Tag: U.S. governors

Governors headed for messy fight over coronavirus restrictions

The Hill logoGovernors are heading for a clash with their own citizens and local officials as they weigh how and when to reopen the country’s economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump‘s own guidelines for easing social distancing restrictions, unveiled on Thursday, leave the final decisions for those matters with state governors. And those governors are facing growing pressure from the public in states such as Ohio and Michigan, where protests have called on leaders to quickly lift stay-at-home orders and bans on large gatherings and to allow  nonessential businesses to open their doors.

Experts say those fights between local stakeholders eager to lift the economic shutdown and governors, wary of losing ground against the virus, will be the next battleground in the nation’s pandemic response. Continue reading.

‘Delusional’: Governors Reject Pence’s Claim on Virus Testing

New York Times logoDemocratic and Republican governors bristled at claims from the Trump administration that the supply of tests was adequate to move firmly toward reopening the country.

ATLANTA — Governors facing growing pressure to revive economies decimated by the coronavirus said on Sunday that a shortage of tests was among the most significant hurdles in the way of lifting restrictions in their states.

“We are fighting a biological war,” Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “We have been asked as governors to fight that war without the supplies we need.”

In interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, Mr. Northam was among the governors who said they needed the swabs and reagents required for the test, and urged federal officials to help them get those supplies. Continue reading.

Most Americans Rate Governors Far Better Than Trump In Pandemic

As the number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus pandemic increases, more than 3 in 5 registered voters (61 percent) said Trump was unprepared to handle the outbreak, while only 32 percent said he was prepared, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday.

The poll showed a much more favorable view of governors, with 47 percent of respondents saying state leaders were prepared and 45 percent saying they were unprepared.

The same poll showed that 62 percent rated governors as doing an excellent or good job, with only 43 percent saying the same of Trump. Continue reading.

Trump tells governors to stop ‘blaming’ him after they request more help from feds

In response, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tweeted, “You wasted precious months when you could’ve taken action to protect Americans & Illinoisans.”

President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and “a very small group” of other governors for “blaming” his administration “for their own shortcomings.”

“.@JBPritzker, Governor of Illinois, and a very small group of certain other Governors, together with Fake News @CNN & Concast (MSDNC), shouldn’t be blaming the Federal Government for their own shortcomings,” Trump tweeted. “We are there to back you up should you fail, and always will be!”

(NBC News is a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corp.)

Pritzker responded to Trump on Twitter soon after, saying, “You wasted precious months when you could’ve taken action to protect Americans & Illinoisans. Continue reading.

Governors Plead With Trump For Dwindling Hospital Supplies

As President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly botched the response to the coronavirus crisis, he has tried to avoid taking responsibility for key aspects of the emergency management and shift it to others. In particular, he has tried to encourage state governors to manage their own crises, even as they often lack the resources wielded by the federal government.

“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work,” Trump said on Thursday at a White House press briefing, referring, in part, to the acquisition of hospital supplies. “The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items, and then shipping. We’re not a shipping clerk. As with testing — the governors are supposed to be doing it.”

This echoed his previous remarks to governors on a conference call Monday, according to the New York Times. Continue reading.