Trump Suggests Dems Want to Keep the US Economy Shutdown ‘for Election Reasons’

President Donald Trump is sharing why he believes Democratic governors are not reopening their economies as quickly as he would like them to.

Trump met with governors on Wednesday to discuss coronavirus response efforts. While he acknowledged some states are not ready to open, he claimed some are waiting for the wrong reasons.

“Some governors and some perhaps partisans maybe for election reasons don’t want to have their states open,” Trump said.

He added, “And then some shouldn’t open them quite yet. They’re not ready, they went through a lot and they’re not quite ready.”

Watch his comments below:

Trump followed up on his comments during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo.

She asked Trump if he believes his critics want him to keep the economy closed going into the election.

He replied, “Yeah I do, I do. I think it’s a political thing in addition.”

Bartiromo pointed out some believe Trump is putting the economy before the lives of Americans.

Trump doubled down on his position.

“No, no. The people that want to see the right thing happen, they agree with me. We have to get our country open,” Trump said.

He continued, “You know, if it was up to some people let’s keep it closed for a long time, okay, a long time and watch the United States go down the tubes, not going to happen, never going to happen on my watch.”

Check out the interview below:

Trump’s comments come shortly after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States is “going to slowly open the economy,” as IJR previously reported.

According to Mnuchin, there is a risk of “destroying” the economy if the nation waits too long to reopen.

He noted if the economy reopens safely, “We’ll be back to having a great economy” next year.