After fielding countless questions from the media about why he didn’t mandate a lockdown for all states to stop the coronavirus spread, President Trump got grilled Monday by reporters challenging his legal authority to do just the opposite — open the nation back up.
The president was quizzed about claiming he had the legal authority to override a governor’s decision not to lift a stay-at-home order, as the White House appears to be gearing up to send people back to work in coming weeks.
“You said when someone is president of the United States their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked at the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House.
“Has any governor agreed you have the authority to open their state back up?” she prodded.
Mr. Trump offered to have his staff provide a legal brief on the issue.
“We’re going to write up papers on this,” he said. “It is not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other because ultimately it comes from the federal government.”
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, said the president’s authority is “persuasive” for governors but not a command, noting the power to open the economy rests with individual states.
“It remains a state decision under our system of federalism,” Mr. Turley tweeted.
The reversal from the media in emphasizing the governors’ decisions was an about-face for several news media bigwigs, including the New York Times editorial board, who called for a federally designated national lockdown to stop COVID-19.
“President Trump needs to call for a two-week shelter-in-place order, now, as part of a coherent national strategy for the coronavirus to protect Americans and their livelihoods,” the Times’ editorial board wrote in late March.
The outlet urged the president to pressure the states to take the hard steps to curtail the virus after nearly a dozen states refused to institute stay-at-home orders.
“As the president’s own health advisers warn, the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come,” added the editorial at the time. “The nation’s slow and spotty response has allowed the virus to spread to every state.”
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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