WARNS AGAINST “IDEOLOGY” OF “RADICAL LEFT”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 14, 2020) — At a Tuesday early-evening presser from the Rose Garden, President Trump announced that he signed an executive order aimed at admonishing China for its recent actions against Hong Kong, which the communist country now governs.
From the “edge” American markets historically extended to Hong Kong, the island’s economy flourished, Trump said, although its special status has now been rescinded due to China’s aggressive actions against it.
He reiterated his stance that China has been “taking advantage” of other countries, including the U.S., for “many, many years.”
He said the U.S. recovery from the “China plague,” meaning the coronavirus, is remarkable.
A Chinese telecommunications company, Huawei, will not be permitted to do business here, Trump said, along with the UK’s similar announcement on Tuesday.
Earlier in his term, Trump had said he had a positive relationship with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, known as the country’s “President.”
Trump said his administration has been “as tough as can be” on China and by announcing the U.S.’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), which was not forthcoming about the origins of the coronavirus. He added that China obscured the facts surrounding the virus and that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden advocated for China’s “most favored nation status” and entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).
He called out Biden for his support of the Paris Climate Accord, which he said was “one more gift to the Chinese communist party.”
“It was going to cost us hundreds of millions of dollars” to remain part of the accord, Trump said, and up to 25% of U.S. businesses would have been compelled to close as a result. “I’ve been given a lot of credit for what I did there…sounds so nice, the Paris Climate Accord,” he said.
Trump said that 10,000 factories closed while Biden served as vice president. “Biden was here for 47 years,” Trump said, referring to Biden’s long Senate career and eight years as vice president. During the latter, he said, Biden claimed American infrastructure to be “in disrepair” and “on the verge of collapse.” “Why didn’t he fix ’em?” Trump asked, invoking Obama’s name as well.
“Now he says he’s going to be president and do all the things he didn’t do. Well, he didn’t do anything…” Trump said, accusing Biden and Obama of having allowed China to grow stronger as U.S. businesses lost their ability to compete and closed.
China “is building a massive military,” Trump said, while “Biden wants to defund our military.”
Further calling out his presumptive general-election rival, Trump said Biden condemned Trump’s travel ban on China when the coronavirus was known to have reached the U.S. “We saved tens of thousands of lives, but we actually saved potentially millions of lives,” Trump claimed. “We would have had millions of people dead from this curse that came at us…” he said.
“If we had listened to Joe Biden, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been lost…” he continued, then said that during the 2014 swine flu outbreak, “they totally stopped testing early on.”
Trump then touted his administration’s rollout and increase of coronavirus testing. “We have the best testing in the world,” he said, and, as he has previously, said that the U.S. is now manufacturing ventilators for the benefit of other countries.
Trump said that Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the White House Coronavirus Task Force, “works so hard and gets so little credit.”
Without mentioning New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s name, Trump remarked that the two Navy hospital ships, one sent to California and the other to New York City and which were barely used, could have housed “senior citizens” or nursing-home patients recovering from the virus rather than returning them to environments where the virus spread and “thousands” were lost. Cuomo had signed an executive order compelling nursing homes to accept recovering COVID-19 patients rather than isolating them in separate facilities, a decision the Democrat-majority New York General Assembly is reportedly investigating.
The order was rescinded on May 10.
During the presser, Fox News displayed a chyron which read, “Trump Attacks Biden During News Conference.”
“Biden sides with China time and time again,” Trump said. “He’s so proud of them…”
Trump repeated his constant mantra that “We built the best economy in the history of the world…we built the greatest-ever stock market,…and we had to close it down…we saved millions of lives…” and that “China for the first time was respecting the United States.”
“I’ve watched this and I’ve watched this with great interest…and our economy is coming back,” he said, then declared that November 3 could be the “most important election” in the nation’s history.
“Today Joe Biden gave a speech” in which he indicated he wanted to “kill American energy,” Trump said. He said that “fools running the United States” have agreed with Biden on “green” energy initiatives and called out Biden for placing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in charge of his energy policy. “In other words, he wants to impose the Green New Deal” on the U.S., Trump said, which he said would ruin the economy.
Trump recalled that last week, Biden joined with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a declared socialist and two-time Democrat presidential contender, to announce the “Unity Platform.” Trump said the platform includes stopping “all deportations” and “prosecution of illegal border-crossers.” It also embraces “incentivizing illegal-alien child smuggling,” Trump said. “Expand asylum for all new illegal aliens,” Trump said is another plank of the platform.
The full document can be read here.
In that vein, Trump said “some day I’ll tell you why” El Salvador and Honduras are now allowing their citizens who illegally cross into the U.S. to be repatriated.
“We’re going to give all illegal aliens taxpayer-funded lawyers,” Trump said is another plank of the Unity Platform. “They want to take down the wall…” he said, referring to newly-constructed border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, where “27,000 Mexican soldiers” are now positioned.
“Catch-and-release” no longer occurs, Trump said, as a result of his administration’s efforts to quell illegal border crossings.
“Taxpayer subsidies and welfare” would go to “illegal immigrants,” Trump said. “This is part of their plan; I’m not making this up…and this is good, compared to what I heard today.”
The Platform calls for “free community college” for all, including illegals, Trump said. He said that the new wall prevented people from crossing into the U.S. from heavily-COVID-19-infected areas of Mexico and other countries.
Registering “new immigrants for welfare immediately” is a another item on the Platform, Trump said. “Who’s not coming to the United States?” he remarked. Another item, Trump said, is to “massively expand immigration during a global pandemic, taking jobs from unemployed Americans.”
“End all travel bans…including from jihadist regions — they specify that. Grant mass amnesty,” Trump enumerated. Trump said the Platform does not apply to DACA, the program Obama initiated through a 2012 memo to then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. “We’re going to take care of DACA…pretty soon, I’m going to be signing an immigration action that based on the DACA decision I’ll be able to do,” Trump said, referring to a recent Supreme Court ruling which said the administration did not take the proper steps to end the program.
He said the new Democratic platform seeks to “end cash bail” and supports the “abolish-the-police” movement gaining momentum since George Floyd lost his life on May 25 while in custody of the Minneapolis Police Department.
“Abolish completely the death penalty…” is another pledge of the platform, Trump said. “End mandatory minimums” for sentences, he enumerated, obviously reading from notes. “We could go on for days.”
“Incentivize prison closures…they want to abolish our police departments…ensure the resources saved are invested directly into those communities.”
During the lengthy litany of criticisms, Trump claimed Biden has become “radically left.”
“Free federal housing for former inmates” and “rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and seek an even higher level of restraint.” He said the “Biden plan” would cause Texas to “lost about 7 million jobs.” Pennsylvania and other states would also be affected, Trump said.
Biden wants to eliminate “school choice” and charter schools, Trump said.
“There’s never been a time when two candidates were more different,” Trump said.
He reported that since he signed an executive order reinforcing punishments for tearing down federal monuments, none has been attempted. He said many offenders are “in jail” for the crime.
“Without borders, you don’t have a country,” Trump said. He described Biden as, “radical left,” suggesting Venezuela’s recent history from a wealthy market economy to abject poverty and socialism could take place in the United States if such an “ideology” should be enacted.
At 6:22 p.m., Trump invited reporters’ questions.