White House senior adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday said that much of the country should be “back to normal” by June amid the coronavirus pandemic with the hope that the U.S. is “really rocking again” by July.
Mr. Kushner said May will be a “transition month” with many states gradually releasing plans to start reopening parts of their economies.
“You’ll see a lot of states starting to phase in the different reopening[s] based on the safety guidelines that President Trump outlined,” Mr. Kushner said on “Fox & Friends.” “I think you’ll see by June a lot of the country should be back to normal and the hope is that by July, the country’s really rocking again.”
“The eternal lockdown crowd can make jokes on late-night television but the reality is that the data is on our side and President Trump has created a pathway to safely open up our country and make sure that we get our economy going,” he said.
The GOP has relentlessly mocked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, for a recent appearance on a late-night show in front of a high-end refrigerator/freezer and pricey ice cream.
Governors starting to reopen their states like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have said they’re in close contact with health experts like Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. coronavirus response coordinator.
Mr. Kushner also said the pandemic has shown the United States’ potential for a reinvigorated manufacturing sector, pointing to a massive recent ramp-up in the production of ventilators.
“As we take care of the American people we’re learning that the president, what he campaigned on, was that we want to make sure that we’re bringing manufacturing back,” he said. “We can’t be relying on other countries and I imagine after this we’ll put in place very strong strategies to make sure that America doesn’t have to rely on any other countries for critical supplies in the future.”
Congressional Republicans have been leading the charge in recent weeks to try to curb China’s influence in U.S. supply chains for key goods.
The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank at an annualized rate of 4.8% in the first three months of the year — the first quarterly contraction since 2014.
Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said this week that the U.S. economy should start bouncing back in July, August, and September as states start to reopen.
White House adviser Kevin Hassett has said that while he’s not forecasting another Great Depression, the U.S. should be steeling itself for the worst unemployment and economic growth numbers since the Great Depression in the coming months.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said earlier this week that Mr. Hassett was peddling “gloom and doom” and that optimism will be key as the U.S. starts to reopen.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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