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Remarks by President Trump in a Listening Session on Youth Vaping and the Electronic Cigarette Epidemic
Press Release:
White House Cabinet Room • Washington D.C. • DATE • START TIME
DR. GOZA: I'm Dr. Sally Goza. I'm a pediatrician from Fayetteville, Georgia. And I'm President-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics. And thank you so much. The children are counting on us.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much.
MR. BUTLER: Hi, I'm Christopher Butler. I'm Executive Director of Americans for Tax Reform. Thank you so much for having us. We're concerned both about the public policy implications of this for adult vapers, but also we view it as something as a prerequisite of keeping people in the Liberty Coalition that are necessary to us doing everything that we care so much about on economic acts and regulatory policy.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Very good. Thank you very much.
MR. REEDY: Good afternoon, Mr. President. I'm Gary Reedy. I am CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. And I want to thank you for making this public health epidemic a national priority.
THE PRESIDENT: So where are you? What is your stance? It's a very important position you have. What is your stance on vaping e-cigarettes? How are you - have you - have you taken a stance?
MR. REEDY: Yes, we have, and we are totally aligned and supportive with the position you took on September the 11th. We think that is a -
THE PRESIDENT: That I put forward as a concept?
MR. REEDY: That you put forward, correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Let me take a look.
MR. GROGAN: Joe Grogan, Director of the Domestic Policy Council.
MR. ELEY: Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Scott Eley. I'm the President of the American E-Liquid Manufacturing Standards Association. I know it's kind of a long; we call it "AEMSA." We were founded in 2012 and we open publish manufacturing standards for e-liquid products that anybody - any manufacturing industry may use.
THE PRESIDENT: And if you don't have high standards, you're going to have some very dangerous things happen?
MR. ELEY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That's what been happening, right?
MR. ELEY: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: Where people are using devices and other things that are not good. Right?
MR. ELEY: They have that potential. (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I see. That's a problem. Thank you.
MS. NANCE: Mr. President - Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America. And we very much support what you put forward in September. We have half a million members, many of whom are moms that are very concerned. And in addition, they asked me, begged me, (inaudible) me with notes to tell you that they love you and they support you all the way. We appreciate you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That is very nice. Thank you. That's really nice.
MR. CHAPMAN: Mr. President, thank you for having me here. I'm Tim Chapman, the Executive Director of Heritage Action. We are very concerned about this issue. We want to play an active role in helping you get to the right solutions. More importantly, we are big supporters of many of the policies you've been pushing, so thank you for that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much.
MR. WIMMER: Mr. President, thank you for the invitation to be here. My name is Harold Wimmer. I'm the President and CEO for the American Lung Association. And on behalf of our organization, I want to thank you for your leadership with bringing this issue to the public light. That - it needed to be. And for - also for you to also help us focus this on the kids and to really work on this regarding the addiction that kid have on e-cigarettes now.
THE PRESIDENT: And what is your position, may I ask?
MR. WIMMER: It's very similar to what you proposed on September 11: to ban all flavored e-cigarette products.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you.
SENATOR HOUGH: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for having me here. I'm Mike Hough; I'm a State Senator from Frederick and Carroll County. We're actually home to Camp David -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SENATOR HOUGH: So, we love to have you there. And this is my part-time job. My other job: I'm the Chief of Staff for Congressman Alex Mooney from West Virginia, so we're both big fans of yours -
THE PRESIDENT: Say hello to him.
SENATOR HOUGH: - probably second only to my wife, who was one of your original supporters after you came down the escalators.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. And say hello. Thank you.
SENATOR HOUGH: I will do that.
THE PRESIDENT: Kellyanne, go ahead.
MS. CONWAY: Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President.
Mr. President, thank you very much for not shying away and looking the other way at an emergent public health crisis and for the courage to invite people from both sides of the issue in the Cabinet Room to have this conversation. Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Kellyanne.
Mitt?
SENATOR ROMNEY: Mr. President, I'm Senator Mitt Romney. Myself and Senator Merkley have offered legislation that's very consistent with your policy from September - your discussion in September - which is to ban flavors so that we don't have kids getting hooked on nicotine products. We also insist that cartridges are tamper-proof so kids can't add contaminants to the cartridges. But that's very consistent with your point of view.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mitt. Well, this is a very big subject and it's a very complex subject. Probably a little bit less complex than some people think. But I'm here to listen and I have very divergent views.
Who would like to start? Maybe I'd ask Alex to start and give us a little bit of a background on where we are and what we're doing and what we're thinking about.
SECRETARY AZAR: Sure. Well, thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for your work and leadership on this issue. Your attention to it demonstrates your deep commitment to Americans' health and, in particular, the health and wellbeing of our youth.
While e-cigarettes can potentially be an off-ramp for adults that are addicted to combustible tobacco, we can all agree that we can't allow them to become an on-ramp to nicotine addiction and combustible tobacco use for our kids.
As the President said, we're here today to listen to you, individuals and organizations that represent many different aspects of this issue. The question of how to regulate e-cigarettes is highly complex. So it's vital to gather an array of perspectives to understand the best way to go about protecting America's youth.
So, thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this gathering today, and we all look forward to hearing from our guests.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. I do too. And I want to.
How about you start? You had an interesting point of view early on. Where do you stand?
SENATOR ADAMS: Well, I think that, you know, we clearly, in Kentucky, have a problem with teen smoking, but I think that having access to vaping products is not necessarily the answer. And it goes beyond just flavors, in my opinion. It is - we shouldn't have access for any vaping product, I think, until you're 21 years of age.
The more you introduce nicotine into a kid's brain, the more it has shown that they become addicted to other substances. So the longer that we can keep nicotine out of the hands of kids, I think it's in everyone's best interest.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things we'll be talking about will be age, because age is a big factor. And we're going to be coming up with a number. I think we have to come up with a hard number at some point, so we'll be doing that.
Let me now - so, you had something very interesting to say before. Go a step further, please. Yeah, please.
...
Read the full transcript HERE.
You can visit a collection of all White House posts by clicking here.
Go Back
DR. GOZA: I'm Dr. Sally Goza. I'm a pediatrician from Fayetteville, Georgia. And I'm President-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics. And thank you so much. The children are counting on us.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you very much.
MR. BUTLER: Hi, I'm Christopher Butler. I'm Executive Director of Americans for Tax Reform. Thank you so much for having us. We're concerned both about the public policy implications of this for adult vapers, but also we view it as something as a prerequisite of keeping people in the Liberty Coalition that are necessary to us doing everything that we care so much about on economic acts and regulatory policy.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Very good. Thank you very much.
MR. REEDY: Good afternoon, Mr. President. I'm Gary Reedy. I am CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. And I want to thank you for making this public health epidemic a national priority.
THE PRESIDENT: So where are you? What is your stance? It's a very important position you have. What is your stance on vaping e-cigarettes? How are you - have you - have you taken a stance?
MR. REEDY: Yes, we have, and we are totally aligned and supportive with the position you took on September the 11th. We think that is a -
THE PRESIDENT: That I put forward as a concept?
MR. REEDY: That you put forward, correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Let me take a look.
MR. GROGAN: Joe Grogan, Director of the Domestic Policy Council.
MR. ELEY: Good afternoon, Mr. President. My name is Scott Eley. I'm the President of the American E-Liquid Manufacturing Standards Association. I know it's kind of a long; we call it "AEMSA." We were founded in 2012 and we open publish manufacturing standards for e-liquid products that anybody - any manufacturing industry may use.
THE PRESIDENT: And if you don't have high standards, you're going to have some very dangerous things happen?
MR. ELEY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: That's what been happening, right?
MR. ELEY: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: Where people are using devices and other things that are not good. Right?
MR. ELEY: They have that potential. (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I see. That's a problem. Thank you.
MS. NANCE: Mr. President - Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America. And we very much support what you put forward in September. We have half a million members, many of whom are moms that are very concerned. And in addition, they asked me, begged me, (inaudible) me with notes to tell you that they love you and they support you all the way. We appreciate you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That is very nice. Thank you. That's really nice.
MR. CHAPMAN: Mr. President, thank you for having me here. I'm Tim Chapman, the Executive Director of Heritage Action. We are very concerned about this issue. We want to play an active role in helping you get to the right solutions. More importantly, we are big supporters of many of the policies you've been pushing, so thank you for that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much.
MR. WIMMER: Mr. President, thank you for the invitation to be here. My name is Harold Wimmer. I'm the President and CEO for the American Lung Association. And on behalf of our organization, I want to thank you for your leadership with bringing this issue to the public light. That - it needed to be. And for - also for you to also help us focus this on the kids and to really work on this regarding the addiction that kid have on e-cigarettes now.
THE PRESIDENT: And what is your position, may I ask?
MR. WIMMER: It's very similar to what you proposed on September 11: to ban all flavored e-cigarette products.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Thank you.
SENATOR HOUGH: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for having me here. I'm Mike Hough; I'm a State Senator from Frederick and Carroll County. We're actually home to Camp David -
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
SENATOR HOUGH: So, we love to have you there. And this is my part-time job. My other job: I'm the Chief of Staff for Congressman Alex Mooney from West Virginia, so we're both big fans of yours -
THE PRESIDENT: Say hello to him.
SENATOR HOUGH: - probably second only to my wife, who was one of your original supporters after you came down the escalators.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. And say hello. Thank you.
SENATOR HOUGH: I will do that.
THE PRESIDENT: Kellyanne, go ahead.
MS. CONWAY: Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President.
Mr. President, thank you very much for not shying away and looking the other way at an emergent public health crisis and for the courage to invite people from both sides of the issue in the Cabinet Room to have this conversation. Thank you, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Kellyanne.
Mitt?
SENATOR ROMNEY: Mr. President, I'm Senator Mitt Romney. Myself and Senator Merkley have offered legislation that's very consistent with your policy from September - your discussion in September - which is to ban flavors so that we don't have kids getting hooked on nicotine products. We also insist that cartridges are tamper-proof so kids can't add contaminants to the cartridges. But that's very consistent with your point of view.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mitt. Well, this is a very big subject and it's a very complex subject. Probably a little bit less complex than some people think. But I'm here to listen and I have very divergent views.
Who would like to start? Maybe I'd ask Alex to start and give us a little bit of a background on where we are and what we're doing and what we're thinking about.
SECRETARY AZAR: Sure. Well, thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for your work and leadership on this issue. Your attention to it demonstrates your deep commitment to Americans' health and, in particular, the health and wellbeing of our youth.
While e-cigarettes can potentially be an off-ramp for adults that are addicted to combustible tobacco, we can all agree that we can't allow them to become an on-ramp to nicotine addiction and combustible tobacco use for our kids.
As the President said, we're here today to listen to you, individuals and organizations that represent many different aspects of this issue. The question of how to regulate e-cigarettes is highly complex. So it's vital to gather an array of perspectives to understand the best way to go about protecting America's youth.
So, thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this gathering today, and we all look forward to hearing from our guests.
THE PRESIDENT: Good. I do too. And I want to.
How about you start? You had an interesting point of view early on. Where do you stand?
SENATOR ADAMS: Well, I think that, you know, we clearly, in Kentucky, have a problem with teen smoking, but I think that having access to vaping products is not necessarily the answer. And it goes beyond just flavors, in my opinion. It is - we shouldn't have access for any vaping product, I think, until you're 21 years of age.
The more you introduce nicotine into a kid's brain, the more it has shown that they become addicted to other substances. So the longer that we can keep nicotine out of the hands of kids, I think it's in everyone's best interest.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, one of the things we'll be talking about will be age, because age is a big factor. And we're going to be coming up with a number. I think we have to come up with a hard number at some point, so we'll be doing that.
Let me now - so, you had something very interesting to say before. Go a step further, please. Yeah, please.
...
Read the full transcript HERE.
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