REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump on Safely Reopening America’s Schools
EDUCATION
Issued on: July 7, 2020
East Room
3:12 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. It’s an honor to be with everybody, and very importantly, we’re at the White House, and there’s no place like the White House. And for those of you that this is the first time, I know exactly what you’re thinking, because I was here a first time, and it was still something I’ll never forget.
So it’s great to have you. And our First Lady and I are pleased to welcome everybody to this wonderful place and discuss the vital importance of safety and reopening America’s schools. We want to reopen the schools. Everybody wants it. The moms want it, the dads want it, the kids want it. It’s time to do it.
You know, our mortality rate is, right now, at a level that people don’t talk about, but it’s down tenfold. Tenfold. So if you look at — deaths are way down from this horrible China virus, and it’s a disgrace that it happened. It shouldn’t have happened, but it did.
{snip}
But the numbers are — the testing numbers are the highest they’ve ever been. We’re almost up to 40 million in testing and — 40 million people, which is unheard of. Far more than any other country. Many times what any other country is, and therefore we have more cases. Because we’re doing more testing, we have more cases. If we did half the testing, we would have far fewer cases. But people don’t view it that way. What they have to view, though, is: If you look at the chart — and maybe Mike has it, but we looked at it before — if you look at the chart of deaths, deaths are way down.
{snip}
Mike, please.
THE VICE PRESIDENT:
Well, thank you, Mr. President, and thank you for your leadership; I have seen it day in and day out since you asked me to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
{snip}
We’re going to continue to flow these resources in this guidance, but as Dr. Redfield told all the nation’s governors today —
and I want to acknowledge Governor Parson’s leadership and his presence here today; we’re truly grateful — is that what you’ve instructed our task force to do and the CDC to do in this moment is to say to states around the country in the local communities, “We’re here to help.” The CDC has issued guidance, but that guidance is meant to supplement and not replace state, local, territorial, or tribal guidance.
{snip}
THE SECOND LADY: Thank you, Mr. President.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, Karen. I appreciate it. And I see Dr. Redfield over in the audience, and I appreciate it. And I know you’d like to see everybody coming back and getting back to school in the fall. And I’ve read everything you’ve written, and I appreciate that very much, Doctor. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Governor, please.
I thought we’d maybe — we’ll go around the room real quickly. We’ll go quickly, and we’ll get everybody to say a few words and we’ll start with our Governor.
GOVERNOR PARSON: Thank you, Mr. President. As you said, when you come here, I’m just honored and humbled to be here sitting with you, the Vice President, the First Lady, and the Second Lady.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s our honor.
GOVERNOR PARSON: Those dreams you think about someday, I never imagined them being reality, but here we are.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s great.
GOVERNOR PARSON: And so it’s an honor to be here today.
Let me — let me first start off by just saying thanks to the President, the Vice President for what they’ve done over the last — well, since they’ve been in office, to say the least — but over the last 17, 18 weeks, they’ve been on the phone every week. The President himself has been. And I don’t mean for five minutes to say, “Hello, governors” and “see you later.” In-depth conversation with governors across this state. The Vice President has been there for almost 17 to 18 weeks. I know that I’ve been following with them. And the one thing they’ve stressed every day on those phone calls, every week, they’re trying to do the best thing for this country and for the everyday people out there, and they were trying to make their full support to the governors across this state.
And I just want to thank you for doing that —
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
GOVERNOR PARSON: — for leading, as what good leaders do at times of crisis. And I just want to thank you for that.
{snip}
DR. GOZA: Good afternoon, Mr. President. I’m delighted to join you, the First Lady, the Vice President, and the Second Lady here today to talk about why it’s important for children to be in school.
My name is Dr. Sally Goza. I’m a pediatrician from Georgia, and I’m president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
{snip. The
American Academy of Pediatrics is not the right wing association. That group is the
American College of Pediatricians.}
SECRETARY AZAR: Well, thank you, Mr. President.
.snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Do you have tests right now that says — say, “It does work”?
SECRETARY AZAR: Well, you’ve got the initial trial work that Regeneron did, and that’s why we’re investing in the late-stage development of it.
But then we have these other three therapies that, thanks to your leadership, we now — we have so many more tools than we had three months ago in terms of therapeutics.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for that.
MR. DALY: —
thank the First Lady, Vice President Pence, and the Second Lady for your leadership of our country, really during a very difficult time, for the First Lady’s love and protection of children is very, very important to me. And being a father of four kids — three daughters and a son — it is very important.
{snip}
But I can’t thank you enough for your leadership of our country. And thank you for this honor.
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MS. AICHHOLZ: Mr. Trump — Mr. President and First Lady, Vice President Pence and Mrs. Pence: First, I just would like you to know that I personally pray for you daily, all four of you. I cannot imagine the burdens on your shoulders. And I know that it’s only through God that you can handle that. And I’m so —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s not easy — (laughter) — that I can tell you.
MS. AICHHOLZ: I so, so appreciate what —
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That’s very nice of you, Nancy.
MS. AICHHOLZ: — all that you’ve done.
I am the president of our school board in the great state of Ohio, in Cincinnati, in Dean Hill. And we are very actively working to get our children back in school full-time, all together, as safe as possible. We are fortunate that we have a lot of resources and we’re able to do that.
My biggest concern — and I hope, through your leadership, we will not have over-regulation at the local level that would keep us from being able to accomplish that goal.
{snip}
MS. ROLLINS: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m Brooke Rollins, the President’s Domestic Policy Chief. And — and while I sit here and listen to everyone, I’m struck — I don’t know that the world understands, but I think it’s so important:
We have a President who was arguably one of the most successful businessmen in the history of our country; the First Lady, who has spent her time and her talent and her extraordinary skill on focusing on the wellbeing of children; we have a Vice President who is one of the most successful governors in the history of our country; and we have a Second Lady who has a career and is focused on being a teacher and an educator. This is the dream team. I don’t know that there will ever be another leadership team like the four of you to lead this country back to even greater heights than it was ever before.
{snip}
SECRETARY DEVOS:
Thank you, Mr. President, Mrs. Trump, Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Pence. Mr. President, thank you for your bold leadership and for convening us here today for this vital conversation.
It’s clear our nation’s schools must fully reopen and fully operate this school year. Anything short of that robs students, not to mention taxpayers, of their futures — and their futures represent our nation’s future. So it’s not a question of “if”; it’s just a question of “how.”
We had a good discussion today on how to ensure schools reopen and education continues in ways that keeps students and teachers healthy and safe. Under the President’s strong leadership, our economy is roaring back; our schools must do the same.
{snip}
This moment demands actions, not excuse making or fear mongering. We’ve done whatever it takes before. And as Kellyanne said earlier — and as you’ve often said, Mr. President — we’ve dug out the Panama Canal; we’ve won World Wars; we’ve reduced the Berlin Wall to rubble; and, thanks to you, we’ve defeated ISIS.
With grit, determination, and grace, we can do what’s right for all students and ensure they are back in school. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Betsy. Appreciate it. Very nice. Please.
{snip}
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Great job, too.
So I want to thank everybody, and I want to just say: Get open in the fall. We want your schools open. It’s going to be a much better climate than it is right now. We’re on the right side of things — Deborah, I think we can say that. A lot of work has been done, and we understand what we’re doing very, very well. Again, mortality rate: the lowest anywhere in the world. And we want to get this done, and we want to get our country going again.
Economically, we’re doing well. We want to do well with the education. I see where Harvard announced that they’re closing for the season or for the year. I think it’s ridiculous. I think it’s an easy way out. And I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves, you want to know the truth. But I noticed that today, and probably others are doing that. That’s called the easy way out.
I don’t know if people are helping them. I guess their endowment is plenty big; they don’t have a problem with that. But that’s not what we want to do.
Because it’s very important — as so many of the parents and instructors said today, it’s so important that the children — at this age, especially — that they’re together, they’re together on campus. And that’s what we’re striving for, and we’re going to be very strong on that. We’re going to be very, very powerful on that view. We want our schools open in the fall.
Tomorrow, I’m meeting with the President of Mexico. I say that to the media because it’s going to be quite a meeting. He’s a good man. He’s a friend of mine. And we have a great relationship with Mexico. So we’ll be meeting tomorrow.
Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Congratulations, everybody. Thank you.
END
4:34 P.M. EDT
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