President Donald Trump yesterday accused Democrats of moving to reopen US states from coronavirus lockdown measures too slowly for political advantage, without providing evidence to support his claim.
The Republican president, who is running for re-election in November, is working to reopen the crippled economy quickly against recommendations from health experts to move more cautiously to avoid a resurgence of the virus that has so far killed more than 80,000 people in the United States.
Trump has encouraged states to ease restrictions designed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
Yesterday, he targeted the election battleground state of Pennsylvania, which has a Democratic governor, Tom Wolf.
“The great people of Pennsylvania want their freedom now, and they are fully aware of what that entails. The Democrats are moving slowly, all over the USA, for political purposes. They would wait until November 3rd if it were up to them. Don’t play politics. Be safe, move quickly!” Trump said in a Twitter post.
Some of the states hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 1.3mn nationwide are led by Democratic governors, including New York and Michigan — both important prizes in the November 3 election between Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Trump has encouraged reopenings with tweets calling on people to “liberate” their states, providing fuel to protests across the country including large gatherings in the Michigan capital of Lansing.
The politicization of the health crisis is playing out at local levels as well, as Democrats and Republicans clash over reopening plans.
In Pennsylvania, some counties over the weekend asked Wolf to move their regions into the group he has targeted for earlier reopenings, according to media reports.
Officials in Lancaster County sent Wolf a letter on Saturday notifying him that they intend to move forward with reopening on May 15, ahead of his schedule for the area.
“Lancaster County has demonstrated time and time again that our leaders are able to find local solutions to local problems through collaboration. This approach is far different than that of the Governor,” state Senator Ryan P Aument, a Republican, said in a Twitter post yesterday.
Trump’s overall popularity has been mostly flat throughout the pandemic, with the number of adults who approve of him wavering between 40% and 45% from March to May, according to Reuters/Ipsos national opinion polls.
Despite mounting economic damage that saw 20.5mn Americans lose jobs in April, most Americans have consistently said in polls they want to maintain social distancing to protect themselves from the virus.
Separately, Trump yesterday began pressuring the US Federal Communications Commission over a broadcast news programme after failing for years to convince regulators to take any action against broadcasters.
Trump said yesterday NBC News Meet the Press host Chuck Todd should be fired, suggesting the programme misleadingly aired only part of US Attorney General William Barr’s answer to a question.
Trump tweeted at FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and said Todd “knew exactly what he was doing. Public Airwaves = Fake News! @AjitPaiFCC.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec called the video and Todd’s commentary “deceptive.”
In a Twitter post, Meet the Press said “we inadvertently and inaccurately cut short a video clip of an interview with AG Barr before offering commentary and analysis. The remaining clip included important remarks from the attorney general that we missed, and we regret the error.”
NBC and its parent Comcast Corp declined to comment.
A White House spokesman declined to comment and a Pai spokesman did not comment. Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel rejected Trump’s tweet.
“This is not how our rules work. The FCC doesn’t sanction stations for what journalists say,” she wrote.
In March, Trump’s re-election campaign sent letters to several local TV stations demanding they stop airing an ad critical of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and suggested continued airings “could put (the) station’s license in jeopardy.”
The letters prompted calls from Democrats to Pai to denounce the threats.
Pai said in an April 7 letter that “absent very narrow circumstances, the government cannot and should not investigate stations or revoke licenses based on programming the station airs.”
Pai also urged Democrats to reject calls to investigate broadcasts for airing Trump press conferences on coronavirus.
The FCC said in April it would take no action over those broadcasts as Pai said “the federal government will not — and never should — investigate broadcasters for their editorial judgments.”
For three years, Trump has repeatedly criticised NBC and AT&T Inc’s CNN news programmes and journalists.
In October 2017, Trump suggested the FCC could challenge the license of NBC after stories Trump declared were not true, but Pai said it had no authority to do so.
The FCC, an independent federal agency, does not license broadcast networks. It does issue them to individual stations that are renewed on a staggered basis for eight-year periods.
Courts have held that a station exercising its First Amendment rights is not adequate grounds to challenge a license.
The US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees freedoms of speech and the press.
Protestors hold placards, wave US flag and shout slogans, as they participate in a ‘Freedom Rally’ protest in support of opening Florida, in South Beach, Miami, on Sunday.
