week, better than a dozen states will have commenced the process that might start early, certainly in georgia, but will go on right now in state after state. as we all try to get back to work. that will do it. here comes "the five." ♪ >> jesse: hello, everybody. i'm just a jesse watters along with dana perino, greg gutfeld, juan williams, and emily compagno. it's 5:00 in new york city. and this is "the five." ♪ president trump tearing in the media over hysterical coverage, and new attacks on his work ethic. from threatening this weekend, the stock only press briefings, claiming it is not worth it. and only benefits networks with huge ratings. the president backing off that threat for now, he will be facing off with the press in the rose garden in just a few moments. trump is set to make a major

statement about testing that will clash with the reporters, especially after comments like these. >> this is a president who is feeling the heat big time after he made that outlandish ridiculous comment yesterday. to speak of the president clearly, shall we say was chicken today. he did not want to answer questions that the reporters have prepared. >> he is losing it. he is like the grandpa that walks out in the middle of the birthday party with his pants off. >> we are not seeing the stable genius like the president likes to call himself. we are seeing demonstrable instability. to speak the matters to make statements matter because it shows his confidence or lack thereof. when someone is not well, and a leader is not well, we all feel it. >> jesse: but it's not just the president who is fighting back. here's white house medical expert to dr. deborah birx calling out the hysteria over the president disinfectant comments.

>> bothers me that this is in the new cycle, because it is missing the bigger piece of what we need to do to continue to protect one another as a scientist and a public health official and a researcher, sometimes i worry that we don't get the information to the american people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from thursday night. >> jesse: so dana, do you think it makes sense for the president pivoted away from the daily press briefings in that same room and maybe hold conference calls with business leaders or maybe even, even go outside and oversee an opening up something? >> dana: sure, i think that there has been about six straight weeks, i believe of daily coronavirus briefings. i think that they have been pretty helpful in terms of getting information, especially at the beginning when it was all so new and we were like, what do you mean, and he had the doctor surrounding him. and we all had to go home, and we had to work from our houses,

and i think that that was very useful. there is a law of diminishing returns at some point. and i think that when you have something specific to announce like he has today specifically about testing, here is new information, we will get it to you, i think -- and also for a president you always want to leave them wanting a little bit more, okay? so two and a half hour briefings don't necessarily leave anybody wanting anymore, you exhaust every question. there's something to be said for transparency, but i do think that now that we see the country having done the social distancing, flattening the curve, and in some places, there are very few hospitalizations, now we switch and we pivoted to talking about the economy and getting people back to work. so if you like this is kind of a natural time to change up the communications from the white house. >> jesse: greg, it would make sense, because you see as the news got a little bit better, as

the curve began to flatten, as people had the ventilators. as we started to open up, the tone in the briefing room got really nasty and there was a lot of mischaracterization. and even more hostility. so i understand the president saying, enough. >> greg: i agree with the diminishing return except for when it comes to "the five." if there is no law of diminishing return, which is why we need to have more of "the five." when you see that montage of the democrats in the media, generally just all in the media trashing trump's mental stability or decision-making process, you have to understand that they have only one decision to go against a comparison to, they are selecting joe biden. if so how they actually go after trump when they are supporting somebody in which they cannot even admit that there is serious cognitive decline. they know it, they see it, they

are talking about his ability, i would trust getting in a car that president trump is driving. i would not get any car that joe biden is driving. and i bet you, everybody in the media would agree with me, because what, they are hypocrites. so what is interesting about what is going on now is the media has always been a part of every story. so you look at watergate, all the president's men was not from nixon's perspective, it's from the journalist's perspective. the main character in every story always has been the journalist. because that's why they get into it. it's great for creating power for yourself. the problem is that trump has destroyed that and exposed the desire by inserting himself into the story and fighting that. and actually becoming a an agent for us. and i mean us as an american, because so many of us can fight the media because the media will ruin you. they buy ink by the barrel, not even anymore, they don't need the ink. if so you have somebody who is essentially an agent for so many

people that do not have the opportunity to fight these guys. remember, the media is not a race or gender or a nationality, it's a structure that people joined it to gain power and protection. they understand that they can hold everybody accountable, but somehow they are immune, so finally we get a president who is actually holding them accountable, and that's why you see them so upset, and they never encountered this before, and i happen to enjoy it immensely. >> jesse: [laughs] to greg's analogy, i would rather get in a car with trump as well, but not because of his driving, he is probably chauffeured along in a limousine, juan. much more comfortable. >> juan: i like that. that's pretty good, jesse. you can blame the media for a lot of things. i think that that's right, but i do think that in this situation, when you look at the idea that the president said it's not worth doing, as you said in the

open, and then he does not have any briefings over the weekend, and then announced sunday night that there is going to be a monday briefing, and then this morning, monday morning says no briefing, and then this afternoon says no, the briefing is back on, i don't think you can blame the media for what every eye is chaos in the white house. they just go back and forth, and then at some point you say, what are they doing? what's the sense here? what is the plan? i don't know. but i do notice that right now the united states is passed 50,000 people dead, and i think that there are a lot of people that think it would be better if the white house was not in chaotic hands and the president was not making outrageous statements about injections and the like, so you can't blame the media for that, at some point you have to say, that's coming from the president and this white house. >> jesse: emily, it was funny, because the media was begging trump to stop doing the

briefings, and they did not even want to cover their briefings, and then over the weekend, he goes, i'm not sure i'm going to do the briefings, and he was like, use chicken, he is crazy. you can't win with these people. >> emily: he can never win with these people. and i would love a ride in the beast around a nascar track. dr. birx said it best, they are missing the bigger picture on what we need to be doing as an american people to protect one another. and i see that right now frankly as including the economic devastation that 27 million americans and their families are feeling in addition to those virus statistics. but these guys are going to continue villain icing her because they see her frankly as standing alongside him since she is physically every day and those briefings. and she is not speaking as a political operative or a media professional, she is speaking as a global health official, or really, just as a concerned citizen. but they are never going to see

it that way, because as you said, jesse, he can't win. and the irony to me is that these guys view themselves as such pure pen wielding heroes, but wasn't it brian felter himself who said he "crawled into bed and cried out of impart dismay at the political rhetoric that there is no resemblance to reality," but it is these guys to greg's point that are furthering that bias. and i just think, you know, the attacks on her will continue. >> jesse: like it is said, real men do crime. this before i cry every day, jesse. >> jesse: i know, after the show. the coronavirus task force is coming up soon. but while we wait for that, democrats are once again playing politics in a pandemic, is shifty adam schiff signaling that he is up for more trump investigation. ♪

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♪ >> emily: welcome back. the democrats being accused of focusing on partisan politics while millions of americans suffer during the pandemic. nancy pelosi ramping up personal attacks on president trump. take a look. >> we have these comments coming out of the white house, the president has been held responsible. and we have insisted on the truth. i'm embarrassed sometimes about how the president talks. he is crude and that he does not want children to hear that, but this is dangerous. this is dangerous. >> emily: adam schiff sensing the need for new investigations. the democrat going as far as comparing the coronavirus

response to impeachment. watch this. >> the strongest echo of what we were talking about during the trial was when he was earlier talking about how he did not want to return the calls from governors. he did not want his vice president to return the calls from governors that were not saying nice things about him. that was such a profound and disturbing echo of what he tried to do with ukraine. so sadly, as we have pointed out during the trial, a man with no moral compass will never find his way, and this president certainly hasn't. >> emily: dana, i want to start with you, while so many are suffering economically, what is your perspective on speaker pelosi's anti-trump messaging and what effects that might have on the election as we approach the campaign closer. >> dana: we are going to have politics. so we are just going to have to deal with it and except at that there will be bars thrown from both sides. but one of the things that adam schiff was trying to do was

to remind everyone that he was the one that led the charge on impeachment, because nobody talks about impeachment or adam schiff anymore, so that was a way for him to get back in the news. the other thing is that for example, chuck schumer has said that today are going to introduce legislation to remove president trump's name from being put on any of the future stimulus checks, because one of the things that the democrats fell into was that they said that the president's name being on a check made therapy of delay in getting a check settled, that turned out not to be true. but now that chuck schumer wants to pass legislation that says that the president can put his name on checks, that's actually going to delay checks getting out. so i think on the merits, they keep getting sort of nipped from behind by their own deeds. but i will say this, i do think that congress has a role, and it should be a bipartisan role for oversight and how all of this

money is going to be spent and doled out. we would insist on it for any administration. and i think that everybody should want to know and have accountable where this money is going to be spent. because we do want to help people. we do want to help people that actually need it. >> emily: jesse, we pay the salaries for these guys, would you say that it is deserving of our tax dollars that chuck schumer is as dana pointed out taking more time for these relief checks because he does not want the president's name on them? >> jesse: it is sticky tack, you know, it gets a headline. i don't think that it will even happen. it really will delay it, and then you can pin job losses on chuck, but you cannot trust democrats with power. they always abuse it and then collude with the media and spread lies to the american people. they are still saying that the president said the virus was a hoax. they are saying that the president told americans to drink lysol.

they are saying that the president is going to delay the election. at this stuff is crazy. it's like having children and every kid's going room to room to room in your house making a mess, and you are just following them room to room and having to clean up after them all the time. and you can't get any work done, because they never learn, and they never listen. and that's what it's like dealing with the media. >> dana: is this happening at your house? >> jesse: perhaps it is. and perhaps that was me just getting something off my chest. but in reality, it's what they do, and that's what they are going to do with these oversight committees. you know, you're going to see them subpoena, leak, and live, just like they did with russia collusion. and we are going to die in half to fact-check it, and the administration will waste a lot of manpower, money, and time fixing all the mess. and how bad will it be compared to the last allegation that he was a traitor. it can't be that bad, the best

that they will get is that money went to the trump organization somehow, someway. and what they will do is they will find money that went to a guy that ten years ago had a contract to mow the lawn at bedminster, and they are going to jam up some splashy headline that makes it look like trump got money. we will have to corrected and then they will move onto the next room and make a mess there. >> emily: all right, so juan, from the bird's-eye view perspective, and 20 million americans are now unemployed, how is this the action we need or effective leadership if people like adam schiff are going around saying they are going to launch an investigation into the coronavirus response? >> juan: there will inevitably be some 9/11 commission, but to me, when you have the los angeles lakers getting money that is intended for small businesses, they are a

$1 billion enterprise, one of the most valuable in america, they have money and they had to return it. or you hear about ruth chris, or shake shack, any of the big companies about anybody who is tied in to morgan stanley and all the big banks getting preferential treatment or today hearing about people just looking for more help, and the computer system breaks down, gosh, if this was the obama administration, there will be lots of screaming and calls for accountability, and he would say, that's right, we need accountability in government that really serves the people. so it is not an issue. to me it is about at this point what you are getting is the trump administration having botched and slow to some of the response looking for scapegoats. and so let's go back to adam schiff, we don't like him. we feel like we defeated adam schiff. adam schiff wants attention. the fact is they are trying to point the finger and distract people from their own feelings.

>> emily: greg, what are your thoughts? >> greg: well, i feel like jesse having to go back and clean up a room after juan spews that nonsense about everything happening so late. let's remind everybody that he close down travel and it was the democrats that called him a racist for that, also, i would love to see an investigation and how this virus came about, the media cannot even bother to ask that. instead, they were defending china and defending them by accepting the fact that they were giving, and were totally okay with the fact that they were covering it up. this is a virus that came from a combination of bats and other protein. we don't know where it is from. if it is from a lab, if it was biowarfare. i've no idea. i'm assuming it was a mistake. is it natural or artificial? these are questions that don't interest the media. number three-point. nobody is going after adam schiff. adam schiff is inserting himself into the story. remember, he launched this

horrible impeachment nightmare adventure that tied up the government in the media, and we asked ourselves on "the five," what damn story was being missed when this was happening? i was the coronavirus. nobody showed up because they were getting their questions ready for the damn hearing on impeachment. so we are going to allow the ringleader that put our country and jeopardy and almost ruined our economy because he was chasing his whale of an impeachment, you've got to be of your mind! he is like a dude who gets arrested for a dui and then three hours later he is back in the car driving drunk. you have to take the keys away from adam schiff. he is an embarrassment. >> emily: all right. the coronavirus task force will be out soon. in the meantime, the media's credibility crisis after ignoring the sexual assault allegation against joe biden. greg lays out the new evidence next on "the five."

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♪ >> greg: yes. in case you missed it, check out this cnn headline. trump goes into hiding. i guess cnn should know hide and seek is there expertise. take the story of tara reid, the joe biden accuser as she gains credibility, who loses it? cnn. they have avoided the story even after evidence appeared on cnn decades ago when the accuser's mom mentioned the assault to larry king. >> san louisa, hello. >> yes, hello, i'm wondering what staffer would do besides go to the press in washington, my

daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator and could not get through with her problems at all. the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him. >> she had a story to tell, but out of respect for the person she worked for, she did not tell it. >> that is true. >> greg: you have to a love cnn for avoiding a story that appeared on cnn. the video was not unearthed by fox, but the intercept, going green folds outfit. and what did it spin into? forget trump hiding, cnn is now hiding from cnn. they run hundreds of stories on brett kavanaugh with flimsy or accusations. meanwhile the biden accuser actually worked with him. the democrats and ideological flow? unlike brett's accusers, and told her mother who then called larry king during a segment on sexual harassment, and there is actual evidence of it.

so where is cnn story? their silence is the story. they are protecting biden so he can be president. and here reid, the media has tossed her story to the 190 juanita broderick file of what to never happen, because the liberal committed them -- chasig down people who posted names, which is really the second part of the story. the media will protect you if they like you. and destroy you if they don't. you know, dana, cnn is so corrupt. i mean, i believe cavanaugh and biden, innocent until proven guilty, unlike cnn who went after kavanaugh, but won't touch biden, how can they see that they are not doing this? >> dana: it is very strange. anyway, the pandemic is giving them cover, because everybody is focused on the fact that there is a health crisis in an

economic crisis that the country is dealing with, but this is quite stunning. you even have nancy pelosi today, the speaker of the house announcing that she was going to fully endorse joe biden. she thinks that these are flimsy accusations, but to your point, when you compare this to kavanaugh which is still very fresh in the nation's memory, it is pretty stunning. and also, remember brett kavanaugh did some interviews, remember martha maccallum did the interview with him and his wife, and it was a tough interview. and biden is going to have to deal with this at some point. because he's not going to be able to get away with not talking about it. and when he has had to do interviews for tough questions, he either gets angry or he fumbles. it's really an interesting time for them to deal with that. his responses do not inspire confidence when he has asked tough questions. and the pandemic is going to ease the fact of the question that will be asked that will not use at all.

>> greg: emily, you are a lawyer, what do you make of this? you probably understand that not all of the information is there, but the media has gone with the far left. >> emily: what is most disturbing for me, just not even being an attorney is the lack of equal attention and awareness to this. to dana's point, obviously the pandemic has largely shielded well, trump's attention will learn for one, but mostly widespread an awareness on this. because what choice does anyone else have in that funnel of information? and i think that it is ironic to speak to the conversation earlier today about the media's role and those who participate in the media and taking that role seriously and that biden's communications director herself said that women have a right to tell their stories and reporters to rigorously invent those claims. where are they all right now?

at least we are doing it. >> greg: juan, how can the media avoid the story when they don't avoid any of the other stories? >> juan: i don't think it is being ignored. i can see where you would say that it is being not sufficient attention, or you want more attention, but to my mind, the democrats, you could say, i think legitimately so are the ones who said, you have to give any charge credibility. and then if you do that, i think it opens the door. it pushes the democrats in a very awkward position. and trump can't talk about this, i don't think the white house really wants to get into this, the campaign may see from advanced, but given that it is 17 women making charges against president trump, he does not want to stir that pot. that would be like self damaging for him. so i think a lot of this is about the fact that people have looked at it, we are talking about it. others have talked about it. one big difference is that with

biden, there is no pattern of consistent women making charges as there is against trump. and i think when people are looking at all of these cases, you have to at some point call for credibility and not just allow flagrant charges to be made. that's why kavanaugh's defenders are so insistent that, you know what, you have to be fair to everybody regardless of political affiliation. >> greg: it is interesting though that every woman must be believed when it is kavanaugh, but now it's like, not so fast. rose mcgowan is one of the few people that are pointing this out, how inconsistent alyssa milano is. hugging joe biden after saying that every woman must be believed. >> jesse: juan says that there is no pattern with joe biden on assault allegations, there was no pattern with kavanaugh, but is there a pattern of creepiness?

i think there absolutely is. you should google batter hit youtube. you know, i know from sources that this woman, tara reade has never been invited to do a live interview on any media outlet, think about that. not once. as a guest to appear and do a live interview. from cnn, cbs, that is just astounding. i honestly think there's almost a conspiracy going on. a huge cover-up between the biden organization and the media to lock this down. because you mention, dana, martha maccallum, i remember during the campaign in 2016, donald trump was asked by wallace, o'reilly, megyn kelly about allegations of misconduct, about things he said, about things he has been accused of, and then after he became president, fox asked him about stormy daniels. i mean, there is a level of

fairness that obviously you have to take with the story. we don't know if she is telling the truth, we hope it is not true. it's really, really bad if it is true. but at least you have to attempt to vet to the woman. there has been no attempt. and there has been no attempt to ask a question of biden or any surrounding democrat. the media, if something happens with trump, they ask every single sitting senator in congress about it. get in on the record. they have not done that at all with anybody in washington. it really, it's a dangerous precedent that the democrats have set themselves up for. >> dana: actually, i just want to be clear, i believe that there's not a single democrat in the senate that has actually been willing to talk about this. david colored checked in with all of them. and everyone is like, can't talk about it. too busy. it is very, very telling that they have decided to basically close ranks.

>> greg: you know what tomorrow is, joe biden is holding a virtual women's town hall. this is perfect timing. 3:00 right before his nap. so will there be anyone there that asks him about this? and how will he handle it? >> dana: at least he is doing it after "the daily briefing." >> greg: he will probably deny it. but it will be hard. >> juan: that's what i'm thinking. >> greg: he will have the new information, you are saying the late mother is lying. she can't even defend yourself. she is dead. >> juan: well, as you point out, she has passed, and we can't ask her any questions, but by the way, i just want to say. i saw tara reade interviewed on hill tv, and ice are right there. so it's not like everybody is ignoring her or there are some conspiracy to ignore this. >> jesse: "hill tv," juan?

>> juan: senators feel like they are not able to vet this. and they have vetted, that's how she is a supporter of vladimir putin and all the rest, they have written about this. this is not exactly a cover-up. >> greg: the russian connection, all done by putin. i knew that you would work it in, juan. >> dana: we will move on, experts warning that americans could be suffering from quarantine fatigue, reportedly showing that lockdown weary residents are slowly starting to venture out against stay-at-home orders in california thousands have packed the beaches this weekend. there was a heat wave. and over in chicago, video of a packed house party is getting attention with 1,000 people in attendance. the restlessness comes as the next wave estates ease up some restrictions on businesses and public gatherings. i am sort of feeling like today,

i am like, i am ready to get out of the house. we have had below normal temperatures here in the northeast. but i don't know about you in seattle, emily, but as these warmer temps start to -- oh, excuse me, the president press briefing is starting now. >> president trump: today i would like to provide you with an update in our war against the coronavirus. thanks to the comprehensive strategy and extraordinary devotion to our citizens, we have had such tremendous support all over. we continue to see encouraging signs of progress. cases in new york area, new orleans, detroit, boston, and houston are declining. denver, seattle, philadelphia, washington, d.c., atlanta, nashville, indianapolis, and st. louis are all stable and declining. all parts of the country are either in good shape, getting

better, and in all cases getting better. and we are seeing very little that we are going to look at as a superseding hot spot. things are moving along. really, a horrible situation that we have been confronted with, but they are moving along. as we express our gratitude for these hard-fought gains, however, we continue to mourn with thousands of families across the country as loved ones have been stolen from us by the invisible enemy. we grieved by their side as one family. this great american family, and we do grieve. we also stand in solidarity with the thousands of americans who are ill and waging a brave fight against the virus. we are doing everything in our power to heal the sick and to gradually reopen our nation. and to safely get our people back to work. they want to get back to work.

and they want to get back to work soon. there is a hunger for getting our country back, and it is happening. it is happening faster than people would think. ensuring the health of our economy is vital to ensuring the health of our nation. these goals work in tandem, they work side-by-side. it's clear that our aggressive strategy to slow the spread has been working, and is saving countless lives. for those who are infected, we have taken unprecedented action to ensure that they have the highest level of care anywhere in the world. the government has built more than 11,000 extra beds. shipped or delivered hundreds of millions of pieces of personal protective equipment as you know, in fact, some of the people here are going to be talking about it. some of our greatest executives, some of the greatest in the world have distributed over 10,000 ventilators. we have in a short period of

time many delivered and hundreds of thousands are being built and every governor has more ventilators than they know what to do. we are shipping some to our allies and others around the world, because we have ventilators like the job that they have done in getting this very complex use of equipment built is actually incredible. you don't hear about ventilators anymore, we have launched the testing effort likewise on earth, and now conducted more than 5 million tests, nearly doubled in any other country. more than twice in any other country. moments ago i came from the meeting where some of our nation's largest retailers including walmart, walgreens, cvs, rite aid, and kroger.

joined by the leaders of those companies, and also the top of diagnostic companies, thermo fisher, labcorp, qwest, u.s., cotton, and the american clinical laboratory association, great companies. the private sector leaders along with others such as roche, abbott, logic, and -- have been exceptional partners in an unprecedented drive to expand those states capability, and the job they have done is incredible. the testing that has been developed and being developed right now has been truly an amazing thing. i want to thank abbott lavatories for the job they have done crit i want to thank roche, and in particular, those two have really stepped forward.

abbott with a five minute test that people can take. and in 5 minutes, they know what the answer is. i would like to ask if i could, the executives of these great companies, and they have really helped us a lot over the past 40 5-day period. where many of us met, and since then, what walmart and the others have done has been nothing short of amazing. i just want to ask them to come forward and say a few words about their company, but domain plus they are going to make a big contribution to our country. please come forward, please. come on up. thanks. >> thank you, mr. president. and thank you for all of you for being here today, and what we would like to talk about is the progress we made. the last time we were here was march 13th, and we mention the progress, none of that could be made without the 47,000 people

that request diagnostics around the clock. working up the tests and running in a tests and delivering the results that we need. as far as results, we have made tremendous progress. we are currently in quest diagnostics testing about 50,000 per day. we have been pushed by the task force to bring up that number by the end of may, we will have 100,000 tests per day, about 3,000 tests, these are the molecular tests, we have also brought up serological testing, we started that this past week. by the end of may we will be close to 250,000 a day. about 7,000 a month. you put those two numbers together it's about 10 million tests by the end of may they will be doing a quest diagnostic. and in a quicker way, with an issue in the early days, we have reduced the data 1-2 days. of the turnaround time for people in beds, hospital beds is

less than 24 hours. and we are doing that the same way that we have done with the fda. we will clean up delivering the quality that you all expect. and convenience will improve with convenient solutions that will be able to swab individuals more easily and deliver to consumers, the ability to have consumers choose a test online with the telehealth provider. with that i will add my colleague as well. >> mr. president, thank you very much for your leadership and for having us all here today. our scientists and lab technicians are working day and night to do as many tests as we can for the american public and to turn those tests around as quickly as possible. just 45 days ago, we said that we could do several thousand tests a day. we can now do 60,000 tests a day, and we are continuing to expand that capacity every single day. in addition, our scientists are

working to make testing more convenient, and easier. we have the swabs now that are much smaller than the original ones that we originally launched with, but we also have the pixel by labcorp at home test. that test right now is for health care workers on the front line and first responders, but we will be rolling that out much more broadly over the coming weeks. and we are going to roll it out with absolutely no upfront cost for the individual consumer. at the same time, we are building the capacity for serology testing, and we can currently do about 50,000 today, and we will be able to do several hundred thousand per day by the middle of may. then we will be working with the retailers, our colleagues that are here today to help them as they expand their testing capability is across entire country. and lastly, mr. president, we have a large drug development business, and we will continue to work with our colleagues in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to ensure that we do everything we

possibly can to roll out clinical trials fast so that we can get new treatments and potential vaccines. thank you. >> president trump: thank you very much. thank you very much. >> mr. president, thank you. think the administration for all the collaboration to enable and able to produce the test kits that companies like labcorp, and cost and public health around the world run. we have provided 5 million kits per week and are up to scaling that to doubling that in the coming weeks in terms of supporting testing around the world. i would like to thank the 75,000 colleagues around the world for their tireless effort to make that a reality. and supporting all of our customers to have the testing necessary to get america back to work. >> president trump: thank you, great job.

>> thank you, mr. president. i am here with u.s. cotton, we are the company that is going to produce the swabs to be used in these testing kits. we have about 1200 people in our company, and in our cleveland operation, they have pivoted from as you said the q-tip style swab to a swab that is going to have a plastic stick with a polyester tip, so that they can be assembled into these kits. our cleveland team has done a wonderful job of this, and they are very excited to be able to help in this effort, so thank you, mr. president. >> president trump: thank you very much. >> mr. president, thank you. i am larry merlo with cvs health. it was just over a month ago that we opened up our first or drive-through test site. since that time, we have open to large-scale testing facilities across five states in partnership with the

administration, and working with the governors of rhode island, massachusetts, connecticut, georgia, and michigan. these sites are enabling us to test 1,000 individuals per day with real-time results. we now have the capacity to test about 35,000 individuals each week, and this afternoon, we announced plans to expand that capacity even further. beginning in may, we will install testing capabilities and up to 1,000 cvs pharmacies. we will be using our drive-through's and our parking lots with swab testing. so you will see that coming online in may, and we also recognize the fact that you know, the virus is disproportionately affecting the minority communities. we are working in partnership with organizations like the national medical association to bring testing and care into the traditionally underserved communities. we are also beginning to implement mobile capabilities with which to do that.

and as businesses are coming you know, restarting their workforce, we will also be looking to assist them as they begin to come back to a normal operation. and finally, as my other colleagues, i just want to thank my cvs colleagues. they have done a phenomenal job in terms of helping people in many different ways. all the cross communities in the country, and they are part of the army of health care professionals, and front store, first-line supervisors that are doing terrific things to bring the country together. and we owe them a huge amount of gratitude. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. appreciate the invitation to be here today. it was just 45 minutes ago when we were here. i oversee at walgreens and the u.s. i just want to start off like you, thinking over 2,000

walgreens team members who are in stores every day, taking care of our patients and our customers. giving them essential daily needs, the prescriptions, obviously that they need, and even covid testing while we are here. we also announced today that we will be expanding our testing capabilities across all states including puerto rico. able to triple the volume that we do now in partnership with our lab partners, and we are excited to do that. we are really excited with the public partnership that we do here. because we are enabled to working with the additional states to get these sites up and running as fast as possible. as a pharmacist, i want to say one thing, i am really proud to be a part of this profession, not just walgreens pharmacist, but all of them, across grocery independence, you are really doing what you should be and what you went to school for, to help patients, counseling them with her medicine and helping them understand the problems

that we are facing. you know, pharmacy is right here, and with everyone together in the community, and we look forward to being part of the testing like we are, serology, whatever that might look like in the future and eventually treatment when the vaccine comes. so thank you, mr. president, for the opportunity. >> thank you mr. president, thank you mr. vice president. we appreciate all your doing to get america back to work and do it safely. i represent kroger, and i am so proud of our nearly half a million associates that are doing everything every day to keep customers safe and our associates safe. and one of the things that we were able to do was provide the basic product, and practices we are doing, we call it brew -- blueprints, and we can get amerk working. we announced earlier today to continue and accelerate our practice on testing.

we are actively engaged in six states, and in the next couple of weeks we will take that to 12 states. and the number of tests we do grows faster than that. together, we will win. together we will solve this problem and move on. america is always great. thank you again. >> thank you, mr. president. my name is doug mcmillon, i am a walmart associate prayed i would like to think our associates for everything they are doing in our stores, sam's clubs, distribution, and e-commerce centers, they have been inspiring and have a can-do attitude and step up. it's much appreciated. we started 45 days ago with everyone else, and operating sites for a while now. now up to 20 sites across 11 states by the end of next week we will be to 45, and by the end of may, we will be at 100. also a few weeks ago, vice president pence and i were in a distribution center in virginia, and he was kind enough

to think our associates for us there, which is much appreciated. the president and vice president were speaking about surgical gowns, and the president asked if we could put in an order for millions of surgical gowns, and we don't normally buy those, so i was not sure if we would be able to do that, but i would like to thank the apparel team for partnering with us. we have been able to in the month of april secure an additional 2.5 million surgical gowns, and by the end of may, we will have an additional 6 million available to help. thank you for the opportunity to serve and to be here. >> thank you, mr. president. and thanks to the team for getting this great operation up and running for the benefit of the country. i am here with right aid, and we are currently operating 40% of the current test sites in 25 locations across eight states.

and i had the opportunity as i was driving him to stop at our richmond location and see the testing in action, and i think the associates, whether it is security or pharmacy, front end, everyone who is helping with this great effort. and all of the customers that appreciate us so much. it was really amazing to see. and i want to thank my 50,000 associates also for keeping these retail locations up and running during these really, really tough times. it has been quite amazing. and we too are going to expand our testing. and we are doing about 1500 a day. thanks. >> president trump: thank you all very much. it's incredible what we have done together over a short period of time. i want to thank the vice president for the work, every day gets better. we had a fantastic call with the governors today. and i would say that today are

as thrilled as they can be considering that to the fact is that there has been so much unnecessary death in this country. it could have been stopped. and it could've been stopped short, but somebody a long time ago it seems decided not to do it that way, and the whole world is suffering because of it, 184 countries at least, but i want to thank all of these great businessmen and women for the job they have done. they have been fantastic working with us. and as you know for several weeks, my administration has encouraged the governors to leverage unused testing capacity in states, very few understood that we have tremendous capacity. then one week ago we provided each governor with a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of the labs where they could find additional testing capacity in their states. within 48 hours, the number of tests performed across the country began to absolutely skyrocket. on saturday alone, more than

200,000 test results were reported. which is a gigantic number, bigger than any country anywhere in the world for a much longer period of time. a number that is an increased earlier in the month when we tested roughly less than 100,000 a day, so we much more than doubled it. that will be doubling again very shortly. we are continuing to rapidly expand our capacity and are confident that we have enough testing to reopen. we want to get our country open, and the testing is not going to be a problem at all. in fact, it's going to be one of the great assets that we have. today we are releasing additional guidance on testing to inform the states as they develop their plans for phased and very safe reopening. blueprint describes how states should unlock their full capacity and expand the number of testing platforms established, monitoring systems to detect a local in conduct

contracted tracing. we have it all. other countries are calling to find out, what are we doing? how do you do it? we were helping them. we are dealing with a lot of countries on testing, just like we did with the ventilators. i directed the medicare program to make it easier for seniors to get the testing that they need and the pharmacies, as you know, we are allowing pharmacies to do testing. and we have other testing locations that we are going to be allowing also, but having pharmacies get involved in testing is a very big deal. we are also asking governors to do the same in their medicaid programs, so they are going to be able and authorized to do the same, so it is a big, that's a big deal. so we are deploying the full power and strength of the federal government to help states, cities, to help local government

>> it's tremendous energy in our country right now. it's energy like people haven't seen in a long time. an experience that they have not seen and we are doing very well, very well, considering what happened to us, and considering, if you look at what happens to others, this is something that the world has not seen for a long, long time. you can probably go back to 1917, where it was a terrible period of time. you all know what happened in 1917. that's over 100 years ago. with that, i'd like to introduce, if i might, dr. birx if you could come up and between the two of you, you could ask why in the entire process and where we are going. thank you very much. >> dr. birx: thank you, mr. president. the blueprint lays out the roles and responsibility is to enhance our partnership between the private sector and the public sector, bringing together state

and local governments with the federal government to ensure that we can accomplish and achieve our core principles and objectives. looking at the first slide, the core elements of the testing plan include both three elements. robust diagnostic test plans developed in partnership with state. i really want to think the governors and health officials, both at the state and local levels who've been working with us day and night to work through these issues, and also all the laboratory directors and many of the states as well as the american society for microbiology, have been working with us to ensure that the plan is efficient and effective. within the robust diagnostic testing plan, it's really unlocking the full capacity of the state, increasing the number of testing platforms. we now have multiple tests for different platforms, increasing the ability to collect samples. increasing testing and laboratory supplies and ensuring that we work together to make sure that every client receives the tests that they need.