CNBC reports:
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants the U.S. economy to “open” back up by Easter Sunday, even as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country accelerates. Easter is April 12, less than three weeks away.
Trump’s remarks in a Fox News “virtual town hall” event at the White House came as more states imposed extreme measures, including shutting down businesses and ordering residents to stay home, to try to slow the spread of the disease.
“We’re opening up this incredible country. Because we have to do that. I would love to have it open by Easter,” Trump said. “I would love to have that. It’s such an important day for other reasons, but I’d love to make it an important day for this. I would love to have the country opened up, and rarin’ to go by Easter.”
Trump is asked, can we really get back to normal by Easter?
Trump: “I think it’s possible. Why isn’t it? We’ve never closed the country before.” He says “more people” will die from the shut down than the #coronavirus
This is not what public health experts are saying.
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) March 24, 2020
Trump said there were only 15 cases in America and “soon” it would be down to zero.
Less than a month later, there are nearly 50,000 cases in America (that we know of) and 600 deaths.
But we’re going to open everything back up by Easter — in 19 days?pic.twitter.com/KCUIwVeyRh
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 24, 2020
Trump: “I would love to have it open by Easter,” April 12. He says it’s an important day for other reasons, but he wants it important “for this too.”
Fox host Bill Hemmer responds that that “would be a great American resurrection.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020
Dr. Oz now pushing back on Trump’s Easter deadline. Trump is telling Oz it’s gotta happen. Trump yelling that doctors would telling him to “keep it closed for two years” which no one is saying.
This bizarre exchange is everything I ever worried about.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 24, 2020
President Trump said he hopes to have the country reopened in just over two weeks, a timeline that is dramatically sooner than what many public-health experts have recommended to help contain the coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/tHwM7ZqXnY
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 24, 2020
Dr Birx asked directly if she goes along with the back to work by Easter comment by President Trump.
She does not answer the question.
She is not asked by Fox to answer the question after she dodged it.
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) March 24, 2020
Trump says he wants to “reopen the country by Easter” and Fox propaganda channel then says that would be a “great resurrection.”
Trump didn’t “close the country” and Trump can’t “reopen the country.”
— Lawrence O’Donnell (@Lawrence) March 24, 2020