In televised town hall, Trump pushes for economic reopening

WASHINGTON — President Trump voiced empathy with Americans’ pain and fielded their questions about how to reopen the nations’s economy in a socially distanced FOX News town hall staged in the Lincoln Memorial Sunday night.

“We have to get it back open safely but as quickly as possible,” Trump said. “There has to be more help coming. There has to be … that aspect of it has to be bipartisan.”

The president acknowledged conflicting fears, with some Americans worried about getting sick while others are concerned about losing jobs. Though the administration’s handling of the pandemic, particularly its ability to conduct widespread testing, has come under fierce scrutiny, the president defended the response and said the nation was ready to begin reopening.

“I’ll tell you one thing. We did the right thing and I really believe we saved a million and a half lives,” the president said.

Trump’s impatience also flashed. While noting that states would go at their own pace in returning to normal, with ones harder hit by the coronavirus going slower, he said that “some states frankly I think aren’t going fast enough” and singled out Virginia, which has a Democratic governor and legislature. And he urged the nation’s schools and universities to return to classes this fall.

Debate continued over moves by governors to start reopening state economies that tanked after shopping malls, salons and other nonessential businesses were ordered closed in attempt to slow a virus that has killed more than 66,000 Americans, according to a tally of reported deaths by Johns Hopkins University.

Trump said he believed without the aggressive measures that have damaged the economy, the death toll could have topped 2 million.

The U.S. economy has shrunk at a 4.8% annual rate from January through March, the government estimated last week. It was the sharpest quarterly drop since the 2008 financial crisis.

Roughly 30.3 million people have filed for unemployment aid in the six weeks since the outbreak forced employers to shut down and slash their workforces. It was the worst string of layoffs on record.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, on Sunday predicted a “spectacular 2021” — with “the right set of policies” — on top of a rebound from July through December of this year. He said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the administration would “pause” to review the effectiveness of trillions in economic relief spending before making any decision on whether additional aid is needed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that state and local governments are seeking up to $1 trillion for coronavirus costs.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2zVhvxb