Official White House Photo by Tia DufourBy LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has reinstated Monday’s coronavirus task force briefing after initially cancelling it this morning, as President Donald Trump faces backlash for floating the idea of injecting disinfectant to treat COVID-19 — which he later called “sarcasm.”
White House press secretary Kaleigh McEnany, after announcing the cancellation earlier Monday, took to Twitter to announce its reinstatement and to say the White House will be releasing additional guidance at the evening briefing and that the president would appear.
Trump is also scheduled to appear before cameras at a 4 p.m. event with retail CEOs, and that there would be a “new look” to the daily White House briefings, shifting focus to the economy.
He laid the groundwork for pulling back briefings over the weekend, when he did not hold any briefings, tweeting they were “not worth the time and effort” because of “hostile” media questions.
As businesses in at least 13 states begin reopening their doors again this week, after a record-shattering 26 million people have filed for unemployment in the last month, the American people also enter a new week grappling with mixed signals on whether it’s safe to return to normal life.
While Vice President Mike Pence said at the last White House briefing on Friday that the U.S. could have “this coronavirus epidemic behind us” by “Memorial Day weekend,” coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Sunday that “social distancing will be with us through the summer.”
Here are the latest developments in the government response:
Press secretary says briefing is back on
In a major flip flop, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany now says there will be a briefing from the coronavirus task force Monday night, and the president will attend.
“The White House has additional testing guidance and other announcements about safely opening up America again. President @realDonaldTrump will brief the nation during a press conference this evening,” McEnany said in a tweet, after teasing the expanded guidelines and new focus earlier this morning.
McEnany told White House reporters this morning there will be no briefing today, despite it appearing on the president and vice president’s schedules, pointing to an afternoon meeting with industry executives instead.
“We’re not tracking a briefing for today because there will be a press avail at 4 p.m. with the president and retail CEOs. There will be some briefings later in the week. They might have a new look to them, a new focus to them,” she said.
“I don’t want to get ahead of the announcement, but I would not read into that anything that we see them as negative because, in fact, we think that they have been a very positive, helpful opportunity for the president to speak to the American people,” McEnany added.
McEnany told Fox News earlier that there was “absolutely not an effort to cut back” on the number of task force briefings — but rather “an effort to showcase the American people the great entrepreneurship of this president.”
“We’re looking at different ways to showcase this president leading,” McEnany said. “The briefing’s a key component of that.”
Trump will “absolutely” attend future briefings, although she noted future briefings “may have a different look.” She did not elaborate.
“Make no mistake,” she said. “The president will be briefing the American people this week.”
Her insistence comes after reports that the White House is shifting its focus from health statistic to the economy and that the president will make fewer, shorter appearances at the briefings.
The Washington Post reported earlier Monday that the White House is finalizing expanded guidance for businesses as states look to reopen their economies.
Another White House official confirmed to ABC News that the possibility of issuing expanded guidelines is being discussed within the task force but would not confirm the specific document reported on by the Post.
The official further cautioned that there is an active internal debate about whether the White House should issue additional formal “guidelines.” Since it is ultimately up to the states to determine the specifics for reopening, there is talk of doing a less formal release of suggestions for states that businesses can follow.
10,000 IRS employees return to offices to deal with backlogs
Roughly 10,000 employees of the Internal Revenue Service are going back to work Monday to handle a growing backlog of work amid the pandemic — and were asked to bring their own face masks or coverings with them, according to a leaked memo to agency employees sent Friday.
The House Ways and Means Committee, which obtained and published the internal email, explained the IRS is bringing back certain employees for “mission-critical work” they can’t complete while teleworking but shamed the agency for not providing the essential protective gear.
“It is understandable that in carrying out its mission during a crisis, the agency would require some employees to report back to work during perilous times. However, it is completely irresponsible and unethical for the IRS to demand those workers obtain their own protective equipment — this is the responsibility of the federal government to its workers,” Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass, and John Lewis, D-Ga. said in a statement Saturday.
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