Transcript: Donald Trump Meets with Republican Members of Congress

Kevin McCarthy: (00:00)
Say one thing, as you and the first lady were out there honoring what transpired 75 years ago, that we had to end the tyranny of what Hitler was doing throughout Europe. We now battle something that is like a war, that this is a virus that came from a distant land that we did not invite. But just as we had to transform our country then and unite, that leadership you’re providing is doing just that. As you talk about ventilators, gearing up, testing, more than 1.7 million in one week. The ingenuity of this country will solve this problem and we will not just solve and get a vaccine for us, but for the rest of the world. I do want to thank you, and coming from California, I know I’m have a blue state. I know I have a governor, but the way you’ve worked together, watching you send those Navy ships to New York and to California, build those hospitals in a time of need, I do want to thank you on behalf of everyone in California for the work you’ve done.

Donald Trump: (00:58)
Thank you very much. Great state. Thank you very much. Elise. I think they’ll turn it on.

Elise Stefanik: (01:02)
Thank you Mr. President for all of the support for New York state. This has been a true partnership and the administration has stepped up, whether it’s ventilators or building the Javits center, which was tremendously important. My district in upstate New York, people are eager to get back to work safely. Our tourist businesses, our hotels have been devastated. So as we talk about this transition, making sure that we allow our small businesses to get back to work safely is so incredibly important. Also, our farmers, thank you to secretary Purdue for stepping up. We have dairy farmers in our district who are going through a crisis, but we know that you support the farmers and we’re appreciative of all of your work for New York. And I know you’ve worked effectively with Democrats and Republicans in New York state, so thank you.

Thank you very much. For the farmers, we gave $12 billion two years, ago from China, through tariffs because they were targeting our farmers and then we gave 16 billion and this year we’re giving 19 billion to the farmers. That’s more money than they’ve ever even thought about. And it’s keeping them in a position where, really, a position of strength, but they deserve it, what they’ve gone through for 18, 19 years. This isn’t a new phenomenon. This is for years they’ve been ripped off. So we’re taking care of our farmers. Thank you very much, Elise.

Elise Stefanik: (02:17)
Thank you.

Dan, please.

Dan Crenshaw: (02:18)
Oh, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for having us here and thank you for working every single day. Speaker Pelosi would have America believe that we can only show up to Congress to vote every once every three weeks. Of course that’s not true. We could be working every single day just like this administration is. And I appreciate what you’ve done. Appreciate working with us to protect our energy industry. America is in real dire straits, with oil prices the way they are, we’re deeply worried about that in Texas and your administration has been excellent to work with on that front. We understand how important energy independence is to our nation. Texas is reopening and I think it can be a model for the rest of the country as we step out of a retreat and move to actually confront this virus head on and get people back to work.

It’s interesting, Dan, because oil prices are now going up and gasoline prices are going down. That’s like the best combination I’ve ever heard. So our millions of people in the energy business I think is going to be, that’s moving up, but you look at those gasoline prices and they’re really coming down. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a combination like that. It’s going to be very good. A lot of good things happening in energy.

Jared, you should say something because you headed up our whole ventilator problem that this country had. The cupboard was bare when we took it over. People don’t realize it. They don’t want to say it, but the cupboard was bare. We had nothing. And I could say that for the military, too. Dan would know that almost better than anybody and the folks that are so much and so well versed on military, but our military cupboard was bare also. We had obsolete equipment. We had old equipment. We’ve never been in a position like this. We have the best equipment in the world, all made in the United States.

But Jared, why don’t you give them a little talk on what we did with the ventilators and how that became such an incredible story and we’re doing the same thing with testing and we’re pretty close to a point where we’re equally as good. Go ahead.

Jared Kushner: (04:15)
Yes, sir. On ventilators now, the good news is that every day the balance that we have in the stockpile, that the country has, continues to grow. Initially it was very scary in that we had a lot of States requesting numbers that could not be supplied. And a lot of you were very helpful at getting the local hospitals in your districts to give the actual data to the federal government, because the president wanted to make sure that anybody in this country who needed a ventilator, would get a ventilator. He saw what was happening in Italy where people were dying in hospitals and not able to get the care they needed, and the president said, “I don’t want that to happen in America. Deploy every resource that we have, get all the intel we have and let’s do our best to try to make it work.” And we were able to make it work, thanks to your leadership.

And then what we were also able to do is use the Defense Production Act, at the president’s urging, and we were able to contract 11 different ventilator companies. Last year America made about 30,000 ventilators. This year we’ll make about 150,000 in a four month period. And so we’re in a place right now where we’re doing well. A lot of our allies, the countries that are friendly with America, are starting to get ventilators from us and we have more than enough to take care of all the American citizens. So it’s been a great success story.

And on testing, the numbers continue to grow. We have all the supplies that we need to do it. We’ve now educated all the governors. We have over 5,000 testing machines in the city. We’ve had the commercial sector, through the public private partnerships that the president had us lead, those have now identified over 5,000 machines. We’ve done DPA on swabs. So we’re making a ton of swabs. We have reagents. We have transport media. We’ve been working with all the governors to help them with the National Guard on how to better collect samples. And so we’re seeing those numbers starting to really rise. And when you look at the number that America’s done relative to any other country, we’re two to three times the next number. So on an absolute basis, the job that you’ve led on that has been absolutely tremendous. And that’s giving the tools to America to start opening up these counties and allowing Americans to get back to work.

Thank you, Jared. You’ve done a great job. Someday people are going to appreciate us. They say, “Oh, he’s a relation.” Well, he’s a relation. If he wasn’t a good relation, I’d get him out of here so fast. Sometimes we have a problem, Louie. I say, get Jared on it. Great job, Jared.

Thank you.

Smart guy. So here’s another smart guy. So Devin, I think I thought about Devin more over the last couple of days than anybody else, because this guy would come in and he’d tell people what was going on and nobody believed it because it was not believable. It wasn’t true, that they would be doing a takeover of a presidency illegally and all of the illegality that was going on. And he was the first one, our superstar Jim and all of us will admit this guy was just, he wouldn’t stop Devin Nunes. He wouldn’t stop. He saw it before anybody. And you deserve a medal. You deserve the equivalent of Pulitzer prizes. They ought to take the Pulitzer prize away from all of these phony journalists that got a Pulitzer prize, and they were wrong. They were wrong on everything. And now they’ve been proven wrong.

I saw where Clapper, not a smart guy, how do you have not a smart person heading up intelligence? How does that work? You have a man who is not smart and he heads up intelligence and that’s possibly what happened. They ran away with it. But he knew what was going on and I’d watch him and television. He’d say the worst things, and now I know why Shifty Schiff, dishonest, corrupt politician. Why this guy didn’t want these papers exposed. Because all these people said under oath where they go to jail if they lie, they were totally, “No, I didn’t see any collusion with Russia. I saw nothing.” But he was on television before and after, saying there was massive collusion, like Putin was my best friend.

We had no calls to Russia. We had no calls from Russia for years. And all of a sudden we have this great friendship. And by the way, getting along with Russia is a great thing. Getting along with Putin and Russia is a great thing and stuff like this makes it impossible, and that leads to very bad things, very bad things. But I have to say that Devin was incredible. He understood it. He understood that it was a hoax before anybody else knew what was happening. And then I have to say, the people in this room took over and did a hell of a job with you, right? They had guts. They had guts like nobody’s ever seen before.

I want to thank you on behalf of our country and I’d like to have you say a few words.

Devin Nunes: (08:51)
Well thank you Mr. President. It’s unfortunate what you had to live for the last four years, from your campaign to your presidency and I appreciate your kind words and for all the folks in here who have worked so hard on getting to the bottom of the Russia hoax situation.

Let me just talk a little bit about the situation our country’s in now. I know you’re well aware, we’ve had six, seven weeks here of keeping people inside their homes. We’ve learned a lot about this virus. There’s still a lot more we need to learn. We need to learn what our friends over in Asia were doing at the time that this virus was taking off and the issues with the World Health Organization. And I believe with your new pick, with John Ratcliffe, member of the house intelligence committee, member from Texas, he’s going to do a great job getting to the bottom of this and I think leading the intelligence agencies through what have been some pretty dark times over the last few years.

And I think we should say Rick Grenell has done a great job, too. In fact, John called up, John Ratcliffe called up two days ago, he said, “You know, I’m really looking forward to this, but I don’t know if I can top the guy we have in there right now.” He’s going to do a phenomenal job, but Rick Grenell has been incredible. Before that we had an empty seat. We had an empty seat, but Rick Grenell, what he’s done, even Louie would admit that. I saw Rick yesterday walking in with thousands of pages of paper, into the justice department. We didn’t see that before, did we, Louie? Rick Grenell did a great job and John is going to be phenomenal. Please.

Mr. President, what we expect and the American people expect, is transparency from our law enforcement agencies. I think we’re well on our way to getting that.

I want to also thank you for bringing us back here to show the American people that we can be here and do our work. The Democrats are cowering at home right now and it makes no sense, because we’ve learned so much. I can understand for the first few weeks, but we’re learning. We have ventilators. We’re learning new ways how to treat this virus. As you know, you’ve been in my district, it’s the San Joaquin Valley of California, heavy agricultural area, my folks have been going to work. My folks have been going to work, because they have to feed this country along with a lot of the folks around here. And if we expect the guys that are cutting meat or working at a grocery store, working in these packing plants, if we expect them to go to work, we ought to go to work as members of Congress. I’ll just leave it at that.

I will say, I got you all of your permits necessary from the federal government for water. We throw millions of gallons a day, of water, into the Pacific ocean that comes from up North. And when I saw Devin, I say, “How come those fields are all barren?” Their beautiful land, all barren, brown, and then they’ll have a little patch like this. A little patch in a corner or a little patch on one side and it’s beautiful green. You could see it was so. And I said, “How come so much of it, 90%, 95% it looks like a desert and you have this.” He said, “We don’t have water.” I said, “You mean you have a drought?” That’s a long time ago we met, right? Right at the beginning, before I got elected and I said, “You mean you have a drought?” He said, “No, we don’t have a drought. We send millions of gallons of water out to the ocean to protect a very…” Well, I never say anything’s unimportant. I think everything’s important to protect, go ahead. What’s the name?

The smelt, Delta smelt.

So you have a Delta smelt. That’s not doing well. It’s getting no water and it will do a lot better if it had water, but they send millions and millions of… is that seriously? Is that the only reason? That’s the reason they send it out there, for the Delta smelt?

Yeah. That and salmon, yes. The farmers are very thankful for recognizing the important work that you’ve done, not only in San Joaquin Valley, but all over the country. And I’ll just say that’s why, they’re out working and I think we should be working. I’m glad you brought us here.

With the water though, I said, “So what has to happen?” Well, you need approvals from Congress, from this, you need all sorts of approvals, but you need it from commerce, more importantly than anything. I got every approval for you and you got a lot of the state approvals done through Kevin and yourself and others. All you need now is the signature of the governor, and those millions of gallons of wasted water going into the Pacific, that’s like a drop in the bucket. Doesn’t mean anything to the Pacific. All of that water would come right down all the way into Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, I had a house in Los Angeles. I sold it. You know why I sold it? Because secret service says, “You can’t come here anymore.” I said, “I might as well sell it.” But I had a house and you couldn’t have water. You couldn’t water your grass. They said, “Oh, you’re not allowed to water your grass.” And then you look at this massive turn. They had a turn. It takes a day to turn it. It’s like a big faucet and they turn it and it veers all the water out into the Pacific. It’s crazy. So we’re all set, except you need Gavin’s signature. If you get Gavin’s signature, you’re going to have water from Los Angeles all the way up. And it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I thought it was a drought. I said, “You must have…” He said, “No, we have tremendous amounts of water, but we send it out to the Pacific Ocean.” And it was over the smelt. So if you can get his signature-

Well, I know during this time of crisis, we need to work with the governor and I thank you for working with our governor, who is obviously not a supporter of yours. But there is a serious issue there, that the governor needs to recognize that we have a water crisis in our state, that you’ve recognized and he needs to drop the lawsuits that he’s brought and work with us.

Well, we’ve gotten along very well, Gavin Newsom, we’ve gotten along very well with regard to COVID-19, as we call it. In that respect, he’s been fantastic and we’ve been fantastic. And he’s said very generous things. But on other things we disagree, like the water, like cars, because you can have a car for much less money that’s equally good environmentally but much safer, better, better car. California, it forces you to build a bad car that doesn’t work well. And there are a lot of reasons for not doing it that way. So we’ll end up… so on that we don’t agree. But we agree on the coronavirus and on that we got along very well. And we’ve done a great job for California and for everybody. And he was very honest about that assessment.

It’ll be great if you could get the water, but you’re all set, okay. You’re all set. I say that to Kevin, too. Get his signature and all those thousands of acres are going to be opened up and they’ll have plenty of water for Los Angeles, too. They won’t have to ration. They got to ration the water in California. It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen and yet they’re sending millions of gallons out.

So thank you very much. But thank you, originally, thank you very much for the job you’ve done. Appreciate it.

Thank you, sir.

Please.

Ted Budd: (16:17)
Ted Budd, North Carolina. Thank you for having me here. I also want to thank my colleagues from the house. There is no vote today. There’s nothing we’re voting on. Speaker Pelosi has not brought us in to do anything meaningful, but we’re here to lead by example and to say that we’re ready to work. So we need something meaningful to help those back home. In North Carolina, we’re very grateful for all the work that you’ve done here. Again, Secretary Mnuchin, want to thank you as well for all that you’ve done. The PPP and the work that you’ve done for Main Street has helped keep these businesses in tact, so that we can have this quick recovery. We’re ready for Q3. We’re ready to get going in North Carolina. We’re ready to rebuild.

Great job. Thank you.

Ted Budd: (16:58)
Thank you.

Guy Reschenthaler: (17:00)
Thank you, Mr. President. Guy Reschenthaler from Pennsylvania. I just want to thank you and the administration for holding China accountable. I think for way too long, no one’s held China accountable. And the fact that we’re looking into the World Health Organization and how they really work hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party to cover this virus up in the early days, is absolutely shameful. So thank you for bringing attention to that.

In Pennsylvania, we’re having a really hard time because the governor has had such draconian shut down measures. We’re now number one in unemployment claims, but we’re only number five in terms of population. Instead of protecting the most vulnerable in nursing homes, where you had 65% of the deaths if not more in Pennsylvania, he had a draconian measure, one-size- fits-all approach, that lacked any kind of nuance and it’s destroying our economy, while at the same time leaving the most vulnerable exposed to this virus. So thanks for calling out the governors that are going too far with this and calling for America and Congress to go back to work.

So what the Democrats are doing in Pennsylvania is a disgrace. Okay. It’s a disgrace. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Mark Green: (18:08)
Mr. President, Mark Green from Tennessee. Great to see you again.

Thanks Mark.

Mark Green: (18:13)
Thanks for your leadership. This COVID-19 thing has been unprecedented. It’s a challenge to both the world and the United States, our country. A challenge made worse by China in the delays in information to us, the deception. China lied and people died. And as an infantry officer, an ER physician, former business CEO, I know that when a leader is caught in an ambush, that leader has to make split second decisions with the information that they have. Mr. President, I’m proud of the decisions that you have made. Decisions like banning travel from China, which these guys all laughed at and criticized, but it saved American lives. Sir, you saved American lives with those decisions. And we in Tennessee, we thank you for that. We’re opened up for business. We’re going to the restaurants and business is running again. We’re ready to lead and we appreciate your phased plan. We’re implementing it in Tennessee. Thank you for your leadership, sir.

I really appreciate it. And your governor is doing a great job and you’re right there. We banned people from China coming in and they said, “Oh, but you did allow people.” Yeah, they were American citizens and they were allowed in under very, very strict rules and regulations and quarantines and everything else. But we banned people and a number of our leading doctors said that saved hundreds of thousands of lives. And that was in January. And I remember being in a room with, I think, 21 people and I was the only one that wanted to do that. Nobody else wanted to do it. They thought it was crazy. It had never been done before. Nothing like that had ever been done before and now you watch them, it’s the Democrats and the media say, “Oh, I should have done it sooner.” Nobody even thought about it.

And a month later you’d see Nancy Pelosi and other people talking about this disease is just nothing. It’s going to spread over. And she wanted to go and she was actually in, late in February, she was in Chinatown in San Francisco celebrating, because this disease is going to be nothing. So I understand that. I mean, she felt that, and I can understand it, but for them to say much earlier, I actually banned China from coming into our country. It’s such a political disgrace that they’re able to get away. It’s just like a Shifty Schiff making the statement today to try and save face, when we have him cold on the papers, on the documents, and in about 19 different ways. It’s so bad and so sad for our country. Thank you very much, Mark.

Mark Green: (21:04)
Mr. President, you put that ban in place before they even named the virus. You saved American’s lives. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Kelly Armstrong: (21:14)
Thank you Mr. President. Kelly Armstrong from North Dakota. We’re an Ag and energy state, so we’ve been uniquely hit on a lot of this stuff. But I’d like to say thank you for standing so tough with Saudi Arabia. That was a huge deal for our oil producers. Obviously, you’ve been great for agriculture, but thank you especially for your statement yesterday in support of cattle ranchers. Sometimes they get lost in the mix and they’ve been getting hit pretty hard right now. So we really appreciate that. And then just you get this economy up and going and we’ll do what we do best and that’s feed and fuel the world.

And that demand is coming back and you’re up to 25, $26 a barrel and a little bit more and you’re going to save your energy industry, really, because we’re number one. Russia and Saudi Arabia, I got them together and they came to a good conclusion for us and for them and for everybody. And once the demand goes up, it’s going to be great for the energy industry. So thank you very much.

Kelly Armstrong: (22:10)
Thank you, sir.

Louie.

Louie Gohmert: (22:13)
Thank you Mr. President. Echoing the thanks. If you had lost that election in 2016 we would never have been energy independent. And it’s been great for Texas. It’s been great for America. And I do want to advise our media friends, before they write stories about how we didn’t wear masks and we didn’t possibly socially distance adequately, that you saw to it that we had tests and that nobody in here has the coronavirus unless it’s somebody in the media. So the only reason we would wear mask is if we were trying to protect ourselves from you in the media, and we’re not scared of you. So that’s why we can be here like this. So thank you.

So that’s why we can be here like this. So thank you for an amazing job you’ve done and it is amazing to see the hypocrisy. You do a travel ban, like Mark said, it saved lives and they called you racist and then when they realized you did the right thing, they said you should have done it earlier. And perhaps they could have noticed the need if they had not been pursuing the hoax that was the impeachment. And I know the Speaker is appointed this new committee to investigate your handling of the coronavirus and I’ve suggested they ought to name that committee, the Committee of Oligarchs to unelect the President or COO for short. But that’s exactly what it is. And the money, Steve and Larry, thank you for your work. There are a lot of people that are working for companies today that would not be in my district, in East Texas and they wouldn’t be.

I’ve heard this week from some that say they’re getting threats that if they had any capital, they shouldn’t have taken the loan and they may be pursued for criminal when they could not have hired those people back if they had not taken the loan. So I hope that that’ll be backed off a little bit because it has put people to work that couldn’t otherwise. But I’m optimistic and I wouldn’t be if you weren’t president. So thank you for the work you’re doing-

Thank you Louie and you’ve been a great help. And if we didn’t win the election, we wouldn’t have found out all of the corrupt practices-

Never, no.

… taking place at the top of the F.B.I. with dirty cops and all of the things that we found out about other people in other agencies that are equally as important. All of this, we went on drain the swamp and that’s what we’re doing. But nobody ever told me the swamp was going to be this vicious or this deep. And we’re doing it.

Could I make a suggestion on the justice area? And I know that with the Democrats in charge, some of the most important reforms may not happen, but the F.B.I. is the only law enforcement entity I’m aware of that has not even come into the 20th century, not even asking them to come into the 21st. Everybody else does video tapes and audio tapes and the F.B.I. interviews witnesses and goes back and records their own notes of what they want to say a witness said and then it’s easily changed. And we need to bring them into the 20th century where they start at least doing some audio recordings so they can’t change them. So that’s one of the lessons we’ve seen from what’s happened in their effort to create a coop.

And not only do they not record, but they write their notes and then when the notes are bad for them, they go and change them months later. This is a corrupt deal that’s been going on. And we caught them cold, and now we have to see what happens. But Bill Barr has done a great job. He’s a strong guy and he’s done a great job and not easy. He’s fighting a lot of fights, but he really has been great and we appreciate it. But you’re right about that. I said, I’d like to hear a tape of what the interview was and they said, well no, it was just … and they write it out like scribble, it’s crazy. And then they change it and they changed signatures. They change everything.

Say we don’t have the old one.

It’s one of the most incredible things, isn’t it? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I appreciate it. [crosstalk 00:26:47] I said Dan most powerful man.

Dan: (26:52)
I just want to thank everybody in this room for the past three and a half years for supporting our president and the administration and everything you’ve done. This man goes 18, 20 hours a day, as many of you know, he’s the most transparent president in history. He’s the most accessible too, there’s nobody in this room that can’t call or get through to him. Mornings, evenings, mid-day. But we love you all and thank you so much on behalf of everybody here in the White House for everything that you’ve done supporting our president, means the world. Thank you.

And what a job he’s done too, right, Mark, he’s been amazing and he does it himself. I remember when I was running Crooked Hillary had 28 people, I had Dan. And Dan blew them away, it wasn’t even a contest. And we have now I guess six different sites, platforms, and we have numbers that these people don’t have. They don’t even come close to it. So when they write false stories, we can go around them. And it’s very important to be … who needs it, I wish we didn’t need it, but unfortunately we have to do that. We have to have that because we don’t get an honest press. Please, I’ll tell you Gaetz, you’ve been something. He’s out there, Devin, right? He’s out there fighting, go ahead Matt.

Matt Gaetz: (28:08)
Thank you, Mr. President. Your team is here, we’re ready to work and we are inspired by our president. I have observed your willingness to work with anyone. I saw the Democrat Governor of New Jersey categorize the administration’s response as extremely responsive. I’ve noted on our calls that our Democrat colleagues in the house like Tom Suozzi and Jimmy Panetta have made contributions reflected in the great work that Jared has done on testing and that Secretary Mnuchin has done and that the chief has done as well. But I have to say, Mr. President, I’m deeply concerned about what we’re seeing from the Democratic leadership. Because in the last several days they have been caught in a terrible lie. Not only was there no collusion, we now know that the leaders of the Democratic Party knew that there was no collusion at the beginning and willingly lied to the American people anyway. Now we see that they’re reverting to their old playbook, as we want to work together to provide provision to our people and take good ideas no matter where they come from.

Matt Gaetz: (29:11)
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer just want to set up new committees to investigate rather than working together. I know that even before being president, you talked about the importance of the president being a great cheerleader for our country and for our economy. I know and I know in the jobs report today we can see that even the people who have been furloughed or who are on unemployment now, they’re optimistic that this is the team that will bring America back. What advice would you give us to try to have our Democrat leadership behave more like the governors you’ve worked with and some of the rank and file colleagues who’ve made helpful suggestions rather than just reverting to their hatred and their lies to cover their tracks for their last set of lies?

I think they’ve been doing it so long and gotten away with it for so long, long prior to us and they had that eight years, the Obama eight years that have been absolutely terrible. If you look at the Justice Department and what’s taken place, you look at the F.B.I. and what’s taken place and frankly prior to that a lot of bad things went on. All we can do is keep winning and if we keep winning, eventually they’re going to come around one way or the other. May not be in that form, may not be them. Because I’m not sure that you can do that with them. A tremendous dishonesty from Schiff and from others and they know what’s going on. They know, these are not stupid people. They know it was a hoax. They know better than anybody in this room it was a hoax, they set it up. They’re not aggrieved.

I watched Schiff, Shifty Schiff, nine inches around the neck. And I watched this guy … uses the world’s smallest collar, right. But I watched him I guess this morning talking about, he acts so aggrieved, so aggrieved. He knows it was … he got caught and not only caught, if he weren’t in the halls of Congress, he’d be in jail because he made up phony stories and phony speeches and phony everything was phony. He’s a sick man. He’s really a sick man and he is a corrupt politician. So I wouldn’t count on somebody like him. But I think overall we have some really good support. I’ve had great support from Democrat governors. I would say almost all, almost all. And in some cases, oh look, Andrew Cuomo the other day said that I, we have done a phenomenal job. That’s a nice statement, phenomenal. That’s a good word. It’s true. But we’ve had great support and Gavin Newsom, the same thing. He said something the equivalent of that, so we can work with them. But I think this group is perhaps beyond repair. They’re sick, there’s something wrong with them. Mark, please.

Mark Meadows: (31:50)
Well, Mr. President, I know I speak for you, but I just want to thank all of you. We’re setting the example and coming back to Washington D.C. It’s time that we send a message to the American people that we’re open for business, we’re ready to get back and we’re ready to support a president who’s been willing to take the bold moves each and every day to make sure that America’s first. So thank you for allowing me to serve and thank all of you.

Well, before I introduce Jim, I have to say, so we had all of the great NCAA teams here just prior to COVID, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to come. But we had all of the teams and one of the teams was the top wrestling wrestlers in the country, all the champions, NCAA wrestlers. And I saw him and I immediately knew it was wrestling. I could see the little action going over those ears and the muscles were coming out of the shirts and I could see by the jawline. And I walked up with Jim Jordan and they didn’t give a damn about the president. They said, “That’s Jim Jordan.” You don’t know what a great wrestler, NCAA champion and a great wrestler. And they saw him, those wrestlers saw this guy and they said, “Sorry, President, I got to say hello to him first.” Right? So Jim Jordan and he is, he’s a champ, he’s a winner, he knows how to win.

Jim Jordan: (33:04)
Thank you, Mr. President. The exact same time that we learn what we did about General Flynn, the exact same time we learned that there was absolutely no basis for the entire Mueller, Russia investigation that the FBI did, that very time Nancy Pelosi sets up a select committee to come after you again. And so we just need to understand guys that they’re never going to stop. But in spite of that relentless attack we’ve seen from them, Mr. President, we appreciate your leadership. We appreciate your entire team’s leadership, getting things done for the American people. And I think as Dan said, I appreciate your work ethic. I know how hard you work for the American people. I mean, I know how hard Meadows … he used to return my calls all the time. Now I know he’s working 15 hours, 18 hours a day-

That’s true.

Jim Jordan: (33:50)
… and you’re working even more. So thank you for doing all that, the people in the fourth district of Ohio appreciate it. The people around the country appreciate it and we just need to keep it up and we’ll have the great American comeback happening real soon.

Great, and you’re right, Jim, I looked at this … I didn’t even want to think about it. I see she’s setting up an oversight committee. And I’m getting called by other countries saying what a great job we’re doing. Could we have some help, sir, with testing. Your tests, they’re better than our tests, they’re the best tests in the world. We have the best tests in the world, we have the most tests in the world. Could we get ventilators? Is there any way, our people are dying, could we get ventilators? Everything. And they set up an oversight committee about the job we’re doing. When she, a month later was in Chinatown dancing, as I said, it’s a disgrace. But what’s even more of a disgrace is take a look at the people in the committee. They’re the greatest Trump haters in history. Maxine Waters, every one of them is people that was screaming impeach before I even announced running.

Now, I kid when I say that because they’ll say that’s true, but pretty close, pretty close. If I say that, they’ll say that’s not true. They don’t understand sarcasm in the press, but I will say you look at some of the people in that committee, everyone is a total kill and it’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace that they could do a thing like that and here we go again, here we go again. But we beat them and we’ve been beating them for a long time and they can not accept it. They cannot accept it. That’s why it’s interesting, I could work with the governors and we’re doing it really well and they’re saying great things about me and the job we’re all doing. But you can’t work with these people. I think they’re stone-cold crazy. Anyway, thank you Jim, very much.

Jim Jordan: (35:34)
Thank you Mr. President.

Kevin, how about a little recap as to how you think we’re going to do in that next year coming up?

Kevin: (35:40)
Sure, thank you very much sir and thank you, I’m humbled that you invited me back to pitch in this crisis and honored to be here again with you. I think it’s fitting that the members of Congress, thank you for coming back, that you would be meeting and working to make the economy better precisely today, which was about the worst job support ever. And that was something that we’ve been telling people what’s going to happen because you took the step to save lives, to slow the economy down. But there was a silver lining in the report today, ladies and gentlemen, that was really interesting to us and the President and I talked about last night in the Oval that almost everybody who accounted for the increase in unemployment in the report today said they expect to go back to work within six months.

Kevin: (36:28)
And now if that happens, then what will have happened is something historic that we would have experienced the biggest shock in the history of the world, just about, short of perhaps world war and recovered quickly. And I think that if we did that, sir, it’s going to be because the economy was so strong in January that people have been able to withstand this. And because the policies that you all worked together to adopt, built a bridge to the other shore. Thank you, sir.

And at the same time we would have saved millions of lives because ultimately that’s what we did this for. But I heard that statement from you and some others yesterday that almost everybody expects to be back to work shortly. That’s very unusual. Usually when you have something like this, they never expect to get a job again, so that’s a great thing. Thank you, good point. Thank you very much, Kevin.

Lee Zeldin: (37:15)
Mr. President-

Thank you, Lee.

Lee Zeldin: (37:16)
House Republicans are here in Washington D.C. to work. We want to deliver for the American people and we’re honored to be here today and hopefully the Speaker calls us back into session at the beginning of next week. We’ll see. We should have been here this week, the Senate was here in Washington, D.C. but-

What is she doing? Where is she, what’s going on?

Lee Zeldin: (37:39)
I actually think that she’s just trying to consolidate more power in her own gavel. She likes the feeling of that gavel in her hand. She knows that the grip is being loosened. And come January of 2021 she’s going to have to hand it over to Kevin McCarthy. And in the meantime, she is trying to consolidate as much power as she can and when she brings her House Democrats to Washington and there’s a process where we’re able to participate in crafting legislation, she won’t be able to dictate as much of her obstructionist radical agenda that appeases an enraged liberal base that put that gavel in her hands in the first place.

Lee Zeldin: (38:21)
Many of us here in this room, we’re with you on the beaches of Normandy and we’re honored to be back here today to be with you on V.E. Day. And not just as a member of Congress but also as a army veteran, I want to thank you for all of your support for our military. And in so many ways our military was weakened to before you got into office. And we saw a troop strength reaching levels that were pre-World War II levels. It wasn’t just in troop strength, but it also was with our equipment. And whether it supported the military preparing our troops to win, understanding that you don’t send our troops into battle unless they’re sent to win. You send them to win or you don’t send them at all and you know that. And you’ve been following these principles of understanding our enemies don’t respect weakness, they only respect strength.

Lee Zeldin: (39:09)
And as someone who is still in the Army Reserves and knowing right now that we have men and women abroad, they can feel when they go to sleep at night and their parents can feel good when they go to sleep at night knowing that you have their back. And our greatest generation that fought for our freedoms and liberties 75 years ago, they fought for that flag and our Constitution and made this conversation today possible. I saw them when they were with you in Normandy, those veterans calling out to you from that backdrop like they were 18 or 19 years old again. They just wanted a moment to share with their president just to get a thumbs up back. They were little kids, even though they saved the world. And I want to thank you not just for setting up our military for success, but taking care of our veterans. Because when they come home, they should be treated with the love, dignity, respect they deserve on behalf of very grateful nation.

Lee Zeldin: (40:12)
As a New Yorker, I want to say thank you for what was a phenomenal effort to deliver for us during this coronavirus outbreak. Between Suffolk and Nassau County, we had well over, as of right now, over 70,000 positive cases of coronavirus. Between the Comfort, the Javits Center, field hospitals, Army medics, when New York state asked you for public testing, immediately approved. They asked for private lab testing, immediately approved. They asked for semi-automated testing, immediately approved. I remember getting on the phone with Mark Meadows, we needed ventilators. 4,000 ventilators show up within 48 hours. I remember getting on the phone late, it was 10:00, 11:00 at night on a Saturday with Jared and we’re talking about how the stock pile in Suffolk County was out of regular sized N95 masks. The next day, you’re here in the White House talking about how you’re sending hundreds of thousands of N95 masks and they arrive with the next 48 hours. And a quarter million surgical masks show up instantly.

Lee Zeldin: (41:15)
I get on the phone just a couple of weeks ago with the Secretary of Treasury about the municipal liquidity facility that was set up, to talk about how there’s a need out there for these … A county like mine, not quite two million. We have a population about one point four eight million. We didn’t qualify for the municipal liquidity facility. Secretary Mnuchin, the night of getting the last bill passed, he is on the phone and he’s working to take care of our issues. So what Jared has done, and Admiral Polowczyk and Avi Berkowitz and others who were involved in that effort on the PPE, I want to say thank you. The Boeing Dreamliner is bringing PPE in right now that Suffolk ordered and it’s just a huge help. And the last thing I would say is this, I say to the point about not just as a member of Congress, but also as a military veteran, thank you.

Lee Zeldin: (42:07)
I’ll also say as a Jewish veteran, what happened to me when I was with you on Normandy and many others who support you, and it happened again this morning when I put out a message about today being the 75th anniversary of V.E. Day. I got attacked as a Jew for supporting you and the things that they were saying about you was so highly offensive to me. And there’s never been a president ever who’s had the back of Jews in this country and around the world like you have. And whether it was moving the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and signing the Taylor Force Act into law and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, but most importantly, fighting antisemitism here at home.

Lee Zeldin: (42:55)
When I see them attacking me and attacking you, especially attacking you and your team when you are all in more than any other president, not just delivering on your own campaign promises, but doing what’s right and delivering on the promises of presidents in the past, I just want to say thank you. And the Speaker, we all should be in the same foxhole right now, with our rifles pointed in the same direction. And we’re all hearing the same foxhole view with our rifles pointing in the same direction but unfortunately, while you recognize that the enemy is coronavirus, the Speaker believes that the enemy is you. And I believe that’s really important for the Speaker to look around this room right now of people who serve in the House of Representatives who want to work today, are in Washington today, that she used to get her conference back here to fight for the American public as hard as we do. And I thank you for your leadership on all accounts and delivering for New York in what truly was a phenomenal way.

Thank you Lee, very much, appreciate it.

Warren Davidson: (43:56)
Thank you Mr. President, Warren Davidson from Ohio. Definitely an honor to be included on this task force and be here really to work with you to help this transition to greatness. You’ve had great messages, it’s resonated with the whole country, but definitely with the people of Ohio. We love you, look forward to you coming back. I think the example that you set when you talked about the governors leading the way, because the states really have had different experiences and different approaches to dealing with this virus, but also a legacy of dealing with problems in a different way. And you see the legacy costs in states like Illinois, where 58% of their budget goes to pensions and states like Ohio where we have a rainy day fund and we reformed our pensions and have been responsible with our spending.

That approach is important. It’s important in the way that Attorney General Barr has recognized in terms of defending civil liberties. Every single one of us wants to protect public health and we’re all anxious to grow our economy and get it back. But we all swore that same oath I swore in the Army to support and defend our Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. So we take that very seriously in the civil liberties that have been infringed upon, the sense of freedom and the sense of identity as Americans that’s under attack in this era. Having the Department of Justice say we are going to defend freedom and lead that example is a big deal. And as we confront all these ideas on how to deal with safety, it’s important to remember that even the Patriot Act expansion, it was just temporary. It was supposed to expire.

And a lot of those same sense of urgency that came in after 9/11, led to the expansion of FISA and the Patriot Act and the way it was abused against many people and very publicly against you was really just to keep us safe and just for now. But we still-

… was really just to keep us safe and just for now. But we still haven’t really been able to reform Pfizer. We still have a chance to do that. But the temptation is always, but just to keep us safe. And some of the ideas with privacy, just to keep us safe at the CDC; tracing and quarantining and tracking everybody, could be just as dangerous. So it’s a good safe guard against that. And then I think the last thing is we’re talking about VE day. The last time the planet had this much debt was after World War II, after the United States. So the fed has been tremendous in trying to provide stability in the face of governments, largely closing our economy. So we did owe it to people to try to provide the stability that we did. But most people realize that you can’t print an entire year of GDP.

So we do have to be cautious about unsettling the monetary system. It’s worked great for us since Bretton woods. We have been the world’s reserve currency. And we wouldn’t want to give that up by being foolish with the amount of printing we’re doing. Because it’s not being lent. There’s no lender, we’re not really borrowing it. We’re printing it. And that’s undermining the value of the full faith and credit of the United States. We have lots of countries doing that around the world, and the dollar still is the strong one. But we should be cautious to think that we can somehow do this in an unlimited way. So thanks for the things you’re doing and the leadership you’re doing. Leading by example and it’s an honor to be part of it. Thank you.

Thank you [inaudible 00:47:28]. Thank you very much.

Andy Biggs: (47:31)
Mr. President, Andy Biggs, Arizona. Thanks for letting me be here with you today. Thanks for coming to Arizona this week. Being in Phoenix at Honeywell factory, converted doing 10 million N95 mask on a regular basis, and there’s going to be 10 more out of their Rhode Island plant.

Andy Biggs: (47:51)
Thanks for being there. We had Sammie’s Restaurant from Tucson up, but we also had several Latina business owners there that are strong supporters. And why are they supporters? Because of the economy that you built and you put in place. And Arizona is ready to open up. They’re energetic, they want to open up. They have faith and confidence in you and your leadership. Because they know what happened before. You built a marvelous economy, lower taxes, reduced regulations that really did a great number for our economy and that’s fantastic.

Andy Biggs: (48:24)
And I’ll tell you, we are just as frustrated that speaker Pelosi won’t bring us back to do work that we need to be doing. We need to set the example for the American people that we’re ready to be here. If you can go to a Starbucks coffee, as Kevin said yesterday, you should be able to come to Congress. So just so you know, the House Freedom caucus, we had a meeting last night. We’ll be meeting every day next week here in Washington DC. We want speaker Pelosi to know, we’re ready to work. We come to work. We represent the people. Thanks for your leadership, Mr President. It’s an honor to be with you.

Thank you very much, Andy. Thank you.

Andy Barr: (49:02)
Mr. President, Andy Barr from central Kentucky. Thanks for your leadership and for inviting us here today. I want to share with you three quick stories from my district that illustrate how effective your administration has been in responding to this public health emergency. These stories have not been reported by the press. So I want to direct these stories to the press because they need to know how effective you all have been in responding to us, and the American people. First is Dr Mark Doherty, an epidemiologist at Baptist Lexington. Largest private hospital in my district, a nationally known infectious disease expert. He comes to me in March, early in the pandemic. And he says, “We can do a convalescent plasma therapy.” He was one of the first epidemiologists in the country to want to do this. He went to your FDA, sir, and within four hours received approval to do convalescent plasma therapy.

Andy Barr: (49:58)
Saved two lives on Sunday night. The approval was on Friday. Second, he comes to me and he says, “We can save personal protective equipment if we use telemedicine within the hospital. The problem is we need approval from the federal government to do that.” So we go to CMS to Seema Verma and we say, “We can do a Bluetooth stethoscope with an iPad and telemedicine, and FaceTime. We don’t have to send all of the healthcare workers into the negative pressure room. We can bring modern technology to the fight against COVID. We can protect healthcare workers and we can conserve critical personal protective equipment.” Within days, Seema Verma and her team at CMS responded favorably. That is a nationwide policy change that saves lives for healthcare workers, and conserves scarce personal protective equipment. And then the the next story is Steve Stone from Nicholasville, Kentucky works for Sagent Pharmaceuticals.

Andy Barr: (50:58)
He comes to us and he says, “There is a critical shortage of the sedative propofol, which is used for COVID patients on ventilators. In New York, by the way, there was a shipment of a month worth of propofol that was held up by the government of Italy. So we got on the phone with Admiral Polowczyk from on your team, on Saturday morning. On Tuesday, he had talked to the state department and had the Italian government release to New York lifesaving propofol for intubated COVID patients in New York city, a months supply. And that was your administration and Admiral Polowczyk responding instantly to that request.

Andy Barr: (51:38)
And then the third story is secretary Mnuchin and his team, and Mark Meadows. We had a small business owner who was not approved in the first round of PPP because he bought the business after February 15th. But this is a 35 year old business, a dozen employees, $60,000 a year jobs, a small business publication. We went to Mark Meadows, Secretary Mnuchin, his team, and within days they changed the guidelines, frequently asked questions, new guidelines. We saved 12 jobs in Lexington, Kentucky because of your decisive action. So Mr. President, thank you for the effective response to this pandemic in this crisis.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Andy.

Scott Perry: (52:26)
Good afternoon, Mr. President. Scott Perry from Pennsylvania. I want to first thank you for acknowledging those NCAA championship wrestlers from Penn State. Jim Jordan of course as you know, is a big fan of those Penn State wrestlers. Mr. President, thank you so much for your bold, visionary, decisive leadership. It has made a huge difference in Pennsylvania. In the district I represented and across the Keystone state. The PPP in particular save countless, countless jobs. It has been a lifeline for the small businesses across our state. And of course running it through the local banks, getting government out of it, letting the banks, our local community banks handle that, has been just… Because, that’s who people know. And have a relationship, and the bankers of course know them. That’s worked really well. But I will tell you in the transition to greatness, what I don’t think we did envision is the same bold vision and leadership that you’ve had and some of our state governors.

And right now, just last night, our governor announced that we in Pennsylvania, are going to stay locked down until June 4th. Mr. President, our businesses are dying. We shouldn’t have to make this choice. We’re Americans, and we can do two things at one time. You have proven you can do many things at one time, and be effective. We have about 65% of our deaths in Pennsylvania happening at elder care facilities, at assisted living facilities, not in hospitals. But at these elder care facilities. The PPE is going to the hospitals, the money, a lot’s going to hospitals because we shut them down. The governor’s made the choice. Instead of helping some of these elder care facilities, we have a website where people can snitch on their neighbor who’s going to work, or who is opening their business in contradiction to the order. That’s not bringing anybody together.

So a couple of things. Extending the PPP, the eight weeks, until after the governor opens the state because employers now don’t want to have to pay for employees who are not going to be able to come back to work. Right? Because the state has shut down. You didn’t do that. The governor has done that. Right?

Good idea.

So to transition to greatness, I think might include something like that. Right now we have counties that want to open up. The governor said, “No.” Counties want to open up. They’re not sure. They’re scared that if they open up, and again, violating so to speak, the governor’s order, that that will stop the flow of federal dollars for the programs that you already have. And so some assurance that they can do the right thing and get their people back to work as Americans would be very, very helpful.

I would say this as well, Mr. President, the unemployment benefits in the real world, we tried to do the right thing. You tried to do the right thing. Employers are thankful for the fact that they won’t be held accountable if their employee doesn’t come back to work. But when you have a governor that doesn’t want to enforce the policy, it’s not really helpful. Because the employer needs the employee to come back. They need them to come back. And so maybe take a look at that.

And finally in this transition to greatness, Mr. President, China, once we get through this, there must be an accountability. There must be an accountability. And we all want to get back. We’re here, we’re ready to be at work. Speaker Pelosi apparently is not, but if she is going to do phase four where she’s working on her own. She doesn’t involve our leadership, she doesn’t involve Kevin. She doesn’t involve anybody here. Mr president, the prescription to get us back to work and healthy as an economy, quite honestly is simple. And you already know it. You’ve already talked about it a million times. Let’s just get back to work. Let’s just get back to work. Thank you Mr. President.

Thank you very. Agreed.

Greg Murphy: (56:02)
Thank you MR. President. Greg Murphy from Eastern North Carolina. I appreciate your strength. I appreciate your persistence. I’m a surgeon and I appreciate decisiveness. It’s been nothing but a merciless last four years that Schumer, Pelosi, and her cabal have essentially tried to undo the 2016 election. I’ve only been in politics a relatively short period of time, but it’s obvious to me that there are people in this country who hate you, and hate this administration, more than they love this country. And they will see it torn down.

Greg Murphy: (56:33)
This crisis has highlighted this. We thought that this possibly could be a way of bringing our nation together, but unfortunately partisan politics has [inaudible 00:56:41] the day. This has been building a plane while we’ve been flying it. I think that’s a very good analogy, but the plane is built and it’s time to land. It’s time that we made decisions based upon fact, not fiction, not fear-mongering, not cartoons by the media, but truth. And it wouldn’t it be nice to get the truth? We believe enough in our American people that we believe in what they can think. So I would ask the same for you from North Carolina that you do from Pennsylvania to talk to our governor, to let us come back to work. Let us look at a regional approach in North Carolina. It makes sense. We look at the science, we can do this. We’re not inventing the wheel again. So I thank you for your strength. I thank you for your persistence and your leadership.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Mike Johnson: (57:24)
Mr. President. Mike Johnson. Thanks for having us today. We’ve been anxious to get back to the Hill. And we wish we could be in the house doing our regular work, and hopefully we’ll get back to that. I represent two important groups today. One is the resilient, hardworking people of Louisiana. We’ve had a tough run here. I mean the pandemic hit is pretty hard, and then of course we’ve got the crisis in the oil and gas market, and we’re going to recover from that. But the people there are soundly behind you. And so many of them always telling me when they don’t back here to give you their regards, and their encouragement, and their thanks for what you’re doing. Your principal leadership. I would echo what’s going on in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana as well. Our governor is keeping us shut down. And our free market needs a chance to thrive, and if we can do that we will.

It needs to be a region by region basis. The second group, I’m here I guess representing this morning is the Republican Study Committee, you know the largest caucus of conservatives in Congress. And as the chair of that group, all these guys are leaders of it as well and we’ve been trying to advance our core principles. And we came out Monday last, with a 37 point blueprint, a framework, that we call a return to prosperity and accountability, and recovery. And basically what we’ve done is distilled the work that we have been putting into about 15 months prior to the pandemic to come up with a playbook. A conservative playbook to run when we returned to the majority, which we still think we could do. But [inaudible 00:58:44] for example, for holding China accountable all the way to empowering the American worker. And we think it’s consistent with a lot of the administration and what you’ve articulated, and we hope we can work together on it.

I would end with this. The whole team, your whole administration has been so accessible, and transparent. I love what Dan said. I had written those two words down before you said it, that marks the Trump administration. And I could name each one of them on your team here. They’ve all been helpful and grateful to us. We had a conference call with Mr Kudlow the other day and he said something at the end of it that resonated with me. He said, “Our time tested principles can not be abandoned now. That’s what’s going to guide us through this.” Right? And we were on mute, but we all said, “Amen.” And it reminded me of what Reagan said in his farewell address when he was leaving historic time at the head of the country. He said, “They call me the great communicator, but I wasn’t that.”

He said, “I was just communicating great things. And they’re the same great things that have guided our country since its founding.” We believe in those time honored principles. We believe in individual freedom, and limited government, and fiscal responsibility, and free markets, and lower taxes and less regulation. Those are the things that are going to guide the country back in this transition you’re talking about. And we’re so grateful that you and your team are holding the line on that. We’ll be with you. We’re your foot soldiers ready to go to work, and we thank you again for all you’re doing.

Donald Trump: (01:00:06)
Thank you very much. Great.

Debbie Lesko: (01:00:06)
Well, I want to say thank you again, President Trump for coming to Arizona. And it was such an honor to be on Air Force One with you. It was my first time so it was awesome. But I want you to know that I believe you are exactly the right person for the job. Despite all of the Democrats, the top Obama people, maybe President Obama himself since we found out yesterday, trying to take you out. Despite all of that, you led our nation into the greatest economy in the world, and I am totally convinced that you will do it again. And so please don’t let all the critics get you down. I know a lot of people are just Trump haters and they say mean things, but there are so many people out there, so many people in Arizona, throughout the nation that absolutely think you’re doing a great job. So please keep it up. We appreciate you.

Thank you very much.

Debbie Lesko: (01:01:15)
Thank you.

Beautiful. Thank you.

Larry Kudlow: (01:01:18)
Thank you, sir. And thanks to everybody here. Those are wonderful words. We appreciate your strong efforts and support. We have a lot more to do. I just find to connect a dot or two. Kevin was talking, Kevin Hassett, my friend and colleague. When we were in the oval last night talking about these are temporary job losses. Probably three quarters of them, if not more. If you had told me that I would go on the air, on a day when we lost 20 million jobs, and the stock market would go up 400 points, that would have been very interesting.

I’ve been around a while. I thought I’d seen it all, but this is a new wrinkle. I don’t want to repeat this experiment, but I’m just saying. And I do think it’s because it’s temporary. And I do also think the stock market bottomed in March 23rd, I know it fluctuates and so forth. But I think that a lot of the things that Steven has negotiated. And we’ve heard about the PPP, extending it, and so forth. I think that’s one reason why these are temporary losses and why the market is shrugging them off.

And I do want to reiterate, it is very possible that we will get a lot of these jobs back fast. It’s very possible as private surveys and even the CVO, we will have a 20% increase in growth, in the second half of this year. As you say, sir, as a transition. And then finally, I want to say that, and I appreciate your comments very much sir. If we stated the principles that worked the first three years, I mean January and February of this year, the economy was growing at 3.1% at an annual rate, before the virus hit. low taxes, roll back regulations, energy independence, good, fair, reciprocal trade deals, the building blocks of a blue collar boom, of a middle class wage boom, middle class wages and less, and a small business boom. which is the heart of the Republican party. There’s no reason you did it once.

And if we stay with those principles, and do it again. And next year, 2021 can be absolutely a spectacular year. So I really believe that. I will just say it is my honor to be part of this, sir. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Larry.

Steven Mnuchin: (01:03:51)
Thank you Mr. President. I want to thank everybody around the table. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to almost all of you, and all of your ideas. As others who’ve said it’s the president’s economic policies that led us to great success. I have the utmost confidence, we have the greatest scientists, the greatest medical people. There will be a vaccine. We will kill this virus. And the policies that you put in place recently are protecting American workers and American business as we go through this difficult time. So thank you Mr. President.

Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it very much and you’ve done a great job. So we’re looking at the transition to greatness, and I think it starting right now. It’s really what it is. It’s a great term. It just came out at this meeting. True. It came out by accident. It was a statement and it came out, and you can’t get a better one. We can go to Madison Avenue and get the greatest geniuses in the world to come up with a slogan. But that’s the slogan we’re going to use, transition to greatness, and it’s starting right now.

And I appreciate everybody we called, we said, “Can you be here?” They hopped in a plane, is that right, Mark? They hopped in a plane. Not one person turned you down. This was just a quickly set up meeting because the Republicans want to be here. And the Democrats have to come back and they have to get it going.

And they’re asking for things that they didn’t ask for upfront, but it’s what they wanted. And they want things and we’re happy with what’s gone on. We’ve got what we needed. But at the same time we want to do what’s right for the country. So we’ll see what they’re looking for and we’re in a position for first time in a little while. You would never put yourself in that position, but we wouldn’t agree to what they wanted, and it got sort of delayed, delayed, delayed. And now they need things and we can sit back and we’re going to watch, and we’ll do what’s right for the country. So it’s the transition to greatness. That’s where we are. That’s where it’s starting right now. And I appreciate everybody for being here. And we’re going to have a little meeting after the media goes. Do you have any questions, John?

John : (01:06:02)
Mr. President. Can you bring us up to speed about a member of the Vice President staff who has now tested positive for Coronavirus. This is now the second staffer in the West wing.

Yeah, I don’t know much about it. Does anybody want to talk about it? She’s a wonderful young woman, Katie. She tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive. She hasn’t come into contact with me. Spend some time with the Vice President. It’s I believe the press person, right? I’d say press person. So she tested positive out of the blue. This is why the whole concept of tests aren’t necessarily great.

The tests are perfect, but something could happen between a test where it’s good and then something happens. And all of a sudden… She was tested a very recently and tested negative. And then today I guess for some reason she tested positive. So Mike knows about it and Mike has done what he has to do. I think he’s on an airplane going to some far away place, but you’ll be able to ask him later on. But they’ve taken all of the necessary precautions. I understand Mike has been tested, Vice President and he tested negative.

Speaker 5: (01:07:20)
Mr. President, but if this can happen here at the White House two people tested positive-

It could happen anywhere. [inaudible 01:07:27] where it happens.

Speaker 5: (01:07:27)
[crosstalk 01:07:27] so confident going back to work then?

No, no, because, well, then it would happen anywhere. Whether you did go back to work, or whether you didn’t go back to work. In fact, I saw a statistic come out of New York yesterday that was pretty strange. That most of the cases are coming from apartments and coming from homes. What was that all about? I think they said 66%, did you see that? That was given by Governor Cuomo that they’re coming out of the home. Right? So it can happen anywhere. It’s a very elusive enemy, a vicious enemy, and elusive enemy. And I think more importantly than anything with this one, it’s probably the most contagious enemy that anybody has seen.

Speaker 6: (01:08:09)
Mr. President?

Yeah, please.

Speaker 6: (01:08:10)
[crosstalk 01:08:10] positive tests in the last two days. What precautions are you taking here at the white house to prevent the virus from spreading further? And are you worried that it’s kind of already in the White House and [crosstalk 01:08:20]-

I’m not worried. No, I’m not worried. But, look, I get things done. I don’t worry about things. I do what I have to do. We’ve taken very strong precautions at the White House. But again, we’re dealing with a invisible situation. Nobody knows. When I see that 66 in New York, 66% where people stay home and that’s where they’re catching it, at home. Who would ever think of things like that’s possible? All you can do is take precaution, and do it the best you can. But Mike was tested today, and Mike was tested negative.

Speaker 7: (01:08:58)
Sir, are you taking additional steps here at the White House in the light of [crosstalk 00:22:59]-

Yeah. We’re taking a very official steps. Mark-

Jonathan Karl: (01:09:03)
…here at the White House and the white-

Yeah, we’re taking a very official steps. Mark, do you want to discuss that?

Mark Meadows: (01:09:10)
We’ve already put in a few protocols that we’re looking at, obviously, to make sure that the president and his immediate staff stay safe. It’s not just the president, it’s all the workers that are here. Obviously, you’re here on a daily basis. But the protocols that we’re putting in place puts a stronger emphasis on making sure that we do the mitigation that we need to do to make sure they’re safe. I don’t want to get into all the procedures that we have embarked upon, but I can tell you this is probably the safest place that you can come to. All of you, as you know, have to be socially distanced from the president. His meetings that he has are done with a social distancing plan in place. Outside of that, we may take some additional precautions as it relates to the vice president and the president in terms of just making sure that the people that come in contact with both of them are done… That it’s done in a way that makes sure that we keep the president safe. Additionally, every member that came here today, they were tested, just in case there’s a closer contact than we might have. But we put in some additional protocols over the last 48 hours and we’ll continue to monitor.

Speaker 9: (01:10:34)
Mr. President, are you satisfied with the measures that have been taken so far?

I really am. Look, I understand what we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with something very serious and the fact that you have it, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go away. You can have it and get through it very easily. Some people have a heart attack. Most people get through it. Some people are devastated by it. But the fact that you get it, doesn’t mean… I’ve had numerous people say they have it and a couple of days later they’re better. Some people say they have it, they think, and there’s almost no symptom. Other people have it and bad things happen. But for the most part, when you have it, you get better, and supposedly you’re immune, although they’re not 100% sure about how long that immunity lasts.

Speaker 9: (01:11:29)
Mr. President, is there a reason why people just aren’t wearing masks at the White House?

Well, they are-

Speaker 9: (01:11:34)
But they’re not-

No, people that are serving me are.

Speaker 9: (01:11:38)
We have not seen anyone wear a mask around you for in the last few weeks.

Mark Meadows: (01:11:41)
So I can speak to that. As we look at this, the people that are in close proximity to the president obviously have tested negative. The mask that you wear is generally to keep other people from being infected. And so as we look at that, I can tell you that the testing protocol is a strong regime, and as it gets close to the president, some of those that serve him will wear a mask in those closer proximities. Here’s what I would offer, off the record, to all of you is… I know, Jon, we spoke about this earlier. If you’ve been on the campus for your safety and wellbeing, the president has made available to make sure that you could have testing just for the peace of mind. So before you leave today we’ve made those arrangements to make sure that you can be tested as well.

Well we have a lot of people wearing them. I’m just looking around. Look at Shea, White House photographer. I’m sure most of you don’t know her. But to the best of my knowledge, she’s wearing a mask. Is that a mask? [crosstalk 01:12:44] I think, to the best of my knowledge, it looks like a mask.

Speaker 9: (01:12:47)
Mr. President, can you clarify the status of the phase four negotiations? Earlier Larry said that they were being paused potentially for a couple week.

We’re in no rush. We’re in no rush.

Speaker 9: (01:12:57)
When you see jobs, [crosstalk 00:01:12:57], why no rush?

The Democrats have to do what they have to do. But I would say we’re not looking. We want to see what they have, but I can’t say that we’re in a rush. We were in a rush to get the money out to people. We have gotten the money out. Some money is stalled because of state machinery. They have old computers, 45-year-old computers. And we said this was going to happen and I didn’t want to do it that way, but the Democrats insisted on going through this particular apparatus for a certain reason. And that money is stalled. But that’s their fault and they accept, I think they accept responsibility and blame, the Democrats.

Speaker 10: (01:13:36)
Mr. President, you said recently that you would, if necessary, be the first person to get a vaccine. How important do you think a vaccine ultimately is? To getting [crosstalk 00:04:45]-

Well, I didn’t say I wanted to. That’s not a correct statement. You said, “Would you be?” And I said, “If it was good for the country, I’d be. And if it was bad for the country, I’ll wait to be the last one, or I wouldn’t do it at all.” No, I was asked whether or not I would do it as the first person. If I thought that was a good thing for the country, I would. I don’t… Personally…. And, I have to say, I think we’re doing very well on vaccines. If they wanted to use me as a test, that’s okay with me, if it was good. But that was really the way the question was asked.

Speaker 10: (01:14:18)
But how important do you believe a vaccine is to getting out of this? And what do you say to those that this growing anti-vaccine-

Well, I feel about vaccines, like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away and we’re not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time. You may have some flare-ups. I guess, I would expect that sometime in the fall the U.S. will have flare-ups. Maybe, maybe not. But according to what a lot of people say, you probably will, we’ll be able to put them out. You may have some flare-ups next year, but eventually it’s going to be gone. It’s going to be gone. There are some viruses and flus that came and they went for a vaccine. They never found the vaccine and they’ve disappeared. They’ve never shown up again. They died too, like everything else. They die too. And so whether we do or not, I think great progress is being made by Johnson & Johnson, by Oxford, and some others. NYU, I see is very advanced. But if you don’t get it, this is going to go away at some point.

Speaker 12: (01:15:21)
What evidence have you seen that this is going to go away without a vaccine?

I just rely on what doctors say. They say it’s going to go. That doesn’t mean this year, doesn’t mean it’s going to be gone, frankly, by the fall or after the fall. But eventually it’s going to go away. The question is will we need a vaccine? At some point it will probably go away by itself. If we had a vaccine that would be very helpful. Be very happy to have a vaccine.

Speaker 11: (01:15:45)
How often do you meet with Dr. Birx, Dr Fauci, and the medical experts? Or have you essentially just moved yourself on to the economic aspect?

No, I listen to them. I have a lot of respect for them, dr. Birx, Dr. Fauci. And we have some other people that are very good. No, I listen to them very, very intently.

Speaker 11: (01:16:02)
But how often do you meet with them?

Talk up, you have a mask on your face.

Speaker 11: (01:16:06)
How often do you meet with the medical staff and the medical advisors?

A lot. A lot.

Speaker 12: (01:16:11)
Mr. President, do you find the CDC protocols to be an impediment to opening up the country?

Which protocols?

Speaker 12: (01:16:21)
The recommended guidelines that have been-

No, because I’m relying on the governors and the governors are the ones that are doing that. If I see something wrong, I’ll clamp down on it very hard and very strongly. But I’m relying on 50 very talented governors. I don’t think they are all talented, but many of them are very talented.

Speaker 12: (01:16:42)
Why are you not releasing those guidelines to-

They’re released. They know what to do, and they know what they’re doing, and we’re going to see. But I’m relying on the governors to do their individual states, and they’re relying on us very strongly for advice and also for help with respect to equipment, hospitals, beds, ventilators, but also medical supplies. So they’re relying on us and we’re able to get them everything they need, if they can’t get them. Ideally, they can get it. But much of the things that we’re getting and we’ve gotten for them, we’re able to stockpile in their states. So we’re sending it around. We’re sending more than they need. So if this should happen again, they’re going to be ready this time.

Speaker 12: (01:17:23)
And what happens though, if the infections spike, once the government-

You have to put out the fires. Then you’re going to have to put out the fires and the governor should be able to do that.

Speaker 12: (01:17:34)
Mr. President, you said the third quarter would be a transition and the fourth quarter would be good. Where do you expect to see the unemployment numbers at that time?

Well, I think the unemployment numbers are going to go way up. And the statement that Kevin made is incredible, that everybody expects to have a job back very shortly. That’s not a normal situation. You go into a bad, bad economy, deep recession or worse, nobody expects to have a job ever again. Everybody expects… I saw that chart. Almost everybody expects that there’ll be working again. This was an artificial turning off of a tremendous economy. We did the right thing because we saved millions of lives, probably millions of lives, but this was just all of a sudden one day we had to turn it off. When we turned it back on, which we’ve just started doing, I think it’s going to come back blazing. I think next year has a chance to be one of the best years, economically, we’ve ever had, because this tremendous pent-up demand.

Speaker 12: (01:18:32)
So if unemployment’s at 14% now, perhaps going as high as 20%, where do you think that will be in the fourth-

I think the number is going to be a great number. I can’t… I’m not going to say exactly what. I can say over a period of time, it’s going to be where it was, maybe better. Can’t get much better, we were at 3.5%. But I expect it to be where it was. The demand is going to be tremendous and next year is going to be a tremendous year. Fourth quarter is going to be very good, maybe better than that. The transition’s going to be very interesting, but you’re going to see some very good numbers coming out of the third quarter. It’s a transition. I call it “the transition to greatness”. We’re going to have a great year next year. You’ll see.

Speaker 12: (01:19:14)
Do you think we can get dug out by the third or fourth quarter of this year, economically?

Well, the third quarter we’re moving in that direction. I would say it’s starting right about now. We’re going to start moving in that direction, but the third quarter, I think it’s going to be very good. It’s going to be a very good indicator, but it’s going to be very good. But it is a transition quarter. The fourth quarter is going to be good. It could be maybe more than good, Kevin. And next year, I think it’s going to be a really powerful year, economically.

Speaker 11: (01:19:44)
Mr. President Larry said this morning that expects the May unemployment numbers to also be problematic, to be very high. What are you and your administration, these lawmakers, what are you all doing-

Well, the May numbers, we haven’t started coming out of it. And-

Speaker 11: (01:20:00)
What are you all doing to provide relief to workers over the next six weeks [crosstalk 01:20:05]-

Oh, we’re doing a lot. Look at all the money. We took $2 trillion and we’re spending it all over because we want to have a… We’re throwing money at it. And over the years they’ve learned that’s much better than not doing it. Look at 1928.

Speaker 11: (01:20:17)
Sorry, [crosstalk 01:20:17] payments?

In 1928, they raised interest rates and they raised taxes. How did that work out? Not too good. Not too good. But if you look at 1928, 1929, the first thing they did was raise taxes and then they raised interest rates and they choked everybody to death. And it took 15 years to recover, more than that. So we’re doing it the right way. We have a lot of great students of finance, I’m one of them, and we’re throwing money at it. And, I’ll tell you what, I’ve watched some people and read some people that I would say would not have agreed with that and I haven’t seen anybody disagreeing with what we’re doing. And in fact they say what we’re doing with the PPP, with all of the things that we’re doing, is great.

One thing we could do is a payroll tax cut. That seems to bother the Democrats. One thing with a payroll tax cut through, it’s over a little bit longer period of time. But a payroll tax cut is something that some people that are very smart… I’m one of those people that like it, because I think it’s really sustainable. I think it will sustain it. But that’s one thing that a lot of people would like to see.

Mr. President, you were with several-

Another other thing they’d like to see is a capital gains tax cut, meaning no capital gains. Some Republicans are true, true hard line Republicans around the table. Not all of them. Some people might say… Louie might say, “Forget it.” But some people would say that a capital gains stoppage, cutting capital gains, getting rid of capital gains tax, they’ve said that for many years would be a great thing. The true conservative Republicans around this table, of which there are about seven solid, but I still like the other ones too, but they would say that’s music to their ears. So we’ll see. I would be in favor of that. Yeah.

Mr. President, you were with seven American heroes earlier today, these world war II veterans-

I was.

All in their nineties. Did you consider wearing a mask when you were with them given they’re [crosstalk 01:22:27]-

No, because I was very far away. I appreciate the question. I was very far away from them, as you know. I would have loved to have gone up and hugged them, because they’re great. I had a conversation with everyone, but we were very far away. You saw. Plus the wind was blowing so hard at such a direction that if the plague ever reached them, I’d be very surprised. Could have reached me too. You didn’t worry about me. You only worried about them, and that’s okay. Because I think they’re so pure, it will never happen. They’ve lived a great life. But, no, the wind was howling and I didn’t see anybody with masks. I don’t know, maybe there were. But they were great. I had conversations with them, but I was standing as you noticed… Would you say I was quite far away? Thank you, Jon. Appreciate that. Your book was very good, by the way.

Thank you.

It was better than I thought it would be. No, it was actually a very good the book, but it was actually better about me than I thought it would be. So, I appreciate it. You’ve known me for a long time.

26 years.

This wasn’t really in the schedule, right? I knew him long before I thought in terms of this, but we had one very good story. When we were interviewed at the hotel and he took a lot of guff. They said, “He’s not running. Why’d you do-” This was before I announced. And I’d been toying with it for a long time, but never did it, never decided. And he took a lot of guff, but he also got great ratings when he did that interview. So I don’t know. But it turned out to be a very interesting interview.

It was a good interview, sir. It was a good interview.

Yeah, your book is very good. Congratulations.

Thank you.

How’s it doing?

Bestseller list.

Bestseller.

Bestseller, yeah.

That’s good.

Like Congressman Crenshaw.

That’s good.

Speaker 13: (01:24:14)
Dan has a bestseller.

Dan is doing good, right? Well is that because I endorsed his book? That’s a great book.

Dan Crenshaw: (01:24:22)
Thank you, yeah.

I’ll tell you. He did something else great. He did a thing on Nancy Pelosi that was so incisive. Did you see that? He did something that was so incredible and I actually pinned it on top right, right Dan?

Yes, sir.

We pinned it on top. You were fantastic. Have you done this before?

Yeah, I make videos all the time. You should share them more.

That’s true. I’ll tell you, great job, Dan.

Thanks.

You’re a great guy. He’s a great guy. So when he… Is that it? Are you guys all finished?

Speaker 12: (01:24:56)
Well, one more Mr. President, if you don’t mind.

Go ahead. What kind of a mask is that.

Speaker 12: (01:25:00)
It’s a mask. It’s a blue mask.

Look’s like a catcher’s helmet.

Speaker 12: (01:25:04)
What?

That looks like a catcher’s helmet. Go ahead.

Speaker 12: (01:25:06)
I used play catcher, so it makes sense. Federal watchdog found that Rick Bright’s removal from HHS was improper. They’re blocking that move right now. Have you seen that report? And do you have any response to it?

I don’t know. To me, he looks like a disgruntled employee. I don’t know who he is, but, to me, he’s a disgruntled employee. And if people are that unhappy, they shouldn’t work. If you’re unhappy with a company, you shouldn’t work there. Go out, get something else. But, to me, he’s a disgruntled guy and I hadn’t heard great things about him either.

Speaker 11: (01:25:38)
Mr. President, about the Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. He pleaded guilty twice and admitted before God that he had lied. How does that comport with your present position?

Well, these guys can give you a better answer than I could, most of them in this room. But I’ll tell you what, number one, they played the son game. We’re going to go after your son. Number one. And number two, the FBI guys says… and I know it. And I found that, Devin, they didn’t think he lied at all. They said he didn’t lie. They didn’t know what they were talking about. And Mueller’s group, Mueller’s gang, that didn’t find that I did much, did they? After wasting three years. But Mueller’s gang of culprits, they said he lied. But the FBI, in this case, said he didn’t lie. What’s the story on that Devin?

Devin Nunes: (01:26:28)
Well, you have to remember that this is a 30-some-year veteran of our military who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency. It would be preposterous to think that he was a Russian agent and everybody in the press knew this. They had early versions of the dossier. They knew the Democrats were pushing the dossier. And the fact that someone would even ask this question about General Flynn who was clearly exonerated on January 4th before you were even sworn in to office. We know that from the FBI agents who were reviewing the case. I’m not even sure it was properly predicated to review General Flynn in the first place. There’s a lot of people in this town, in the swamp, that all of these people in the media know that work on behalf of foreign agents and aren’t registered. And General Flynn, who’s a 30-year war veteran, the way that he’s been treated, the way his family has been treated, the way that he’s lost his livelihood, he lost his house… And I think the American people owe him a debt of gratitude, and this government owes him and his family an apology.

Speaker 9: (01:27:42)
[crosstalk 01:27:42] the FBI found he didn’t lie?

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Transcript: Donald Trump Meets with Republican Members of Congress

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