Glenn Fine, Stephanie Grisham moves shake up D.C. as coronavirus pandemic enters pivotal phase

New York reported its largest single-day increase in coronavirus deaths as President Trump directed a Washington shakeup amid the pandemic, tapping a new press secretary and removing the inspector general poised to oversee how the federal government spends $2 trillion in economic relief funding.

Mr. Trump ousted Glenn Fine as acting inspector general of the Defense Department, making him ineligible to lead a committee tracking how pandemic-relief money is doled out.

“We have a lot of IGs in from the Obama era, as you know it is a presidential decision,” Mr. Trump said. “We have reports of bias and different things coming in.”

The move sparked an outcry from Democrats, who said Mr. Trump is replacing seasoned watchdogs with “loyalists” and that it validates their push for congressional oversight of the cash, which is being stacked higher and higher.

Lawmakers raced Tuesday to replenish a $350 billion small-business fund that is being depleted much faster than expected, even as business owners and banks reported hiccups in applying for the pot of cash.

The president said he wants $250 billion to replenish the fund.

Mr. Trump also tapped campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany to replace Stephanie Grisham as his press secretary, putting a key figure from his reelection team in the White House as the pandemic shifts public attention from the campaign trail to the Situation Room.

The pandemic is entering a pivotal phase, with nationwide deaths topping 12,000 and Wisconsin offering a test case of what happens when fears of the coronavirus clash with primary elections.

New York, meanwhile, reeled from its deadliest day even as “social distancing” techniques appeared to be flattening the spread of the virus in select hotspots.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 731 new deaths Tuesday, bringing the state total to 5,489 in its population of 19.5 million.

“That is the largest single-day increase,” said Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat. “We talk about numbers, but that’s 731 people who we lost.”

New York’s daily increase in deaths had been essentially flat in the previous few days, though Mr. Cuomo still found a glimmer of good news. While daily hospitalizations were up, the three-day average was down. The change in daily intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and daily intubations were also down, according to the governor.

“Right now, we are projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations,” he said.

Across the river, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy reported 232 new deaths Tuesday, its “highest toll to date.”

The Garden State, which has a population of 8.9 million, has reported 1,232 deaths, the second most of any state behind New York.

Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, announced he was closing state and county parks and extending a public health emergency he had declared on March 9 for another 30 days, hoping to lock down the momentum that’s appearing on the horizon.

“Yesterday, we noted that we’re beginning to see — and I don’t want to overstate this in any way — the very first potential signs that the curve may be finally flattening,” he said. “But we cannot be happy with only reaching a plateau.”

“We must not just flatten this curve — we must crush this curve,” the governor said.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 12,300 people in the U.S., meaning the death toll is set to exceed that of the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. The toll is still far below the grim forecasts of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, however, as stay-at-home orders in most states have a positive impact.

“We see glimmers of very, very strong hope,” Mr. Trump said.

The pandemic is unfolding in a presidential election year, forcing states to balance public health with primary elections that funnel large numbers of people into polling places.

Wisconsin voters risked possible infection at the polls Tuesday after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ late-in-the-game moves to postpone the primary were rejected by the state’s highest court. Voters tried to space themselves 6 feet apart in polling lines that lasted for hours in places such as Milwaukee, where only five voting sites were open because so many poll workers dropped out.

Mr. Trump accused the Democrats of moving the election at the last minute because he endorsed a Republican judicial candidate. He also faulted state Democrats’ focus on mail-in ballots.

“Mail ballots, they cheat,” Mr. Trump said. “They go and collect them, they’re fraudulent in many cases.”

Mr. Trump voted by mail in Florida’s election.

“Because I’m allowed to,” Mr. Trump said. “I happen to be in the White House.”

Pressed on safety concerns in Wisconsin, he told reporters to ask Mr. Evers about it.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in intensive care Tuesday after his COVID-19 symptoms worsened over the weekend, although he is in stable condition and breathing on his own instead of relying on a ventilator, his spokesman said.

Austria and Denmark have announced plans to slowly reopen their societies in mid-April, while other nations on the continent are starting to assess how to return to normal.

Chinese authorities, meanwhile, reopened the city of Wuhan on Tuesday and started to assess the economic and social damage after 10 weeks of lockdown in the provincial capital of 11 million.

The coronavirus was detected in Wuhan in December, but the communist government suppressed whistleblowers at the start, putting the rest of the world at a disadvantage, according to some U.S. lawmakers.

Mr. Trump on Tuesday slammed the World Health Organization and said the U.S. might put a “powerful hold” on funds to the group. He said the U.N. health agency appeared to be “China-centric” as the outbreak unfolded and dragged its feet in declaring a pandemic.

“They could have called it much earlier,” Mr. Trump said. “When they call every shot wrong, that’s no good.”

Mr. Trump also defended his domestic moves, saying he didn’t see memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro, which warned in late January of devastation from the virus.

The president said that was around the time he “closed down” travel from China to the U.S. He also defended his late-February prediction that cases would drop to zero within days, saying he had to be a cheerleader for the country.

Mr. Trump’s daily virus briefing was wide-ranging and featured few mentions of the personnel moves that infuriated congressional Democrats earlier in the day.

Administration officials said Mr. Fine, the ousted IG, is not out of a job completely — he will revert to his position as principal deputy inspector general for the Defense Department.

Mr. Trump tapped Sean W. O’Donnell, the IG at the Environmental Protection Agency, to serve as the acting defense IG in addition to his current role.

The president also nominated Jason Abend — a senior policy adviser at U.S. Customs and Border Protection — to serve as the Defense Department inspector general in a permanent capacity.

The moves, first reported by Politico, come after Mr. Trump removed the inspector general for intelligence, Michael Atkinson, and blasted a principal deputy inspector at the Health and Human Services Department, Christi A. Grimm, who reported on supply and testing shortages at hospitals on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The sudden removal and replacement of acting Inspector General Fine is part of a disturbing pattern of retaliation by the President against independent overseers fulfilling their statutory and patriotic duties to conduct oversight on behalf of the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The California Democrat and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland said Congress must conduct its own oversight through a panel modeled after the Truman Committee. The committee led by then-Sen. Harry S. Truman, which was formed in 1941 to oversee wartime production and root out profiteering.

Other personnel moves involved the White House press shop.

Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman at the Defense Department who once served as press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, will serve as director of strategic communications, according to people familiar with the changes.

Ms. Grisham took over for Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary in July 2019 but never took questions from the media in the briefing room. She was a press aide with the Trump campaign in 2016.

Her departure coincides with the arrival of new White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who reportedly wanted to replace her in the West Wing.

Ms. Grisham will serve as chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump, replacing Lindsay Reynolds, who resigned this week to spend more time with her family.

“I am excited to welcome Stephanie back to the team in this new role,” Mrs. Trump said. “She has been a mainstay and true leader in the administration from even before day one, and I know she will excel as chief of staff. I appreciate all that Lindsay Reynolds did over the past three years, and wish her well in her future endeavors.”

• Dave Boyer, Lauren Meier, Seth McLaughlin and Gabriella Muñoz contributed to this report.