are doing it in stages among industries and groups and retailers and restaurants, all the some form of distancing and they are to keep everyone safe. one stayed at a time. wow. here comes "the five." ♪ >> dana: hello, everyone. we have the president of the united states taking some questions. >> president trump: what they did to general flynn was a disgrace. it is shocking. and i hear even more information came out today, what they tried to do to destroy him, and to hurt this presidency was perhaps in our country's history, there is never been anything like it. an absolute disgrace. but i will rely on what the vice president said. i can say this, i think that you understand this, john, very well. what happened to general flynn should never happen to a citizen of this country. >> michael flynn would come back even bigger and better, are you going to pardon him?

and if so, are you considering to bring him back into your administration? >> president trump: it looks like to me that he would be exonerated based on everything that i see. i'm not the judge, but i have a different type of power. i don't know that anybody would have to use that power. i think that he is exonerated. i've never seen anything like it. what they did, what they wrote, you see this, you would not want this happening to you what they did to general flynn. and it is disgraceful. and we will get to that someday or maybe not. >> reporter: who are you bringing back into your administration? >> president trump: i think he is a fine man. it's terrible what they did to him. you are asking me for the first time, i would certainly consider it, yeah. i would. i think that he is a fine man, i think that he has a great family. he loves his son, i would tell you that his son is around a lot. he loves his son as people generally do, and they did

everything possible to destroy him, and he is still breathing very strongly. but they really hurt him very badly. very unfair. christine? >> reporter: i do have a coronavirus related question, but in what capacity would you bring him back? >> president trump: this is the first time i have really been asked the question. but he will be fully exonerated one way or another, and he would be capable of coming back. he suffered greatly. >> reporter: comments by your son-in-law, one of your top adviser jared kushner said that the response has been "a great success story" is that the right tone. >> president trump: will you live that up? >> reporter: no problem, they said that the government's response has been a "great success story," is that the right tone and message? >> president trump: i talk about other things that i talked about my speech today that i

speak about all the time, and at his death. it is horrible what this country has gone through and what the world has gone through, frankly. it's something that could've been contained at the original location and i think it could've been contained relatively easily. china is a sophisticated country that could've contained it. they were either unable to or they chose not to. in the world has suffered greatly. but what jared was talking about, and what i talk about a lot is i don't think anybody has done the job that we have done, other than the public relations, because the press won't talk about the facts. we had a ventilator problem that was caused by the fact that we weren't left ventilators by previous administrations. the cupboards were bare, as i say often. and not only are they full, we have ventilators, we are the king in the world of ventilators. we have thousands and thousands being delivered, you were at the news conferences over the last

few days. they said that we have never had a case where we cannot get a ventilator. and a month and a half ago, you were screaming ventilator, ventilator. i am just looking at the test numbers, we have more tests, we have given more tests and high-quality test then every other country combined. and i say it. a friend of mine, south korean president moon called me. he said what a job you have done. it is a much bigger country. but what a job you have done on testing. so the testing and the masks, and all of the things that solves every problem, we solved it quickly. but to think that now we are giving thousands of ventilators to other countries, allies, and other than allies, to be honest, but helping other countries where people are dying, because we have ventilators and nobody else does to this extent. and it is a great tribute. i mean, deborah, we were talking about that before, dr. birx says

it is fantastic. she is a fantastic person, fantastic woman. and we talk about the things that we have done in a short period of time. all you heard about was ventilators. that's a hard thing. we energized factories that did not go through, building cars and other things, and now 1,000 a week, and it is very spectacular. so i think, i don't think anybody has done a better job with testing, with ventilators, with all of the things that we have done. and our death totals, our numbers for a million people are really very, very strong. we are very proud of the job we have done. we had very little to work with, because the previous administration left us very little. >> reporter: quick follow-up? >> president trump: go ahead. >> reporter: do you find the executive order this morning given the counterbalance going on in the western hemisphere

right now? why did you request more manpower? and can you see any signal -- >> president trump: i needed it and i signed it. and we need executive orders that have helped us a lot. and they have helped us out a lot here. we also side things having to do with production, as you know. i've used that very, very powerfully, the act. and often times i did not have to use it. i just had to talk about it. i am not only signing when we want something more we need additional manpower or brainpower or whatever it is we are looking for at the time, but we again, we have done things, i don't think anybody else has been able to do what we have done. and this is a big country. it's a very big country as you know. and i'm very proud of the country in the way that they have stepped up. things are opening as an example, governor lee is doing a great job opening up tennessee, and opening it up rapidly and

safely. opening it up safe and rapid. he is doing it quickly and safely and tennessee is a great story. but we have other governors, friends of both of ours that are doing really good jobs. i will say this, governor murphy and governor cuomo have a tougher situation, because that's really a -- it is a very intense area. i don't think people realize, new jersey, the most dense area in the country. but the governor has done a terrific job. and governor cuomo likewise is working very, very hard. and speaking to me all the time. and whenever we can help, we do. we are helping him, and he is helping. thank you. >> reporter: do you feel you are any closer to having answers -- >> president trump: i think that they are doing really well.

i think that things are being discovered that you would not think possible. the laboratory is a great, great scientific company that came up with the machine. i would say two months ago nobody even heard the machine, and then all of a sudden, boom, people get tested, it takes them 5 minutes and they feel very good. and some of them have never been tested. but these are equipment and, of equipment and test that nobody ever thought even possible, three or four months ago, they are being used commonly now. i looked at the numbers, and we are over 6 million tests, and you add up everybody together, they don't have anything near that. so it is an incredible thing. and it will be great if the media could portray it the way that it is. because we have done some unbelievable work, and when somebody uses the word successful, i mean, it has been successful. it has been very successful. but when you look at mortality and mortality rates, you know,

this country is a very sad thing to be talking about. whoever thought you would talk about such a thing, all we talked about was the economy and how well it is going. but today we have to talk about that. our country has stepped up, our generals have stepped up. our admirals have stepped up. and he has done a fantastic job, as you know. we are very proud of everybody. this whole room has been very amazing. okay, who's next? >> reporter: you said that they are doing everything to not get reelected, what are they doing? >> president trump: they don't want to see me elected, and the reason is that we are getting billions and billions of dollars, many billions of dollars a month from china. china gave us nothing. not $0.10. and whether it was biden in charge of china, which was a joke, they ripped off our

country for eight years. and in all fairness to biden and obama, this went on long before they got into office. you can go through many administrations until i came along and then we signed a trade deal, and they have been by a lot, but that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus spread the virus situation is not acceptable. >> reporter: are they withholding information about the virus trying to undermine your reelection? >> president trump: i don't want to cast any dispersions. i will just tell you that china would like to see sleepy joe biden. they would take this country for a ride like you've never seen before. >> reporter: mr. president, yes. with the unemployment numbers coming out today, 30 million now unemployed, have you given any thought to possibly extending the 600 extra dollars of unemployment benefits that are giving out now, that will run

out, that will run out in july. >> president trump: they are taking a look at it and a very strong look. we will be reporting very shortly. i will say this, obviously this is what it is. it is this period of time, but i view the third quarter as a transition quarter, and i think that you will have a very strong transition and then the fourth quarter will be very successful. i think next year we will have a phenomenal year economically. >> reporter: you keep referring to china, but do you think that you should be responsible? >> president trump: i don't want to say that. but certainly, it could've been stopped. it came out of china and it could've been stopped. and i wish that they stopped it. and so does the whole world. >> reporter: on unemployment, there were many businesses with america coming back up again because of the provision with a additional $600, they will not be able to get their employees

back, because they will make more money staying at home than they would if they came back to work, some governors suggest that they might strip those people of their unemployment insurance if they refuse to go back to work. is that something you would support? >> president trump: we are looking at a lot of different things. i brought this up before it was done, it was a democrat point, and i said, some people will be treated unfairly and some people will be treated, they did not get into the formula the way that i saw it. i said exactly that this was going to happen. but when you think about it, it's basically what being generous with people, it is short-term, and we are being very generous with people that lost their jobs or potentially would lose their jobs. it's not the biggest problem that i have ever heard of, they are getting a little bit more money in some cases they are getting more money than they thought they would've gotten. a lot of employees are saying that their job is more important, because the employer is not going to forget that. but it was something that i brought up at the beginning, and nobody wanted to listen.

>> reporter: follow-up regarding joe biden. your campaign and surrogates going at him pretty hard with regard to the allegations from tara reade? >> president trump: i don't think that they are going after him hard with regard to tara reade. i don't know anything about it. i don't know exactly. i think that he should respond coming you know, it could be false accusations. i know all about false accusations. i have been falsely charged numerous times. and there is such a thing. if you look at brett kavanaugh, there is an outstanding man. he was falsely charged, what happened with him was an absolute disgrace to our count country. and i guess three of the four women have now admitted that. end of the fourth, give me a break. i mean, take a look. 36 years, this is a fine man.

i saw a man suffering so unfairly, i am talking about brett kavanaugh. but i don't know, i can't speak for biden, i only think that he should respond and answer them. >> reporter: on china, a moment ago you said that china could have chosen to stop the virus, are you insinuating that they let it spread? >> president trump: i am saying 1 of 2 things happen. either they didn't do it and they could not do it from a confident standpoint or they let it spread. and, you know, i would say probably it was, it got out of control, but you know, there is another case, how come they stopped all the planes and all of the traffic from going into china, but they did not stop the planes and the traffic from coming into the united states and all over europe? look at italy, look at what happened in italy and it is very lucky, the country is very lucky and i am very lucky that i put

the ban on china as you know very early on, in january, we put the ban on china, and that was a very early day. that was not a late day. that was a very early day. and if we did not do that as alex knows, we would have had a problem like you would not have believed. we would have had a problem much bigger. but you look at what happened in italy, a lot of those people went to italy instead, and that has been a very, very tough place. >> reporter: on holding them accountable, is that something that you prefer to do now? >> president trump: no, i want to find out what happened. we will get a powerful definition of exactly what happened, we are working on it strongly now and i think that it will be very powerful, but they could have stopped it. they are a very brilliant nation, scientifically and otherwise. it got loose, let's say, and they could have stopped it, but they didn't. and they stopped planes from

going to china, but they did not stop it from the rest of the world. what was that all about, jim? >> reporter: just a follow up on jordan's question, you praise china in the past, what has changed? you tweeted that they are doing very hard work to stop the coronavirus. and you appreciate the transparency. all working out well, what has changed between then when you were saying those things about china and now? >> president trump: what has changed is the following, we did a trade deal and everybody was very happy. there has nobody ever been tough on china like i have been tough on china. i got elected at least partially because of borders in military and different things. but one of the things i would say is how china and other countries are ripping us off, so recently we signed a trade deal with china. a number of months ago. they are buying billions of dollars worth of our product, our farm product and other product, manufacturing product and spending a great deal. but then we noticed a virus.

and it's not acceptable what happened. it came out of china, and it is not acceptable what happened. and now what we are doing, jim, we are finding out how it came out. you have heard all different things. three are four different concepts as to how that in the not-so-distant future and that will determine a lot how i feel about china. but when i was of course, i was very rough with china, i mean, biden as an example, the previous administration, they let china rip off this country like nobody has ever ripped off this country. what i did is i took that and i made it into a great deal for our country. but after that, all of a sudden, we heard that there is a virus and a virus is coming in. that changes my mind vary greatly. that's a whole different thing. you can see good trade deals, earlier on the trade deal that

was early on. and it is a great deal. but we have taken him billions and billions of dollars of money in different forms including the fact that we have a 25% tariff on $250 billion. it is a tremendous amount of money. some of that money i've given to the farmers, because they were targeted by china. and i gave $12 million, $16 billion, and now we will give $19 billion to the farmers. something happened. if something happened. i don't say misleading or not, i will let you know. i will be able to give you the answer at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future, but i will tell you, you can take a look at what happened to this world, we had the strongest economy in the history of the world, and all of a sudden i had to close the economy in the country. if so, we have had tremendous death and tremendous sorrow, sadness, and nobody has ever seen anything like it.

and so have most of the countries of the world. think about that. most of the countries. you tell me, it's probably low right now, because i have been saying 184 countries have suffered tremendously. it's something that is going to have to be dealt with. >> reporter: mr. president, on the issue of laws, biden has said that we should lower the flag to half mast. and are you going to lead the nation in a moment of morning? >> president trump: i would say not only the white house flag, we could do that. it is something that i will be talking about later on. we have a meeting later on on various topics. lori the flag would be something very appropriate. >> reporter: what about leaving the country in a moment of morning? >> president trump: i don't think that anybody can feel any

worse than i do about all the death and destruction that is so needless, nobody, but i also have to make sure that we handled the situation well. nobody is thinking about it mo more. nobody has spent more time late in the evening thinking about what has happened to this country in a short period of time, but at the same time, we have to get our country open again. and we are doing that step-by-step, tennessee is an example. step-by-step we are opening up our country and i think that next year we can be, may be even, we have a lot of stimulus. and maybe beyond. we will see about face 4, but i really hope that we can be as good or better. i felt it once, and we will build it again. go ahead. >> reporter: you said a moment ago that you have information on where the virus originated, the

director of national intelligence today put out a statement saying that it was naturally occurring and not man-made. >> president trump: who said that? who in particular? >> reporter: it was a statement at the dod. that would be a director of national intelligence. >> president trump: you would have to tell me who specifically made the statement? >> reporter: it was put out of the statement -- have you seen anything at this point? >> president trump: we are looking at that separately. we are looking at exactly where it came from, who it came from, how it happened separately and also scientifically. so we will be able to find it. >> reporter: have you seen anything at this point that gives you a high degree of confidence that the wuhan institute of virology was the origin? >> president trump: yes, i have. and i think that the world health organization should be

ashamed of themselves. because they are like the public relations agency for china, and to this country pays them almost $500 million a year, and china pays them $38 million a year, and whether it a lot or more, does not matter. it still, they should not be making excuses when people make horrible mistakes, especially mistakes that are causing hundreds of thousands of people around the world to die. i think the world health organization should be ashamed of themselves. >> reporter: you suggested withholding federal aid from jurisdictions, how serious is that consideration? >> president trump: i have the right to do that, but sanctuary cities in a time like this, it is a very dangerous thing. our law enforcement hates it. they want -- we want safe cities. we want sanctuary, but we want sanctuary for our citizens. and we don't want sanctuary for criminals that came into our

country illegally and they have big records and records i will not go into the type of crimes, but the crimes of the ultimate evil in many cases. no, we don't want them to have sanctuary in our country. i say it again, we want to have strong borders. i've been saying this for a long time and i think that people are agreeing with me. i really do think that people are agreeing with me. the democrats wanted open borders, not only coming in from a crime standpoint, but coming in with not only the disease that we happen to be talking about so much lately, but other diseases. and they want to have open borders. they want people to pour into our country from who knows where they come, no, we are not doing that. we have a very strong border now, our southern border. and every day get stronger because we are building miles a day of very powerful wall. that is a great thing for a country. it is so important for our country. and very few people are arguing

with it. yes, please. >> reporter: you often describe the fight against the virus as a war, how do you define it? >> president trump: i do find victory when it is gone and we open successfully. we have a successful country again. it can never be a total victory, because too many people have died. all over the world. in our country. i'm looking at the new list of countries. look at what is going on with russia. look at what is going on with spain. they are so incredibly harmed and injured by this. so many people are dying. this is not something where you will go to your traditional, oh, gee, this was an experience. no, this is a very bad experience. but what i want is the virus gone and a vibrant economy. we want people back. we don't want people sitting like these incredible people in front of me where they are

sitting 6 feet apart. i want our country back. i want people to go out and see football games and baseball games and basketball, hockey, golf, and all of the sports and not worry about getting sick and violently ill. one of these things that were very interesting, we put it out before was sweden, and to compare the deaths to denmark and finland and norway, and i hate to say it, but the deaths are very substantially higher in sweden, because they use to that as an example. brazil is very high if you look at what has gone on. very straight up almost. bright, very straight up. a friend of mine, great gentleman, president of brazil, really a friend of mine, great man. but they are going herd, but in sweden in particular, the bars

you can't go to, certain areas you can't g go to, a lot of peoe are saying the prime minister does not have to say stay in your apartment or your house, they are staying there. they are not leaving. so it is really not quite what was reported. but the number of deaths are tremendous in sweden compared to the countries that surround where they did very strong lockdowns. and we were discussing that with deborah before, that it is a very big difference. and sweden did not go herd as you understand it. and they are very smart. they are staying in their houses. they are not going out -- are some? yes, i guess, some. but they have lost a lot of people in sweden. i will get you in a second. >> reporter: can i get back to what we were talking about a second ago? in the interruption, are you suggesting that maybe you have

some evidence that this was not a naturally occurring virus? >> president trump: you are talking about the virus and where it came from? we are going to see where it comes from. and you know every theory, you had the theory from the lab, the theory from the bats, the type of bats, that are 40 miles away, it could not of been here, it could not of been there. and there are a lot of theories, but we have people looking at it very, very strongly. intelligence people and others. i think we will have a very good answer eventually. and they might even tell us. >> reporter: what gives you a high degree of confidence that this originated from the wuhan institute of virology? >> president trump: i cannot tell you that. >> reporter: would you consider having the united states not pay its debt obligation to china as punishment for the virus?

>> president trump: i can do it differently. i can do the same thing but for even more money by putting it on tariffs. so i don't have to do that. it is approximately a trillion dollars. but we can do that in a little bit more of a forthright manner. you start playing those games, that is tough. we want to protect the sanctity of the dollar. it's the greatest currency in the history of the world. it has become stronger. that's why we are borrowing at 0, 0 interest rate. with all the stimulus we are talking about, that sounds good, general, doesn't it? essentially right around 0, but if you want to protect, it is a very good question. you say, oh, gee, we owe you a certain amount of money, but when you play that game, you're hurting the sanctity and the

importance of the greatest currency on earth. we can do it in other ways. we can do it in tariffs and other ways beyond that. that is a rough game. >> reporter: speaker pelosi said that she envisioned up to $1 trillion needed to help support fatalities. would you support that? >> president trump: the democrats have come to us and they would like to do a phase 4. we will think about what is happening. they want to help bail outs. and bailouts are very tough. and they happen to be democratic states. it's california, new york, illinois. and the republican states are in strong shape. you know, i don't know, is that luck or talent? or is it just a different mentality? but the republican run states are in strong shape. but today when i spoke, i spoke with ron desantis, he was here

yesterday, and florida is doing and credibly. texas is doing incredibly. these states are doing unbelievably. they don't know about the word bailout. we had a call from a governor of south dakota, and they have one of the finest run states. they have, i think a constitutional amendment that they are not allowed -- you have to balance budget, and they have a balance budget, they just have a sales tax. it's about the only tax that they have. a sales tax. but republican states are doing very well. maybe the democrats should have brought this up earlier when we wanted certain things. and i said specifically, let's look at it later on down the road, but they would like to do something. they want to do infrastructure. i can understand infrastructure. think of it. we have spent $8 trillion in the

middle east, and we are not fixing our roads in this country? how stupid is that? and we are not fixing our highways, our tunnels, our bridges, our hospitals, our schools, it's crazy. but they want to do things, and the republicans are in a much better position from -- i don't want to use the word negotiating position, but we really are any negotiating negotiating position that is different, because they want to bail out various states. illinois is in big trouble, the governor, he understands that. but illinois is in big trouble. is it fair to do that and then have dates that are very powerful and strong like iowa and idaho, i mean, take idaho. look at all of these incredible states, and look at what is going on and how successful they are. so you just take a look at, and are going to look at it, we are going to look at it.

we want to take a little bit of a pause, but if we do that, we will have to get something for it. okay? >> reporter: a question on masks, it sounds like you are potentially open to leader mcconnell's call that states should apply for bankruptcy? >> president trump: i am just saying that it is an idea that he has. i have spoken to it about him very strongly. and we are going to see what happens. we will take a little bit of a pause and see what happens, but some states are in trouble. i spoke today, with a wonderful man, a great gentleman, wonderful human being, bill knows him too, from new jersey, governor phil murphy, and we talked about it. new jersey is, it is a wonderful state, have to say. it's a wonderful place, but it has a lot of difficulty in terms of economics. and that that, the cost, et cetera. it is in a different position

than some of the other states that we can mention. we can mention them all day lo long. >> reporter: vice president pence did not wear a mask when he visited the mayo clinic, he is wearing one today, you are traveling to arizona, will you wear a mask? what is the policy? >> president trump: i am going to arizona, i look forward to that, i will have to see. look and see where i am. this is a place that we all feel very comfortable, everybody is spread out, it is a very big room, but as far as where i am going in arizona, i will have to look at the climate. i have no problem wearing a mask. i don't know, i'm supposed to make a speech, i just don't know should i speak in a mask, you are going to have to tell me if that is politically correct, if it is, i will speak in a mask, but i'm going to be making a speech in arizona. i look forward to it. and depending on the conditions, i would have no problem wearing a mask. we have millions of masts now. we have masks coming in, that

was another thing that was very hard to get where were masks, and making millions and millionf masks, it is been incredible. >> reporter: the chairman of the federal reserve and the economic recovery is going to be long and slow, you said that it would bounce back quickly, what do you know that he doesn't know? >> president trump: i did not hear what he said, i can only tell you that i see it and it will be a transition quarter, the third quarter. i think the fourth quarter will be very good and i think next year will be fantastic because of the stimulus. and i have not seen the statement, but i think that we will have a great year next year. knowing that we left behind a year of tremendous death, tremendous death. it was just a terrible thing. to the likes of which we have not seen, i guess if you go back over 100 years, 1917. and that was a terrible thing. but that was close, depending on your account or the account anywhere from 50-100000000

people died in 1917. so we have not seen it for over 100 years, so, understanding that that was terrible. i think next year from an economic standpoint, i mean, look at the stock market. people are amazed. the stock market is at over 24,000. 24,000 now, is leading a possible considering what we have gone through? because people are very smart. these people are very brilliant, and they look and they see a great future. the other thing, the dollar is very strong. so when we go out and do stimulus packages, we are oversubscribed at 0. you get your money back at 0. it's pretty incredible thing. the euro is having a hard time, and it is much smaller than the dollar that has really become, the dollar is king. and at a position now, just a

very powerful, just a very powerful thing, the dollar. other currencies are very in big trouble. they are in big trouble where the dollar is very powerful, very strong. so the good part about that is if you do go out and we do want to do stimulus or whatever we want to do, we are borrowing at 0 and the dollar is very strong. >> reporter: back to what john was asking about the possibility of the virus being led out from china, would you insist on china allowing u.s. investigators into that lab? >> president trump: i don't want to go into that. we will see. so far china has been trying to be, or at least they seem to try to be transparent with us. but we will find out. you will be learning in the not-too-distant future. it is a terrible thing that happened whether they made a mistake or whether it started off as a mistake and then they made another one, or did somebody do something on purpose? i don't understand how traffic,

how people were not allowed into the rest of china, but they were allowed into the rest of world. that's a hard question for them to answer. >> reporter: kim jong un, if you have an update on his condition and whether he is alive or dead? >> president trump: i understand what is going on, i cannot just talk about him right now, just hoping that everything will be fine. but i do understand the situation very well, please. >> reporter: talking about when we talked about being complementary of china early on, are you saying that you are complementary because you were concerned about -- >> president trump: i am making a trade deal with china, of course i'm going to become a mentor a. i was very uncomplimentary prior to the negotiation and then every once in a while the negotiation would break down, because i'm not like carrie who signed the randy old that was the worst deal. and he never left the table. i left the table a lot. anyway, we ended up making a deal, and of course, during the

course of the deal i was both complementary and very uncomplimentary. but we ended up making the deal before the virus came. and i was very happy with the deal. but then later on, that was superseded by a virus that should not have happened. i just want to thank you all very much, and we will see you probably tomorrow sometime. thank you very much. >> reporter: thank you. >> dana: that was president trump wrapping up questions from the media. he responded to the allegations against joe biden, his coronavirus response into the new revelations in the case against michael flynn. he talked broadly about all sorts of things, talking about north korea, i thought he made a little bit of news on china. and i also thought if i can have a personal privilege point from a communication standpoint, i thought this press conference was leaps, yards so much better than the one from the past couple of weeks. the questions were very good, they were on point, and the president showed a lot of

empathy and such knowledge across a broad range of topics. so that is my vote, but i will take it around the table to get thoughts from the group here. this is your "the five," we are all here and listening intently. jesse, let me start with you, any thoughts about what he brought up? he talked about everything he could. >> jesse: he zeroed in on china pretty specifically. why were people in wuhan? allowed to leave to the rest of the world. china has to answer that question, and they have not answered it at all. he also says that he has a very high degree of confidence that the virus came from this lab in wuhan, that was pretty interesting. and he kind of was brainstorming about ways to financially sanction china, whether it was tariffs, debt payments, so he does seem to have seriously changed his tone from two months ago when he was complementary about how the chinese have handled it only heals of the

trade deal, to now after learning from the intelligence committee how the thing escaped and the world was not warned about it, it looks like it as a whole new ball game with the chinese. he also wandered in with sweden and brazil, they tried to do herd. and that does not work very well. and he gave himself a pat on the back for locking on the country, and predicting it would be an ugly second quarter and bounced back strongly in the third or potentially the fourth. >> dana: greg, one of the questions i thought was very good. and you might expect that more and a long form interview than a press conference like this, it was the question, you said that we are in a war against a virus, so what does victory look like to you, and i thought his answer was measured and empathetic and long reaching. >> greg: it was pretty good. and i think that the media, we are almost four years into this

residency, still failing to understand what trump is. the literalness that they take his optimism. he has a machine built on optimism. and i will steal this joke from someone on twitter who said he was officially asked more about tara reade then joe biden has been asked, which was funny. but i want to bring up to the point about and talking about the one-sided travel, i seem to remember a dashing good looking tv anchor on "the five" back on january 27th screaming at the top of his lungs saying, why are people from china leaving and coming here, but we are not allowed to go to china? i remember yelling that, it was like january 20th, as if it was yesterday. so i would like to put a little feather in my cap. >> dana: i remember it too. >> greg: i play it home when i am alone, which is often.

>> dana: i would say, katie, his answer about joe biden and tara reade was very good, and as i am told, we have the slot, let's play that in case anybody missed it. this is how it went. >> president trump: i don't know anything about it. i don't know exactly, i think you should respond, you know? it could be false accusations. i know all about false accusations. i have been falsely charged numerous times. and there is such a thing. if you look at brett kavanaugh, this is an outstanding man. he was falsely charged. what happened with him was an absolute disgrace to our count country. >> dana: all right, katie, your thoughts, i thought it was definitely answered, what do you think? >> katie: i would agree that it was answered. he did not attack joe biden, he put the focus back on due process.

and answering to the charges of your accuser publicly especially when you are running for president in the united states, but he also puts it on the left and everybody who's champion the idea that you should believe every single accusation without any due process or vetting. so, he puts the standard back on the left by making them play by their own rules when it comes to how they want to handle these situations. because they have decided that they want to the standard of you believe any accusation that any woman makes against any man, because men are evil and they are all engaged in some sexual abuse towards women because of the patriarchy, but then you have joe biden, the leading candidate who is now the nominee of the party who has an accusation that comes out with cooperation from multiple people, by the way, and they have a choice to make about whether they are going to violate their own standards on this issue they have had for two years or whether they move forward with the nominee?

>> dana: and let me ask you about the news that we found out right before they show that tomorrow morning joe biden is going to take questions from morning joe about tara reade. excuse me. >> juan: we have all advised that it will be good for the former vice president to get out there and address this. and even to go into the record at the university of delaware and say, this is what exists and this is what does not. but just to be transparent, dana, just to clear the air is good for everybody. i think the president was quite careful in terms of his own response by saying, he has denied things, and if people on the right, in some cases are trying to exploit it for political purposes would accept president trump's allocation, the question is, what are you going to do when vice president joe biden appears on msnbc and says, yes, i deny the charges. that has been set in the way

that they accept his denial in the face of tapes and sign checks and all the rest. let me finish here. >> jesse: there is one check with a consensual situation and no payoffs were a sexual assault allegation. that's different. >> juan: there is a payoff to a porn star that he denies. i just think once he was made in terms of the top of that where the president is talking about potentially even bringing michael flynn back into the administration on the basis of some fbi memos that came from michael flynn's lawyers, and i think it was an aggressive leap by the defense lawyer that plays to the president's grievance against the intelligence committee, but specifically the fbi.

and it is setting up the conditions for a presidential -- >> dana: can you hold? greg, did you want to comment on biden? >> greg: we are missing a big point. he has a huge disadvantage with trump. you knew what you were getting into with trump. sleeping was stormy daniels, i can see that happening. i don't want to see it, but i know that it can happen. but with biden, you find out that he is dirty, right? he has to defend it whether it is about banks, because he was supposed to be the moral alternative to donald trump. not just for the democrats, but for the never-trumpers. it is the solution for bill kristol. he was no moral choice over evil trump even though rumors swirled around to joe biden for years about his behavior, about his swimming habits. we knew that -- so the thing, this is going to be a lot harder

for him to deal with them people think. you just can't say, but look at trump, because he is supposed to be better, right? isn't that what we were told? >> dana: we have to take a quick commercial break. hold that thought. we will be right back. ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health.

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>> under an enormous pressure, and it was an artificial pressure, because what they did to general flynn was a disgrace. a total disgrace. it's shocking. any here even more information came out today. what they have tried to do to destroy him into her this presidency was perhaps in our country's history, there is never been anything like it. an absolute disgrace. >> jesse: okay, katie, i guess we have seen some of these documents that have been released that have been withheld for two years by the department of justice and by the fbi. and they show that peter strzok and fbi agents went in not looking to charge him with something with regards to russia, but trying to set him up to lie, what do you think? >> katie: we found out with new documents that the crossfire hurricane team that looked into the 2016 election, said that there was no information that general flynn had colluded with

russia at all, but reader struck still put up the gotcha meeting at the end of january to interview him. but what we have been hearing about is the president fired michael flynn, so what's up with that? vice president mike pence was asked to do you believe that flynn should have been fired. and he said, i know what general flynn told me, and i am more inclined to believe that it was unintentional more than ever before. if so i think that they will revisit where they were getting their information about him allegedly lying to the vice president about his contact to the russian ambassador. >> jesse: greg gutfeld? >> greg: yes. i love that these guys got busted by their own notes. in an effort to frame general flynn. they actually frame to themselves and exonerated flynn by taking notes. i do think that trump, i don't

know if it is possible, but could he name flynn head of the fbi? it's so amazing that you can incriminate somebody with your notes, that i thought that i would present my notes from today's "the five" meeting. here it is. jesse brags about murder committed in 1982. dana leaves methamphetamines by the coffee maker, and juan males in his ballot to vote for trump. >> jesse: i still have my calendar from 1992 that i saved, so i'm going to be exonerated. juan williams, i have not seen a lot of people defend what the fbi did, but flynn, give it your best shot. >> juan: this is no bombshell. i mean, clearly flynn said to the court, he admitted his own guilt. he said he lied and then took responsibility. and then the president, president trump sent out a tweet

saying he lied to the vice president. that's why i fired him. with regards to the notes, all that is his typical law enforcement technique. they have the transcripts of the conversation with the russians, and the question was, was he going to confess or was he going to live? what's the bombshell. >> jesse: they set them up, juan. nothing illegal about talking to the russians. >> greg: if he was a young 18-year-old, you would be upset. >> jesse: dana has a great one. let's go to "one more thing." come on.

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♪ a >> dana: it's time now for "one more thing." if you sauce be 26 yesterday, jesse watters challenged me to try to teach jasper of the strike by today show. it's pretty impressive, this dog balancing a beer bottle.

while at 6:00 p.m at 6:18 p.m. e had done it. and that's not easy for jasper because he didn't have a flat head that like the black lab they are, but he was able to do it. just say, what do you think of that? >> congratulations jasper. congratulations peter, i taught ricky with a 16-ounce body can and here's how that went. >> whoa! >> a little too heavy for ricky. >> you have to working on it. one more thing we can do and 40 seconds? >> i have a squirrel, do we have a picture of that? this guy built a little barge. now we can enjoy his nuts at the bar. it isn't that fantastic?

>> that's so cute. hopefully after coronavirus we will still be able to have -- oh, ricky makes an appearance. love ricky. set your dvr is i never miss an episode of space a "the fivet." for 25's up next. >> bret: i'm glad we got the squirrel at the bar in. breaking news, tonight president trump, saying they hope he could stop the coronavirus and in his words are not acceptable. that gives him a high degree of confidence. that it came from the wuhan institute of radiology lab. the national investigation said they are -- of the virus was not engineered or altered genetically which matches all of that, our reporting.