coming up this morning, democratic congressman tim ryan discussed the future of the democratic party and congressional news of the day including the government funding deadline and efforts to forge a compromise on covid-19 relief legislation. than alabama republican congressman mo brooks talks about his plan to challenge the electoral college vote tally in congress officially certifies the results of the presidential election on january 6. georgetown university medical at the fdator discusses the covid-19 vaccine approval process. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern this morning and join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. the food and drug administration meets in open session to approve the pfizer covid-19 vaccine. live coverage thursday at 9:00

a.m. eastern and live coverage of the fda approval for the vaccine. watch live on c-span3, stream live and on-demand at www.c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. tuesday, president trump signed an executive order to prioritize covid-19 vaccines for use by americans first before partnering globally to ship to others around the world. following the signing, he answered questions from the media stop this is 25 minutes.

>> thank you very much and i'm welcoming you to operation warp speed. it's been an incredible success. we are grateful to be joined by vice president mike pence who has done an absolutely incredible job on the coronavirus task force. stand up, mike. [applause] >> we are here to discuss a monumental national achievement from the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action to develop a safe and effective vaccine at breakneck speed. it would normally take five years, six years, seven years or more step in order to achieve this goal, we harness the full power of government, the genius of american scientists and that might of american industry to

save millions and millions of lives all over the world. we are just days away from authorization from the fda and pushing them hard. then we will immediately begin mass distribution -- mass distribution. the typical timeframe for development and approval as you know could be infinity. we were very happy that we were able to get things done at a level that nobody has ever seen before. the gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months. on behalf of the entire nation come i want to thank everyone here today who has been involved in the six ordinary american initiative. i also want to recognize members of my administration who have worked tirelessly in this effort. alex azar, where is alex? thank you, alex, great job. [applause]

where are you? >> great job a man who will now be very important, generalgus pern. logistics. jared kushner has worked so hard, where is jared? wherever you may be. [applause] >> thank you. >> dr. deborahbirx. [applause] >> thank you very much. admiral brett. [applause] great job you been doing. surgeon general jerome adams. [applause] >> thank you very much, terrific. [applause] dr. robert redfield >>. thank you very much. a, thankrator sima verm you. [applause] >> dr. peter marx. [applause] >> thank you.

and brado, adam boler smith, thank you very much, great job. [applause] thank you all very much, incredible job and many others also, many, many others. we're also grateful to be joined by governors greg abbott. [applause] lee. [applause] thank you. ron desantis. [applause] thank you, ron. thank you very much, great job. an john bel edwards. [applause] thank you. john barrassoator who is a fantastic doctor also by the way. when i need info on that subject, call of john and thank you very much.

senator steve daines, .ongratulations on a great win that was easier than you thought it turned out. great going. congressman greg walden, thank you very much. strepngressman brad when -- when strep. thank you very much and many others. my administration provided a total of $14 billion to accelerate vaccine development and manufacture all of the top candidates in advance. as the result of this unprecedented investment, we are exceedingly proud that both pfizer and moderna have announced their vaccines are approximately 95% effective which is a number that nobody expected to be able to get to. it far exceeds anything that anybody thought. we went out and said what do you think a maximum would be and i think the doctors came to the conclusion that something like

that would be incredible. we have other candidates right now. we have some big ones we will announce very soon. we have some great companies out there. you know about johnson and johnson and others and they are all coming in very quickly. we expect to have news on that very shortly. we have worked very well with the companies but for any reason, if we have problems, we will be instituting the defense production act and we will make sure we don't have any problems. we have instituted it before. two additional companies, astrazeneca and johnson & johnson. the johnson & johnson say one dose one shot vaccines a we will see how that works. that would be very helpful if that came out and i think it probably will. they are showing tremendous promise, all of them. we are very hopeful that the fda will authorize the pfizer vaccine within days.

we got to get it moving and the moderna vaccine almost immediately thereafter. large numbers of tests and samples have been done so hopefully that will go very quickly. if authorize, tens of millions of vaccine doses will be available this month and we will get a distributive very quickly. we have that all set and hundreds of millions more will quickly follow every american who wants the vaccine will be able to get the vaccine and we think by spring, we will be in a position that nobody would have believed possible just a few months ago. [applause] amazing, really amazing. they say it's somewhat of a miracle and i think that's true. the plan we put forward pray toward -- prioritizes the elderly in patients with underlying conditions as well as health-care workers and first responders. the ultimate decision rests with the governors of the various states. i hope the governors make wise

decisions as to who will decide where the vaccines will go in their state and who will get them first. we urge the governors to put american seniors first i think those who work with seniors which obviously, you will have to do that. i think they have to go together. doctors, nurses, first responders, etc. this will quickly and dramatically reduce debts and hospitalizations within a short time. i think we want to get back to normal, a standard phrase. we want to get back to where we were a little more than nine months ago. we are doing incredibly and in many respects, we are still doing incredibly with their stock markets and everything else which are hitting new highs. we have already finalized a partnership with walgreens and cvs whose executives join us today, thank you very much for being here. thank you very much. [applause] >> and they will deliver vaccines directly to nursing homes as soon as the state's request they do so.

later today, general gus perner will outline the plan to rapidly distribute the vaccine to every state and tribe. sites of been designated to distribute the vaccines. we have had good relationships with the governors. i almost think all of the governors, at least in the conference calls that are somewhat secret other than sometimes on occasion the press will break in which is fine, too. [laughter] thosemazing how you leave rooms and about 10 seconds later, there wasn't even time for a leak, they were on the call but that's all right. you assume that. they will be going through pharmacies, hospitals, health care providers. throughout partnership with fedex, ups and mckesson, we will ship doses from warehouses directly to the designated sites and we are thrilled to be joined by representatives of really great american companies.

the companies have worked with us and they have been incredible to work with and i went to thank you all for being here, thank you very much. [applause] as i've stated all along and i guess as you saw vividly, i what we are going to show prior to my coming -- very few people thought this was possible. of course, they will now be saying we always told you it was so but we have them saying a little bit different. it has been incredible and it will end the pandemic. we are working with other nations. you can see that we are working closely with other nations to get the vaccines out to other nations. it's very important. we work with the world. we have great companies and we are working with the world. in a few minutes, i will sign an executive order to ensure that the united states government

the getting out of the vaccine to american citizens before sending it to other nations. theecessary, we will invoke defense production act but we don't think it will be necessary. if it is, it's very powerful because we have used it very successfully. we begin to swiftly deploy the vaccine and we will continue to expand the availability of groundbreaking therapies. since april, advances and treatments have all that i boarded reduce the mortality rate by 85%. think of that, 85%. [applause] >> it's an incredible number. i have delivered on my solemn promise to make the antibody treatments, they are brilliant, they are highly successful, available to every american and we are doing that free of cost, totally free of cost we're making them available and they are available now.

if somebody gets sick, it works where they go and they get treatment if that's what the doctors are prescribing. it's been incredible. that's somer 85%, number. that's a number that goes along with anything else including the vaccines when you think about it. as well as we done with the vaccines, when you hear 85% people find that one hard to believe but you look at the stats and you see what's happening and you look at other countries. they are having tremendous difficulties in europe, beyond what we are having. they are having them all over the world but this will vanquish the problem, this horrible scourge, the china virus because that's where it came from. really been looked at and studied all over the and ourd our scientists mobilization has been like nobody else in the world could have done.

it's very important that we share that with others and other nations. i invoke the defense production act over 100 times to manufacture essential supplies in the united states despite the grim projections from the media eight months ago where they said this was impossible. i could give you two hours worth of it but they said it will never happen. it was a pipe dream they said but we did something that nobody thought was possible and we also did it were no american who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator. when this first came out, we were not equipped for that, nobody was equipped for that and we are now making ventilators and we have all we need in this country but we are sending them to countries all over the world. we are making thousands and thousands of ventilators per month. the united states has created the most largest and most innovative testing program in the world by far.

we have conducted over 200 know you and tests. think of that. more than all of the european union combined. it's not even close. just 10 months ago, none of these innovations even existed. we've made tremendous progress which is testament to what our nation is capable of when america is faced with a challenge. we come through and we always come through to overcome every hardship and surmount every obstacle. i think you will see that over the next few months, the numbers should skyrocket downward. we are the most exceptional nation in the history of the world. today, we are on the verge of another american medical miracle. and that's what people are saying. people that are not necessarily big fans of donald trump are saying whether you like him or not, this is one of the greatest miracles in the history of modern day medicine or any other medicine, any other age of medicine. american companies were the

first to produce a verifiably safe and effective vaccine. together, we will defeat the virus and we will soon end the pandemic and we will save millions and millions of lives both in our country and all over the world. and we have already started. thank you again to every person here today and for the incredible achievements you have done. you should be very proud of this day and you will be very proud of this per ofi time becauseo nobody thought this was possibled, nobody thought it was remotely possible to do what we've done in less than nine months, something that is not even thinkable. we took a lot of heat when we said this is our goal and we frankly were not using the numbers we used and we far exceeded what we thought. if we had said sometime next year, most people would've said that would be great, that would be a miracle. but we did it long before sometime next year. now i want to ask several leaders who have been crucial in

this effort to join me on stage as i signed the executive order to ensure that american citizens have first priority to receive american vaccines and then we will be working with other countries all over the world. i think will be able to start doing that all most immediately also because we have millions of doses coming in. . thank you very much it's a great honor. [applause] w i guess wee here,

have to do the vice president. [applause] spread the wealth. >> thank you, mr. president. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much, everybody. [applause] >> any questions? thank you. [applause] thank you all.

any questions, chris? yes, please. i'm wondering what your messages is for the american people given the increasing cases right now? >> the cdc puts out there guidelines. vaccine was our goal and that was number one because pluswas the way it ends you have an immunity and you develop immunity over a , pe of time. period of time. tremendous progress has been made. one of the reasons we show so many -- i've been singing for a long time -- so many cases it because of the fact that we have 200 million tests and you take -- india is in second place with just a fraction of that number.

india has 1.4 billion people wear a testing program has been incredible. we are also coming out with new tests very shortly that will make the process even easier. you won't need doctors necessarily to do the test. we have incredible tests coming out in a short period of time. officials are urging americans not to travel during the holiday season. you've been holding holiday parties across the street with hundreds of people and many not wearing masks. why are you modeling a different behavior to the american people? >> they are christmas parties and frankly, we have reduced the number substantially. i see a lot of people at the parties wearing masks. i look out at the audience at those parties and we have a lot of people wearing masks. i think that's a good thing.

the next administration will implement a lot of the distribution of this vaccine. why not include members of the biden transition team as part of this summit your hosting today? >> we will have to see who the next administration is. andne in the swing states there was terrible things that went on so we have to see who the next administration is. whatever the next administration is will really benefit by what we been able to do with this incredible science, the doctors, all of the people that came up, the lab technicians, the work that's been done is incredible. it will be incredible for the next administration and hopefully, the next administration will be the trump administration because you cannot steal hundreds of thousands of votes. you cannot have fraud and deception in all the things they did in a swing state and you

have to look at the numbers, look at what's been on tape, look at all the corruption and we will see. you cannot win an election like that so hopefully the next administration will be the trump administration and a continuation which is let us to the highest stock market we have ever had, the best employment numbers we have ever had come a rebuilt military. if you look at the tax reductions are the greatest in history. regulation reductions, the greatest in history. it leads us to space force which nobody thought was possible. all the things we have done and we were rewarded with a victory now let's see whether somebody has the courage whether it's a legislator or or legislature or whether it's a justice of the supreme court or a number of justices at the supreme court. let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right. i received almost 75 million votes, the highest number of votes on the history of our country for a sitting president. 12 million more than the 63

million we received four years ago. president obama 3 million last in his second term and he won easily. i received 12 million more which is a record. that when the numbers came out, and the numbers came through machines and all of those ballots were taken away and added, all you have to do is turn on your local television said and you will see what happened with thousands of ballots coming out from under tables, with all of the terrible things you saw, all you have to do is take a look and if somebody has the courage, i know who next administration will be. life will be much easier for this country because of what we've done right now and because of a lot of the people in this room. the job you've done on the vaccine together with a lot of others has been a modern-day miracle. and it's really been acknowledged as such and want to thank you and give you my love and i want to give you my thanks

because you are very special people. now, good luck, you distribute that general and set records. set records like we've been doing for four years, thank you very much, thank you everybody. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> with coronavirus cases increasing across the country, use our website, c-span.org/coronavirus to follow the trends, track the spread with interactive maps, and watch updates any time on

c-span.org/coronavirus. on wednesday,live the house returns at 10 neglect a.m. -- 10:00 a.m. eastern to vote on a one-week federal spending measure while negotiations continue on a full funding bill on c-span. on c-span two, the senate works on several nominations to the fec. later, a resolution blocking arms sales to the united arab emirates. a.m., the at 10:00 veterans affairs committee holds an hearing into the coronavirus response. future ofiscusses the the democratic party and congressional news of the day, including the government funding deadline and efforts to compromise on covid-19 legislation.