Pool Reports of August 19, 2020

WH in-town pool report 1 -- Checking in

Good morning from the White House. I'll be your in-town print pooler today.

POTUS has no public events on his schedule. He receives his intelligence briefing at 1 p.m., which is closed press.

The press secretary will hold a briefing at 1 p.m.

I will provide any updates throughout the day and, as always, feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

In-town pool report 2: POTUS briefing at 5 p.m.

Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway just gaggled with reporters on the White House driveway.

She announced POTUS will have a briefing at 5 p.m.

More to come.

In-town pool report 3: Lunch lid until 1 p.m.

Lunch lid called at 12.04 p.m.

In-town pool report 4: More on POTUS briefing

Your pooler just spoke to White House press who believe the POTUS briefing will likely happen around 5.30 p.m.

No official changes to the president's schedule just yet.

In-town pool report 5: Conway gaggle full quotes

More from Kellyanne Conway's gaggle on the White House driveway just before.

Concerns about mail-in voting if Trump wins and Democrats claim the election is invalid?

We may not know the results on election night but we'll just carry that through. I don't think it matters who wins. I think it matters that we have a safe and secure election in a very unusual time. When more people are expected to vote by mail, we just want to make sure people are receiving one ballot and sending in one ballot. You've seen many examples in New York for example and other places where they had to disqualify 80,000 ballots in a very recent election. That's just one state or one congressional district where Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D. NY) didn't know her fate for weeks and weeks and weeks. So everybody should be concerned about this. We have election security briefings at the White House. The president will be on top of that. I would just take everybody back to Oct. 19th and 20th, 2016 when the president famously said will you accept the election results because you all said and everybody else said that he was going to lose and he said, 'll wait and see.' Hiollary still hasn't accepted the election results so I'd look at that before I talk about 2020. We just want a safe and secure election. One person, one vote.

Why is the president calling for a boycott of Goodyear? It's an Ohio company, in a battleground state?. Seems like a particularly bad idea for him?

I don't know what you're talking about. You can ask about the president at 5 o'clock, he'll be briefing. I think he's done plenty for companies in Ohio and elsewhere, far more than Joe Bidne ever did, creating a job.

US China relations. There's been a lot of back and forth.

There's been a lot of back and forth because China unleashed a virus on the world and wasn't transparent about it and should be held accountable and that includes the World Health Organization as well, which taxpayers give over $400 million to every year. The president obviously negotiated a bilateral trade deal with China, historic, enforceable, written, and we've been telling President Xi to get his fentanyl and other stuff out of our county and our kid's veins and communities, but on the virus, people are very upset. I've seen the polling where more Americans are focused on China. The president makes very clear on a daily basis when he's asked what he thinks of this and that's got to be part of the relationship moving forward.... He said 'I look at China in a very different way now, I've never looked at them this way before,' so that all has to be part of what's being discussed when it comes to China.

Will that be a big theme at the convention next week? Are you lining up speakers and how do you get the maximum number of people at the White House when he feeds on that energy?

You'll have to be surprised next week. I don't think the number of people matter. He's going to be speaking on a world stage. One thing I will tell you is that his speech will be a review of the [inaudible] of his first administration and also the vision piece moving forward and that we have a choice to make. I think that Donald Trump will be featured at his convention but, boy, has he been featured at Joe Biden's convention. It's as if they don't want to talk about Joe Biden. Forty seven years and you can't tell us two or three things that he's done to measurably, consequently impact your life. This president has done more in the 47 months that Joe Biden has done in 47 years to make a difference in people's lives. I think that will be a part of the messaging. It will be an exciting week. You want to picture these people as president, only the president can deliver that from here. Only the first lady can be here delivering her address which also is excellent.

WH in-town pool report 6: Two-minute warning

We have a two minute warning for the press secretary's briefing.

WH in-town pool report 7: Briefing starts

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany took the podium at 1.27 p.m.

Briefing is being streamed here: https://whitehouse.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c97630621baff8c44f...

I will bring you color as it happens.

WH in-town pool report 8: Navarro gaggle

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro just gaggled on the White House driveway.

Highlights below, including his allegation that the Chinese Communist Party and Democratic Party are in cahoots and that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'slipped' in the blood of Bernie supporters at last night's convention.

Full video here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?474975-102/peter-navarro-speaks-reporters

Bernie Bros:

My condolences to the Bernie Bros last night. There was blood of the Bernie Bros all over the floor of that virtual convention and AOC was slipping in it in her 60-second cameo. I want to just reach out to the Bernie Bros and say the party of economic nationalism is here, to reach out to you, we are the ones who are going to bring the factories home of America and the jobs home to America. If you feel bereft and left by what is happening before our own eyes, Bernie Bros, you have a home with us.

DNC:

We're halfway through this convention, it's truly remarkable, it's the case of the running dog Democratic Party that didn't bark or bite China. What is going on here? We're halfway through this convention and there is just not a word of how the Chinese Communist Party has basically infected this country with a deadly virus, killed over 160,000 Americans, wrecked all manner of havoc on 40 million unemployed Americans, cost us trillions of dollars already in terms of fiscal and monetary stimulus, and not a single word from the Democratic party about what China has done to this country.

Dems and China in cahoots:

What I think is happening here is the Democratic Party and the Chinese Communist Party have entered into a common cause to defeat DonaldJ. Trump and their whole strategy is based on blaming this administration for a global pandemic created by the Chinese Communist Party. That's their whole strategy. They don't talk about policy anymore. It's just Donald Trump -- bad. That's their whole, whole strategy. So I think for the American people, I think you should be very fearful based on what they're signalling to the Chinese if the Biden folks are able to win in November, they're basically going to turn this country over to the Chinese Communist Party. They've got two more days to say something about what their China policy is but so far it's crickets.

It's also true that the Chinese Community Party has thrown their lot in with the democrat party and their efforts --

How do you know that?

It's obvious. It's obvious. If you have a look at the information warfare being waged against this administration through instruments of the Chinese government, if you look at what they're saying in the Chinese press, it's very clear. And then the Democrat Party, that's obviously. They've got nothing, they've got nothing. They've got two days so far of saying they're going high and the only thing they do is go low on the president. That's all they do. They don't talk about their $4 trillion tax increase. They don't talk about putting petroleum people out of work in the Dakotas, in Texas, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania. They don't talk about any of that. There's just no there there. It's just kumbaya, everything's going to be better.

China trade deal:

Here's the state of play right now, clearly the phase one deal is in full force. The chinese are buying historic amounts of agricultural products and that's all to the good. It's also true that the Chinese Communist Party is now betting, putting their bet behind Joe Biden and they're going to wait until after the election for any future negotiations, that's very clear that's what their strategy is. So between now and November 3, what the Chinese Communist Party is going to be doing is waging information warfare using things like the Wumao army to infect our social media to push the media as the Democratic PArty is doing to blame this administration for the pandmeic. That's their whole strategy. They don't want to talk about policy because when they talk about policy, they have to start talking about a $4 trillion tax hike on the American people. Right off the bat, they're lost. They start talking about how they're going to shut down our entire petroleum sector and you just see states gooff the map that they'd never win including Ohio and Pennsylvania where there's a lot of fracking going on so that's how the China deal is interlacing with the campaign.

WH in-town pool report 9: Kudlow gaggling

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow is gaggling on the driveway.

He says the economic is coming back "very, very strongly" and says the new $300 federal unemployment bonus should be in bank accounts in "the next week or two."

More to come.

In-town pool report #10: POTUS briefing delayed until 5:45 pm

Hi,

I'm pinch-hitting as your in-town pooler this evening. The president announced via Twitter that he will be starting his press briefing at 5:45 pm tonight.

Stay tuned.

In-town pool report #11: POTUS speaking

At 5:55 PM President Trump entered the briefing room. He is opening with remarks, which are being livestreamed, with remarks on the Iran nuclear agreement and snapback sanctions.

"My administration will not allow this Iran nuclear situation to go on," he just said.

In-town pool report #12: POTUS news conference over

At 6:25 PM EDT President Trump ended his news conference. He spoke for a total of 30 minutes from the briefing room podium. I would direct you to the livestream with potential questions on his remarks.

In-town pool report #13: Lid

The White House called a travel/photo lid at 6:39 PM EDT. Goodnight everyone!