President Trump on Wednesday said he's hoping to hold more of his "massive" "25,000-person rallies" in the not-so-distant future. The president didn't offer a target date but said he hopes that this happens before the November presidential election, which is likely to take place before a widespread vaccine is available.
"Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other. I can't imagine a rally where you have every fourth seat full, every six seats are empty for every one that you have full, that wouldn't look too good. No, I hope that we're going to be able to do some good old fashioned 25,000-person rallies where everyone's going wild because they love our country," the president told reporters during a business roundtable discussion.
The president also said he plans to travel to Arizona and Ohio soon, apparently for official events. Trump said he's eager to get out of the White House, despite how beautiful it is.
Public health experts don't expect a vaccine to be ready for 12-18 months, but the administration and researchers are trying to speed up that timetable. The president's current social distancing guidelines, which technically expire Thursday, recommend that gatherings be limited to no more than 10 people.
The president also repeated an earlier assertion that the coronavirus will "go away." CBS News White House correspondent Ben Tracy pressed the president on why he believes the virus will go away without a vaccine.
"It's gonna' go, it's gonna' leave, it's gonna' be gone. It's gonna' be eradicated," the president responded. "It might take longer, it might be in smaller sections. It won't be what we had. And we also learned a lot."
