Northeast governors from New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have challenged President Trump’s authority on reopening the I-95, Metro-North, ‘COVID corridor.’ The governors have created their own COVID-19 council to determine when the states will reopen and not the president.
President Trump plans to reopen certain parts of the United States as early as May 1, when the White House guidelines on social distancing end.
On Twitter, President Trump stated that the governors need to get their states needed to get their “testing and apparatus perfected.” Trump continued that the “federal government is there to help” and to “gear up on face masks.”
Governors, get your states testing programs & apparatus perfected. Be ready, big things are happening. No excuses! The Federal Government is there to help. We are testing more than any country in the World. Also, gear up with Face Masks!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
According to President Trump, only he as “authority” over the United States to reopen businesses. Trump stated, “it is the decision of the President.” President Trump continued that that in the United States the president’s “authority is total.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Delaware Gov. John Carney and Rhode Island Gov. Governor Gina Raimondo have banned to work together to create their own COVID-19 council. The COVID-19 council will create a multi-state database so that the states can share information about COVID-19 and the governors will work together to decide when they reopen.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded to President Trump’s statements about reopening the country. Cuomo stated that if President Trump and the White House try to reopen the states without their approval that the President will have a “constitutional clash” under the circumstances of a global pandemic.
Gov. Cuomo during a news conference on Tuesday stated, “we don’t have a king, we have a president.” Cuomo stated that the United States “ran away from having a king and George Washington was president, not King Washington.” Cuomo continued that the “president does not have complete authority” and that the 10th amendment of the U.S. Constitution makes it “clear who has the power.”
“State governments possess inherent advantages, which will ever give them an influence & ascendency over the Nat'l Gov & will forever preclude the possibility of federal encroachments. That their liberties can be subverted by the federal head is repugnant…” —Alexander Hamilton
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 14, 2020
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has also responded to President Trump’s comments. Lamont stated he will not let President Trump’s “verbal hand grenades” Lamont continued that he “will not be distracted from efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.”
In a press release, Gov. Lamont stated that “their states have one integrated regional economy.” Lamont continued that the “virus does not stop at the border of any county, state, or country.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases has expressed his concern about the country reopening too soon. Dr. Fauci is calling the May 1 deadline “cautious optimism,” with seeing the virus starting to level off. Fauci suggested a slow reopening to be on the safe side of containing COVID-19 in case of continued flare-ups of the virus.
In the United States there 610,688 conformed cases of coronavirus COVID-19 and 25,658 confirmed deaths. Cases in New York have reached 202,208 confirmed cases and 10,834 confirmed deaths. In the seven northeast states, there have been 340,903 confirmed cases and there have been 15,838 confirmed deaths.
