Wednesday, 20 Nov 2024

Trump says Democrats want economy to stay closed going into 2020 election

President Trump said he believes some of his political foes want to keep the country closed going into the November election, as he leads the push to restart the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Fox Business Thursday morning, the commander in chief described the desire by his Democratic rivals as “a political thing,” to boost their own chances in the 2020 presidential election.

Pressed further by anchor Maria Bartiromo on arguments made by Democratic governors and Congressional leaders that he was putting money and business ahead of saving lives, Trump rejected the criticism.

“The people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open,” he said, adding that if it was up to “some people,” likely referencing his critics, the economy would be kept closed “for a long time” and the US would “go down the tubes.”

The president said in the interview that he wanted states “to open when they can, when they want,” and that most states “are either opened or opening or considering it.”

“I think that we have to get back to work, we have to get our country back. We have to take it back, it was artificially closed. … We did the right thing and now we’ve got to get back, we’ve got to bring our country back and it’s going to happen and it’s going to happen fast. I call it ‘a transition to greatness.’”

Arguing his view that the nation’s economy needs to be reopened, Trump went on to predict that the third quarter of the fiscal year would be a “transition quarter” for the economy. He then predicted that the US would do well in the fourth quarter.

As for 2021, the commander in chief said that the impact of the trillions in federal stimulus spending would be felt during what he predicted would be one of the greatest economic years the US has ever had.

The president has argued for weeks that the government must be focused on reopening the economy.

Speaking to The Post earlier this month, Trump said he believes a national comeback from the coronavirus pandemic is underway and that Americans are beginning to “feel good.”

“I think they’re starting to feel good now. The country’s opening again. We saved millions of lives,” he said during his Oval Office interview.

The president predicted that the steep economic downturn will end soon as states allow businesses to reopen.

Asked by ABC News about the potential for lives to be lost if the country reopened its businesses, Trump acknowledged that risk.

“It’s possible there will be some because you won’t be locked into an apartment or a house or whatever it is. But at the same time, we’re going to practice social distancing, we’re going to be washing hands, we’re going to be doing a lot of the things that we’ve learned to do over the last period of time,” he said.

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