During a virtual Fox town-hall on Coronavirus, President Trump announces his preference to open up the country by Easter.
Trump, wearing a dark overcoat and red tie, entered the Rose Garden at 12:55 and immediately went to greet VPOTUS.
“I want to grab his hand, but I’ll get in trouble if I do,” POTUS said.
The president obtained guidance from Fox News on interview, then talked more with VPOTUS. He inaudibly chatted with the reporter as he was being miked up, then seated himself.
Trump announced that he would “love to open up the country by Easter”. Since Sunday, the president grew inpatient with “stay at home” measures against the coronavirus, namely because of the effects they have on the economy, his main re-election ticket.
Talking in the virtual town-hall, exclusive to Fox News, President, for the first time, revealed what he thinks about social distancing and self-isolation measures. He expressed his frustration about having to close down the country because of the “flu”.
“They came in and said we have to close the country. I said ‘what are you talking about?’ At that time I already closed it off to China…This never happened before, I said: ‘are you serious? You are telling me we have to close it’?”
“This has never been done, we had flu, viruses before”, the president continued. “I gave it two weeks and we will assess at that time but we have to open this country”, the president reaffirmed his view.
“I accept things, but we can socially distance and do work”, the president insisted, “you don’t have to shake things with people”
President Trump claimed that the more people are going to die if they continue with the measures against coronavirus as there will be a lot of them who will go bankrupt.
“We are going to lose a number of people to the flu but will lose more people to recessions. You will have suicide in thousands… you can’t just come in and say let’s close the United States of America”, he said.
The President kept repeating that ” our country has to go back to work” and that these current “stay at home” measures were one of the most difficult decisions that he ever had to make.
“We had hotspots before”, he said, “but we never closed a country to the flu.”
“I was not happy about it, but I also knew I had to do it”, Trump continued to express his views about the guidelines. Dr. Brux openly contradicted the president and said that people must continue to comply with the social distancing guidelines.
“No. We have to put our country to work”, the president concluded.
As he was de-miked after the Fox News interview, POTUS continued to engage in banter with others on the stage in the Rose Garden.
Pool escorted out of the Rose Garden at 1:18.