate because of overcrowding. They can't telework. They're subject to a lot of comorbid conditions.
Nursing homes, we all know about nursing homes. And there's both symptomatic and asymptomatic spread; and finally, some of our indigenous populations in the Indian Health Service.
So, this is a very, very important layer that most of the models and people don't talk about, because that's what we're going to pick up the asymptomatic carriage (ph), and when you do that, that's when you focus on track and trace.
REPORTER: Sir, just a quick follow up on that. If we have enough tests right now for everyone to go into phase one, why is the governor of Maryland having to get half a million tests from South Korea?
GIROIR: I don't know what the governor of Maryland is doing in South Korea. But there is excess capacity every day. If he wanted to send 30,000 or 40,000 tests to LabCorp and Quest, that -- that could be done. That could be done tomorrow.
REPORTER: So, you're saying they have enough that they needed to start -- to up their testing capacity and make it adequate so that --
(CROSSTALK)
GIROIR: I think we're seeing all across the country that in the states that had been hardest hit, their capacity -- not only their capacity, they're testing far -- far exceeds South Korea. And they've been able to do that on a relatively straightforward basis.
I don't know what the governor of Maryland, we talked to him today. He didn't bring that up today. We were on the governor's call today.
REPORTER: You haven't spoken to him personally on this?
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We spoke to Governor Hogan today. I will follow up, because I heard there was an announcement today that he had acquired some tests from overseas.
Maybe we can put the slide back up that showed the number of facilities, just in the state of Maryland. And part of our process, and I don't know when the governor placed the order from South Korea, I wouldn't -- I wouldn't begrudge him or his health officials for ordering tests.
But the capacity of all of the different laboratories and number of machines that are across Maryland, it's part of what we were communicating today, including federal facilities. NIH is in Maryland, there's Department of Defense facilities, and what we assured the governors then and we assured all the governors that we will open up all of those facilities.
But, John, back to your point. There is one other element of that that's the phase one testing. And I can't -- I can't really describe it as well as the doctors here, but it's the contact tracing piece. We really believe that states that meet the criteria of 14 days of cases going down and proper hospital capacity, if they test people that have symptoms and if they deploy resources to vulnerable populations, nursing homes, and other designated vulnerable populations where we believe the threat of serious outcomes from the coronavirus is real. Then, we also today inform the governors that we will be deploying CDC teams to every state and every territory in the country to assist them in contact tracing. Governor Jared Polis raised a good point about the legislation that the president is currently negotiating on Capitol Hill.
[18:50:06]
He recommended that we make sure that the new bill, that has some $25 billion in testing resources, also covered contact tracing expenses by states. We assured him our administration strongly supports that, we communicated that to the secretary of the treasury and the rest of our negotiation team and we'll be pursuing that.
But we were able to tell everyone of the governors that we will be deploying teams, we think, of 10 or 12 for a start from CDC to reside in all of our states and territories to supervise and work with contractors and others to do the kind of contact tracing.
So it's test people that don't feel well and may have the coronavirus, keep a careful eye and monitor your vulnerable populations and when you come across a case, have a team on the ground that can do the immediate contact tracing and testing and that's how we -- that's how we restrain and contain the spread of the coronavirus during phase one, and, frankly, it's the beginning of the structure for how we contain the coronavirus going forward.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And take a look at that map. The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence, could have saved a lot of money.
Look at these different places. That's -- and that's Maryland right there. So, they could have saved a lot of money, but that's OK.
REPORTER: So, you're saying he didn't need to go to South Korea for those testing kits?
TRUMP: No, I don't think he needed to go to South Korea. I think he needed to get -- a little knowledge would have been helpful.
REPORTER: On the SBA loans, do you think it's right that major corporations, major institutions like the Ruth's Chris restaurant chain, like Harvard University, apparently got a lot of money under the CARES Act, money that was supposedly earmarks for small business owners? Do you think that's fair?
TRUMP: Well, I know one thing, I don't get any. That's for sure. I didn't get any.
We'll look at individual things, and some people will have to return it if we think it's inappropriate.
REPORTER: But should the criteria be changed that the money goes to people who needs it most?
TRUMP: Well, it's being done by great professionals. It's being done by banks, and as you know, community banks all over the country, they're -- that's what they do, they loaned money. And they're supposed to do it, according to, not only criteria, but according to what we think is right.
But if somebody got something that we think it's inappropriate, we'll get it back. OK? Good -- good point.
Please, go ahead.
REPORTER: Just another -- a different question about South Korea. There are reports that you are personally negotiating with President Moon in terms of reduction of U.S. forces on the Korean peninsula and that there are four scenarios involved. Can you confirm that? And, if so, what is your desired outcome?
TRUMP: Well, I think that South Korea -- I had a great talk with President Moon. He's a friend of mine, I congratulated his election victory, I was very happy about that. He was -- as you know, just recently.
No, we are negotiating for President Moon and for South Korea to help us monetarily because we, as you know, we have 32,000 soldiers there, that varies from 28,000 to 32,000 in South Korea. And we think that -- before I came aboard, they paid very little, if anything.
So, we're defending a wonderful nation, a nation that we have great relationships, but we're asking them to pay for a big percentage of what we're doing. It's not fair. So, it's not a question of reduction. It's a question of, will they contribute toward the defense of their own nation.
We're defending nations that are very wealthy. South Korea is a very wealthy nation. They make our television sets, they make ships, they make everything, and I give them great credit. We've been defending them for over many, many decades, as you know. Many, many -- over eight decades.
And I have gone to them in the past. Last year, I went to them and now, they are paying a billion dollars a year. I went to them again. I said, look, I'll be back because that's just a fraction. And again, the relationship is great, but it's just not fair relationship.
We renegotiated the trade deal and made a much more equitable deal than it was in the past. It was a terrible deal. It was done by Hillary Clinton. It was a terrible deal.
The new deal is a much more equitable deal, that's on trade. But on the military, we're paying for the military to defend another nation that's 8,500 miles away. And they're not the only one I'm talking to, by the way, as you know. I won't go into names.
But I've done this. Nobody talks about it, but I think it's appropriate. I think the taxpayer of our country -- taxpayers want to hear these things.
And so, now, they're -- they've offered us a certain amount of money and I've rejected it. I just said, it's just -- you know, we're doing a wonderful service. We have a wonderful feeling and a wonderful relationship with each other, but we have to be treated equitably and fairly. And so, that's where it is right now.
And what's going to happen? I can't tell you. But we'll find out fairly soon.
But I congratulate the president, who's a friend of mine. I congratulate President Moon on having a terrific victory.
Please? Go ahead.
REPORTER: Thank you, sir. My question for you about Governor Cuomo's visit and also question for Dr. Birx --
TRUMP: Sure.
[18:55:01]
REPORTER: The New York governor, along with the National Governors Association, in the past have called for aid to be unrestricted, as a lot of state and local governments see their revenues drop. Are you open to the idea of unrestricted aid, or do you want it to be pandemic specific?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to be talking about that in phase 4, as you know, which will start very shortly. That has to do with infrastructure, hopefully infrastructure, because this country needs infrastructure. We spent all this money in the Middle East, $8 trillion, $8 trillion, trillion with a T dollars, in the Middle East.
But if you have a pothole in a highway some place, they don't want you to spend the money to fix it. How stupid have we've been in this country? How stupid have we've been?
And that's changing rapidly, you know that, you've seen that, including things like negotiating with friends, but when we are helping friends, friends should really reimburse us for the cost. I mean, why should we be defending nations for free? We're defending a nation for free.
Now, I'm getting a billion dollars a year, and we're -- we'll be getting -- we were offered much more than that but I turned it down. So that's where we are with that.
As far -- as far as the other is concerned, look, we have to be smart in this country. We've been taken to the cleaner by every -- and I mean, with allies, not just with the enemies, with allies. We've been -- frankly, the allies have taken as much more so than the enemies. The enemies, we don't do business with, right? The allies we do business with.
And whoever made these deals, whoever made these contracts, in many cases, we didn't have a contract. Like we didn't have a contract -- we didn't have a trade deal with China. They came in and they took $500 billion a year for many years, anywhere from $200 billion to $550 billion a year out of our hives.
Now, we made this great trade deal. Unfortunately, that was a number of months ago, and it's a great deal. They're paying 25 percent on $250 billion. They've -- a lot of things are happening. They're going to have to purchase $250 billion worth of goods, including farm products, up to $50 billion.
So, a lot of good things are happening. But then what happened with China was the plague hit us, right? The plague. That was after. This was long after we signed the deal.
The plague hit us. So I'm not happy about that.
OK, John, please?
REPORTER: A question for Dr. Birx if I could.
Dr. Birx, a question on the virus itself. As it passes from patient to patient and mutates overtime, have you picked up any indication that it has become less virulent? Have you picked up any indication it has become more virulent?
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: You know, that is an excellent question because we watch that all the time, particularly with RNA viruses, to really track its adaptation to humans. I mean, you're really asking, is this virus become more adapted to humans and more able to spread, or is it becoming less adapted to humans and less able to spread?
We don't have any indication that it's less able to spread. And we'll have good analyses that will come from -- obviously, the Roosevelt had its incident with the virus outside at the United States, and we'll be able to look at those parameters and the DOD, and the military has done a great job in really ensuring the health of the sailors, but also ensuring that these questions can really be asked and answered.
We have extraordinary evolutionary molecular biologists in this country, all around the United States and they are looking at this very question. And a lot of the work that we've been doing and a lot -- you'll see a lot of work happening with testing in New Mexico and testing in other states, they have extraordinary molecular biologists that are evolutionary biologists, and they'll be able to look at that, both in -- both in New Mexico, that we have lower transmission rates, and compare that to New York, that has maybe 10x the transmission.
But it's an excellent question, and it's something that we'll be able to be answered by what we see in the United States.
TRUMP: John, what a good question that was. Where did that come from?
REPORTER: You know, once in a while, I pull it out of my hat.
TRUMP: Wow, that's very impressive.
You know, when Senator Schumer wrote a letter a couple of months ago, and he said, you should use admirals and generals, I said, well, that's why we -- first of all, we have -- our vice president has been incredible. But we have the admirals, we have the generals.
And I was just talking to the admiral inside just before we came out. I said, did you go to Annapolis? He said, no, sir. I said, oh, that's too bad. That's too bad.
Where did you go? He said, I went to Harvard. Oh, that's OK, too, I guess, right?
So you went to Harvard and he was a great student at Harvard, and he's doing a fantastic job.
And this young gentleman was very, very successful, but he wanted to help the country. He wanted to come into the country, and we appreciate it very much. He was a big success -- big, big success.
Let's do here, and there, next. OK? We're all set.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: Thanks, Mr. President.
You talked about your meeting tomorrow with Governor Cuomo that you mentioned. Is there a reason he's coming all the way down here?
TRUMP: I don't know, he wanted to and --
REPORTER: Is there sort of a travel restriction (ph)?
