Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has called it both an “opening up the country council” and “a number of committees” but whatever the name, he is poised Tuesday to announce a teleconference-based task force of “the greatest minds” he’s said will advise him on how to open up parts of the country as early as May 1, when the current White House social distancing guidelines are set to expire.

He said he hoped to have a decision in “the next few days” and even hoped to reopen the country “ahead of schedule.”

“We will soon finalize new and very important guidelines to give governors the information they need to start safely opening their states,” Trump said at Monday’s White House briefing, just days after he called reopening the country amid the coronavirus pandemic “the biggest decision” of his life.

Asked about the economic task force, the president said, “We’re actually calling it a number of committees with the most prominent people in the country — the most successful people in the various fields.” He suggested there will be various committees such as transportation, religion and manufacturing and that he will be taking input from them to form new guidelines.

“They already know what I want,” Trump said. “I don’t have to give them instructions. These are very sophisticated people. These are the best people in their fields. I don’t have to say, ‘Gee, we just met and we will meet in two weeks and here is’ — I said, here is what I want. We have already told them.”

The official announcement of the group, reportedly focused on getting Americans back to work, is set to come as Trump falsely claims the president’s “authority is total” — and just after seven governors in the Northeast and three on the West Coast announced plans to band together in regional, coordinated efforts to explore gradually lifting restrictions and reopening their economies as neighbors.

The governors’ coalitions do not appear to be coordinated with the Trump administration — potentially setting up a battle between federal and state powers — as the president continues to aggressively tout his presidential powers and fight off any criticism of the federal government’s response — even using a campaign-style video as a visual aid Monday to praise his own handling of the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has suggested that a “rolling reentry” could be possible but cautioned Tuesday that May 1 is “a bit overly optimistic” without widespread testing and contract tracing in place.

Trump blames World Health Organization, announces funding halt

President Donald Trump opened Tuesday’s briefing in the White House Rose Garden by pointing to some U.S. counties that he said don’t have reported cases of COVID-19, appearing to lay the groundwork for reopening parts of the country.

“We grieve at every precious life that’s been lost to the invisible enemy, but through the darkness we can see the rays of light,” Trump said. “Fifteen percent of counties within the United States have zero cases, and many counties within the United States have a very small number of cases.”

“Large sections of our country are really looking at other sections and saying, wow, that looks bad, but they don’t have the problem,” he said.

He then announced he was putting a hold on the U.S. funding for the World Health Organization, a move the president has signaled for weeks as he tries to shift blame for his response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the world health organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus,” Trump said in an extended diatribe, arguing the the organization was against his travel ban to China.

“They were very much opposed to what we did. Fortunately, I was not convinced and suspended travel from China, saving untold numbers of lives,” he said.

The U.S. is the largest donor to the world health agency by far and makes its contribution annually.

While Trump criticized the WHO for what he called a failure “to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts,” the president had previously praised President Xi and China for “their effort and transparency” in handling the pandemic.

He then shifted the blame to governors and the previous administration for the shortage.

“This is the system we inherited. And we look at the states, the states were not prepared,” he said.

“Would we be able to prevent Americans from dying because we couldn’t get them ventilators? I instructed my team to where heaven and Earth to make sure that this didn’t happen,” Trump said.

Trump says some states could reopen before May 1

Turning to news of reopening the president has promised, Trump said “the day will be very close” that some states will implement reopening, saying that plans are “close to being finalized” but indicating there will be an individual plan for each state.

“I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly, and will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a re-opening — and a very powerful re-opening plan of their state — at a time and in a manner as most appropriate,” Trump said.

The president also said that some states could reopen “maybe even before the date of May 1st,” continuing to lay the groundwork for a speedy reopening.

“Certain states — the day will be very close, because certain states as you know are in a much different condition, much different place than other states. It’s going to be very, very close, maybe even before the date May 1st,” Trump said.

“Actually, there are over 20 that are in extremely good shape, and we think we will be able to get them open fairly quickly, and then others will follow.”

The current White House social distancing guidelines are at least in place through April 30.

“Frankly, it will be at a time that will be earlier than the deadline we imposed, the end of April,” Trump said. “So, we think some of the governors will be in really good shape to open up even sooner than that.”

Trump said he will be “authorizing” governors to begin reopening their states when they feel the time is right. This comes one day after he declared he had “total” authority and that he “calls the shots” when it comes to deciding how and when states can start lifting restrictions.

“The governors will be very respectful of the presidency. The presidency has such a great importance. You can talk about Constitution, you could talk about federalism, you could talk about whatever you want.”

Trump said that a plan to reopen the country is being finalized and guidelines will be revealed soon. He said governors will be “responsible for the testing” that health experts say is critical to stop further spread and without it, new spikes in cases could result.

“I’m not putting any pressure on the governors,” Trump said. “We’re opening it up in beautiful little pieces.”

Senator looks to protect Fauci with legislation that echoes Mueller protection bills

Echoing legislation that a bipartisan group of senators authored to protect special counsel Robert Mueller during the Russia investigation, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is looking to shield Fauci from being fired by President Trump for anything other than “malfeasance, neglect of office, or incapacity.”

“We cannot allow Donald Trump to silence Dr. Fauci or any other government scientists,” Markey said in a statement. “This legislation will close the hole in the law that currently allows the President to fire a National Institutes of Health Director such as Dr. Fauci for any reason. Educating the public about the science and the facts that will save lives is not, and should never be, a firing offense.”

The bill comes one day after the White House pushed back at new speculation that Fauci’s fate was at risk, trying to tamp down questions raised after Trump himself he retweeted a tweet that included the hashtag “#FireFauci.”

When senators proposed similar legislation to protect Mueller, it surfaced significant constitutional concerns, including separation of powers, so it’s unclear if this would get bipartisan support.

Trump continues to assert powers over states, tweets that Cuomo reliant on him after governor forms Northeast coalition

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told CNN this morning, speaking on President Trump: “If he ordered me to reopen, in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn’t do it.”

Hours later, the president went on Twitter to say that New York has been reliant on him in responding to the coronavirus in the nation’s hardest-hit state, but that “now he seems to want Independence!”

“That won’t happen!” Trump added.

 

Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2020

 

After the president’s remarks at Monday’s briefing, Cuomo said in another phone interview with CNN that if the president presented a plan that was irresponsible, he “would oppose it legally.”

“The Constitution does not go out the window in an emergency,” Cuomo said. “We don’t have a king. We have an elected president.”

Even members of Trump’s own party have acknowledged the president does not have “total authority,” as he suggested.

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, House GOP Conference Chair, even pointed to rights reserved to states by quoting the Constitution on Monday night, and saying “the federal government does not have absolute power.”

 

The federal government does not have absolute power.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” United States Constitution, Amendment X

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) April 13, 2020

 

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