Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, March one. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
Speaker 1: coronavirus update. President Trump has extended the social Distancing guidelines
Speaker 1: until at least April. Previously, Trump wanted to open the
Speaker 1: economy back up by Easter. Instead, we are now learning
Speaker 1: that the peak of the outbreak in America could come
Speaker 1: about that time. Gabby or White House reporter at Politico
Speaker 1: joins us for how Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Deborah
Speaker 1: Burkes convinced the President to extend the guidelines. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us, Gabby, Thanks for We're all looking forward to
Speaker 1: the day when all the coronavirus pandemic madness ends and
Speaker 1: we can go back to our normal lives. I know
Speaker 1: the social distancing aspect of this has been taking a
Speaker 1: toll on a lot of people personally, and then beyond that,
Speaker 1: the economy, businesses, the economy has taken a huge hit
Speaker 1: because of all of this. Right now and on. President
Speaker 1: Trump over the weekend and on Monday has said that
Speaker 1: his decision to prolong the coronavirus Social Distancing Guidelines was
Speaker 1: informed by his top public health officials. These recommendations should
Speaker 1: remain in place until April. Now, Gabby, what more can
Speaker 1: you tell us about all this? The President has decided
Speaker 1: to forego his original Easter Sunday target date to sort
Speaker 1: of reopen part to the economy and relax some of
Speaker 1: the social distancing guidelines, and to instead listen to the
Speaker 1: infectious disease experts, the health officials who are currently a
Speaker 1: part of the Coronavirus Task Force, and extend the deadline
Speaker 1: until April thirty, at least for now. That could continue,
Speaker 1: I mean after April. If we're still seeing a surge
Speaker 1: in cases of coronavirus here in the US in states
Speaker 1: that maybe haven't been as impacted yet but could be
Speaker 1: in the next few weeks, the President could certainly extend
Speaker 1: the social distancing guidelines that the federal government has been
Speaker 1: in place well into May and beyond. They now think
Speaker 1: that Easter Sunday could be the peak of the coronavirus
Speaker 1: outbreak here in the United States, So it's still a
Speaker 1: good two weeks away, you know, can see increasing cases
Speaker 1: and more debts. This is what his health officials are
Speaker 1: telling him, right, It is what health officials are telling him,
Speaker 1: and it is one of the reasons why you're seeing
Speaker 1: a number of governors actually take additional steps over this
Speaker 1: weekend and today to sort of prepare for an onslot
Speaker 1: of cases in the next two weeks. Maryland and Virginia
Speaker 1: are just two of them. Of course, both of these
Speaker 1: states maybor d C, an area that has been hit
Speaker 1: hard and is expected to see an influx in cases
Speaker 1: just like what we've seen in New York over the
Speaker 1: next two weeks. And so both Governor Hogan of Maryland
Speaker 1: and Governor North and Virginia instituted stay in place orders
Speaker 1: today that are expected to go into effect this evening
Speaker 1: and will hopefully send off sort of the crisis that
Speaker 1: is unfolding in New York at least to some extent.
Speaker 1: It's not as though the Washington DC area can avoid it,
Speaker 1: but if there are things that we can do in
Speaker 1: terms of social distancing and business closures and making people
Speaker 1: stay at home, and that's certainly something that least state
Speaker 1: governors they're trying to coordinate with the administration. On President Trump,
Speaker 1: you know, he's a guy who plays everything by the gut,
Speaker 1: on his instincts, and that's gotten him into some tricky
Speaker 1: situations with aspects of the government, whether it's the intelligence
Speaker 1: agency or whatnot. But on this right now. Early on
Speaker 1: the messaging was a little all over the place too,
Speaker 1: but right now it seems like he really is trusting
Speaker 1: his health experts, most notably Dr Anthony Faucci and Dr
Speaker 1: Deborah Burke's. Dr Fauci had said that they had some
Speaker 1: strong words with the president, like this needs to be continued,
Speaker 1: and thankfully the president is listening at this point. And
Speaker 1: that have been a big question just over the past
Speaker 1: few days, is whether or not the president was so
Speaker 1: eager to reopen parts of the economy and to stave
Speaker 1: off a recession and significant impacts to businesses and to
Speaker 1: workers by reopening the economy and relaxing these social distancing guidelines,
Speaker 1: or if he would in fact turn to the advice
Speaker 1: of medical experts, people who are really studying the virus
Speaker 1: and just the trends that we've seen in different parts
Speaker 1: of the world that have been affected by it so far.
Speaker 1: And I know that there was a lot of consternation
Speaker 1: inside his own presidential campaign. A lot of people were
Speaker 1: worried about this politically, you know, if the president did
Speaker 1: decide to move forward and reopen parts of the economy,
Speaker 1: and then we saw the virus start to spread even
Speaker 1: further and community transmission become more apparent in a lot
Speaker 1: of places where it maybe didn't exist already. That could
Speaker 1: be devastating for him politically, And so I think that
Speaker 1: not only was he listening to members of the Coronavirus
Speaker 1: Task Force who were sort of advising him from a
Speaker 1: health perspective, but also close aids and people within his
Speaker 1: inner circle who were weighing in from a political standpoint
Speaker 1: as well. It is unfortunate that politics always kind of
Speaker 1: plays a place in something like this, But there are
Speaker 1: many many angles through this. There is the health aspect, obviously,
Speaker 1: we don't want more people to get sick and die
Speaker 1: and have this thing spread. There is the economy angle.
Speaker 1: The longer that we keep things shutting down, the worst
Speaker 1: the economy suffers, the worst people individually, businesses, small business,
Speaker 1: every that's a whole trickle down thing, the worst that gets.
Speaker 1: And then there is obviously the political angle on this.
Speaker 1: The success of this whole coronavirus effort really could possibly
Speaker 1: depend whether the President gets re elected or not. And
Speaker 1: I know that they are constantly going on through all this,
Speaker 1: and different factions within the administration or fighting for different things.
Speaker 1: So the president is in a very difficult spot on
Speaker 1: how to handle all this. He is and he's getting
Speaker 1: a lot of conflicting advice from different pockets of his
Speaker 1: administration and also from outside allies. And you just mentioned it.
Speaker 1: But one thing that is important to note is sort
Speaker 1: of the internal tensions that we're seeing play out that
Speaker 1: we've become accustomed to just as reporters who are covering
Speaker 1: this administration, I mean, you see it all the time,
Speaker 1: where you have sort of these different wings inside the
Speaker 1: White House who are competing or who are trying to
Speaker 1: get the President to adopt their point of view, and
Speaker 1: that seems to be happening right now. Is well, there
Speaker 1: are different parts of this administration. There's confusion over the
Speaker 1: coordination happening with private sector entities and how they're working
Speaker 1: with the government. So I do think that that is
Speaker 1: contributing somewhat to sort of the chaotic approach that we've seen,
Speaker 1: the whole of government approach that Vice President Pence has
Speaker 1: been describing, and ultimately it could really damage the president's
Speaker 1: reelection if that continues and impacts his administration's response to
Speaker 1: the coronavirus Gabby or White House reporter at Politico. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can
Speaker 1: check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday
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