listen on the free c-span radio app app. journal,'s washington every day, we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discussing policy issues that impact you. saturday morning, former military infectious disease expert dr. michael lewis on the spread of the coronavirus and how it compares to previous outbreaks like sars. than a discussion about the june 19, 1921 tulsa riots that led to the killings of hundreds of african-americans with the professor of african and african-american studies at the university of oklahoma. watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern saturday morning and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. house press secretary kayleigh mcenany gave an update

on numbers and therapeutics for the coronavirus. reporters questions included the decisionourt's daca and the president's upcoming rally in tulsa, oklahoma. press sec. mcenany: good afternoon, everyone. the great american comeback is underway. just before joining you all we learned from the labor of bureau statistics that unemployment has fallen in 43 states in may as americans are going back to work. also, i would like to re-emphasize the numbers that director of the n.e.c. larry kudlow shared with you yesterday that the c.b.o. predicted that in the third quarter we will get plus 20% g.d.p. we will be plus 20% g.d.p. and top economist ted 2021, he's in

predicting plus five g.d.p., and this will put it above the precoronavirus numbers should those predictions pan out. we are back and we will be booming. finally -- well, second to finally. we are encouraged that we gather positive data on heparin or steroids as commonly known. convalescent plasma, and remdesivir and have shown positive findings. a u.k. recovery trial found when steroids were used, there was a 30% reduction for coronavirus -- of death for coronavirus patients on ventilators. the f.d.a. is reviewing this now. additionally on convalescence plasma's there's a partnership with the mayo clinic. the trump administration moved very quickly on therapy in its earliest days, recognizing that it showed promise. through the f.d.a., mayo clinic

and the administration's work in our hand in hand partnership, we found that this treatment is very promising. this has shown that the administration has left no stone unturned and looking at very possible treatment at the very earliest stages. the lead investigator of this mayo clinic physician summed up his work saying that it looks -- continues to look promising, noting the "excellent news of the studies" which cover a diverse population of patients. about 20% were african-american, 35% hispanic, 5% asian and 40% women. prior experience with respiratory viruses and some data that has emerged globally suggests that convalescence plasma has the potential to lessen the severity or shorten d the length of covid-19. the results from mayo underscores that premise. the trump administration and the f.d.a. led on identifying it as therapeutics and the results are encouraging.

finally, i wanted to share some words from president trump. juneteenth reminds us of both the unimaginable injustice of slavery and the incomparable joy that must have attended emancipation. it is both a remembrance of a blight on our history and a celebration of our nation's unsurpassed ability to triumph over darkness. that ability is rooted in the fundamental goodness of america and the truth upon we as a nation declared and into our status as the subjects of a monarch and emerged as a free and independent people. those truths that all men are created equal by hand of god endowed with our creator with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. with that, i'll take questions. -- mario? reporter: given what they're saying in markets and they're a little bit jittery in the rise of cases, any reason why the coronavirus task force hasn't been coming out to update us? will they? and have they been consulted on the rally tomorrow?

press sec. mcenany: so they meet regularly. they're constantly reviewing data. they're cons at that particular timely working with governors to insure that we have safe reopenings across the nation. as for coronavirus task force briefings, those happened in the very early days of covid-19 and the pandemic. we were making major decisions on travel bans, major decisions on supplies and p.t.e. and therapeutics. it was very important that those decisions be made with the nation. now, we're on a regular museum where we see a spike or an ember as the president calls it we're able to go quickly and put it out. we have that system in place. we don't have regular updates other than the updates i give you as news merits and i'm in consultation with dr. birx and the others. reporter: two questions on the president's tweet in regards to the tulsa rally when he said. what did he mean when he said that any protestors wouldn't be treated the way they were in new york, seattle and minneapolis? does the president indicate the

rights to peaceably assemble should not apply to his rally? press sec. mcenany: no, that's not at all what he was saying. what the president was noting was that there are inexcusable scenes in seattle and new york and minneapolis. we will not see tulsa, oklahoma look that way as the mayor, mayor bynum noted. individuals from organized groups have been involved in destructive and violent behavior and other states are planning to travel to the city of tulsa for the purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally and was an unacceptable proposition. we will not see what we saw in minnesota where rioters lit a auto zone on fire and where they set up chop, or the pillaging or ambushing of two n.y.p. police officers. one was stabbed in the net. and shot two other officers who arrived on the scene. those things are unacceptable. and we will not see that in

tulsa, oklahoma. reporter: did he mean all protesters? press sec. mcenany: what he looters, theers, kind of lawlessness before he calmed our streets with law and order. reporter: on daca, he said he was going to move ahead with trying to end that program. what is the time frame on that? when should we expect to see something with homeland security? he's conceded that that the immigrants that were brought here as children should be taken care of? press sec. mcenany: one note on daca, one thing i would say about yesterday's ruling is that really this was a situation where you had all of the justices saying that president trump was essentially right on the law on daca. you had the majority. and the majority opinion "the

dispute before the quote is not whether d.h.s. may rescind daca. the dispute is instead the procedure the agency followed in doing so." in other words, president trump was right on the law. it was unlawful the way president obama went about this. but as for the way forward, i was speaking with the president and the chief of staff about this. and we're looking at documents currently and we're going to move forward in a responsible way and cure some of the remedies and unlawfulness that we see with the previous memo that brought daca into place. but we want to find a compassionate way to do this. that's the notes i have as to how we will be moving forward. reporter: thank you, kayleigh, now that we're about 24 hours away from this rally tomorrow in tulsa, you have the world health organization director saying that the world is in a -- in a new and dangerous phase in terms of covid cases. you have cases rising in oklahoma. you have the tulsa mayor declaring a civil emergency. given all of this together, are

there any discussions, any reservations in the west wing about going forward with this indoor rally tomorrow in a state where covid cases are on the rise? press sec. mcenany: first, let me note about the civil emergency. he declared a civil emergency after the mention of the organized groups who are intent on engaging in destruction, but with regard to oklahoma, i would refer you to the governor's comments. we're 56 days until our reopening plan. and currently, we have under 200 people in the hospital across oklahoma. and he welcomed the president and his supporters for coming. reporter: i guess my question is behind the scenes, are there any white house officials, you know, just expressing a bit of reservation about going forward 24 hours out? >> so we are all onboard with going to oklahoma. we're taking appropriate measures like hand sanitizing, and temperature checks and masks

provided at the door. and the governor of oklahoma says that most of the cases he's seeing is in the 18 to 35 where they're seeing a slight increase. and they are asymptomatic individuals, a lot of what they're seeing. and in addition to that i would also note that he said that this plight increase began as they reopened 56 days prior. reporter: will any white house officials be at the rally tomorrow? press sec. mcenany: there will be several white house officials at the rally tomorrow. reporter: will you be there, for example? press sec. mcenany: i will be there. reporter: will you and other officials be wearing masks? press sec. mcenany: it's a personal choice. i won't be wearing masks. and i can't speak with my colleagues. reporter: why won't you wear a mask? is a personal political statement? is it because the president would be disappointed if you wear a mask? sec. mcenany: it is a personal decision. i'm tested regularly. i feel it's safe for me not to be wearing a mask. i'm in compliance with the city city guidelines that are

not required but recommended. reporter: the president tweeted out some fake videos, one of which was labeled manipulated media by twitter. why is the president sharing fake videos on twitter about two toddlers who are obviously showing a lot of love for one another? it seems as though he's exploiting children to make some sort of crass political point? why is he sharing fake videos? press sec. mcenany: he was making a point about cnn specifically. he was making a point that cnn has regularly taken him out of context, that in 2019, cnn misleadingly aired a clip to cash from one viewpoint from one viewpoint repeatedly to falsely accuse the covington boys of being students in maga gear harassing an elder. that had grave consequence first their future. reporter: so you're saying it's ok to exploit two toddlers hugging one another on a side walk to make some sort of political point? as you know, the president has described the members of the press as fake news during the

course of this administration. when you share fake videos like that, doesn't that make you fake news? press sec. mcenany: i think the president was making a satirical point that was quite funny if you go and actually watch the video. reporter: what is funny about two toddlers hugging one another? sec. mcenany: i think the point -- the point was is that it was a play on cnn repeatedly taking the president out of context like the time when you guys had a chyron saying trump slams some illegals saying they're animals. he called ms-13 who regularly mutilate people in this country -- press sec. mcenany: referred some mexican immigrants as rapist. he tried to pass a muslim ban in this country. he has described black nfl players as sons of bitches if they take a knee -- sec. mcenany: that's an absurd attempt to justify the misleading headlines that are regularly on your network like i was just walking in watching cnn

as they lauded the quote rallies in the streets. reporter: are you saying that the president -- press sec. mcenany: got to let me finish. this isn't a cable news segment. i'm answering your question from the white house podium. when i -- when i walk out here, jim -- when i walk out here, jim and i see on your network celebratory headlines about the rallies and the protests outside and you said protests and rallies. so in light of a protest, if these gatherings happen in light of a protest or a rally as you say, that rally is to be condoned but not the president's rally. i mean, it's appalling you've have one person on your network saying that this is a celebration in the streets, a carnival like atmosphere. that's a guy on the street with a sign that says free hugs. it is beautiful what is happening in the streets. there's music. people are hugging. you celebrate hugging in the context of a protest, but in a trump rally where we celebrate historic low african-american unemployment, criminal justice reform, that rally is not allowed because guess what, jim, it doesn't fit the ideological

agenda of cnn. peter alexander? reporter: let me ask, if i can, why does the president keep hiring people who are dumb as a rock, overrated, whacko and incompetent? press sec. mcenany: the president makes hiring decisiosn based on the fact that he likes to have counter veiling viewpoints. i talked to him about the hiring of john bolton, in particular. i like to counterbalance my own opinion that individuals have the opposite opinion of my own. he likes the model of having a team of rivals likes what we saw in president lincoln's administration. i've been a part of that. i often see rigorous debates and the president uses his gut and makes the best decision as to how to move forward. that's what goes into his hiring practices. i think the team of rivals with president lincoln worked quite well. anorter: there's obviously advantage in hiring a team of rivals, it's worked well in the past. if you're going to hire rivals,

why hire them dumb as a rock, whacko and incompetent? press sec. mcenany: sometimes those rivals prove those labels to be true. that's particularly true in the case of john bolton who repeatedly praised the president, then turned. he's been widely criticized by the "new york times" for his book. i think john bolton has proven himself to have those labels as true. reporter: let me follow up. if i can follow up quickly just on juneteenth. sec. mcenany: we are not going to get to everyone in the room. the 20 question rules applies to everyone. reporter: i've only done two so far. for my third one, i would like to ask does the president support juneteenth as a federal holiday? and in an interview with the "wall street journal," the president was talking about juneteenth. and he said nobody had ever heard about juneteenth. what does that say to presidents relationship to the black community when millions of african-americans in the country commemorate it each year? press sec. mcenany: this president has routinely commemorated juneteenth. the president, what he said -- reporter: he said he learned about it this week. press sec. mcenany: no, he did not say that. as secretary carson emphasized,

i talked to the president about the juneteenth event. i was pleasantly surprised about how much he knew about it. the whole history of it. he did not just learn about juneteenth this week. that's simply not true. as to juneteenth, there were a lot of people who didn't know what juneteenth was. and google search has proved that. i looked up the google searches and they went like this and that thanks to president trump. reporter: i wanted to ask if the white house is planning to issue an executive order in the coming days to suspend visas for foreign workers and any details you can provide in terms of what types of visas for how long that would last? press sec. mcenany: i have no announcements on that front. i'm aware of the reporting but no announcement. reporter: could i follow-up quickly if the president plans to take any health precautions at the rally tomorrow? sec. mcenany: we're administering hand sanitizers and masks to those in attendance if they decide to wear them and we are wearing temperature checks. next. reporter: arizona has seen a

rise in coronavirus cases. does the president think they should keep doing what they're doing? is he concerned about this rise in cases? press sec. mcenany: this is a state-led reopening with the assistance of the federal government and our medical experts. so we're regularly consulting with each state. it's their decision whether they remain their reopening process. we've had c.d.c. deploy teams to four states. when we see these spikes in cases a lot of times we're able to stop the spread further. so with the help of the federal government, these states should be able to reopen, and it's their decision to do so. reporter: what does the president think of his niece's mary trump's new book. sec. mcenany: on the mary trump book i would say this, i haven't seen the book, the president hasn't seen the book. not going to sit here and speculate what it may say or may not say. reporter: given all the who-ha over tulsa, isn't the president taking a big risk because if

-- this weekend because if things go south on saturday, isn't it going to make it harder for him to schedule rallies in the future? are look, i think we're -- sec. mcenany: look, i think we're confident that we can stay safe in tulsa. as i noted governor stitt said under 200 people in hospitals across oklahoma. we're confident that we can do this safely and we're very much looking forward to going to oklahoma. reporter: why aren't you scheduling more rallies? are you waiting to see how onngs turn out saturday? press sec. mcenany: that would be a question for the campaign. yes. reporter: yes, thank you, kayleigh. on an interview on n.p.r. on tuesday, dr. fauci says he hasn't spoken to the president in "two weeks." why have they gone so long without talking? and is this still a priority for the president, the virus? press sec. mcenany: absolutely. it is still a priority. it is why the task or smedes regularly. the president is given that -- force meets regularly. the president is given that information. the vice president has been leading on the task force and

the president makes the decision, and it's kept up to date with the latest numbers. reporter: and then the second question, obviously, the president is very much against violent protests. he spoke out against anti-fascists who have been responsible for some of this violence, but in terms of his personal ideology, is the president an anti-fascists. press sec. mcenany: the president is absolutely anti-fascists. what he's against is lawlessness. he's against anarchy, he's against what we've seen in our streets. he's against the fact that you have multiple city blocks taken over by anarchists. it's amazing. you have the seattle police chief carmen best saying our 911 response times have tripled in the area. they've gone from five minutes to about 18 minutes. there have been rapes and robbery and all sorts of acts that have been occurring. he's against fascism, he's against anarchism, and he's for rule of law and the american way. reporter: the e.u. nations are starting to ease their travel restrictions between their own borders.

is the president planning on rolling back the e.u. travel restrictions? he said in may that he will ease them at some time in the future. press sec. mcenany: the president knows that the travel restrictions were a very important component to saving lives. almost three million could have perished, and those travel restrictions were instrumental in taking early action and saving american lives. he monitors the data constantly. no plans now. as to listing those. but it's ultimately the decision of the president. he's guided by data and the safety and the health of the american people. reporter: on china, china just announced that during the negotiations with secretary pompeo were going to accelerate. they're going to accelerate their ag buys. they weren't meeting their phase one ag buys. does this mean anything -- press sec. mcenany: i haven't spoken to the president on that specific matter. yes? reporter: back to daca, if you would, please. after the supreme court decision the other day, the u.s. catholic

-- conference of catholic bishops issued a statement. immigrant communities are hurting now amidst covid-19 and moving forward with this action needlessly places many families into further anxiety and chaos. will the president listen to -- consider the bishops appeal on this? press sec. mcenany: he will take care of daca. far better than democrats ever did. democrats had two and a half years to make a deal on daca. they didn't do it. he wants to take care of these individuals. but it needs be done in a lawful way and it needs to be done in accordance with assuring that our border is safe, that it is protected. that we have an end to lawless immigration and ms-13. and the havoc that we've seen wreaked in the country. so he's for a measured response. and he's offered deals to democrats previously that have been rejected. so democrats really seem to be using the daca recipients as pawns and that is despicable. reporter: thank you. on saturday,rally

people have to sign a waiver should they get coronavirus, with the president consider starting or contributing to a fund [indiscernible] is athink that hypothetical and speculative question. campaign ishe biden pushing back -- how many debates? >> the president talked about this yesterday. givenhappy to debate when the opportunity. there are three dbase, and he is happy with that, but if others are proposed, he would look forward to them. , it is important as we go into the weekend and look at the news coverage, i encourage all of you to cover the protests in the same way you covered the rallies.

it is quite something when you look at extraordinary video where you have multiple hosts about the massive crowd, tens of thousands, thousands and thousands, 200,000 as they exuberantly exclaim, but then not with the trump rally. sayinge a contributors when the president looks to celebrate the accomplishments for minorities, our rallies are derided as breeding grounds for coronavirus while lawrence o'donnell celebrates arm in arm protests. we should have consistency the way we cover crowds and should be guided by science, not cherry picking as we see on the airwaves. you.ank [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the

national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this november we will take back the house, hold the senate, and keep the white house. trump returns to the campaign trail saturday for a rally in tall some, watch live coverage -- for a rally in tulsa. listen on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> black entertainment television cofounder robert johnson, former advisor to jarrettt obama, valerie and deray mckesson are interviewed