Thread by @AndrewFeinberg

NOW: @realDonaldTrump is about to take questions. Follow along for the usual.

.@realDonaldTrump opens news conference with announcements about Hurricane Sally, says there are FEMA, Coast Guard, National Guard personnel on site.

"We're working with the state governments," he says. No complaints because they're generally GOP-led states.

.@realDonaldTrump, who most Americans do not trust to deliver a vaccine safely without political interference, is touting his administration's vaccine rollout plans.

"This is the largest, fastest and most advanced vaccine distribution effort in American history," @realDonaldTrump says, suggesting it will begin "sometime in October" (this is why people do not trust him).

There is no vaccine yet. Nothing has been approved.

"we'll be able to distribute at least 100 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020," says @realDonaldTrump, even though his own medical experts say it could be as long as Q3 of 2021 for that.

.@realDonaldTrump, who promoted the discredited lie that vaccines cause autism, says he is "calling on @JoeBiden to stop promoting his anti vaccine theories."

Biden is not promoting any anti-vaccine theories.

.@realDonaldTrump now spinning misleading stats about fatality rates and made-up projections about death rates to make it look as if his administration hasn't had 200,000 people die on their watch.

"If you take [out] the blue states...we're really at a very low level but some of the states, they were blue states and blue state management," says @realDonaldTrump, claiming he should not be held responsible for COVID-19 deaths in states that don't vote for him or Republicans.

.@realDonaldTrump now bragging about browbeating the @BigTen commissioner into restarting the football season.

200,000 Americans are dead and @realDonaldTrump is talking about which collegiate athletic conference he's going to browbeat next.

" Yesterday the census reported that median income for Americans increased by an unprecedented $4,400 last year to a record of $68,700. In 2019 income inequality fell for the second straight year," @realDonaldTrump says.

Has anything happened since then? I forget.

.@realDonaldTrump continues to brag about 2019 economic data as if it's still 2019. It's 2020.

.@realDonaldTrump, now slurring, repeats blatant lie about @JoeBiden calling police "the enemy." He did not.

Continuing to slur his words, @realDonaldTrump now talking about the LASD officers who were shot over the weekend.

He's now asking Dr. Scott Atlas, who is a radiologist and not a public health or infectious disease expert, to come to the lectern and talk about vaccine plans.

Here's the slurry word salad free-associating from @realDonaldTrump between first asking Atlas to speak and Atlas actually coming up to speak.

Atlas (who is not a public health or infectious disease expert) notes that he did not come up with any of the things he's talking about.

Question time. @JohnRobertsFox points out that @CDCDirector Redfield (a medical expert) said a vaccine might not be available until next summer.

@realDonaldTrump says "I think he made a mistake when he said...it's just incorrect information." (this is a lie).

.@realDonaldTrump says he called @CDCDirector Redfield about his (probably factual) statement on vaccine availability, adds that Redfield (who generally knows what he's talking about) "misunderstood the question"

.@realDonaldTrump is surprised that he's not allowed to demand a kickback to the treasury for allowing Oracle to buy TikTok.

"Nobody's ever said we'll approve the deal, but we want a lot of money to go to the government because by improving the deal when making the deal valuable, they've never heard of that before."

No one has ever said this because it's illegal, but criminals have heard of kickbacks.

.@realDonaldTrump claims "the American public wants to see" protests over the election put down by force.

He is now lying about vote-by-mail.

"The ballots will be stolen," says @realDonaldTrump, whose GOP donor postmaster general has ordered Postal Police to stop protecting mail deliveries.

.@realDonaldTrump claims "the biggest threat" to the election will be mail-in voting in states with Democratic governors. He is now ranting about @GovSisolak not letting him hold his airport rally last weekend and lying about other countries being able to forge ballots.

.@realDonaldTrump says "the hope for our nation" is judges making it harder for people to vote.

Asked about the @WTO ruling his tariffs on Chinese products (which are PAID BY AMERICANS), @realDonaldTrump claims the WTO "was created to suck money and jobs out of the United States to the benefit of China and other countries"). China did not join the WTO until 2001.

.@realDonaldTrump says "it doesn't really matter" what the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about when a vaccine would be ready and falsely claims that "we are ready to distribute it immediately."

There is no vaccine right now. Nothing is approved.

"Under no circumstances" will vaccine distribution happen when the head of the @CDCgov says it will probably happen, @realDonaldTrump says, making it quite clear that he's trying to force something out before the election.

Trump claims he read @realBobWoodward's new book last night.

Yesterday he told @FoxandFriends that he read it Monday night.

Which means he probably has not read it at all.

.@realDonaldTrump now repeating his frequently-told lie that the Obama administration paid Iran cash to be part of the JCPOA.

It settled a debt over the Shah's purchase of military equipment from the US during Carter administration that was subject international arbitration.

.@realDonaldTrump contradicts the @CDCGov director on masks possibly being more effective than a vaccine, claims that @CDCDirector Redfield "did not understood the question."

Redfield is a medical doctor and infectious disease expert. He understood the question.

.@realDonaldTrump would rather tell everyone that the head of the CDC is stupid and can't understand basic questions than accept his expert medical opinion.

He is now mocking @JoeBiden for wearing masks.

.@Noahbierman calls out @realDonaldTrump for undermining @CDCDirector Redfield. Trump responds by again essentially calling Redfield stupid.

"I don't have to go through this," @realDonaldTrump says, irate because @Noahbierman pointed out that he's insisting people trust him on a vaccine while simultaneously undermining the head of the CDC.

"I do" have confidence in @CDCDirector Redfield, @realDonaldTrump says when @BBCJonSopel asks him if he does (he spent most of the briefing throwing him under the bus)

.@realDonaldTrump says he has been informed about White House staff testing positive for COVID-19.

"It's a small number of cases," he says. Then adds that it was "one person".

Briefing ends.