Pool Reports of May 6, 2020

pool report #1/Vietnam call readout

Passing along from the press office:

Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump thanked Prime Minister Phuc for the close cooperation and transparency between the United States and Vietnam as both nations stand together in the fight to defeat the coronavirus. Both leaders agreed to continue working together to promote a swift economic recovery and to expand the strong United States-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership, as the two nations celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations.

The president has been tweeting, as you've surely noticed, announcing that he'll keep the Coronavirus Task Force up and running:
"...the Task Force will continue on indefinitely with its focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN. We may add or subtract people...to it, as appropriate. The Task Force will also be very focused on Vaccines & Therapeutics. Thank you!"

Pool expects to be in the Oval Office this afternoon for a Proclamation Signing in honor of National Nurses Day, and for a spray with the governor of Iowa.

Pool report #2/Hungary readout

Pool waiting to go into the Oval.

>From the press office:

Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. The President and the Prime Minister discussed promising trends in combating the coronavirus pandemic and reopening global economies. The President and the Prime Minister agreed that the American and Hungarian people are eager to safely open their communities and return to work. The leaders also discussed important bilateral and regional issues, including border security, telecommunications security, and the need to diversify supply chains and protect critical infrastructure.

pool report #3/Nurses Day

The restricted inhouse pool is outside the Oval Office waiting to witness the president sign a proclamation in honor of National Nurses Day.

>From the White House:

Today, President Donald J. Trump will deliver remarks and sign a Presidential Proclamation in honor of National Nurses Day.

The following individuals are expected to attend:

The White House
President Donald J. Trump
Vice President Mike Pence
Ambassador Debbie Birx, M.D., White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator
Tim Pataki, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Public Liaison

Trump Administration
Secretary Alex Azar, Department of Health and Human Services

External Participants
Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, President, American Nurses Association
Sophia L. Thomas, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, President, American Association of Nurse Practitioners
Caroline Few Elliott, Founder, CLT Strong, North Carolina
Allen Zelno, Faith Community Nurse, Pennsylvania
Maria Arvonio, Nursing Supervisor, Virtua Willingboro Medical Center, New Jersey
Lisa Barlow, Nurse, Genesis HealthCare Ridgewood Center, New Jersey
Luke Adams, Volunteer Nurse, New York
Marty Blankenship, Retired Nurse, Pennsylvania

pool report #4/Oval Office

The pool entered the Oval Office at 1 pm, after a full hour waiting outside,for the president's remarks in National Nurses Day.

The president is seated behind his desk with guests in a semicircle behind and around him. None wearing masks. Pence and Azar are on opposite ends of the semicircle.

Seven nurses are wearing scrubs and/or white lab coats.

The president lauds nurses for their "valiant sacrifices."

He signed the proclamation at 1:07 and handed pens to Luke and Marty behind him.

Pool report #5/Oval re task force continuing

"We'll be adding two or three members" to the coronavirus task force by next week. "At a certain point we won't need the task force...."

Q why the change between yesterday and today?
POTUS:
"I thought we could wind it down sooner. But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding down...It is appreciated by the public."

Before taking questions:

Trump: "America's nurses are waging a war against the invisible enemy. They're fighting on the frontlines of the battle risking their health to save lives of fellow citizens ... It's dangerous and it's people they don't know."

Birx notes that her mom, age 91, is "still a nurse." She lauds the compassion of nurses through the pandemic.

HHS secretary Alex Azar notes that his mother also is a registered nurse. "You're real heroes."

Ernest Grant, president of American Nurses Association, tells the president he is worried about the post traumatic stress that nurses and other medical professionals face after dealing with so much death in this COVID-19 outbreak. How many, the president asks. "A very high percentage," Grant said.

Pool report #6/more Oval remarks

How long will Americans put up with staying home?

"I don't think people will stand for it... The country won't stand for it. It's not sustainable."

"This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center. And it should have never happened."

Q will White House modify its SCOTUS push to invalidate the ACA?"We're staying with Texas and the group.... Obamacare is a disaster but we've made it barely acceptable... we want to terminate health care under Obamacare" and replace it.
"We're going to replace Obamacare" with something cheaper that also covers preexisting conditions and doesn't have the individual mandate."Obamacare--we run it really well.... But running it great, it's still lousy health care."

Q why didn't you wear a mask in Arizona yesterday at a mask factory?"I had a mask on for a period of time... we were far away from people...I did put a mask on" and he can't help it that the press didn't see it. He wore it "not too long. But I had it on back stage."

Q why no masks on here in the Oval now (*except most of the pool)Potus said he's trying to be nice to nurses and he gets criticized. Segues into attack on Chuck Schumer.

Pool report #7/more Oval

Pool was ushered out of the Oval at 1:45pm, after roughly 45 minutes

The president noted that we are due to see him again in just a few minutes, with the Iowa governor.

More from Q&A
Q is PPE now available?
Most of the nurses said they have enough but one from New Orleans said she has been reusing her N95 mask for weeks.

Trump asks repeatedly for affirmation from the nurses that they have sufficient supplies. Nearly all say yes.

Nurse from South NJ hot zone said she doesn't like fearmongering on news reports about shortages. It drives up anxiety by medical personnel, she said.

"Because they're fake news," the president chimed in, going on a long monologue boasting of how he ramped up production and distribution.

Trump kicks a question about the timing to reopen in light of the models to Birx. Is August too soon.
Birx: we follow the data metro by metro....
"We continue to watch Chicago very closely" and says Boston and Philadelphia are still going through difficult times.
"There is asymptomatic spread"

Trump wants school to open.
"I would like to see schools open wherever possible.... Teachers of a certain age (over 60, with health problems)... should not be teaching school for a while."

pool report #8/quotes likening COVID-19 to Pearl Harbor and 9/11, and on the task force

Cleaning up some of the more newsy quotes from the 45-minute Oval Office spray.

"We went through the worst attack we've ever had in our country. This is really the worst attack we've ever had. This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center. There's never been an attack like this," Trump said.

On the coronavirus task force, reversing himself from yesterday saying it would wind down to today saying it would continue indefinitely:
"The task force has done a great job," he said, noting that it met again this morning. "We'll be leaving the task force indefinitely. We'll see. You know at a certain point it'll end. Things end, but we'll be adding some people to the task force ....I thought we could wind it down sooner. But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding it down. I get calls from very respected people saying, `I think it would be better to keep it going, it's done such a good job.' It's a respected task force. I know it myself. I didn't know whether or not it was appreciated by the public but it is appreciated by the public."

pool report #9/more color from nurses event

Pool will gather soon for the spray with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
A bit more color from the lengthy event with nurses:

Sophia Thomas, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, who works in New Orleans, was somewhat off message when President Trump got most of his guests to nod agreement that hospitals now have plenty of masks, gowns etc.

"Certainly there are pockets of areas where PPE is not ideal but this is an unprecedented time, and the infection control measures that we learned back when we went to school -- one gown, one mask for one patient a day or for a time -- this is a different time. I've been reusing my N95 mask for a few weeks now. I just broke out a new one to come here in case I needed to wear it," Thomas said.

The president put a particular spotlight on Luke Adams, a nurse who has volunteered to work in New York City.

"The men and women in this room today are true American heroes. Luke Adams is a nurse of 11 years. He lives in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania -- good place. When he heard the call of volunteers in New York Luke drove to the epicenter of the outbreak and slept in his car for nine days so he could help care for the sick," POTUS said.

Adams: "A lot of us have been forced away from our partners, turned away from our children. We've slept on concrete floors or in cars. And we did these things not for our own benefit or safety."

pool report #9a/Trump on opening schools soon as possible

Last thing from that long Oval spray with nurses.

The final comments the president made were on opening schools:
"I would like to see schools open, wherever possible, which I think is in much of the country, most of the country. No, I would say that until everything is perfect I think that the teachers that are a certain age -- perhaps you say over 60, especially if they have a problem with heart or diabetes or any one of a number of things -- I think that they should not be teaching school for a while. And everybody would understand that probably. That we understand. But other than that, we see how well children seem to do. Incredible. You realize how strong children are, right? Their immune system is maybe a little bit different, maybe just a little bit stronger. Or maybe it's a lot stronger, right? Could be a lot stronger. We've learned a lot by watching this monster."

Pool report #10/Iowa governor in Oval

Pool entered Oval Office at 3:07pm. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is in chair at POTUS's right. Between them a sign on an easel showing what Iowa has received from 3/1 to 5/1. (Attached)

Trump bantered with Fox's John Roberts as the pool set up and said "I'd really like to play golf but it's too busy right now."

Trump peppers the Iowa state epidemiologist with questions about whether she thinks COVID-19 will come back hard in the fall, if it's especially contagious, if people who've had it get immunity.

"In a way by doing all this testing we make ourselves look bad... we're going to have more cases" because more testing, Trump said.

Reynolds says Iowa has tested 1 in 50 Iowans. "We are testing in hotspots."

Ongoing 3 way conversation between Trump, governor and her aide, whose on sofa next to Dr. Birx.

POTUS: "How do you compare this to influenza?"

Iowa doctor notes there's no vaccine.

Pool report #11/Oval-Iowa

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds

Trump asks the Iowa epidemiologist to serve on the coronavirus task force. She accepts.

"I'd love for you to be on the task force."

Trump assures the governor this is "not to steal her," just borrow.

Pence says Iowa has been a success story.

"We've turned a corner," said Agriculture secretary Sonny Purdue.

Lots of talk on meatpacking plant safety and the meat supply. Details to follow.

Purdue and Reynolds said plants should be back to 100% capacity in a week to 10 days.

More...

Pool report #12/Oval-Iowa

This spray lasted 40 minutes. Pool just left the Oval. Better quotes to come

Trump sidestepped a question about whether he would impose tariffs on China as punishment for COVID-19.

"I'm the first one to say you gotta pay" but for ventilators that are needed to save lives he is content to have the US donate to countries in need.

On Dr. Bright/whistleblower complaint: "He's a disgruntled guy" and people who are disgruntled shouldn't work for the administration.

pool report #13/briefing moved to 4:30

The briefing is now scheduled to begin at 4:30, per the press office.

pool report #14/Oval-Iowa more quotes

The Iowa state epidemiologist referred to in previous reports is Dr. Caitlin Pedati, the State Medical Director and Epidemiologist.

Trump on Dr. Bright, the whistleblower:

"I never met him, I know nothing about him, but he's a disgruntled guy. And I don't think disgruntled people should be working for a certain administration," Trump said.

Asked about a report of a meat shortage at Wendy's, the fast food chain, Trump responded: "I'm going to call Nelson Peltz," the chairman of Wendy's, adding that he's confident the problem will go away.

If he imposes tariffs on China would that be as a punishment or because of trade violations? "I don't want to talk about that now. We're in the midst of some very big things," Trump said.
Asked about his comments earlier that likened COVID-19 to Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – does he view this, too, as an actual act of war?

"I view the invisible enemy as a war. I don't like how it got here, because it could have been stopped, but no, I view the invisible enemy like a war. Hey, it's killed more people than Pearl Harbor. And it's killed more people than the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center was close to 3,000. Well, we're gonna beat that by many times, unfortunately. So, yeah. We view it as a war. This is a mobilization against a war. In many ways it's a tougher enemy. We do very well against the visible enemies. It's the invisible enemy. This is an invisible enemy. So -- but we're doing a good job."

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said that only one Iowa meatpacking plant is shut, in Waterloo.

"We're at reduced capacity. Perry is back up. In fact they're at 60% capacity and we just started the extensive testing last week," she said, referring to a Tyson's plant in Perry where at least 58% of the workforce reportedly tested positive.

"We'll have most of our facilities up and going. And so as we continue to keep them up and processing, we're going to hopefully prevent a really sorry situation where we were euthanizing some of our protein supply and really impacting the food supply, across the country but throughout the world and so this is critical infrastructure is an essential workforce," Reynolds said.

Agriculture secretary Sonny Purdue said meat shortages should end within 10 days as meat plants come back on line.

"I think we've turned the corner. We'll see them coming back on line. ... I'd say probably a week to 10 days we'll be back up, fully back up." Pence said that whenever there's an outbreak at a meat plant, the CDC sends a team to ensure safe conditions.

Asked if sufficient steps are being taken to protect workers, given the outbreaks at meat packing plants, Pence responded: "Our objective is two equal goals: No 1 is the safety and health of the workforce in our meat processing plants, and to ensures there's strength in our food supply and getting people back to work."

Reynolds echoed that: "They are testing employees as they enter the plants. ... They have to have the mask on when they enter the facility. ... They're doing social distancing.... It's a partnership. We're all working together... We're providing them the confidence of a safe environment but at the same time we're making sure that the food supply chain is moving and that the country is being fed."

pool report #15/lid

A travel-photo lid was declared at 5:26 p.m.

Good evening to all.