Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, May twelve. I'm Oscar Emires from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
Speaker 1: coronavirus update. GOP lawmakers are ramping up their attacks on
Speaker 1: state lockdowns and arguing for a quicker reopening of the country.
Speaker 1: Frustrations are growing with lawmakers who are trying to balance
Speaker 1: public health and letting the economy get worse, but some
Speaker 1: are even joining protests, saying that stay at home orders
Speaker 1: are an overreach. Melanie's Anona congressional reporter at Politico, joins
Speaker 1: us for the fight against lockdowns. Thanks for joining us, Melanie, Hi,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Well. The country is on its way.
Speaker 1: We're starting to reopen, but it's kind of a major
Speaker 1: fight all over the place, especially on Capitol Hill. Republicans
Speaker 1: are very angry at the rate that this is happening.
Speaker 1: They want things to open now. Democrats are trying to
Speaker 1: be a little more cautious with it. They want to
Speaker 1: maybe extend some of these stay at home orders. It's
Speaker 1: kind of all over the place. It's very fluid right now,
Speaker 1: but the quarantine fatigue is the real People are over
Speaker 1: People want to start getting out and about, but it's
Speaker 1: all about how to balance the public health with the
Speaker 1: needs of the economy. So Melanie tell us a little
Speaker 1: bit about how this is all playing out well. Frustrations
Speaker 1: are clearly boiling over in the GOP right now. Many
Speaker 1: Republicans on Capitol Hills felt like they were open to
Speaker 1: these restrictions. Initially they felt like they were being patient,
Speaker 1: but now they feel like it's time to start opening
Speaker 1: things up again. They're seeing the impacts of having on
Speaker 1: the economy and local businesses, so they're really starting to
Speaker 1: lash out. We've seen them attend rallies to reopen America.
Speaker 1: We've seen them harp on local officials, harp on Democratic
Speaker 1: leadership for not bringing Congress back into session right away.
Speaker 1: And they're really encouraging these protests that were taking place
Speaker 1: all around the country in an effort to sort of
Speaker 1: build pressure on their state and local government to start
Speaker 1: reopening things. So tell us about some of the GOP
Speaker 1: members that have spoken up about this. You noted a
Speaker 1: few in your article. Representative Andy hair Is, he's a
Speaker 1: Republican from Maryland. He's also a physician. You know, he
Speaker 1: was talking about how early models are saying there's gonna
Speaker 1: be two million people dead at this and we're not
Speaker 1: getting those numbers. So based off of that, it's time
Speaker 1: to start reopening things. It hasn't beared out the way
Speaker 1: of how it was going to happen, so let's start
Speaker 1: opening things up. So what if some of the other
Speaker 1: members said about it. Some of the other conservative members
Speaker 1: have really seized on the idea that they're worried the
Speaker 1: stay at home orders are a violation of constitutional liberties
Speaker 1: and religious radoms. Their point is, right now, you can
Speaker 1: go to a store and get alcohol or a pack
Speaker 1: of cigarettes, or a lottery ticket, but you can't go
Speaker 1: to your place of worship. So they're saying these measures
Speaker 1: are going overboard. They want Attorney General William Barr to
Speaker 1: look into these measures to make sure they're not violating
Speaker 1: constitutional liberties. But then you have other members like Andy Harris,
Speaker 1: who is a doctor, who has been saying that the
Speaker 1: initial productions were a lot higher than what we've seen.
Speaker 1: They're out. But it's important to note that that two
Speaker 1: million figure he was citing was in reference to if
Speaker 1: we had no social distance being in place. But he
Speaker 1: has really been aggressive and calling for these lockdowns to end.
Speaker 1: He has also argued that there's also health risks if
Speaker 1: we stay at home because there's been an increase in
Speaker 1: suicide rates and mental health issues and routine health exams
Speaker 1: or for example, getting pushed to the back burner. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're hearing all sorts of different arguments coming from Capital
Speaker 1: Hope Republicans about why these measures should be lifted. And
Speaker 1: one of the interesting things that we're seeing is, you know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned the protests and how some of these members
Speaker 1: have even participated in some of the protests. Some are
Speaker 1: even saying, who knows if this will turn into some
Speaker 1: type of political movement. Part of this overreach of government again,
Speaker 1: and as I said, you know, it's a balance of
Speaker 1: public health and all, but people do feel like their
Speaker 1: rights are being infringed upon. On this. It's drawing a
Speaker 1: lot of comparisons to the Tea Party movement that we
Speaker 1: saw a decade ago. There's a lot of frustration, especially
Speaker 1: among conservatives and on the right, what they see is
Speaker 1: government overreach. There's a lot of concern about whether the
Speaker 1: government is going too far. And you know, back then,
Speaker 1: the Tea Party movement is about big government spending, so
Speaker 1: in this case it's obviously a little different. But you're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of conservative activists really trying to seize
Speaker 1: on this grassroots energy in this momentum, and they're trying
Speaker 1: to mobilize the base ahead of the November election. But
Speaker 1: polls still show that most Americans aren't really comfortable with
Speaker 1: reopening the states that much yet, at least with Salon's,
Speaker 1: Jim's movie theaters, things like that. They're still saying, you know,
Speaker 1: we could either take some time or just not yet.
Speaker 1: The polling that we've seen recently is that most of
Speaker 1: the public right now is still skeptical about reopening. So
Speaker 1: the Republicans pushing for these lockeddowns to end are in
Speaker 1: the minority. And that's why you have seen some Republicans,
Speaker 1: especially those who might be up for re election in
Speaker 1: the fall, take a more nuanced approach this debate. They're saying,
Speaker 1: we need to open up, but it needs to be
Speaker 1: done slowly and safely, and they're being much more careful
Speaker 1: about how they approach this issue. But certainly, I would
Speaker 1: say the majority of the GOP is arguing that it's time.
Speaker 1: The Attorney General, William Barr, has also said that the
Speaker 1: Justice Department is honoring the stay at home orders to
Speaker 1: ensure they don't violate any civil liberties just kind of
Speaker 1: my understanding. A lot of them are, you know, stay
Speaker 1: at home obviously, but most states are still allowing their
Speaker 1: citizens to go out and take walks and things like that.
Speaker 1: So what would they be looking for to see of
Speaker 1: any civil liberties being violated? What would the justice part
Speaker 1: to be looking at. Some of the issues that I
Speaker 1: have been raised by conservative is whether restrictions on allowing
Speaker 1: them to worship, for example, is a violation of their
Speaker 1: religious freedoms. Something else they've talked about is whether the
Speaker 1: law enforcement and police officers should be aggressively going after
Speaker 1: people and jailing them for violating some of these orders.
Speaker 1: We've seen numerous reports of local law enforcement going after
Speaker 1: businesses and people who are violating their rules. So we
Speaker 1: probably just want to make sure that everything is in
Speaker 1: line with the constitution, and they're asking William Barr to
Speaker 1: make sure that that isn't happening. You did mention that
Speaker 1: the Senate had come back in the session and the
Speaker 1: House was delaying some of that. Do we know when
Speaker 1: they're going to come back. The House isn't back yet.
Speaker 1: They are waiting to finish their next relief package, so
Speaker 1: they want something to vote on before they haul all
Speaker 1: these lawmakers back. We're hearing it could be happening on
Speaker 1: Friday at the earliest. It could slipped next week. But again,
Speaker 1: Republicans are some of them are calling to return no
Speaker 1: matter what. They want to come back into session because
Speaker 1: the Senate already is back, you're working, and they said
Speaker 1: they don't want to be seen as sitting on the sideline.
Speaker 1: But Democrats argue that if they're going to bring people back,
Speaker 1: they want to do it safely, and they want to
Speaker 1: make sure there's a reason that they're calling people back
Speaker 1: and not just doing it for the sake of doing it.
Speaker 1: So that's why they're waiting until their next relief package
Speaker 1: is done be written. Melanie's Anona congressional reporter at Politico.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for having me. I'm aspar Romeiras and this has been
Speaker 1: your daily coronavirus event. Don't forget that. For today's big
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