Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour(WASHINGTON) — After releasing his guidelines for “Opening up America Again,” President Donald Trump enters a new week facing criticism on the federal government’s response to testing — a key component to reopening and to avoiding a spike in new cases. As Trump blames governors for not being more prepared, Vice President Mike Pence said he would have a teleconference on the topic with them this morning.
In his daily coronavirus task force briefing on Sunday, Trump said his administration is “working very hard with governors now on testing,” but that some governors didn’t realize the resources they already had available — as states continue to say they lack key supplies to to keep up with demand.
“They have a lot of machinery in the states that some aren’t aware of, but they’re there,” he said. “Many governors are still relying on their state laboratories rather than their full and much larger capacity that is available to them.”
Pence said Monday’s call would focus on the guidelines each state needs to hit to reopen and that there is already enough testing to allow “any state in America” to move into phase one, which requires proving 14 days of downward trends.
“We believe we have the testing today around the country that would allow any state in America to move into phase one if they’ve met the other criteria. 14 days of consistent declines and strong hospital capacity so that their system would not be overwhelmed in the event of a flare-up,” he added.
The president, on Sunday, also continued to defend protesters in key 2020 battleground states who were breaking their local laws by defying stay-at-home orders. Asked about Nazi flags being displayed at some protests, the president said, he didn’t see that, and instead pointed to the Americans flags and social distancing on display, a claim video of the protests showed was a clearly inaccurate.
“I have never seen so many American flags at a rally as I have at these rallies. These people love our country. They want to get back to work,” Trump said. “I watched the protest and they were all six feet apart. It was a very orderly group of people.”
While Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington State said the president’s words were basically encouraging people to break the law, some governors on Monday are already looking to lift restrictions put in place amid the pandemic — and to the start a reopening the president has pushed for.
Here are the latest developments in the government response:
Anti-quarantine protests planned in parts of country as Facebook takes action to remove events which violate local laws
A Facebook spokesperson says that the company has taken action to remove anti-quarantine events promoted on the website in California, Nebraska and New Jersey after consultation with state governments who said the events violate their respective state stay-at-home orders, ABC News’ Alexander Mallin reports.
“Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The Washington Post first reported that a group of three far-right, pro-gun organizers is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country.
The Facebook groups they manage have roughly 200,000 members combined and have targeted protests in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York,
They’ve continued to expand quickly, days after the president endorsed protests in Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia on Twitter by suggesting citizens “liberate” their states.
As protests are planned for Monday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, among other places, to call on governors to reopen economies, Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee said the president’s messaging was basically encouraging illegal activity on ABC’s This Week Sunday.
“To have an American president to encourage people violate the law, I can’t remember any time in my time in America we have seen such a thing. It’s dangerous, because it could inspire people to ignore things that could save their lives,” he told ABC Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“And it’s doubly frustrating to us governors,” he added. “The president is asking people ‘please ignore Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, please ignore my own guidelines I set forth.'”
Treasury official says paper stimulus checks with Trump’s name on them have started being sent out
A senior Treasury Department official confirms to ABC News that the economic impact paper checks have already started going out and are in the mail — walking back Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s comments Sunday at the White House that physical checks would start going out “next week.”
The Trump administration faced criticism for a reported delay in issuing physical checks after the president’s name was added to them in what some call an “unprecedented move.”
Secretary Mnuchin said Sunday on CNN that checks hadn’t been issued to give people more time to sign up for direct deposits — though the Treasury is now saying the checks are on the way.
Mnuchin also said that putting the president’s name on the paper checks going out this week was his idea — and that he still doesn’t have an exact number on ho many paper checks are going out at this time.
“We did put the president’s name on the check. That was my idea. He is the president, and I think it’s a terrific symbol to the American public.”
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked the president about this last week at a White House Task Force briefing to which the president said he didn’t know too much about it.
White House and congressional leaders nearing deal to refund small business loan fund
The Trump administration and congressional leaders are nearing a deal on a roughly $400 billion fund that could pass the Senate as soon as Monday.
The interim funding is to replenish a small business loan program that ran out of money last week, and would also add funding for hospitals and testing, which Democrats pushed for and faced criticism for stalling negotiations with the terms.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said on CNN that he hoped to see the agreement pass both houses of Congress early this week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also expressed optimism Sunday about getting a deal done “tonight or tomorrow morning.”
Fauci warns reopening country too soon could ‘backfire’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top expert on the infectious diseases, warned Monday that lifting social distancing restrictions too soon could “backfire” and lead to a “big spike” in cases, when asked what’s his message to protesters chanting “Fire Fauci” as some people push for a reopening.
“Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen,” Fauci told ABC Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“If you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back,” he explained. “That’s the problem.”
Fauci acknowledged the country is “certainly going to need more” testing than the 1.5 to 2 million COVID-19 tests being conducted now per week but expressed optimism the system is improving.
“We need to get up to at least maybe two times that, three times that,” he said. “But we will as we go into the coming weeks.”
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