Running cities like chicago and so many others that we just had a News Conference and, unfortunately, thats the way it is. Thats the facts. When you look at chicago and you look at the job mayor lightfoot sent me a letter yesterday and i think in their own way they want us to go in. There will be a time when theyll want us to go in full blast but right now were sending extra people to help. Were arresting a lot of people that have been very bad as far as the coronavirus, as you say, i think weve done some Amazing Things and i think youll probably see that if you compare our statistics to other countries and if you look at death rates, etcetera, youll see, and especially into the future with whats happening, youre going to see some very, very impressive numbers for the United States. John, go ahead. Mr. President , do you plan to do a National Strategy to help schools reopen and reopen safely . Regarding the children in your family, your son, your grandchildren, are you comfortable, do you plan to have them back in person in school . Yeah, i am comfortable with that. We do have a National Strategy. As you know, ultimately it is up to the governors of the states. I think most governors, many governors want the schools to open. I would like to see the schools open especially when you see statistics like this. We have great statistics on young people. And on safety. We would like to see schools open. We want to see the economy open. We just had a report literally as i walked in that we set an all time record on Housing Price increases up i think they said 21 , which is a record thats never happened before. Thats a great sign. We have an economy that is going to be booming. Its going to be a lot of jobs being produced. Job numbers will be coming out shortly meaning over the next week or so. Itll be a continuation of the last two months, the last two months have been incredible. So i think well have a great economy. Youll have a fantastic next year, and a very good Third Quarter when the Third Quarter numbers come out. Interestingly, they will be announced just before the election. Theyll be announced around november 1st. So, yeah. I would like to see the schools open, open a hundred percent, and well do it safely. Well do it carefully. When you look at the statistics, i just read having to children and safety, theyre very impressive. They have very strong immune systems. But you understand the children who go to school then go back to home theyre with, some live with their grandparents. Sure. There is a real risk. Well, they do say they dont transmit very easily and a lot of people are saying they dont transmit and were looking at that and studying, john, very hard that particular subject. That they dont bring it home with them. Now, they dont catch it easily. They dont bring it home easily. If they do catch it they get better fast. Were looking at that very strongly and well be reporting about that over the next week. Please . Mr. President , at least three governors today came out with new orders on mask requirements. Is that something you wish all the governors would do . Well, a lot of the governors have different requirements. Some are very strong on masks others arent. Weve given the facts. Some have their own facts. Some are strong on masks. Some arent in the same ballpark. I think all are suggesting if you want to wear a mask youway ter. I bring one. I have one. Ive worn it. And when im in certain settings like hospitals or when im close, you know, when you cant socially distance i believe in it. Lets see. Do i . I do. I have it. You know, in certain instances i think you really i think you want to travel with a mask. There are instances where you really can use it. I would believe it would be a good thing. D. C. Mayor bowser came up today with an order that doesnt apply to federal properties but would you encourage federal properties including the white house complex to follow the order . Well make a decision over the next 24 hours. Well let you know what that decision is. Thank you. Thank you. President trump, do you agree with the republicans discussing the possibility of extending shortterm Unemployment Insurance today so they prevent benefits from expiring . Well, i think a lot of politicians are discussing that republicans, democrats, and right now a lot of my representatives are on the hill discussing the cares act or phase iv. Whatever you want to call it. I think ultimately something good will come out of it. The economy is starting to really come back strongly when you look at the numbers even with the fact that, like california is still closed up and many big states. I think the numbers are even more impressive considering some states like california, big ones, are pretty well shut down. So we expect to have something over a period of time over the appropriate period of time. Thank you very much. These questions, one is, today you said you are sending federal Law Enforcement to run cities run by extreme politicians. That is the word you used. Who happen to be all democrats who have supported black lives matter protests. I didnt that. I said democrat politicians and these are the cities where you have the problem. If you look at chicago, if you look at detroit, if you look look around any of these cities where we have the problems and were sending them help but were really waiting for them to call for the big help for the big numbers for the large numbers of people we have ready, willing, and able. You look at chicago where 14 people were shot yesterday, where over the weekend many people died and many people were shot. Over the last month theyre setting Record Numbers. We are waiting for the mayor respectfully and other mayors and governors to call us. We are ready, willing, and able to go in there with great force. Now, we also have people that are going in and arresting drug dealers, arresting some of the shooters that are doing the shooting. We know who they are. Were working with Police Forces and even though in some cases they are told dont work with the federal government the Police Forces have Great Respect for the federal government, what we do. But we are ready, willing, and able to go into these cities that are just being decimated with shooting and were going to help. Please. I dont think we really got an explanation yesterday on why the Health Experts are no longer joining you in these briefings. Can you explain why . Because they are briefing me. Im meeting them. I just spoke to dr. Fauci, dr. Birx is right outside. Theyre giving me all of everything they know as of this point in time. Probably a very concise way of doing it. It seems to be working out very well. Theyre very much involved, very much with the relationships are all very good. All very good. The relationships that we have with the doctors, with everybody working on the virus has been i think extraordinary. Kayleigh is here and i think you would say the same thing. You work with them all the time. In 2016 you said it was president obamas fault homicides were up in chicago so why was it the president s fault then but its not your fault now . Chicago is a disaster. The mayor is saying dont come in. The mayor is telling us not to come in. At some point we can void that if we have to and we may have to because it is out of control. I assume she is saying that for political reasons. I think its negative political reasons. She is a democrat. Im going to be nice. Shes a democrat. Shes making a big mistake. People are dying in chicago and other cities and we can solve the problem. They have to ask us but we can solve the problem. Why was it president obamas fault in 2016 . Because president obama was invited in and he did a poor job. President obama could have gone into chicago and solved the problem and he didnt. In our case, they dont want us in. We can solve the problem very easily. Were equipped with the best equipment, the best people, and you see what were doing, i mean, portland was coming down. It was busting at the seams. And we went in and protected all the federal buildings. Those federal buildings are totally protected. We had to do that. And portland is a very different place than chicago but chicago should be calling us and so should philadelphia and detroit and others to go in and really help them because when youre losing many people a weekend, many, many people. You see the same numbers as i do. When you are losing these people, they should call us and they should say, come on in. And its incredible to me but theyre not doing it. At some point they will. At some point we may have no other choice but to go in. Jeff, please . Mr. President , are you looking at closing further chinese embassyies in the United States and did you ask ambassador Woody Johnson to bring the british open to your turnberry property in scotland . No i never spoke to Woody Johnson about that. Turnberry is a highly respected course as you know, one of the best in the world. I read a story about it today. I had never i never spoke to Woody Johnson about doing that, no. As far as closing additional embassies it is always possible. You see what is going on. We thought there was a fire in the one we did close. Everybody said, theres a fire. I guess they were burning documents or papers and i wonder what thats all about. Okay. How about one or two more please . Thank you. Would you like to respond to joe biden who today described you, you might have heard that, as the first racist to be elected president . Those are his words. You know, its interesting, because we did criminal justice reform. We passed criminal justice reform, something that obama and biden were unable to do. We did opportunity cities. We did the greatest, if you look at what weve done with opportunity zones, nobodys ever even thought of a plan like that. Prior to the china plague coming into our country and doing terrible things all over the world, doing terrible things, we had the best africanamerican, hispanic american, asian american, almost every group was the best for unemployment, the unemployment numbers were the best. You look at, so you look at unemployment, you look at opportunity zones. And maybe most importantly you look at criminal justice reform. You look at prison reform. Ive done things that nobody else ive said this and i say it openly and not a lot of people dispute it. Ive done more for black americans than anybody with the possible exception of abraham lincoln. Nobody has even been close. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Mr. President . Mr. President all right. So relatively short q a. Reporters over at the white house asking the president a few questions on the coronavirus, also on his announcement earlier in the day he is ready to deploy u. S. Agents to various cities like chicago or new york city, other cities around the country where theres been an upsurge in violence in recent weeks and months. On the coronavirus, he did say he is very comfortable that the Trump Administration in his words does have a National Strategy to deal with all of this. He was very upbeat about the economy. He was upbeat about helping make sure that all, 100 he said of schools are reopened in the United States. He said he would have no problem with his little son and grandchildren going back to school right away. He also said, and jim acosta is with us, i dont know what he was referring to, he said within the next 24 hours or so, jim, he would have an announcement on masks, nationwide, some sort of announcement on masks. Did you hear an allusion to that . There was some allusion to that, wolf, but it is not all together clear what that means. Weve heard the president make these kinds of pronouncements before saying hell have an announcement on something and then two weeks will go by and we wont hear anything about that. Well have to wait and see what these details are. If he were to make some kind of declaration that he wants to see masks worn across the country, that would be just a complete 180 from where he has been since the very beginning of this pandemic. Obviously he had to be dragged kicking and screaming just about into this notion that people around the country have to wear masks in order to control the coronavirus. The other thing we should point out, wolf, when the president was asked about his children and grandchildren going back to school, the president not only said that he wants to see schools reopen 100 as he put it, but he also said that he believes children have strong immune systems and that there isnt a danger with those children going back home and potentially infecting their parents and grandparents if a grandparent is living in a house with a child. The president was sort of brushing off those concerns. Weve heard similar sentiments from white house officials in recent weeks but, wolf, the science is just not settled on this. The white house has been turning their attention to studies that support their point of view on 100 open schools around the country. But there are lots of nervous parents out there, lots of nervous teachers and administrators who say, hang on a second. I remember the cold and flu season from every year before this year. And kids go to school and they come back and they get people infected at home with the common cold and the seasonal flu. There is the expectation that could happen of course once again with the coronavirus. The other thing we should point out, wolf, he was pressed a couple of times on this notion that he wants to send federal Law Enforcement officers into cities around the country. Hes accusing democratic mayors in these cities of not being able to control Violent Crime. It was pointed out that back in 2016 President Trump accused barack obama of not being able to control Violent Crime in cities. Basically asking the president the question, arent you responsible for when Violent Crime flares up in u. S. Cities nowadays . And one thing we should note, wolf, is that Violent Crime across the country, studies have shown, has been on the decline versus where its been in recent decades. The other thing we should point out is as the president was presenting these sort of rosie pictures of where things stand and in terms of the coronavirus he was passing on once again, you know, his advice coming from Health Experts that people should be washing their hands, Wearing Masks, avoiding crowded spaces, and so on. But at one point the president sort of oddly said, im hearing that many people are saying that you should wash your hands. Well, of course, Health Experts from the very beginning of all of this have been saying, people should be washing their hands. Finally, the other thing that should be pointed out is that dr. Anthony fauci and dr. Debra birx were once again not at this press conference with the president. He obviously wants to have this stage to himself. Dr. Fauci, were told, was not invited to yesterdays press conference, was instead at home working on his pitching arm because he is going to be pitching or throwing out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals tomorrow night but dr. Debra birx was apparently once again in the next room. Could easily join the president and have fielded some of these important scientific and Public Health questions and instead of the president , obviously not having all of the facts or the information to answer those sorts of questions, he could have called on dr. Birx to answer those queries and he is just, seems to be resistant to doing that, wolf. Yeah. He is very pointed out that the briefing, he said, dr. Birx, dr. Fauci, theyre giving me everything they know and i come out and report, tell everyone what is going on. It is a very concise way he said of doing it. Let me get dana bash into this conversation as well. He was very determined that he was going to be running the show and let the medical and scientific experts stay behind the scenes. Reporter thats right. Look, that was an important question and the answer we got was that he wants to, you know, he has enough information. But the reality is, take for example what the president said about children. That children have strong immune systems and that they arent as susceptible, which is why he continues to push children to go into school, for the schools to open. Didnt answer the question specifically on what his strategy is. I should add that. But if dr. Birx were there, if dr. Fauci were there, the obvious follow would have been, well, medical professionals, what is your opinion based on your degrees and experience, not based on what may be politically proper if youre the president running for reelection. So thats just not possible in a situation like that. And its not an accident. On the notion of mandating masks in federal buildings my reporting is that according to some people im talking to that there is a sector of trump world that is pushing the president to do just that, to go beyond just the doing the tweet with the mask on to putting it in his pocket as he has done now in two consecutive press conferences but not actually wearing it but making a move. We dont know if he is going to do it. He suggested it is something really being considered. Lastly, i just want to just from a pure political lens, this is a president who is running for reelection that cant go on the campaign trail, and he is trying to find whatever means he can to turn this around for himself. And that is the forum we just saw, period. The fact that he, yes, talked about coronavirus but was very eager to talk about issues that are more advantageous for him. He thinks politically like the law and order notion that he pushes and other things like that. Another reason why the president is doing these press conferences because he tried to do the rally. He tried to do things that he has been traditionally more comfortable with. It backfired big time. Now this is day two because my understanding is he felt like yesterday went really well. Thats why they added another one today even though we didnt think it would happen earl