Rebuke of President Trump delivered by former president barack obama as he and three other president s honored the late congressman john lewis. President obama noted lewiss battle for Voting Rights and had especially Harsh Criticism of the efforts to undermine those Voting Rights after President Trump actually floated the idea of delaying the november 3rd election. Lets begin our coverage this hour at the white house. White house correspondent Kaitlan Collins joining us. We do expect to hear fairly soon from the president. Yes, we do, wolf. Something hes been saying for weeks, sustained attacks on the election in november, an election he is at risk of losing. One way hes been trying to undermine what could happen is talking about mailin voting and trying to sow doubt about that. Officials say that could be a real option voters turn to if the pandemic is raging across the nation like it is now. Just a few moments ago the president tweeted we must know the Election Results on the night of the election, not days, months or even years later as he is continuing to sow doubt about something, what he said about potential fraud for mailin voting has not been proven out on any reports weve seen. Critics say this is a distress signal because the president knows hes losing ground with voters. Today one of those critics was president barack obama. President trump was on the stinging end of a rebuke from his predecessor who compared him to the racist leaders of the south who fought civil rights. George wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. After President Trump suggested delaying the november election barack obama took aim at him over Voting Rights as he eulogized civil rights icon john lewis. We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling location and targeting minorities and students with restrictive id laws and attacking our Voting Rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the runup to an election thats going to be dependent on mailin ballots so people dont get sick. The 44th president also endorsed eliminating the filibuster calling it a relic of jim crow. With the exception of jimmy carter who stayed away for health reasons, President Trump was the only living president who did not attend john lewiss funeral. Instead he stayed in washington where he faced a rare rebuke from his own party over his suggestion that the election could be postponed. Never in the history of the country through wars, depressions and the civil war have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time. One republican lawmaker asked if trump had thought his tweet all the way through. I think that the president s term and the Vice President s term expires on january 20th. If we were to delay the election past january 20th, the president would be the speaker of the house. The president has no power to unilaterally move the election and any change would be difficult and up to congress. Though two of trumps most powerful cabinet secretaries seemed unaware of that this week. Can a sitting u. S. President move an election date . Actually i havent looked into that question under the constitution. And the department of justice, others will make that legal determination. Critics say trumps suggestion is paving the way for he and his supporters to question the outcome of the election should he lose to joe biden. You will accept the election . I have to see. I have to see. No, im not just going to say yes. That tweet came minutes after the Commerce Department announced that the nations Gross Domestic Product fell 9. 5 from april to june. The president s Campaign Aides urged him to focus on covid19 which today claimed the life of one of his most prominent supporters herman cain. The former ceo of godfathers pizza who sought the republican nomination in 2012 tested positive for coronavirus in late june after attending the president s indoor rally in oklahoma. While its not clear where he contracted the virus, cain spent four weeks in the hospital before passing away today. Trump called him an American Patriot and great friend. Now, wolf, tomorrow millions of americans are set to lose those enhanced Unemployment Benefits and theres no agreement on capitol hill. Were waiting to find out. We do know the administration is set to meet with democrats tonight. Well see if they get anywhere and also see what the president has to say here in the next hour when he comes out to brief reporters. Coverage of that. Kaitlan collins at the white house. Thank you, as we wait to hear from the president. Lets get the latest on the pandemic, nick watt joining us from los angeles. Nick, california reporting some truly stunning numbers. Well, wolf, we are now on average every day in california losing more people to covid19 than we ever have before. The mayor here in los angeles said that we were sold a bill of goods by people who said, well get a vaccine, this will be over soon. The mayor and others realizing were going to be fighting this well into next year. The sunbelt surge is seeping north. Now we see the virus, probably because of vacations and other reasons of travel moving up. Michigan just closed a lot of bars again. When the percentage of tests coming back positive in the state climbs, thats the danger sign. Were starting to see that in some of the states now, kentucky, tennessee, ohio. Ohio just reported the most cases in a day. Illinois the most cases since late may. Maya ramirez from chicago, just 28 years old fell ill in april. Shes one of the first covid19 patients to receive a double Lung Transplant. I wasnt aware that i had received a Lung Transplant when i awoke. It wasnt until weeks later i had the ability, you know, to think to myself, theres a family out there thats grieving their loved one. I have that persons lungs and how lucky i was to have received it. Yesterday across this won 1,403 lives reported lost to covid19. Highest number in nine weeks. Its really a travesty that we are where we are today. Im worried about the future. Im worried that unless we make some significant changes in our response, this death rate is going to continue to rise. Death toll down in florida three days straight successive record highs. Were going to see a higher level of deaths for make time until we start to drop our Positivity Rate below 10 . But you know, were not rising anymore. Thats the good news. Meanwhile the u. S. Economy just endured its worse quarter ever on record. Gdp shrank by onethird on an annual rate between april and june. Context, at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, fourth quarter, gdp contracted at only 8. 4 annual rate. Those 600 unemployment checks, a life line for individuals that also propped up the economy, well, they end tomorrow. But there is a way out. We believe governors and mayors of every locality right now would mandate masks for their communities and every american would wear a mask and socially distance, we could get control of this virus and drive down cases as arizona has done. Some arizona cities began mandating masks june 19th, and look what happens two or three weeks later. The average number of new cases in the state every day started to fall. There might also be a vaccine. Maybe soon, but we are assured not too soon. We will not cut corners. We will use our very high standards of safety and effectiveness. Well look at data and make a determination based upon those high standards. And our own Elizabeth Cohen has just spoken with the boss of operation warp speed. Thats the white houses vaccine program. He is bullish. Hes confident. He said, yeah, maybe wed need to have boosters of the vaccine. He said that based on his experience he thinks a covid19 vaccine will be 90 effective. Thats pretty good. That would be excellent if it happens. Lets hope it does. Nick watt in los angeles. Lets get more. William hazeltine, chairman of Access Health international. Also with us former u. S. Surgeon general, also by the way advising the biden campaign. Doctor, what do you make of this head of operation warp speed Elizabeth Cohen speaking moments ago that he expects the vaccine, once its ready, to be 90 effective . Wolf, i certainly hope thats the case. The more effective the vaccine is, not only will it help more people but fewer people will need to vaccinate in the end to achieve herd immunity levels which require about 70 of the population be immune. Here is the truth, we cant bank on that. We have to wait for the data to come in to see how effective this vaccine is. The history of Vaccine Research and development is a history of having twists and turns and having to deal with results when they come. But its not always easy to predict where they will go. We have to hope for the best but prepare for the fact that we may not have that full level of efficacy we want. What that means is the Vaccine Distribution campaign becomes all the more important. What we need to do urgently is produce a plan for how were going to get the vaccine to everybody who needs it in the country starting with frontline workers and the elderly and people with a medical condition that put them at higher risk. We know that its more than drawing up plans on paper. We have to build partnerships, public campaigns to help people understand that the vaccine is safe and effective and weve got to build partnerships with faith organizations, hospitals, clinics and schools. So theres a lot of work to do even once we have the virus in hand in order to get it to the people who need it. Certainly it. Professor hazeltine, what do you think . Wishful thinking or real possibility that there will be a vaccine 90 effective fairly soon. I think dr. Murthy summarized it well. Cant know it now. I think it was unwise for him to make that prediction. We dont know, and we will find out. Theres no data published that i know that would allow him to make that reach that conclusion with any kind of definitive data. But i would agree again with dr. Murthy, what we have to do is something we havent done before. Weve seen how disorganized our Testing Programs are. Weve seen how disorganized contact tracing. Weve seen we dont really isolate people who are infected, and we know thats what we have to do. We have to do the basic blocking and tackling. Whether or not the vaccine is there, we still have to do that blocking and tackling, and we have to organize, as dr. Murthy said, a system of distribution of any vaccine, or i might add prophylactic or drug that exists. We dont have that or the Central Government that will do that for us. Even if we have these new tools were all hoping for, im not sure were prepared to use them to any effect. Lets see what happens with this vaccine. They are just beginning right now phase three trials, 30,000 people, 15,000 will get the vaccine, 15,000 will get a placebo, then well have real information. Right now they are basing what they know on 30 people that went through the initial phase. Professor hazeltine, thank you. Be sure to join us for another cnn global town hall coronavirus facts and fears. Thats later tonight 8 00 p. M. Eastern only here on cnn. Were standing by to hear directly from President Trump as the Coronavirus Crisis deepens. The sharp rebuke from President Trump from his predecessor. Were going to hear more what the former president barack obama had to say as he honored the late congressman john lewis. We made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. An army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Thinking about yourmade the wayfi. So are we. D it prudential helps 25 Million People with their financial needs. With over 90 years of investment experience, our thousands of Financial Professionals can help. Go to prudential. Com or talk to an advisor. As we await for the Coronavirus Briefing coming up this hour, there as lot of news to discuss, including a stinging rebuke of President Trump by former president barack obama during his funeral eulogy for the late congressman john lewis earlier this afternoon. Listen to part of what president obama had to say. May be gone, today we witness with our own eyes Police Officers kneeling on the necks of black americans. George wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive id laws and attacking our Voting Rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the runup to an election. Lets bring in our chief Political Correspondent dana bash and cnn political commentator bakari sellers. Bakari author of a new book my vanishing country, a memoir. Bakari, how powerful was it to hear the former president of the United States connect john lewiss own struggles for civil rights to the struggles of today. Very powerful. The 44th president of the United States, he had a long runway. Today was the day the way i characterize it, he was speaking to us in a locker room before a game before we had to go out and fight for freedom, head coaching getting us ready to go and in Ebenezer Baptist church, the church where dr. King, sunday after sunday after sunday not only equated the scripture but spoke the truth and spoke the truth to power. I will actually say, wolf, though, he wasnt just speaking to donald trump, even more importantly he was speaking to Henry Mcmaster, brian kemp, he was speaking to ron desantis, all of these southern governors who echo and put people in the same mind state of george wal atmosphere, scott walker, those individuals who didnt want us to have the freedoms we have today. So there are a lot of democrats today, a lot of americans who believe that were better than we were and better than we are, there are a lot of good people sitting back, watching that speech today saying the president was speaking to them. To watch bill clinton, to watch george w. Bush, to watch barack obama and hear the words from jimmy carter while donald trump sat in his home tweeting away, that showed us what america should be versus what america is, and i think the president of the United States hit every single note he should have. Jimmy carter couldnt attend but did have his words read there after this funeral. David, all this comes as President Trump actually floated the idea in a tweet today of potentially delaying the november 3rd president ial election here in the United States. At one point in the tweet he said delay the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote. That clearly is that clearly resulted in that warning we heard from the former president barack obama. Yes, theres no doubt that the former president understood the context of today in which his comments would be understood. Obviously thats Donald Trumps shiny object today. He has no authority whatsoever to change the date of the election. Thats within the realm of congress as you know, wolf. That is far less troubling. Donald trump trying to distract from bad Economic News or what have you than his constant attempts today in tweets as well but in many days now of trying to delegitimatize the way in which people are going to vote this year. Because of the pandemic huge swaths of americans, tens of millions are going to vote by mail, a way in which they have not voted before. Donald trump is trying right now to lay the groundwork to delegitimatize that. I think what you heard when barack obama was tying the fight that john lewis was willing to give his life for for Voting Rights to this moment in time and urging the generation left behind john lewis, it is in that context with the president of the United States trying to undermine. If you want to vote for trump or biden, it doesnt matter. What the president of the United States is doing is questioning the very legitimacy of the foundation of our democracy, and no president should be doing that. Youre absolutely right. D dana, that tweet from the president came a little bit calling for the delay in the election, came moments after we got that really dire Economic News from the Commerce Department suggesting that in this Second Quarter this year the economy, the annual rate of the collapse of economy from april to june, 32. 9 . Annual rate, thats the worst the worst collapse since they started doing these reports the Commerce Department, since world war ii. A lot of people are suggesting that the president is simply, a, either trying to change the subject or, b, trying to create a delay hoping the economy might get better. Theres it is question even among the president s allies ive spoken to today that the tweet he sent was an attempt to distract from the bad Economic News despite the fact what he said in that tweet, the content of it, is very much a danger sign and a pattern that we are seeing from the president and will likely continue to see trying to send signals to his base that this could be an illegitimate election. Obviously he will not say that if he wins in the end. When it comes to the Economic News, we cant let that shiny object distract us because it is bad. You just gave the headline, wolf, and i was looking at it again as you were talking and coming to me about this. There are people out there suffering in a way we havent seen in so long. Even in 2008, that was bad, but it was quicker and it was just different. This is something that is imposed in large part by the federal government because of the lockdown. This leadership question comes into play in a big way because during that time the question that voters are already asking, will continue to ask, is why wasnt that time used more wisely to find ways to mitigate this virus instead of ignoring the virus, pretending like its going to go away and allowing states to reopen too early in a way that just made things even worse. Thais t that is the headline, the overarching thing that matters the most. 1. 4 million americans lost their jobs, applied for Unemployment Benefits last week, in one week alone, 1. 4 million. The failure, clearly the failure to deal with the coronavirus, baka bakari, let me get your thoughts, not only creating huge numbers of cases, huge numbers of hospitalizations and deaths but causing a lot of economic pain and it looks like its going to continue. You dig down into the numbers, you see the disproportionate demographic deaths and dealing with the coronavirus are those who are africanamerican, individuals who are black and brown in this country who have preexisting conditions, so forth and so on. I cant go any further than, you know, wishing the family although its amazing now, wolf. You get in trouble for just wishing people well wishes, even though on different sides of the partisan aisle. My heart goes out to herman cains family. We didnt agree on anything politically, we graduated from the same school, morehouse college, same alma mater and politically we couldnt be further apart. We see what happens with this virus. This virus doesnt have any partisan affiliation. This virus doesnt care who you pray to or love, it attacks us equally. We have to wear masks. What were seeing is that leadership is ill equipped, ill prepared to handle this. Its not just the president of the United States, i mean, the talk about the nonpartisan nature of this virus, for me i look at the way that people like Governor Cuomo have handled this and gavin newsom handled this. I look at Charlie Baker and larry hogan. Vice versa on the flip side how Henry Mcmaster and South Carolina and brian kemp and ron desantis handled this with incompetence. He blocked me on twitter so im not sure if he tweeted about him today but the president of the United States with the death of herman cain should reevaluate his ignorant stance on coronavirus and step forth in honor of somebody who supported him even through his incompetence, even in death on this issue. He should step forth and say i was wrong. Lets reevaluate the way were doing this and make sure we dont have to have more herman cain. Let the loss of life be an example of what we should not do when it comes to coronavirus and let us remember him as somebody who shows us we can do better. Herman cain, he was 74 years old. Our deepest condolences, of course, to his family and friends. All of us knew herman cain. I had a very Good Relationship all of these years. Very sad to hear he passed away from the coronavirus today. Bakari, thank you again. David, thanks to you as well. Were standing by to hear from President Trump momentarily as the country is reeling from the pandemic thats now killing one american almost every minute. Ill speak to the mayor of houston about the new campaign he Just Announced to help his city cope with this crisis. Verizon knows how to build unlimited right. You start with the network j. D. Power has named the most awarded for Network Quality 25 times in a row. This network is one less thing i have to worry about. Then, give people more plans to mix and match, so you only pay for what you need. That is so cool include the best in entertainment, and offer it all starting at 35. With the iphone everyone wants. Iphone 11 pro on us, when you buy one. 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In the county they are closing eight staterun testing sites. The one im at has served 30,000 people. Its open five days a week. They do antibodies testing. Earlier they were dismantling it taking apart the polls and cones because it would not withstand Tropical Storm winds. This is one of the hardest hit counties in the state, some concern about closing test sites. In miamidade, they are closing 13 sites. They have a Positivity Rate there of 18 . Some concerns still there. In broward county, another hard hit county here, they are clo closing 12 sites. In all hardest hit, they are closing 33 staterun testing sites. Meanwhile you mentioned bad day in terms of the numbers here. Nearly 10,000 new cases, a Record Number of deaths again for the third day in a row. 253 deaths. In fact, up more than 6500 floridians have already died. The statewide Positivity Rate is 19. 3 . It did tick up slightly, 8400 hospitalized and less than 70 of icu in the state. Certainly we are paying close attention to the numbers. Certainly are. Randi kaye in florida for us. Thanks very much. Lets head over to houston, texas, mayor of houston, Sylvester Turner is joining us. Mayor, thanks for joining us. More bad news out of texas. Texas has now surpassed new york state in total coronavirus cases. Youve Just Announced, i understand, a new campaign to help protect people themselves from this virus. Tell us what that entails. Well, the campaign is better together. I announced 1300 cases that came back positive in the city of houston and 15 more people have died. So in the month of july alone, for example, as of today, 200 people have died in the city of houston and july alone. Thats 200 of the 432 deaths that we have reported since the beginning of this coronavirus. So the campaign is the focus on better together. Its a multilingual campaign. 45 of our deaths of hispanic, 40 of the cases are hispanic. So we want to focus on those communities of color, vulnerable communities, atrisk populations, a very aggressive media, pr campaign and a door to door. We decided we cant afford just to do it on television, radio, digital, so the Health Department and employees will be going door to door to spread the message on how to keep safe during this virus. I often say these are not just numbers, these are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. These are real people who sadly are passing away. Are you bracing for the death toll to continue to rise given the fact the number of cases is going up . Thats the concern, wolf. Ive been following these numbers on a daily basis since the first week in march. From march, april, may, june, the numbers keep going up exponentially. We need to get on top of it. My prayers and thoughts with the people in the valley and south texas, but i am concerned when were reporting 1300 cases today, yesterday, 1,045. So the numbers that the virus is running rampant still in the community. Now, the Positivity Rate is going down. Our hospitals have plateaued and the numbers are coming down. Whats happening inside the walls of our hospital is positive, and its a good sign. Whats happening in the community is disturbing. So we are going to take a very aggressive, much more aggressive approach with this virus. Otherwise, i think with the high numbers of daily reporting of positive cases, the death can be a lagging indicator. We want to get on top of it as much as we can. Certainly do. Mayor, good luck to you, good luck to everyone in houston right now. Appreciate it very much. And to our viewers, stay with us. Once again were awaiting the start of President Trumps coronavirus news breaching. Will he answer questions about his tweet raising the possibility of delaying this years november third president ial election here in the United States citing the coronavirus. Well be right back. 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Thats what it is, a plague, also come up with therapeutics and vaccines and were making a lot of strides. All over the world they are having tremendous problems. Resurgence is taking place in many cases we thought were doing well. Despite the pandemic in countries this resurgence in cases is recurring throughout large portions of our planet in japan, china, australia, belgium, spain, france, germany, hong kong, places where they thought it was they had really done great, it came back, and in a couple of cases came back very strongly. The virus was said to be under control, but new cases have risen very significantly once again. So when you think somebody is doing well, sometimes you have to hold your decision on that, you have to hold your statement. Since the beginning of june daily new cases increased by a factor of 14 times in israel. 35 times thats 35 times in japan and nearly 30 times in australia just to name a few. These were countries doing incredibly well. Leadership was being praised. Latin america now leads the world in confirmed infections. With the scarcity of testing in latin america, the true numbers, you have no idea what they might be. I can say scarcity of testing almost anywhere except for our country. This disease is highly contagious and presents unique challenges to our border states. Meanwhile states like california, washington state, maryland, virginia, nevada, illinois, oregon, and many others, they were thought to be doing well and they had a big resurgence and were hit very hard. Governors that were extremely popular are not so popular anymore. They were held up as models to follow, then they got hit. Im not even saying its their fault. Its probably not their fault. Its just the way it is. Thats the way it is. It is highly infectious, one of the most infectious anybody has ever seen. Not since 1917, over 100 years ago, has anyone seen anything like what were witnessing now. But these states have also seen the virus substantially rebound. Again, no one is immune. No one is immune. These facts illustrate the imposi imposing determinate, it is a determinate a blanket shutdown to achieve a temporary reduction in cases is not a viable longterm strategy for any country. People are starting to understand the disease now. We certainly have understood a lot about the disease that we didnt have any idea. We never saw anything like this. The primary purpose of a shutdown was to flatten the curve, ensure Hospital Capacity and develop effective treatments and therapies to reduce mortality, and we have done that, but it can come rearing back when you least suspect it. We did the right thing initially. We saved millions of lives what we did. We did the right thing. But i permanent shutdown would no longer be the answer at all. A small shutdown of certain areas, but we dont want to do that. Small shutdowns can be helpful but not for long periods of time. We understand what were dealing with but its a very complex situation. I can only say thank heaven we are so advanced in what were doing in terms of vaccines and therapies. We now know a great deal about the virus and how to treat it and who it targets. Almost half of the deaths come from less than 1 of our population. Think of it, half of the deaths. Really a tremendous number. Half of the deaths come from less than 1 of our population. Those living in Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities. The average age of those who die from the illness is 78. Weve announced very strong measures to protect those who are most vulnerable. The scientific path forward is to protect those at highest risk while allowing those at lower risk to carefully return to work and to school with appropriate precautions. Im once again urging the American People to protect their dear family and friends and anybody who is elderly, especially if somebody is elderly and they have heart problems. If they have certain illnesses. Diabetes is a very bad one, having to do with what were discussing. You want to protect the elderly and socially distance. Wear a mask if you cannot socially distance and practice vigorous hygiene. Everyone, even healthy young people, should be taking extraordinary care to avoid infecting those at the highest risk from this terrible disease. The elderly and those with Chronic Health issues have to be protected. In the current hot spots across the sunbelt, the data is showing very encouraging signs. Arizona in particular has crossed an important threshold. For every person with the virus, were now seeing an average of less than one additional person infected, and the numbers are coming down and coming down very substantially. They are starting to come down in florida. Arizona is really leading the way. I was in texas yesterday, and they are starting to come down significantly, we believe, in texas. Ned another few days to figure that one out but looks like they are coming down significantly. Earlier today i visited red cross headquarters to discuss plasma therapy, which is a tremendous thing that they are looking at. They have a lot of experience with it. Potentially lifesaving treatments that infuse sick patients with powerful antibodies donated by those who have recovered successfully from this disease. More than 2 million americans have recovered from the virus and today were asking them to visit and volunteer to donate plasma. We need plasma. Its something thats been very effective and we need plasma from those that were infected and successfully recovered, as most people do, most people do. Plasma is one of the many promising treatments my administration is accelerating. Weve secured over 90 of the worlds supply of remdesivir, which is terrific, encouraging antiviral drug that can block replication of the virus. We also improved use of the widely available steroid which has been very successful, decks a meth a zone, which has shown success even in patients at more advanced stages of the disease. On july 17th, we announced a 450 million agreement with regeneron to build plants and hundreds of thousands of doses of its antibody treatment which is currently in late stage clinical trials. Moving along very rapidly. Thats regeneron. As a result of significant strides in treatment, the mortality rate in those over the age of 18 is 85 lower than it was just in april, so in a very short period of time, think of that. Just 18, 85 lower than it was in april. Thats a big statement. Now i want to provide an update on our efforts to ensure strong economic come back, including our negotiations on capitol hill. Throughout this crisis, my administration has taken the most aggressive action in history to rescue American Workers. We love our American Workers and we set records on job creation, records. Two months in a row. We enacted a 3 trillion Economic Relief package, the Paycheck Protection Program alone saved over 50 million jobs. We delivered 300 billion to direct Cash Payments to americans. We approved 500 billion for our hardest hilt industries. 500 billion. We allowed struggling homeowners to defer payments and put a moratorium on evictions from federally backed properties. A big thing, very big thing. We also suspended student loan payments for six months and are looking to do that additionally and for additional periods of time. As a result of these extraordinary steps by the administration, we added a record 7 million jobs in the two months passed alone to ensure this come back continues, which we think it will. Great foundation to build on. We were the strongest country in the world. Nobody close. We were outdoing everybody from china, if you remember, for many years you heard that in 2019, china would surpass the United States. Well, it didnt. We gained on them very significantly. Took it to a level that nobody has ever seen. 2019. Well be back there shortly. Wont take long based on everything were seeing. Not going to take very long. I think next year will be an excellent year, maybe one of our best years ever from an economic standpoint. We can never, ever forget the people that have been lost. We never will. Never forget them. Never forget what happened. This could have been stopped in china. They should have stopped it and they didnt. But im asking congress to passe digs pass additional legislation. We want temporary extension of expanded Unemployment Benefits. This will provide a critical bridge for americans that lost their jobs to the pandemic through no fault of their own. This is not anybodys fault from the standpoint of jobs, it happened. Terrible thing happened. Could have been stopped, it happened. I want to thank Senate Republicans for fighting to extend Unemployment Benefits today in the face of a strong democrat obstruction which im surprised at because this is great for our country and great for our workers and it wasnt our workers fault. Second, were asking democrats to work with us to find a solution that will temporarily stop evictions. We do not want people that lost their jobs due to the virus to be evicted from their homes or apartments. We dont want that to happen. Third, we need democrats to join us to pass additional relief payments for american citizens, like the payments sent to 160 million americans earlier this year, a tremendously successful program. This money will help millions of hard working families get by. My administration is also asking democrats to work with us to pass 1 105 billion to help schools safely reopen. Children are not at the lowest risk. You look at whats going on, the younger, the better. Amazing. Immune system. For children, the lower they are in age, the lower the risk in terms of the age group itself. I tell the story that in new jersey with thousands and thousands of people dying, sadly dying, the governor was telling me that only one, phil murphy, only one died under the age of 18. Thats incredible. With thousands of people that died in the state of new jersey, one made an impact. One died under the age of 18. Children are at the lowest risk of any age group from the virus. Indefinite School Closures will inflict lasting harm to our nations children. We must follow the science, get students safely back to school while protecting children, teachers, staff, and family. We have to remember theres another side to this, keeping them out of school, keeping work closed is causing death also, economic harm but causing death for different reasons, but death. Probably more death. If governors do not want to open the public schools, the money should go to parents so they can send children to the school of their choice, so we say if a school doesnt want to open, a governor doesnt want to open maybe for political reason, maybe not, but there is some of that going on, the money should go to the parents so they can send their children to the school of their choice. If schools stay closed, the money should follow the students, so families are in control of decisions about their sons and daughters. Help their children. But to pass a bill democrats must reject the extreme partisan voices in their party. They have tremendous voices. Theyre looking at november 3rd. And probably a day later, theyll say lets open up the country. But the democrats have to reject the extreme partisan voices in their party so that we can get our country going quicker than it is going now. We have a lot opening and we have a lot of states that you thought were doing pretty poorly from the standpoint of the virus and are actually coming back very strong. This pandemic has underscored the importance of economic policies that put American Families and workers first. I got elected on the fact i put america first. For many decades, we put america last. If you look at the crazy, horrible disgraceful trade deals that we have watched for many years destroy our country, nafta, we terminated it. We have usmca now, which is a great deal. The farmers are doing really well, despite the pandemic. We put america first, americas families and workers first. That means bringing jobs and factories back to our shores, reducing unnecessary regulations, creating new training opportunities for jobs and the future. We cut regulations at a level no president has cut regulations. And we cut taxes more than any president in the history of our country. Americans rise to the challenge and we will emerge more resilient, more self reliant, more independent, more prosperous than ever before. So i just want to thank you all. If you would like, well take a few questions. Steve . Are you going to try to delay the election or was that what i want to explain to people, it doesnt need much explanation, look at article after article, new yorks mail vote disaster. Tens of thousands of mail ballots have been tossed out in this years primaries. What will happen in november . Its a mess. This is done by the Washington Post. Can you believe it, the Washington Post of all papers. Fake news. But in this case it is not fake, its true. This is done by the wall street journal. Heres another. Vote by mail experiment reveals potential problems within postal Voting System ahead in the november election. And you see whats happening with so many different places. Theyre doing trial runs, theyre a disaster. I dont want to see an election, so many years i have been watching elections, and they say the projected winner or winner of the election, i dont want to see that take place in a week after november 3rd or a month or frankly with litigation and Everything Else that can happen, years, years. Or you never even know who won the election. Youre sending out hundreds of millions of universal mail in ballots. Hundreds of millions. Where are they going . Who are they being sent to . Y you dont have to know anything about politics. The democrats know this, the democrats know this, steve. So i want an election and result much more than you. I think were doing very well. We have the same fake polls but we have real polls. Were doing very well. I just left texas and