President Donald Trump said Monday he has blanket authority to order a reopening of the country and stop stay-home orders – saying his office holds ‘absolute power’ over the matter.
‘When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total,’ Trump said at the White House Monday during a marathon press briefing.
‘It’s total. It’s total. And the governors know that,’ Trump said.
Trump brushed off reports that two sets of governors, on the East Coast and West Coast, are coordinating to seek unity on their own decisions on when to reopen – after governors imposed a variety of stay-home orders under their state constitutions.
‘The federal government has absolute power,’ Trump said.
‘The federal government has absolute power,’ President Donald Trump said, saying his office had the authority to require states to reopen. Trump is anxious to get the country’s economy back, but failed to cite what authority he would rely on to compel states to rescind stay-home orders
But he did not specify when pressed by DailyMail.com and other outlets to specify where his authority to overrule states resides. Trump said governors ultimately would comply with any such directive.
‘You have a couple of bands of a of a Democrat governors. But they will agree to it,’ Trump said.
Trump said electoral pressure would get states to comply – although as it turns out, Democratic-led states have experienced some of the greatest challenges with the coronavirus and have been relying on social distancing to prevent hospitals from being overrun.
Questioned by DailyMail.com about the 10th Amendment granting powers that are not specifically enumerated to the states, Trump responded: ‘If some states refuse to open, I would like to see that person run for election. They’re going to open. They’re going to all open. I think that’s something that’s not going to happen. They want to open. They have to open. They have to open. They have to get open,’ he said.
‘You have some states where this is not the kind of a problem that it is in New York or Louisiana or Michigan or other places that got hit very hard … But all states want to open and they want to open as soon as possible. But they want to open safely and so do I,’ he said.
Vice President Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor who leads the White House coronavirus task force, backed up Trump. ‘I support the president’s leadership under the national emergency declaration,’ Pence said, referencing emergency declarations that allow states to seek and receive emergency assistance from Washington.
Trump spoke about the future reopening of the country at a press briefing that ran for longer than 2 hours and 20 minutes
Earlier, Trump insisted Monday that the call on when to reopen the country and the economy will be ‘soon’ and a ‘decision by me’ – hours before governors in some of the worst-hit areas for coronavirus flatly contradicted him and unveiled their own multi-state pacts to co-ordinate their comebacks.
On the East Coast the governors of six states led by New York formed one pact, and all three West Coast states announced their own agreement to come up with a framework on how and when to re-open.
Nine of the governors are Democratic and include Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York, both of whom have seen their ratings soar during their handling of the crisis. Also joining the eastern effort is Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican.
Pointedly, the governors on both coasts said that ‘public health’ was their leading priority.
But they put themselves on a collision course with Trump, who hyped his proclamation that he would decide on Twitter, after saying for days it would soon become time to ‘reopen’ the U.S. economy.
The president’s emphatic statement came as it was revealed his task force on the vital matter will include cabinet members, his daughter, and his son-in-law.
‘A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!’
There were reports Monday morning that the task force would include Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared, who has taken a key coronavirus response role, fielding calls from hot-spots seeking protective gear and trying to line up deliveries.
But Trump specifically denied his family members would serve on it when questioned about it by DailyMail.com later Monday.
‘A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!’ President Trump tweeted about the decision to reopen the country
Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner have appeared with the president at separate White House coronavirus events – Kushner at a White House briefing and Ivanka Trump at a small business meeting in the Roosevelt Room.
The team will be headed by Trump’s new chief of staff Mark Meadows, who previously headed the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Fox News reported.
Also serving, according to Fox, will be Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao – who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Other cabinet members to serve include Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, White House advisers Larry Kudlow, Peter Navarro – who penned memos warning of the impact of the coronavirus, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, along with other officials. Trump said top business and religious leaders would be on it, although he declined to give names.
Trump attacked the media and added confusion to how the decision to reopen would ultimately be made with a pair of tweets Monday.
‘For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government,’ Trump wrote.
‘Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect…It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!’ he wrote.
It is state governors who issued the stay-at-home orders that took effect across the country.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence issued ‘guidelines’ but the administration and health officials have provided considerable discussion and feedback to state officials.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner have advised him during the coronavirus pandemic
Trump has previously noted on shut-down orders that it is governors who have imposed them, and he deferred to a group of GOP governors, many in rural states, who held back from issuing stay-home orders during as the coronavirus spread.
But on Monday his sudden volte-face to taking control himself threatened to become a source of confusion and possible constitutional clash.
In Albany, New York, Cuomo convened a virtual press conference with five governors of what he called the ‘Covid corridor’ – the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island which are joined by the I-95 freeway and Amtrak’s Acela corridor and form New York City’s vast economic hinterland.
Massachusetts and Maryland, which both also sit along the I-95 but are not yet part of the council, have Republican governors – although both men have contradicted Trump’s position and said re-opening is a matter for them.
The six Democratic governors revealed they were creating the first multi-state database in order to share information about the virus and help come up with reopening plan that would happen ‘within weeks’.
A health official, economic official and the governor’s chief of staff from each state will work on the plan.
The governors gushed over one another and Cuomo’s leadership both of New York and of the country throughout the pandemic.
Cuomo, when asked about the president’s remarks, challenged him to produce a plan and said wryly that it was ‘interesting’ that the federal government shrugged the responsibility of shutting down the economy at the start of the crisis but wanted to be the authority to reopen it.
‘He left it to the states to close down and that was a state by state decision, without any guidance really. He took the position that it was a state’s decision and that the states were responsible for purchasing supplies.
‘That was the model of management for this disaster emergency.
‘If they want to change the model, they can change the model. He’s the President of the United States. He’s the federal government.
‘Let him change the model. But change the model and explain it,’ he said.
He went on to challenge Trump by listing all of the things he would have to consider and come up with answers for if he wanted to implement a reopening plan for all 50 states.
‘Are you going to say when each state will open and should open? Are you going to set a formula that says when this jurisdiction has this infection rate it can reopen? This is what can be on public transit, this is what can be on the roads.
‘Anyone that is on the roads has to follow these precautions..
‘Testing. States don’t have the capacity to test. It is not as simple as saying, “states should.” They can’t without the federal government.
‘You want to change the management model? You can do it as president. But what’s the model? Let’s learn from the past. This was not smooth sailing, let’s be honest,’ he said.
Later, when asked about whether he found Trump’s remarks frustrating, Cuomo said: ‘It’s not about an emotion.
‘I just want clarity. It is an interesting construct that it wasn’t the fed responsibility to close the economy but it is to open the economy,’ he said.
Gina Raimondo, the governor of Rhode Island, said: ‘Throughout the crisis, the governors are the ones who have been showing great leadership and taking action.
‘I think it’s only appropriate that we take leadership now.’
Governor John Carney of Delaware said thanked Cuomo for his leadership ‘on a day to day basis under very difficult circumstances across the country’.
Cuomo was joined on a televised conference call by the governors of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island where they revealed they were creating the first multi-state database in order to share information about the virus and help come up with reopening plan that would happen ‘within weeks’.
Dialing in for the launch: The governors of all six states took part in the briefing, with Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania representing the largest economies in the group
While deaths continue to rise in New York, the new death toll across the state is 10,056 – it is rising at a slower rate. On Sunday, there were 671 new deaths as opposed to more than 700, which was the figure over the last few days.
The number of new cases across the state rose by another 6,129 to 195,031.
There were 18,825 new hospitalizations on April 12 which was an increase of more than 100 from the previous day but when taken as a three-day average, shows the curve flattening.
‘I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart and we can start on the path to normalcy and we can have a plan when you start to see some businesses reopening understanding the balance.
‘We have to understand on the reopening, as much as we have this emotion that we want it to happen and that we can’t take this anymore, it is a delicate balance,’ Cuomo said.
On the West Coast, governors Newsom, Jay Inslee of Washington and Kate Brown of Oregon unveiled their own scheme just after the north-east version.
‘California, Oregon and Washington have agreed to work together on a shared approach for reopening our economies – one that identifies clear indicators for communities to restart public life and business,’ the governors said in a joint statements.
The nine states combined account for more than 98 million people, close to 30 per cent of the population of the U.S., and more than 30 per cent of GDP.