Governor Hogan questions Trump Administration’s coronavirus response, calls their messaging “confusing”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan questioned the Trump Administration’s plans to reopen the country in the coming weeks, citing mixed messaging that he called confusing and said doesn’t match what officials are doing across the nation to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Appearing on CNN’s New Day, Governor Hogan said the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is not over by any stretch of the imagination, and that the country needs the federal, state and local levels, the private sector, and every individual to help fight this battle.

Governor Hogan said the messaging coming from the Trump Administration does not match what he and others are doing across the country to slow the spread of the virus.

“Quite frankly, some of the messaging is pretty confusing,” Governor Hogan said. “I think it’s not just that it doesn’t match with what we’re doing here in Maryland, but some of the messaging coming out of the Administration doesn’t match. Where you have the Surgeon General, Anthony Fauci saying things that were almost completely opposite of that yesterday.”

As far as a timeline of when this will end, Governor Hogan said he doesn’t think that the country will be ready as soon as President Trump and others have suggested.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be in any way ready to be out of this in five or six days or so, or whenever this 15 days is up from the time that they started this imaginary plot,” Governor Hogan said. “Most people think that we’re weeks away from the peak, if not months. That’s the advice we’re getting from smart folks at Johns Hopkins, NIH, University of Maryland, and places like that.”

President Trump has stated that he has a goal of reopening the country for business by Easter, April 12, 2020.

On Monday, Governor Hogan announced a number of new COVID-19 mitigation measures, including the closure of all non-essential businesses, the creation of a $175 million economic relief package, updates to Maryland’s public health surge plan, and an emergency order to prevent price gouging.

“We’ve closed more businesses than many of the states that have stay-at-home orders. We’ve encouraged and suggested that everybody that doesn’t need to go out, that isn’t an essential business, that they do stay home,” Governor Hogan explained. “We’re very strictly enforcing the limitations on social distancing, of no groups of ten or more, and we’ve closed more businesses—anything that’s not essential. It has the same effect… We’re all taking different steps based on what we think is right for our states.”