Were standing by for President Trump to take reporters questions at a White House Briefing thats about to begin. It follows the president s town hall last night in which he once again downplayed the importance of masks in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Today the head of the cdc said masks may offer people even more protection than a potential vaccine. All that coming up. But lets start with the coronavirus pandemic right now. Cnns nick watt is in los angeles for us. Nick, were learning more and more about plans when a vaccine, and we hope itll be soon, becomes available. Reporter thats right, wolf. The white house goal, anyway, is to, within 24 hours of the green light from the fda, they hope to begin distributing doses to vaccine locations. Now, states have been told to be ready for that as early as november. But, wolf, there are still so many questions remaining. Just one of them, but its a big one, will enough Americans Trust this vaccine . Will enough americans will enough americans take this vaccine for it to really make a difference . A limited, targeted supply of vaccine might be available before the end of the year. But in enough arms to really make a difference . I think were probably looking at late second quarter, Third Quarter 2021. Reporter and there still could be plenty pitfulls in this process. Astrazeneca recently paused trials again after an illness in a volunteer. Cnn has now obtained an internal Company Document detailing that after a second dose, a previously Healthy Woman in her 30s was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare neurological disorder. The company had claimed that diagnosis was never confirmed. Its absolutely critical that the American Public have complete transparencies about these clinical trials. Reporter if and when we get a vaccine. In terms of a principle and an aspiration, itll be that no american has to pay a single dime outofpocket to get a vaccine. Reporter but listen to this. I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine. If i dont get an immune response, the vaccines not going to protect me. This face mask will. Reporter the latest National Numbers we have from just yesterday arent great. Nearly 40,000 new cases. 1,293 lives lost. The most in a month. One wedding in maine now linked to at least 176 cases. And the deaths of seven people who didnt even attend the event. These are all individuals who got covid from somebody who was at the wedding or somebody who got it from somebody else at the wedding. Reporter 50,000 cases and counting on college campuses. At least five colleges that opened in person have moved to onlineonly as cases mount. Thats wrong says the president s adviser dr. Scott atlas in a new york postop ed. Universities should stay open even when they see an increase in cases. Science tells us that young adults are at extremely low risk for serious illness or death from covid19. Cdc data does show of the more than 196,000 americans killed by covid, 397 were under age 25. But the jury is still out on how they act as vectors for this virus. Still, the big ten will now, after pressure from the president and others, play football this fall. But no fans in the stands. And, wolf, more evidence that the black and Brown Community is still being hit the hardest by this virus. Now, hospitalization rates among the latinx population in this country more than four times the white population. And that according to dr. Anthony fauci today, he called that extraordinary and unacceptable. Wolf . Nick watt reporting for us. Thank you very much. President trump has scheduled a briefing this hour. He will face questions from reporters about his latest remarks down plaching the importance of Wearing Masks. Lets go to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Jim, the president once again at odds with his own Top Health Experts when it comes to this critical life and death issue of simply wearing a mask thats right, wolf. President trump is likely to be asked about that. Hell be holding a News Conference in just a short while from now. But Senior Administration officials from the white house from the department of health and Human Services are in cleanup mode as the president continues to downplay the importance of Wearing Masks. The director of the centers for Disease Control said masks could do a better job of protecting people from the coronavirus than a vaccine. The White House Press secretary earlier today insisted that the president has already and has always supported mask wearing. But of course thats not true. President trumps questionable comments on the coronavirus keep piling up, leaving it to top Administration Officials to clean up the mess. Today it was dr. Robert redfields turn. I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine. Because it may be 70 and if i dont get an immune response, the vaccines not going to protect me. This face mask will. Reporter that came after the president argued against Wearing Masks at an abc town hall. By the way a lot of people dont want to wear masks. A lot of people think that masks are not good. There are a lot of people that, as an example who are those people . Ill tell you who those people are. Waiters. Reporter White House Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany falsely claimed the president is consistently promask. The president has always supported maskwearing. Reporter but thats not true as mr. Trump has repeatedly ridiculed joe biden for wearing them. It gives them a feeling of security. If i were a psychiatrist [ laughter ] no, id say [ applause ] this guys got some big issues. Reporter the president insisted biden somehow hasnt kept his promises on masks. They said at the Democrat Convention theyre going to do a National Mandate. They never did it because theyve checked out and they didnt do it. And a good question is you ask, like, joe biden, they said were going to do a National Mandate on masks. Reporter biden, who has urged governors to adopt mask mandates nationwide responded to that at a News Conference. Im not the president. Hes the president. The president s first responsibility is to protect the american people. And he wont. Its utterly disqualifying. Reporter mr. Trump also made a pitch for the controversial concept of heard immunity for ridding the nation of the virus, though he called it herd mentality. Will it go away without the vaccine . Sure. Over a period of time it will. And youll develop like a herd mentality. Reporter only to have the white house chief of staff say thats not under consideration. That that is not something that the white house chose to imploy. Reporter the president also contradicted himself telling one town hall attendee that he didnt downplay the virus. Well, i didnt downplay it. I actually, in many ways i upplayed it in terms of action. Reporter after confessing to bob woodward, thats exactly what he did. I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because i dont want to create a panic. Reporter pressed on his weeks of promises of a health care plan, the president insisted one is coming. I have it already. But youve been trying to strike down preexisting conditions. I have it already and its a much better plan. Reporter one other covid19 stumble, the department of health and Human Services announced top spokesman Michael Caputo is taking leave of absence, saying in a statement caputo will be focusing on his health and the wellbeing of his family and will be on leave for the next 60 days. The president is creating other distractions tweeting out a video of biden. But the white house tried to stay away from that one. It i have to refer you to the campaign. Im not here to talk about joe biden. Reporter as for the White House Press secretary saying that he is not at the briefings to talk about joe biden, that is not true. She has bashed the democratic nominee at previous briefings. But this upcoming News Conference will be an attempt really to hit the reset button for him and his administration. As it was put to me, it didnt help. Wolf . Jim acosta at the white house for us, lots going on. Thanks very much. Lets discuss all of this and more. The former cdc director dr. Tom frieden is joining us. Thanks so much for joining us. As you heard yesterday more than 1,200 americans died from coronavirus, the highest oneday total since midaugust. What does that tell you about where we might be heading coming into the fall . Well, wolf, what really concerns me is the risk that we will get hardened to these numbers, well just get used to them. And you have to put it into context. You heard about the seven people who died as a result of one wedding that didnt follow precautions in maine. None of them went to the wedding. That emphasizes that were all connected. Were coming up on officially 200,000 People Killed by covid. The actual number is higher because not all deaths have been identified. And this is just a horrifying number. Its more people than die from suicide or overdose or homicide or hiv. In fact, covid is on track to be the number three leading cause of death in all of the u. S. For this year. Those seven people who died got the virus from people who did attend the wedding and then they left, they spread it around, and thats what happens, very sadly. You also heard the reporting on astrazenecas phase three trial, the document shows that one participant had a very serious spinal cord inflammation. How big of a concern is that news . And could that slow down this process of trying to reach a successful vaccine . Well, on the one hand, im encouraged that they did halt the trial, that they have taken a pause to look. But on the other hand im frustrated that the companies are not providing all of the protocols for the public. The public for most of these vaccines is paying for this through our taxpayer dollars, billions of dollars. And the Drug Companies need to be up front with what all of their protocols are, when theyre going to look at the data, what theyre going to look at, what they are going to look for, what they will consider to be safe and effective. Heres the bottom line. For a vaccine to work, it doesnt just have to be effective and safe and accessible. It also has to be trusted. And anything thats done to undermine trust makes it less likely that well be able to get the vaccine out. And even if we do have a safe, effective vaccine that most people take, its not going to make the pandemic magically go away. This is not a fairytale ending to the pandemic. We still need to chip away at this pandemic with masks, with contact tracing, with testing, with finding and stopping outbreaks with restricting certain higherrisk activities and with vaccination. Vaccination is an important tool but only if we use it right. It was interesting today that dr. Redfield urged americans to wear masks big time saying a face mask may actually offer a better guarantee of protection than a vaccine that we all hope is coming down the road. Tell us why he believes that and what you think. Well, on the one hand, there is emerging evidence that if everyone masks up very effectively, theres very little spread of covid. So masks can be very effective. And its really important to emphasize that even with a vaccine this is not the be all and end all. We have a great vaccine for measles and we still have 140,000 deaths a year from measles. We have a vaccine for flu, and we still have hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths from flu. So a vaccine isnt going to take this off the table, but it is a very important tool. What i would say is that the benefit of a vaccine is you take it once or twice and it may protect you for a year or much longer. We dont know that yet. A vaccine is potentially the single most important tool we have to fight covid. But its only one tool. And we need that comprehensive response to chip away at the pandemic so we can get our jobs back, get our educational system back in person, and save tens of thousands of lives going back to the first question you asked, 200,000 deaths in the u. S. Is a reflection of a failing national response. If you look at germany, onefifth our death rate. If you look at south korea, 80 times fewer deaths than we have had. These are lives that have been lost and jobs that have been lost because we havent had an organized consistent coherent federal response. South korea, theyve had about 400 people die from coronavirus since early march when their first death occurred just around the same time the first death occurred here in the United States. Were approaching 200,000. Theyre a country of 55 million. Theyve had about 400 people who have died from coronavirus. They were doing something very, very right. Clearly we were not. Dr. Tom frieden, as usual, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. So, were going to continue our coverage of the coronavirus. But right now i want to get the latest on the Flood Disaster thats unfolding in major parts of florida and alabama right now triggered by hurricane sally. Now its a Tropical Storm. Our meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the latebreaking developments for us. Jennifer, hundreds of people have had to be rescued from these floods. What is you hearing, what are you hearing . Thats where weve had incredible amounts of rain. Weve seen more than two feet of rain in that location. Thats also very close to where the storm came on shore early this morning. So we got a push of water from the storm as well due to the surge. A lot of the bridges in that area are damaged as well as the roads. So all of that will have to be evaluated as well. The storm right now is slowly weakening. Its got 60mileperhour winds. This storm made landfall almost 12 hours ago. And it is only 50 miles north of pensacola. So the storm is still moving incredibly slowly. Thats why were going to continue to see that flood threat all across the coast as well as alabama into georgia. Atlanta even getting on the rain now as well. This area shaded in white, thats more than 20 inches of rain. Thats as high as our color table goes. Some areas have received 24 inches of rain. And some areas even higher. Were still continuing to get data in compiling those totals. But you can see even the area shaded in hot pink, thats 10 inches of rain. Its farreaching, its widespread. This is a big form. And so thats why you are going to see that flood threat reach anywhere from, say, western alabama all the way over into georgia and even into the carolinas as we get into the next couple of days. Here are those flash flood warnings in effect for the panhandle as well as portions of alabama and georgia. Those are going to spread to the north as we go into the next 24 hours or so. It is picking up just a tad bit of speed, 7 Miles Per Hour which is still very, very slow. But the next 12 to 18 hours it will start to pick up speed and it will move out into the carolinas. Still is about a 30mileperhour storm there and dumping a lot of rain as well for South Carolina and North Carolina on through the weekend well. Thank you very much for that update. 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As we wait for President Trump to take reporters questions at todays White House Briefing we are joined now by the mayor of miami beach. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. 152 floridans were reported dead from the coronavirus today as yo. But the president is still defending his response to the pandemic. Why would you downplay a pandemic that is known to disproportionately harm lowincome families and minority communities . Well, i didnt downplay it. I actually, in many ways i upplayed it in terms of action. So, mayor, if the president wont even acknowledge something he said publicly on the record in those taped interviews with the journalist bob woodward, how concerned are you about whats to come this fall as this virus clearly and sadly continues to spread . Look, until we get a vaccine, information is our vaccine. We have to know, and its clear he downplayed. I was a mayor trying to convince people to socially distance themselves in february and march. And we were being told they were being told they dont have to worry about it. I mean, ive listened to him say it. Its really unbelievable to me. We had 32 deaths today in miamidade county. And thats much better than other days when 32 deaths becomes a good day, you know theres been a total failure. And he keeps telling people dont worry about masks, dont worry about the disease. Its killing enormous amounts of people every day, and the response seems to have been lets just normalize this and get used to it. And thats obviously horrific. And it weighs on everybody who sees it on a daily basis. We cant get used to this nearly 200,000 americans over the past six months are now dead from this virus. I want to read part of a scathing letter, mayor, that you wrote the Florida Governor ron desantis urging him, among other things, to institute a statewide mask mandate. With regard to the mask requirement, too many people are still unconvinced that they need to wear a mask. Unquestionably, many follow President Trumps unfortunate example. How much more difficult is it, mayor, to enforce mask wearing when the president publicly claims without any scientific proof that there are a lot of people im quoting him now, that think masks are not good . Look. The president has a following of people that its pretty obvious, as he says, will follow him anywhere. Yet, for some reason, he has not harnessed that obedience or that respect, whatever you want to call it and said to them wear a mask, its the right thing to do. He hasnt done that. And weve instituted a thousand weve already given a thousand fines in my little city for failure to wear a mask. And we get visitors from all over and they just dont do it. Our governor wont do it. We have done it in our county. But we get people from everywhere. Its the easiest thing to do. By the way, when you have a curfew and you have capacity limits, that affects the economy. Wearing a mask doesnt affect the economy. It just saves lives. So, as we are reopening, if we dont have a mask mandate, if the president doesnt tell people, please do this, i have no idea why this has become a political other than the fact that it seems to be the president s, you know, way in which he campaigns is to divide people and create disagreements. But in a pandemic you need unity, you need people on the same page, you need them to do what every other president has done when we are at our darkest times to appeal to people to bring out their better angels. The director of the National Institutes of health, dr. Francis collins, says, and i am quoting him now, the unfortunate mix of science and politics is contributing to vaccine hesitancy. What are you doing to counter act those fears among your residents in miami beach . And im sure many of them have fears that a vaccine might not be safe and effective even if they hear it is, lets say, from the president. Listen, we think and i think really because of this abdication of leadership, we are in a pickle right now everywhere. People dont trust each other. They dont trust science. They dont trust obvious health care direction. In that situation we dont know what to tell anybody. I am begging people to wear a mask. Our Police Officers and code officers come up to people who are not wearing a mask, put themselves in peril to get them to wear a mask. We give masks away free and then the president holds rallies where people dont care. And by the way, thats all you really have when you dont have a vaccine. You need people to have faith. You need people to listen and we need to be on the same page. Mayor dan gelber, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, wolf. A quick note to our viewers. Be sure to watch cnn tomorrow for a live president ial town hall with democratic president ial nominee joe biden. He joins our own Anderson Cooper in scranton, pennsylvania. Its tomorrow 8 00 p. M. Eastern only here on cnn. And stay with us. We have an updated forecast now on where Tropical Storm sally is heading. Plus, an update on all the other storms out in the atlantic. Were waiting for President Trump to start taking reporters questions at a White House Briefing. Much more of our coverage coming up. It was 1961 when nellie young lost her devoted husband. Without him, things were tough. Her last option was to sell her home, but. Her home meant everything to her. Her husband had been a High School Football coach and it turned out, one of his former players came up with an answer. A loan, created just for older homeowners. And pretty soon, nellie young had one of the first reverse mortgages. Discover if a reverse Mortgage Loan is right for you. Use it to eliminate monthly mortgage payments and increase cashflow, create an emergency fund, preserve Retirement Savings and more. Call now for your free information kit. 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Call now and get your free infokit were following breaking news. Truly punishing rain and epic flooding going on in florida and alabama. Its being unleashed by whats now Tropical Storm sally. I want to get some more on all the breaking news. Orange beach, alabama, mayor is joining us right now. Thank you so much for joining us. How bad is the damage, how bad is the flooding from this storm where you are . This shouldve been nothing more than a nuisance rain event. But sally took a hard right there at the last minute and jumped from a category 1 to a strong category 2. And at 20 inches of rain or more, it was devastating as far as the amount of flooding, trees down. Were without power on the entire island. Beach erosion was devastating. A lot of our streets cant move around. Were going to have to do a lot of work just to get mobile. Reporter how about the people where you are in orange beach . Have there been rescues . How are the folks doing . We had a significant amount of surge or rising water last night. So between about 12 00 and daylight we ran 120plus emergency runs. We have about 60 people in our rec center, in the rescue unit. It was really hairy there for a while. I give all the kudos in the world to the police and fire who didnt hesitate, got out in the stand went after those folks who were in need. I understand your entire is island is without power right now. Any idea when it might be restored . That is correct. We dont know. We think there are some transmission line issues that slows the process down. But we still have so much water. Its just really hard to get around and assess. But i think tomorrow we will be able accelerate the whole process and hopefully get something on by the weekend. Originally the storm looked like it would miss your area. It clearly didnt miss your area. Were people caught by surprise . Were they ready . To some degree. I mean, within 24 hours everything changed from a nuisance event to a serious storm with a tremendous amount of rain. Most folks did not take it that serious. Nor did i. Because seeing the storm hook that strongly to the right at the last minute and accelerate from an 80mileanhour storm to a 110mileanhour storm. Weve been through this before and well get to work tomorrow and bounce back. Im sure you will. The orange beach, alabama, mayor, good luck to you and all the folks over there. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. We appreciate you checking on us. Thank you. And stay with us. Were waiting for President Trump to start answering reporters questions at a White House Briefing. Well go there. Stay with us. Well be right back. Of our elusive subject, there he is. Carnivorous devourus. He only comes out for devour. Look how he rips into that buffalo chicken mac and cheese. Eat like an animal. Devour. Hey kaleb, whats up . How you doing . Hey, im good, guess what, i just had my 13th surgery. Really . I just had my 17th surgery. Well, you beat me. Well, i am a little bit older than you. Yeah its true. How are you doing . Im doing good. Im encouraged by seeing how people are coming together to help each other during times like these. Kind of like how shriners hospitals for children is there for us. Imagine if i couldnt get my surgery. Who knows what would have happened. Same for me. I know my shriners hospitals family will continue to take care kids like us the president s now taking questions from reporters at the white house. Likely would not be available until probably next summer, maybe even early fall. Are you comfortable with that time line . No. I think you made a mistake when he said that. Its incorrect information. And i called him and he didnt tell me that, and i think he got the message maybe confused. Maybe it was stated incorrectly. No, were ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced. And it could be announced in october. It could be announced a little bit after october. But once we go, were ready. As you know, pfizers making theyre taking a tremendous financial risk and they are spending billions of dollars on actually making this vaccine. Theyre in a stage where theyre actually making it because they feel very confident as to the results. They will be announcing their results fairly soon. And, no, thats incorrect information. He was clear yeah. But i dont think he means that. When he said it, i believe he was confused. Im just telling you, were ready to go as soon as the vaccine happens. So when do you want to see it available . What would be a time line . We will start distributing it immediately. But to the general public . To the general public very shortly. Really to the general public immediately. When we go, we go. Were not looking to say, gee, in six months were going to start giving it to the general public. No, it was an incorrect statement. I saw the statement and i said what did you mean by that . And i think he just made a mistake. He just made a mistake. I think he misunderstood the question probably. So, if you were to put a time line on when every person in america will be able to get a vaccine, what would that be . I think it would be very soon. I think our Distribution Process is going to go very quickly. Weve engaged the military. We have a general whos in charge of all logistics who delivers soldiers. Hes a fantastic guy. Hes supposed to be fantastic at what he does. And we figure thats better than any company youre going to hire. And we look to distribution immediately after we get the word that its good. I think theyre having tremendous success with the vaccine itself. I think the results will be early and strong. The safety has to be 100 and were going to insist on that. And obviously the companies are going to insist on that also. Could you put an actual date like january, february . Scott, what would you think . As i said, the high priority people will have, sure, in some time no later than january. Of course it depends on when things are approved. But what about im talking if i can finish. And then its anticipated there will be 700 million doses by end of q1. Thats 700 million doses. By the end of the month . By the end of q1. Do you mind if i ask you a question . Thats the end of march, right . Its one thing to have the doses. But weve talked to public Health Experts who say if this is happening in the winter and you have to socially distance, you cant have the packed lines that we saw during h1n1. You cant have packed auditoriums. You have to space it out so thats one thing. Another thing theyre worried about is storing these vaccines. Since we dont know which one is the winner, doctors offices may not have dry ice to handle negative 80 degrees. These are challenges. Are you prepared to say that you can overcome all those in three months . Yes. Because at least ive been briefed on the vaccine. And so all of the refrigerators that are necessary, everything is going to be in place for this. Theres a very detailed logistical plan that was started months ago. Youre welcome to read it on the web. But basically, yeah, all those things are not a problem really. If people know how to shop for groceries or go into a store and sit in the restaurants that are open and use social distancing, i think they can do it for vaccines too. And you also have more than one company. You have johnson johnson. You have pfizer. You have moderna. You have others. So we can conceivably have vaccines being given out by Numerous Companies and theyre all worldclass companies. That could happen also. Okay . Please, go ahead. Thank you, mr. President. Are you prepared to sign off on the oracle and tiktok deal even though the treasury isnt getting paid . And also does the deal meet your requirements in terms of National Security concerns . Theyre giving me studies on the deal. It has to be 100 as far as National Security is concerned. And, no, im not prepared to sign off on anything. I have to see the deal. We need security especially after what we have seen with respect to china and whats going on. We want security. So, ill let you know. Theyre going to be reporting to me tomorrow morning, and well let you know. What about the payments to the treasury . Were going to see about that. Amazingly, i find that youre not allowed to do that. Youre not allowed i say what kind of a thing is this if theyre willing to make big payments to the government theyre not allowed because theres no way of doing that from theres no legal path to doing that. And im saying, wait a minute, theyre willing to make a big payment to the government and were not allowed to take the money . How foolish can we be . Were looking into that right now. You understand that . I said, no, i want a big chunk of that money to go to the United States government because we made it possible. And the lawyers come back to me and they say, well, theres no way of doing that. You know why . Because nobodys ever said that before. Nobodys ever said, well, well approve the deal but we want a lot of money to go to the government. Because were making the deal valuable. Theyve never heard of that before. Okay . Can you believe that, right . Hard to believe. Yes, please . A quick followup on tiktok. You had said earlier that it was really important to you that a u. S. Company buy tiktok. And according to the proposal submitted by bytedance, bytedance would keep a majority steak and oracle would have a minority stake. Were looking into that from the standpoint of bytedance. That has not been told to me yet. That has been reported but hasnt been told to me. It could be very accurate reporting for a change. So, if thats the case im not going to be happy with that. Assuming that bytedance is china, which i think it probably is. Bill barr told prosecutors that he wants to charge violent demonstrators with sedition. And you told judge jeannine that he will put them down very quickly. Its called an insurrection. So im wondering why you want to use that kind of rhetoric the question was asked of me if we have violent demonstrations we will put it down very, very quickly. And i think the American Public wants to see that. Oan, please. If theres any kind of demonstration of violence, there will be nothing that interferes with this product, this vote. Theres going to be nothing. The biggest problem we have right now are the ballots. Millions of ballots going out. Thats the biggest problem. When you talk about other countries, whether its china, russia, or many others that get mentioned, theyre in a much better position with these paper ballots to do something than they would ever be under the old system. And thats our biggest problem. Our biggest threat to this election is governors from opposing parties controlling ballots, millions of ballots. To me thats a much bigger threat than Foreign Countries. Because much of the stuff coming out about Foreign Countries turned out to be untrue. What is true is that many elections have taken place over the last year and a half using this Ballot System. Theyve been off by 5 , 10 , 15 . I think i read one at 40 . And these are small easy to control elections. This whole Ballot System where you can send it in and its not even requested, were not talking about its solicited. Theyre unsolicited ballots and theyre sent in. Its very dangerous for our country. You know who knows that better than anybody . The democrats. Look at what happened in manhattan where they had this kind of an election. And it was so fraudulent that it should never have been allowed to be called. We could have 5, 10, 15, 20 off. We could have more than that. The ballots will be stolen. Who knows where theyre going. Who knows where theyre coming from. Its not just the counting of the ballots, which, by the way will take forever. Itll take forever. You think november 3rd . You might not have i guess, at a certain point it goes to congress. At a certain point it goes to congress. You know that. This is a disgrace. This is being done on purpose. They know its no good. They know its going to be fraudulent. Its going to be fraud all over the place. Whos getting the ballots . Whos sending the ballots . They have people saying you dont need a verified signature. This is a serious threat to our democracy, and the democrats know that. All were asking, if you solicit the ballot, you go through a process. You ask for a ballot because you cant be there for a large number of reasons im doing it myself. I wont be able to be in florida. You solicit and they send it back. You do it and you send it back. Thats the process that you go through. Its pretty secure. I use the word pretty secure. I guess nothings foolproof. But whats pretty close to the most foolproof thing, the thing that really works is you go to the ballot box. Its going to be very safe. I think by that time covid will be even lower. Its going to be very low. Its going to be a very safe process. We did it during world war i. We did it during world war ii. The biggest threat to this election is these unsolicited ballots sent out by the millions, controlled by governors like in nevada, who is a political person, very political, far beyond being governor, where they try to stop you from making a speech unsuccessfully, but we had to move around a lot, had to move quickly. So this same guy that tried to stop you from making free speech outside, they forced us inside because of what they did. But outside, this is the guy thats controlling ballots. Then you look at pennsylvania. You look at other places. It is a big threat. And as far as chinas concerned and russia and they say North Carolina, they say places, who knows, but they say all these different places. They can make forgeries of these ballots. They can do things that will blow your mind. And the democrats know its wrong. They know its going to end up being a disaster. Just take a look at whats happened. Take a look at whats happened over the last year with this same kind of thing. Except in a very small setting with very few ballots going out so thats much easier. Not 53 to 80 million going out. A very small number. You know whats happened . Fraud like youve never seen, missing ballots, ballots that never showed up, ballots with bad signatures, ballots with no signatures. And in the case of nevada they dont even want verification of the signature. Its a disgrace. Now, the hope for our nation is its before judges. In pennsylvania its before judges. In nevada its before judges. In other places its before federal judges. And hopefully they will do what they did the other day in pennsylvania where we had a great victory. Open up your state. Its unconstitutional to close it. Because what they were doing is closing it. And theyre closing it for political reasons. Itll open on november 4th. Itll open up right after the election. But they want people to they want our numbers to be as bad as possible. But the problem is our numbers are so good with or without various states opening up, with or without. But we had a big legal victory, as you know, three days ago. A federal judge told them to open up their state. Its unconstitutional what youre doing. Thats in the case of pennsylvania. Now the big cases are going to be the cases on these unsolicited ballots. And well see what happens. Oan, please. On the grounds that Chinese Communist party has been using slave labor, your administration has imposed a limited ban on certain products coming out of shin jang stopping short of a full region ban. What is your response to the Chinese Communist partys spokespeople who are saying that this is an outright lie, they do not have forced labor. Number two, have allies expressed interest in standing with this administration in taking action against forced labor . Weve been very strong on that. Were getting reports in over the next two, three days. Well know very accurately what the story is and well take action one way or the other. I just want to ask you about the see i want to ask about the recent wto ruling against the United States. Should the u. S. Remain part of the wto . I have real questions about it. Look, the u. S. , we just won a 7. 5 billion lawsuit which nobody used to sue before i came along, un, they used to lose them every single time. Now they havent been losing them. Were getting reports on the wto. Its not good. Never been good to us. The wto as far as im concerned was created to suck money and jobs out of the United States to the benefit of china and other countries. That is my opinion. Whether it was created or just turned out to be that way but the World Trade Organization has been not good for the United States. Its been good for everybody else but its not been good it was a method in my opinion of taking advantage of the United States, so were looking into what happened and well get back to you. You said you spoke with dr. Redfield earlier and you said he made a mistake. I think he made a mistake yes. I didnt go into any great i was very surprised to hear it doesnt really matter. Here is what does matter. We are all set to distribute immediately. As soon as that vaccine comes out that is safe and good and works whether its pfizer, johnson johnson, or anybody else we are ready to distribute it very rapidly. As scott said and as our team knows, and theyre ready, and that could be in october, sometime in october or november. I dont think it is going to be much later than that. But i think it could be sometime in october. Were ready to move and it will be a very full distribution. You had the call you said you told him he had made a mistake. What was his response . No, i didnt tell him anything. I said what happened . I got the impression that he didnt realize he said what he might have said. I didnt see him say it. But if that is what he said its a mistake because were ready to distribute immediately to a vast section of our country and then beyond. Because we want to help other countries, also. But were ready to distribute immediately. But the time line he gave saying it wouldnt be ready for the general public until the middle of next year sounds very like the one you just kind of offered. No. I said there will be 700 million doses by end of q1 and everyone in high risk will have it no later than january. He was talking, he said the general public. We are focused as you know, were focused on high risk but were going to focus also on general public very much. But our immediate aim is elderly people and especially elderly people with heart, diabetes problems. But we will have it were not looking at a small distribution program. Were looking at distributing to the whole United States with an immediate focus of the elderly. Now, under no circumstances will it be as late as the doctor said, but i think that frankly if he analyzes, you know, they hit him with that question, he said that we are ready at a much faster level than what he said. We will have rapid distribution. Were set up, our military and others are set up to do it. And we think it could even start taking place in october but certainly during November December would be the latest. Because based on what were hearing, results are based on what im hearing results are very good. You told bob woodward the problem with a vaccine is the vaccine will take 13 to 14 months once you have it because you have to test a vaccine. So do you want to clarify what i was saying to him, no. That was a long time ago when i said that. We werent set up at that time. How many months ago . When was the statement made . He doesnt say in the book. Its obsolete. Because the book by the way i read the book last night very rapidly because it was very boring. I read it. If you see what i said, i said a lot of really good things. For the most part people like to turn it around but i said really good things in that book. As an example, he doesnt cover i told him what were doing in the middle east and were doing it in an entirely different way. Thats not covered in his book. The whole thing isnt covered in his book. One thing i will say and i respect the press for this one which is interesting, almost universally weve been praised for the deal we made yesterday with israel and, you know, the two very important countries in the middle east, and uae in particular where it is a very powerful group. It is a warrior country. Its led by a great warrior and a man who is highly respected. If you take a look at that and bahrain, and israel making a deal, i will tell you we have at least four or five others that want to come in. They would have come in yesterday. I talked to two of them yesterday and theyre ready to trot. I think youre going to have a whole level of peace without blood all over the sand. Nobody was shot. Nobody was killed. We killed hundreds of thousands of people in the middle east. Its all i always say its its the bloodiest sand anywhere in the world and it didnt have to be that way. The single worst decision our country ever made was to go into the middle east. Not only the millions of People Killed, and i include people on both sides, you know, some people say oh, you shouldnt say that. I said ill say it. On both sides. Such a horrible thing was done. Such a horrible mistake was made. Were doing this a different way. So we have those two countries. We have at least five that were negotiating with right now. You know, you can only negotiate with so many. I think theyre all going to come in. I think ultimately the palestinians are going to come in. These are all the people that are funding them. I stopped funding the palestinians fairly early on because they were saying bad things about our country. I said you mean were giving them 750 million a year and theyre saying all bad things about our country . So i stopped funding them very early on. But they get funded by other very rich countries. To them its like a speck. Its nothing. But they get funded. And i think now that these countries, these very rich countries are part of the deal and youll see over the next fairly short period of time other countries will come in, i think saudi arabia ultimately will come in, too. I think getting saudi arabia will be great. I think saudi arabia, this is my feeling, it is not based on knowledge other than a couple conversations i had with the king, but saudi arabia i think will be coming in, too. Youll end up with peace in the middle east and nobody thought it could be done and nobody thought it could be done this way. I went to some very smart people. I went to some people in the middle east and they said, youll never be able to do it. It is not possible to make peace. Well, now theyre saying to me, nobody ever thought of doing this. They all thought you make the deal first with the palestinians. It had to be that way. And i will say, the resistance was some countries didnt want to do it unless the palestinians were there first. That was just a psychological thing more than anything else but they were wrong. The people our great representatives that have been doing this for 35 years that were telling me how to do it but they all failed. Clintons administration, they were in bush, they were in obama, all these great, brilliant people were all telling me how to do it and i said theyre wrong and i guess i was right. When you see, lets finish this. When you see the countries that will be coming, a very short period of time, not talking a long period of time, all of the countries that will be coming in just like you saw bahrain yesterday and uae and i can think of at least five that are going to be quick and easy, others will be quick and easy, also. Once the five come in. So youre going to have something, peace in the middle east. And we want to get out, you know, our soldiers are largely coming home. The endless wars. The ridiculous, endless wars. I will say this. If i didnt withdraw our country from that horrible iran nuclear deal, that horrible, stupid deal where president obama paid 150 billion for nothing and gave 1. 8 billion in cash, you know what that is . 1. 8 billion in cash. That is more impressive than the 150 billion paid normally but he gave all this money, all of this all of these chips we had. We had these chips and he gave them all away and we got nothing. You know, it was a short term deal. It would be practically expiring now. It starts to expire actually right now but it would practically and there is no way we will let iran have a nuclear weapon. Just remember that. There is no way thats going to happen. Do you want to reverse what you told woodward about the 13 to 14month time line for a vaccine . Well, the vaccine at the time i thought it might take that period of time but weve stepped it up very substantially. Im just telling you this is just what it is. Weve been able to step it up very, very rapidly. I never thought we could have a vaccine as quickly as we did but i freed it up. I freed up the fda. Dr. Hahns done a great job. Theyre ready to approve something when they come in. The other thing that is happening that is very different is you look at a company like pfizer, great company, really one of the Great Companies of the world, johnson johnson. Theyre all Great Companies. Theyre doing a lot of testing at a very rapid rate that nobody has ever seen anything like it. Theyre out in third in the third level of trial. I think that youre going to see things that are amazing. When i made statements like that, that is an old statement. When i made statements like that i had no idea we could produce as well as were producing but only because of what ive done with the fda and other things can we come up with numbers like that. Were lucky that we dont have to. That was considered fast. If this were an administration from the past, and i think i can say far beyond obama if it was other administrations also. You wouldnt have a vaccine for two and a half, three years. Were going to have a vaccine within at most a couple of months. Okay . Mr. President . If i could ask you about coronavirus relief, do you support the Problem Solvers Caucus proposal that was put forward . Are you comfortable with the Something Like that. Yeah. I like the larger amount. Ive said that. Some of the republicans disagree but i think i can convince them to go along with that because i like the larger number. I want to see people get money. It wasnt their fault this haen