anything and everything it can, where it can to help out. it is what unites us as a peop people. with some of the early on fbn, that's what defines us as a people. good night. ♪ >> greg: hi, and greg gutfeld greg gutfeld, jesse watters, dana perino, juan williams, and dagen mcdowell, "the five." ♪ today is april fools' day, if you are like me, you are waiting for someone to finally tell us this is all one big giant prank. but it's real. and it's going to get more real. we need to stay home and stay sane. we need to hold it together. and so far we have. calling this heroic is an understatement. it's not about having the courage to stay home and do puzzles. no, we are driving our economy to the far edge of its limits in

order to save our most vulnerable lives. meanwhile, crime is dropping. so are thugs to staying also? or maybe social media which we often bash has transformed into something crucial? like the my pillow guy making hospital masks, social media suddenly became essential by allowing the separated to join. it's now the glue. still, now has never been a better time to avoid media's latest divisive offerings. with the shear stress of the shutdown, who needs that? it's hard enough. maybe we are shedding that negativity naturally. did you notice how the tv segments you used to see prequarantine have disappeared? the racism, sexism, gender pronouns? where's antifa postmarked it we stop canceling people forever? we may not be immune to the media's influence, better unity has destroyed the assessment of who we are. we are sticking together, not

turning on each other. we are exactly who we think we are, and who the media says we aren't. with 9/11, we sent troops to war. here we are all the troops now. team america. but unity does not pay the bills. or can it? it's the first of the month. you have rented. mortgages, utilities, credit card interest that would make don corley on flush. it is time for a pause, like i said in an auto sports, the yellow flag as all drivers slow down, nobody passes, we stay in the same place, and nobody overtakes another. we need that here. everyone gets a bye week on their bills. and that includes landlords. if they are not getting the rent, tax, mortgages, they get a bye week too. but nothing goes out and nothing comes in. it is a freeze. imagine the economy like a remote, and you hit pause on that tv called life. in a month, we could hit play and double the speed to catch you, but for now consider it a

pass among fellow citizens. that way when your grandkids ask you what you did in the great quarantine of 2020, you can say, not much. but the weirdest thing is we did it altogether. dana, i have a theory. >> dana: yes. i love your theories. >> greg: oh, thank you. i have never seen this mass cooperation on such a huge scale. and i'm beginning to think it is my fault. that i was somehow tricked being in a media bubble to think that we all hate each other, that it is men versus women, black versus white, gays versus straight, and the american unity was lost. we are all pockets of identity, but it seems that that theory has been blown out of the water, for now anyway. >> dana: thankfully so, right? because what you are seeing is the true spirit of america. and it is unfortunate that sometimes it takes a crisis to

be reminded of that. but i loved what you said at the end. we are not doing anything, but we are doing it altogether. there is a lot to do. on my show today, there was -- i had a report from molly line, and she looked across the country at food banks, for example. and it was really quite overwhelming to me. and you realize what the government is asking us to do is an enormous responsibility that the president has two-way the information he is getting from the health experts, but also be mindful that there is an entire country and the well-being of the economy, and not doing too much harm they are. and it is a difficult balance. and it is pretty wonderful so far to see people doing their part, and helping those people who are on the front lines. the troops that are on the front lines in the hospitals. and i like being pulled together. it feels good.

>> greg: dagan, i hope that you notice that i am dressed alike dug dog in a night at the rocks very just for you. my theory on the pause where nothing goes in and nothing goes out, doesn't that make sense that if everybody is frozen and they don't have to pay for anything, nobody falls behind and nobody loses anything. is this just a fantasy in my brain that doesn't work? >> dagen: no, it is not a fantasy. but one of the -- >> dana: don't go there, dagan. >> dagen: i always go wonky, but one of the reasons that the federal reserve is they are because you need to make sure that these creditors are not insolvent. you need to make sure that people who are owed money don't go from having liquidity problems to complete insolvency. because we want those jobs to be there on the other side of all of this. but there will be a pause. i am worried about the people who are unemployed.

tomorrow we will get the weekly job claims numbers at 8:30 a.m. we had a record number the previous week. it was a mostly .3 million people hiring for unemployment. tomorrow it could be 5.5 million. and the unemployment benefits, the office and almost every state are completely slammed and jammed. people cannot even sign up. they are not getting extra money, the allocated $600 per month yet, and the self-employed, they are having trouble, because the state stoning knowledge that they are eligible now for unemployment benefits. so at the end of that i look at them as individuals. these are not numbers. these are people. these are people who have lost their jobs overnight. they are struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table. and there are families that are suffering. not just from the virus, but the financial crisis. and we have to think about it like that. before between one, i read that

60% of the workers will not be able to meet their basic needs in under a week from now. how can we simplify this process? so that when people have to apply for things, if they have a small business, you have to go through so much red tape to get the money that you need? isn't there a way that we can cut through this like we did other things? >> juan: i don't know. obviously that's why we passed that huge, what some people want to call a stimulus. i think of it as a band-aid, greg. it will help people. you will see the money coming into american pockets within a week or so. and for small businesses, they have the ability to not only get loans, but in some cases grants. i think that is really important. but i think a lot of the tone is set by the president in the white house. and yesterday, boy, i think judging by his words, what has gone on has really sunk in for the president. that helps to bring us together to have that leadership. i think it is hard for anybody

to grasp when you see those graphs that were put up by dr. fauci, dr. birx. and they are talking about 100,000 deaths. that is the best-case scenario. that is something that can really shock you. and i think with all of us, i don't care what pocket of america you are in, this is a challenge for us as a nation and a people to come to grips with it. so i think that now you are seeing some of the governors, who have been slow to say, hey, stay at home. they are starting to say it. i think what you are starting to see you now, finally, understanding that this is not the flu. some people were downplaying. this is not the flu. it is so much more serious and has so much more gravity in terms of potential fatalities, that you are talking about. so many deaths. >> greg: jesse, what are your thoughts? >> jesse: we are about to hit the darkest days. and americans are coming together. but there are people who are trying to diminish our spirits. so let's look back at the last

75 days, just two and a half months of how this thing started just in mid-january, the world health organization said that the virus was not contagious. people do people transfer was impossible. and even then the president slapped the travel ban on china. and form the task force, and said to the chinese, let's send our scientist to wuhan to investigate, and china said, no. and then he actually mentioned the virus at the state of the union address. the address that nancy ripped up afterwards. we have gone in just a matter of weeks from a prevention strategy to a mitigation strategy. remember, january and february was all about the travel ban, the quarantine, and $8 billion. march was a full-scale shutdown and asking for $2 trillion. dr. fauci said we got this thing ahead of it very early. and dr. birx said, everybody thought that this was a sars like virus coming out of china. but the chinese light and that's

what caught office off guard. a month ago, you do you know how many deaths there were in the united states from this virus? one. in three weeks ago we were talking about the south carolina primary. joe biden and mayor pete was going to drop out. that's how long ago that was. and it feels like that in our head. not too long ago, governor cuomo was saying go eat out in new york city. governor defazio had all of the schools open. nancy said bring your friends to chinatown and go to the bars. every column in "the new york times," "the washington post," downplaying this thing. and actually, morning joe had the audacity, the other day to say that everybody saw this coming in january. do you know how many segments morning joe did on the virus in january? one. a guy who said don't worry about this virus, worry about the flu.

finally, everyone is on board. young people, old people, left, right. we are all in this together now. and we need to stay together until we beat it. >> greg: i think you are right. i don't think morning joe ever sees anything coming. all right, your daily white house coronavirus task force briefing will begin soon. up next on "the five," adam schiff and other democrats are looking to create a 9/11 style commission over the covid-19 response. as a struggling actor,

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♪ >> jesse: we are awaiting new information from the white house coronavirus task force. stay tuned for that. as the covid-19 pandemic gets deadlier for americans, members of the media are looking for where to assign blame. to "the boston globe" accusing president trump of having "blood on his hands" in an op-ed entitled "the president unfit for a pandemic." and remember congressman adam schiff is drafting legislation that would set up a 9/11 style commission to study

how the trump administration handled the coronavirus. dr. birx is hitting back on the narrative of whether the united states could act sooner. >> i think when you look at the china data originally, and you said, oh, well, there is 80 million people. or 20 million people in wuhan, and 80 million people, and they come up with a number of 50,000, you start thinking of this more like sars then you do this global pandemic. so i think the medical community interpreted the chinese data that this was serious, but smaller than anyone expected. because i think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data. >> jesse: juan, i think that is a very, very smart thing to say. because you don't want people in this country blaming cuomo,

blaming de blasio, because they were working with the same information that the task force was working with. that the rest of the world was working with. and that was polluted information from the chinese. so all americans should not blame other americans. we did the best we could with the information we had at the time. do you agree with that? >> juan: well, i think we knew going back to january about the death of the problem. we just did not understand the nature of it. because i think dr. birx is right. that the chinese were not straight with us. so we did not have all the data. we knew that something was going on. we just did not know exactly what it was. and that subject is misinterpreted. in terms of doug, i guess, the president, the governors, even the public health officials, a lot is that the buck stops with the president or the governors. i think people are just desperate to try to understand what took place. i don't think it is helpful for

the globe to be writing about blood on his hands. at this point, what good does that do? it is divisive and antagonizes people, and drives us into political corners. but i think the 9/11 commission idea is not a bad one, jesse. because i think people would like to know what happened? it is a good idea -- >> jesse: as long as it does not get politicized. >> juan: we are moving in the right direction, hang on a second, that we are mobilized and moving in the right direction, why did we not earlier? and how could we have in fact done better? and this is the most important part, how can we do better for the next one? >> jesse: i don't have a problem with that. dana, i do see the possibility that someone like an adam schiff will use it as a vehicle to politically damage the trump administration when they will probably still be fighting the after effects months and months and months from now. >> dana: we have seen this before, right?

there was a 9/11 commission report, and there was an after action report, that's a train. by katrina. now my stomach. actually, just so you know, the town is very excited that we did the segment yesterday, with new jersey transit about how loud the train is, and now we have them right where we want them. >> jesse: now we have leverag leverage. >> dana: after katrina, there was an after action report that was done through the office of homeland security in the white house. and there is a great new person that could do that. grant townsend dated in the bush administration. it was very helpful. and when you look at hurricanes response since then, it has been helpful. why do you do an after action report? is it to assign blame or is it to help make sure that you can deal with it better in the future? and that is why i think on a 9/11 style commission report is not necessarily to look at what we did, it's for maybe the g20s

to get together and to look at what china did. because if the goal is to prevent something from happening in the future or that we deal with it better, you have to deal with it at its source. >> jesse: i agree. >> dana: this could have another places. i think that the 9/11 commission idea is something that the g20s should do in looking at china. in addition to what we did, fine. but honestly, i think that we have to ban together as allies and focus on that. >> jesse: i would agree that you have to audit everybody. trump administration, the obama administration, the w.h.o., china, the governors, everybody, dagan. but it does not help, as juan said, for the disgraceful editorials to come out right before the apex hits manhattan and try to assign blame to a president who is doing everything he can to save lives. >> dagen: you have to ask yourself, how are you helping? we are taking deaths from this

virus. how are you helping save lives? how are you helping families who are without jobs, who are struggling, who have lost loved ones? how are you helping? not by writing an editorial, you are not. and you brought up the thing that morning joe said, everybody saw this coming in early january. i want to .1 thing out from "the new york times," which has done a terrific reporting on this. chinese officials did not acknowledge the risk of human to human transmission until januar. the first confirmed case in the united states was a man who went to wuhan to visit family was january 20th. by then about 85% of the expected travelers coming out of china had gone undetected. so it was not until late january that china even fessed up about what was going on. so early january, please. you are still probably hung over from new year's. >> dagen: [laughs]

all right, got felled, take us home. >> greg: first of all, january t the importance of closing travel, a few days later donald trump did that, right? he was called a racist by i believe joe biden. anytime you brought up the wet market or the cultural practices that may have led to this coming you are considered a racist. what was going on while we were talking about this in january on january 28th, january 29th heard in the little corner of the tv you saw the ongoing impeachment hearings. who led the impeachment hearings? who caused this massive worthless diversionary tactic, it was adam schiff. we cannot allow him to be responsible to anything else. because you can argue using that phrase "blood on your hands" with adam schiff, but i won't, because i've banned that phrase, but he created massive diversion that preoccupied everything.

everything has changed in this world except for the media. did you see what they did to judge jeanine? this is a woman trying to get her temporary studio going on saturday night, temporary home studio. she has no idea how it works. they always break down. dana can tell you about it. we keep hearing her dman train. she is fraught with technical difficulties, it goes down for 10 minutes, she does her best to vamp, and what does the media called her? a drunk. they call or an alcoholic. they reticle her. the woman does not drink. she was doing her best to keep it together so that she could do her show. this was that she could please her fans. and these asshats have the gall to mock her. they need to change. and if they don't, we need to social distance from the media forever. >> dagen: hey, greg, i almost came on the air missing one of

my teeth earlier, but i went back in my apartment and got it. they would've written about that too, i bet. >> dana: judge jeanine does not drink, but she can cook. >> jesse: dagan, you know you are on the air right now, right? the white house coronavirus task force getting ready to hold another briefing. we will get to that. but millions of americans forced to stay at home are not the only one seeing a loss of pay. doctors and nurses on the front lines are too. we will explain that next. ♪

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it is about to come out, they are going to give us an update that could come in just a couple of minutes. greg, i wanted to ask you about the power of giving people information. i think the briefings are so helpful, because, you know, for now they are at 5:00ish. as you know, your homeworking with your kids. you are trying to figure out their schooling. but you know that you can wait until the end of the workday, get an update from the president, there is power in that. there is power and knowledge. and it makes people feel better, i think. >> greg: it is part of the routine to sit down, know that we are all here and meeting at the same time and we will get the same info, maybe we will get our questions answered. it is interesting to me that so many, so many -- so much knowledge is not coming from experts that turn out to be correct. there were so many people talking about the necessity for

masks before the cdc did. there were so many people talking about the effectiveness of hydroxy -- and i guess that's why, you're not supposed to talk about it. but there are so many interesting things that we learn about -- that are not coming from the usual sources. but they turn out to be validated. remember, it was not the media telling us not to trust china. right? it was the media telling us to trust china and telling us that, hey, we were number one a few days ago. we were number one in those cases, because they trusted them. it's interesting that a lot of social media is getting us, not misinformation, but giving us information from some pretty unique voices. >> dana: what they are setting up in the press reading room, when the briefing room was remodeled, jesse, in 2007, i believe, and tony snow, the

press secretary at the time, this was incredible technology to actually use graphics. and one of the things that happened yesterday, jesse, is the visuals of the chart, so that people could really get their head around what the president was grappling with. >> jesse: that was a very sober press conference yesterday. you could tell by the president's tone, the graphs. he is a numbers guy. it sunk in. you are looking at deaths. the american people could see that and they could sense the vulnerability, but yet, that determination coming from the task force. there were a lot of questions yesterday. and i think that you will see it again today, well, what if we had done this sooner? or other countries did this, why have we not done that? and it is very important to remember that the united states of america and our culture is a very unique culture. it is a very large landmass with a unique set of constitutional

principles. we have the right to privacy. we have liberty. any country like china, they don't have those things. so you can quarantine people at gunpoint. or in south korea, it is a country the size of indiana, they have 38 airports. we have thousands of airports. they are doing things and places like south korea, you would never be able to do here. they have thermal imaging. they sense people with fevers walking into places. they will take your temperature going into a restaurant. if you have the virus in south korea, the government makes you download an app, and if you leave your apartment, they get an alert. and you have to pay a $2500 fine. you get a text message when somebody tests positive in your apartment building. those things would never fly here. so the comparisons and the what ifs, they are apples to oranges. it is important to remember th that.

>> dana: one of the things, dagan, that we have been talking about, and juan, i would love to get your thoughts as well. that it is april 1st, not april fools' day, but the fact that people's bills were due today, as the coronavirus task force get set up there. dagan, may be a word about what people were going through as they try to pay those bills? >> dagenspeak to someone get pad people have to make tough decisions about do i save money for groceries and do i pay my rent? what a lot is being done in terms of forbearance on mortgage payments for months to come. even more, you don't have to pay your student loans in many cases until late september because of the $2 trillion stimulus. so those are decisions that are happening in every household across this country. and to greg, he started the show with us. we have really come together. and i think that we don't like being told what to do, but once your community and your church decides, hey, buddy, you better

stay in your house. that's how it will happen. >> dana: and the president on the united states, donald j. trump taking the podium now for the coronavirus update. >> president trump: so, america continues to wage an all-out war to defeat the virus. this horrible, horrible virus. you see how terrible it is, especially when you look at the numbers from yesterday. and we explained why we are extending our nation-wide guidelines to slow the spread 30 days. today we have the power to save countless lives. we are attacking the virus in every front with social distancing, economic support for our workers, rapid medical intervention, and very serious innovation, and banning dangers of foreign travel that threatens the health of our people. we did that early. for earlier than anyone would've

thought, and way ahead of everybody else. and this time of need, i know that every american will do their patriotic duty and help us to achieve a total victory. as governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there is a growing threat that cartel of criminals, terrorists, and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain. and we must not let that happen. we will never let that happen. today the united states is launching enhanced counter narcotics operations in the western hemisphere to protect the american people from the deadly scorch of illegal narcotics. we must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten american lives. in cooperation with the 22 partner operations, the u.s. southern command will increase

surveillance, seizures of drug shipments, and provide additional support for eradication efforts that are going on right now at a record pace. we are deploying additional navy destroyers, combat ships, aircraft and carriers, and air force surveillance, aircraft doubling the capabilities in the region. very importantly, the forces are fully equipped with personnel, protective equipment, and we have taken additional safety measures to ensure that our troops remain healthy. a secretary in mark esper, attorney general bill barr, national security adviser robert o'brien will provide more details. in addition, i am going to have general milley, who has done an incredible job in so many ways say a few words. and with us, the chief of naval operations admiral gilda, who you know, i think you know.

and, dear to the coast guard. so i'm going to ask mark to start. and then we can go, and after that we will take questions as it pertains to this, and then we will go on to phase two, which is the virus itself. okay? thank you, please. mark. >> thank you, mr. president. good afternoon, everyone. i appreciate the opportunity to be here as we make a very important announcement. at a time when the nation and the department of defense are focused on protecting the american people from the spread of the coronavirus, we also remain agile into the many other threats our country faces. today at the president's direction, the department of defense in close cooperation with our interagency partners began enhanced narcotics separations in eastern pacific oceans and the caribbean sea. it was part of the administrations haul up approach to combating the flow of illicit drugs into the united states and

protecting the american people from their scourge. i want to thank all of our partners in this effort including the coast guard, the department of homeland security, the drug enforcement agency, the department of justice, and members of the intelligence community for their support and cooperation. to conduct to the enhanced operations, the president has directed deployment of ships, aircraft and security courses to the area of responsibility. including the force package are navy destroyers and combat ships, coast guard cutters, ph control aircraft, and elements of a security force. these additional forces will nearly double our capacity to conduct counter narcotics operations in the region. 22 partner nations have joined us in this fight with a variety of intelligence and capability is needed to defeat these criminal organizations. last year alone, the united states southern commands operation was in the seizure of 280 metric tons of drugs. much of which was designated for

shipment to america. while this was an incredible achievement, there is much more work to be done. transnational criminal organizations continue to threaten our security by smuggling cocaine, fennel, infinities, and others across our border. they put our communities at risk and destroy lives. every year tens of thousands of americans die from drug overdose and thousand more suffer the harmful effects of addiction. furthermore, corrupt actors like the illegitimate mindoro regime in venezuela rely on the profits derived from the sub narcotics to maintain their oppressive hold on power. the venezuelan people continue to suffer due to the control over the country. drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness by increasing their illicit activities. we must do more to prevent the drugs from arriving at our shores. these enhanced counter narcotics operations that are under way, will disrupt the flow of drugs

to america, denying our adversaries the financial resources they'd depend on. and increase the partner nations throughout the region. i want to thank president trump for his leadership and support to the critical mission. this is particularly an important time for the operation to begin. as nations around the world shift the focus inward to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, many criminal organizations are attempting to capitalize on the crisis. enhanced operations we are announcing today will keep the pressure on the criminal groups and protect the american people from the devastation caused by the flow of illegal drugs into our country. mr. president, thank you for your leadership as we begin this important operation. while the men and women of the united states military work hard here at home to fight the coronavirus, we continue to take action around the world to defend our great country. thank you. i would like to invite general milley. >> thank you, secretary, for those words. and thank you mr. president for your leadership. i want to publicly thank the

commander of u.s. southern command out of miami. for leading this operation, which is underway effective today. and also admiral gill day, and admiral schultz further attributions to these services. there are thousands of sailors, coast guardsmen, soldiers, marines, involved in the operation. we came across some intelligent some time ago that the drug cartels as a result of covid-19 were going to try to take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into our country. as we know, 70,000 americans die on an average annual basis to drugs. that is unacceptable. we are at war with covid-19. we are at war with terrorists. and we are at war with the drug cartels as well. this is the united states military. he will not penetrate this country. you will not get past jump street. you're not going to come in here and kill additional americans. and we will marshal whatever assets are required to prevent your entry into this country to kill americans. so the navy has marshaled

additional ships, and for the naval fleet at north fold. and they have set sail already and are in the caribbean right now. there is ten coast guard coverage and special operation forces and security forces needed along with air force reconnaissance aircraft spread to the bottom line is you are not going to get through. tonight is not the time to try to penetrate the united states with illegal drugs. we will defend our country regardless of the cost. thank you, mr. president. thank you, secretary. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you for your decisive leadership as we confront the challenge posed by coronavirus. and i would like to thank you for your support for this in initiative. and thank all of the secretary of defense and all the services for taking on this important initiative. obviously during this crisis, we are all focused above all else on covid-19.

but at the same time our law enforcement and national security work must go forward protecting the american people from the full array of threats, the department of justice, one of our highest priorities must remain destroying the mexican cartels. here trafficking is largely responsible for the deaths, as we all know now of 70,000 americans a year. and also the cost of this does not count the destroyed families, the destroyed lives, the draining of the state budget crushed by the burden that the narcotic trafficking causes. the president has made clear that we are in this fight against the cartels to win. and that we are not interested in half measures. and that the threat posed by the cartel, it is not just a law enforcement for it, but a

national security threat as well. and in december, building on your success with the mexican president in forging a cooperative relationship in the area of immigration, you asked me to go down and meet with the president lopez in our mexican counterparts to see if we could also establish a more comprehensive and coordinated effort with the mexicans in confronting the cartels. and we have had some successful visits and discussions. and currently have an array of activities underway against the cartel. and we anticipate along with the mexicans, that these will bear fruit in months ahead. but it quickly became clear that we can obtain the most immediate results, the best bang for the buck, where we increase the assets involved in prediction on both the pacific and atlantic side of mexico and the

central american countries. for years the cartels have been using these sea routes to take the cocaine up from columbia, now also added venezuela. and these sea routes on both coasts half become primary means of bringing cocaine up to the united states. because of the superb work done by the defense department and our intelligence community, we know exactly, most of the time where these traffickers are at sea. we are significantly have up until now significantly limited in our ability to interdict because of the numbers we have deployed. prior to today, this limitation that we could only intercept the fraction of the traffickers and the various boats that were detected. this will now double our capacity. and we are talking about

hundreds of tons of cocaine now that we are in a position to seize. so this is going to radically improve our interdiction efforts and put tremendous pressure on the cartels. and the effort that has come in the undertaking is going to save lives by taking drugs off the street. last week i announced the ceiling of targets of narco terrorism drug trafficking and other crimes against the fedora regime, 16 members of that regime, and third involvement in 250 metric tons a year. a lot of that comes by sea as i discussed at that time. but because of the pressure we are applying by our cd, interdiction, they are trying to establish an air route out of venezuela into central america. that's why we are trying to go firmly against that corrupt regime. the drug war has gone on for

many decades. at times in the past, we have had great success and great results. other times we have taken our eye off the ball. fortunately not in this administration. and i'm grateful that you, mr. president, have brought focus to the fight in a determination to use whatever tools are necessary to win the fight. the cartels have to be defeated. both for the people of this country and for the people of mexico and venezuela. so i would like to thank you, again, mr. president, secretary esper for providing the wherewithal provided to win this war against the cartels, and others who seek to send illicit drugs into our country paired with that i would like to introduce bassett or o'brien. >> thank you, general, thank you mr. president. today's action is another example of the bold leadership by president trump and his commitment to protecting the homeland against threats that set to destabilize the

united states in the western hemisphere. the flow of illegal drugs into the united states poisons our communities, fuels the epidemic of addiction, and threatens the safety and security of all americans. the impressive u.s. navy, coast guard, army, marine corps, air force, and interagency operations will address a range of threats to the national security followed by narco trekkers and narco terrorists. it will not -- that provides the regime in venezuela and other bad actors with the funds necessary to conduct malign activities. under president trump's leadership, we will continue to execute our maximum pressure policy to prevent the madero regime's drug activities, including drug trafficking. it will help choke off the funds that go to that corrupt regime. madero, narco terrorists, and criminal should make no mistake that even as we are working

around the clock to fight the spread of coronavirus, we will continue to execute the president's counter narcotics strategy. we are working on a number of important tragedies as we face this health crisis. the united states will continue to combat this information and fake news about the virus. we will work with the largest oil producers to address volatility in global oil markets. we will always protect our servicemen and servicewomen around the world including in iraq and afghanistan. i want the american people to know that president trump and vice president pence and their administration are working tirelessly every day to protect the health and well-being of americans, and respond to the coronavirus. our adversary should take note however, this president has a clear eyed focus on america's national security interest. and let me be clear, it would be a mistake with the terrible consequences for any adversary to attempt to do us harm during

this health crisis or ever, for that matter. thank you very much, thank you mr. president. >> president trump: so do we have any questions on this? because the group will go back to work. >> reporter: question for you mr. president, or secretary esper, what has changed that allows the assets to be deployed now where as in the past they were not available? >> president trump: for a long time we have had a lot of drugs coming into our country, and it is not that it has increased, we probably have it down a little bit, but it is still a tremendous number. families are ruined, lives are ruined. it is an incredible thing. especially at this position, you would never believe it. i see things that nobody would believe. i see reports that nobody would believe. so i met with the group behind me, all of them. and we said, what do you think we can do? and they think that we can stop it before it gets to the shores. and they are coming from all over the place.

and we have incredibly talented people. so i think i'm going to let mark give them a little bit of an answer to that. but we just want to see if we can stop a good percentage of the drugs coming into our country. >> first of all it is prioritization, the president has guidelines of what is important to him protecting the american people. i began to review months ago looking at our commands and looking at where we can free up time, money, and resources to put into other endeavors. we scrutinized our inventory very closely, chairman millie did a great job of work on this, and we felt that there was no risk to the fleet, to our operations if we in this case, naval ships, we free up aircraft and other assets to apply them to the presidential priority. and of course, the coast guard did the same. it was a very good operation. we feel this is important to the american people and in line with the president's direction.

>> how long will you be able to keep up the tempo? >> depends, we will write for some matter of time, i will not disclose how long that will be and then we will assess it. we may increase, will be made decrease, or sustain as is. but this is an assessment as a team and report back to the president and further guidance from there. >> president trump: we did not do it for this reason, but it will have an impact on the virus. we have people trying to get in. not only drugs, but now a new phenomenon. and that's at least for the next woefully short period of time, so we will have an impact on that too. >> reporter: esther president, could you expand, because providing to covid-19 saying that the drug cartels were taking advantage of the pandemic, how exactly? >> president trump: because we are focused on so many other parts of the country and parts of the world, and all of a sudden areas where we had it clamped down pretty tight. in fairness, the wall is up to 160 miles already. and any areas where we have that

wall, for the most part are continuous with the villains, but we are up to 160 miles. and any place where you have that wall, other than walking around on the edges, it is stopping everybody cold. we are stopping -- nobody has seen anything like it. that's how good it works. and on the other side, it will work that well. everybody was for it four or five years ago, all of a sudden they change. it's having a tremendous impact. we are now focused on so many different things, because of what has happened. because of the horrible. i say it is a horrible phenomenon, that now we have to focus on drugs. in the drugs come in from different methods. and we have the best people at sea and anywhere in the world. we will have a tremendous impact on drugs. but one of the other things we will also have an impact on the virus. >> reporter: ambassador o'brien, did china underreport both the cases and the death toll from the coronavirus?

and if that is the case, mr. president, what does that mean for our relationship with china and your relationship with president xi. >> number one, the president has a great relationship with president xi, and we want to have a great relationship with china. but there is no way to find the numbers. there is lots of public reporting on whether it is too low. you have access to the reports coming out of the chinese social media, and some of the reporters. but we have no way to confirm any of those numbers. thank you. >> we really don't know. >> president trump: however they reported, but we had a great call the other night. we are working on a lot of different things, including trade. they are spending a lot of money and giving it to our farmers. they are paying the farmers for the product. so we will continue. >> reporter: you tweeted earlier today that you have uncovered intelligence that

there was a sneak attack being planned against american troops, american assets in iraq, are we talking about possible law again? >> president trump: we just have information that they were planning something, and it is very good information that was led by a ran, not necessarily a ran, but by who is supported by iran, but to me that is iran, and we are just saying don't do it. don't do it. it would be a very bad thing if they did it. >> reporter: last time they did do it in early march, there was a a response -- >> president trump: that was a very powerful response, and knocked out five different places, but also took out a lot of very bad people. >> reporter: are you suggesting if it happens again, it would go up the food chain? >> president trump: that was a very big response. we hit five big ones, and ammunition state mx sites, you

saw it happen. i won't say how many people were killed, but some bad people were killed, and a lot of them. that was a big response. but this will be bigger if they do something. >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. i want to point back to your conversation with president xi, i wonder if you received an intelligence report that talked about the discrepancy of the numbers and if you address that? >> president trump: the numbers seem to be a little bit on the light side. i'm being nice when i say that, relative to what we witnessed and what was reported. but we discussed that with him. not so much the numbers as what they did and how they are doing. and we are in constant communication with, i mean, i would say the biggest communication is myself and president xi. our relationship is very good. look, they will be spending when things even out. this is obviously a little bit of a hurdle, what has happened over the last month.

but they will be spending $250 billion buying our product. $50 billion to the farmers alone. $200 billion to other things. they never did that before. so we have a great trade deal. we would like to keep it. they would like to keep it. and the relationship is good as to whether those numbers are accurate, i'm not an accountant from china. >> reporter: have you found anything in terms of the trade deal? >> president trump: no, because people don't understand where it came from. president xi understands that. we don't have to make a big deal about it. we did not like the fact that they say it came from our soldiers, they have not pursued that. and it was a mid-level person that said that. it was not a high level person. so i assume, i will always assume the best. i assume that the high-level people did not know about it. it was a foolish statement. so the relationship is a good one, and my relationship with

him is really good. >> reporter: and i follow up on that point of chinese propaganda that you mention as well as ambassador o'brien? in the past several weeks china has been shipping ppe masks, either selling or donating everywhere, africa, europe, italy, russia. and we put on the narrative that they are taking a leadership role, so what are your thoughts on that? >> president trump: i view that as a positive that they are helping other countries. we have 100 countries under siege of the virus. they don't know about social distancing. these are countries that are not highly sophisticated. they don't have great communication to the rest of the world. they don't know the things that we are doing and that others are doing. and if china can help them, i am all for it. i am all for all of us helping everybody. we will soon have more ventilators than we need.

we are building thousands of ventilators right now. it takes a period of time to build them, and nobody could have known nothing like this would happen. we will fairly soon be at a point where we have far more than we can use, even after we stockpiled for a certain future catastrophe, which we hope does not happen. we will be distributing them. the extras around the world. we will go to italy. we will go to france. we >> president trump: why would i stop that? wouldn't that be terrible to stop? >> reporter: the other countries? >> president trump: whatever we have and whatever we have committed to, we need a lot for

ourselves. we areer