Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Trump to U.S.: ‘There will be death’
‘Toughest’ weeks still ahead, president warns
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump warned Saturday that the country could be headed into its “toughest” weeks yet as the coronavirus death toll mounts, but at the same time he expressed growing impatience with social distancing guidelines and said he’s eager to get the country reopened and its stalled economy back on track.
“There will be a lot of death, unfortunately,” Trump said in a somber start to his daily briefing on the pandemic. “There will be death.”
Joining Trump were Vice President Mike Pence, virus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s foremost infection disease expert. Each stood far apart from one another on the small stage.
“This country was not designed to be closed,” Trump said. “The cure cannot be worse than the problem.”
He also suggested that some states were asking for more medical supplies than they really needed. He said the goal was to stay several days ahead of critical medical needs in each state.
“The fears of the shortages have
led to inflated requests,” he said.
Louisiana officials have said New Orleans is on track to run out of ventilators by next week.
Health officials did offer some hope that social distancing measures were working. Fauci said he saw the efforts in action as he went out for a walk in Washington, D.C., and noticed people waiting six feet apart for restaurant take out.
“As sobering and a difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference,” Fauci said.
Trump also revisited a familiar message, saying he wants to get the economy up and running as soon as possible.
“We have to vanquish the virus as quickly as we can. … We have to get back to work,” he said.
Before the briefing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized the decision by Trump to nominate “one of his own lawyers” as an inspector general overseeing federal aid during the coronavirus recovery.
She said the watchdog monitoring “this historic relief package for workers and families must be independent from politics.”
Trump appointed Brian Miller to the Treasury Department watchdog post. He serves as a special assistant to the president and as senior associate counsel in the White House.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is overseeing the government package that aims to shovel $2.2 trillion into the U.S. economy over the next few weeks to try to cushion the free fall. The assistance includes $349 billion in loans for small businesses and a $500 billion corporate rescue fund.
The legislation signed by Trump in late March created the special inspector general position as well as a panel appointed by Congress to monitor how the aid is deployed.
Pelosi said Trump is disregarding provisions in the act that would hold the administration accountable. She said a new House committee on the virus response would work to ensure “taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and efficiently to help workers and not to be exploited by profiteers and price-gougers.”
With Congress away, Pelosi pressed for the next aid package to be ready for an April vote in a letter to House Democrats.
“We must double down on the down-payment we made in the CARES Act by passing a CARES 2 package,” she wrote, pushing for additional unemployment benefits, small business loans and direct payments to Americans.