Rachel Maddow blasted the Republican governor of Arizona on Thursday for ignoring alarming coronavirus data and opening up his state, apparently because Donald Trump pressured him to do so.
The MSNBC host pointed out that just last week, GOP Gov. Doug Ducey said the data was clear that Arizona’s stay-at-home order must remain in place until at least mid-May.
But then, just ahead of the president’s visit to the state this week, the governor did a complete reversal and decided his state didn’t need a stay-at-home order after all.
Maddow pointed out that Gov. Ducey decided to ditch his own state’s coronavirus model and instead use one given to him by the Trump administration – a model that the public isn’t allowed to see.
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“In changing their mind, they were relying on a new model, a different model from the one they had worked with the universities on,” Maddow said. “They said that for this new decision, they were relying on a model that had been provided to the state by the Trump administration.”
“Nobody is allowed to see it,” Maddow added.
Video:
Rachel Maddow says the GOP governor of Arizona may have been influenced to lift his stay-at-home order because of Trump’s visit to the state. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/zKTEMXJY4C
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 8, 2020
Maddow said:
The most robust Arizona-specific coronavirus modeling project anywhere, it found that the only way the state could avoid an exponential growth in cases was to maintain the current stay-at-home restrictions until at least the end of May. The end of May. So last week, Arizona’s governor, looking at that data, told the people of the state, ‘Hey, we got to extend the stay-at-home order, we’re not out of the woods yet.’ But then, this week, surprise, as the president announced a planned visit to Arizona, Arizona’s governor, Doug Ducey, suddenly did a u-ie, and decided that, nope, the state wouldn’t have to keep in place its stay-at-home order anymore, he was going to accelerate the planned opening. Hair salons and barber shops, go for it. Restaurants, you’re next. Governor Ducey made this sudden change, announced it on Monday. Perhaps it did have something to do with that impending visit from the president, who of course has been encouraging governors to open up right now because everything’s fine now. In any event, Governor Ducey’s administration said that in making this new decision, in changing their mind, they were relying on a new model, a different model from the one they had worked with the universities on. They said that for this new decision, they were relying on a model that had been provided to the state by the Trump administration. And that model said everything would be fine if the governor lifted the stay-at-home order right away. No reason to wait. And this new model that told the governor, go ahead and open everything up, it’s a secret. Nobody is allowed to see it.
Trump’s only goal is to save his reelection campaign
The coronavirus has wreaked health and economic havoc all across the country over the past two months, and Donald Trump’s incompetence has made the crisis much worse.
With unemployment reaching Great Depression levels, Trump believes his only shot to save his reelection campaign is to throw the doors of the economy wide open, even if it will put lives at risk.
Too many Republican governors are following his dangerous lead.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
