President Trump on Saturday defended those who are protesting his administration’s social distancing guidelines and his call for certain states to be “liberated” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
During a press briefing, a reporter asked Trump about White House economic advisor Stephen Moore’s statement to The Washington Post that people who are protesting “stay at home orders” are “modern-day Rosa Parks.”
Trump said Moore had delivered a “strong statement,” adding that there is “a lot of injustice out there.” He later added that he felt some state governors had taken “stay at home orders” too far.
On Thursday, the President said he would allow individual state governors to decide when to relax social distancing guidelines in order to reopen their states’ economies.
He also cast doubt on outbreak numbers reported by China. As Dr. Deborah Birx shared a report showing China’s coronavirus mortality rate at 3.3 per 100,000 people, Trump asked, “Does anyone believe those numbers?”
China wants Sleepy Joe sooo badly. They want all of those billions of dollars that they have been paying to the U.S. back, and much more. Joe is an easy mark, their DREAM CANDIDATE! https://t.co/vmvCr4SkQq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
When asked if China should face the consequences for the pandemic, Trump responded that country should have to face consequences if they “knowingly” spread the virus, but not if the spread was “a mistake.”