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Press Briefing by Kayleigh McEnany; August 10, 2020
Chanel, I believe you had a question.
PRESS BRIEFINGS
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 8/10/2020
Issued on: August 10, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:18 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: Hello, everyone. Democrats in Congress failed to act in the best interests of Americans hardest hit by this pandemic. Amid inaction, President Trump stood up for every American who, through no fault of their own, needed relief.
Politics as usual should find no place during this pandemic, but Democrats rejected multiple clean bills to provide relief. The American people are tired of games. They seek leadership, and President Trump delivered.
This weekend, President Trump took executive action designed to provide the relief Democrats have denied to those who need it most. Through four executive orders, he took the following steps:
{snip}
And, with that, I’ll take questions. Yes.
{snip}
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. A number of Democrats, but also Republican Senator Ben Sasse has suggested these executive actions are unconstitutional. Can you walk us through what the White House is using as a legal rationale for the President to step in here? And would you be able to share the legal opinions?
MS. MCENANY: Yes, I absolutely can do that. First, I would note that what we are doing is entirely within the executive capacity of the President.
On student loans, section 2A — 2, subsection A — of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which is 20 U.S.C. § 1098(bb), authorizes the Secretary to waive or modify provisions of student financial assistance programs to ensure that individuals who’ve been affected by the National Emergency are not worse off financially. There’s another statute for that one — section 432 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 — which gives broad authority to the Secretary.
On unemployment, the Stafford Act 42 U.S.C. § 5174 says, the President, after a state applies for it, can provide assistance to people who have been adversely affected by a major disaster. These are often known as “Other Needs Assistance” or “ONA.”
On payroll tax authority, 26 U.S.C. § 7508A plainly authorizes the Treasury Secretary to provide any taxpayer that has been affected by federally declared disaster with an extension of up to a year. This was used before, when the Secretary extended the individual filing deadline for 2019 taxes from April to July.
And finally, for evictions, the authority would be suggesting that HHS and HUD consider whatever legal authorities they have to protect Americans. And also, the President merely instructed in that EO that we should do everything within the lawful capacity of the executive branch to protect Americans from evictions.
Yes.
{snip}
Q Thank you. The President said, over the weekend, that he had heard from Democrats about wanting to restart these negotiations. Who exactly did he hear from?
{snip the non-answer}
Q So who — did anybody reach out to him, and —
MS. MCENANY: I’m not going to go through the President’s call logs, but you guys can ask him later today if you’d like. He’ll have a press briefing at about 5:30.
Jeff.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Secretary Pompeo has raised the issue of Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan with his counterpart. Does that mean that the administration now considers the intelligence on this secure or clear? And, if so, does the President plan to raise it with President Putin?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so on the part about Secretary Pompeo, I’d refer you to the State Department. That was a New York Times story. So in terms of his personal conversations, I would refer you there. But on the part of the President, he — this was unverified, not conclusory, as the New York Times initially reported.
The President will always act in the interest of our troops, and look no further than the killing of Soleimani and al-Baghdadi, which brought vindication to hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women who lost their lives overseas.
Yes.
Q Just to be clear: Does that mean that you did — that Pompeo did not raise this? Does that mean that the —
MS. MCENANY: I would refer you to State Department.
Q But are the two sides seeing this — seeing the intelligence as different here and the State Department?
MS. MCENANY: Again, you’re asking me to verify reporting. That would be in the realm of the State Department.
But rest assured this President will always act in the best interest of our troops.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Back on the executive orders the President signed this weekend: As a candidate, Donald Trump criticized fairly sharply Barack Obama’s use of executive orders and faulting him for failing to reach deals with members of Congress. How are the President’s actions this weekend any different from President Obama’s?
MS. MCENANY: They’re a lot different when you consider the fact that President Barack Obama utilized executive order to push forward a policy that he denied he had the right to push forward 23 times on DAPA and on DACA. He said, at least 23 times, “I don’t have the power to do this,” and then he went on to do just that.
I’ve already listed out and enumerated the various legal authorities on the part of the President. And in terms of deal making, I would note that the CARES Act was landmark legislation, you know, at the heat — at really the height of this pandemic, that brought relief to the American people. And that was negotiated within one week, from first drafting to enactment.
And by comparison, if we want to go back to President Obama, the American Recovery Act during the Great Recession took roughly three months from inception to enactment as law, under single-party control. This President managed to push the CARES Act through divided government — a very big accomplishment on the part of the President.
Yes.
Q Kayleigh, the deal that the President announced late last month with Kodak to make new drugs in the United States is apparently on hold now amid allegations of insider trading. Is the President concerned that his infrastructure here is being misused, that the Defense Production Act funds are potentially being misused? Would he pull the plug on the Kodak deal? And what does it say about the safeguards that you have in place that this potentially could have resulted in insider trading?
MS. MCENANY: So, first, the President will always act in the best interests of the American people. As you noted, as soon as we became aware of these allegations, the International Development Finance Corporation said that the “recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared.”
The President has strong faith in the process here. We’ve used the DPA more than 30 times to increase production, and it’s been to great effect when you consider, in the Stockpile, we’ve seen vast increases: tripling the amount of N95, tripling the number of gowns four times, the number of ventilators on hand at 69,000, and we’ll have more than 10,000 — 10,000 more by the fall.
So, this President has used the DPA effectively, but we’re certainly aware of the Kodak alle- — allegations and take them seriously.
Yes.
Q Would he pull the plug on that deal?
MS. MCENANY: I’ll leave that to the President, but he takes these very seriously, and —
Q Thank —
MS. MCENANY: — we won’t speculate as to what that investigation finds.
Yes.
Q Thank you. Two questions, if I may. The President just tweeted that Gettysburg would be one of the two sites he’s looking at. What — can you characterize the message that he would want to be sending with that choice, if it was that choice?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I won’t get ahead of the President, as to what his convention speech will look like, but the President has done a lot to bring this country together.
We’ve faced unprecedented challenges and he’s worked to make sure that the American people are — are best equipped and taken care of to rise above the challenges that we face. And he has a strong record of achievement that he’ll be touting on that day.
Yes.
{snip}
Q And a question from Anthony Leake of the Chronicle Fashion Guide: Do you have any reaction to the resignation of the prime minister and cabinet in Lebanon?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the President’s aware of the situation, but that was just breaking as I came out, so I have nothing to add to that, other than our heart is with the people and those who lost their lives.
Christian.
{the Chronical Fashion Guide? snip}
So he instructed this administration to pursue every legal avenue available to us without Chuck and Nancy, and he’s done just that.
Q And then on the timeline —
MS. MCENANY: Chanel.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Just so the — with the President bypassing Democrats stalling for the stimulus bill, as we’ve been discussing this in this room, how pressing is it to actually have a next-phase bill? Because it seems that the executive order and the three memoranda that he just signed really was kind of a wish list of items he wanted to pass. So how motivated is the White House to push for a next-phase stimulus bill, in spite of what Mnuchin said this morning?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the White House is still motivated. You know, the President would love to see the direct payments to Americans. The President would love to see the school funding. There are several items that we’d like to see happen. The more relief for the American people — and those in need, in particular — the better.
But this President, you know, has taken action to alleviate — alleviate some of that burden. But make no mistake: There’s still much more that we’d like to accomplish, but that includes having willing negotiating partners in Congress. And so far, we have none on the — in the Democrat Party, it seems.
And then, finally, one thing I want to leave you guys with is that, 18 days ago, Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted, “What I saw last night [in Portland] was powerful in many ways. I listened, heard, and stood with protesters. And I saw what it means when the federal government unleashes paramilitary forces against its own people.” He, in fact, called our federal agents “paramilitary forces.”
And around this same time, our federal officers were facing rioters barricading officers inside the courthouse, trapping officers inside, launching of commercial-grade fireworks. A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails. Three officers were likely — were at least temporarily, I should say, blinded when a laser was put in their eyes. This has been an ongoing tactic by the rioters.
That was 18 days ago when Mayor Wheeler stood with the rioters and against the, quote, “paramilitary forces.” But just four days ago, it appears Mayor Wheeler had a change of heart as local officers took over the situation in Portland. And he now — I guess this is what he believes now, quote: “When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occu- — occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating; you are attempting to commit murder.”
He could not be more right about that. It is a drastic change. It took him 73 days, I — I suppose, to come up with that realization. And what we’re seeing in Portland with, six nights in a row, riots being declared — on Wednesday, you had some of these rioters shining lasers in officers’ eyes, disabled security cameras, broke windows, used boards to barricade the doors and start a fire with 20 sworn officers and civilian employees inside.
This is unacceptable, and it is encouraging to see that the liberal mayor of Portland finally seems to realize that.
Thank you everyone.
END
1:42 P.M. EDT
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany | 8/10/2020
Issued on: August 10, 2020
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
1:18 P.M. EDT
MS. MCENANY: Hello, everyone. Democrats in Congress failed to act in the best interests of Americans hardest hit by this pandemic. Amid inaction, President Trump stood up for every American who, through no fault of their own, needed relief.
Politics as usual should find no place during this pandemic, but Democrats rejected multiple clean bills to provide relief. The American people are tired of games. They seek leadership, and President Trump delivered.
This weekend, President Trump took executive action designed to provide the relief Democrats have denied to those who need it most. Through four executive orders, he took the following steps:
{snip}
And, with that, I’ll take questions. Yes.
{snip}
Yes.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. A number of Democrats, but also Republican Senator Ben Sasse has suggested these executive actions are unconstitutional. Can you walk us through what the White House is using as a legal rationale for the President to step in here? And would you be able to share the legal opinions?
MS. MCENANY: Yes, I absolutely can do that. First, I would note that what we are doing is entirely within the executive capacity of the President.
On student loans, section 2A — 2, subsection A — of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, which is 20 U.S.C. § 1098(bb), authorizes the Secretary to waive or modify provisions of student financial assistance programs to ensure that individuals who’ve been affected by the National Emergency are not worse off financially. There’s another statute for that one — section 432 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 — which gives broad authority to the Secretary.
On unemployment, the Stafford Act 42 U.S.C. § 5174 says, the President, after a state applies for it, can provide assistance to people who have been adversely affected by a major disaster. These are often known as “Other Needs Assistance” or “ONA.”
On payroll tax authority, 26 U.S.C. § 7508A plainly authorizes the Treasury Secretary to provide any taxpayer that has been affected by federally declared disaster with an extension of up to a year. This was used before, when the Secretary extended the individual filing deadline for 2019 taxes from April to July.
And finally, for evictions, the authority would be suggesting that HHS and HUD consider whatever legal authorities they have to protect Americans. And also, the President merely instructed in that EO that we should do everything within the lawful capacity of the executive branch to protect Americans from evictions.
Yes.
{snip}
Q Thank you. The President said, over the weekend, that he had heard from Democrats about wanting to restart these negotiations. Who exactly did he hear from?
{snip the non-answer}
Q So who — did anybody reach out to him, and —
MS. MCENANY: I’m not going to go through the President’s call logs, but you guys can ask him later today if you’d like. He’ll have a press briefing at about 5:30.
Jeff.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. Secretary Pompeo has raised the issue of Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan with his counterpart. Does that mean that the administration now considers the intelligence on this secure or clear? And, if so, does the President plan to raise it with President Putin?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so on the part about Secretary Pompeo, I’d refer you to the State Department. That was a New York Times story. So in terms of his personal conversations, I would refer you there. But on the part of the President, he — this was unverified, not conclusory, as the New York Times initially reported.
The President will always act in the interest of our troops, and look no further than the killing of Soleimani and al-Baghdadi, which brought vindication to hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women who lost their lives overseas.
Yes.
Q Just to be clear: Does that mean that you did — that Pompeo did not raise this? Does that mean that the —
MS. MCENANY: I would refer you to State Department.
Q But are the two sides seeing this — seeing the intelligence as different here and the State Department?
MS. MCENANY: Again, you’re asking me to verify reporting. That would be in the realm of the State Department.
But rest assured this President will always act in the best interest of our troops.
Yes.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Back on the executive orders the President signed this weekend: As a candidate, Donald Trump criticized fairly sharply Barack Obama’s use of executive orders and faulting him for failing to reach deals with members of Congress. How are the President’s actions this weekend any different from President Obama’s?
MS. MCENANY: They’re a lot different when you consider the fact that President Barack Obama utilized executive order to push forward a policy that he denied he had the right to push forward 23 times on DAPA and on DACA. He said, at least 23 times, “I don’t have the power to do this,” and then he went on to do just that.
I’ve already listed out and enumerated the various legal authorities on the part of the President. And in terms of deal making, I would note that the CARES Act was landmark legislation, you know, at the heat — at really the height of this pandemic, that brought relief to the American people. And that was negotiated within one week, from first drafting to enactment.
And by comparison, if we want to go back to President Obama, the American Recovery Act during the Great Recession took roughly three months from inception to enactment as law, under single-party control. This President managed to push the CARES Act through divided government — a very big accomplishment on the part of the President.
Yes.
Q Kayleigh, the deal that the President announced late last month with Kodak to make new drugs in the United States is apparently on hold now amid allegations of insider trading. Is the President concerned that his infrastructure here is being misused, that the Defense Production Act funds are potentially being misused? Would he pull the plug on the Kodak deal? And what does it say about the safeguards that you have in place that this potentially could have resulted in insider trading?
MS. MCENANY: So, first, the President will always act in the best interests of the American people. As you noted, as soon as we became aware of these allegations, the International Development Finance Corporation said that the “recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns. We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared.”
The President has strong faith in the process here. We’ve used the DPA more than 30 times to increase production, and it’s been to great effect when you consider, in the Stockpile, we’ve seen vast increases: tripling the amount of N95, tripling the number of gowns four times, the number of ventilators on hand at 69,000, and we’ll have more than 10,000 — 10,000 more by the fall.
So, this President has used the DPA effectively, but we’re certainly aware of the Kodak alle- — allegations and take them seriously.
Yes.
Q Would he pull the plug on that deal?
MS. MCENANY: I’ll leave that to the President, but he takes these very seriously, and —
Q Thank —
MS. MCENANY: — we won’t speculate as to what that investigation finds.
Yes.
Q Thank you. Two questions, if I may. The President just tweeted that Gettysburg would be one of the two sites he’s looking at. What — can you characterize the message that he would want to be sending with that choice, if it was that choice?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I won’t get ahead of the President, as to what his convention speech will look like, but the President has done a lot to bring this country together.
We’ve faced unprecedented challenges and he’s worked to make sure that the American people are — are best equipped and taken care of to rise above the challenges that we face. And he has a strong record of achievement that he’ll be touting on that day.
Yes.
{snip}
Q And a question from Anthony Leake of the Chronicle Fashion Guide: Do you have any reaction to the resignation of the prime minister and cabinet in Lebanon?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the President’s aware of the situation, but that was just breaking as I came out, so I have nothing to add to that, other than our heart is with the people and those who lost their lives.
Christian.
{the Chronical Fashion Guide? snip}
So he instructed this administration to pursue every legal avenue available to us without Chuck and Nancy, and he’s done just that.
Q And then on the timeline —
MS. MCENANY: Chanel.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. Just so the — with the President bypassing Democrats stalling for the stimulus bill, as we’ve been discussing this in this room, how pressing is it to actually have a next-phase bill? Because it seems that the executive order and the three memoranda that he just signed really was kind of a wish list of items he wanted to pass. So how motivated is the White House to push for a next-phase stimulus bill, in spite of what Mnuchin said this morning?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, the White House is still motivated. You know, the President would love to see the direct payments to Americans. The President would love to see the school funding. There are several items that we’d like to see happen. The more relief for the American people — and those in need, in particular — the better.
But this President, you know, has taken action to alleviate — alleviate some of that burden. But make no mistake: There’s still much more that we’d like to accomplish, but that includes having willing negotiating partners in Congress. And so far, we have none on the — in the Democrat Party, it seems.
And then, finally, one thing I want to leave you guys with is that, 18 days ago, Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted, “What I saw last night [in Portland] was powerful in many ways. I listened, heard, and stood with protesters. And I saw what it means when the federal government unleashes paramilitary forces against its own people.” He, in fact, called our federal agents “paramilitary forces.”
And around this same time, our federal officers were facing rioters barricading officers inside the courthouse, trapping officers inside, launching of commercial-grade fireworks. A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails. Three officers were likely — were at least temporarily, I should say, blinded when a laser was put in their eyes. This has been an ongoing tactic by the rioters.
That was 18 days ago when Mayor Wheeler stood with the rioters and against the, quote, “paramilitary forces.” But just four days ago, it appears Mayor Wheeler had a change of heart as local officers took over the situation in Portland. And he now — I guess this is what he believes now, quote: “When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occu- — occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating; you are attempting to commit murder.”
He could not be more right about that. It is a drastic change. It took him 73 days, I — I suppose, to come up with that realization. And what we’re seeing in Portland with, six nights in a row, riots being declared — on Wednesday, you had some of these rioters shining lasers in officers’ eyes, disabled security cameras, broke windows, used boards to barricade the doors and start a fire with 20 sworn officers and civilian employees inside.
This is unacceptable, and it is encouraging to see that the liberal mayor of Portland finally seems to realize that.
Thank you everyone.
END
1:42 P.M. EDT
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