"evirgincy"
"We have to hold them because the surge is coming and is coming pretty strong" -- Trump, who last week said he didn't buy that Cuomo needed as many ventilators as he's requesting, now says the federal government is holding them back
Trump really wants you to believe that nobody could've seen the coronavirus pandemic coming. Unfortunately, he disbanded the US's pandemic preparedness team two years ago.
"I want every American to be prepared for the hard days ahead. We are going to go through a very tough two weeks" -- Trump
"The bravery is incredible" -- Trump actually has nice things to say about nurses and paramedics
The coronavirus curves for California and Washington have been somewhat flattened. New York and New Jersey not so much.
Here are the coronavirus curves for all 50 states plus DC
Dr. Fauci says "the 15 days that we had of mitigation clearly have had an effect" and adds that while times will be "tough," more stringent distancing "is going to be the answer to our problems."
Dr. Birx says projected coronavirus deaths in the US fall between 100,000 and 200,000
Interesting to observe the exact moment in this clip when Trump realizes that it's a bad idea to speculate about the projected death number, and decides to ask Dr. Birx to answer the question
.@Acosta: "Should Americans prepare for the likelihood that there'll be 100,000 Americans that will die from the virus?"
FAUCI: "The answer is yes."
This image of Trump next to exponential coronavirus curves is an attack ad in itself
Trump misleads about America's testing capacity by insisting "we are doing more than anybody in the world" when in fact the US lags behind many other countries in per capita testing
"What would've happened if we did nothing? Because there was a group that said, 'let's just ride it out.' ... 2.2 million people would've died" -- here's Trump laying the groundwork to claim up to 200,000 American deaths as a victory on the campaign trail this year
TRUMP: "Think what would've happened if we didn't do anything. I had many friends, people w/ common sense who said, 'why don't we just ride it out? Don't do anything, just ride it out & think of it as the flu'"
Trump is preparing to take credit for any result under 2m deaths
Trump went from saying the coronavirus would go away on its own barely a month ago to scoring 100,000 American deaths as a win today
A Fox News reporter asking Trump about Infrastructure Week seems extra off key coming just moments after White House officials said Americans should prepare for 100,000 people to die in the months to come
ACOSTA: Is there a ventilator shortage?
TRUMP: "In some areas, we might ... we also grabbed a lot of them. Some hospitals had more than they were saying, or at least more than we knew about."
Trump on states asking for ventilators: "Some people, frankly, think they need them and they don't need them. I don't want to mention names."
We've arrived at the "Trump touts unproven drugs as potential Covid-19 treatments" portion of the briefing
.@Acosta: What what the models look like had we adopted social distancing earlier, when China or South Korea did?
TRUMP: *talks about his move to restrict travel from China which has nothing to do with the question*
"We inherited obsolete tests" -- Trump ludicrously tries to blame Obama for the fact that the CDC he oversees failed to develop a functional test in January and February. Pence then takes the podium to try to clean up the mess.
Trump's response to questions about why he wasted weeks dithering and downplaying the coronavirus threat is to tout travel restrictions he imposed (the virus was already spreading within the US when he imposed them)
Trump on whether impeachment distracted him from the coronavirus: "I guess it probably did." (Trump was acquitted on February 5 and then spent the next month downplaying the coronavirus.)
"I have nothing else to do ... should we keep [the news conference] going?" -- Trump
Trump on Cuomo asking the federal government to do more to get ventilators to the states: "The problem is, with some people, no matter what you give, it is never enough, never enough."
"They have to be careful. They have a very big homeless population" -- Trump talks about California like it's a foreign country
ACOSTA: Did you lull Americans into a false sense of security when you said 'it's going to go away'--
TRUMP: "Well it is ... it's going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month, and if not, hopefully soon after that."
This press briefing is now nearing two hours in length. Seems obscenely long given that the president supposedly has a lot to do!
when i go for a run on my lunch break
when somebody asks me what happened at the beginning of this White House coronavirus task force briefing
Trump claims he's heard from three governors who dislike him but who privately commended him on the job he's doing responding to the coronavirus. Funny how he doesn't name any names, though 🤔
This press briefing has now exceeded two hours in length.
"I'm sure people are enjoying it. I will say this: It's an incredibly dark topic, an incredibly horrible topic, and it's incredibly interesting. That's why everybody is going crazy, they're going crazy, they can't get enough of it" -- Trump 😳
Trump concludes the more than two-hour-long press briefing by reassuring us that if there's a scarcity of ventilators, he'll be involved in making life or death decisions about which states get them
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