Pool Reports of March 6, 2020

WH in-town pool report #1/ Pool gathers

Greetings from the White House. Pool has gathered outside the south portico for POTUS departure.

WH in-town pool report #2/ Diplomatic Room

Pool was brought through the south portico into the Diplomatic Room. Documents and a pen are resting on a desk which has the presidential seal. There is a chair behind the desk, beneath a portrait of George Washington.

WH in-town pool 3/ POTUS signs coronavirus funding

POTUS entered the Diplomatic Room at 8.54am and signed the Congressional funding bill for coronavirus response. He said: "We've signed the 8.3 billion. I asked for two and a half and I got 8.3 and I'll take it."

He also said his CDC trip had been cancelled because of a suspected coronavirus case at the CDC itself but this turned out to be negative, so he may visit after all. "So I may be going. We're going to see if they can turn it around."

He then talked about jobs and Afghanistan.

More to follow.

WH in-town pool report #4/ POTUS departs

POTUS took questions for 12 minutes in the Diplomatic Room, reiterating his message that the public should not panic over the coronavirus and that it would have been worse but for his early actions.

He said people are "shocked" by how good the latest job numbers are.

He also claimed that Joe Biden is "more leftwing" than Bernie Sanders as he will raise taxes and put Beto O'Rourke in charge of gun control. He said Elizabeth Warren lost because of lack of talent and because she is "mean".

Pool is now back outside the south portico. POTUS walked by without stopping as rain fell and boarded Marine One, which is now taking off.

More to follow.

WH in-town pool report #5/ More details of POTUS remarks at coronavirus bill signing

POTUS entered the Diplomatic Room at 8.54am, wearing black bomber jacket, white shirt with unbuttoned collar and no tie, and khakis, accompanied by Health Secretary Alex Azar. POTUS sat down at a desk that had the presidential seal.

He said: "We're going to Tennessee to meet the governor and a lot of people. Some of you are coming along, I assume, is that right? So we're signing the 8.3 billion. I asked for two and a half and I got 8.3 and I'll take it."

He signed the congressional emergency supplemental spending bill to contain the spread of the coronavirus. He held the bill up for the cameras, which clicked and flashed.

"So here we are, 8.3 billion. We're doing very well. But it's an unforeseen problem, not a problem. Came out of nowhere but we're taking care of it.

"We have big news on the ship. A lot of things are happening on the ship. People are being tested right now and I just spoke to the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. We had a good conversation, we're both working on the ship together. It's close to 5,000 people, so big ship. We're doing testing on those people. OK."

POTUS asked for other papers and they were brought to him. He signed them. POTUS asked Azar: "Do you have anything to say to the press?"

Azar told reporters: "I just want to make it clear that in terms of tests, we have provided all the tests to the state of Washington and the state of California that they've asked for. The production and shipping of tests that we've talked about all week is completely on schedule.

"All of the CDC tests, the tests that are available to test up to 75,000 people, CDC has shipped to America's public health labs. Those are out. Then IDT, the private contractor working with CDC to ship to the private sector and hospitals, has already shipped enough tests for 700,000 tests.

"And the remaining lots are arriving at CDC this morning for quality control and should get out as we forecast this weekend and then next week we'll keep ramping up production. So as many as 4 million tests next week are going to be driving forward. So everything is on schedule for the testing."

More to follow.

WH in-town pool report #6/ More details of POTUS remarks at coronavirus bill signing (part 2)

Pool reporters in the room then asked questions, starting with: "Mr. President, why aren't you going to CDC today?"

Azar interjected: "He's actually sent me. I'm going to go down."

But then POTUS said: "We may go. They thought there was a problem at CDC with somebody that had the virus. It turned out negative so we're seeing if we can do it. But yesterday afternoon, we were informed that there may have been a person with the virus and they now find out that that was negative test. They've tested the person very fully and it was a negative test. So I may be going. We're going to see if they can turn it around with Secret Service. We may be going."

POTUS then took the pen used in the bill signing and threw it to a reporter. "Here Steve, this is for you after covering me so well. First time I've ever done that to a reporter."

POTUS was asked how big a hit to the economy he expects from the coronavirus. He replied: "Well, job numbers just came out and they're incredible. The job numbers were tremendous and we picked up close to 80,000 new jobs from last report. And if you add that up it's over 350,000 jobs.

"Job numbers just came out a little while ago and they were shocking to the people that were analysing them."

He continued: "A lot of people are staying here and they're going to be doing their business here. They're going to be travelling here and they'll be going to resorts here and, you know, we have a great place. So foreign people come but we're going to have Americans staying home instead of going and spending their money in other countries and maybe that's one of the reasons the job numbers are so good. We've had a lot of travel inside the USA."

POTUS was asked if his administration needs to take more action to diminish the risk of recession.

He said: "Well, what we can do is do what we do. We're getting a lot of business from people staying, which I've always liked anyway - you've known that for a long time. But people are staying here and spending their money here as opposed to going to Europe and other places. Now, that'll change when this goes away and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.

"But people, I would say virtually everybody, you saw the job numbers I guess, people were shocked because you had another 80 or whatever it is, a lot of numbers from last month where they upgraded. So the job numbers were at a level that nobody thought possible. They were really incredible."

In response to another question, POTUS said: "We're going to see whether or not the Fed wants to stimulate. In my opinion, they should because Europe is and China is and everybody is but us. We have a Fed that is not exactly proactive. I'm being very nice when I say that. I think what happens is the Fed should cut and the Fed should stimulate and they should do that because other countries are doing it and it puts us at a competitive disadvantage and we have the most prime. We are considered by far the most prime and it's our dollar that everybody uses.

"The Fed should stimulate and they should cut and why should Germany have an advantage over us with interest rates? So Germany just announced that they're stimulating and they're cutting. Asia is, all over Asia they are, China is tremendously and we're really not. And we pay higher interest. We have a higher rate and it's ridiculous, frankly.

"We should have the lowest rate by far and instead we pay more than other countries. Other countries are paying zero and less than zero. You know them very well and we're paying interest, which is a very conservative approach but it's not a good approach because we're also competing against other countries, whether we like it or not. Even our friends we're competing against."

More to follow.

WH in-town pool report #7/ Robert Thomson, Jair Bolsonaro

Question: "So in Afghanistan, are you afraid that once the US pulls out that the Taliban will basically just overrun the Afghan government?"

POTUS replied: "Eventually counties have to take care of themselves. We can't be there for another 20 years. We've been there for 20 years and we've been protecting the country but we can't be there the next - eventually they're going to have to protect themselves, you know. This should have been done a long time ago but you can only hold somebody's hand for so long. We have to get back to running our country, too. You understand that."

Pressed on whether the Afghan government will be capable of defending itself in the long term, POTUS said: "I'll let you know later. We'll have to see what happens. I hope they are but I don't know, I can't answer that question. It's not supposed to happen that way but it possibly will."

POTUS gestured towards Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, who was in the Diplomatic Room for unknown reasons. POTUS quipped: "The most powerful man in all of media. Come on. He has a little something to do with the Wall Street Journal, I don't know if you know. This is real power, right? You used to do what they did, right? He did it so well that he's the boss at News Corp. Of course Rupert has something to say with that, I guess; Lachlan."

POTUS added jovially: "It's good to have you. They treat me very nicely, the media, right, except for the Wall Street Journal, but that's OK."

A reporter asked how POTUS can stop people from panicking about the coronavirus. POTUS said: "I don't think people are panicking. We did an interview on Fox last night, a town hall, I think was very good, and I said calm, you have to be calm, it'll go away.

"We do have a situation where we have this massive ship with 5,000 people and we have to make a decision. It's a big decision because we have very low numbers compared to major countries throughout the world. Our numbers are lower than just about anybody.

"In terms of deaths, I don't know what the count is today, is it 11? Eleven people and in terms of cases, it's very, very few. When you look at other countries it's a very tiny fraction because we've been very strong at the borders. But then you have a ship with a lot of Americans on it, it's 5,000 people on it, it's a massive ship and they want to come in. So we have to make a decision. We're working with the governor of California on it."

POTUS was asked about meeting Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. He confirmed: "Yeah I am, we're having dinner at Mar-a-Lago. He wanted to have dinner in Florida if that was possible. The president of Brazil. So we'll be doing that today."

More to follow.

[Note: Updated White House guidance says that POTUS's visit to CDC in Atlanta today is back on.]

WH in-town pool report #8/ POTUS on financial markets, Biden and Warren

POTUS was asked about the financial markets. He said: "I think financial markets will bounce back soon as in really bounce back. Don't forget they're down probably 10 or 11% from where they were but they were up 70% so it's a relatively small piece. I don't like to see it happen because I was looking for 30,000 fairly soon. It seemed days away from 30,000 and now we have a little more room to make up.

"I think the country is so strong, we're so strong as a country now. We have never been like this. The consumer is generating so much because of the tax cuts, the regulation cuts and the things we've done. So I think we're in great shape. I think we're in great shape."

He added: "This came unexpectedly a number of months ago. I heard about it in China. It came out of China. I heard about it and we made a good move, we closed it down, we stopped it. Otherwise the head of CDC said last night that you would have had thousands of more problems if we didn't shut it down early. That was a very early shut down, which is something we got right."

Your pooler asked whether Joe Biden's emergence as the Democratic front runner on Super Tuesday will take away POTUS's argument that party is too leftwing and socialist.

POTUS replied: "Well, he's leftwing and he's got all people that are leftwing and in many ways he's worse than Bernie. Look what he did with guns. He put Beto in charge of guns. Beto wants to get rid of guns, right? So that's a bad stance and he's got a lot of people that are leftwing and they'll be running the government. He's not going to be running anything. If he ever got in, they'll be running the government. They've got people further leftwing than what Bernie has.

"It wouldn't be good for Wall Street, I can tell you that, plus if you look at his taxes, he's gonna raise taxes incredibly. He's gonna raise taxes more than Bernie and he's open about it. Bernie doesn't like to talk about it. Joe Biden, his tax increases, they're staggering. It's ridiculous. He'll destroy everything that's been built."

Your pooler asked if sexism was a factor in Elizabeth Warren being forced to pull out of the race and whether he believes he will see a female president in his lifetime. POTUS said: "No, I think lack of talent was her problem. She had a tremendous lack of talent. She was a good debater, she destroyed Mike Bloomberg very quickly, like it was nothing, that was easy for her. But people don't like her. She's a very mean person and people don't like her. People don't want that. They like a person like me, that's not mean."

He finished: "OK, I'll see you guys."

POTUS stood up and left the Diplomatic Room just after 9am.

Travel Pool report #1: JBA

Marine One wheels down at Join Base Andrews 09:23.

We are bound for a Mar-a-Lago weekend via Nashville. As you will have seen, CDC is not on the schedule. Will let you know asap if anything changes following POTUS comments at bill signing this morning.

Air Force One plane reg is 28000.

Travel Pool report #2: AF1

POTUS wearing khakis and blue zip up jacket with seal walked straight up stairs to AF1, with brief wave, without speaking to pool.

Travelers today include Jared Kushner, Emma Doyle, Robert O'Brien, Ric Grenell and his partner Matt Lashey.

O'Brien briefly visited press cabin before departure as he showed Lashey around.

Wheels up imminently.

Travel Pool report #3: CDC trip

Stephanie Grisham came back during flight to say the CDC visit is back on.

There will "probably be a tour" she said when asked what would be on the itinerary.

Explaining the on-off nature of the trip she: "What the president said is true."

A CDC member of staff was suspected to have contracted coronavirus and they did not think they would get the test results in time before president's trip so "out of an abundance of caution", she said, it was postponed for the safety of everyone involved and to allow the CDC to prevent any further spread.

"Thankfully she's negative, the person," tested negative.

Itinerary is now to visit Nashville and then go to Atlanta.

Travel Pool report #4: Nashville arrival

Air Force One wheels down Nashville 09.59.

A 40-minute helo ride follows to tornado-hit area.

Only visitor was Stephanie Grisham, mentioned in report #3.

Travel Pool report #5: greeters

From the White House

The President is met by:

Governor Bill Lee
Governor of Tennessee

First Lady Marie Lee
First Lady of Tennessee

Ambassador Bill Hagerty
Former United States Ambassador to Japan and Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development

Director Jeffrey Byard
Director of FEMA

Mayor John Cooper
Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee

Mayor Edward Hagerty
Mayor of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee

Mayor Randall Hutto
Mayor of Wilson County, Tennessee

Mayor Brett Lashlee
Mayor of Benton County, Tennessee

Maj General Jeffrey Holmes
118th Wing, The Adjutant General of Tennessee

Col Jason Glass
118th Wing, Assistant Adjutant General

Col Todd Anthony Wiles
Commander, 118th Wing

Travel Pool report #5a: Greeters FEMA correction

There was an error in info from White House about greeters in Nashville.

FEMA has been in touch to say Administrator Pete Gaynor was in line, not Jeffrey Byard as per pool report #5.

Apologies for confusion.

Travel Pool report #6: Marine One

POTUS disembarked at 10:12 local wearing a Keep America Great hat. He spent a couple of minutes talking to line of greeters.

He gave a thumbs up to pool before heading to Marine One at 10.15 local.

Pool is in Osprey for approx 40 minute flight.

Wheels up momentarily.

You will have seen meanwhile that Press Secretary has announced by email statement a meeting with Bolsonaro tomorrow.

Travel Pool report #7: Marine One wheels down

Marine One landed at 11.00 local after 40 minute flight due east from Nashville to Cookeville High School field, Cookeville, Tennessee.

Motorcade rolling to undisclosed destination at 11.06.

Travel Pool report #8

Motorcade arrived 11.25 at scene of devastation in rural Tennessee outside Cookeville. Pic attached. We are beside flattened house. POTUS is getting guided tour.

Groups of well-wishers appeared along the first part of the route through Cookeville. "God bless you Mr President," read one sign. Some red MAGA hats were in evidence along with several blue Trump 2020 flags.

The final stretch brought us past boarded up windows and downed trees.

Travel Pool report #9: Tornado devastation and spray

Note coronavirus line at end.

Trump surveyed a landscape of shredded roofs, splintered trees and crushed cars.

He was joined by the governor and first lady of Tennessee.

His guide was a local emergency worker Mike Herrick.

He praised local officials including governor Mike Lee and the work of FEMA.

"This is real devastation... Hope we never see again," he said.

"You see what happened. We saw it from the helicopter very well."

Tennessee governor Bill Lee thanked him for support and speedy action

"It's been a tragic, painful week for our state," he said

"God has used volunteers to bring hope to the state."

POTUS: "Great people, great state."

He asked how many lives were lost and Lee told him 25 and thousands lost their homes.

"We're going to see some of the people who really survived," he said.

"Obviously anyone in these homes was killed, he said pointing to flattened buildings

"Very little warning."

"We love 'em, they are special people," he said of local people

"Already they are rebuilding."

"Flying over you already see the blue roofs going up."

"They didn't know what happened. They were watching television and then ..."

On helping airlines and other industries on Coronavirus:
"We're looking at different options."

He told story of boy ripped from his house and found in street outside.

"He said 'I was just flying ... I was carried by the air away from him house.' His parents were killed "

Travel Pool report #10

After speaking to pool, POTUS met about 30 survivors from the flattened homes outside Cookeville, TN.

All around broken lumber and splintered dry walls lie in piles resembling bonfires. Jagged tree skeletons are the only things rising higher than a storey.

POTUS won brief round of applause from crowd clustered around him at one point. He shook hands with some people and patted others in shoulder.

Pool ushered away after 30 minutes.

Travel Pool report #11: Motorcade

POTUS spent about 35 minutes at Hensley Drive, Putnam County, Tn

Motorcade rolling at 12.02 local.

Travel Pool report #12

Motorcade pulled up to Church of Christ Cookeville at 12.19.

Among people with POTUS at last stop:

Bill Lee, governor of Tennessee
Ricky Shelton, city mayor
Randy Porter, Putnam County mayor

POTUS also spoke to Matt and Angela Suggs who lost their house.

Travel Pool report #13: Church visit

Trump met survivors at the Church Of Christ Cookeville in a hall filled with boxes of emergency supplies, pallets of water, tables filled with clothes and wheelbarrows leaning against the wall.

"We have done everything we need to do and our hearts go out to you," POTUS told the crowd of about 100 people.

"We are with you all the way.

"When you have those who lost somebody that's a very tough situation ... We are with you all the way."

POTUS posed for pictures and shook hands with people before speaking to emergency responders.

"Whatever you need we are doing," he told them. "You people have done incredible jobs.
"Nobody's seen what you had to go through."

Governor Bill Lee then led a small group in prayer.

POTUS praised the work of first responders.

"These people are incredible," he said.

"It's inspiring to see the way it all came together. Even all of the goods and supplies ... Tremendous amounts of food ... It all came in and matter of hours.
"It's a case study of what should be done and how it can be done.
"It's Tennessee.
"It is indeed the volunteer state."

He posed for a group photo with emergency workers.

Motorcade rolling at 12:51.

Travel Pool report #14: Marine One

Motorcade is back at Cookeville High School LZ at 13:04.

We travelled past several electronic billboards with picture of POTUS hugging flag and with slogan: "Our President cares!"

Marine One will be wheels up momentarily for flight back to Nashville.

Press is in Osprey.

Travel Pool report #15: Nashville

Marine One wheels down 13:43 local at Nashville Airport.

Travel Pool report #16: Air Force One

POTUS boarded Air Force One without stopping for pool.

We will be wheels up for Atlanta shortly.

Travel Pool report #17: Atlanta

Air Force One wheels down Atlanta at 15:38 for visit to CDC.

Unremarkable flight with no visitors to press cabin.

Travel Pool report #18: Motorcade

POTUS disembarked AF1 at 15:56. Kelly Leoffler and Ric Grennell came off plane with him.

Rep Doug Collins, Sen Brian Kemp and members of the Georgia coronavirus taskforce lined up to greet POTUS.

Slightly awkward moment as Loeffler and Collins shook hands... Briefly.

Motorcade rolling to CDC at 16:00.

Travel Pool report #19: CDC

Motorcade pulled into CDC main campus at 16:26.

Mix of well-wishers and protestors along route. One sign said: "Welcome chief idiot." Another read: "Have faith in science." Another: "we need a vaccine against Trump."

Travel Pool report #20: CDC tour

POTUS entered lab at CDC with Secretary Alex Azar and CDC director Robert Redfield at 16:43.

"It's incredible," he said, adding that pool should be given a tour of the facilities.

"They've done an incredible job."

Dr Steve Monroe, of CDC
"In this laboratory is where we generate all the material that go" into diagnostic tests and vaccines.

Said CDC had never denied a request from public health officials to test an individual.

Azar says 4m tests will be ready by the end of next week.

Redfield says test was developed after 7 days.

POTUS: "They heard there was a problem in China and they' started working. That's why we're in good shape."

Redfield answers question about whether disease is contained.
"We still have only 200 cases. We're going to see more cases" because there are more tests out there

Redfield is asked about faulty tests. He said the initial issue was that tests had to be sent back to CDC

Says the test was developed in record time and was available as soon as it was approved by the FDA
"the challenge was the test had to be sent here."

POTUS is asked if he has confidence in CDC: "It is performing very well."

Redfield is asked if number of cases is greater than reported number.
"The only contacts that we found initially were two spouses who came back from Wuhan."
Since then more community cases are emerging ...
"We are enhancing surveillance. At this point we have isolated a number of clusters but it's not as if we have hundreds and hundreds of clusters around" America

POTUS says many people with minor symptoms are not being counted.
"We're not seeing those people. If we did see those people the statistics would be much better" because they get better.

Azar says new Dr Fauci paper in New England Journal reports that actual fatality rate is less than one per cent.
"Very much consistent with what the president was saying."

POTUS breaks off to briefly discuss his Fox Town Hall last night.
"How was the show last night? Did it get good ratings by the way?"

Says coronavirus cases are dropping off
"Over the last long period of time when people got the flu, 36,000 people" were dying. " I was shocked."

"The vast majority are going to be fine. We've had 11 deaths..." Mostly elderly, he adds.

Taking special precautions?
"Not at all. You know I'm a person that was never big on handshaking deal."

Why was trip cancelled and put back on?
"I was told that one person may have had the virus."

"That turned out to be a negative report."

Threat to campaign rallies?
"I tell you what, I haven't had any problem filling them."

"It doesn't bother them and it doesn't bother me".

The lab included the latest in RNA and DNA sequencing systems, banks of computer monitors and helium and nitrogen taps descending from the ceiling

Travel Pool report #21: more coronavirus including Diamond Princess and Gov Inslee

POTUS CDC visit continues

POTUS: "Anybody that wants a test can get a test."

Azar says 700,000 tests shipped so far this week.

POTUS: "And the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect and the transcript."

On cruise ship, Diamond Princess, has decision been made on what to do with passengers?
"That's a very good question.

"I have great experts including the vice president, ... They would rather have the people come off," POTUS says he wants them to stay where they are.
"I don't need the numbers to double because of one ship"

On pandemic preparedness:
"You never really know when something like this is doing to strike."

"We are prepared for anything."

On dealing with a health crisis
Invokes uncle Dr John Trump

"I like this stuff. I really get it"

On Gov Jay Inslee:
Calls him a "Snake"
"We have a lot of problems with the governor."
Says he told Pence not to trust him during Washington state visit.
"If we came up with a cure right now..." and it all ended at eight the next morning... "He would say Trump did a terrible job"

Travel Pool report #22

POTUS et al spoke for 47 minutes before they left the lab.

In final comments Redfield says containment and control remains the target but mitigation can help:
"Like asking churches not to have big gathering"
Describes a "community by community by community" strategy

Travel pool report #23: motorcade

Motorcade rolling at 17:42 back to Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Travel Pool report #24: fuller quotes

On Gov Jay Inslee
"Oh I told Mike not to be complimentary … that governor is a snake. I said if you're nice to him he will take advantage.
"We have a lot of problems with the governor, the governor of Washington…
"Mike may be happy with him but I'm not."

On what to do about Diamond Princess
"I don't need to have the numbers double because of the people on that ship."
He would rather leave people on board but it is up to Pence and his team.
"If it were up to me I would do it that way."

Trump pool report #25

Motorcade arrived Dobbins Air Reserve Base at 18:08.

POTUS boarded without speaking to pool.

Wheels up for West Palm Beach imminently.

Travel Pool report #26: West Palm Beach

Air Force One wheels down at West Palm Beach 19:28.

POTUS visited the press cabin for 20-minute off-record chat during flight from Atlanta, bringing Sen David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler with him.

POTUS is scheduled to have a roundtable with supporters and speak at a fundraising dinner this evening.

The campaign offers this on background: This weekend Trump Victory is expected to raise $10 million.

Travel Pool report #27: Motorcade

Motorcade rolling at 19:45 on last leg of the day, to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump disembarked from AF1, gave a wave and climbed straight into the Beast.

Travel Pool report #28: Mar-a-Lago and lid

Pool vans peeled off from motorcade as it pulled into Mar-a-Lago at 19:54.

Photo and Travel lid called at 19:55.

Supporters and protesters gathered in usual spots along road from airport.