Trump: Blue states have problems finding money to fight coronavirus
At the coronavirus task force briefing on Thursday, President Trump said states that seem to have problems with funding to fight the coronavirus “happen to be Democrat.”
Video Transcript
- Mr. President?
DONALD TRUMP: Yes?
- The House has now passed since you were here the-- the relief bill.
DONALD TRUMP: Right. I'll be signing it probably tonight.
- As you know, there's no aid to states and localities in that bill. Mitch McConnell, of course, has talked about states seeking bankruptcy protection. He's also, his office, referred to this as a-- the idea of aiding states as a blue state bailout. What do you-- what do you say to that? Do you-- do you agree with that, or do you agree with Governor Cuomo that that is a-- a vicious attack on these states--
DONALD TRUMP: I don't think it's a vicious attack, but certainly some people do look at it that way. I've spoken to Mitch about it. I've spoken to numerous senators about it. And we're working with senators that are on the other side of the issue, and we'll see what happens. But we're looking to do what's right for the people of this country. We're looking to do what's right for a particular state, and we'll see what happens. But it's certainly the next thing we're going to be discussing because some states have, in all fairness, John, some states have not done very well for many years, long before the virus came.
You know, you can't blame the plague, this horrible plague that came in all-- all of a sudden, you know, they can't blame that. You look at Illinois. Now he's got a lot of problems long before the virus came in. And so we'll be talking about it. It'll be a subject for a period of time. And right now, we've-- we've made this incredible deal for the workers and for small business. And I'm very happy that Harvard didn't get covered. We actually never sent them the check. But they were very nice about it. We never sent them the-- the money.
The old-fashioned way is the check. The new way is send them the money, and we didn't send him the money. And-- but they were very understanding, and they were very nice about it. So was Princeton, so was Stanford, so were a number of other schools that you just don't associate with this money. So were big companies, as you know. You know many of them. It was a relatively small amount of money compared to the whole, very small amount of money compared. But we wanted to be fair. We want it to go to the people that it's supposed to go to.
- Are you open to this idea of-- of state and local--
DONALD TRUMP: I'm open-- I'm open to ideas that are going to be great for the people of this country.
- Specifically that one?
DONALD TRUMP: And if we can help states, we're always going to help states. Now there's different ways of helping states. Some ways are better than others. So we're looking. It is interesting that the states that are in trouble do happen to be blue. It is interesting. You know, if you look around, I mean, the states that seem to have the problem happen to be Democrat. And--
- Well, New York and New Jersey got hit by this, you know--
DONALD TRUMP: Well, but New York and New Jersey were in a lot of trouble long before the plague came, and they were, you know, they had a lot of problems long before the plague came. I spoke with Governor Cuomo about it, spoke to Governor Murphy about it. I spoke with Gavin Newsom about it. And we-- I'm speaking to a lot of people about it because it's probably going to be the next thing on the list. A lot of people understand very well what Mitch is saying, and they also understand the other side of the-- the problem. And I'll be speaking about it. We're going to do the right thing for our country, the right thing for our country and the right thing for a lot of great people, OK?
