right now earlier I had a chance to
speak with the vice president Mike Pence
about getting Americans back to work the
w-h-o and much more take a look I bite
president pence thank you for joining us
glad you could be here you spoke to John
Republicans and Democrats today and what
is the plan now what to use your main
focus at this point well the focus today
as president Trump has made clear from
the beginning is to continue to engage
every American to do their part to slow
the spread and it really is inspiring to
see the way the American people have
stepped up and put into practice the
social distancing guidelines everything
from from personal hygiene to staying
home from work if you can avoiding
unnecessary travel but staying away from
groups of more than ten people using
drive throughs at restaurants I mean
what we've seen in terms of progress in
California in Washington where the
numbers remain low and steady and what
we're just beginning to see in the
Greater New York City area and of course
New Jersey and Connecticut in Louisiana
is is evidence of the beginning of a
stabilization which is a great credit to
the people of all the states that I
mentioned but as we've made clear to
those members of Congress in both
parties today we need every American
continue to do their part and we will
hasten the day that we put the
coronavirus in the past but it's going
to take all of us to do it and the good
news is Shawn all evidence suggests that
the American people are doing just that
they know our future is in our hands and
as we put the president's coronavirus
guidelines into practice we'll get there
tell us what you envision for May first
we have a 2.2 trillion dollar or relief
package we open up the Fed for another
four trillion and loans I know some
conservatives are a little nervous about
another two trillion for infrastructure
but what does May first look like in
your mind in terms of opening up the
country for business again how does that
work well we're 22 days away from the 30
days that President Trump asked the
American people to
to work together to slow the spread and
what what I can tell your viewers is
that is that we will follow the data
very carefully and while it's just the
beginning we are seeing evidence that
that that in in the areas most
challenged and and we we grieve the loss
of life in New York City that was
reported yesterday we grieve all the
families that have lost loved ones
but while we grieve we we don't grieve
like those who have no hope and some of
these what we've seen in California and
Washington State and and what we're
beginning to see in New York in New
Jersey and Louisiana and elsewhere is
evidence of stabilization I think the
American people can be encouraged if we
all continue to do our part we could be
in a very different place by the end of
April and we could be able to come to
the President to work with governor's to
look for ways in in weeks not months to
begin as the president says to reopen
America to reopen this economy president
talked yesterday about withholding
monies for the w-h-o after they
basically unchecked just spread chinese
propaganda as it relates to the virus
that the comments earlier today were you
know if you don't want many more body
bags you should refrain from
politicizing it there's no need to use
Cova to score political points we need
to behave that's how we'll defeat this
virus no need to point fingers well
that's nice that they're on the attack
but the reality and the truth is is they
didn't verify a thing and they went
forward with false information and as
that one British study said ninety-five
percent of this could have been
prevented had in fact China opened
themselves up to the world for help and
assistance for early mitigation and yet
the w-h-o which we fund the vast
majority of they didn't do their job on
any level well you know this is a
president who believes in accountability
and the American taxpayers provide tens
of millions of dollars to the world how
organization as the president said
yesterday I expect will continue to do
that but that doesn't mean that at the
right time in the future we aren't going
to ask the tough questions about how the
World Health Organization could have
been so wrong I mean literally at the
time that President Trump stood up the
White House coronavirus task force in
January and suspended all travel from
China just days before that the World
Health Organization was continuing to to
diminish the threat of the corona virus
and its impact in China we'll get to the
answers of that and we'll create
accountability just like the American
people would want us to do but what I
can assure you is that what President
Trump has this team doing every day
getting up early staying up late is is
making sure that the American people
know that what what every single person
in this country can do to slow the
spread to put go to coronavirus gov to
put those guidelines into practice in
your family in your community and he is
directed to spare no expense to make
sure that we have the broadest amount of
testing available new testing developed
and that most importantly our health
care workers in America have the
resources the protective equipment the
ventilators to be able to provide the
level of care to people that are
struggling with the corona virus do you
think the country will be up and running
on May 1st one and number two two point
two trillion fortunately and made
available by the Fed does talk of
another two trillion do you worry about
the sheer amount of money that we're
talking about unprecedented amounts of
money well America is is this is the
strongest most prosperous nation in the
history of the world and and as we
reflected on with members of Congress in
both parties today a president Trump is
truly grateful than in three different
pieces of legislation we've demonstrated
that we're going to do whatever it takes
to get American families American small
businesses and critical American
industries through this challenging time
but as in terms of when we can reopen a
America I would just say to you I
wouldn't speculate on a date but I can
assure you that that's in the hands of
the American people if everyone of us
will continue to do and implement the
president's coronavirus guidelines for
America if everyone will continue to put
into practice all the things that you've
that you've been articulating on your
program every day we'll continue to save
lives
and we'll reach that day much sooner
than people people thought at the
beginning of this outbreak all right mr.
vice president as always thank you for
taking time out a busy day and obviously
these these press briefings every day
taking a lot of time a lot going on
behind the scenes we appreciate you
being with us thank you sir thank you