Remarks by President Trump in Press Briefing - September 23, 2020 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    "Justice is not - justice is not often easy. It does not fit the mold of public opinion and it does not conform to shifting standards. It answers only to the facts and to the law. If we simply act on emotion or outrage there is no justice. Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice - it just becomes revenge."

    I mean, I heard that, I said, "Write that down for me, please." Because I think it's - it was a terrific statement. He's handling it very well. You know who he is, right? You - you - I think you know. I think everyone now knows who he is.

    I will be speaking to the governor. And we have a call scheduled to make very shortly with the governor. I understand he's called up the National Guard, which is a good thing. I think it's a very positive thing. And it'll all work out.

    Q And could I - can I just - following on your Supreme Court nomination? It's highly unlikely that any Democrats will vote for your nominee if and when it comes to a vote in the Senate.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, we don't know that. I mean -

    Q Given the - well, given the -

    THE PRESIDENT: - it's an awfully good -

    Q Given the posture, I think -

    THE PRESIDENT: - awfully good candidate.

    Q - that's a pretty safe assumption. But, on that point, would you want to nominate someone who, in their confirmation to the appellate court, received broad bipartisan support? Or would you be more inclined to put forward somebody whose confirmation fell along party lines?

    THE PRESIDENT: I can't tell you what's going to happen with the Democrats. I can say this: The person that I will be putting up - and I won't say that I've even chosen that person yet; I could say any one of the five. They're outstanding women.

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    But the person I'll be putting up is highly qualified, totally brilliant, top-of-the-line academic student, the highest credentials. All of them have that, but the highest credentials. And you'll see on Saturday who that is.

    I can't imagine why a Democrat wouldn't vote for this person, but you may be right. Frankly, I'd bet on you. I'd probably bet on you.

    Yeah, please, go ahead.

    Q Thank you very much.

    THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn't - not you. Right here.

    Q Okay.

    Q Thank you, Mr. President. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle chimed in on the U.S. election and essentially encouraged people to vote for Joe Biden. I wanted to get your reaction to that.

    THE PRESIDENT: I'm not a fan of hers. And I would say this - and she has probably has heard that - but, I wish a lot of luck to Harry because he's going to need it.

    Yeah, please. Go ahead.

    Q Mr. President, the FDA is reportedly considering stricter guidelines for the emergency authorization of a COVID vaccine. Are you okay with that?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'll tell you what, we're looking at that, and that has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move, because when you have Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, these great companies coming up with these - the vaccines, and they've done testing and everything else, I'm saying, "Why would they have to be, you know, adding great length to the process?"

    We want to have people not get sick. The vaccine is very important. It's the final step. I believe it's going to be the final step. And no, we're looking at that, but I think it's - I think that was a political move more than anything else.

    Q One follow-up on that, sir. It's designed to improve trust in the vaccine. Do you think that's not needed?

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have tremendous trust in these massive companies that are so brilliantly organized, in terms of what they've been doing with the tests. I mean, I don't know that a government, as big as we are, could do tests like this. We've made it possible for them to do the tests in rapid fashion.

    But when they come back, and they say that we have something that works and absolutely works, and they're coming back with great numbers and statistics and tests and everything else that they have to come back with, I don't see any reason why it should be delayed further. Because if they del- - delay it a week or two weeks or three weeks, you know, that's a lot of lives you're talking about.

    Scott, would you agree with that or how do you feel about that? Please, Scott.

    DR. ATLAS: Yeah, thanks. Yeah, I mean there is no - I think that people don't understand what's going on with Operation Warp Speed. It's unprecedented what's happened here.

    A typical vaccine takes roughly four years or so, and now we're going to have a vaccine - highly likely - in far less than one year, but without cutting any safety corners because the President has done things concomitant to the development of the vaccine - that is, the manufacturing and the logistics. Everything is being done at the same time, and that's never been done before.

    But there is zero cutting of safety concerns. There is - there should be no hesitation about the safety. You shouldn't be punished by doing something faster than other people could have done or thought; it's the opposite. We have a pandemic. The urgency is the pandemic, not politics.

    Q Are you amending -

    THE PRESIDENT: It sounded to me - it sounded extremely political. Why would they do this when we come back with these great results? And I think you will have those great results, because why would we -

    Q Well, when do you expect this vaccine?

    THE PRESIDENT: Why would we be delaying it? But we're going to look at it. We're going to take a look at it. And ultimately, the White House has to approve it. And maybe we will, and maybe we won't. But we'll be taking -

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    Look, I have to leave for an emergency phone call. I'm going to let Scott and Larry finish up. Larry is going to talk about the economy.

    Q Mr. President, just one more question on Breonna Taylor, if I can?

    Q What's the emergency phone call about?

    THE PRESIDENT: So I'll be - I'll be back. I will see you tomorrow. A big day.

    Q Mr. President, if you can, just one more question on Breonna Taylor.

    THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Excuse me.

    Q We're at a time right now where Americans -

    Q Who's the call?

    Q - feel like we are on this carousel -

    THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

    Q Who's the call?

    THE PRESIDENT: I have a - a big call. A very big call.

    Q Mr. President, just one more question, if I can, on Breonna Taylor?

    THE PRESIDENT: So I'll let you take over.

    Q People are protesting in the streets. What is your message to them? People feel like we are on this carousel where another black life is being taken.

    MS. MCENANY: So, here we have Dr. Scott Atlas and Larry Kudlow. I encourage you all to be respectful and show a little bit of decorum here as they take your questions.

    Q Dr. Atlas -

    DR. ATLAS: Yes. Please go ahead.

    Q Can you clarify for us your views on the impact of the virus spreading in the community? There's been some reporting that maybe you've favored or have talked about or looked at some sort of herd immunity strategy.

    You said to Fox in July that "When younger, healthier people get the disease, they don't have a problem with the disease"; "Low-risk groups getting infections is not a problem. In fact, it's a positive." Can you say what you meant by that?

    DR. ATLAS: Sure.

    Q Does that indicate that you're okay with it spreading, sort of, among younger folks who are less susceptible?

    DR. ATLAS: No, I think I've answered this multiple times, but I have never advocated a herd immunity strategy. There's never been a desire to have cases spread through the community. That's a false story. I've denied that multiple times. And I just don't - that false story doesn't seem to die. But that's a fact.

    And the description of immunity coming when people get an infection is not something I'm inventing. That - but that has never been a policy that I have advocated. There has never been a policy recommendation to pursue that to the President, and that is not the President's policy.

    Q We had 60,000 cases yesterday. Do you have any sense or does the task force have any sense of what is driving that? That's the highest level in six weeks. Why are we still seeing cases at this level?

    DR. ATLAS: Yeah. Well, I mean, there are several things to look at, but the case metric is not the most important metric.

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    The most important metric are the following: Hospitalizations per day are coming down. Deaths per day are coming down. Number of people in the hospital is 47 percent lower than it was since its peak. The number of people sick with COVID illness coming to the emergency room is 1.6 percent - as the President said, the lowest number since the pandemic began. All of these trends are positive.

    The cases, per se, are defined by tests. If I tested a million people, I would see more cases. The only thing that counts are the problems with the cases. So when we see that hospitalizations per day are coming down, people are not dying as much - these are all very positive trends, and that's exactly what we want to see.
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