Sekretarz prasowy Białego Domu Kayleigh McEnany przedstawia fakty dotyczące oszustw związanych z głosowaniem korespondencyjnym.
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Q Do you know if he intends to, or will you get back to us on that?
MS. MCENANY: I can ask him, and I can get back to you on that.
Q Okay. And regarding the fact checking, the President clearly said things in these tweets that are not true. Do you not acknowledge that?
MS. MCENANY: No, I don’t acknowledge that. He —
Q He said, for instance, that, “The Governor of California is sending out ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” That is not true. California is sending out absentee ballots to registered voters, not to “anybody.”
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so —
Q That’s just not true.
MS. MCENANY: So let me address this in detail, on the issue of ballots. And I’m going to lay out some of the President’s concerns. And, in that, I will get to the California example.
First, I want to note that there was a Pew study done that shows there is plenty of reason to believe that mass — in the mass mail-in system, that there is fraud. They estimated that approximately 24 million — one out of every eight voters registered in the U.S. — are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate. So these are people who are on voter registrations that have not been maintained, that have not been kept up. More than 1.8 million have been deceased, they estimated.
And then, when you look and drill down into some of the examples that we’ve seen in states, Nevada just — I read about this last week and it just really struck me as a perfect example of what the President is concerned about with mail-in ballots and the fraud that can be inherent in that. There were ballots — because Nevada mass mailed them out to voter rolls that were piling up in apartment complexes — outside of apartment complexes in Las Vegas, sitting around in trash cans. This is how we’re protecting ballots? It’s extraordinary.
Postal workers — one 36-year-old — a 36-year veteran carrier said she’s never seen anything like these influx of absentee ballots. All of the people had moved or died when she set out to deliver on her first delivery route. And this happened just recently. You can go read the articles from last week. She found 65 ballots of people who had moved or died. On her second carry, 100. And then as the week progressed, thousands just sitting in crates. I mean, this is extraordinary. This is not how we should be protecting U.S. ballots.
In South Carolina, Dems — the Democrats sued to force a rush transfer of mail-in voting. And this happened again recently; I think it was last week. And mail-in ballots for South Carolina turned up in Maryland.
There’s another example of 700 suspicious mail-in ballots in Dallas and an individual charged with second-degree felony, illegal voting. And he’s accused of visiting a woman in April to collect her blank absentee ballot, filling it out and forging her signature. I mean, this is extraordinary.
And then you go on: There’s a New Jersey example of over 3,000 ballots that were seemingly set aside. And going to California — you mentioned — California is one of those states that’s notorious for ballot harvesting. And in 2018, the registrar in Orange County said that they reported that his office had people dropping off maybe 100 or 200 ballots at a time. And somehow, in LA County, 112 percent of LA County is registered to vote.
So the problem is this: When you don’t clean your register and you send out your entire register, auto-send out these ballots, they end up in trash cans, like in Nevada. they are subject to fraud, and that is extremely troubling.
Q So — but, Kayleigh, I asked you a very specific question. The President said that California was sending out ballots to everybody in the state. That is a false statement. It is not correct. Will the President correct that, acknowledge what he said is simply not true?
MS. MCENANY: There is an executive order that was put into place recently by Gavin Newsom that would auto-send to voter rolls, and that would lead to what the President was suggesting.
Yes.
Q No, but to — excuse me, Kayleigh, to registered voters, those — it’s not to everybody; it’s to registered voters.
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, to everyone, including —
Q It is — it is —
MS. MCENANY: — dead people on the voter rolls; including to the mysterious 112 percent in LA County. That’s — that is does not just everyone. That’s everyone plus an extra 12 percent. And if you’re not concerned about that, I’m sorry.
I mean, the media is very concerned about the security of our elections, but when it comes to mail-in ballots, all of a sudden, the concern for election security just melts away.
Q But, Kayleigh, you yourself have voted by mail.
Q Kayleigh —
MS. MCENANY: Yes. Brian.
Q Thank you very much. Research — on mail-in ballots — research has shown that, one, it doesn’t benefit either party. It increases voter participation. Secretaries of state of both parties are still pursuing it. And fraud is — is not widespread.
And so why is the President continuing to tweet about this and to give the impression that there’s widespread fraud in the use of mail-in ballots when he himself used a mail-in ballot? The big question is: Some are concerned that the President may be laying the groundwork to cast doubt on the election. Is that what he’s doing by bringing this up?
MS. MCENANY: Well, I appreciate you bringing up this question and, specifically, the component about the President using mail-in ballots.
There’s an important distinction, and I think it’s lost upon a lot of people, but it’s important to make: is that the President is okay with mail-in voting so long as you have a reason. He’s not okay with mass mail-in voting where you auto-send, as I said, to all of these voter rolls with people who are dead, that are subject to fraud. That is the case.
We saw — I listed off for you — I think three of the five examples I gave you were from just this week and last week. So this does happen. And —
Q Well, then why is it that research has shown –Stanford University did a research study that showed that there wasn’t widespread fraud in these vote-by-mail and that it didn’t benefit either party and increased voter participation. So why would the President be against that?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, it is subject to both parties. This can hurt both parties. I would note that a bipartisan commission — led in part by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat — concluded that mail-in ballots, quote, “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
So moving the entire country to that system doesn’t make sense, and doing so in a hurried fashion ahead of November — just go look at the Democrat Iowa caucus and how it worked out when they tried to move to a new system.
And then, finally —
Q Is the President trying to lay groundwork to cast doubt on the results of the election in November?
MS. MCENANY: Finally, I —
Q Is he laying groundwork to try to cast doubt on the results of the election in November?
MS. MCENANY: No, he’s certainly not doing that. And I would finally note there’s an additional concern that was very well laid out by the Wall Street Journal editorial board that, in 2016, minorities and first-time voters were more likely to have mail-in ballots thrown out. So that is another troubling concern. In fact, 319,000 of those total votes were rejected.
Yes.
Q Thank you. Back in November, President Trump went up to Walter Reed, said it was for phase one of his physical. When does he plan to complete phase two and release the results to the public?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I don’t have an update on the physical, but because you asked that, I’ll specifically inquire about that today and try to get back to you.
Q But is he planning to do it?
MS. MCENANY: You what?
Q He does plan to do it?
MS. MCENANY: Yes, he does. Yes.
Yes.
Q Thank you. Thank you for doing this. I wanted to ask you about — President has completed his two weeks of hydroxychloroquine. Have you spoken to him what his feeling about? Is he feeling better? What’s his feedback about that?
MS. MCENANY: I did. And thank you. I know that you emailed me a question to that effect, and I didn’t have time to follow up with you via email. But because I saw that, I went to him just before coming out here and I asked him that. And he said, quote, he’s “feeling perfect.” Quote, he’s “feeling absolutely great” after taking this regimen. And, quote, he “would take it again” if he thought that he was exposed. So he is feeling very good.
And I also would point, folks, there’s a very, very well done piece. It’s very thorough with a lot of medical experts laying out about prophylaxis use of hydroxychloroquine by Tina Hesman Saey at ScienceNews.org. It’s very well done. She talks about the nearly 200 clinical trials around the world, including 28 involving healthcare workers. In fact, at Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan, 3,000 healthcare workers are taking it as part of a trial. And there’s some really excellent information there about some — you know, the use of prophylaxis for this.
Q A number of Indian American doctors have been writing — have seen some of those letters. They are supporting the President taking hydroxychloroquine. Some of them have themselves taken it. Have you seen those too?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah. Yeah, absolu- — well, there’s a lot. It’s not specific to the President, these doctors. But they just talk in general about what they’ve seen. For instance, Sarah Lofgren, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis — they’re testing hydroxychloroquine there to prevent COVID-19. And she said, “When used alone, we’re not seeing major issues. Out of the thousands of patients, we’re not seeing things that some people are concerned about.”
And I would just note that it’s important — of course, always, if taking hydroxychloroquine, get a prescription from your doctor. Doctors are the ones that need to be prescribing this.
But that being said, I think that some of the hyperbole around this drug that has been on the market for 65 years — been approved for use in three other maladies and has been approved for off-label use — when there’s a lot of hyperbole about this being unsafe — some of the things I’ve seen reported out there — there are consequences, deterring people from being recruited into actual clinical trials.
I have some quotes from a New York epidemiologist and others conducting trials, saying they’re having trouble recruiting people because some of the myths that are out there. So it’s important to note that this drug has been safely used by millions of people for a long time.
Q I have one more on China.
MS. MCENANY: Yes.
Q President yesterday tweeted about he wants to mediate between U.S. and — sorry, India and China on the border dispute. You know China has been behaving very (inaudible), very aggressive with its neighbors in the last few weeks, in particular the South China Sea, (inaudible) on the India border side. What is the message the President has to these countries?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, I’d refer you back to the President’s tweet on that one.
Yes, Christian.
Q Thanks, Kayleigh. We saw reports that, before swearing in John Ratcliffe as DNI, Ric Grenell declassified a trove of documents related to the Russia investigation. The President hinted that those could be made public sometime soon. Does the director plan on doing that anytime in the near future?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, so those, I believe, are under a process of review by the DOJ, so I’ll refer to them on that.
Yes, Tom. Do you have a question? I thought I saw you had your hand raised. No?
Q Kayleigh —
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, back there.
Q Yes, hi. Thank you. I want to ask you about Russia’s recent actions in Libya. The U.S. AFRICOM has been issuing statements recently about U.S. actions there. And in their statements, they’re saying that Russia is clearly trying to tip the scales in its favor in Libya, just like it did in Syria, by deploying military aircraft likely to provide close air support and offensive fires for their Wagner Group that is supporting Libya’s LNA fight against the internationally recognized government.
Do you have — what is the White House position on this? And do you agree with the U.S. AFRICOM assessment that their actions — the Russian actions — in Libya are destabilizing the region?
MS. MCENANY: Yeah, we encourage de-escal- — de-escalation in Libya. And for more, I’d refer you to the DOD.
Chanel.
Q Thank you, Kayleigh. If Joe Scarborough were innocent, couldn’t he sue the President for defamation? And then, in turn, couldn’t President Trump’s attorneys immediately depose Joe Scarborough for — and allow him to go under oath and explain how, you know, this 28-year-old woman was found dead by his desk with multiple skull fractures? Would the President welcome a defamation suit from Joe Scarborough?
MS. MCENANY: So, on that, I would just refer you back to some of my previous comments that the audio on the Don Imus show was very disturbing, where there was a lot of laughing and joking about this matter. That certainly is not a laughing and joking matter.
Q I mean, do you think that Scarborough has grounds to do so?
MS. MCENANY: So, I have no further comments other than to just point back to the Don Imus audio.
Who hasn’t — yes. You haven’t gotten a question? Yeah.
Q When were the states first notified that they would have to take the lead in COVID-19 testing? I know the CDC was working on it early on; in January and February, there was a problem with the tests. When were the states told, “Hey, you have to prepare and take the lead here in testing your populations”?
MS. MCENANY: So I don’t have a precise date for you, but I know the way the process went, where the states came up with the plans that they thought they would need to have adequate testing in order to reopen, those plans were given to us. And Admiral Giroir meticulously went through all of those plans, ensured that we had enough supply to shore up those plans that states had and to make sure that the states had enough to safely reopen.
So that was how the process went, and the President has done really extraordinary work with testing. Three hundred to four hundred thousand tests per day is a pretty good number — a very good number, I would say. More than 15 million done, beating the world in testing numbers. And under 10 percent positivity is at least the barometer given by the WHO as what’s necessary. And nationally, we’re at under 10 percent positivity. In fact, we’re at 7.5 percent positivity rate. So we are doing quite well on testing.
Is there anyone who hasn’t gotten a question? This is the last — right there.
Q Yeah, thank you. Has the President heard from his counterparts regarding the G7 Summit? Is it actually going to take place in June at the White House?
MS. MCENANY: We do aim for it to take place then. It’s gotten positive reception. I inquired about this two days ago and was told it’s getting very positive reception from world leaders. So we do intend for that to take place here.
Oh, I haven’t called on you.
Q Yes, Kayleigh. Thank you. You yourself have been able to vote by mail several times. Do you think anyone with health concerns — who has health concerns about going to the polls — should have that same convenience, that right?
MS. MCENANY: So what I would note again is the distinction between absentee voting and having a reason, and mass mail-out voting, where ballots are sent in a widespread fashion to people who are dead but on voting rolls, and those ballots end up in trash cans. That’s a state-by-state consideration. I’ll leave it to states to determine what is a valid reason.
But there are — you know, if you’re an elderly person who is unable to get to —
Q But the states are doing this out of health considerations for a lot of their residents. And if they want to pursue that track, is there anything wrong with that?
MS. MCENANY: Again, I mean, you’re asking — I assume you’re asking with relation to the pandemic that’s going on.
Q Yes.
MS. MCENANY: None of us know where we’re going to be in November; I’d first note that. We don’t have a crystal ball. But what I would say is that there are real concerns when you don’t do in-person voting. And South Carolina is a great example, where Democrats literally sued to force rush mail-in voting. And what happened? You had ballots from South Carolina ending up in Baltimore. That is not a tenable system.
And as states start to reopen and we see people out at beaches in Florida and we’re not seeing these mass spikes, and we see people safely going to restaurants and social distancing and washing their hands and doing all the wonderful mitigation techniques put forward by our experts, they’re reopening society and they’re doing so safely.
And I think there’s a way to continue our great civic duty of showing up and voting in a way that is safe. In the same way it’s safe to eat at a restaurant, it’s safe to go to a beach, we can vote in a safe fashion. And I think that’s something that is good and to be celebrated as we head to November.
All right, I think I took everyone’s question.
Q But if there’s a second wave, people should be able to vote —
MS. MCENANY: Thank you so much guys.
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