congressman doug collins, dr. marc siegel, gordon chang among our guests here tomorrow. we hope you will join us. from sussex, good night. ♪. ♪. >> and individuals like the banks i just told you about, the biggest banks in the world, they stepped up to help small business, their big business, small business, small business will some day be the big business, but the small business is 50% of our economic strength. people don't realize when you add them up but they just, they just rose to the occasion. everybody is rising to the occasion. it has been incredible to watch. to honor and celebrate the extraordinary examples of patriotism and citizenship we're seeing, i'm asking americans to use the hashtag, america works together, when sharing stories of how we're all working together to get through, getting through this ordeal in a fashion

that nobody would have ever thought possible. it has been incredible. that is why the numbers are so far much better. we want to keep it that way. if you look at the original projections, if we did nothing, it would be disasterous. if we, we decided to do something, we closed it down. had no choice t was a good move. that was a good move. the early china move was a good move. early europe move was a good move. we did a lot of good moves. closing it down was a big statement, an important thing, but we're looking to have far viewer deaths than originally thought and i think we're heading in that direction but it is too early to talk about it. i don't even want to talk about it now because we want to work and, i think that people are doing an incredible job. the doctors, the nurses, the firefighters, the police, all medical people, what they're doing, the bravery they're displaying is just incredible.

every citizen should take immense pride in the selflessness and all of the courage and compassion of our people. the workers, the people that are working, and construction workers going into hospitals, knowing nothing about this problem, other than it is dangerous and they go in there to rebuild sections of hospitals and you have people in really big trouble right next door. they know nothing about it. although know they will get it done. fix the wing so they can have more people in there, it is incredible. this is a national spirit won our independence and settled frontier and explored the horizons of space. that's what we're doing. this is all new territory. it unlocked the miracles of science. we're doing that i wish you could have heard the calls i had yesterday with these great companies that come up with cures to diseases and success

they have had over the last 15 years is really amazing. so i just want to thank all of them. they're working very hard. they're working with uk right now, and the uk doctors, hopefully helping with their great prime minister. but these people are really tremendous signs of success are staring us right in the face. i think we'll have something that will be great in terms of vaccines and inn terms of everything else that they're doing, just helping, really helping us, helping the people of our country and helping ultimately the people of the world. so i want to thank you all for being here. i will take some questions and then i'm going to give it over to the vice president. they will go into great deal tail what we're doing successful supplies and medical equipment that we're getting. all of the ventilators i said it, you can go more detail if you like and building thousands and thousands of ventilators.

they're very high quality. i said you have to go for the quality. these are quality companies doing it because there is a big difference between a good ventilator and a not so good ventilator, tony, right? we've seen that, a big difference, so we're going top of the line. steve, please. reporter: acting navy secretary submitted his resignation today modally, why did that become necessary. what role did you have it sir. >> i had no role. i heard he was a very good man. the whole thing was a very unfortunate, the captain should not have written a letter. he didn't have to be earnest hemingway, he made a mistake. he had a bad day. i hate seeing bad things happen. the man made a mistake but you know, shouldn't be writing letters and you're in the military. you're the captain after great ship and you shouldn't be writing letters and sending them to many people and then it gets out to the media. you know, the question is how did it get out to the media? so there is a lot of bad things

happened there. i had heard he did because he didn't want to cause any disturbance for our country. sew that was, he wouldn't have had to resign. i would not have asked him. i don't know him. i didn't speak to him. but, he did that, i think just to end that problem. i think, really many ways that was a very unselfish thing for him to do. reporter: what should happen now to commander crozier? >> they will look at that i think secretary of defense, as you know is, mark esper. he is very capable. i think he is looking at that right now. they're going to just take it under regular navy channels to see what they want to do but, he made a mistake but he shouldn't have done that and, your secretary probably shouldn't have said quite what he said. he didn't have to resign but he felt it would be better for the

country. so i, i think it's, it will end it quickly. please. reporter: president, couple on economic front. the $250 billion that was added today will be added for the small business loan program. bring it to 600 billion in total. do you think that figure is enough? my -- >> we'll find out. when you see hundreds of thousands of applications, don't forget, they're for $3,000, for 7,000, some for a couple million. one of the banks had a couple million. so they're for different varying amounts of money and there is a limit on the top and then there is really no limit on the bottom what it might be but it's really popular. it is hundreds of thousands of applications they really like it. what i like it keeps companies together, little companies. we'll help the airlines and big companies we'll help the little companies and the banks are -- nobody is equipped to do a thing like that but the banks are equipped so the banks are doing

it. big banks, small banks, many banks, community banks and they're processing the loans and they will be able to watch it, make sure it is done properly. reporter: talk today, sir potentially reopening the economy in the upcoming weeks. you mentioned the other day about a potential economic task force. can you give us some update? >> we want to open up. we want to get it open soon. i think maybe we're getting to the very top of the curve. i spoke with governor cuomo and he seems to think he is getting close. any a lot of people think that, a lot of places are getting close. we want to start hitting the downside, i think -- this will be a very difficult week however. this week will be a very difficult week because that is the most difficult week, when you're at the top position and we'll see what happens. see what happens. reporter: what can the federal government do? >> done a lot and it is going to do a lot. we want -- i really think with the stimulus we can be maybe

even beyond, we're going to do perhaps infrastructure which you wouldn't have gotten approved before and now people are looking to do it and the beauty is we're paying zero interest or very close to zero interest. in some cases we're actually paying zero, have no interest charge. and, the dollar is very strong and people are investing in the dollar. they want, the fact that we have the strong currency, we have the currency. our currency is everything and other companies, other countries want to be in our currency. so we're, we're getting all of the investment wanting to come into the dollar. the dollar is the strength. the dollar is the whole ballgame. we have a strong dollar. other currencies are going down, way, way down in some cases. you look at other countries. i won't mention them but other countries are going down 22%, 25%, 2% and it is very hard for them, makes it much more difficult with us. our currency is relatively now

stronger than it ever was or it was over the last few years, relevant to other countries. it is always relevant to other countries but our currency is very strong. therefore people want to invest. if we do a bond issue to do infrastructure everybody want as piece of that issue. even at zero interest. yeah, please. reporter: thank you, sir. did you see these memos reportedly peter navarro wrote back in january, when did you see them, how do these memos square with what you often said nobody was predicting, sounds like he was predicting. >> i didn't see them. i heard he wrote memos talking about pandemic. i didn't see them, didn't look for them. that was about the same time i felt we should do it. that was about the same time i closed it down. i asked him about it a little while ago because i read something about a memo. did you do a memo? i didn't see it. i didn't ask him to show it to me. yes, i talked about the possibility of pandemic. nobody it is going to happen but

there is a possibility. there always has been a possibility but people wouldn't talk about it, but it was right about the time i closed it down. interestingly the world health organization was not in favor of us closing it down, and if we didn't close it down we have lost hundreds of thousands more lives. so -- good thing. reporter: so at the time though when peter navarro did circulate those memos you were still downplaying the threat of coronavirus in the u.s. you were saying things like, i think it is a problem that is going to go away. >> which i was right about. it will go away. reporter: couple days cases will be down to zero? >> cases really didn't bo go up for a while. you understand i'm a cheerleader for this country. i don't want to create havoc and shock and everything else. ultimately when i was saying that i'm also closing it down. i obviously was concerned about

it because i closed down our country to china, which are was heavily infected. i then closed it down to europe. that is a big move, closing it down from china and closing it down from europe. ultimately closing it down to the uk. it was right about that time but i'm not going to go out and start screaming this could happen, this could happen. so again as president i think a president has to be a cheerleader for their country but at the same time i'm cheerleading i'm also closing down a very highly infected place, specifically, location as you know in china had the problems. we're closing it down but we're closed it down to all of china. then we closed it down to all of europe. those were big moves. it was right about that time. reporter: just a quick follow-up, mr. president. reporter: talking about this today? reporter: you learned about the memos today? >> i read it about a day ago, two days ago. reporter: someone on your staff

or peter navarro himself shoved told you about memos? >> it was recommendation a feeling that he had. i think he told certain people on the staff. it didn't matter. i didn't see it but i closed it down. i don't remember it even being discussed. we had a meeting with a lot of people. most people felt we shouldn't close it down, we shouldn't close it down to china. i felt we had to do it. that was almost the exact same time at the memo. reporter: if you would have read the memo at the time how would that have changed the steps -- >> i don't think i changed it. i basically did what the memo said, the memo was pretty good memo from the standpoint he talked, i guess, i didn't see it yet. reporter: reporting u.s. could lose trillionslars and millions of lives. >> you wint lose millions of lives. you lose plenty of money. i did it about the same time i closed to china. reporter: you maintain confidence in peter navarro? >> of course i maintain

confidence. he wrote a memo. he was right. i haven't seen the memo. i will see later on after this. didn't matter whether i saw it or not because i acted on my own, i guess i had same instincts as peter. he is a smart guy. he have is a good guy. he has done a wonderful job. he wrote a memo, talked to various people about it. i did more or less what the memo said just about the time the memo came out. i closed it down. i took a lot of heat. the world health organization was very much against, they didn't like it. they put out statements about it. in all fairness to joe biden he called me xenophobic, like i don't like china. i like china. i like chinese people are phenomenal people. i was called xenophobic. i was called racist, how could i do a thing like this. since then joe said that he was wrong. he said that i was right. but i closed it down. i was called names by some of the morning show hosts who don't

have a clue what they're talking about. they're not smart people. i was called also names when i closed it down to china. now they try and hide that, you know the tape of them saying terrible things but that was a great decision. if i didn't do it, if i didn't do that, we would have had hundreds of thousands of more people dying. yeah, please. reporter: talked a lot about the w.h.o., and i was wondering, dr. fauci, came up earlier if i could ask you a question about it. >> he respects the w.h.o. that's good. he worked with them for a long time but they did give us some pretty bad play calling. reporter: they have also i think given lots of countries in the world accurate coronavirus testing that has been central to your guy's data modeling. >> that i don't know. only can say with regard to us they're taking a lot of heat because they didn't want the borders closed. they called it wrong. they called, they really called i would say every aspect of it

wrong. until -- reporter: [inaudible] >> look, we fund it. take a look. go through step by step. they said there is no big deal. no big problem. there is no nothing. ultimately when i closed it down they actually said that i made a mistake in closing it down. it turned out to be right but at the time they did that. so we're just going to take a look at it. we fund it. and they seem to be, you know, i said, recently, social media said, they seem to be very china centric. that is nice way of saying it but they seem to be very china centric. they seem to err always on the side of china and we fund it. you know, i want to look into it. yes, please. reporter: quick follow up on that. so is it time to freeze funding to the w.h.o. during a pandemic? >> no, maybe not. i'm not saying i'm going to do it. i will look at it. we, no i didn't i said we'll look at it. we'll investigate it and look at it. we'll look at ending funding.

yeah. because you know what? they called it wrong and, if you look back, over the years, even they're very much, everything seems to be very biased towards china. that's not right. reporter: wanted to follow up. talked about african-americans and how they have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. >> appears to be unfortunately. reporter: do you plan on requiring the cdc, any federal agencies or state agencies, public places doing tests and private companies doing tests to collect that data on the rates of people being tested and the rates of people being treated and how well -- >> we're seeing tremendous, we're seeing tremendous evidence that african-americans are affected at a far greater percentage number than other citizens much our country because we're dealing with our country. now we're looking at it from a worldwide standpoint. tony fauci is looking at it very

strongly but these numbers have started to come out and they're very strong and pretty obvious. we're talking about -- reporter: you won't release that publicly? >> you want to talk about that please? >> i think one of the things we'll be doing with our medicare data is do that analysis, look back at the last month or so related type illnesses going forward. we have a cold for coronavirus we want stratify by demographic information so we can look at rates as a factor. we can also look at what the underlying health issues are as well. so we'll be providing that data very shortly but we will be doing that analysis. >> working on that very hard. this is something come up over, i hadn't heard this. over the last few days this has come up more and more. and i don't mean by a little bit. i mean many times, it is a real thing. now we want to find cures. we have want to find therapeutics, we want to find vaccines. that will solve everybody's problem but why is it that the

african-american community is so much, numerous times more than everybody else? we want to find the reason to it. and, dr. fauci, sema, both of them, others are working on it. i would say, over the next, in less than a week i think you will have very good statistics. couple days. reporter: specifically aimed ad those communities being hard hit, black communities. >> we're helping them a lot but what is happening is we're trying to find out why is it three and four times. maybe that is not going to be the final number but why is it three or four times more so for the black community as opposed to other people? it doesn't make sense. i don't like it. and we're going to have statistics over the next probably two to three days. okay? please. reporter: thank you, i would like to ask a question on behalf of myself and colleague who couldn't be here due to social

distancing. >> who are you with? pete: hearst newspapers i'm the pool reporter. some banks only giving paycheck protect loans to clients with whom they have banking relationships today. you spoke with banking ceos today. >> i did. reporter: will you ask them lenders to accept applications from all small businesses not just businesses who they've a -- >> we're working with small community banks. they will be doing that. a question i have already spoken about. in many cases they have long-term relationships with thousands of companies. i was amazed to see how many, you saw number of applications. it is hundreds of thousands. it's a lot of work but i did ask that question and they are working on that. reporter: thank you, my second question from a colleague is, congressman gerry connelly, democrat from northern virginia told the local dc, cbs station you personally requested the cares act stimulus bill be stripped of $25 billion for the

postal service. connelly claims that unless the usps gets 25 billion the agery will run out of money by june. he accuses you hastening denies of postal service. >> i'm the reason, the postal service has lost billions of dollars every year for many, many years. i'm a denies. this is the new one. i'm now the demise of the postal service. tell you who is the demise of the postal service is the internet companies that give their stuff to the postal service, packages and i don't know why they're not, i don't run the postal service. you have a group of people, so-called independent people and they run it but these packages are, they deliver, they lose money every time they deliver a package for amazon or these other internet companies, these other companies that deliver, they drop everything in the post office, say you deliver it. and if they would raise the prices by actually a lot, then you would find out that the post office could make money or break

even. they don't do that i'm trying to figure out why. these are independent boards. they were appointed by other administrations. they're sort of long term. they're there for a long time. i've been talking to them also. you can look it up, take a look, they should raise, they have to raise the prices to these companies that walk in and drop thousands of packages on the floor of the post office and say, deliver it. and they make money but the post office gets killed. okay? so they ought to do that and we're looking into it. we've been pushing them now for over a year. you know that because you have seen the stories i'm pushing them. not fair for them to, to this great wonderful, modern companies, they're walking into our old post office with all those routes that could never be built, you could never build them. they go into areas that you could never do, and they say, here, deliver this. and they lose a lot of money per package. they have to raise their prices but their postal commission doesn't do it. we just got a chance to appoint

a couple people on to the commission as i understand it, and that's good but they have to raise their prices otherwise they're just going to lose a lot of money. tell your democrat friend he ought to focus on that, if he focused on that he could truly save the post office. post office has been losing billions of dollars a year for many, many years. and, have him take a look at that because that is the way to solve the problems. reporter: you stated it could be very painful, but two weeks ago you said this was just like a flu. what have you learned -- >> i didn't say two weeks ago it was a flu. you know what, can i tell you what. reporter: what have you learned could offered a vice to foreign leaders who are still skeptical about pandemic and who are again, social distancing? what is your advice. >> you said i said it was just like a flu. so the worst pandemic we ever had? this world, was a flu. it was called, you know, that it

was in in in 1917 to nate 18. 50 million people died. that was a flu. you say it was a flu or flu is nothing to sneeze at. reporter: my question, what can you offer to advice to foreign leaders who are skeptical about the pandemic, who are again, social distancing? >> well i think they're aren't too many of them. if you look throughout the world, everyone, just about, everyone that has practiced that is now closing up. well, uk was an example. now, they talk about sweden, but sweden is suffering very gravely, you know that, right? sweden did that. the herd, they call it the herd, sweden is suffering very badly. it is a way of doing it but you know, everybody has been watching everybody else and so far almost every country has done it the way we've done it.

we've chosen to do it. if we didn't do it that way we would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people, okay? reporter: mr. president, voting going on today in wisconsin. there were reports of thousands of people waiting in hours long lines as to their own personal health and civic responsibility. do you think the supreme court was right in voting should go forward and absentee extension should not take place? >> look the supreme court, of course they were right because what the democrats wanted, and you know what this happened, i supported a man named justice kelly, who is daniel kelly, highly respected justice, and i supported him just the other day, social media. i know of him. he is just, fantastic judge, justice. and i endorsed him. and as soon as i endorsed him they wanted to move the election. they didn't want to move the election. as soon as i endorsed him

wisconsin democrats, let's move the election to two months later, they didn't mind having the election until i endorsed him which is very interesting. now they talk about oh, safety, safety. well, it was 15 minutes after i put out an endorsement that they said we have to move the election. they didn't want to move the election before that. the other thing they wanted to do which is crazy, at the end of the election they wanted to have one week for proxies to come in or mail ballots. now mail ballots, they cheat. people cheat, mail ballots are very dangerous thing for this country. they are cheaters. they collect them, they're fraudulent in many cases. you have got to vote. they should have voter i.d., you want to do it right with voter i.d. the democrats was turned over in the supreme court yesterday, this was i give great credit to the court. they didn't want to have election day. then a week after election day you choose your but all these ballots come in, these mailed ballots come in. the mail ballots are corrupt in

my opinion. and they collect them. and they get people to go in and sign them and they are forgeries in many cases. it is a horrible thing. so what happened is, the democrats in wisconsin, they had no problem with the election being today until i endorsed the republican candidate justice kelly, daniel kelly. as soon as i endorsed him, they went crazy. they went crazy. and you know that's true. and now all of sudden, because go back two weeks, go back two days. they didn't want to move the election. they were having the election. they were fine because they thought they were going to win the election. then i endorsed him all of sudden they're not. now i understand lines are going back a long way. i hope they vote for justice kelly. okay? go. reporter: with millions of hydroxychlorquine donated is there a plan or system in place to track the potential

side-effects? >> well you saw the representative -- reporter: serious harm. is there a plan -- >> side-effects, side-effects are least of it. people are i doing all over the place. generally the side-effects are really with the zpack having to do with the heart, the zpack, that is the antibiotic, not with hydroxychlorquine. so, so a woman last night i watched her on one of the shows, good show, laura, and she was she thought she was dead. she was a representative from michigan. she was, just in horrible shape for 12 days, 14 days. she thought she was dead. i think she said her doctor said, it will be very tough. she saw me talking about this and she asked her husband to go to the drugstore. this is a democrat representative, a person that you know, perhaps wouldn't be

voting for me, i think she will be voting for me now, even if she is democrat, even if she is a democrat representative, and they went to the store, which i made available because we have millions of doses. we have i think 29 million doses of this drug and she asked her husband, please go out, i'm not going to make it. you have to hear her story, please go out and get it. he went 10:00 in the even together drugstore. he got it. he gave it to her. now you know, i don't say it works like this in all -- four hours later, she awoke and she said i feel better. and then shortly thereafter she felt great. this is woman thought she was going to die. it's, i mean, she is a democrat representative, highly respected woman, african-american woman. i don't know if you saw it. you asked a question about african-americans. she was an african-american

woman, a great woman. a, her, manner of speaking her, the way she told the story was beautiful, i asked my husband to go and get it. he got it. she is now okay. i have mean she was interviewed last night on television. and she thanked me. she thanked me even in a tweet. i want to thank president trump he saved my life. look, i don't say that happen with everybody. that is a beautiful story. there are many of those stories. i say try it, please. if you're in trouble, you're going to die and i mean, you're not going to die from this pill. now, there could be some side-effects but the side effects is really more so from the zpack. reporter: those side effects? >> no, doctors have to recommend it. i want doctors. i'm not saying, i'm not a doctor. i'm just saying we hear great results. and some people say let's go to a lobber to, let's test it for couple years, no, we got people

dying in this country and all over the year, as we speak people are dying and i really, think it's a great thing to try. just based on what i know. again i'm not a doctor. and i say get a physician's approval. and they have physicians in these hospitals, great physicians, brave physicians. they also say it is good for the hospital workers to take them. that it is, it's, keeps it away, keeps it out of your system. i don't know but there is a lot of good examples. you know we have a 1500 case study going in new york and it is almost complete. so it will be very interesting to see what happens. go ahead. reporter: thank you, sir. >> i appreciate that woman. she was great. you have to see it to believe it, the way she spoke. it was like, a miracle. and this was not a fan of mine. but she is a fan of mine now. i'm very honored by it. go hoed. reporter: can you talk about the

decision to remove glen fine from pandemic response and criticism you level at igs, how does the american public have confidence there will be oversight? >> we have a lot of igs from the obama era. it is a presidential decision. i left them largely. changed some, but i left them. but when we have, you know reports of bias and when we have different things coming in, i don't know fein. i don't know that i met fein. i heard the name, maybe he was from clinton. check that out. maybe he is from clinton but we did change him. but we changed a number, we have about seven nominations in. i believe we put seven, very, highly qualified people for the i.g. position. that is a decision that i could have made three years ago and i could have made two years ago. but we're putting in, not so much for him, we're putting in seven names. i think it was seven. and they're going in now.

yeah. reporter: when you talk about the w.h.o. being china centric, what exactly are you talking about? because -- >> they seem to come down on the side of china. don't close your borders to china. don't do this. they don't report really what is going on. they didn't see it, yet they were there. they didn't see what was going on in wuhan. they didn't see it. how do you not see it? they didn't see it. they didn't report it. they must have seen it but they didn't report it. please, go ahead. reporter: mr. president, turning back to the voting in wisconsin and those long lines, who can be responsible, who should be held responsible if people get sick after they voted? >> look all i did was endorse a candidate. i don't know anything about their lines. i don't know anything about their voting. i love the state. reporter: you also people encouraged to get out to vote today as well. don't you take responsibility -- >> won the state, a rare for republican to do. i won the state of wisconsin. i will do it again because we've been great to the people of

wisconsin with our policies. they like me and i like them. but, all i did was endorse a candidate that is highly qualified. very respected person. and all hell broke loose. soon as i did that then all of sudden they want to change. before i endorsed him they didn't want to chuang this voting area. there was no problem with the democrats voting until i endorsed the candidate. then they said, let's move it two months. let's move it three months later. safety, safety, safety, right. all of sudden they want safety. before i did the endorsement they didn't talk about safety. for month, for months it was fine. now i endorse they want safety. so you know. [reporters shouting questions] reporter: just to follow up on that, how does the election, them holding this election in wisconsin line up with the social distancing recommendations that have come from your administration. >> you have to ask the people

that, you have a democrat in wisconsin as governor. ask him. that is his problem. okay, he should be doing it. again, some governors fail, and i won't let them fail because when they fail i will help but that is run by democrats right now. okay? it is run by democrats. you had a great republican. reporter: is it possibly to socially distance when you're voting? >> you have to speak to the governor. what you should do call the governor of wisconsin to ask him that question. also ask him how come it was okay to do this until i endorsed a candidate. as soon as i endorsed him these lines are formed. mike i hear the lines are through the roof. hopefully they will vote for the right candidate. reporter: check in on the oil again today. >> oil? where is it today? reporter: well, i was wondering -- >> where is the price? give me the price? reporter: i'm not sure to be honest. >> how can you ask a question

you don't know the price. let me get to somebody else. reporter: you were highly critical of mail in voting, mail-in ballots -- >> i think mail-in vote something horrible. it is corrupt. reporter: florida's election last month. >> sure i can vote by mail. because i'm allowed to. that is called out-of-state, you know yes voted because i happened to be in the white house. i won't be able to go to florida to vote. reporter: mailing within the state or mailing outside the state? >> somebody that is out-of-state and does a ballot and everything sealed, certified everything else. you see what you have to do with the certifications. and you get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebody's living room signing ballots all over the place. no. i think that mail-in vote something a terrible thing. i think if you vote, you should go and, even the concept of early voting is not the greatest much. because a lot of things happen. but it is okay. but you should go and you should vote. i think you should go and you should vote.

look at what they do where grab thousands of mail-in ballots and dump it. i tell you what, i don't have to tell you, you can look at the statistics there is a lot of dishonest think going along with mail-in voting. mail-in ballots. reporter: state officials buy their own medical equipment the federal officials are swooping in, scooping up the orders. how are you insuring fairly and -- >> we're getting great prices on equipment. we're getting great prices on equipment. we're helping the states. and the governors are very thankful. mike pence had a call yesterday with every governor on the call. it was like a love-fest. they're very happy. i have don't know if they tell that to the press. some of them don't. some of them will never say good to the press. they know we have done a great job. not a good job. a great job. reporter: officials -- >> sometimes it does, what we say is, let us know and we will immediately drop out of the bidding. let us know, and we do that, we

drop out. sometimes we tell them to drop out because we have got good price. we'll deliver to them. go had. no, no. not you, in front, please. reporter: some states have had trouble with getting accurate test counts particularly because of lack of testing or -- >> death counts? reporter: because of lack of testing and no uniform system to -- >> when you say death counts, i think they're pretty accurate on the death count. somebody dies i think states have been pretty accurate. what you're just saying. death counts i think they're very accurate. i do say this, i think if you look at china, if you look at some of these very large countries, when you talk about cases, number of cases i would be willing to bet they have more cases than we do but they don't do the testing like we do. but you look at, you know, you look at some of these certain countries, and i would be willing to bet a lot that they had more cases but we're more

accurate. our testing is done very accurately. we have a good process. did you have one, please? reporter: mr. president, recently supportive of a payroll relief tax. >> what? payroll? reporter: payroll relief. still busy implementing phase three, but as we move towards phase four, are there still obstacles to that? that would put money in american's pockets -- >> good question. i would love to see a payroll tax cut and i think, on behalf of the people it would be quick. now it is a longer term, you know it is a longer time because it is over a period of a year or whatever you want to make it but i would love to see a payroll tax cut. there are many people who like to see it as permanent tax cut, payroll tax cut. reporter: what is stopping isn't. >> democrats are stopping it. reporter: what are their reasons? >> i don't know. maybe they think it is good politics to stop it but you would get a lot of people a lot

of money immediately. payroll tax cut would be a great thing for this country. i would like to have it regardless of this but this would be a fantastic time to have the payroll tax cut. the democrats are stopping it. but i don't think they're, you know, i think it is, i think there is certain flexibility. i think it is something we should do, both for business and the people but this would get, money into the hands of small business immediately. money in the hands of people, workers and people immediately. and it would be over an extended period and simple to do. so easy to do. it is a great tax cut. i would love you to speak to the democrats, let's get it done. i will give this to vice president pence. they will go over some very good at that stays -- statistics with everybody. we'll have a couple answers on that, we're working very hard with the african-american community with respect what is going on. it is not good. i don't like it. we'll have some very good

statisticses, tony next couple days. thank you awe you will very much port. [reporters shouting questions] >> thank you all, a few updates, then i introduce dr. deborah birx what we're seeing around the country. what the data is telling us. suffice it to say as the president said several times this is very tough week in america. and our hearts go out to all of the families that have lost loved ones to the coronavirus up, i know i speak for the entire white house coronavirus task force, when i say, our hearts are with the people of the greater new york city area today. as we stand here today, in the

midst of heart-breaking numbers of losses in new york city i also want to assure the american people that their is reason for hope. as, as dr. birx will enumerate in just a few moments despite the increase in losses, as governor cuomo articulated today, hospital admissions continue to decline and in our report early this morning from dr. birx we continue to see evidence of stabilization in some areas around the country of the most significant outbreak, the new york metro area, including new jersey, long island, connecticut. new orleans metro area, detroit, boston, chicago and denver as dr. birx will sprain continue to

give evidence stabilization which in very real sense is evidence that the american people are putting into practice social distancing, the president's guidelines for our nation, and for that, as the president said earlier today we thank the american people, even in the midst of hardship and loss at a time when we see more than 385,000 americans test positive for the coronavirus and more than 12,000 succumb to this illness, the evidence that dr. birx will describe to you will show that the american people know the future is in our hands. let me allow you simply to continue to urge every american to put into practice the guidance you're receiving from your state and local authorities, take it to heart, take it seriously, share it with

your family and your friend and, and know that you're making a difference, america, because you truly are. today for my part i spoke to over 500 small business owners in a conference call and there i heard about their enthusiasm for the paycheck protection program. and that call took place before the president had the secretary of treasury indicate our interest in acquiring another $250 billion for that program. as of this morning more than $60 billion in forgivable loans that would cover two months of paychecks, at small businesses already had been distributed and the number is going to grow literally by the day. but we also had a very productive call today with, with some other american heroes. you know the, we all have in our hearts and in our minds our health care workers and i'll speak for a moment about the supplies and resources we're

working to provide for all of them. right below the health care workers are people working in critical infrastructure around the country and, some of the most important people are working in food supply, from the farmers, and the ranchers, to our processers to our distributors to our truckers, to our grocers, americans are keeping food on the table for our fellow americans. let me begin by just saying what i said to some of the most prominent ceo's of meat and grain industry companies in the country, companies like tyson food and hormel today, not just these companies but to all the hard-working people working in food supply today, thank you, thank you for what you're doing to keep those grocery store shelves stocked. thank you for showing up to work every day and working hard to keep that food supply rolling in america. you know it was more than five

weeks ago that the president brought in all of the grocery store leaders in the country and there he received a commitment that no grocery store in america would close and they haven't but it is these heroic americans from the farm to the fork, that have made it possible for americans to have one less worry, and they are truly inspiring heroes. now that being said i did hear from the industry today there have been reports of some plants having reduced capacity because of people having concerns about exposure to the coronavirus. in fact over the last several days there is, been some incidents of worker absenteeism and some plants have actually been forced to close temporarily. so on behalf of the president, on behalf of our entire team, on behalf of a grateful nation, let me say to all of you are working in the food industry at every level across the country, just understand you're vital. you are giving a great service

to the people of the united states of america. and we need to you continue as a part of what we call our critical infrastructure to show up and do your job, and know we're going to continue to work tirelessly working with all your companies to make sure that work place is safe. that being said let me talk about the other heroes we always mention at this podium today that, dr. birx and dr. fauci invariably mention and that is our healthcare workers. at the president's direction we've been working tirelessly, literally around the clock to identify resources around the country and around the world to make sure our health care workers have the support that they need with some 51 major disaster declarations, most recently minnesota being approved, states have stood up 27,000 national guard but personnelwise before the end of business today there will be more than 3,000 department of defense and health and human services medical personnel on

the ground in the greater new york city area. those people will be redeployed once that region of the country moves through the coronavirus epidemic in that area and, we salute those extraordinary, patriotic americans for stepping forward to bring real relief to our health care workers. with regard to equipment, admiral admiral polowczyk reported that wee continue to distribute ventilators across the country. we sent ventilators from the strategic national stockpile. marylander will receive 50 vent regulators. delaware will receive 50 ventilators that leaves more than 4800 ventilators in the national stockpile. one correction after yesterday, after our press briefing yesterday, fema made a different decision with regard to what the

state of california generously made available and the ventilators, some 500 ventilators that we again want to thank governor gavin newsom and the people of california for donating to our nation's efforts, 100 of those are being deployed to new york, 100 to new jersey, 100 to illinois, 50 to maryland, 50 to washington, d.c., 50 to delaware and 50 to nevada. with regard to the remainder of what we call personal protective equipment, again, we've been literally leaving no stone unturnedded anywhere in the country, anywhere around the world. as admiral polowczyk described a couple days ago, we established not just an air bridge but a control tower system modeled after military logistics out of fema. while fema is acquiring a small portion of what's being acquired, 90 percent of the supplies are being, are being routed directly into our massive

distribution system and fema is using data dr. birx provides to target those resources to areas most in need. i asked them to break out a few details about resources just in the last five days have been distributed and i hope it is and encouragement to health care workers all across these regions around the country about these efforts being made to make sure they have what they need. you can see the new york metro area including new jersey, just in the last five days, more than 6 million n95 masks, more than 6 million surgical masks. when governor cuomo and i last spoke he told me there was a real challenge for medical gowns in the new york city area and in new jersey as well. and 2.8 million gowns were distributed to that region as well. going next to new orleans where again, while we see some

encouragement challenges remain in that community. some 837,000 n95 masks for health care workers. 165 surgical masks, other items including almost six million gloves have been distributed. detroit continues to be a real focal point. we're working closely with governor gretchen witmer and mayor mike duggan to meet needs of health care workers in detroit. last five days 1.6 million n95 masks have been routed into the health care system in detroit. nearly 700,000 surgical masks and 24 million gloves, just as portion of what's displayed. and in the chicago metro area which we continue to focus on each and every day more than 1.7 million n95 masks have been routed into their health care system, 900,000 surgical masks, 25 million gloves. i share these details in the

hopes health care workers looking on will be encouraged. with the president's effort we're making every effort to insure that you have the resources you need to do your job, to do it safely and go home safe to your family even while you provide that extraordinary and courageous care that our health care workers are providing literally around the clock in the midst of the coronavirus challenge. the last slide is just cumulative numbers that we have distributed. i'm happy in a few moments to answer any questions about that. again, the system that we have in place is, is one that is, is essentially infusing our major distribution networks with millions of items and then fema is directing on a day-by-day and often times hour by hour basis where those resources are most needed and we'll continue to go dough that as the coronavirus --

continue to do that as the coronavirus makes its way through communities panned through communities very much on our watch list today. let me lastly say again i want to thank the american people for stepping up, doing your part. we continue to be overwhelmed with one story after another where people are doing social distancing, where people are looking after one another, where they're checking in with a phone call to an elderly friend, a family member to make sure they're okay. we are on the front end of 30 days to slow the spread. and i will tell you, as a non-scientist up here, that i see glimmers of hope. in the early numbers that we're seeing come out of the greater new york city area, new jersey, even new orleans and detroit and chicago, there does appear to be as dr. birx will explain in more detail, there appears to be evidence of leveling, evidence of progress but this is exactly the time for all of to us

redouble our efforts to do everything each and everyone of us can, not just to protect our own health, that of our family and our loved ones but to do our part to insure that we lessen the impact of the coronavirus on america as a whole but even more importantly that we lessen the impact on lives by insuring that we do our part to make sure that no one that is vulnerable is unnecessarily exposed to this virus. with that let me yield to dr. birx and seema verma and dr. fauci will take all of your questions. >> thank you, mr. vice president so hopefully you can see from those numbers that we have taken a data detail approach really bringing the power of granular data to the supply chain, moving supplies, based on what you would call burden of disease and need. i can take, start out by not just going to the numbers at the

beginning but really talking to the community of health advocates, to the community that works on social determinants of disease and communities of historic black colleges and universities. we really need to improve messaging and i'm asking them to help us to increase the messaging around this. which don't want to give the impression that the african-american community is more susceptible to the virus. we don't have any data that suggests that. what our data suggests they're more susceptible to more difficult and severe disease and poorer out comes. we really need to make sure every household is aware of what it is going to take to protect the individual in that household have preexisting conditions. we would call on the indigenous nations, tribal leaders also be working very closely to protect the elders of their communities. we know this is more difficult and multigenerational. households it will call for

really unbelievable attention to details of hand washing, protecting others from each other, particularly if you don't feel well. this is a really a call to action to the communities to make sure we get messages appropriately out there, so everyone understands what it is going to take for us all to protect one another. we know it can be done because we can see these changes. wanted to go through the numbers at a high level so you understand why particularly these supplies went to these areas to begin with. we talk about attack rates or the cases per population. so in the new york, as a state they have seven cases per thousand. this is the highest in the country. new york city itself is closer to almost twice that in new york city. new jersey is four per thousand, louisiana three per thousand, massachusetts two per thousand,

connecticut two per thousand, michigan 1.5 per thousand. district of columbia, baltimore area 1.5 per thousand. we're watching them closely. pennsylvania, one per thousand, we're concerned about philadelphia. what is allowing to us move supplies based on burden of disease and need is the extraordinary west coast that has had very low numbers from washington, that was less than one per thousand, california less than .5 per thousand, and oregon that is even less than that. and it is those state where there is large populations because of the enormous work they're doing to prevent expansion and spread of the virus, that is allowing resources to go to these states and these communities and these counties that need more support. and so this kind of data analysis is allowing us to make very intelligent decisions about need, but also really understanding what is happening across the country in the

development of curves you know about. there is some times decrease in case reporting. there were series of increasing in communities on monday. we're seeing that stablize again and when you look over three days you're starting to see we may be actually in a series of communities outside of new york and new jersey and connecticut creating a much flatter graph, a much flatter curve. so you saw new york increase as you saw, as governor cuomo and the mayor decided they're getting to a steady state where the next outcome is going down but we see across the country in detroit in chicago, some real, not this extreme going to seven cases per thousand but staying in the more two cases per thousand, and a different curve

parameter then. it really shows the amazing, amazing activity of every american in those cities to really insure that there is social distancing. really importantly, to insure there is less socialization between households and really insuring that the household really remains independent and protected and not really at this moment going out into the community or socializing anywhere but virtual way on computers, by zoom, by face time. and i think we can really see that in the data. that is given us great heart. i want to finish to talk to my laboratory directors because you're extraordinary and you've done amazing amount of testing. those two million tests we're getting to, those were all done in the last two to three weeks but we do have excess capacity. if all the lab directors could look in the laboratories if they

have an abbott m-2,000, get that up and running we could double the number of tests we're doing today. that is high through-put. the machines are throughout the united states. there are hundreds of them. right now about 80% of them are idle. we're going to have a call with the laboratory directors of these laboratories to really insure this is an automated, robotic situation that they can run this over a million tests sitting, test kits sitting, ready to be run. we have five platforms of tests this is one of our really high volume platforms like roche and we're really calling on them to really increase that capacity so that we can do not only increased diagnostic testing which i think we're doing quite well right now but also increasing the ability to do more health care workers, first-responders, community testing and surveillance. final i you will see and heard

about it -- liz: i'm elizabeth macdonald. you're watching the earning edit edit -- "the evening edit" on fox business. thanks for watching. join us tomorrow night as ♪ >> a babe who photographed babies... >> she would get them to do the craziest things. >> ...becomes a celebrity herself. >> people knew her by name. she was a pin-up. >> there were definitely stories of skiing with the kennedys, definitely a lavish lifestyle for sure. >> what was her secret? >> isn't she adorable? >> what a winner shot. >> is it still gold today? >> is this collection potentially worth six figures, seven figures? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in littleton, colorado. it's a suburb of denver that,