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Trump's Remarks Before Marine One Departure; August 17, 2020
REMARKS
Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure
Issued on: August 17, 2020
South Lawn
10:17 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. So we’ll be making a pretty big journey today, stopping at a couple of wonderful states that, in one case, had some big problems, and we got that straightened out.
{snip}
Okay?
Q Mr. President, oleandrin — the potential therapy for coronavirus — is that something you’re pressing the FDA to approve?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d — you’d have to say it.
Q Oleandrin — have you heard of that as a possible therapy for coronavirus?
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve heard of it, yes. Go ahead.
Q Have you pressed the FDA to approve it?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t. I haven’t.
Q Is it something you would support?
THE PRESIDENT: Is it something that people are talking about very strongly? We’ll look at it. We’ll look it. We’re looking at a lot of different things.
I will say, the FDA has been great. They are very close — we’re very close to a vaccine, very close to a therapeutic. I’ve heard that name mentioned. We’ll find out. I can get back to you later. Okay?
{snip}
Q Belarus. Are you tracking the Belarus situation?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, it’s terrible.
Q And Russia — are you —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a terrible situation — Belarus. We’ll be following it very closely. We’ll be following.
Q Iranian bounties in — did you hear about Iranian bounties in Afghanistan? Bounties? Bounties —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q — in Afghanistan from Iran, did you hear about that?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t heard about that. No.
{snip}
Q Are you worried that the cutbacks on service are going to affect — are you worried about cutbacks in service affecting people getting medications and prescriptions?
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, the Post Office is running very well. The Post Office — now, look, if you look at the Post Office, for years, that’s all people complained about. We’re going to run it well, and we’re going to not lose so much money.
One of the things the Post Office loses so much money on is the delivering packages for Amazon and these others. Every time they deliver a package, they probably lose three or four dollars. That’s not good. They have to raise those prices –okay — not for the people to pay, but for Amazon and those companies to pay.
Thank you very much.
Q On mail-in ballots, why are you opposed to mail-in ballots when they cannot be hacked —
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q — by foreign interests or Russia?
THE PRESIDENT: Are you ready? Absentee ballots are great. You request a ballot, you can’t be — I signed an absentee ballot. Absentee ballots are great. They work. They’ve been proven. They’re good — like in Florida. But this universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It’s fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen, and we have to be very, very careful.
We have a very big election coming up. I think we’re going to do very well. And I want to make sure the election is not stolen, and so does everybody else. And I’m sure both sides feel that way. So we have to be very careful with this universal, mail-in ballot.
Absentee ballots are great. They’ve worked for a long time. And I — I totally endorse absentee ballots.
Thank you very much everybody.
Q Have you ever encouraged Mr. DeJoy to slow the mail, Mr. President? Have you ever encouraged the Postmaster General — a big donor to you — to slow the mail?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. Wouldn’t do that. No, I have encouraged everybody: Speed up the mail, not slow the mail.
And I also want to have a Post Office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has been doing for 50 years.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
{At this point, he walked away, pretending not to hear any more questions.}
END
10:24 A.M. EDT
Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure
Issued on: August 17, 2020
South Lawn
10:17 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. So we’ll be making a pretty big journey today, stopping at a couple of wonderful states that, in one case, had some big problems, and we got that straightened out.
{snip}
Okay?
Q Mr. President, oleandrin — the potential therapy for coronavirus — is that something you’re pressing the FDA to approve?
THE PRESIDENT: I’d — you’d have to say it.
Q Oleandrin — have you heard of that as a possible therapy for coronavirus?
THE PRESIDENT: I’ve heard of it, yes. Go ahead.
Q Have you pressed the FDA to approve it?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t. I haven’t.
Q Is it something you would support?
THE PRESIDENT: Is it something that people are talking about very strongly? We’ll look at it. We’ll look it. We’re looking at a lot of different things.
I will say, the FDA has been great. They are very close — we’re very close to a vaccine, very close to a therapeutic. I’ve heard that name mentioned. We’ll find out. I can get back to you later. Okay?
{snip}
Q Belarus. Are you tracking the Belarus situation?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, it’s terrible.
Q And Russia — are you —
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a terrible situation — Belarus. We’ll be following it very closely. We’ll be following.
Q Iranian bounties in — did you hear about Iranian bounties in Afghanistan? Bounties? Bounties —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah?
Q — in Afghanistan from Iran, did you hear about that?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I haven’t heard about that. No.
{snip}
Q Are you worried that the cutbacks on service are going to affect — are you worried about cutbacks in service affecting people getting medications and prescriptions?
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, the Post Office is running very well. The Post Office — now, look, if you look at the Post Office, for years, that’s all people complained about. We’re going to run it well, and we’re going to not lose so much money.
One of the things the Post Office loses so much money on is the delivering packages for Amazon and these others. Every time they deliver a package, they probably lose three or four dollars. That’s not good. They have to raise those prices –okay — not for the people to pay, but for Amazon and those companies to pay.
Thank you very much.
Q On mail-in ballots, why are you opposed to mail-in ballots when they cannot be hacked —
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
Q — by foreign interests or Russia?
THE PRESIDENT: Are you ready? Absentee ballots are great. You request a ballot, you can’t be — I signed an absentee ballot. Absentee ballots are great. They work. They’ve been proven. They’re good — like in Florida. But this universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It’s fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen, and we have to be very, very careful.
We have a very big election coming up. I think we’re going to do very well. And I want to make sure the election is not stolen, and so does everybody else. And I’m sure both sides feel that way. So we have to be very careful with this universal, mail-in ballot.
Absentee ballots are great. They’ve worked for a long time. And I — I totally endorse absentee ballots.
Thank you very much everybody.
Q Have you ever encouraged Mr. DeJoy to slow the mail, Mr. President? Have you ever encouraged the Postmaster General — a big donor to you — to slow the mail?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not at all. Wouldn’t do that. No, I have encouraged everybody: Speed up the mail, not slow the mail.
And I also want to have a Post Office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has been doing for 50 years.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
{At this point, he walked away, pretending not to hear any more questions.}
END
10:24 A.M. EDT
Trump on whether he's worried about Post Office dismantling resulting in people not getting their medications on time: "No, no. The Post Office is running very well." (It is not running well)
Link to tweet
