kidding. we will hear with the president wants to do on the coronavirus, whether they are finding common ground on this thing or whether all the talk on it will be all wet and all for naught. i'm done. i promise you i'm done. here is "the five." ♪ >> greg: hi, i am greg gutfeld with jesse watters, dana perino, marie harf, and dagen mcdowell. "the five." the village idiot has spoken. former bill clinton spokesman and sputtering wacko doodle joe lockhart suggests that under no circumstances should joe biden debate donald trump. you are thinking it must be a gag. no, according to lockhart, trump tells so many lies it's pointless for biden to enter the ring with someone who can't follow the rules or the truth

but you know he's really saying. the moment biden faces off with trump and the cognition starts malfunctioning, he's done which is really why lockhart admits biden can lose the election. he's creating a phony reason hoping no one notices but we did. he in the campaign create a fake moral loophole for biden to worm his way out of so he won't tank in public. oh, we certainly can't debate trump. he fibs. he wears hair plugs. wait, that's joe. if that's the standard for all candidates, we never have another debate ever. democratic party would be as thin as i am in only half as handsome. also wouldn't you want to debate a liar because you could come armed with facts. clearly if joe can't handle a debate, how can handle being president? wouldn't his feeble act disqualify him? makes you wonder if he really is the actual candidate at all. you can see lockhart didn't think this through which is why he writes for cnn.

and it says something that a media company, one that j.j. be in transparency and so on, would push the public forum to evaluate the candidate in real-time. it must be cool to have friends in high places or at cnn, low places too. all right. dana, i said this was coming. i said it was coming. i believe he's not going to debate donald trump. what say you? >> dana: i have taken the other side of it and in fact i think i placed a pretty hefty bet with tucker carlson. i am anxiously awaiting to see if i'm going to have to pay up. the other thing is joe lockhart is not averse to say this. the reason i had the best with tucker carlson is about five weeks ago tom friedman, columnist for "the new york times" wrote a piece also saying that joe biden should not debate. the campaign that joe biden is

going to debate. trump has said he wants more debates and earlier. incumbents usually don't want that. they usually are like, we are not going to bother with that because incumbents are in a pretty strong position. wanting to debate more shows president trump love to debate, wants to be out there and wants to be able to say this is my record and this out is what i want to do. he doesn't wanted to be a referendum on his record though i'm sure they're going to complain about it but they wanted to be a choice between two people like he did with hillary clinton and he drew that distinction quite well and he wants to do the same with biden which is been a little bit hard to do with the campaigning coronavirus. >> greg: you need to have a person. to draw the distinction and there is no person there, dana. also we don't condone gambling at fox news. if after the show you could go to the h.r. department and they'll probably have you fill out some forms. marie, good to see you. if joe biden doesn't debate, how

can we even consider him worthy of being president? >> marie: gran, biden is going to debate. biden wants to debate donald trump because of all those lies, because of the failed record he will argue. all of president trump's supporters were setting the bar so low for joe biden, even you just did it in your monologue, sing once he starts talking it'll be clear he's no good. that's not a high bar for biden to leap over. he needs to show america he can put together four sentences and i'm confident he can put together more than that. you are setting the bar so low for joe biden that be careful. he is going to fly right over it. >> greg: you have to understand i love low bars. jesse, what do you think? do you think he's going to debate? >> jesse: you like bars, doesn't matter how high or low. you know what this reminds me of, the guy who always claims he

is a really hot girlfriend but for some reason you never really get to meet her. he's always showing you pictures of how good-looking she is but every time there's a party, others travel problems or she had to stay lead work or or something like that. this is joe. every time there's going to be a big -- oh, pandemic. have to stay in my basement. the gloves are going to come off. no, stay in the basement is working. oh, maybe i'll do an interview with the swallows. scheduling conflict. maybe joe is going to take some questions. sorry, got to run. going to debate president trump. actually trump cheats. i don't think that's going to happen. seems like the joe biden candidacy may be this big mirage because i don't know about you. we live in a deep blue state. i go to the weekends. i go to jersey, and other deep blue state.

i haven't seen one joe flaig, t-shirt, bumper sticker. you go on social media, there's no popular joe biden account. even the media is not pro-biden. they are just anti-trump. so biden must be comatose if they are floating this trial balloon. or the expectations are so low that he has to have like something short of a medical episode for them to claim he's doing well. he is rusty. the last time he debated a republican was eight years ago. he debated paul ryan once. so what i really think it is, they know joe doesn't have a quick enough with two win those memorable exchanges that make these modern-day televised presidential debates. the people closest to joe just do not have the confidence in him. >> greg: i think you defined it. the joe biden campaign is the

canadian girlfriend candidacy. the guy who always has a canadian girlfriend. you never see her because she's always in canada somewhere. hey, dagen, i want to play you some of bill stepian. rule with teeth, if you will. >> i want to see president trump on the debate stage against joe biden. you are noting, we are seeing the liberal left, the liberal media, trying to create trapdoors for joe biden to escape his commitment and his obligation to debate donald trump on a debate stage in front of the american people. we want more debates. >> greg: first of all, i congratulate the trump campaign on hiring teenagers. i swear that kid can't be more than 14. dagen, what are your thoughts? i believe there is a strategy that they are going to only do one debate. they don't want to do more than one. what do you think? >> dagen: at least one debate because joe biden's at that place of his life where most

families would start having those conversations about taking his car keys away from him. go out and look and see if the rearview mirrors are missing off his car. joe biden has to prove to the american people he can get up on the wheel so to speak. ed rollins, to bill stepian's point, has always said joe biden has a glass jaw and he needs to be able to launch and questions about the dealings of his son, hunter biden in ukraine and in china which is the greatest threat to not only the united states but the world at this point. so far, biden's best come back on that note has been look, here's the deal, when faced with that. he's got a long way to go and he better prep up. >> greg: yep. all right. president trump set to hold a news conference at any minute. hooray. democrats and the media calling

president trump a dictator and worse. that's next on "the five." looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. they're going to be paying for this for a long time. they will, but with accident forgiveness allstate won't raise your rates just because of an accident, even if it's your fault. cut! sonny. was that good? line! the desert never lies. isn't that what i said? no you were talking about allstate and insurance.

i just... when i... let's try again. everybody back to one. accident forgiveness from allstate. click or call for a quote today. i wanted my hepatitis c gone. accident forgiveness i put off treating mine. epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. whatever your type, epclusa could be your kind of cure. i just found out about mine. i knew for years. epclusa has a 98% overall cure rate. i had no symptoms of hepatitis c mine caused liver damage. epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up, and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b, other liver or kidney problems, hiv, or other medical conditions... ...and all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious

slowing of your heart rate. common side effects include headache and tiredness. ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure.

♪

>> jesse: president trump coming under fire for his comments about mail-in voting and the date of the election. democrats and the media going absolutely ballistic and comparing the president to one of history's worst dictators. listen. >> this man is taken on strong-arm tactics and i feel very strongly that he is mussolini. i don't give plans to leave the white house. he doesn't plan to have fair unfettered elections. i believe he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold on to the office. >> there is going to be a split screen on january 20, 2021. if joe biden is going to be the 46th president of the united states, you'll have him being inaugurated and watching police and armed forces trained full donald trump out of the white house.

>> jesse: dagen, this is what's going on, they are preparing the population for two scenarios. one they are expecting joe biden to lose so they are just trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy of a trump second term or they are preparing the country for a contested election where both parties go to court and the accounting never stops and any attempt by the president to enforce rules or deadlines means he's really just trying to stay in power at all costs. >> dagen: this also proves that the democrats have no new material. they will keep belching up this village even though this whole dictator messaging has not turned out to be true. the idea that president trump isn't going to leave the white house if he lost, they stole that material from belmar who has been talking about that for the last couple years. pony up some money for these comedians out of work and can't do stand up and pay for some new

material. one thing president trump is doing, really quickly, it's so smart, he is targeting china. he's going after tiktok, it's going to get banned in the u.s. of microsoft doesn't buy it in 45 days. he is shutting down the chinese consulate in houston. there was the indictment of the two individuals working for the chinese government trying to steal your secrets. this is bipartisanship. people don't trust china. more than three quarters of americans according to pew research, don't trust china and blame china for the virus. this is supersmart because it brings both sides together. >> jesse: gutfeld, how 2020 wouldn't be if we had a contested election that went on for a month afterwards? >> greg: it's almost something that we deserve just for the hill of it. these people are crazy. number one they forget republicans are polite and courteous. we are not the party that burns

the flag or defense militants or says violence is protest. republicans, if they lose, it's not like they're going to surround the white house. they are going to regroup and they're going to make, they might order firearms. you're not crazy jesse watters rioting in his khakis. you can't riot in khakis and flip-flops. we understand you don't have to worry about republicans. politics is not their life. trump supporters are the people that were burning minneapolis or atlanta or santa monica or new york city or portland or seattle. so we are good. we are good. i would worry and maybe police your own side since you don't trust the police we have. >> jesse: never riot in flip-flops. i think that goes without saying. dana perino, they had a democrat primary here in new york, june 23rd, they still don't know who won.

all mailing. >> dana: right, there was a report to "the new york times" about the immense frustration and there are places where mail-in voting works well after several years of working out the kinks. i think utah would be a good example. a state that's going to just try to do mail-in voting all at once in the middle of this very contested election. i can understand why people would be worried about. i think some of the concerns, if you're going to prepare something on election night, i wouldn't worry about who's going to win as much as thinking about conditioning yourself to know that you might not know that night. in fact you probably won't know. in 2018 and the midterm, it took another seven days to figure out where the actual congressional election count was going to be. start condition yourself to know that you're not going to stay up until 2:00 a.m. and be like okay, good or bad. maybe you cried.

maybe you're so happy. depending on who wins. it is very much not going to happen this year. very, very unlikely that you'll have a result that night. >> jesse: yeah. that's going to really stink. all right, "washington post." >> dana: greg has a question or point. >> jesse: please, in the back. >> greg: the reason why dana said that is because she doesn't want to sit in the chair for seven days because she knows she's going to be doing all the political coverage back in the studio and they are going to keep her there 24/7 and she's going to be sitting there with karl rove and they will be eating plain nuts and wilted lettuce. >> dana: it will be like impeachment when i felt like my rear and was growing with every hour that i sat there for all those days. >> jesse: to be a hard news anchor. [laughter]

marie, "the washington post" right here says mail-in ballots three times more likely to be rejected. that doesn't sound very good to you, does it? >> marie: first of all, greg, republican supporters of donald trump showed up at the michigan state house with semiautomatic weapons, so spare me this idea of this only political violence on the left. >> greg: nonviolent. nonviolent. >> marie: they had huge long guns. >> greg: peaceful. >> marie: nothing about that was peaceful. >> greg: nobody got hurt. >> marie: this is going to be very difficult, jesse. the reason we need congress and state legislatures right now to pass funding to get mail-in ballots and voting right is because it's a very hard thing to do and president trump weirdly might actually backfire on himself by trying to convince his supporters that mail-in ballots aren't legitimate. what if a bunch of his supporters don't vote because of it? seems like a strange logic.

if it's good enough for the president, it should be good enough for his supporters. that's why congress right now needs to spend some money to make sure we can do this safely and i totally agree with dana. we will not know on election night. we certainly won't know about the senate, bunch of house races. we won't all that for a little while i don't think. >> jesse: so you think congress needs to do something really quickly this really hard? not a great track record. coming up, america's cities see another bloody weekend as murderers and shootings spike. ta-da! did you know liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? given my unique lifestyle, that'd be perfect! let me grab a pen and some paper. know what? i'm gonna switch now. just need my desk... my chair... and my phone.

only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

here's your iced coffee! ♪ america runs on dunkin'

♪ >> dagen: here are some of the stats liberals were calling to defund the police do not want you to see. both chicago and portland

suffering bloody july's. murderers biking in the windy city by 140%. portland cites deadliest month in 30 years. new york city passing last year's shooting numbers with four months left to go in 2020. "the wall street journal" finds that 36 of the 50 biggest cities have seen double digit increases in homicides. other types of violent crime are down. greg. >> greg: yes. >> dagen: go. >> greg: i thought you had a question. you have chicago, murders up 140% radio portland, the deadliest year in 30 years. shootings in new york. more now than in the entire year prior. as cnn likes to put it, the summer of love. it really is about the media playing all of it down. i believe and i think it's fair to say the combination of violent protests and anarchy combined with the demonization, marginalization of law enforcement has killed more

people than a nation of corrupt cops ever could in overtime. so our leaders are -- have allowed the mob to dictate the future and the future is here for those who survive. if we don't get a handle on it, cities will die. for these reasons. you can't raise a family in a hail of bullets, so you're going to leave. you can't run a business if the insurance companies no longer cover riot damage. he can be wondering about your spouse driving home from work if a crowd might surround her and he might panic or she might panic. that person might've defended themselves or driven off in a panic. these are issues i think about every single day living in the city. i'm watching my friends leave, everyone knows people who've left the city already. >> dagen: i know somebody who got attacked on the way to work here within the last ten days. you're just trying to avoid getting hit my head when you come to work at three in the

morning. marie, do you think with this downward spiral happening, more cities will ask for federal help during operation legend that has expanded to cleveland, detroit, milwaukee last week. >> marie: dagen, what's interesting in the data is murders are up in many of the cities but overall the top 25 largest cities overall crime is actually down over 5% this year including violent crime. i've been reading a lot today in preparation for this segment about this because experts on this are looking at the reasons why that might be the case. there've only been four other year since 1960 were violent crimes went down and murders went up. basically experts don't know how to account for it right now. it is such a weird, bizarre year in so many ways. some are look at inc. increased domestic violence for example because people are at home more. i think the jury is out why this is happening but i can guarantee you, to speak to your question,

democratic mayors are not going to ask for portland style tactics in their cities. >> dagen: i didn't say portland. portland was a federal courthouse being attacked. that's the power of the federal government to protect that federal property. i am talking about the investigative role of people with the atf and other federal agencies, dana, like in chicago where they come to investigate and they can charge murders that the federal level potentially which carries a longer sentence. >> dana: cities across america seeing this increase in homicides, not going to ask for actual help in the way that you're talking about, dagen. but you can guarantee they're going to ask for money. money for what? many of these cities are passing resolutions or even laws to defund their police. to slice down there police department.

why should federal ta taxpayersy into that? i am not for that. i'm going to draw a bright line and say no, i am not for that. what greg is talking about is very real. if you end up having homicides go up and people are realizing that they can work from home and school's art opening so they think maybe we can go to a place where schools will open or maybe i have to try to learn to homeschool, all of these things can happen very quickly. i believe one of the reasons, i don't think it's that hard to figure out. statisticians might not be able to figure out but may be other crimes are down because people haven't been able to go out and about but murders are up because gang violence is up, drug violence is up. i have been three places in four months. i'm not in the city. i feel for the people in the city right now. we love the city. it's a great city. but you can destroy a city like

that. >> dagen: and we are watching it happen in new york. jesse, to dana's point, gang related crime is usually a drug crime. 80% of it roughly. guess what, federal crime, that's where the feds can help out. you have a racketeering enterprise, organization, the feds can come in and actually make charges. it worked in new york city under rudy giuliani busting up drug dens in hell's kitchen. why not now? because cities are run by democrats. >> jesse: the diversions in homicides and other crimes is very easy to explain, marie. you don't burglarize a home if you know someone is locked down in it. a lot of people aren't being raped because bars aren't open. homicides and shootings are because police are there and they shut down these violent

task forces. the only silver lining, i think there's going to be a big baby boom in this country right about now. if you keep people in homes for six months with your spouse and just alcohol, you're going to have babies there when you flee cities because of violence and moved to the suburbs, cheaper and easier to have a baby and raise them in the suburbs. we finally might be able to pay for the retiring baby boomers. >> dana: are you trying to tell us something, jesse? >> dagen: jesse, are you telling us something? >> jesse: i'm pregnant. [laughter] >> dagen: i thought you were looking like you are retaining water. >> greg: you could be pregnant in 2020. >> dagen: i stand corrected. still waiting for a news conference with president trump but in the meantime, nancy pelosi takes aim at dr. deborah birx for the warehouse response to the coronavirus. that is straight ahead on "the five."

's

>> marie: you are looking live at the white house. president trump said toldconfer. let's watch. >> president trump: very interesting name.

last week the storm hit puerto rico and the virgin islands and i have issued emergency declarations to support our response in both of those areas. puerto rico and the virgin islands. this week the storm passed just east of florida, got a little bit lucky, didn't hit florida to hard. working with the governor, working with everybody but it did not have directly is a lot of people thought it might. it's currently off the coast of south carolina heading northward to north carolina. expected to make landfall sometime this evening as a category one hurricane. very serious. a lot of water. a lot of water coming from that storm. i have already issued emergency declarations for florida, south carolina, north carolina. fema's personnel and they are great, they are doing a job. they are already on the ground in all areas, every single area that we mentioned. over the next several days there is expected to be heavy wind and rain in the coastal areas of

north carolina, virginia, maryland, delaware, new jersey. we are working with each of those states and in particular as it relates to fema, the military, law enforcement, all the different groups that are involved. storm surge and inland flooding are possible and everyone needs to remain vigilant until it passes. i encourage everyone to follow the guidelines of the state and local authorities. we are working with them and i think the guidelines have been very accurate so far. stay safe. next, let me provide an update on the path forward for our country as we continue our water to defeat the china virus. we are beginning to see evidence of significant progress nationwide the number of positive cases has declined by nearly 6% from the week before and the positive test rate has also dropped from 8.7 to 8% over that same period of time.

an encouraging sign. very encouraging. that the virus is receding. in hot spots across the south and west, we've seen slow improvements from their recent weekly peaks. arizona has case counts have dropped 37%. it's a tremendous drop. the governor, the state has done a fantastic job. texas down 18.7%. i was there a couple of days a ago. florida, 21.2% drop. it's a tremendous job that they are all doing. as we begin to contain the virus in these states, we must focus on new flareups in the states with rising case numbers, georgia, mississippi, tennessee, oklahoma, missouri. i think you'll find they are soon going to be very much under control. meanwhile, 18 states continue to have very low case numbers and low test positivity rates. under 5%. alaska, connecticut, delaware,

illinois, maine, maryland, massachusetts, michigan, montana, new hampshire, new jersey, new york north dakota oregon rhode island vermont, west virginia and wyoming. under 5. even in the states however where the virus is under control and at a very low number, americans should continue to be vigilant. be careful. in order to prevent new hot spots from opening up or any new hot spots from opening up in those states. tto the end, i urge all americas to continue to socially distance, wash your hands, wear a mask when you cannot avoid crowded places. and to protect the elderly, very, very important. protect the elderly. it's much different. young children have very strong immune systems. we learned how strong they are. protect the elderly. the average age of those who have succumbed to the virus is 78 years old. that's the average age.

it's important for all americans to recognize that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path toward producing the result that you want or certainly not a viable path forward and would ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent. as we are seeing in foreign countries around the world where cases are once again surging, you have many places where we thought they were under control and doing a great job and they are doing a great job but this is a very tough, invisible ene enemy. lockdown's do not prevent infection in the future. they just don't. it comes back many times it comes back. the purpose of a lockdown is to buy time to build capacity, especially as it respects to -- with respect to hospitals. learn more about the disease and develop effective treatments as we did in the united states. we are doing very well with vaccines and therapeutics. countries where there have been

very significant flareups over the last short period of time are spain, germany, france, australia, japan and also as you probably heard in hong kong they've had some very serious flareups. japan has gone yeah, a lot, sixfold, sixfold flare up. that's a lot. they will get it under control. our current phase, we must focus on protecting those at highest risk while allowing younger and healthier americans to resume work and school with careful precautions. ideally we want to open those schools. we want to open them. at the same time, we ar placingn emphasize on continuing to drive down the mortality rate with improved care, treatment, medical interventions building a bridge to the introduction of a vaccine. vaccines are coming along incredibly well. today i'd like to also provide an update on the actions of my

administration and the work that we have done. we are taking really taking an increased interest and we are seeing them buddies nobody can believe in terms of percentage increase. its telehealth. for american patients, the percentage increases being worked on right now but it's very, very significant, numbers he wouldn't even think possible. this has been a priority from the beginning of my administration when we launched an initiative to allow veterans to connect remotely with their va health care team, and it worked out really well. we have a 91% approval rating in the va. in terms of the job we're doing. it's the highest ever recorded. now telehealth is a critical part of our path forward in the va and it's becoming a critical path especially with our senior citizens. he don't have to go to the doctor's office. you don't have to go to hospitals. when the invisible enemy struck our shores, i took immediate action to eliminate regulatory

barriers to telehealth, making it easier for patients to consult with doctors from safety and convenience and really they have great safety and great convenience right from their homes. today i'm taking action to ensure telehealth is here to stay. moments ago in the oval office i signed an executive order to make many of our regulatory reforms permanent. we have done some regulatory reforms and had a tremendous impact on what were doing. on medicine and medical and what were doing. it can do things that you wouldn't believe. that even a year ago, two years ago would not have been doable. we are enshrining their right of american patients to meet with their medical providers in a way that's best for them and very, very convenient and very talented people on the other side of the line have to tell you. the order builds upon the series of actions we've all taken to make telehealth available to all.

we ensured that medicare covers telehealth business at no additional cost. copayments can be waived for telehealth services. we are working very hard also on prescription drug prices and i will tell you that the favored nations because i've signed into existence nobody thought anybody would ever do that has a massive impact on prescription drug prices. in addition to the three other elements of reduction of drugs, particular prescription drugs. the favored nations clause is massive. for instance, if germany buys a pill for $0.10 a pill is an example, just as an example. and the united states pays $2 for the same pill, we get the same privilege, the same right as they do. we never had that before. we paid all of the expenses, all the research and development.

so the numbers are astronomical and as you probably noticed, ads taken against me by big pharma. big ads, massive. they are calling and they want to know if they can make a deal and i say to people the only reason these ads are being taken is because prices are coming down for you. they understand that. i think our people understand that. in particular when you look at the matching, you can call it matching or you can call it favored nations. call it whatever you like. it's a tremendous -- it's going to have a tremendous and i'm talking about 50, 60, 70%. it doesn't mean that it goes to $0.10 as an example but there is comes up and ours goes down and you have many, many countries aware the numbers are so low, i mean so low and by that i need much lower than the united states. another thing i'm doing is if a certain country like canada,

canada buys for very much less than the united states has bought. how they allowed it to happen, representatives of our country standing at these podiums are in the oval office, how they allow this to happen is just to be incredible. we have been working on this for a long time. i've been talking about it with kayleigh for a long time, right? so now a governor like ron desantis of florida is doing a great job. our great governor of ohio, our great governor of any state can call up and buy the drugs directly from canada and sometimes 50% less. we will be buying from canada. with the drug companies are going to do, maybe they will raise them. maybe they will lower them or maybe they will just give up and sell them to us directly must mh cheaper. also the rebate. we have people that are very wealthy, nobody's ever heard of them and nobody knows who they are and i guess in some cases they can be pharmacies and in some cases there are individuals and were doing a rebate the rebate goes to the people that

lowers the price of drugs. so we have a series or four things that we signed and you will see over a period of a fairly short period, drug prices are going to be tumbling down at numbers nobody would've never believed possible. we have in 51 years the only time prices came down was during this administration. it was last year. 51 years it went up. but that was just small decline. this is a massive decline. it's a decline nobody could believe. i was called by senators. i was called by congresspeople, please don't do this. big pharma doesn't mean anything to me other than we want them to do a great job. we want them to get their vaccines. we want them to do what has to be done so think you're going to see drug price reductions over the next four or five or six months, probably take a little while to kick in. they will be a numbers he wouldn't believe but in the meantime they called on friday

afternoon and they want to meet and see if they can do something. they don't like favored nations clause is. i understand that. we have vastly expanded coverage allowing medicare to cover more than 135 new services through telehealth by the way. including physical therapy, emergency department visits, home visits, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment which is a very big priority. we brought the substance abuse at least prior to the china plague, whatever you want to call it, we brought it down very substantially. pediatric critical care and much more. thanks to our actions and estimated $2 billion of additional funding will support medicare patients receiving telehealth services. a very big priority on telehealth. this part of the cares act, we secured $200 million to help health care providers and hospitals expand their telehealth, and they are all doing it.

they are doing and gladly. prior to the epidemic, or the pandemic, whatever you want to say and how you want to refer to it, but prior to the pandemic, telehealth was fine but it wasn't anything raging. i guess one of the only good things that we've gotten out of this whole horrible situation is telehealth has been incredible. the increases are many hundreds of times greater that it was before. do you have a number? it's like 2000% or something like that. it's an incredible increase. you'll get the number. it's, i think they have it now finally. and it's really an incredible thing. thank you. we work with the leaders of major health insurance companies to ensure coverage for the telehealth visits related to coronavirus. we cut red tape to allow many services to be conducted by phone rather than video which is much simpler, providing a much

easier option for many seniors in particular. 35% of the medicare beneficiaries who receive telehealth services are over 3.6 million seniors did so over the phone. you're talking about 3.6 million seniors. that is something. 10.1 million medicare beneficiaries have access to care through telehealth since the beginning of the pandemic. you're talking 10.1 million people. in april over 43% of all medicare primary care visits were done via telehealth and compared to less than .1% in february, those are part of the numbers that i think i'll have to get them to this part you don't have to. you'll get the other section. thank you. so think about, compared to less than .1%, .1%, it's an incredible number.

over 43% of all medicare and primary care visits were done via telehealth. you went from .1% to 43%. that's an incredible, it's an incredible number. the executive order i signed today will also expand health care access in rural america. we take care of rural america. it directs agencies to deploy strategic investments in our rural communities, infrastructure, and we are working very hard with all of the people in government that are involved with the communications infrastructure so that the telehealth gets very quick and easy access. additionally revenue for rural providers, vary significantly from month-to-month making it difficult for many to stay in business. many, many are having a very difficult time. to help fix this problem my order will create a voluntary medicare payment system that

will give rural hospitals flexibility, really great flux ability, and a more consistent income stream to better serve their patients. furthermore, i am directing the department of agriculture, department of health and human services. we were with the heads of each one. in the oval office just before i came up to the podium to form the task force that will break down barriers to expanding rural health care. this order continues my administration's focus on rural health care. we allocated nearly $165 million to the cares act to support nearly 1,800 small rural hospitals. who have done an incredible job. as well as $11.5 million to expand technical assistance for rural and underserved areas. we allocated another $10 billion to 2,000 rural hospitals and more than 2,400 rural health

clinics. we waived burdensome licensing certification and registration requirements which took tremendous amounts of time, and these are people that have great reputations and great track records per practitioners that serve on the front lines in rural areas, allowing more medical personnel to serve their wonderful patients. we are also in terms of ppe ensuring that the state and local areas have supplies they need. we have been supplying hospitals in cities and states, governors helping governors at a number that nobody's ever heard of before. 15,440 nursing homes have received a second shipment of personal protective equipment. they are very much stocked up. they are in great shape. they'll have the ventilators, all the ventilators they need. they are more than they need. their equipment, medical equipment is in very, very good

shape. my administration has worked with the private sector to deliver over 100,000,095 respirators, 85 million gloves, and nearly 250 million face coverings nationwide. we continue to make the extraordinary progress we've been talking about to get our vaccines and treatments under operation warp speed which is very exciting. most exciting. last week we had distributed rimmed is severe, proving to be extremely powerful and good, remdesivir. 500 cases for florida, 500 for texas, 300 for california, 200 from ohio. 150 for arizona and georgia and those numbers will be going up rapidly as we move along. hospitals reporting an adequate supply of steroids such as

dexamethasone used successfully in late stage illness. very good. we are also very encouraged about the prospects for plasma therapies and that we are working on and that's a brilliant art. it's really an art. we launched a national plasma drive last week. i was at the red cross building, with the american red cross in 13 other health care organizations. i urge everyone who has recovered from the virus to go to coronavirus.gov. coronavirus.gov. donate plasma today. would really appreciate it. this really makes people better. what we need is we need that beautiful ingredient that you that got better seem to have in your veins. you have to go to coronavirus.gov and donate plasma today. tremendous, we really appreciate it if you do it because we are low.

we are low. we can help a lot more people. it would be a terrific thing. it will take an hour, would be a little bit more than an hour. everybody will be very appreciative. it makes people better. i do know, you had something very special. you had something that knocked it out. so we want to be able to use it, so whatever you can do. coronavirus.gov. as a result of improvements we've made in treatment for americans over the age of 18, the mortality rate has declined 85% from its april peak. 85% decline. on vaccines last week we announced a 2.1 billion partnership with sanofi and gsk to make 100 million doses. the six vaccine candidate we are proactively supporting. we are supporting numerous companies doing very well,

having wonderful results and in the final stages of testing. there are two vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials in america with a third vaccine likely to begin phase three almost immediately. and we have additional clinical trial scheduled the next few weeks for a couple of the other companies. these are companies that are not only well known. there will respected. balancing speed and safety and we are on pace to have a vaccine available this year. maybe far in advance of the end of the year and we are mass-producing the most promising candidates in advance of that we are ready immediately upon approval. we have our military lined up. it's logistics. it's all about logistics. they deliver a lot of things, including soldiers. but now they will be doing vaccine. our general is all ready to go and he's very excited and once we have the vaccine approved,

fully approved, he will start the process. they will start the process. they will get it out very quickly all over the country and may be beyond if it works as we think it probably well. by on listening america's technical and scientific brittleness, we will in the pandemic and hopefully quickly. the therapeutics are exciting when you can go into hospital. whether it is through a shot or a transfusion, take care of somebody and they get better. that's something to me. very important. we are doing really well on therapeutics and really well on vaccines. so thank you all very much for being here. we will take a couple >> need to ask a couple of questions. first of all, have you been briefed on the incident on the coast of california where someone died in a training accident? >> president trump: they wlbe be

while. we have it scheduled. it's terrible, and we will be in contact with the families. >> there's a city prosecutor opening a criminal investigation into the trump organization come if you have any response to that? >> president trump: this is just a continuation of the witch hunt. it's democrat stuff. they failed with mueller and with everything, they failed in every stage mother's has been going on for three and a half, four years, even before i got in, this was starting with the mueller deal, started a little bit after, but it started with some of the people that you know very well the names, peter strzok and lisa page and all the different people, this is a continuation of the worst witch hunt in american history. and there's nothing that i know even about it. i had seen that today just a little