President Trump Commits to Taking COVID-19 Vaccine, Calls on Gov. Cooper to ‘Open Up the State’
REPORTER: “Mr. President, it’s great to hear that you are feeling well. Your diagnosis and hospitalization, those were big deals, and they came on top of a first term full of big deals and not necessarily business. Between the controversies and the accomplishments, there has been unexpected, unprecedented, overwhelming. So I’ve been speaking with voters here and a lot of them want to know, given all that you and your family have been through, given all that you’ve endured, why do you even want a second term?”
TRUMP: “That’s a very interesting question, actually. Because we’ve accomplished so much. There’s never been an administration in the first three and a half years that’s done anywhere near what we’ve done. Whether it’s taking care of our military, rebuilding our military, providing choice for our great soldiers — they had to wait for weeks and weeks and weeks to get medical care and now they get it immediately, and we just got a 91% approval rating from them. Accountability, all of the things we’ve done: rebuilding our military, cutting taxes to the level that that has never been cut before. You know, it’s the biggest tax cut ever given or granted in the history of our country. Regulation cuts, building the wall — the wall is almost finished, as you know, Mexico is paying for it, by the way — but the wall is almost finished and were up to 400 miles of wall. Our southern border is secured, the most secure it’s ever been. And just so many other things. So I have to fight some very bad people, I guess you’d have to say. They spied on my campaign and they did things that were so terrible and so horrible and we caught them. But despite all of that, we have had this tremendous success. One of the reasons we’ve been successful is your state. Your state has always been behind us, right from the beginning. It’s been right — literally right from the beginning. It makes me feel good to help, whether it’s the tobacco growers or any — I mean just so many different people we are helping. And we’re helping on health care. Wait until you see what we’re going to be doing on health care, providing better health care at a lower price and always taking care of preexisting conditions. So it’s a lot of work, but it’s really an achievement and I’m very proud of it.”
REPORTER: “Mr. President, we talk about healthcare. Your administration has been spearheading Operation Warp Speed. People are waiting for this vaccine and they’re very eager for this vaccine. You were here in North Carolina a couple months ago touring Fujifilm and some other things. You credit your recovery to Regeneron, but that’s not a vaccine, and people who get the flu still get a flu shot. So my question to you, sir — you know the power of symbolism. When this vaccine is ready, if it’s ready, will you commit to getting it first? And will you do it in a way that’s public so that people, your supporters, your critics can see that it’s safe? Will you commit to that?”
TRUMP: “The answer is yes, I would. I don’t want to make anything mandatory, you understand that, because we just don’t want to be in that position. But I would certainly take it if they want. Now that will be controversial. Some people would say, ‘Oh, he took it first, therefore he is selfish’ or in other words, you don’t win, but I will do it if they want me to do it, absolutely. You know, we have Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, they’re all right there. They’re right at the step in fact, and I think frankly, without politics, they could’ve maybe been there even a little bit sooner. But nobody could have done it like this in terms of the speed because I’ve done things with the FDA that would take 2-3 years to get approval and we’re getting it approved in weeks. We have safe, great vaccines coming very, very soon. It could be before or a little bit after the election, and we have the military ready to deploy and bring it all over the country. They will bring it all over and beyond that, beyond the country, because, you know, it won’t take very long. The other thing, though, and you’ve mentioned it, you know, what happened with me is I didn’t feel great and I had something you would call therapeutics, Regeneron. It’s called a therapeutic, to me it was a cure because as soon as I took it, it was like a ball was lifted off my back. It was incredible. It was literally 24 hours and I got better very quickly. And I had a pretty hefty case. I got better very, very quickly. And what I’m doing is Regeneron and Eli Lilly, a great company, makes a very similar product. If you just take a look, it’s a very — I actually studied it. I’ve become like an expert on the antibody stuff. But Eli Lilly does something. We’re going to have that delivered free of charge to people that need it. Because I really believe in my case it was a cure. It wasn’t just a therapeutic, it was a cure. So we’re going to get it delivered free of charge, as soon as we can. We’re working on emergency use right now and we’re going to have it sent all over the country, free of charge, to the people that need it.”
REPORTER: “And certainly we are rooting for those studies to come back positive. You know, a vaccine and those therapeutics will do a lot for consumer confidence and getting this job market back. I want to ask you, sir — the jobless rate, though, is coming back, it’s less than 10%, but still there are more than 1 million people in North Carolina that are collecting unemployment, and the number of permanent layoffs are rising. In your books, you’ve credited your success to being a visionary. So my question to you, sir, in your second term, where is your vision for new jobs, new industries? Where will you invest in creating new opportunities? Not just bringing back jobs, but creating new ones?”
TRUMP: “Well, in North Carolina we want the governor to open up the state, we want the schools to start opening up immediately. The young people, 99.9%, they have very strong immune systems, they are in great shape. We have to open up the schools, open up the businesses in your state. Many states are fully open and fully operational and doing really well. But in your case, you have a governor that we sue them and we tell them, ‘You have to get it open and the people want it open.’ The people want it open. And you know, the great thing that we just discussed with the therapeutics, cures and vaccines, it gives you confidence. 85% now. We’re up to 85% mortality. When you think about that, compared to what it was just six months before, it’s incredible what we’ve done scientifically. I don’t think anyone else would’ve done that or been able to have done that. And when you look at how we’re leading the world in every way. So, we’ve got to get our states open. We don’t have many of them closed anymore. We won a big case against the Democrats in Michigan, they held it unconstitutional that the governor — she was closing the state. Pennsylvania, we’re winning. And we have others, a couple of others. New York, as you know, it’s been a basket case, it’s been terribly handled by the governor. And frankly, we have to get these states open. Despite that, we’re going to have one of the best third quarters in the history of our country, and next year will be a better year than it was even last year. You know, predictions are being made by the Fed, I think it was the Atlanta Fed, of 25% GDP and maybe higher than that and maybe much higher for the third quarter. The good news that will come out right prior the election, so I’m willing to absolutely say it and live with it. But we’re growing really rapidly, the number is now 7.9% unemployment, which normally you wouldn’t like but people were thinking it might be 42%. So we’re down to 7.9% and people are shocked. We’ve had the biggest four months that we’ve ever had for hiring people, it’s almost 11 million people. So, you know, it’s been a pretty amazing thing considering we’re rounding the term on the pandemic.”
REPORTER: “And you’ve also said success will bring unity. And if you win a second term, you will again inherit a country that’s more divided than it was four years ago. I want to quote you in your book, ‘Crippled America’: ‘A great leader has to be flexible, holding his ground on the major principles but finding room for compromises that can bring people together.’ So my last question: How will you lead in a second term? Where will you make compromises to help form a more perfect union?”
TRUMP: “Well, I want to see everything come together, and it was all happening before the China Plague came in. It was coming together. People were calling me and they were ready to move and they were ready to do things. People you would least suspect. And they were ready to come together. We had the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had, African-American unemployment, Hispanic-American unemployment, the best unemployment number — Asian, women, young people, with diplomas, without diplomas. It was all coming together and then we got hit with the Plague and we had to go back and now we’ve got a V-shaped recovery. It could be even a Super V, but we’re recovering fast. Success is going to bring this country together and that’s going to happen. And it was happening until we got hit with the Plague.”
