mccarthy, house minority leader, michael pillsbury among our guests. thanks for joining us. stay safe and good night from sussex. >> we sent our team to get our officials and about 800 american citizens, non-government citizens living in wuhan. i remember we went one of our first repatriation flights there. we were very careful. we sent trained professionals. they were going into difficult, fraught place. we were blessed no one contracting virus on that trip. i'm not aware of any of our officials had the virus attack them while they were performing their functions trying to get people back. we have number of state department officials who have covid-19 now and working their way through. we had three fatalities of local employees, not u.s. district hires but local people mo were working for the state department in emba is is around the world.

we had three fatalities so far. reporter: there were calls on the world health organization for limb change there i wonder what your thoughts are on that? senator martha mcsally, for example, called for dr. tedros to resign. >> look, this not the time to be doing that kind of change. there will be a lot of time to look back to see how the world health organization performed. meantime what our task is to preserve and protect the american taxpayers, make sure our resources don't go to places that won't deliver on behalf of the american people and the world and president trump and i are determined to do that. >> okay. follow up? reporter: quick follow up -- >> he is a busy man. reporter: china has responsibility to get correct figures. how would you broadly characterize cooperation with china right now. >> lots of places we've been cooperating, right? they're providing us assistance

where we need it. there are places on the ground where we do have access to the data we need. we're deeply appreciative of that. they have said they want to cooperate. we're completely prepared to cooperate with them. that cooperation means sharing data, being transparent, being up front, allowing information to flow freely. that is our expectation, not just of china though, of every country in this place today. we collectively we have to work our way through this to do this you have to have really good data. >> okay. >> great, thank you, mr. president. thank you all. >> thanks. okay. thank you very much. just a few days we've delivered nearly 11 million n95 masks to hot spots around the country as you know, including 6.6 million to new york and new jersey. 1.8 million to chicago. 1.7 million to detroit and 837,000 to new orleans. i spoke to the governor of

louisiana a little while ago and they're doing really pretty well. much better than they thought. they will be using few are beds. as you know we built a hospital. we're about set to complete another hospital in, there is even a possibility they won't need it. that is what we discussed. to date we've shipped out more than 8,000 ventilators and we have 10,000, almost 10,000 sitting there ready to go should we need them. and in additional 2200 newly manufactured ventilators come online on monday. we'll be sending them to various locations just in case they need them. my administration is working with phillips to double their production of ventilators by may, and ultimately quadruple production by later this year, high-quality ventilators. we're eliminating bureaucratic barriers to pave the way for phillips major investments in american manufacturing sites and sales. this will help to insure that

our country can permanently produce enough ventilators in the future we can do them by ourselves. we'll have a big stockpile when we're finished. we expect to be sending quite a few to other countries to help them after we're finished and even now we're, a couple of countries are really, really in dire need. and it looks like our projections were right on ventilators, and some states we're thinking would need thousands of more than they thought will, are now already taken care of, which we're very happy about. in addition, beginning in may we'll be receiving almost 300 million new facemasks. we're going to have masks of about 300 million. they will be starting to be delivered in may and during the month of june. so we're ordering a big stockpile. we're thinking about doing an extra 200 million should we need

them or for the stockpile. so we'll be in a position to have something incredible that will be a total of 500 million masks. today 750,000 new protective grounds landed in dallas texas, as a result of a partnership led by the federal government, dupont and fedex that has been a great partnership. that's worked very well. we have 600, 750,000 new protective gowns. these are high level, high quality. as american industry tens up to help and american scientists. 10 drugs are in clinical trials. my administration is taking unprecedented actions to make new therapies and treatments available without delay. the doctors, the lab technicians, the companies, i spoke to them yesterday, i spoke to them again today, they're coming up with things i think, i hope in very near future will be very special, very important.

our national stockpile is now equipped with nearly 30 million hydroxychlorquine pills. so we're up to about 30 million. we're distributing them by the millions. you read about state representative karen whitset i appreciate her going public. she was i think, very, very much helped by this pill. she saw what i was saying on television. she thought she was in very bad shape, won't go further than that you see her story. you know her story. she is a highly respected state rep from michigan. she did a, i think she did a great service, what she's done. she is in terrific shape. she looks fantastic and she was very generous with her statements. in addition the significant significant asignificant throw

mice sin and add sync. they zinc. that is where they're having best results. you add the zinc and arthrmycin. you have a lot of good stories. we have almost 30 million doses. we've got a lot. i want to thank prime minister modi of india for allowing us to have what we requested for the problem arose. he was terrific. we'll remember it. later today the cdc will release further guidance to help insure critical infrastructure workers can perform their jobs safely after potential exposure to the virus so they're working on that. the question was asked a little while ago about the world health organization and, as you know

they made a statement on june, on january 14th, i guess it was, that there was no human-to-human transmission. well there was. they probably made that statement in the second or third week in december in addition but they made it very powerfully on january 14th and they criticized me very strongly when i said that we're going to shut down flights coming in from china, especially from certain parts of china but from china generally. we were criticized very badly. so last year and for many years hundreds of millions of dollars has been paid to the world health organization, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and last year was $452 million. and china paid 42 million. before that it was 500 million and china paid less than 40 million. and before that it was similar

numbers, in the 400s, 300s and sometimes even in the 500s of millions of dollars and china would do, proportionally, just a small fraction of that number and i think they have to get their priorities right and their priorities are that everybody has to be treated properly, every country. and it doesn't seem that way, does it? doesn't seem that way. so we're going to do, study investigation and we're going to make a determination as to what we're doing. meantime we're holding back. we're, we want to say very unfair. so the united states, $452 million expired to the world health organization. that is not good. not good. not fair at all. other countries gave substantially less than the united states. and the world, w.h.o., world

health got it wrong. i mean they got it very wrong. many ways they were wrong. they also minimized the threat very strongly, and not good. i want to take this opportunity to express the thanks of an extremely grateful nation to the americans who go to work every day, especially in these critical industries in the midst of the pandemic to care for and protect and feed american people including medical personnel, law enforcement, first-responders, food suppliers, sanitation workers and somebody mentioned today, would you please specifically call out cashiers and clerks at grocery stores who are in danger during the pandemic, during the epidemic. they're in danger. they're really in great danger, and they have been incredible. i want to call them out. cashiers and clerk. we grew up with cashiers and

clerks in grocery stores and they have been great and they have really been true american heroes. i want to call them out and they're working very hard in conditions that are not ideal. soon they will be very ideal again. as we mourn the terrible loss of life from this, this grave pandemic, we're seeing signs that our aggressive strategy to slow the spread is working. the number of new cases is stablizing. the number of beds necessary in some locations, i was watching this morning new york, i was watching louisiana, you see what is going on. the numbers are changing and they're changing rapidly. soon we'll be over that curve. we'll be over the top. we'll be headed in the right direction, i feel strongly about that. some terrible days ahead but we're going to have some wonderful days ahead. and we're going to get this behind us, this terrible thing behind us. some people never be able to

forget if they had a loved one, if they had a great friend or a friend, but, we're going to get it behind us. this is a tribute to the discipline and devotion of the american people, what we've accomplished. if every american continues to strictly adhere to social distancing guidelines we can defeat the invisible enemy and save countless lives and do it much more quickly. we're hopefully heading toward a final stretch, the light at the end of the tunnel as i was saying as we continue to wage all out medical war to defeat the virus we're also fighting an economic war to insure we can quickly turn to full financial strength. we have to get our country back. we have to get going. everybody wants to get going. yesterday i asked congress to provide an additional $250 billion to expand the incredibly successful paycheck protection program. you have seen what is going on

there. it is incredible, actually, which is allowing our small businesses to keep employees on the payroll and get ready for the opening, like a second opening, to protect millions of americans jobs, i'm asking congress to pass additional funding for this program this week as soon as possible. i think we have pretty good understanding with the democrats. hopefully it will be bipartisan. we do not have time for the partisan games. we don't want that the obstruction, or totally unrelated agendas. we want to do this for small businesses and workers and we can do a phase four. a phase four will be later. this will be expansion what we've already done, because it is so successful. 350 billion will be expanded by hopefully 250. if you look at kind of loans, thousands, tens of thousands of loans to small businesses. it is, a great thing to see. turn out to be more successful and more productive than anybody

would have thought but democrats and republicans are coming together to get that job done. that's a very important job. in recent days and days ahead we'll restore america's health and economic might but also dimensions much our national strength will be brought together, i think, stronger than -- i think we have a chance to be stronger than ever before. we learned a lot. and we have tremendous stimulus now, tremendous stimulus. and we're going for more. heavy fully we'll do an infrastructure bill so we can rebuild our roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, all the things we should do for our country. we'll rebuild our country, not other countries where they don't even appreciate it. as our citizens persevere through this present challenge, we're renewing american unity and we're replenishing american will and we are witnessing new american valor each and every day. we see it every day. the daring and determination of

our people in this crisis no matter how hard it gets, no matter what obstacles we must overcome, americans will keep on fighting the victory and we will secure the glorious future that our citizens so richly deserve, especially after going through this nightmare, this evil beast. so we're getting very close and hopefully it will, hopefully it is on the other side and it will end soon and i think it will, and i just think that the people of this country are fantastic. so we'll take a few questions and then, vice president will take over, please, go ahead. please? reporter: thank you so much, mr. president. abc is reporting that your intelligence community was warn about the virus as early as november and produced a detail report about the outbreak in china. when did you first learn about the intelligence? could you have acted on it then? >> i learned when i started, when i learned about the gravity sometime just prior to closing the country to china and when we

closed up the flights coming in from china various other elements. and then as you know we closed up to europe. so i don't know exactly but i would like to see the information, yeah, please. reporter: mr. president, a lot of americans want to see businesses reopen. >> so do i, more than anybody. reporter: what specifically has to happen for you to feel it is safe to reopen the country and what is your plan to do that? >> i think we can say we have to be on that downside of that slope and heading to a very strong direction, that this thing is gone. we can do it in faces. can go to some areas which you know, some areas are much less affected than others but it would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country, or certainly most of our country and i think we'll do that soon. you look at what's happening i would say we're ahead of schedule. you hate to say it too loudly, because all of sudden things don't happen but i think we will be sooner rather than later. but we'll be sitting down with the professionals. we'll be sitting down with many

different people making a determination and those meetings will start taking place fairly soon. reporter: you wouldn't do that until the health experts tell you it is safe to do it? >> i would rely very heavily on them, yeah. reporter: do you think there is system for monitoring and testing that you're looking at? >> we're putting in very heavy testing systems. we have the best testing systems. and again, don't forget when we look at cases i'm looking at some, i will not insult anybody, i will not insult any country, but i'm looking at countries that are showing less cases than us. that's testing. we're testing more than anybody. you saw exponentially more than anybody by far and our testing has become, i think it will end up being a big strength. in fact the other countries, other countries that the media talked about are now calling what are we doing and how are he doing it so quickly and where are we getting tests because the tests are really good now. they are proven to be very accurate. yes, please. reporter: thank you, the trump.

two quick questions. one on infrastructure. mem bergs of our administration, members of congress pointed out federal employee, head of tennessee valley authority, and he made $8 million last year. >> ridiculous. i agree. it's ridiculous. i think it is highest paid government -- long before i got here, you said tennessee valley authority, right? has to be the highest paid man in any government. makes approximately 8 or $9 million. i don't know the gentleman but he has a heck of a job. he gets paid a lot of money. been there for a long while, hasn't he? reporter: this one is new. came in april. >> that's separate. i'm talking about the, we just have some new people going on the board i know. but as you know, that's a quasi-public agency and whoever the head of the agency is, that person makes a lot of money. reporter: asking my second question --

>> which is amazing thing. when we want them to do something they're not there for us. that is not good. that's not good. been there for a long time. that has been a story for a long time. reporter: i assume you would support reducing that salary as part of the infrastructure bill? >> reducing it by a lot. reporter: my other question -- >> must be the greatest job in the history of government almost. certainly if you're into money. tennessee valley authority. that's right, go ahead. been waiting for somebody to ask me about that. it has been bothering me for a long time too, go ahead. reporter: one of the biggest rating hits of coronavirus besides from -- show on netflix called, "tiger king." the man is former zoo owner serving a 22 year prison sentence. asking you for a pardon saying he was unfairly convicted. your son jokingly yesterday he would advocate for it. i was wondering if you had seen the show and any thoughts of pardoning --

>> which son? must be don? i had a feeling it was don? is that what he said. i know nothing about it, 22 years for what? what did he do? reporter: allegedly hired someone to murder a on a mall rights activist. he said he didn't do it. >> do you think he didn't do it? are you on his side? are you recommending a pardon as reporter not allowed to do that would you be criticized by these -- would you recommend a pardon north north. reporter: not making a recommendation. that is joe exotic. reporter: coronavirus if i can, mr. president. last week your top experts were saying we should expect 100,000, 240,000 deaths in this country. you're talking but how looks likes things are plateauing. are these numbers being revised down ward? i know you don't want people to stop social distancing that sort of thing what can you tell us about the numbers -- >> my impression, jim, those were the numbers were set, set

as expectation from quite a while ago. i think we're doing much better than those numbers. if either of you would like to talk about that, that is a fair question. you want to come up, deborah? [inaudible]. >> yeah, so, i think all of you, many of you have done the analysis of the same models that we utilized. if you do the the models of the models you end up with that range. at the same time we carefully looked at italy and spain and we are doing much better in many cases than several other countries and we're trying to understand that. we believe that our health care delivery system in the united states is quite extraordinary. i know many are watching the act now model and the ihme now dell and they have consistently, number, mortality from almost over 90,000, 86,000 down to

81,000, now down to 61,000. that is modeled what america is doing. that's what's happening and i think what has been so remarkable i think to those of us who have been in the science field for so long is how important behavioral change is and how amazing americans are in adapting to, following through on these behavioral changes and that's what is changing rate of new cases. that is what will change the mortality going forward because now we're in to the time period of full mitigation that should be reflected within the coming weeks of decreasing mortality. that is what we really hope to see. we are impressed by the american people. and i think models are models. i've always worked on validating. i spent my life validating models all over the world and that is why we do surveys, surveillance, we make sure what we think is right is right. i think this will change how people look at respiratory

diseases because it will change what is possible when the globe, particularly the american people, do this level of mitigation and i think, as i talked about yesterday, we are still, we are still in awe, really of the american people's strength in this and following through. reporter: [inaudible]. >> i will do that. i will ask bob to come up for a second, director. i think that's it. we've done, they have done, everybody has done, everybody a great job. so those were original projections. we don't want to say anything about beating it yet but i think weville a very good chance to beat them substantially. bob, please. >> thank you, mr. president. i just want to add to what ambassador birx said. this is a consequence of the commitment ever the american people. a lot of us always had challenges changing behavior, whether if it is exercising

regularly or different habits of smoking when it affects us. what has been remarkable to us here how the american public changed their behavior when it protects the vulnerable. that is what i'm so proud to see. reporter: mr. president, follow up on something from yesterday, a quick yes or no question, yesterday you said you had not seen peter navarro's memo on coronavirus back in january. >> yeah. reporter: were you ever briefed on those memos? did you ever discuss those memos. >> i don't remember that. i have now seen the memo. i saw it, peter send as lot of memos. i didn't see the memo. as you know world health was not saying that's correct because at the time they called it wrong. i didn't see the memo, but i acted as people, people were shocked i acted so quickly, everybody thought i was wrong because i did act so quickly as you know with respect to closing the the borders not only china

but europe i closed borders. i think that was important. i didn't see the memo at the time but i have sign it since, please. let me do a couple of others. reporter: head of the world health organization today warned against politicizing. >> i agree with that. reporter: cone consequence of politicization create more body bags, a pretty vivid image. what do you believe the consequence of u.s. you pulling out funding -- >> when you say more body bags, i think we would have done, he would have been much better serving the people that he is supposed to serve if they gave a correct analysis. i mean everything was, i said china centric. everything was going to be fine. no human-to-human. keep the borders open. he wanted me to keep the borders open. i closed borders despite him. that was a hard decision to make at the time. we were all together, we made a decision against the world

health organization. when he says politicizing. he is politicizing that shouldn't be. we spent $450 billion, $452 billion, almost 500 billion last year, hundreds of billions in previous years, and, they got to do better than that, they got to do better. when you talk about politics, i can't believe he is talking about politics when look at the relationship they have to china. so china spends 42 million, we spend 450 million, and everything seems to be china's way. that's not right. it's not fair to us and honestly it is not fair to the world. okay, question in the back. yeah. reporter: thank you, mr. president. there is breaking news today, couple of reports from a couple of different outlets that jared kushner's team is seeking to create a national coronavirus database, a tracking system for patients who have been diagnosed. now his spokesperson said that's not true. >> it is not. i have never heard about it.

doesn't sound like bad idea you but i have not heard -- reporter: would you be okay with it? >> i don't know i have to see it. it is scientific, sounds good based on tracking but also has to do with rights and lots of different constitutional questions. i have not heard that at all. reporter: some people are concerned it would be like the post-9/11 patriot act, that, ultimately led to fisa abuse. are you concerned about -- >> fisa abuse which i was one abused and a couple other people in all fairness. no, i don't anything about it. i haven't heard it. i will speak to him. i don't think so. they would have told me. i would have known about it. please. reporter: mr. president, delegation is unhappy because smaller casinos and businesses that make -- >> nevada? reporter: nevada found out they're not eligible for the cares act ppp money. is this, i talked to one member --

>> because of number much employees? reporter: because of number of employees -- >> yet they're small businesses. reporter: they thought gaming would not be treated any differently than any other business would be -- >> i can look at that. that is a great state. i will take a look at that strongly. are you talking only smaller casinos? i will take a look at that fine. i don't mind that. please. we'll take a look, yeah. we haven't heard. nobody told me about it but i will look at it. great state. they do a great job. i will look at it very strongly. i understand what they mean. please. reporter: thank you, mr. president, in terms of the economy, what if you urge americans go back to work they don't listen to you, would you leave that up to the governors, businesses, citizens to decide when it is safe to stop social distancing? >> when you say they won't listen, they want to go back. everybody wants, they are going stir crazy. they have been in the houses, those apartments, they have really been, they have done a great job. again when you look, the

question was just asked about, you know, how are we doing compared to projections. those were just original projections. the big projection being 2.2 million people would die if we did nothing. that was another decision we made, close it up. that was a big decision we made. two very smart people walked into my office and they said, listen, these are your alternatives and that was projection of 1.5 to 2.2 million people would die if we didn't close it up. that is a lot of people. if we do a number that is tremendously smaller than that, now if we did close it up, the numbers got to 100, 220 million people, so if we can stay substantially under the 100, which was the original projection i think we all did a very good job. even though a lot of people, say it? reporter: may 1st? >> right now, i mean we're doing well in earlies of it the numbers. i can't tell you in terms of the date. you know. we don't want, we don't want to

go down and then we start going up if we're not careful. so we have to be careful. as far as distancing, social distancing and other things, certainly for a while, at some point that is going away. we'll be able to sit next to each other like all our lives. this is very unique thing. has not anything happened to this magnitude since 1917, 1918, the great pandemic. people want to sit next to each other as baseball game, basketball game, hockey game, they want to go back to life. the first period of time maybe we'll go a little bit slower and maybe talking about distancing but at some point we expect to be back like it was before and hopefully it will never happen hopefully if it will happen it will be 100 years from now.

the last one, 1917, that's something, that's a long time ago. that was a horrible thing. jim? reporter: i wanted to get something you were saying yesterday about people going to wisconsin and voting in the middle of this pandemic, really putting their lives on the line. you said well, if they do that, vote by mail perhaps will have voter fraud in this country. voters in five states, utah, colorado, hawaii, oregon, washington, vote by mail. can you or campaign staff provide any evidence that claim mail-in voting is rife with fraud, people working in rooms, filling out ballots. where is the evidence of it? >> i think there is a lot of evidence. we'll provide you with some. there is evidence being compiled, like it is compiled in the state of california where they settled with "judicial watch" saying a

million people should not have not have been voting. excuse me. i'm just telling you, i'm telling you in california, in the great state of california they settled. we could have gone a lot further. "judicial watch" settled where they agreed million people should not have voted where there were 115 years old and lots of things and people were voting in their place. what i see and you know everyone of those states that you mentioned is, a state that happens to be run by the democrats, if you have a position like me where it's registered, you're here and we're voting someplace where i'm not, i haven't left the white house in i guess months, i guess to ask a ship to wave it good-bye to new york. is using purpose you were talking about wait a minute. reporter: voting doesn't work out well for republicans?

>> it certainly hasn't but if you're a senior citizen and somebody that needs it i'm all for it but they have to be very careful because you know the things with bundling and all of the things that are happening with votes by mail where thousands of votes were gathered and, i'm not going to say which party does it, but thousands of votes are gathered and come in and they're dumped in location and lulussing elections you thought you would win. i won't stand for it. we'll talk about the proof. we'll see what is going on. i won't stand for it. our voting system, we should have voter i.d. when you vote you should have voter i.d. if you send something in, you should be in as a state and as country you should be sure that vote is meaningful and not just made fraudulently. there is a lot of fraudulent voting going on in this country. this country should have voter i.d. let's do another one.

go, please. thank you, jim. reporter: the only way we can track these millions of doses of hydroxychlorquine that are being distributed across the country with e-health data system, how systematically is your task force watching this. >> i think it is very systemic. we're distributing the hydrox sy all through the country, being distributed in large amounts we have it coming in now. we are up to 29 million doses that we went to 30 million doses but we have it coming in all throughout the country and much of it is being distributed. in fact it will start going down, what we have in our stockpile. and again, it, you know, i hope it works. again i'm not a doctor, as you possibly have found out. i'm not a doctor but i'm a person with common sense and we've had some very good results over the course, including a woman who just reported it two days ago. yes. reporter: e data system i

think -- >> no, we're looking to provide it in many different ways, in many ways where in certain instances in the case of michigan we've been asked who the governor of michigan would like to, i think she has become a big fan of it as a medication, as a something that is going to help with this horrible virus. and we're delivering it to the governments of various states when they ask. so certain states are asking, certain governments are asking and we're delivering it directly to the government. yeah, please, go ahead. reporter: thank you very much, mr. president. many people around the world are paying close attention to this press conference. >> yes. good. where are you from? reporter: i'm from taiwan. >> good. reporter: on behalf of foreign media group i would like to ask you two questions. first question is, that french president macron called iranian president rouhani and said that the euro has started to ship the

meld goods to iran. would you concede -- >> medical goods? reporter: yes. >> that doesn't bother me. if they're sending medical goods to iran, that doesn't bother me, no. okay? reporter: yeah so the other question is, the world is paying attention to the u.s. election. we are also, we know that bernie sanders has dropped out. >> i did see that today. he didn't really drop out. he didn't really -- what about his delegates? he said he is going to keep his delegates, which is sort of interesting. he is going to keep his delegates and he would like to get more. now, is he dropping out or not? that is not dropping out. when you keep your delegates and want more delegates before you get to the convention, that is a weird deal going on there. i don't know what's happening. i don't know why president obama hasn't supported joe biden a long time ago. there is something he feels is wrong. why isn't, he will come out, i'm sure he has to come out at some point because he certainly

doesn't want to see me for four more years. we think a little bit differently. you know what? i'll tell you, it does amaze me president obama hasn't supported sleepy joe. just hasn't happened. when is it going to happen? when is it going to happen? why isn't it -- he knows something you don't know. i think i know. but you don't know. so it will be interesting. but with bernie i saw his standard fare today. i watched and i hope that a lot of bernie sanders people just like they did last time, we got a tremendous percentage of bernie people and i think they voted for me largely because of trade. because bernie and i agree on trade. we agree that the united states has been ripped off by virtually every country they do business with. the difference is i have done a lot about it, and doing more about it, and we've made incredible trade deals including usmca, deal with china.

all of sudden that gets disturbed by this virus situation but china has to spend almost $250 billion on purchasing our products. 40 or $50 billion with our farmers and bernie sanders people are big believers on what i'm saying on trade and i got a lot of them in the last election. that surprised people but it didn't surprise me. those are great people. they are great people. but i just, i'm looking at bernie sanders, i watched this morning and i said what is that all about, the delegates, the delegates? he is not giving hupp his delegates. he is keeping them, he says he wants to get more of them. i think he is doing it to negotiate i assume but i don't know. that's, that's a hard thing to do. jeff, go ahead. reporter: mr. president, opec is meeting with russia tomorrow and some other countries to discuss oil price. >> yeah. reporter: oil prices at $23 -- >> that's good. finally somebody knows something when they ask a question. reporter: what is your message to them ahead of their meeting

tomorrow? will the u.s. consider coordinated cut in production? >> i don't think look, we're already cut. we're market or river ended. if you look at texas north dakota, some other states they already cutaway back. they cut back automatically. but in the case of russia, in the case of saudi arabia they increased production at a time you didn't need it. then they got hit the by the virus which knocked out 40% of the market. now they're flooded with oil. look i just say this, you have two countries that are getting hurt very badly. russia is getting hurt. that is their primary source. and saudi arabia, that is definitely their primary source and it doesn't make sense that they flooded the market for whatever reason they did that for themselves. it is argument that they had. and i think they will straighten it out. a lot of progress has been made over the last week. it will be interesting to see what comes out of opec tomorrow. opec obviously, for many years i

used to think opec was unfair. you want to know the truth? i hated it. because there was a fix. somewhere along the line that broke down and it went the opposite way. and we have tremendously powerful energy industry in this country now, number one in the world, i don't want those jobs being lost. reporter: what will you do, what will you do if they don't end up -- >> we'll see. i have a lot of options. there are a lot of good on shunts, jeff, beauties. i might like it even more. reporter: tariffs? >> you watch. hopefully they make a deal. let's go. reporter: thank you, mr. president. clearly americans are getting very anxious to go back to work. >> i agree. including me. reporter: options are very vague, now the ihme model adjusted down to 60,000, when will we open back up? can you give us a better date. will it be may 1st. >> you said what was adjusted back down? reporter: imhe model, that the

one originally predicted 100 -- >> that is still a big number, right, 61, right? that's a big number. go ahead. reporter: can you give us a more specific date? will it -- >> i wouldn't do that. reporter: may 1st? >> i had a date. i thought it was a very aspirational date. it is turning out to be very interesting, because a lot of good things are happening, by easter but i had a very aspirational date. i didn't think you could make it. i didn't say we would do it by easter, i said boy wouldn't that be great to shoot for easter, that would be a great day, beautiful day, very important day to a lot of people like me and like some of you in the room, maybe all of you in the room frankly but easter is a very important day. so i had aspirationally i said let's see if we can do it at easter but i said it would be very tough and i was criticized for that. so i don't like giving dates. that wasn't a date. that was just an aspiration that would have been incredible.

i don't think we'll be very far behind. some of these models are looking like easter will be a very important date anyway because of the curve. it is hitting the top, starting to come down. and one person said easter is looking like a good time, a good time for that, for heading down. we'll see what happens. look there is no reason to do that. we have a lot of good things happening. when i spoke to the governor of louisiana today he said, tony, they need far less beds. i said good, because we're building 1000 room additional. we built them 1000 beds. now we're bidding another thousand. listen is there a way we don't build it? i don't want to build them if they don't need it? in new york javits is not too heavily used. it is ready to go. 2900 beds. plus we have the ship set for covid if they want to use it. we're using it for governor murphy in new jersey so we'll see what happens but, you know the numbers are coming way down.

the ventilators are all set. we have a lot to go if we want. i'm not getting calls where they need ventilators anymore. so we were right on those ventilators. i would love to have additional ventilators for our allies and our friend. even if they're not our allies and friend you're saving human lives. i would love to see if we have some -- we're making a lot of ventilators right now and they take a while to make and they're very expensive and they're very complex to make. but i would love to be able to help other countries once we're taken care of, i just sent 100 ventilators to colorado. and that was great, the senator there who is a terrific senator, cory gardner. he called me last night, he said could you get 100 ventilators for colorado? we just sent them out. they will be there very shortly. so, but it looks like we're in great shape from the bed

standpoint. looks like we're in great shape from the ventilator standpoint. and you just heard, i ordered 500 million masks, 500 n95s and others and surgical. we ordered 500 million masks, 300, 200, they will be here very shortly. so we're really in great shape. we started off with an empty cupboard. so i'm going to leave the vice president and his group to handle it. and i will see you probably tomorrow. okay? thank you. thank you very much. reporter: investments in hydroxychlorquine? >> no i don't, thank you. good question. >> come up if you want. good evening, everyone and to our fellow americans out west, good afternoon.

we find ourselves in the midst of a very tough week for americans in areas most impacted by coronavirus. new york city area, new jersey, louisiana, continue to focus resources an attention on those areas and i know that the hearts and prayers of the american people are with, are with all of those communities. but in the wake of more than 1.9 million tests we see more than 400,000 americans have tested positive for the coronavirus and sadly we've lost more than 14,000. we, we grieve but as the good book says we do not grief like those who have no hope. this very special week i know the faith of millions of americans is a comfort to them. the president and i spoke to more than 10,000 faith leaders and we were able to express to them our gratitude for the way

that they're strengthening the communities that they serve. but we also find hope in the numbers dr. birx will continue to reflect on today. for as dr. fauci explained yesterday and in the days before, the losses as grievous as they are, that we are seeing today, are a reflection of people that contracted the coronavirus in many cases before strong mitigation steps were taken. before the guidelines for america fully took hold. the cases however, and new cases and hospitalizations are in fact a reflection of, of the results of what the american people are doing. and i want to echo the president's and doctor birx's statements today about the

extraordinary work the american people are doing because we continue to see, a great progress, low and steady numbers the in states of washington and california, new york, new jersey, new orleans, detroit, chicago, and boston, we continue to see evidence of stabilization. that should be and encouragement to every american, and encouragement we may, may be reaching the point where the impact of the coronavirus is beginning to level off but should also be and encouragement to every american to keep doing what we are all doing. heed the guidance of your state and local authorities and for every american, continue to put the white house coronavirus guidelines for america into effect. an area of particular concern we were briefed on this morning is the city of fill every d i spoke

today -- philadelphia. i spoke today to governor tom wolf. as we begin to see early trendlines in philadelphia, i assured him we would continue to flow resources and support to that community but our message to the people of the philadelphia area is now more than ever practice the social distancing sew that philadelphia and, and to some extent even pittsburgh, do not have to endure what other communities before them have had to endure. also today at the president's direction we hosted a conference call with every republican member of the house of representatives and every democrat member of the house of representatives and we expressed our appreciation to speaker nancy pelosi and leader kevin mccarthy for convening these

forums. we brought a key member of our task force team. secretary of the treasury on progress on paycheck protection. he reported to members of congress that so far we're working with 3600 lenders across the country. we dispersed $98 billion in forgivable loans. these are loans if small businesses accept this money, use it to keep people on the payroll over the next two months they will be completely forgiven. treasury tonight will be issuing a new faq, frequently asked questions document that will also make it clear that lenders their use their own closing documents for completing loan applications. and that information is available at treasury.gov and sba.gov as well. dr. birx and dr. fauci briefed the members of congress today on the latest data. they will both reflect on that in a moment.

we also had admiral john poe poe poe polowczyk and distributed on local hospitals with seema verma and what the secretary of state spoke about today. remarkable to think more than 50,000 americans brought back home through nearly 500 flights and we thank members of congress who have worked with the state department to identified family members and groups that found themselves stranded overseas and we were grateful for that. in ad diagnose to our interaction with members of congress today we spoke with the president of the henry ford hospital, bob renny. it is the henry ford hospital that is conducting a clinical trial for hydrochloroquine.

they had overwhelming response to initial trial beginning this week with three thousand people taking hydrochloroquine or a placebo so they could match it, but what the president of the henry ford hospital told me they would like to expand the test. i put him in touch with steve hahn of the fda and we'll be adding several more clinical trial paths to look at impacts on particular demographic groups including seniors and minority populations and more on that in just a moment. in the category of supplies and support, the president as of today has signed 52 major disaster declarations. vermont was the latest approved. states stood up some 27,000 national guard aiding in coronavirus response. on critical subject of ventilators we have currently more than 8,000 ventilators in

the strategic nag stockpile. we distributed more to the navajo nation in colorado today. but also today we received the good news that the first delivery of newly manufactured ventilators from general electric and hamilton arrived at the strategic national stockpile. as the president said we'll be adding newly manufactured ventilators to our resources to be available as the coronavirus epidemic reaches critical communities around the country. on the subject of the air bridge, four flights scheduled to arrive today, primarily focused on gloves for our incredible health care workers. one flight alone had nearly 19 million gloves. another eight million, another 15 million and the like. and the american people i think would be very proud to see this vast array of now well more than 50 flights that are bringing in supplies from all over the

world. and again, working through fema, we're directing those resources with the guidance of our scientific experts to the communities most in need. as we announced yesterday, the white house coronavirus task force has requested that cdc and our team assemble data on the unique impact that we're seeing reported on african-americans from the coronavirus. dr. fauci spoke about it yesterday. we'll reflect on his perspective on that as well. tomorrow with the surgeon general and with others on the white house team we'll be speaking with leaders of the african-american community. and as dr. fauci will reflect there have been historic challenges in the health care of the african-american communities particularly in our inner-cities and now more than ever, i will

just say from my heart to all of the, all of our african-american family members, now more than ever practice the guidelines. look after the most vulnerable people with underlying serious health conditions. it is more important than ever we put principles into practice. finally today i will have after we hear from dr. fauci and dr. birx i will ask dr. redfield to step up because today the cdc will publish new guidance on essential critical workers who have been exposed to covid-19, but don't have any symptoms. don't have a temperature or don't have any reason to believe the coronavirus. at the present moment the guidance is if you have been in proximity to someone who did test positive for the coronavirus the guidance of cdc is that even with essential

critical workers in industries from health care to food supply we asked people to stay home for 14 days. the new guidance tonight will hopefully make it clear that there would be an opportunity for those people playing such an incredible role in our nation's response to be able to return to work and to do so safely. and finally let me just say again how inspired we are with the response of the american people. to the coronavirus epidemic. each and every day as we see the beginnings of encouraging news, the low and steady numbers in california and washington state and now beginning to see numbers of hospitalizations going down, and new cases leveling. in some cases going down. we all hope it is the beginning of a trend. but we also hope it is, it is and encouragement to every

american to keep doing what you're doing. not just for your own health, but for the health of your loved ones but because we, we want to make sure that all of us are doing our part, to make sure that the fewest number of americans possible are exposed to the coronavirus. given the fact this, i remind you is three times more contagious than the flu, each of us has a role to play in slowing the spread. that is what the 30 days to slow the spread is all about. it is about protecting your health. it is about making sure that our health care workers are, are and our health care system is not, is not overwhelmed by the coronavirus. and ultimately it is about saving lives. we talk about the numbers and i'm going to ask dr. birx to come up to reflect on them but i think all of us know this is one american at a time.

it is one heart break at a time. and having lost loved ones in my life, just like everyone here, everyone looking on, we want to work every day to make that number of losses the lowest possible and it will take all of us to do it and to keep doing exactly what we're doing through today. dr. birx? >> thank you, mr. vice president. i just want to start where the vice president left off. i comb out of the services, army. when you, we always talk about honoring the fallen and i think for every american, what we can do now to honor the fallen, that have fallen and given really their deaths to this horrible disease, to the health care workers that are on the front lines trying to save every single one, to honor them, to honor our elders and the individuals that we know are at the greatest risk for bad outcomes, we all need to continue to do our work.

yes, the number of cases has stablizing or is stablizing but i do want to go through those numbers with you because we talk about these as micro epidemics in metro areas and rural areas. in the new york metro area which includes obviously northern new jersey, connecticut and rhode island, there are still 11,000 new cases per day and positivity rate on the testing is still in the 40% plus range. so there is still a significant amount of disease there. everyone needs to continue to follow the guidelines. new orleans metro area, 800 new cases per day but zero positivity rate on their testing of 28%. detroit metro area, 1400 cases per day. 26% positivity. chicago 1200 cases per day, 18%. boston, 18%, positivity 1100 cases per day.

denver has fallen to 180 cases per day but has 15% positivity in their testing. california and washington stayed stable. seattle, 350 cases per day. l.a. metro area is 800 cases per day. but their test positive rates are remaining in the 9% range. so this really gives us some idea of what it takes. they have been continuously mitigating. imagine what we're talking about, new york, going from 40 plus percent, zero positivity and 11,000s cases a day down to the l.a. metro area of 800 cases per day and 9%. so this is what, when the president talks about reaching the top and coming down, those are the kinds of things we need to see and only way we will see them is if every american continues to follow the guidance. now in the philadelphia metro area where i come from it's 1400 cases per day.

this of course includes camden and -- liz: i'm elizabeth macdonald. you're watching "the evening edit" on fox business. well, that does it for us. thank you so much for watching. join us tomorrow night as we stay on this developing story. have a good evening