Chris Wallace on Trump’s new guidelines for reopening economy
‘Fox News Sunday’ anchor Chris Wallace joins ‘America’s Newsroom.’
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President Trump is carefully balancing the need to protect the health of the American people in the face of the coronavirus pandemic with the need to put Americans back to work so they are drawing paychecks and so our economy begins booming once again.
The president’s Opening Up America Again plan that he announced Thursday does these things and deserves the support of all Americans, regardless of political party.
The president was right on the mark when he said that each one of our 50 states is facing different circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic and therefore each state should have its own unique plan for reopening.
This is straightforward Trumpian common sense. It’s important for Americans to realize that many states are still facing enormous hardships, while many other states have been spared from major outbreaks of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus that came to our country from China.
President Trump wisely recognizes that in our vast nation a one-size-fits-all plan managed from the White House will not work. That’s why he has given governors the ability to tailor the reopening to the needs of their individual states and communities within those states. Some states are ready to open quickly; some states still have a long road to hoe.
That means that places like New York City, where hospitalization and death rates are tragically high, will operate under tighter public health restrictions than rural communities where the pandemic has thankfully had a far smaller impact.
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President Trump is a realist. He understands our economy cannot stay closed for years. And he understands that millions of Americans cannot do their jobs from home and support their families by typing on computers and holding videoconferences.
Finding the right balance isn’t easy, and no matter what the president does he will not please everyone – particularly critics ready to attack his every move. But the president understands we can’t go to one extreme by acting as if the coronavirus has disappeared, or go to the other extreme and never leave our homes until efforts to develop a vaccine and effective treatments for COVID-19 succeed.
President Trump’s thoughtful plan – developed in consultation with our nation’s top public health and economic experts – lays out new steps designed to get our political leaders, job creators and workers thinking about responsible ways to methodically start moving back to some semblance of normalcy.
The bottom line is that we must keep our food and medical supply lines operating. We must open our businesses and we must allow our economic engine to crank up in phases – even if it requires wearing masks and gloves and exercising social distancing for months.
These are tough decisions, but it’s not the first time Americans have been asked to muster some resolve in the face of a daunting task.
President Trump’s new benchmarks aimed at starting the process of getting our citizens back to work as soon as possible are measured. responsible and data-driven.
We must open our businesses and we must allow our economic engine to crank up in phases – even if it requires wearing masks and gloves and exercising social distancing for months.
The timing for the rollout of these new benchmarks for reopening comes at the proper time. Due to the hard work of the American people and the best experts in the world, we’ve managed to flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic. But many tough days remain.
Headlines in the coming days and weeks indicating that some Midwestern and Western states are moving to reopen parts of their economies would be a source of hope and optimism for states that are still struggling. After more than a month of sacrifice, the American people need some good news that such positive signs would provide.
When Americans hear from their president that as many as 29 states could be moving toward phased reopening in the near future, it provides a shot in the arm to all the heroes across our country working so hard to save lives. They see their sacrifices paying off.
I applaud President Trump for having the courage to move this process forward in a sober and deliberate fashion that prioritizes the health and safety of the American people while kick-starting the world’s greatest economy.
President Trump has been carefully navigating America through this crisis. Just listen to his words. The president said that as we analyze the various models and the number of people who succumb to COVID-19 we must keep in mind that “one person is too many.”
At the same time, the president understands that millions of new jobless claims and the negative impact joblessness has on families, our country and the world over an extended period is also tragic. He knows that most Americans don’t have enough savings for their rent or mortgage payments, grocery bills, utility bills and other vital expenses if their paychecks stop coming in.
There’s nothing in the Opening Up America Again plan that should merit petty criticism from the president’s political adversaries.
In fact, former Vice President Joe Biden should be challenged to embrace President Trump’s science and data-driven road map going forward. We’re all in this together and there’s no place for partisan politics when dealing with a deadly pandemic.
Biden should come out and vow not to make the coronavirus into a political hot potato during the election season. In a time of great uncertainty, the American people want unity from their leaders.
Biden should demonstrate leadership and direct his supporters to take the COVID-19 crisis off the table as a campaign issue.
If Biden wants to offer ideas about how to strike the right balance between mitigation and America’s economic wellbeing, he should do so. But knee jerk, consultant-driven political attacks are an enormous mistake – and a telling one – as the American people size up Biden’s character in the run-up to the November presidential election.
President Trump said Thursday that America is a “uniquely talented” country that can accomplish extraordinarily tough tasks that others cannot. He’s 100 percent correct. The constant reminders of America’s exceptionalism – our patients, our families, our medical professionals, our first responders – are the things that keep our citizens persevering through this shared struggle.
When the going gets tough, the world looks to America for answers and leadership – not anyone else.
On that note, President Trump was right to call the World Health Organization out for missing the boat on the coronavirus months ago and bowing to China’s false claims. This president was right to ask why America is funding the WHO and what the return is on the investment for American taxpayers.
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Asking tough questions and holding China and the WHO accountable now will make for a better future for us all. The world must demand to know the truth about the origins of this coronavirus – as evidence mounts suggesting it began in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
These are the very questions that the United Nations should be demanding answers to without delay. If China vetoes a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning its actions during this crisis that will send a strong message to the world about the behavior of the Communist government in Beijing.
The United Nations must act and demonstrate whether it has the moral integrity necessary to challenge China.
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The coronavirus crisis is complex and multifaceted. President Trump has to deal with public health, economic and foreign policy concerns simultaneously, making decisions as conditions change rapidly.
Thanks to the strong leadership of President Trump, America will get through the coronavirus pandemic stronger and more united than before. And the world will know the truth about how this deadly pandemic started.