The U.S. coronavirus crisis took a sharp political turn on Friday as President Donald Trump lashed out at four Democratic governors over their handling of the pandemic after having conceded that states bear ultimate control of restrictions to contain the outbreak.
Donald Trump redirects subject to gun control, away from COVID-19 risks of opening states too soon. 1:26
The U.S. coronavirus crisis took a sharp political turn on Friday as President Donald Trump lashed out at four Democratic governors over their handling of the pandemic after having conceded that states bear ultimate control of restrictions to contain the outbreak.
The Republican president targeted three swing states critical to his re-election bid — Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — where his conservative loyalists have mounted pressure campaigns challenging those governors’ stay-at-home orders.
Amplifying a theme that his supporters have trumpeted this week in street protests at the state capitals of Lansing, St. Paul, and Richmond, Trump issued a series of matching Twitter posts touting the slogans: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!”
At a news conference on Friday, Trump again criticized the handling of some states’ coronavirus mitigation measures as Virginia “too tough.”
Asked if certain states — Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia — should lift their stay-at-home orders, Trump said: “No, but I think elements of what they’ve done are too much.”
Michigan has become a particular focus of agitation to relax physical-distancing rules that rank among the strictest in the nation after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, widely seen as a potential running ma