Pool Reports of July 20, 2020

WH Travel Pool #1 - Pool called to Oval Office

Pool was called unexpectedly to the Oval. President Trump is sitting at the Resolute Desk, with McCarthy, McConnell, Pence, Mnuchin, and Meadows seated around him.

The president said discussions are going well.

Mnuchin said the focus is on “kids and jobs and vaccines.”

“Mark and I will be meeting tomorrow with the republicans at a lunch to give them a full briefing, and then we will also be reaching out to the democrats to begin our discussions, but we are committed that by the end of this month,” Mnuchin said.

“We're going to make sure that we don't pay people more money to stay at home and go to work, we want to make sure that people who can go to work safely can do so we'll have tax credits that incentivize businesses to bring people back to work, will have tax credits for PPE for safe work environment,” he continued.”

Pence said the outbreaks across the sunbelt are “serious” but we are meeting this moment with expanded testing and therapeutics and the development of vaccines.

McConnell did tomorrow begins the process of “socializing” what they have talked about with members. “We don't need an epidemic of lawsuits” he said. He said they will talk to Democrats.

McCarthy said “We don't think any federal money should be spent it gives you a disincentive to work, we want to make sure we have incentives to keep going. For those small businesses, we'll make sure you don't make sure the kids can go back to school but go back safely not just for the children but for the teachers as well.“

ONGOING —

WH Travel Pool #2- Oval comments continued

CONTINUED – President Trump immediately jumped in after McCarthy spoke to bring up China. “It came from China, it should not have been allowed to get out, they could have stopped it,” Trump said.

He said he spoke with the President of France and Egypt this morning, and he said he had conversations with leaders this weekend as well.

The president said that the media has been too focused on the United States, but this is a worldwide problem. “It's all about the Untied States and they don't like to talk about what's going on in the world you look at Mexico, Brazil, many countries in Europe, all over Russia,” Trump said.

Trump said they will be doing more briefings in the next few weeks to talk about vaccines and therapeutics and the WH will bring in some of the “great companies” to talk about the work they're doing. He mentioned Johnson and Johnson.

On payroll tax cut: “It's been proven to be successful and it's a big saving for the people. It's a tremendous saving and an incentive for companies to hire their workers back and to keep their workers.”

“The payroll tax to me is very important,” Trump said.

On briefings: Trump said he will be bringing them back! “I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television, and there's never been anything like it,” Trump said.

“It's a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccines and the therapeutics,” Trump said. “So I think we'll start that probably starting tomorrow, I'll do it at 5 o'clock like we were doing – we had a good slot. A lot of people were watching.”

On Portland: When asked about Portland, the outbreak of violence and whether he is considering sending in troops. The president said it depends on the definition of troops. “We are sending law enforcement.”

He then launched into problems in cities like New York, and said the problem is Democrats “have no idea what they're doing.” “We can't let this happen in the cities,” Trump said.

Trump was asked then what exactly he plans to do, and he said “I'm going to do something that I can tell you.”

“We're going to have more federal law enforcement that. I can tell you. In Portland they've done a fantastic job, they've been there three days have done a fantastic job” he said.

“These people are anarchists, they hate our country and we're not going to let it go forward,” Trump said. He said lawmakers there are afraid of the protesters. “It's worse than Afghanistan.”

To answer a question sent over – Mnuchin said they will start negotiations with another trillion dollars.

WH Travel Pool #3- Lunch lid until 2pm

A lunch lid was called until 2pm.

FYI – Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany just stepped outside to the Fox News tent for a TV hit.

WH Travel Pool #4 - Readout of call with President Macron

>From Judd Deere: “Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France. President Trump and President Macron discussed critical bilateral and global issues, including ways to de-escalate the situation in Libya, which has been exacerbated by the presence of foreign forces and arms.”

WH Travel Pool #5 - Readout of call with President El-Sisi

>From Judd Deere: “Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt. The two leaders affirmed the need for immediate de-escalation in Libya, including through a ceasefire and progress on economic and political negotiations. President Trump also reiterated the commitment of the United States to facilitating a fair and equitable deal among Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and expressed well wishes to the Egyptian people in combating the coronavirus pandemic.”

WH Travel Pool #6 - Departing WH for fundraiser

At 6:12pm we departed the WH for the Trump Hotel.

Per an RNC spokesperson, tonight's fundraiser will raise $5 million for Trump Victory.

WH Travel Pool #7 - Back at the WH

At 9pm, the motorcade departed the TrumpHotel for the quick drive back to the White House. The president stayed at the hotel for dinner and dessert.

(By the time I located email addresses for this report we are back at the White House)

WH Travel Pool #8 - Lid called

Good night!