BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE PRESIDENT’S STRATEGIC NATIONAL STOCKPILE ANNOUNCEMENT

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 BACKGROUND PRESS CALL BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS ON THE PRESIDENT’S STRATEGIC NATIONAL STOCKPILE ANNOUNCEMENT Via Teleconference 11:03 A.M. EDT MR. GIDLEY:  Thank you, Nick.  Good morning, everyone.  Thanks so much for taking the time to join this background briefing regarding the National Stockpile.  The ground rules are as follows: The information on this call is on background and can be attributable to a “senior administration official.”  And the content will be embargoed until 12:30. As a reminder, by participating in the call, you are agreeing to the ground rules that I have set forth.  We have several administration officials on the call.  [Senior administration official] is here.  [Senior administration official] is here.  The [senior administration official] for HHS and [senior administration official]. And with that, I’ll turn the call over to [senior administration official], and then we’ll take some questions.      SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great.  Thank you very much, Hogan.  And thank you all for joining us.  I’ll give a quick overview, and then I’ll pass it over to [senior administration official] and then to [senior administration official]. Basically, we’re in a time now where we’re crossing a great threshold where we’re starting to have a lot of supply in the country and we’re focusing on the reopening.  We’re focusing on getting more supply into the country.  We’re focusing on building capacity.  And we’re focusing on redoing the Stockpile, based on everything that we’ve learned over the last couple of months, to make sure that the country has increased preparedness and increased ability to move forward. Starting with where we were after the 2009 pandemic, they did not restock the Stockpile.  They depleted a lot of the masks.  So we had a combination of a low stockpile, a lot of the materials are not made in America, and then also the Stockpile didn’t have enough of the SKUs that are needed to deal with a pandemic.  The number that we have is, only 28 percent of what was needed for a COVID patient was actually in the Stockpile.  And on the shelf, which was not replaced, you only had one to three weeks of supply for different supplies. So what we’re doing today is we’re going to be touring Owens & Minor in Pennsylvania.  That’s one of the distribution facilities that helped do a lot of great work that we had.  It helped us identify a lot of the needs throughout the country and then also distribute it. [Senior administration official] will talk about the new model we’re going to be putting in place, what our ambitions are, and then obviously talk about Project Airbridge, which was a great success at bringing over badly needed medical supplies in record time, in record volume, in order to meet the needs during the pandemic, and then talk about what we’re going to be stocking on the shelf, how we’re going to have more range and more depth to the different supplies that we’re going to have, and then how we’re going to basically have, you know, surge capacity and the ability, as Admiral Polowczyk says, “to reload the chamber” to continue to be prepared for whatever comes. And so we’re also going to focus on ways that we saw certain flaws in how the Stockpile was run that we’re going to be changing in this go-around. So this is about making sure that America is prepared for whatever comes in the future.  This is about bringing jobs and manufacturing back to America.  And this is about a much more efficient manufacturing and stockpile process, so that going forward, America is able to respond in record -- even faster than we did this time. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Thanks.  [Senior administration official] here.  So let me just run through a few items, and then I’ll -- then I’ll end with -- I’ll end with Airbridge. So the Supply Chain Task Force has spent some time aggregating demand across the commercial, across the healthcare/medical supply chain.  So we -- we think we have a well-defined understanding of 30, 60, 90 days’ worth of demand.  And so we’ll be working to put that on the shelves in a manner where the Stockpile isn’t just a singular purchase. I brought forward some ways that DOD manages strategic stockpiles of items.  One way is shelf life management.  To allow -- to have a large 90-day supply of something to sit on the shelf, that has a shelf life, one must be able to rotate it.  And one of the ways that -- the National Stockpile is, if we have this in our commercial marketplace, a commercial marketplace can -- you know, if we put 100 boxes of something on the shelf, as long as there are 100 boxes there when we call upon them, that will be the end state.  But the commercial marketplace can issue restock -- issue restock to maintain shelf life.  It’s a commonly used inventory management practice that DOD does for commercial-like items. The second thing is access to surge capacity.  Another vignette that I’ll use here is from the DOD.  In my previous job as [redacted] I managed the [redacted].  Well, the Navy has lots of Tomahawk cruise missiles in its magazines, but we still buy Tomahawk cruise missiles every year and keep those production lines warm to be able to surge when needed. So that’ll be another element of the National Stockpile going forward, which will be access to domestic production.  And so that should be viewed not as a light switch, but as a rheostat.  That as we send those rather large demand signals to industry as manufacturing is brought back to America, a element of the National Stockpile will be accessed to surge manufacturing capability to meet those needs.  As if you issue those supplies out of the National Stockpile, then you can surge manufacturing as you go forward. I think I'll end there. And then for Project Airbridge, if you remember, I was moved from the Department of Defense in mid-March and quickly understood that, unfortunately, we don’t make a lot of these products in America.  And so the quickest way to get it here was to fly it.  And so through FEMA and Health and Human Services, we identified the items that were in critical short supply and flew those for -- either for direct purchase from FEMA or assisted the commercial marketplace to get their products here faster, to do everything we could to get needed supplies to healthcare workers on the frontlines. I look forward to your questions today.  Thank you very much. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Hey, this is [senior administration official.]  As, Hogan mentioned, I'm the [redacted] over at HHS.  And several weeks ago, Jared and the President asked us to collaborate along with FEMA and with Admiral Polowczyk and actually with the Department of Defense to take a look at our Strategic National Stockpile.  And if I had one sentence for you: What we're doing is creating a much more robust, a much more capable, and much less vulnerable Strategic National Stockpile. And you've heard the others talk about it, but it's been over a decade since we've had our last major kind of outbreak of H1N1, and the world has changed from a technology standpoint, from a clinical care standpoint, and from where domestic versus foreign manufacturing is. So, we are restructuring a whole series of relationships internally with DOD, FEMA, and HHS to respond more effectively, as well as externally, with external stakeholders -- the states, hospitals, distributors, manufacturers. So I think if you want to take away just two things, it is, again: We're going to have a much more robust, more capable, and less vulnerable Strategic National Stockpile.  And this is going to require the permanent restructuring of a whole series of relationships using information technology and contracting capabilities very differently than anyone has in the past. And I'll pause. MR. GIDLEY:  Great.  Thank you very much.  We're going to open up for questions.  But just as a reminder for everyone, the information on this call is on background and can be attributable to "senior administration officials," and the embargo is until 12:30. With that, we'll open up for some questions. Q    Hi, thanks for taking the call.  You said that after 2009, that the National Stockpile was not replenished.  But as of 2010, an article in the CDC's Emerging Infectious Disease journal said that there were 9,000 ventilators in the stockpile.  Is that not true? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I was basing my comment based on a Wall Street Journal article that basically said that in 2009 -- we're talking about masks.  But do you want to go through it, [senior administration official]? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah, just real quickly, I'll give you some facts.  Before H1N1 in 2009, we had over 100 million N95 masks in the stockpile.  And these are facts from our own Strategic National Stockpile leaders.  During that -- I don’t want to call it a pandemic, but during that event, they handed out 90 million of those masks to the states.  They were never replenished.  So when we started addressing COVID in January, we had 13 million N95 masks in the stockpile.  That’s precisely the number we had right after H1N1 in 2009-2010.  So it was severely depleted after H1N1.  Never replenished. Q    Hi, guys.  This is Blake Burman over at Fox Business.  Thanks for doing this.  Appreciate it.  I have a question for you since we've seen the bottom fall out of the labor market.  Have you -- do you have any modelling or any answers or any guess as to building up this stockpile, how many jobs that might save, how many jobs that might create since some of this now is being done in the U.S.?  And do you have a figure or a guess as to what that might mean, either over the last couple of months or in the upcoming months, or years even, going forward? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yes.  It's [senior administration official] again.  Thank you for the question.  Just a couple of things.  We're trying to address with this initiative two separate parts of the economy.  First and foremost, we are rebuilding the stockpile such that we are fortified against the resurgence of COVID -- a potential resurgence of COVID or any other upper respiratory pandemic.  So that’s job one. But as you heard [senior administration official] talk about this, a second part of it has to do with tremendous expansion of domestic capacity to manufacture these items.  And we’re already in the process of expanding that capacity.  Several companies have done that.  And much of that, we anticipate, will go toward the labor markets and the other sectors of the economy.  So we’re doing that for both purposes. I can’t give you an estimate of how many jobs that will save or how many people will go back to work.  But we do know that masks and protective equipment are essential for many workers who have interactions with their customers and coworkers every day.  So we’re cognizant of that. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  And I’ll just add that a big part of this effort is to make sure that people can go back to the work in the fall because not only we’ll be prepared if something comes up, but also the more that we stimulate the domestic supply and bring the supply into America, the more that industry and people will have the masks and protective equipment they need to safely return to work.  So getting this done is just a strategic effort. And if you think about why, obviously, we had to go into intense mitigation early on, it was because we were fearful of not having the hospital capacity, not having the ventilator capacity, not having enough critical supplies, not having enough tests.  And I think that now that we’ve caught up on all these items, we’re making sure that, as we go into the fall, we’re in a position where America never has to shut down again.  And a big part of this is giving people the confidence that we’re very focused so that that will be the case. Q    Hi.  Thanks, guys, for holding this call.  I wondered if you guys -- you guys spoke about just changing the relationships and utilizing IT.  If you can give an example of that.  And then also, I mean, how you, kind of, send that market signal to domestic companies to expand capacity or, if they’re offshore, bring that capacity back home.     SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  [Senior administration official], do you want to take this one? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Yeah.  Sure.  Will do.  So one of things you have to understand is you can’t manage a supply chain unless you can see it.  And so one of the efforts that we did very early within the supply chain task force is we put together multiple business systems from across industry that’s providing, you know, 85, 90 percent of the supply chain capacity to the hospitals. We (inaudible) their business systems together to understand what’s coming in through the supply chain and where it’s going.  So we have visibility of the distribution. Going forward to support Health and Human Services, we are going to also bring in hospital information -- what’s on the shelves in the hospitals and how much they’re burning through, utilizing supplies.  Along with, as we expand industrial production capacity, bringing in manufacturing (inaudible) where we can. And so as you manage the National Stockpile, you’ll have visibility across the supply chain to see areas where the hospitalization information has now led to increased utilization of supplies.  You can make informed allocation decisions from the National Stockpile to those areas, and then also make informed decisions of, “Do I need to surge manufacturing capacity to add more back into the Stockpile.”  Not some -- not an IT solution that we have today, but that is being built out over time. Thank you. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  I thought we'd just maybe offer a couple of numbers.  I think [senior administration official] introduced this at the beginning.  But just to put this into perspective: When COVID broke out in the U.S., we had one to three weeks’ worth of supply for most of the items in our stockpile.  And that was based on a retrospective look on how much the surge demand was for certain products. We are going to have a full 90 days’ worth.  And I think what the Admiral was talking about is, the 90 days is a buffer while we stand up surge capacity in the manufacturing markets.  So we feel -- we'll feel much more secure about that. The second thing that [senior administration official] alluded to was, of all of the items that a COVID patient in a hospital consumes during a length of stay, we only carried only 28 percent of those stock-keeping units, so to speak.  We didn’t carry a lot of the critical care drugs.  You've heard a lot about this.  We did not carry testing supplies.  These were never in the Strategic National Stockpile.  They will be in the Strategic National Stockpile going forward.  So a much broader and much deeper kind of set of supplies to keep America safe. MR. GIDLEY:  Yeah, we'll do one more question. Q    Hey, thanks so much for doing this.  I had a question for [senior administration official] as well as [senior administration official].  To [senior administration official], if you could, could you just explain a little bit more of what the surge manufacturing is?  Is that like keeping the DPA ready to go to make sure these manufacturing plants keep or have the ability to produce this vital medical needed essentials, the PPEs? And for, [senior administration official], I was hoping to ask you, how does this fit into, kind of, like the bigger picture of the President's America First priority? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.  [Senior administration official], do you want to go first? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Sure.  Thank you.  So I like to think of it this way: The demand for N95 masks, pre-COVID, was -- for the medical community, was somewhere around 30, 35 million masks a month.  The COVID demand is well above that.  And so what we’ll need -- I’d like you to think of it this way: Once we get -- you know, you get through COVID period, there’ll be a steady-state medical supply demand that the American manufacturing will satisfy. Health and Human Services will then -- like I mentioned with Tomahawk cruise missiles -- we’ll enter into contract to maintain capacity, keep another line open, buy additional supplies to rotate stock into the (inaudible) of the National Stockpile for items that have shelf life. So think of it as doing the strategic things to keep capacity readily available and not another use of the Defense Production Act to create another facility, which takes time.  It’s easier to keep production lines warm than it is to build one from new. SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:  Great.  And my guess is -- this is [senior administration official] -- in terms of America First, I think that, you know, a lot of people are saying that, you know, this pandemic in some ways has really reaffirmed the things that the President was talking about on the campaign trail, which was that America needs to -- you know, we can’t be reliant on other nations.  We need to make things here.  We need to keep jobs here in America.  We need to keep capacity here in America.  We need to control our borders.  And we have to be wary about offshoring our critical supplies to other countries because it creates a real vulnerability. So, you know, America First, you know, for the President means that, in every decision he makes, he’s looking out for American citizens and saying what’s best for American citizens.  This is the big step in the direction towards making critical products here in the USA, using, you know, American manufacturing might. He wants to keep the jobs here, create more jobs, and then hopefully -- you know, ventilators is a great example, where, you know, last year, America made 30,000 ventilators.  Everyone in the world was panicking for ventilators.  We got the manufacturing ramped up very quickly.  We used the Defense Production Act.  American ingenuity and creativity is the greatest in the world.  And we’re going to create about 200,000 ventilators.  We took care of American citizens first.  We got ventilators to New York, to New Jersey, to Louisiana, to Michigan, to Colorado, to everywhere that needed ventilators. And then now that we have an excess and the stockpile is building up, the President has been talking to allies in other countries and he’s been sending them out to other countries now that America is taken care of. So the same thing can happen with a lot of this critical supplies, whether it’s drug manufacturing, whether it’s masks, whether it’s swabs, whatever the product line is. What we’re finding now is now as we’re surpassing tests; we’ve done now over 10 million tests and we’re growing rapidly.  We’re the number one in the world by far.  A lot of countries are asking us if we can -- if we have excess production, if we’re able to supply them with tests.  And we’re almost in a position where we can start, you know, helping other countries ramp up as well. So I think that it’s America leading in the world.  We’re a leader in innovation.  We have the greatest private sector.  And when the government and the private sector partner to take on a challenge, America becomes unstoppable.  So -- SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And this is [senior administration official], just to review a couple of numbers again.  I mentioned at the start of the pandemic we had 13 million N95 masks.  We have an aspiration to eventually have a billion of those.  We’re not going to have all of those in the next 90 days, for the fall.  But we do anticipate having 300 million.  So you can do the math: 13 million to 300 million.  We have 2 million gowns.  We expect to have 6 to 7 million gowns. For many of the critical-care drugs that are necessary for people on ventilators, we had zero.  And we will have millions of milliliters of those and able to take out -- to take care of any type of surge we anticipate in the fall or beyond. So just to give you a little bit of the magnitude, that is what is going to be stocked to take care of the American people. MR. GIDLEY:  Thanks, everybody.  And just as a quick reminder as we wrap up, for the embargo time, it’s 12:30.  The call is on background from a “senior administration official.”  So you can file in about an hour. Thanks for the time.  Appreciate it.                               END       11:28 A.M. EDT

CORRECTED: Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Governor Polis of Colorado and Governor Burgum of North Dakota

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP IN A MEETING WITH GOVERNOR POLIS OF COLORADO AND GOVERNOR BURGUM OF NORTH DAKOTA    Cabinet Room May 13, 2020   **See correction marked by an asterisk below.** 4:41 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  It’s great to be with the Governor of Colorado and the Governor of North Dakota, two governors that are working very hard -- harder than they thought they’d have to work.  We also have two very distinguished senators that you know very much: Senator Gardner, who you know, and -- John, say hello.  Say hello to the fake news. SENATOR HOEVEN:  It’s great to be here.  Thank you, Mr. President.  We appreciate the invitation.  And, of course, appreciate all the support you’re giving us -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. SENATOR HOEVEN:  -- and the leadership of our governors. THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  It’s been -- and that’s what we’re doing.  That’s what we’re here for -- to do that and to talk about it.  We just came out with a new listing on testing.  We just cracked 10 million tests, which is here.  I thought you’d like to show that to everybody.  Ten million.  We set an all-time record, by far.  If you look down here, these are other countries that have not done anywhere near what we’re doing.     We’re double.  If you add them up and double them, we’ve done more tests.  But I can’t get the press to print that, unfortunately.  They just don’t want to print it. But I want to thank the governors for being here, very much.  We appreciate it.  We’re going to have some good, fruitful talks about going even to the next step.  And I know you’re trying to open up, and I know you’re opening up.  You’re sort of more than trying; you’re opening up.  And you’re both -- you’re both doing an excellent job, and it’s an honor to have you at the White House very much.  And these two gentlemen have done a fantastic job. And David you know from Interior, and David is very much involved with your states.  And how are they doing, David?  What do you think? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Fantastic. THE PRESIDENT:  I think so.  They’re doing a good job.  They really are.  They’re doing a good job. We’re talking about, as you know, Space Force, and a lot of the states are interested in Space Force.  And we’re talking to some of them, and I know that Colorado is very interested in it, and so we’ll be talking to you about that too.  Okay?  We might mention that today a little bit during our meeting. So thank you all very much.  Thank you. Q    Mr. President, what’s your advice to administrators and school principals around the country in terms of their plans to reopen school and colleges in the fall? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I think they should open the schools, absolutely.  I think they should.  And it’s had very little impact on young people.  And I think that if you’re an instructor, if you’re a teacher, a professor, and you’re over a certain age -- like, let’s say, 65 or maybe even, if you want to be conservative, 60 -- perhaps you want to stay out for a little while longer. But I think you should absolutely open the schools.  Our country has got to get back, and it’s got to get back as soon as possible.  And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.  And it’s had very little -- a very unusual situation.  It’s had very little impact on young people.  And I would strongly say they should open.  It’s up to the governors.   It’s the governors’ choice.  But their state is not open if the schools aren’t open.  So, again, it’s had very little impact on young people, and I think they should open their schools. Q    Mr. President, Senator Graham is introducing a bill to sanction China.  Would you support it if it goes to the House and it comes to your desk?  Do you support that bill? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I respect Lindsey Graham, and I’ll certainly look at it.  The bill to sanction China -- so I’ll certainly take a look at it.  I have not seen it yet. Q    Do you want to comment on the release of those names related to Michael Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the unmasking is a massive -- it’s a massive thing.  It’s -- I just got a list.  It’s -- who can believe a thing like this?  And I watched Biden yesterday on “Good Morning America” being interviewed by one of your colleagues, George Stephanopoulos, and he said he knew nothing about anything.  He has no idea.  He knows nothing about anything.  Nothing at all. And then it gets released today that he was a big unmasker.  So how do you know nothing if you’re one of the unmaskers?  It’s one of the very big stories, and I suspect you’ll have, if it’s possible, even bigger stories coming out. Q    A follow-up on a separate subject, sir.  We’ve had a number of explosions in Afghanistan.  Are you concerned that that peace deal may be falling apart? THE PRESIDENT:  Look, Afghanistan -- we’ve been there for many years.  We’re like a police force.  We’re not fighting in Afghanistan; we’re a police force in Afghanistan.  And at some point, they’re going to have to be able to take care of their country, and they’re going to have to be able to police their country. But we’re not meant to be a police force; we’re meant to be fighters.  And we’ve been there for a long time.  So, I don't know, we’ll have to see.  I have not heard that, Steve.  We have had -- in Kabul, we’ve had some, I understand, some pretty big blowups. Q    Yes. THE PRESIDENT:  But again, you count on the government to be able to police themselves, and they’re having a hard time, I suspect. But, again, we are the greatest fighting force in the world.  We’re not a police force that’s going to stay around, and police the streets, and check out the red lights and traffic.  It’s not what we’re supposed to be doing.  Been there a long time. You know, our force is down quite a bit, as you know.  We’re way down.  And a lot of people have come back, brought them back.  But the government has to be able, at some point, to do something for themselves. Okay? Q    Mr. President, Chairman Powell today said both that he wasn’t interested in bringing interest rates negative and that he saw a need for additional stimulus from Congress.  I know that you’ve said we could wait and see on the stimulus and that you want negative rates, so I was wondering your reaction to that. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m a believer in negative rates only if other countries that are competitors -- look, Germany, they’re an ally, they’re friends of ours, but they’re still competitors on trade and other things.  So Germany, Japan, others have negative rates.  And I think if they do, we’re the most prime of the world. You know, where it’s based -- many countries based on the dollar.  The dollar is by far the strongest, most powerful currency in the world.  We’ve made it more powerful and we’ve made it stronger.  And certainly, if they’re going to have the advantage of negative rates, we should too.  I feel strongly we should have negative rates.  Negative rates is basically where they pay you interest if you borrow money.  This is a new one.  I’ve been looking for something like that all my life.  That’s a pretty good one. But certainly if other countries are going to be paid for putting out money -- I mean, they’re -- think of it: They’re borrowing money, and instead of paying interest, they’re getting paid.  It’s the craziest thing. But you know what?  Other countries are doing it.  Look at Germany, look at Japan, look at others, and we’re the most prime in the world right now.  And we have the -- we have the currency and we have the power of the dollar. So I know that the Chairman has -- and he’s done a very good job over the last couple of months, I have to tell you that, because I’ve been critical.  But in many ways, I call him my “MIP.”  Do you know what an “MIP” is?  “Most Improved Player.”  It’s called the “Most Improved Player Award.”  Did you ever get one of them when you were playing baseball, Cory?  A good baseball player? SENATOR GARDNER:  Certainly not.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  The Chairman, he’s my MIP right now, for the last few months.  I think he’s done a very good job.  I disagree with him on one thing now, and that’s negative rates.  And only because we’re paying zero.  Good news: With this money you’re talking about on the stimulus, we’re paying zero.  We’re down to zero interest. That’s good, but some countries -- countries and some states, rather, and some, also, countries you look at -- but we are paying, right now, zero, and other countries are paying less than that, if you can believe it.  They’re receiving money, and I think we should be in the exact same situations. And, by the way, states are getting tremendous deals on borrowing.  So a lot of the states that are coming to the federal government, they can go out and they can borrow, and they’re getting phenomenal rates.  Some of our states is what I’m talking about.  They’re getting phenomenal borrowing rates. Q    But you agree that stimulus should move forward?  There’s been some Republicans who suggest that they should wait and see. THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t know.  It depends.  Certainly not the package that I saw today.  Basically, if you look at that package, what they want more than anything else is -- it’s a voting package.  They want to be able to make sure that Republicans can’t win an election by putting in all sorts of mail-in ballots. Now, I don’t know if you knew because the press doesn’t report this too much, but we had two very big victories last night.  We won very big.  Tom Tiffany won very big in the great state of Wisconsin.  You saw that.  That was -- last night it came in.  That was a big one.  You saw that, Doug.  And won by a very, very substantial margin. And in California, of all places, we had a fantastic race.  And this was all mail-in ballots.  This was all mailed ballots.  And when they saw -- because it was mailed, they saw they were losing three days ago, and they ended up putting polling booths in, into basically Democrat areas.  But despite that, it’s looking like Mike Garcia -- I don’t know if they’ve called the race yet, but he was substantially ahead.  That’s the problem with mail-in ballots.  Are they going to dump a whole pile of ballots on your desk just before the election? So the problem with the mail-in ballots: It’s subject to tremendous corruption.  Tremendous corruption, cheating.  And so I’m -- I’m against it.  And if you look at the bill that Nancy Pelosi is putting in, it has a lot to do with elections.  And then we’re not going to -- we’re not going to lose elections because of that. Q    Was that bill a non-starter?  Or is there any -- THE PRESIDENT:  And I do think you should mention the fact that the Republicans won two major congressional seats last night.  I think it’s really worthy of mentioning. Q    Is that House bill a non-starter? Q    Mr. President, do you believe that the judge presiding over the Mike Flynn case, Emmet Sullivan -- THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let’s finish with your question. Q    Is that bill a non-starter, or is there anything in there you could support?  Or -- THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it’s, as they say, “DOA.”  Right? Q    Okay. THE PRESIDENT:  DOA. Q    Okay. THE PRESIDENT:  Dead on arrival.  Of course, Nancy Pelosi knows that, you know, obviously. Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Do you believe that the judge presiding over the Michael Flynn case, Emmet Sullivan, ought to recuse himself or be disqualified for being biased against Mr. Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  I was just with General Milley and some other generals, and I asked them about General Flynn: “Do you know him?”  They said, “Yes, sir.  I’ve known him for 20 years.”  “What do you think?”  “He’s an incredible man, an incredible soldier.  He’s an incredible general.”  This is General Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four star.  He’s done fantastically.  He thinks General Flynn is a great, great gentleman and a real fighter. And when I see what is happening to him, it’s disgraceful.  And it was all a ruse.  And, by the way, the FBI said he didn’t lie.  The FBI said he did not lie.  So with all the stuff I’m hearing about lying, the FBI said he didn’t lie.  But the sleazebag said, “Well, we don’t care what he -- what they say.  We’re saying he lied.”  Okay?  But the FBI, you remember, when they left, they said, “He didn’t lie.”  What they’ve done to that man and that family is a disgrace.  But I just tell you that because I just left General Milley, and he said, “A great man and a great soldier.”  Isn't that a shame. Q    Would you consider a pardon -- a pardon for Mr. Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we’ll* I won’t talk about that, but he’s going to be okay.  He’s going to be just fine. Q    What about the judge? THE PRESIDENT:  And I’m very, very saddened by what’s happening to General Flynn and others.  I want to tell you right now: and others. Please. Q    Dr. Fauci yesterday was a little cautious on reopening the economy too soon.  Do you share his concerns? THE PRESIDENT:  About reopening what? Q    Reopening the economy too soon, some states. THE PRESIDENT:  Look, he wants to play all sides of the equation.  I think we’re going to have a tremendous fourth quarter, I think we’re going to have a transitional third quarter, and I think we’re going to have a phenomenal next year.  I feel that we are going to have a country that’s ready to absolutely have one of its best years. Next year, with all of the stimulus and all of the fact that it’s a –- it’s a pent-up demand like I haven’t seen.  And you see it right now.  These two really professional, good governors that do such a -- you know, work so hard, I know both of them very well.  One happens to be a Democrat, okay?  But we’ve worked together, and I think we’ve worked together very well.  And, one, you would expect me to say that, but it happens to be true, okay?  Really good job too.     But we’ve worked very, very well together.  They want to get their states open.  Some governors and some, perhaps, partisans, maybe for election reasons, don’t want to have their states opened.  And then some shouldn’t open them quite yet.  You know, they’re not ready.  They went through a lot, and they’re not quite ready. But, no, we’re opening our country.  People want it open.  The schools are going to be open.  I was seeing the other day: Purdue, great school, great college, university -- and Purdue is opening and others are opening, and they’re all announcing it.  These are young people.  These are students.  Young students.  They’re in great shape.  They’re in great shape. Now, when you have an incident, one out of a million, one out of five hundred thou- -- will something happen?  Perhaps.  But, you know, you can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too.  So, no, we’re going to open our country, and we want it open. Q    Sir, when you say Dr. Fauci is playing both sides, are you suggesting that the advice he’s giving to you is different? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I was surprised -- I was surprised by his answer, actually, because, you know, it’s just -- to me, it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools. The only thing that would be acceptable, as I said, is professors, teachers, et cetera, over a certain age.  I think they ought to take it easy for another few weeks -- five weeks, four weeks, who knows.  Whatever it may be.  But I think they have to be careful because this is a disease that attacks age and it attacks health.  And if you have a heart problem, if you have diabetes, if you’re a certain age, it’s certainly much more dangerous.  But with the young children, I mean -- and students, it’s really -- it’s just -- take a look at the statistics.  It’s pretty amazing. Q    Mr. President, businesses are concerned about getting sued once they reopen.  Will you be insistent on some sort of shield from liability being in a phase four bill? THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  If anything is done, I would do that.  And these are the new testing numbers, so you saw that.  But I was just showing this to a group of people outside.  We’re now over 10 million tests, or we will be very shortly, like within a couple of days. Look at that test.  This is us.  This is the rest of the world.  Okay?  We have more tests and we have better tests, Jon.  We have more tests and we have better tests.  And we’re going to have your football team in, your championship football team. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Go Bison.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Right?   SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  And we were -- the Bison -- and tell us a little about the team, first of all.  You know, they won the championship and we were all set to have them, and what happened is the plague came in.  And because of the plague -- it came in from China -- and because of the plague, we didn’t have those great people.  But we’ll do a raincheck.  Okay?  But seriously, even if it’s in a few months, we’ll do a raincheck. Tell them about the team, because it was a tremendous season. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, I would just say that the team and Senator Hoeven was here, Senator Cramer was here, the whole (inaudible), but the First Lady was here.  She says, “Hi.”  But you -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Good. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- hosted them last year because -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- they, again, won the national championship this year in January.  And this is the eighth out of ninth year in a row they’ve done that.  And they would love to get back here with a raincheck. THE PRESIDENT:  So I watched the game on television, the championship game.  I didn’t know too much about it.  I don’t get to watch too much of the television -- football games, right?  And I’m saying, “Man, that team is really good.”  They were really good.  And then I got a call from Doug, and I get a call from John and get a call from our other very friendly senator.  Right?  The three of them.  And they said, “Do you think we could possibly honor the team?”  Because we honor the national champion.  And my question was, “How would your team do against the national champions?”  They were pretty good -- LSU -- this year, right?   Not a bad quarterback, huh? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  How do you think?  I don’t know.  You think -- you think “okay,” right? SENATOR HOEVEN:  We open up against Oregon next year at Oregon. THE PRESIDENT:  Wow. SENATOR HOEVEN:  So then we’ll be able to answer your question. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s pretty good.  I didn’t -- GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yeah, that great LSU quarterback started his career playing flag football in elementary school in Fargo, North Dakota.  So that’s where he got his start.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Wow. SENATOR HOEVEN:  His dad coached -- his dad coached him. THE PRESIDENT:  He had a good start. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah, Burrow’s dad coached him. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let the team know we’re going to do a raincheck. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yep. THE PRESIDENT:  Okay? SENATOR HOEVEN:  Fantastic.  Thank you. Q    Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, please.  Q    What will happen to the public companies that don’t return their PPP loans to the SBA by tomorrow’s deadline? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we'll go after them very seriously.  Yeah.  If there's any companies that got loans that they weren't entitled to, we'll go after them very seriously.  They’ll have big problems. Q    Mr. President, what's your level of confidence that the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in your favor in a case involving your tax returns? THE PRESIDENT:  I hope they will.  I mean, look, it’s -- you have a situation where a President has to be able to focus on this.  And, you know, when you're doing an audit, who would give -- you know, in the old days, no President gave tax returns.  A while ago -- I mean, no President gave tax returns. But when you're under audit, who would -- who would want to give them?  It's a very big thing, but it would also take time, it would take -- and this -- people are going to get -- ultimately, people are going to be getting returns.  They’re going to see that. But I think -- you know, I think it went very well, yesterday.  I thought it was -- I have great respect for the Supreme Court.  And I think the lawyers put out a very strong case.  And from what I've read, it was a very strong case. Yeah, please. Q    How long do you and the Vice President plan to stay apart? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it's an interesting question.  I haven't seen Mike Pence, and I miss him.  But he was in the room with somebody that tested positive.  And he did not test positive; he tested the opposite.  He's in good shape.  But I guess we said, for a little while we'll stay apart, because you don't know what happens with this very crazy and horrible disease. But we speak a lot on the phone.  But I'm in the White House.  Mike is at his office, but he's, you know, pretty much away from people. And he's doing a great job.  He's done a great job, I think you'd say, on the task force.  He really has.  I think you've pretty much gotten everything you wanted.  And we try and get it to you quickly. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, we talk to the Vice President regularly. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Yeah.  They've done a -- we've worked very well together with -- with Republican governors and with Democrat governors. And when are you thinking of opening?  Explain what you’re going to do. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, we’re -- THE PRESIDENT:  And then, Doug, I’m going to ask you. GOVERNOR POLIS:  We’re -- we’re most -- most businesses are open in Colorado.  Pretty much everything except for those social businesses, like bars and nightclubs.  A few places have restaurants open.  We're working on the rest soon.  But offices, manufacturing -- THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR POLIS:  -- salons, pretty much all people are back at in a safer way.  Right?  It's not the same way it was.  Like, if you go -- I got my hair cut the other day. THE PRESIDENT:  It looks good. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Thank you.  (Laughter.)  You should have seen it before.  Like I was -- it was crazy.  What little is left of it, it was crazy.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Not bad.  Not bad. GOVERNOR POLIS:  So, you know, they wore a mask.  I wore a mask.  So we -- we’re doing it in a safe way. All the stores are back.  And April 27th, we were one of the states where we wanted to do that in a safe way.  People are being responsible.  I mean, you know, and it's that individual responsibility that's going to make sure that we can stay on this trajectory.  And hopefully, restaurants in May -- by the end of May.  I mean, they're already open in a few places in our state. THE PRESIDENT:  How about -- because I go there, as you know.  And the ski slopes are fantastic, right? GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  There are those that say the greatest anywhere.  How are you doing with the skiing?  And -- you know, it's a big business for you. GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, it's a big business.  It's also one of the reasons that we got a lot of the virus in our state because people come from all over the world. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s very interesting. GOVERNOR POLIS:  All over the world. THE PRESIDENT:  I've heard that, yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  And so that’s what led to the spread.  And so most of the ski season is ending, but we're actually hopeful.  We have -- a lot of people don’t know this, but in Colorado we have a few areas that they’re skiing through July 4th.  And we're hoping that people will be able ski again.  David knows this -- Secretary Bernhardt knows this: In Arapahoe Basin, Wolf Creek, maybe Breckenridge, Loveland in June, we're hoping that people can actually ski again. THE PRESIDENT:  And you also do a lot of summer business and springtime business.  And what are you doing with that? GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, it's -- we're really respecting the communities in our state because they have a lot at stake.  Nobody has more at stake than -- in fact, Jill Ryan, who is with us, from Eagle, she's our secretary of health in Colorado.  She was a commissioner in Eagle County, which is where Vail is. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  So they have the most at stake economically and from a health perspective. So, you know, we're really respecting what the different communities decide.  I think there'll be some folks that are coming back, spending money in stores.  There'll be other communities that say, "You know what?  We have to wait a little longer."  And it's been very traumatic for many of those communities.  Because Eagle County for a while had the highest infection rate in the country early on. THE PRESIDENT:  I heard that. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, early on.  And now they've -- THE PRESIDENT:  So now there’s people coming, because everyone goes -- everyone coming in. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  How has that been?  How is the level of infection right now? GOVERNOR POLIS:  Eagle County has done an amazing job, as has Summit County, Pitkin Country, Aspen.  You know, all of those areas. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Sure. GOVERNOR POLIS:  They've gotten it under control because they acted early.  They have great county health departments.  They look at the science.  They look at the data.  Their residents stayed home.  And, in fact, Eagle County was one of the first in our state, along with Mesa County, which Secretary Bernhardt knows well -- Grand Junction area -- to be able to open up a little bit ahead of some of the other areas in a safer way.  Right?  In a safer way. So, like, in Grand Junction, the restaurants are at 25 percent capacity, so there’s space.  We're looking at ways that people can dine outdoors, sidewalks, and even on a lane in the road because it's safer to be in that environment.  So those are the kinds of things that we think about as we're just trying to get back to as much normalcy as we can. THE PRESIDENT:  And, Cory, you're working together very much, I know, with the Governor and everybody else? SENATOR GARDNER:  We do.  We speak regularly.  The Governor has done a good job, and I appreciate that.  And we’re here to help as much as we can. GOVERNOR POLIS:  One of the things we did that Cory introduced us to and worked on was importing some tests from South Korea.  So we have over -- they're already being used in our state.  We're also partnering with the Vice President and you on some Thermo Fisher tests that we think are coming very soon. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  We're getting, I think, 95,000 next week. THE PRESIDENT:  I was told they're here and you're getting them very quickly. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Good.  Good.  We're excited -- because we're running through those tests from South Korea.  But that's what's so important, it’s the supplies, right?  It's the -- we have the ability to do it -- the labs to do it.  You guys sent around the labs.  We have the capacity.  But it's getting the tests in. And so, you know, both with the Thermo Fisher test, the Abbott test, the SolGent test, we're mixing and matching across.  We have 32 free community testing sites across our state.  Some of them you drive in, some of them you walk in, but those are free.  And that’s in addition to the hospitals and doctors' offices.  Of course, you get tested there. THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  But we have 32 free community testing sites in different parts of our state. THE PRESIDENT:  And you have good healthcare in that state, right? SENATOR GARDNER:  And, Mr. President, so I think the key that Jared is talking about -- the governors talked about is that you have counties that have a plan, and they're able to open up earlier than others because of the work that they're doing.  So when the Governor is talking about Grand Junction, you have restaurants that aren’t just open, but you have dine-in in some of these restaurants -- GOVERNOR POLIS:  That’s right. SENATOR GARDNER:  -- which I think is maybe some of the first around the country to actually reopen to dine-in because of the good work that they have done together. GOVERNOR POLIS:  And then we wanted to, you know, for -- our restaurants were open throughout this whole period in our state. SENATOR GARDNER:  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  They just did delivery, they did take-out, they did curbside, and we even waived some of the laws so they could sell alcohol curbside and sell alcohol delivery, because that extra piece can make the difference between them staying in business or not. THE PRESIDENT:  How did they do?  How did those restaurants do with the take-out? GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, you'll hear from some that are doing okay with it.  It doesn't work for every restaurant, and that’s why, you know, they need to be open for the in-restaurant dining.  But for many of them, it's paid their bills and they've gotten through it and it’s helped them. THE PRESIDENT:  Good.  Good. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Not every restaurant, but I hear those stories that it's helped them get through it that we've been able to make sure they've been able to stay in business the whole time. SENATOR GARDNER:  And I think yesterday we talked as well about Colorado's additional Thermo Fisher tests. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yup. SENATOR GARDNER:  And that'll be a very big help to get those. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s a great test.  That’s a new and a great test. So, Doug, how about North Dakota?  How are you doing? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, first, I want to just lead with gratitude and say thank you to you for your leadership and the Vice President, Dr. Birx, and the whole team.  It's been a great partnership, federal to state to local, in North Dakota. And secondly, I want to just say to the -- thanks to all of the great people in North Dakota because, like Jared in Colorado, I mean, we relied a lot on individual responsibility, a light touch from government and had great results.  And here we sit today and we're number two in the nation.  We passed New York this week, in terms of testing per capita. THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  So we've really driven in.  We've tested over 6 percent of the population. THE PRESIDENT:  And you're using different tests -- all different?  And you're in good shape with the testing.  What tests are you using? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, this has all been the PCR, the nucleic acid testing. THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And it’s been across a number -- THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- of different platforms: Thermo Fisher, Abbott -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- Panther.  So we've got a variety of different platforms, but most of it driven through our state lab, which has had an order of magnitude increase.  So we’ve gone to three shifts today, and each shift is doing more than three times they did before.  So 10x increase going on in there on the testing site. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And then we’re the fifth-lowest positivity rate in the country.  So we’ve been -- you know, Alaska and Hawaii are ahead of us, but we’ve been right at the bottom, in terms of that.  You take those two things together -- THE PRESIDENT:  So why do you attribute -- what do you attribute that to? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, I would say, very early on -- THE PRESIDENT:  Being a good governor, right? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, it’s -- you know, geography helps and the people of the state help -- those two things.  But I’d say we took early action and tried to reduce transmissible moments.  So we kept 93 percent of the jobs in the state open, but the 7 percent we closed was bars and restaurant and personal care businesses.  Everybody else kept going.  All of construction, all of energy, all of ag, including all of elective surgery at hospitals -- kept that going. THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, wow.  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we were able -- because we never ran -- we were well stocked.  We had a great -- THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- medical cache. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we never took more than 2 percent of our capacity in healthcare.  We have a lot of great healthcare providers in North Dakota.  Only 2 percent were going to COVID. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And so we -- we were -- we were able to then drive through that.  I mean, we handled the virus and really focused.  And we got Michelle Kommer here, who leads our commerce department.  We had -- we have less to worry about opening up because we never really closed down.  But on that other 7 percent, we got bars, restaurants, personal care businesses open on May 1st.  And all that’s going very well under new operating procedures that everybody is using to stay -- to stay safe.  And -- THE PRESIDENT:  And your oil prices are going up a little bit now.  I saw that you’re at $26, $27 a barrel, and pretty soon you’ll be up to the number that you have to be up to.  That’s -- GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yep. THE PRESIDENT:  -- a big difference. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, absolutely -- because, I mean, what we do in North Dakota is we power the world and we feed the world. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Number two oil producer -- producing state in the nation.  And -- and a lot of the unemployment that we saw early on wasn’t related to the virus.  It was related to the demand and destruction association -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- with the oil price drop. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s right.  Great job. John, what do you have to say about the state and the job the Governor and everybody else has done?  I know it -- I know it well. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah.  Listening to these two governors -- and I was governor for a long time -- tells me your approach is the right approach.  You’re working with the governors across this country and empowering them to open up as soon as they can, safely, based on the conditions in their state, and every state is different.  And that’s why that approach is so important.  And then you providing all that support, along with us in Congress with the CARES Act, you know, as well. But you see that now with North Dakota, with Colorado, and across the country.  So that’s why it’s so important that you’re doing it the way that you’re doing it with these great governors -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. SENATOR HOEVEN:  -- that we have across this state. THE PRESIDENT:  It’s worked out well. SENATOR HOEVEN:  So thank you for that.  And the other thing I want to mention is, for our farmers -- you know I work a lot on ag. THE PRESIDENT:  Yes. SENATOR HOEVEN:  But for our farmers and ranchers, you’ve been there for them, and hang in there with them.  They're doing a whale of a job.  And they’re so important, and our energy industry too. THE PRESIDENT:  And we’re sending them billions of dollars of money that we took in from a country that targeted them.  Last year, we gave them $16 billion.  The year before, we gave them $12 billion.  And no other President would’ve done that, I can tell you. SENATOR HOEVEN:  And it’s really important and appreciated, and we need to hang in there with them. And the only other thing I got to tell you is we have a great governor, as you know.  But he is so data driven that I was teasing Dr. Birx, “Who’s more data driven?”  These two are amaz- -- THE PRESIDENT:  She is. SENATOR HOEVEN:  They're amazing together.  (Laughter.)  You ought to see -- they’re just amazing when you put them together. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. Michelle, do you have anything to say? MS. KOMMER:  Well, it’s been a privilege to work for Governor Burgum.  I think it’s through his wisdom that -- you know, we've talked a lot about lowering the curve, but as Governor Burgum pointed out, we didn’t close the state.  So I feel like we -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s so great. MS. KOMMER:  -- we raised the bottom.  And we’ve had the good fortune of working very, very closely with our business community.  And it’s through that process and the open dialogue and the collaboration and the hyper-connectedness in our state that we were able to build our -- what we call “North Dakota Smart Restart” protocols with our business community, over the span of about eight days.  And so we were closed for 40 days and 40 nights.  And we are opening in a safe way and -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. MS. KOMMER:  -- we’re really proud of the work that’s happened there. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  You’ve done a great job.  Thank you very much. MS. KOMMER:  Thank you. THE PRESIDENT:  And just to finish off, go ahead. MS. RYAN:  Well, hi.  Thank you, Mr. President.  I want to thank the federal government for its partnership on our COVID-19 response, and particularly the supplies you’ve given us, the tests, and I look forward to that continuing. And, you know, the more people we can test and then we can force multiply that with contact tracing so we can quarantine people that haven’t even had a test yet, that’s really, you know, the way that we’re going to contain the virus in Colorado.  We’ve got a local public health department that covers every county, and they’re ready to do testing and contact tracing.  And so that’s our plan.  It’s going to be -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. MS. RYAN:  -- a state-wide effort. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  Terrific job too. MS. RYAN:  Thank you. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And while we’re here, I want to also say: Secretary Bernhardt, you’re doing a fantastic job -- because we had a chance to interact with him on national parks.  We had great things going on in Theodore Roosevelt National Park as we move ahead with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  That’s right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we’ve got the U.S. Fish and Wildlife BLM that we’ve been great partners, working with the five tribal nations that are headquartered in North Dakota with whom we share geography.  And we’ve done great collaboration with those tribal leaders on testing through COVID.  But I just want to thank Secretary -- THE PRESIDENT:  They’ve had a lot of difficulty in the different tribes, haven’t they? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  They have. THE PRESIDENT:  A lot of difficulty.  Tremendous difficulty. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And I want to thank the Secretary and BIA, and for all their support as well through all this. THE PRESIDENT:  David, you’ve done a great job.  Do you feel comfortable with all those cameras right behind your head? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  So, you know, you gave me clear direction to work with governors to open things up.  We’ve worked with local communities, our parks.  My goal is that we’re right -- right on the shoulder of the governor.  We’ve worked with Larimer County Health Department and Estes Park to bring that online.  And we’ve opened up Theodore Roosevelt. And we’re -- we just announced today that the timing of the opening for Yellowstone.  So, we’re moving forward. THE PRESIDENT:  So you’re getting those parks open, yet? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Absolutely. THE PRESIDENT:  So I hope everybody is listening.  The parks are opening -- and rapidly, actually. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  With -- with those governors. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And with those governors.  You want the help from the governors. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, even with the counties, more than -- SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Absolutely. GOVERNOR POLIS:  -- even within the state.  And, you know, we’re all excited because recreating outdoors is safe and healthy. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  The flipside is we’re not yet ready to have all the people from other states and other countries coming in.  So that’s the balance, you know. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  And that’s why we’re collaborating with those local communities, to ramp up -- THE PRESIDENT:  So, in all cases, you’re working with governors and opening the big parks. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  And local counties.  Absolutely. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great.  That’s great.  Great job.  Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Q    Mr. President, one final question.  How do you increase the confidence in the American public to go travel on America’s airlines right now? THE PRESIDENT:  They have great confidence.  And they have great confidence in us, and they have great confidence in the airlines.  We’ve saved the airlines with $25 billion and another $25 billion.  And we have airlines that are now in good shape.  I mean, they -- obviously, they’re going to pick up with the fares and with the seats. But the airline industry is in good shape.  We’ve been able to save the airline industry which is -- would’ve been devastating if that happened.  So they’re in good shape. Thank you very much. END            5:13 P.M. EDT

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP IN A MEETING WITH GOVERNOR POLIS OF COLORADO AND GOVERNOR BURGUM OF NORTH DAKOTA

Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 13, 2020 REMARKS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP IN A MEETING WITH GOVERNOR POLIS OF COLORADO AND GOVERNOR BURGUM OF NORTH DAKOTA    Cabinet Room   4:41 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  It’s great to be with the Governor of Colorado and the Governor of North Dakota, two governors that are working very hard -- harder than they thought they’d have to work.  We also have two very distinguished senators that you know very much: Senator Gardner, who you know, and -- John, say hello.  Say hello to the fake news. SENATOR HOEVEN:  It’s great to be here.  Thank you, Mr. President.  We appreciate the invitation.  And, of course, appreciate all the support you’re giving us -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. SENATOR HOEVEN:  -- and the leadership of our governors. THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  It’s been -- and that’s what we’re doing.  That’s what we’re here for -- to do that and to talk about it.  We just came out with a new listing on testing.  We just cracked 10 million tests, which is here.  I thought you’d like to show that to everybody.  Ten million.  We set an all-time record, by far.  If you look down here, these are other countries that have not done anywhere near what we’re doing.     We’re double.  If you add them up and double them, we’ve done more tests.  But I can’t get the press to print that, unfortunately.  They just don’t want to print it. But I want to thank the governors for being here, very much.  We appreciate it.  We’re going to have some good, fruitful talks about going even to the next step.  And I know you’re trying to open up, and I know you’re opening up.  You’re sort of more than trying; you’re opening up.  And you’re both -- you’re both doing an excellent job, and it’s an honor to have you at the White House very much.  And these two gentlemen have done a fantastic job. And David you know from Interior, and David is very much involved with your states.  And how are they doing, David?  What do you think? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Fantastic. THE PRESIDENT:  I think so.  They’re doing a good job.  They really are.  They’re doing a good job. We’re talking about, as you know, Space Force, and a lot of the states are interested in Space Force.  And we’re talking to some of them, and I know that Colorado is very interested in it, and so we’ll be talking to you about that too.  Okay?  We might mention that today a little bit during our meeting. So thank you all very much.  Thank you. Q    Mr. President, what’s your advice to administrators and school principals around the country in terms of their plans to reopen school and colleges in the fall? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I think they should open the schools, absolutely.  I think they should.  And it’s had very little impact on young people.  And I think that if you’re an instructor, if you’re a teacher, a professor, and you’re over a certain age -- like, let’s say, 65 or maybe even, if you want to be conservative, 60 -- perhaps you want to stay out for a little while longer. But I think you should absolutely open the schools.  Our country has got to get back, and it’s got to get back as soon as possible.  And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.  And it’s had very little -- a very unusual situation.  It’s had very little impact on young people.  And I would strongly say they should open.  It’s up to the governors.   It’s the governors’ choice.  But their state is not open if the schools aren’t open.  So, again, it’s had very little impact on young people, and I think they should open their schools. Q    Mr. President, Senator Graham is introducing a bill to sanction China.  Would you support it if it goes to the House and it comes to your desk?  Do you support that bill? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I respect Lindsey Graham, and I’ll certainly look at it.  The bill to sanction China -- so I’ll certainly take a look at it.  I have not seen it yet. Q    Do you want to comment on the release of those names related to Michael Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the unmasking is a massive -- it’s a massive thing.  It’s -- I just got a list.  It’s -- who can believe a thing like this?  And I watched Biden yesterday on “Good Morning America” being interviewed by one of your colleagues, George Stephanopoulos, and he said he knew nothing about anything.  He has no idea.  He knows nothing about anything.  Nothing at all. And then it gets released today that he was a big unmasker.  So how do you know nothing if you’re one of the unmaskers?  It’s one of the very big stories, and I suspect you’ll have, if it’s possible, even bigger stories coming out. Q    A follow-up on a separate subject, sir.  We’ve had a number of explosions in Afghanistan.  Are you concerned that that peace deal may be falling apart? THE PRESIDENT:  Look, Afghanistan -- we’ve been there for many years.  We’re like a police force.  We’re not fighting in Afghanistan; we’re a police force in Afghanistan.  And at some point, they’re going to have to be able to take care of their country, and they’re going to have to be able to police their country. But we’re not meant to be a police force; we’re meant to be fighters.  And we’ve been there for a long time.  So, I don't know, we’ll have to see.  I have not heard that, Steve.  We have had -- in Kabul, we’ve had some, I understand, some pretty big blowups. Q    Yes. THE PRESIDENT:  But again, you count on the government to be able to police themselves, and they’re having a hard time, I suspect. But, again, we are the greatest fighting force in the world.  We’re not a police force that’s going to stay around, and police the streets, and check out the red lights and traffic.  It’s not what we’re supposed to be doing.  Been there a long time. You know, our force is down quite a bit, as you know.  We’re way down.  And a lot of people have come back, brought them back.  But the government has to be able, at some point, to do something for themselves. Okay? Q    Mr. President, Chairman Powell today said both that he wasn’t interested in bringing interest rates negative and that he saw a need for additional stimulus from Congress.  I know that you’ve said we could wait and see on the stimulus and that you want negative rates, so I was wondering your reaction to that. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m a believer in negative rates only if other countries that are competitors -- look, Germany, they’re an ally, they’re friends of ours, but they’re still competitors on trade and other things.  So Germany, Japan, others have negative rates.  And I think if they do, we’re the most prime of the world. You know, where it’s based -- many countries based on the dollar.  The dollar is by far the strongest, most powerful currency in the world.  We’ve made it more powerful and we’ve made it stronger.  And certainly, if they’re going to have the advantage of negative rates, we should too.  I feel strongly we should have negative rates.  Negative rates is basically where they pay you interest if you borrow money.  This is a new one.  I’ve been looking for something like that all my life.  That’s a pretty good one. But certainly if other countries are going to be paid for putting out money -- I mean, they’re -- think of it: They’re borrowing money, and instead of paying interest, they’re getting paid.  It’s the craziest thing. But you know what?  Other countries are doing it.  Look at Germany, look at Japan, look at others, and we’re the most prime in the world right now.  And we have the -- we have the currency and we have the power of the dollar. So I know that the Chairman has -- and he’s done a very good job over the last couple of months, I have to tell you that, because I’ve been critical.  But in many ways, I call him my “MIP.”  Do you know what an “MIP” is?  “Most Improved Player.”  It’s called the “Most Improved Player Award.”  Did you ever get one of them when you were playing baseball, Cory?  A good baseball player? SENATOR GARDNER:  Certainly not.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  The Chairman, he’s my MIP right now, for the last few months.  I think he’s done a very good job.  I disagree with him on one thing now, and that’s negative rates.  And only because we’re paying zero.  Good news: With this money you’re talking about on the stimulus, we’re paying zero.  We’re down to zero interest. That’s good, but some countries -- countries and some states, rather, and some, also, countries you look at -- but we are paying, right now, zero, and other countries are paying less than that, if you can believe it.  They’re receiving money, and I think we should be in the exact same situations. And, by the way, states are getting tremendous deals on borrowing.  So a lot of the states that are coming to the federal government, they can go out and they can borrow, and they’re getting phenomenal rates.  Some of our states is what I’m talking about.  They’re getting phenomenal borrowing rates. Q    But you agree that stimulus should move forward?  There’s been some Republicans who suggest that they should wait and see. THE PRESIDENT:  I don’t know.  It depends.  Certainly not the package that I saw today.  Basically, if you look at that package, what they want more than anything else is -- it’s a voting package.  They want to be able to make sure that Republicans can’t win an election by putting in all sorts of mail-in ballots. Now, I don’t know if you knew because the press doesn’t report this too much, but we had two very big victories last night.  We won very big.  Tom Tiffany won very big in the great state of Wisconsin.  You saw that.  That was -- last night it came in.  That was a big one.  You saw that, Doug.  And won by a very, very substantial margin. And in California, of all places, we had a fantastic race.  And this was all mail-in ballots.  This was all mailed ballots.  And when they saw -- because it was mailed, they saw they were losing three days ago, and they ended up putting polling booths in, into basically Democrat areas.  But despite that, it’s looking like Mike Garcia -- I don’t know if they’ve called the race yet, but he was substantially ahead.  That’s the problem with mail-in ballots.  Are they going to dump a whole pile of ballots on your desk just before the election? So the problem with the mail-in ballots: It’s subject to tremendous corruption.  Tremendous corruption, cheating.  And so I’m -- I’m against it.  And if you look at the bill that Nancy Pelosi is putting in, it has a lot to do with elections.  And then we’re not going to -- we’re not going to lose elections because of that. Q    Was that bill a non-starter?  Or is there any -- THE PRESIDENT:  And I do think you should mention the fact that the Republicans won two major congressional seats last night.  I think it’s really worthy of mentioning. Q    Is that House bill a non-starter? Q    Mr. President, do you believe that the judge presiding over the Mike Flynn case, Emmet Sullivan -- THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let’s finish with your question. Q    Is that bill a non-starter, or is there anything in there you could support?  Or -- THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it’s, as they say, “DOA.”  Right? Q    Okay. THE PRESIDENT:  DOA. Q    Okay. THE PRESIDENT:  Dead on arrival.  Of course, Nancy Pelosi knows that, you know, obviously. Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  Do you believe that the judge presiding over the Michael Flynn case, Emmet Sullivan, ought to recuse himself or be disqualified for being biased against Mr. Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  I was just with General Milley and some other generals, and I asked them about General Flynn: “Do you know him?”  They said, “Yes, sir.  I’ve known him for 20 years.”  “What do you think?”  “He’s an incredible man, an incredible soldier.  He’s an incredible general.”  This is General Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four star.  He’s done fantastically.  He thinks General Flynn is a great, great gentleman and a real fighter. And when I see what is happening to him, it’s disgraceful.  And it was all a ruse.  And, by the way, the FBI said he didn’t lie.  The FBI said he did not lie.  So with all the stuff I’m hearing about lying, the FBI said he didn’t lie.  But the sleazebag said, “Well, we don’t care what he -- what they say.  We’re saying he lied.”  Okay?  But the FBI, you remember, when they left, they said, “He didn’t lie.”  What they’ve done to that man and that family is a disgrace.  But I just tell you that because I just left General Milley, and he said, “A great man and a great soldier.”  Isn't that a shame. Q    Would you consider a pardon -- a pardon for Mr. Flynn? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we’ll talk about that, but he’s going to be okay.  He’ll be just fine. Q    What about the judge? THE PRESIDENT:  And I’m very, very saddened by what’s happening to General Flynn and others.  I want to tell you right now: and others. Please. Q    Dr. Fauci yesterday was a little cautious on reopening the economy too soon.  Do you share his concerns? THE PRESIDENT:  About reopening what? Q    Reopening the economy too soon, some states. THE PRESIDENT:  Look, he wants to play all sides of the equation.  I think we’re going to have a tremendous fourth quarter, I think we’re going to have a transitional third quarter, and I think we’re going to have a phenomenal next year.  I feel that we are going to have a country that’s ready to absolutely have one of its best years. Next year, with all of the stimulus and all of the fact that it’s a –- it’s a pent-up demand like I haven’t seen.  And you see it right now.  These two really professional, good governors that do such a -- you know, work so hard, I know both of them very well.  One happens to be a Democrat, okay?  But we’ve worked together, and I think we’ve worked together very well.  And, one, you would expect me to say that, but it happens to be true, okay?  Really good job too.     But we’ve worked very, very well together.  They want to get their states open.  Some governors and some, perhaps, partisans, maybe for election reasons, don’t want to have their states opened.  And then some shouldn’t open them quite yet.  You know, they’re not ready.  They went through a lot, and they’re not quite ready. But, no, we’re opening our country.  People want it open.  The schools are going to be open.  I was seeing the other day: Purdue, great school, great college, university -- and Purdue is opening and others are opening, and they’re all announcing it.  These are young people.  These are students.  Young students.  They’re in great shape.  They’re in great shape. Now, when you have an incident, one out of a million, one out of five hundred thou- -- will something happen?  Perhaps.  But, you know, you can be driving to school and some bad things can happen too.  So, no, we’re going to open our country, and we want it open. Q    Sir, when you say Dr. Fauci is playing both sides, are you suggesting that the advice he’s giving to you is different? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I was surprised -- I was surprised by his answer, actually, because, you know, it’s just -- to me, it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools. The only thing that would be acceptable, as I said, is professors, teachers, et cetera, over a certain age.  I think they ought to take it easy for another few weeks -- five weeks, four weeks, who knows.  Whatever it may be.  But I think they have to be careful because this is a disease that attacks age and it attacks health.  And if you have a heart problem, if you have diabetes, if you’re a certain age, it’s certainly much more dangerous.  But with the young children, I mean -- and students, it’s really -- it’s just -- take a look at the statistics.  It’s pretty amazing. Q    Mr. President, businesses are concerned about getting sued once they reopen.  Will you be insistent on some sort of shield from liability being in a phase four bill? THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  If anything is done, I would do that.  And these are the new testing numbers, so you saw that.  But I was just showing this to a group of people outside.  We’re now over 10 million tests, or we will be very shortly, like within a couple of days. Look at that test.  This is us.  This is the rest of the world.  Okay?  We have more tests and we have better tests, Jon.  We have more tests and we have better tests.  And we’re going to have your football team in, your championship football team. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Go Bison.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Right?   SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  And we were -- the Bison -- and tell us a little about the team, first of all.  You know, they won the championship and we were all set to have them, and what happened is the plague came in.  And because of the plague -- it came in from China -- and because of the plague, we didn’t have those great people.  But we’ll do a raincheck.  Okay?  But seriously, even if it’s in a few months, we’ll do a raincheck. Tell them about the team, because it was a tremendous season. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, I would just say that the team and Senator Hoeven was here, Senator Cramer was here, the whole (inaudible), but the First Lady was here.  She says, “Hi.”  But you -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Good. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- hosted them last year because -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- they, again, won the national championship this year in January.  And this is the eighth out of ninth year in a row they’ve done that.  And they would love to get back here with a raincheck. THE PRESIDENT:  So I watched the game on television, the championship game.  I didn’t know too much about it.  I don’t get to watch too much of the television -- football games, right?  And I’m saying, “Man, that team is really good.”  They were really good.  And then I got a call from Doug, and I get a call from John and get a call from our other very friendly senator.  Right?  The three of them.  And they said, “Do you think we could possibly honor the team?”  Because we honor the national champion.  And my question was, “How would your team do against the national champions?”  They were pretty good -- LSU -- this year, right?   Not a bad quarterback, huh? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  How do you think?  I don’t know.  You think -- you think “okay,” right? SENATOR HOEVEN:  We open up against Oregon next year at Oregon. THE PRESIDENT:  Wow. SENATOR HOEVEN:  So then we’ll be able to answer your question. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s pretty good.  I didn’t -- GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yeah, that great LSU quarterback started his career playing flag football in elementary school in Fargo, North Dakota.  So that’s where he got his start.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Wow. SENATOR HOEVEN:  His dad coached -- his dad coached him. THE PRESIDENT:  He had a good start. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah, Burrow’s dad coached him. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let the team know we’re going to do a raincheck. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yep. THE PRESIDENT:  Okay? SENATOR HOEVEN:  Fantastic.  Thank you. Q    Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, please.  Q    What will happen to the public companies that don’t return their PPP loans to the SBA by tomorrow’s deadline? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we'll go after them very seriously.  Yeah.  If there's any companies that got loans that they weren't entitled to, we'll go after them very seriously.  They’ll have big problems. Q    Mr. President, what's your level of confidence that the Supreme Court will ultimately rule in your favor in a case involving your tax returns? THE PRESIDENT:  I hope they will.  I mean, look, it’s -- you have a situation where a President has to be able to focus on this.  And, you know, when you're doing an audit, who would give -- you know, in the old days, no President gave tax returns.  A while ago -- I mean, no President gave tax returns. But when you're under audit, who would -- who would want to give them?  It's a very big thing, but it would also take time, it would take -- and this -- people are going to get -- ultimately, people are going to be getting returns.  They’re going to see that. But I think -- you know, I think it went very well, yesterday.  I thought it was -- I have great respect for the Supreme Court.  And I think the lawyers put out a very strong case.  And from what I've read, it was a very strong case. Yeah, please. Q    How long do you and the Vice President plan to stay apart? THE PRESIDENT:  Well, it's an interesting question.  I haven't seen Mike Pence, and I miss him.  But he was in the room with somebody that tested positive.  And he did not test positive; he tested the opposite.  He's in good shape.  But I guess we said, for a little while we'll stay apart, because you don't know what happens with this very crazy and horrible disease. But we speak a lot on the phone.  But I'm in the White House.  Mike is at his office, but he's, you know, pretty much away from people. And he's doing a great job.  He's done a great job, I think you'd say, on the task force.  He really has.  I think you've pretty much gotten everything you wanted.  And we try and get it to you quickly. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, we talk to the Vice President regularly. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Yeah.  They've done a -- we've worked very well together with -- with Republican governors and with Democrat governors. And when are you thinking of opening?  Explain what you’re going to do. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, we’re -- THE PRESIDENT:  And then, Doug, I’m going to ask you. GOVERNOR POLIS:  We’re -- we’re most -- most businesses are open in Colorado.  Pretty much everything except for those social businesses, like bars and nightclubs.  A few places have restaurants open.  We're working on the rest soon.  But offices, manufacturing -- THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR POLIS:  -- salons, pretty much all people are back at in a safer way.  Right?  It's not the same way it was.  Like, if you go -- I got my hair cut the other day. THE PRESIDENT:  It looks good. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Thank you.  (Laughter.)  You should have seen it before.  Like I was -- it was crazy.  What little is left of it, it was crazy.  (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT:  Not bad.  Not bad. GOVERNOR POLIS:  So, you know, they wore a mask.  I wore a mask.  So we -- we’re doing it in a safe way. All the stores are back.  And April 27th, we were one of the states where we wanted to do that in a safe way.  People are being responsible.  I mean, you know, and it's that individual responsibility that's going to make sure that we can stay on this trajectory.  And hopefully, restaurants in May -- by the end of May.  I mean, they're already open in a few places in our state. THE PRESIDENT:  How about -- because I go there, as you know.  And the ski slopes are fantastic, right? GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  There are those that say the greatest anywhere.  How are you doing with the skiing?  And -- you know, it's a big business for you. GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, it's a big business.  It's also one of the reasons that we got a lot of the virus in our state because people come from all over the world. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s very interesting. GOVERNOR POLIS:  All over the world. THE PRESIDENT:  I've heard that, yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  And so that’s what led to the spread.  And so most of the ski season is ending, but we're actually hopeful.  We have -- a lot of people don’t know this, but in Colorado we have a few areas that they’re skiing through July 4th.  And we're hoping that people will be able ski again.  David knows this -- Secretary Bernhardt knows this: In Arapahoe Basin, Wolf Creek, maybe Breckenridge, Loveland in June, we're hoping that people can actually ski again. THE PRESIDENT:  And you also do a lot of summer business and springtime business.  And what are you doing with that? GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, it's -- we're really respecting the communities in our state because they have a lot at stake.  Nobody has more at stake than -- in fact, Jill Ryan, who is with us, from Eagle, she's our secretary of health in Colorado.  She was a commissioner in Eagle County, which is where Vail is. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  So they have the most at stake economically and from a health perspective. So, you know, we're really respecting what the different communities decide.  I think there'll be some folks that are coming back, spending money in stores.  There'll be other communities that say, "You know what?  We have to wait a little longer."  And it's been very traumatic for many of those communities.  Because Eagle County for a while had the highest infection rate in the country early on. THE PRESIDENT:  I heard that. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, early on.  And now they've -- THE PRESIDENT:  So now there’s people coming, because everyone goes -- everyone coming in. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah. THE PRESIDENT:  How has that been?  How is the level of infection right now? GOVERNOR POLIS:  Eagle County has done an amazing job, as has Summit County, Pitkin Country, Aspen.  You know, all of those areas. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Sure. GOVERNOR POLIS:  They've gotten it under control because they acted early.  They have great county health departments.  They look at the science.  They look at the data.  Their residents stayed home.  And, in fact, Eagle County was one of the first in our state, along with Mesa County, which Secretary Bernhardt knows well -- Grand Junction area -- to be able to open up a little bit ahead of some of the other areas in a safer way.  Right?  In a safer way. So, like, in Grand Junction, the restaurants are at 25 percent capacity, so there’s space.  We're looking at ways that people can dine outdoors, sidewalks, and even on a lane in the road because it's safer to be in that environment.  So those are the kinds of things that we think about as we're just trying to get back to as much normalcy as we can. THE PRESIDENT:  And, Cory, you're working together very much, I know, with the Governor and everybody else? SENATOR GARDNER:  We do.  We speak regularly.  The Governor has done a good job, and I appreciate that.  And we’re here to help as much as we can. GOVERNOR POLIS:  One of the things we did that Cory introduced us to and worked on was importing some tests from South Korea.  So we have over -- they're already being used in our state.  We're also partnering with the Vice President and you on some Thermo Fisher tests that we think are coming very soon. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  We're getting, I think, 95,000 next week. THE PRESIDENT:  I was told they're here and you're getting them very quickly. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Good.  Good.  We're excited -- because we're running through those tests from South Korea.  But that's what's so important, it’s the supplies, right?  It's the -- we have the ability to do it -- the labs to do it.  You guys sent around the labs.  We have the capacity.  But it's getting the tests in. And so, you know, both with the Thermo Fisher test, the Abbott test, the SolGent test, we're mixing and matching across.  We have 32 free community testing sites across our state.  Some of them you drive in, some of them you walk in, but those are free.  And that’s in addition to the hospitals and doctors' offices.  Of course, you get tested there. THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  But we have 32 free community testing sites in different parts of our state. THE PRESIDENT:  And you have good healthcare in that state, right? SENATOR GARDNER:  And, Mr. President, so I think the key that Jared is talking about -- the governors talked about is that you have counties that have a plan, and they're able to open up earlier than others because of the work that they're doing.  So when the Governor is talking about Grand Junction, you have restaurants that aren’t just open, but you have dine-in in some of these restaurants -- GOVERNOR POLIS:  That’s right. SENATOR GARDNER:  -- which I think is maybe some of the first around the country to actually reopen to dine-in because of the good work that they have done together. GOVERNOR POLIS:  And then we wanted to, you know, for -- our restaurants were open throughout this whole period in our state. SENATOR GARDNER:  Right. GOVERNOR POLIS:  They just did delivery, they did take-out, they did curbside, and we even waived some of the laws so they could sell alcohol curbside and sell alcohol delivery, because that extra piece can make the difference between them staying in business or not. THE PRESIDENT:  How did they do?  How did those restaurants do with the take-out? GOVERNOR POLIS:  You know, you'll hear from some that are doing okay with it.  It doesn't work for every restaurant, and that’s why, you know, they need to be open for the in-restaurant dining.  But for many of them, it's paid their bills and they've gotten through it and it’s helped them. THE PRESIDENT:  Good.  Good. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Not every restaurant, but I hear those stories that it's helped them get through it that we've been able to make sure they've been able to stay in business the whole time. SENATOR GARDNER:  And I think yesterday we talked as well about Colorado's additional Thermo Fisher tests. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yup. SENATOR GARDNER:  And that'll be a very big help to get those. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s a great test.  That’s a new and a great test. So, Doug, how about North Dakota?  How are you doing? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, first, I want to just lead with gratitude and say thank you to you for your leadership and the Vice President, Dr. Birx, and the whole team.  It's been a great partnership, federal to state to local, in North Dakota. And secondly, I want to just say to the -- thanks to all of the great people in North Dakota because, like Jared in Colorado, I mean, we relied a lot on individual responsibility, a light touch from government and had great results.  And here we sit today and we're number two in the nation.  We passed New York this week, in terms of testing per capita. THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  So we've really driven in.  We've tested over 6 percent of the population. THE PRESIDENT:  And you're using different tests -- all different?  And you're in good shape with the testing.  What tests are you using? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, this has all been the PCR, the nucleic acid testing. THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And it’s been across a number -- THE PRESIDENT:  Great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- of different platforms: Thermo Fisher, Abbott -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- Panther.  So we've got a variety of different platforms, but most of it driven through our state lab, which has had an order of magnitude increase.  So we’ve gone to three shifts today, and each shift is doing more than three times they did before.  So 10x increase going on in there on the testing site. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And then we’re the fifth-lowest positivity rate in the country.  So we’ve been -- you know, Alaska and Hawaii are ahead of us, but we’ve been right at the bottom, in terms of that.  You take those two things together -- THE PRESIDENT:  So why do you attribute -- what do you attribute that to? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, I would say, very early on -- THE PRESIDENT:  Being a good governor, right? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, it’s -- you know, geography helps and the people of the state help -- those two things.  But I’d say we took early action and tried to reduce transmissible moments.  So we kept 93 percent of the jobs in the state open, but the 7 percent we closed was bars and restaurant and personal care businesses.  Everybody else kept going.  All of construction, all of energy, all of ag, including all of elective surgery at hospitals -- kept that going. THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, wow.  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we were able -- because we never ran -- we were well stocked.  We had a great -- THE PRESIDENT:  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- medical cache. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we never took more than 2 percent of our capacity in healthcare.  We have a lot of great healthcare providers in North Dakota.  Only 2 percent were going to COVID. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And so we -- we were -- we were able to then drive through that.  I mean, we handled the virus and really focused.  And we got Michelle Kommer here, who leads our commerce department.  We had -- we have less to worry about opening up because we never really closed down.  But on that other 7 percent, we got bars, restaurants, personal care businesses open on May 1st.  And all that’s going very well under new operating procedures that everybody is using to stay -- to stay safe.  And -- THE PRESIDENT:  And your oil prices are going up a little bit now.  I saw that you’re at $26, $27 a barrel, and pretty soon you’ll be up to the number that you have to be up to.  That’s -- GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Yep. THE PRESIDENT:  -- a big difference. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Well, absolutely -- because, I mean, what we do in North Dakota is we power the world and we feed the world. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  Number two oil producer -- producing state in the nation.  And -- and a lot of the unemployment that we saw early on wasn’t related to the virus.  It was related to the demand and destruction association -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  -- with the oil price drop. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s right.  Great job. John, what do you have to say about the state and the job the Governor and everybody else has done?  I know it -- I know it well. SENATOR HOEVEN:  Yeah.  Listening to these two governors -- and I was governor for a long time -- tells me your approach is the right approach.  You’re working with the governors across this country and empowering them to open up as soon as they can, safely, based on the conditions in their state, and every state is different.  And that’s why that approach is so important.  And then you providing all that support, along with us in Congress with the CARES Act, you know, as well. But you see that now with North Dakota, with Colorado, and across the country.  So that’s why it’s so important that you’re doing it the way that you’re doing it with these great governors -- THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. SENATOR HOEVEN:  -- that we have across this state. THE PRESIDENT:  It’s worked out well. SENATOR HOEVEN:  So thank you for that.  And the other thing I want to mention is, for our farmers -- you know I work a lot on ag. THE PRESIDENT:  Yes. SENATOR HOEVEN:  But for our farmers and ranchers, you’ve been there for them, and hang in there with them.  They're doing a whale of a job.  And they’re so important, and our energy industry too. THE PRESIDENT:  And we’re sending them billions of dollars of money that we took in from a country that targeted them.  Last year, we gave them $16 billion.  The year before, we gave them $12 billion.  And no other President would’ve done that, I can tell you. SENATOR HOEVEN:  And it’s really important and appreciated, and we need to hang in there with them. And the only other thing I got to tell you is we have a great governor, as you know.  But he is so data driven that I was teasing Dr. Birx, “Who’s more data driven?”  These two are amaz- -- THE PRESIDENT:  She is. SENATOR HOEVEN:  They're amazing together.  (Laughter.)  You ought to see -- they’re just amazing when you put them together. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. Michelle, do you have anything to say? MS. KOMMER:  Well, it’s been a privilege to work for Governor Burgum.  I think it’s through his wisdom that -- you know, we've talked a lot about lowering the curve, but as Governor Burgum pointed out, we didn’t close the state.  So I feel like we -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s so great. MS. KOMMER:  -- we raised the bottom.  And we’ve had the good fortune of working very, very closely with our business community.  And it’s through that process and the open dialogue and the collaboration and the hyper-connectedness in our state that we were able to build our -- what we call “North Dakota Smart Restart” protocols with our business community, over the span of about eight days.  And so we were closed for 40 days and 40 nights.  And we are opening in a safe way and -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s fantastic. MS. KOMMER:  -- we’re really proud of the work that’s happened there. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  You’ve done a great job.  Thank you very much. MS. KOMMER:  Thank you. THE PRESIDENT:  And just to finish off, go ahead. MS. RYAN:  Well, hi.  Thank you, Mr. President.  I want to thank the federal government for its partnership on our COVID-19 response, and particularly the supplies you’ve given us, the tests, and I look forward to that continuing. And, you know, the more people we can test and then we can force multiply that with contact tracing so we can quarantine people that haven’t even had a test yet, that’s really, you know, the way that we’re going to contain the virus in Colorado.  We’ve got a local public health department that covers every county, and they’re ready to do testing and contact tracing.  And so that’s our plan.  It’s going to be -- THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great. MS. RYAN:  -- a state-wide effort. THE PRESIDENT:  Well, thank you very much.  Terrific job too. MS. RYAN:  Thank you. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And while we’re here, I want to also say: Secretary Bernhardt, you’re doing a fantastic job -- because we had a chance to interact with him on national parks.  We had great things going on in Theodore Roosevelt National Park as we move ahead with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  That’s right. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And we’ve got the U.S. Fish and Wildlife BLM that we’ve been great partners, working with the five tribal nations that are headquartered in North Dakota with whom we share geography.  And we’ve done great collaboration with those tribal leaders on testing through COVID.  But I just want to thank Secretary -- THE PRESIDENT:  They’ve had a lot of difficulty in the different tribes, haven’t they? GOVERNOR BURGUM:  They have. THE PRESIDENT:  A lot of difficulty.  Tremendous difficulty. GOVERNOR BURGUM:  And I want to thank the Secretary and BIA, and for all their support as well through all this. THE PRESIDENT:  David, you’ve done a great job.  Do you feel comfortable with all those cameras right behind your head? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  So, you know, you gave me clear direction to work with governors to open things up.  We’ve worked with local communities, our parks.  My goal is that we’re right -- right on the shoulder of the governor.  We’ve worked with Larimer County Health Department and Estes Park to bring that online.  And we’ve opened up Theodore Roosevelt. And we’re -- we just announced today that the timing of the opening for Yellowstone.  So, we’re moving forward. THE PRESIDENT:  So you’re getting those parks open, yet? SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Absolutely. THE PRESIDENT:  So I hope everybody is listening.  The parks are opening -- and rapidly, actually. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  With -- with those governors. THE PRESIDENT:  Right.  And with those governors.  You want the help from the governors. GOVERNOR POLIS:  Yeah, even with the counties, more than -- SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  Absolutely. GOVERNOR POLIS:  -- even within the state.  And, you know, we’re all excited because recreating outdoors is safe and healthy. THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah. GOVERNOR POLIS:  The flipside is we’re not yet ready to have all the people from other states and other countries coming in.  So that’s the balance, you know. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  And that’s why we’re collaborating with those local communities, to ramp up -- THE PRESIDENT:  So, in all cases, you’re working with governors and opening the big parks. SECRETARY BERNHARDT:  And local counties.  Absolutely. THE PRESIDENT:  That’s great.  That’s great.  Great job.  Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Q    Mr. President, one final question.  How do you increase the confidence in the American public to go travel on America’s airlines right now? THE PRESIDENT:  They have great confidence.  And they have great confidence in us, and they have great confidence in the airlines.  We’ve saved the airlines with $25 billion and another $25 billion.  And we have airlines that are now in good shape.  I mean, they -- obviously, they’re going to pick up with the fares and with the seats. But the airline industry is in good shape.  We’ve been able to save the airline industry which is -- would’ve been devastating if that happened.  So they’re in good shape. Thank you very much.                               END                           5:13 P.M. EDT