Trump: Criticism against US reopening is political

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - US President Donald Trump said he thinks Democrats defend no rush in reopening of the country to hurt him politically in November elections, not for the coronavirus outbreak.

Asked during a Fox Business Network interview aired Thursday morning if he believes his critics want to go to presidential elections under closed economy, Trump said: "Yeah, I do. I do. I think it's a political thing."

On a question from interviewer Maria Bartiromo whether reopening "as quickly as possible" would be putting money ahead of lives, Trump pushed back with saying Americans agree with him.

"The people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open," he said. "You know, if it was up to some people, let's keep it closed for a long time ... and watch the United States go down the tubes. Not gonna happen. Never gonna happen on my watch."

Trump also said he disagrees with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on the measures needed to reopen schools.

"We have to get the schools open, we have to get our country open, we have to open our country. Now we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible, we can't keep going on like this … You're having bedlam already in the streets, you can't do this. We have to get it open. I totally disagree with him on schools," he said.

The president defended his argument by saying that young people are "very little affected" by the pandemic.

Fauci told the Senate earlier this week that there could be "serious" consequences if states do not follow guidelines for reopening during the coronavirus pandemic and do it too quickly.

He warned in particular that there is no clear answer on how to reopen the nation's disparate school systems, saying it is unlikely a vaccine will be available by the fall.

While the testing capacity of the US still raise concerns of many experts and politicians, Trump said they have the "BEST in the World, by FAR!"

The US is the country hardest-hit by the pandemic with nearly 1.4 million cases and more than 84,100 fatalities, according to a running tally of Johns Hopkins University.

Since emerging in China last December, the virus has spread to 188 countries, infecting over 4.36 million people and killed some 297,500. In all, more than 1.55 million people have recovered from the disease.