Provide an update on the Testing Capacity developed by the United States, the most advanced and robust testing system anywhere in the world by far. This afternoon i will also announce new steps we are taking to make tests even more widely available. To battle the virus, my administration marshalls every resource at our nations disposal, public, economic, scientific, all your disposal. We launched the largest manufacturing ramp up since the second world war. There has been nothing like it since. At the center of this industrial and scientific mobilization was the development or a of our coronavirus testing capabilities. In the span of just a few short months we have developed a Testing Capacity unmatched and unrivaled anywhere in the world and it is not even close. This is a core element of our plan to safely and gradually areened america, and we opening and starting and there is enthusiasm like i havent seen in a long time. Proudamerican should be of the amazing array of talent, skill, and enterprise our nation has brought to this challenge. The fda hasths authorized over 92 million tests and over 9 million have been performed here in the United States. Three weeks ago we were conducting roughly 150,000 tests per day. Now we are doing approximately 300,000 tests per day, a 100 increase and it will go up substantially from that number. This week, the United States will past 10 million tests conducted, nearly double the amount of 10 any other country. We are testing more people per capita than japan, sweden, france, finland, and many other countries, and in some cases combined. On friday, the fda authorized coronavirus antigen tests and alternative Testing Technology that can be much more readily manufactured. Queen dell corporations, which makes this newly authorized test estimates that it will be able to manufacture 150,000 tests per day, immediately increasing to 300 tests 300,000 tests per day within just a few weeks. To further expand our nations testing capabilities, this afternoon i am announcing that my administration we had this all approved it is all done is sending 1 billion to america states, territories, and tribes. We have gotten it done, completed, the money is going out. This major investment will ensure america continues to conduct more tests than any country on earth by far. I said from the beginning the federal government would back up the states and help them build their staff testing capability and capacities and that is exactly what has happened. This partnership is truly flourished. A really good had relationship with the states, the governors, other representatives in the states a relationship that i think i can honestly say has not been seen in this country for many, many years. The governors and us are working very closely not only on testing, but on ventilators what we have a capacity that is at this point virtually unlimited, and we are sending ventilators, as you probably heard we are sending many, many thousands of ventilators to other countries because they are in tremendous need. Building up a lot of goodwill, and most importantly, saving a lot of lives. Most states are doing a great job. My administration located 5000 allines in 700 labs across 50 states and governors have yet last learned how to maximize these resources. The federal government is also supporting states with vital supplies, quick approvals of new tests, and oneonone coaching from the team here at the white house on how to increase capacity and increase it very quickly. Have helpedeks, we multiple Conference Calls with every state as well as dce and puerto rico. Goalseloped projection for each state in the month of may altogether totaling 12. 9 million tests think of that 12. 9 million tests. Today i am announcing my administration will provide the collection supplies to help states meet their targets and become rapidly. During the month of may, you hhs will be delivering 12. 9 million swabs to states nationwide. We already have them. The delivery will be quick. We are compared to provide additional swabs if any state is on pace to pass their goal. My administration will also provide approximately 9 million transport media which are used to transport swabs to the lab processing, a complicated process, but we made it simple. As a result of these actions every single state will test more people per capita in may alone in four months since the outbreak began. This major commitment is possible because of the massive mobilization of american industry, u. S. Cotton, abbott labs, and thermo fishers. Companies produce rapidly for us and their products are here with us these afternoon. These are all different products that were literally just develops developed, and if you can imagine that, these are the best machines and equipment anywhere in the world. Other countries are calling us and we are trying to work as much as we can, not only on ventilators, but also with testing. Might ministration also continues our tireless effort to expand testing the most underserved communities. Through our partnership with the private sector, leading pharmacies and resort retailers are now operating 240 testing sites across the country and that is in addition to all of the other sites we have working. 70 of the sites are located in communities with unique vulnerabilities. There will be more than 300 sites by the end of this week, and retailers are making plans to open hundreds and hundreds more locations in the next 30 days. These additional sides are helping us ensure access to testing in every community. My administration is fighting relentlessly to protect all citizens of every color and creed from this terrible virus the invisible enemy. In addition to vast amounts of testing supplies, my administration has partnered with the private sector to coordinate the delivery of more n95 masks, and these are of the highest quality many are made right here in the United States, a capacity we did not have at all the beginning. 126 million surgical masks likewise, many are made here. 21illion face shields, million surgical gowns, 993 million gloves, and 10,690 ventilators. We are building thousands of ventilators in numerous plants all across our country. It is incredible, actually. The Global Pandemic has inflicted great pain and hardship in our people. It should have never been allowed to happen. It should have been stopped at the source. We mourn for every like the virus has claimed that we share the grief with all of you that have lost a loved one, and that goes worldwide, too, many, many countries. 184 countries at least. Thanks to the courage of our citizens and aggressive strategy, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved, and we have saved if you look at on a per 100,000 basis, were at the best part of the pack, but on the bottom germany are leading the world. And us are leading the world. Germany and the United States are leading the world in life saved per 100,000. America has written to the task. We have met the moment and we have prevailed. Americans do whatever it takes to find solutions, pioneer breakthroughs and harness energies we need to achieve a total victory. Day after day we are making tremendous strides with the dedication of our doctors and nurses these are incredible people, brave people, warriors. With the devotion of our manufacturing workers, food suppliers and lab technicians, and with the profound patriotism of the american people, we will defeat this horrible enemy. We will revive our economy, and we will transition into greatness. Will hear arase you lot because that is what is going to happen. We are going into the third quarter, and were going to do well. In the Fourth Quarter were going to do very good, and next year i think were going to have one of the best years we have ever had because there is a tremendous pentup demand. It is a demand i am feeling it appeared i have felt things a lot over my life and ive made a lot of good calls. There is a demand like i dont think ive ever seen. There is a pentup demand a spirit in this country like few have seen. And we you can say help a lot of the countries a lot. Really a lot. There is a tremendous spirit all over the world to beat this terrible, terrible thing, but we are transitioning to greatness and the greatness is going to be in the Fourth Quarter, but it is really going to be next year and it is going to be a year that we have never had before. I really believe that. As good as we have done, and we have done great we had the best economy in the history of the world not just here, but anywhere in the world you can talk china, anywhere in the country we had the best economy anywhere in the was we were going for numbers unemployment numbers where we had our best numbers, employment a little different, where we had our best numbers, almost 160 million people. All of that and we have the greatest talk market numbers ever 142 days where we set records. Of time, 152riod days we set records in the stock market. We rebuild our military, all built in the United States all of our equipment built, 1. 5 trillion plus. On the southern border, the wall is being built, being built rapidly, and you dont hear the opponents talking too much about the border because it seems we were right on a lot of things. One of the many things we were right about was the border. We had a very powerful border now. We had one of the best weeks in the history of our border between the United States and mexico, our southern border. We had very few people coming in, very few, almost record low numbers. The wall is being built it is up to 181 miles. It is being built rapidly. People dont talk about it anymore because it is very successful, and the area where the wall has built we want to be up to 450 by a very short period of time. To 450, and up shortly after that, over 500 miles will be completed. It has had a tremendous impact. Again, we have had the best numbers. The list and we want now with his pandemic is for people to. Ome across our southern border again, we are doing record Numbers Record low numbers. I just want to thank everybody, and i want to introduce admiral kuan, if you could come up, and bread smith, and they will do a little brad smith and they will do a little explaining with regards to testing at how successful it has been, and that we will take some questions after that. Thank you very much. Thank you mr. President for your leadership and for your High Expectations that really made this come together, and for the uniform support of everyone in the white house and the administration. Thank you secretary azar for providing his leadership at hhs and allowing brad and the appetite to work on this project. I think it is clear american does lead the world in testing. I will go through some of the charts that show that we lead quantitatively, and we lead in the diversity of tests, which is very important to establish and the testing ecosystem to keep america safe, and clearly, as we have said multiple times, nobody beats america when it comes to quality. Lets start with the next slide. But might be hard to see, if you look at the line on top, that is the total number of tests done by the United States. No other country in the world comes close to the total numbers. Again, as the president has said, today we will topple over 9 million tests. If you look at per capita, top over 9 million tests. If you look at per capita, everyone talks about south korea being the standard today we will have been more than twice the per capita rate of testing that was accomplished in south korea. The matter how you look at it, america is leading the world in testing and how did we get the question mark lets look at the next slide how did we get there . Lets look at the next slide. , please. A very important component of how we came to this point with the authorization by the fda under the leadership of our sector secretary of many different diagnostic tests of diagnostic devices and now of serology tests. You have heard a lot about the different testing and you see some of the different machines. Most of the diagnostic tests, all but one, rely on the amplification of the vial genetic material. We have talked about the diversity of tests highthroughput tests that are done at big reference labs, and very importantly, there are also tests, and you heard us talk delivering over 2 million tests vitally important to Rural America and to places that do not have large infrastructure. You have also seen the avid test. About 1. 4vering million tests as a point of care test. You get the result in five to 15 minutes p. M. We have deployed over 335,000 minutes. You have we have deployed over 335,000 tests to make sure that capability is there to research outbreaks like in Nursing Homes or certain industrial capacities, and well over 90,000 to the Indian Health service so they can test at a point of care in remote locations. The president also talked about a new first in class test. It is listed there as an antigenbased test. This is very important you have heard ambassador birx talk about this multiple times because antigen testing, although complex, it is much less complex than the nucleic acid testing. This has been authorized by the fda and as the president said, we will soon be making over 200,000 tests per day. Do the math that is 9 million point of care tests we will have every month in just a few week. To all clearly add to and certain degree transformer landscape. What you dont see up here is the important work the fda did i am a swab guy now. Im very interested in swabs. You have to show that a certain swab made of a certain material performed in a certain way delivers a highly accurate result, and what you are seeing up here is some of the fruits of that labor. Without the authorization of, for example, the foam nasal swab we would be blowing through ppe because of the need for full ppe just to take a test. That has been changed by this diverse authorization and a recent authorization that allows the great manufacturer, u. S. Cotton, to join our Financial Foundation industry. Last week we did over 1. 9 million tests and the number is growing. Again, as the president said and bread will talk about, our stake aspire to do over 12 million tests over the next four weeks. You see the graph drawing. Orangeu also see is the bar on the bottom, the cumulative number of positives. Our percent positives are going down and that is what we want to see. The Positivity Rate is less than 10 , which is not a litmus test, but it is a good idea that we are doing plenty enough testing that we phase one for careful reopening. I want to take the opportunity to say this does not happen by accident im seeing everyone in the audience here, and i am pleased they can be here people have been sitting in the front have been working literally 18 to 20 hours a day every single day of the week for at least the past two months. None of this happens by accident. Because of their hard work, sacrifice, their sacrifice of their family all for a common good. I am very, very honored to consider you all as my colleagues. In my last slide, as the areident said, 11 billion now being announced to be delivered to the state for the sole support of testing. This will give them the resources to partner, as they government, federal to achieve the testing goals, and we will be very specific, and they know it. There needs to be minimum numbers. There needs to be numbers including Nursing Homes, those ort are disabled, in prison, working environments that might have a more likelihood to spread the infection. Combined with that, the secretarys office of Minority Health will soon be rewarding a contract to assure that those racialrved, particularly and ethnic minorities are links to the services they need, not only testing, but in care as well. Handthat, i would like to it over to brad smith, the director of the center for innovation, but has been the chief operating officer to make all of this come together. I want to talk a little bit about the work we have been doing with the states. We have been working with each state to set a target for the testing go for may. Over the series of a couple of different calls, we have aligned and what those goals are. As the admiral mentioned in the president mentioned, they add up tests in the month of may. For every state it is greater than 2 million of the population. When you compare this, south korea is below the 2 , not for a month, but the total test to date. Our states have come together to set ambitious goals. There are three parts to making can happen. The first part is the specimen collection supplies. The third second part is the machines, and the part are the lab. E third part is the the commercial market today is providing a large number of the supplies to states and hospitals. We wanted to ensure every state had more of what they needed. What we have done is purchasing of tests to support the state testing goals for may and june. We will be sending more than 12. 9 million swabs to the state over the course of may, and is similar or greater number over the course of june. In addition, we have several million in reserve. States are able to exceed their goal in the third and fourth weeks of may we can provide them additional swabs. This is in addition to what is available. There have been large numbers of testing machines across the country over 5000 different machines that can conduct these tests. Thekey part is making sure machines and the tap labs have enough supplies to run the machines. There will be in the month of may, commercially produced over 25 million test kits to be able to support states in their testing effort. When we have been working to do with each state is understand their total goal, and each of the manufacturers has been a great partner with us, and told us how many tests they are shifting over the course of may. What we know is in the aggregate, the number of test kits the state is getting is greater than their testing goal for the month of may. In addition to what the states have already purchased, there are 7 million additional tests that remain on purchased, the majority from thermo fisher. We feel confident the states will not only of the specimen collection supplies, the thank you a book to be able to achieve their testing goals. The last piece of the puzzle is making sure americans have access to the tests. Health care providers, primary care physicians are providing these tests today. We have partnered with the retailers who have been massively ramping up efforts. Today there are over 240 retail sites. We have been working with retailers to make sure they are specifically targeting low income and vulnerable communities and we are talking with him about potentially opening more than one another 1000 additional sites over the next month or two. We hope we hope weve put together the right pieces of the puzzle to me having Access Points for patients across the country, having the specimen collection supplies, the machines, and the lab testing supplies with the machines. Thank you very much. Very trump thank you much, brad. Maybe both he will stay there. There could be some questions. John, go ahead. John we had a situation here at the white house on friday were a member of the Vice President s staff tested positive for coronavirus, which has now caused three of the top officials involved. A twopart session where did the system breakdown to allow that to happen, and what would you say to employers to look at the system and say i we ready for this . Think thep i dont system broke down at all. One person tested positive. Think they can for a. Of time self isolate. It is the hidden enemy. Things happen to the three the one thatve tested negative will be fine. John what do you say to other companies . We have a lot of people at the white house and we had one person. This building is shocking if you look at the numbers. Normally you would not do that, but because we are keeping a running a country we want to keep the country running. We have a lot of people in and out. Most of the people, depending on what portion of the oval office area everyone coming into the president s office gets tested a knife of no vulnerability whatsoever. The two people, vulnerability i felt no one ability whatsoever. The two people will probably be out of quarantine quickly. John if i can follow up, your senior staff is able to get tested every day. When will it be that americans across the country will be able to get tested every day as they go back to work. Pres. Trump very soon. It is an interesting question because normally you would have said that you are not tested and you would have been knocking us for not getting tested. If we get tested it is a problem, but id like to what your question was phrased this way because it is a positive. We are tested and we have great capability. You look at all these machines incredible machines, the best anywhere in the world. No place in the world has this kind of equipment. Sophisticated countries are calling lots of countries. We are trying to make as much as we can available to them because there is nothing like we have what we have been able to do literally in a couple of months what they have been able to do, the private sector how they got it done. To 15 minutee tests, the Abbott Laboratories tests. These tests are highly sophisticated, very quick, very good. These are things that did not even exist a short while ago. We have a great testing capability at the white house. We are doing it. Generally speaking, we had a call with the governors the other day generally speaking, without exception, they were extremely happy. Should people be told to go back to work until they have the assurance that they and their testkers are able to get a because were still not there . Leaving thatwe are up to the governors and if we see something wrong we will call it out and stop it. We are leaving it up to the governors. Some are may not aggressive enough, in my opinion, but the people in the country have learned a lot, learning about social distancing, washing your hands, and other things that we have all learned and talked about here talked about. Just about everybody has a face mask on. They have learned about the good and the bad it is not a onesided thing, believe it or not. Our country has learned. Our country has been incredible. The numbers are dropping substantially. The numbers are dropping around the country substantially. To theeve that, john, up governors, and i think they are making a lot of good decisions. We have had a great relationships with governors, democrat and republican, and overall they are making very good decisions. Nobody in this group . All the ones behind the rope . That is interesting. Please. Thank you, mr. President , you setting your comments we prevailed. Are you saying mission encompassed . Pres. Trump you never prevail when you have 90,000 people, 100,000 people, 80,000 people as of today when you have the kind of death you are talking about, millions of people around the world that are dying. What i am talking about is we have a great Testing Capacity now. It is getting even better. There is nobody close to us in the world, and we certainly have done a great job on testing, and testing is a very big, important function. More people consider it some people consider it more important than others to be isest with you, but testing an important function and we have prevailed and have the best equipment anywhere in the world. There are a variety of reports that chinese hackers are attending to steal Technology Related to Vaccine Research . Is there something is this something you are concerned about . Pres. Trump what else is new with china. I am not happy with china. They should have stopped it at the source. Now you are telling me they are hacking. I will just say this, steve, what else is new . We are watching it very closely. Morning post,hina the beijing newspapers said china would like to reopen negotiations on the trade deal to make the terms more favorable to them. Is this something you would be interested in doing . Pres. Trump not at all. We signed a deal. I heard that, too, they would like to reopen the trade talks to make it a better deal for them. China has been taking advantage of the notices for many, many years because we had people at this position right here where i am standing sitting right in that office, the oval office, that allow that to happen. I am medicine in that. Lets see if they live up i am not interested in that. Lets see if they live up to the deal that they signed. What are yournt, thoughts about a second round of direct payments that is included with the House Democratic bill . We are talking about that with a lot of people. I want to see a payroll tax cut. I want to see various things that we want i want workers to be taken care of, but we are talking about that. We are negotiating with democrats. We will see what happens. As i said, it is a transition this is really going to be, in my opinion we will see, but i think it is going to be something that is going to be very special. It is a transition to greatness, and greatness is next year right from the beginning. I think we will do fantastically well. Quarter as aird transition quarter. It could be pretty good, but a transition quarter. For the end of the Fourth Quarter you will see numbers that will be tremendous and potentially net sheer you will have the kind of numbers next year you will have the kind of numbers that are potentially better than you saw before. A lot of people have wanted to do things and they had to hold back because of the virus. I think you will have a phenomenal year unless somebody messes it up by coming along, raising taxes, troubling, taxes,ng showing your like a Certain Party the democrats want to do. We had the greatest in the world. We had the greatest in the world. It got great for a reason. We will do it again and we will do it quickly and easily. I see that happening. Thank you, mr. President at almost everyone is wearing a mask. Why havent you required everyone to wear a mask . Pres. Trump well if they are a , theyn distance from me do. I am not close to anybody. They i would like to be close to these two gentlemen they are hardworking gentleman. If you look at all of those people over there, every one of them from what i see white house staffers, they are white house representatives, executives, and everyone has a mask on. Just about everyone i have seen today has won a mask. Were you the one who require that . Pres. Trump yes, i did. Go ahead. You are now promising everyone who needs a test will be able to get one at one point soon can you give us a some figures out what you are changing to ramp up testing, when will that be a true statement, and how will you accomplish that . True trump it is a statement already. We have more testing than anyone by far. I will let the admiral go into a little bit of the future. When you look at the testing numbers that we worked with the state leadership, not just the governor cooper, but the state health officers, the state epidemiologists the state governor, the health officers, the state at the meteorologists epidemiologists, it is tracing those around the people with the diagnosis. The largest fraction is moving into surveillance, testing those that are asymptomatic. When you do the numbers, this amount of testing on a state to state basis it really is in the range that we need to accomplish all of that. Certainly within the range that we need to really encompasses those three things. The other thing i would say, particularly as we move into the summer, there are surveillance mechanisms i talked about them before, like a weather radar. Illnessuenza like network, which is at about 7 of if care institutions we see a blip on the road weather radar. With cdc personnel, we run to the fire. That is when you detect, trace, and shut out the outbreak when it starts. Doublee do seem to be a standard were members of your staff can get tests frequently, but ordinary americans cannot. When will the rest of america have the same access members of your own white house have to testing . Pres. Trump if we didnt get the tests, you would be complaining why are you not getting tests for the white house . I understand you very well, better than you understand yourself and if we did not get tests done you would be complaining we did not have the test done. Now that we are doing so well on tests, so quick, fast, so accurate, your complaining were getting too many tests. You cannot win. Go ahead. Many americans want to return to the lives but they are referred to do so. How can you ensure americans it is safe to go to their own workplace when the most secure place in the wife country, the white house cannot contain the spread. Pres. Trump when you say some we have a person. The person something happened right after a test was done. Three other people met that person, came into relative contact, very little contact and they are selfquarantining. That is not exactly not controlling it. We have hundreds and hundreds of people bring into the white house. It is a Massive Office complex, including the very large building right behind us that you know so well. I think we are doing a really good job and watching it, and i think it is very well contained, actually. Part of the reason it is is because of all the tests we are able to give. And the otherson, people were quarantined for a specific region. They were in the general proximity of the one person. The one person, i believe will be fine in a short period of time. Pres. Trump why hasnt Vice President pence followed the cdc guideline of isolation. Have trump i will have to him give you that information. Up until now, it is thought the most Vulnerable People are those above the age of 60, 70, 80, and children were pretty say i dont want to immune, but were not affected, but all day long in the news today we have been hearing and seeing this terrible syndrome that some 85 children have three of them have died. What is the task force talking about in terms of that, and what can be done about it . Pres. Trump we are seeing it all over the world with young children. There he tiny percentage very tiny percentage, but the swelling, the skin rash we are looking at it closely. It is a phenomena that has been brought to everyones attention. Admiral, you might have something to say about that. Thank you for pointing that out. I have said i am a pediatrician. This syndrome, which we call or it is similar to kawasaki syndrome, it has been seen in a Novel Coronavirus before and it is associated with illness. We have a strong activation. We do know treatments, but the cdc is interacting actively with the pediatric intensive care unit network to create case definitions and to understand how this is going, and if they are predispositions. Andnational heart, lung, blood institute, i spoke to the manywho is advancing research efforts. Is a team out in several areas looking at if there are any special treatments. We know what the basic treatment is, but this is a little different than what we normally see. There really is an activation among all the branches with hhs working with network said childrens hospitals. It is a small percentage, but it is quite frightening, and it reflects the fact that this virus affects the vasculature we see clotting, strokes, this is information we see in children. Mr. President , with this newly emerging syndrome among young children, what to say to parents who would like to get their children back to school, but now looking at this and potentially afraid to do that . A tinyrump again, it is percentage, but youre right, were looking into it strongly, and the admiral has been has known about this long before this happened. It is a small percentage. And the children recover from that, right . Recoversir, most do from this, but it is a serious, and it can be a fatal condition. We do want to make sure that parents understand that high fevers, red rashes, you may need to contact your health care providers. There are treatments for this. They work effectively of gotten early, at least for the vast majority of the cases. Pres. Trump we are studying it closer that closely, and has been on the radar for weeks, actually. It has been very rare, but we are looking at it closely. It is very important to us. One of the things we are most proud of this just came in deaths per 100,000 people in germany and the United States are at the lowest rung of that letter, meaning low is a positive, not a negative. Germany and the United States are the two best in depth per per000 people, deaths 100,000 people, which is the most important number there is. Please, in the back. Thank you, mr. President. Two questions. The first on the coronavirus, the Vice President is said to be in some sort of selfisolating keeping his distance from people, but what you say from american to say how can you keep me safe if even the Vice President is isolating, and why hasnt price testing gone to the point where every american who want to test can get a test . Pres. Trump the president the Vice President tested, and he is negative. As far as americans getting a test, they should all be able to get a test right now. That is the problem with a question like that. We go through a whole announcement saying we are number one in the world, by a factor of 2, 3, and four, and they get a question, when will the everyone be able to get tested . If someone want to be tested right now, they will be able to get tested. As far as the incident in georgia, it is horrible, and it is being looked at by many people. To many people. I saw the picture of him in his tuxedo beautiful. Looks like i will a wonderful young guy. I think it is a horrible thing. That being said, as you know, they are studying the case very carefully. They are interviewing everybody involved, and we will see what happens. To me, it is a very sad thing. I spoke to a number of people that are very much involved in it. Ive been following that one very closely. It breaks your heart to watch it. Certainly the video was a terrible looking video to me, but you have a lot of people hopefully an, and answer will he arrived at very quickly. It is something that is heartbreaking. The specific question i have is you said there are possibly things that happened that were not recorded on the tape. Can you expound on what you mean by that and your thoughts . I saw the tape, and when they moved left, outside of the tape, nobody saw what was going on it is an empty spot on the tape, i guess. Now does it have additional tapes . I hope. It is something based on what i saw does not look good. Somebody that i have a lot of respect for a senator scott of South Carolina he is a general great gentleman, a great senator. Tim scott. I called him two days ago i said tim, what you think . He is very what do you think . He is very disturbed by it and i am very disturbed also. President trump, thank you. Questions one on testing and one on democratic states you tweeted about. The money for this new testing support comes from the cares act that you signed into law 42 days ago. Did your delay in embracing widespread testing have anything to do with the desire to suppress the official number of u. S. Cases that you try to reopen the country . Pres. Trump we just want to make sure we have the proper machinery, apparatus, Everything Else out there before people started wasting money. Was a method of saving money. Even things like this, plus they have machines that are far more complex. They have massive machines at some of the laboratories that can do millions of tests. We want to make sure everything was in place. Earlier today you tweeted democrats are moving slowly for political purposes, but why do you believe their motive is politics rather than public safety, and how do you respond to criticism that you are also motivated by politics to try to grow the economy ahead of the election . Pres. Trump pres. Trump if you look at pennsylvania, at other states, they want to go back. The numbers are getting to a point where they cam and there seems to be no effort by certain blue skates states to get back in gear. The people are not going to stand for it. They want our country open. I want our country open. I want it open safely, but i wanted open. Dont forget people are dying the other route. You can go with the route where everything is closed up, you are not allowed to move. People are dying with that. You look at drug addiction, suicides, some of the things that are taking place. People are dying that way. You can make the case it is in even greater numbers. So it is a situation that some people that i have noticed that some states could be moving more quickly, and at the same time safety. Look, safety is paramount, what people are dying in the lockdown everybodytoo, and understands that. They are just starting to find out. I look at what is going on with drugs, and look at what is happening with suicides. Please. Please, go ahead. Reporter americans have been selfquarantining for several months now. Social distancing. Yet we are still seeing about 20,000 new cases a day, 1002 2000 deaths. 2000 deaths. Is there anything the administration is doing to get these under control . We seem to be in a plateau. Pres. Trump 2000 . The numbers are down from what they were two weeks ago. They are coming down very substantially. This weekend was one of the lowest we have had. The numbers are coming down very rapidly all throughout the country, by the way. There may be one exception, but all throughout the country, names are coming down rapidly. I think you see that, admirable. Cases that go000 through august. Is that do you agree with those models . Is that your expectation . Pres. Trump the models have not been exactly accurate. These are models done by think tanks, universities. Look at some of the models. They have been way off. A few of the models have been accurate. As far as the models are concerned, if you go by the model, it you could lose 2. 2 million people. Diduse we mitigated, we things that were very tough for our country to do, frankly they turned up a magnificent economy. We had to turn down the whole country. We are at the lowest of all of the models. 120, 100, 100 20,000 would be at the low side. Low. Is nothing look, nothing low. One is too many people. One person to lose with this is too many people. It is a disgrace, what happened. If you look at the models, we are at the lowest of those projections. The models are not models done necessarily by the white house. If you take the most respected of those people many of those models are wrong. They have been wrong as far as the u. S. Is concerned. The numbers are nowhere near what was projected, potentially. Reporter expectation of what the death toll is going to look like by the summer . Pres. Trump you know what . I dont want to think about it, even. I know we are doing everything we can. We are doing a good job. We acted early. We acted extremely early and keeping china out of our country and banning people from china, and our citizens were watched carefully. They were watched very carefully. We had about 40,000 people coming in from china, from asia, and we had to obviously take the people can you imagine if i said you are a u. S. Citizen, we are not going to take you . That does not work. I was with ron desantis. He said they literally put the people that came in from china in quarantine for a substantial period of time. I think we saved hundreds of thousands of lives by acting very early. I think the admiral can say that everybody was against my doing it. Everybody. Everybody was the professionals, the dock was. I was pretty much by myself on that one. And it was a lucky thing we did it, because we saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Yeah, please, go ahead. Reporter thank you, mr. President. Earlier today, the Vice President urged governors to have all of their nursing home residents tested. Why not just mandate that . Why not require that . Have you considered that . Pres. Trump i will consider it. I will mandate it if you like. I think it is important to do and frankly i think some of the governors were very lax when it comes to Nursing Homes. It was obvious from the beginning a state of washington, where 26 or 28 people died very early on i would have said Nursing Homes. And i did say Nursing Homes. That is what they should. Some of the states, many of the states are doing that. I think all of the states should be. If they had the capacity to do it, they should be doing nursing home. That is a real vulnerability. Two staffers announced last week as testing positive, are you aware of any additional white house staffers . Is spam not at all. Pres. Trump not at all. People who saw them were tested. The tests were negative, and they were quarantining anyway. Please go ahead. President , i wanted to ask, are you now or are you considering separating some more with Vice President pence as a precautionary measure . Trump first of all, the job he has done on task force, the job he has done as Vice President of the United States, has been outstanding. And he is a warrior, just like doctors, nurses. He is working so hard. He is coming into contact with a lot of people. But again, he tested negative. We have to understand that. He comes into contact with a lot of people. It is something probably during this quarantine period we will talk about. I have not seen him since then, but i would say that he and i will be talking about that. That. Talk about reporter the president just said that dr. Fauci tested negative. Why did they need to be isolating . Is there some concern that they could be spreading the virus in some way . Is there concern about the testing . Why do they need to isolate . Glad you brought that up because it underlines a lot of the questions here. Im glad youroir brought that up, because we know the incubation period for this guidance can be many days. The cdc guidelines really says that if you are in close contact, just testing negative on one day does not mean you wont be positive later on, so the prudent and the recommended thing to do is to isolate yourself for the entire period of bashan, and then some. That is what they are doing. It is precautionary because they were negative. We all hope they remain negative. But if they turned positive in a day or two or became symptomatic, that is still possible, even with a negative test. Pres. Trump go ahead, phil. President , and one of your mothers day tweets you appeared to accuse president obama of one of of the biggest political crime in American History by far. Those were your words. What are you accusing president obama of committing and you believe the Justice Department should persecute him . Pres. Trump obamagate. Its been going on a long time, from before i even got elected, and it is a disgrace that it happened. If you look at what has gone on and all of this information that is being released from what i understand, it is only the beginning. Some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. You will be seeing what goes on over the coming weeks and i wish you would write honestly about it, but you choose not to do so. John what is the crime exactly that you are accusing him of . Pres. Trump you know what the crime is. The crime is obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers except yours. Joe if i can get clarification on the testing, we have seen clearly the numbers of tests have gone up. There have been advancements in testing. You said twice today that every american who wants a test can get a test. That is not the case. 1. 9 million tests today is far short of every american. Pres. Trump i will say just from listening and hearing, like you do, we all do, not everybody should get a test, because they have to have certain things, and they are going to know when they are not dealing right. Those are the people that will be getting the test. I will let you take it from there. Needsiroir everybody who a test can get a test. We have plenty of tests for them. Right now in america, anybody who needs a test, needs a test can get a test in america, with the numbers we have. If you are symptomatically the respiratory illness, you can get a test. If you need to be context traced, you can get a test. And we hope we are starting to have asymptomatic surveillance, which is very important. That is over 3 million tests per week. That is sufficient for everyone ,ho needs a test symptomatic contact tracing, and the asymptomatic kind of surveillance we need to get that. That is the way it is. Hhs. Ber, i work at i work there every day. I dont get tested every day. I get monitored for my symptoms. Do i have other symptoms . I wear a mask when i go in. That is a safe Work Environment for the environment we have. If i became symptomatic, i would get a test. If it were positive, i would isolate and there would be contact racing to stop that, just the way it was done here. If i am not symptomatic, i do the precautions, as everyone has recommended. And that is the essence of safely opening america. Pres. Trump john, the numbers are coming down and coming down rapidly, and that is a beautiful thing to see. That is pretty universal across the country. They are coming down rapidly. Very important. Please, go ahead. Reporter so americans who are going back to work should not expect, should not need, should not want to have the same thing that people coming to work in the white house have, which is the ability to get tested regularly . Is that which you are saying . As. Giroir let me clarify well, people who come into close contact with president get tested on a regular basis. If i were not in close contact with the president specifically, i would not get tested, like most people here do not get tested. That is a very specific circumstance. When i worked at hhs, i dont get tested. I do the exact thing we ask americans to do to monitor your symptoms. If you were symptomatic, selfisolate, get tested Community Based testing sites, at hospitals, at home testing that has been authorized and to cooperate. If you need to be context traced, cooperate with your local public health. Not everybody who walks in get tested every time they do. If you are symptomatic here at hhs, and a meatpacking plant, at a school, you need to get tested. Pres. Trump the meatpacking plans are doing very well. There is great testing around those plants. We are learning who had the problem. They have been quarantined. The meatpacking is moving along very nicely. They were trouble spots. They were hot zones, definitely. One thing that is very important, john, just finish we have now, and nobody says it they just dont want to write it by far more tests than any other country in the world. Not even a contest. The quality of our test is the best anywhere in the world. Please, go ahead. Reporter to make sure i understand the white houses position, are you saying right now you will there is adequate testing along the United States . Or do you feel it needs to be ramped up . And by how much, if so . Been clearwe have all along that we believe and the data indicate we have enough testing to do the phase one gradual reopening that has been supported in the president s plan and the task force plan. It has to be a phased reopening. Nobody is saying turn the light switch on and everyone go. It would be really impossible to control the spread of the virus. Many, many models out there. The Rockefeller Foundation published their recommendation of about 3 million tests per week. That is exactly what we are doing. If you look at our agentbased models, it is below that. If you take the safra center at harvard and correct their assumptions on the sensitivity of the test, the mitigation process, and how many people get hospitalized, you get about that number. Im not going to come here and say we can swear as gods truth this is the number we need. But we know we have enough to open, and we are going to be very careful with our net, our surveillance program, and the data, to inform us even further. Days i dont come to the white house to work. I either go to fema or hhs. Let me talk you through the protocols. I would never get tested if i was not coming to the white house. Every day when we come in, we get our temperature taken and get asked questions about if we have symptoms. If you do not, you enter the workplace. There is Hand Sanitizer all over the place. In conference rooms, they put pieces of paper that say dont sit in every third seat, to separate people. There are a lot of precautions we are taking in the federal government that are separate from testing. Those are the precautions that we are using to continue working. Pres. Trump if people want to get tested, they get tested. We have the greatest capacity in the world. Not even close. If people want to get tested. For the most part, they should not want to get tested. They do not have sniffles, sore throats. They do not have any problem. If they do feel there is something happening, they have the ron desantis, the governor, is doing a fantastic job in florida. He said he has the opposite problem. He has so much testing that people sit around and wait for people to come in. They have a great overcapacity for testing, and there are it is a other states good problem, not a bad problem. Go ahead, please. Reporter you have said many times that the u. S. Is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. Pres. Trump yes. Reporter why does that matter . Why is this a global competition if every day americans are losing their lives and we are seeing more cases every day . Pres. Trump they are losing their lives everywhere in the world. Maybe that is a question you should ask china. Dont ask me. Ask china that question, ok . When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer. The hind you, please. Please. D you, reporter sir, why are you saying that to me specifically about china . Pres. Trump i am saying it if anyone asked a nasty question like that. Reporter it is not a nasty question. Why does it matter . Pres. Trump please. Please. Ok. Reporter i have some questions, mr. President. You called on me. Pres. Trump i did and you did not respond. Now i am calling on the young lady in the back. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspan has unfiltered coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, with white house briefings, updates from governors in congress, and our daily call in program, washington journal, hearing your thoughts about the coronavirus crisis. If you missed any of our live coverage, watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org coronavirus. The senate gaveled in for legislative work earlier today under social distancing and health guidelines. They have been debating the nomination of a deputy housing and urban development secretary, with the final vote expected by tomorrow. This week, work on more executive nominations as well as a vote to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after it expired. The house continues to be in recess, Holding Short pro forma sessions every three days. The earliest they could return for work is this friday as negotiations continue on coronavirus legislation, and possible options for remote voting. You can watch the house live on cspan. Primetimegton journal , the special evening edition, on the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our guests are the author of the great influenza. He talks about the coming months in the pandemic. Also joining us is the maryland senator van cardiff ben cardiff, to talk about work on capitol hill in an era of physical distancing. When the conversation tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Top members of the White House Coronavirus task force are in selfquarantine, but still expect to testify at a Senate Hearing this week. According to a statement from the Senate Health committee, doctors anthony fauci, robert redfield, and stephen hahn will testify by videoconference. The precautions follow news that a white house aide tested positive for coronavirus last week. The official title of the hearing is safely getting back to work and school. You can watch it live Tuesday Morning at 10 00 eastern on cspan, on demand at cspan. Org, or listen on the go on the cspan radio app. Coronavirus pandemic continues, the Supreme Court heard oral regiment via teleconference. The case involved religious freedom and whether federal courts have a role in discrimination cases filed by employees employed by a law religious by a religious institution. This is an hour and 40 minutes. We will hear argument next in case number 19267, our lady of guadalupe a school versus Agnes Morrissey and the consolidated case. Mr. Chief justice and may it please the court, the separation of church and state means anything at all, it must mean a church cannot give up decisions on who should teach its religions. This is not the province of juries or judgment government officials who want to teach that jesus is the sum of god or want to teach what it means to say hear o israel, the lord your god is one