Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway is pointing the finger at states who blew through voluntary administration guidelines to reope...
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway is pointing the finger at states who blew through voluntary administration guidelines to reopen bars and restaurants, only to see coronavirus infections spike after painful lockdowns.
'Some of these states blew through our gated criteria, blew through our phases and they opened up some of the industries a little too quickly, like bars,' the advisor and former campaign manager to President Donald Trump said at the White House Wednesday.
She said she was a 'loud voice' in coronavirus task force meetings to say 'look are we going to open bars now or schools in two or four or six or eight months?'
Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway says some states 'blew through' criteria on when to reopen from coronavirus lockdowns
President Trump has threatened to withhold funding from schools to push them to reopen, even as coronavirus infections have spiked in recent weeks.
The pressure comes as U.S. infections approach the 4-million mark, fueled in part by young people socializing and going to bars and restaurants that governors hastened to reopen to help their economies.
'As a nation we probably want to open both, but as a nation I know there are many people that just need the certainty of are their kids going back to school full time, or are they learning at home,' Conway told reporters.
'Remember, the governors wanted complete latitude over when they would open their states. They pushed back heavily, handsomely, Republicans and Democrats when it was falsely rumored that the president was going to be in charge of opening the states.
When a reporter told her Trump encouraged states to reopen, she responded: 'But not everybody has. And remember he pushed back on the governor of Georgia, a Republican.'
President Trump helped encourage protests to 'liberate' states from lockdowns
Florida governor Ron DeSantis holds a press conference regarding COVID-19 at OneBlood Headquarters Monday, July 20, 2020 in Orlando, Florida. The press conference was disrupted by protesters. Trump mentioned Florida as part of a hot spot of cases in the 'sun belt'
Trump said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp may have reopened his state too soon
Health care workers take information from Ashley Perez and her daughter Hailey Garcia before they are tested for COVID-19 in a medical tent at a testing site locate at the Miami Lakes Youth Center on July 22, 2020 in Miami Lakes, Florida
'The president was on the record doing that long before these other states decided whether they would reopen or not,' she added.
Trump back in April had used Twitter and public statements to bolster anti-lockdown protests, as he did with his 'LIBERATE MICHIGAN!' tweet amid protests.
He reportedly backed Kemp's plan to quickly reopen Georgia, even though it had not yet met guidelines for reopening established by the coronavirus task force and the Centers for Disease Control.
But then he told Kemp, a Republican Trump loyalist, 'I think it's too soon.'
Earlier this month, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci issued a warning about rapid reopenings.
'There are some times when despite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly,' he said.
He also called out Florida, which the administration held up as a model before a spike in infections there. 'Certainly Florida I know, you know, I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints,' Fauci said.
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