Some Republicans in the Ohio legislature are publicly calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to consider removing coronavirus-related restrictions beginning next month, while on Monday, around 100 protesters gathered outside the Statehouse during Dewine’s daily COVID-19 press briefing.
A growing chorus of Ohio’s Republican lawmakers want Gov. Mike DeWine to set a date for the first phases of re-opening businesses, schools and public places.
“We need to get the economy open, even if that means social distancing of some sort for months to come,” Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, wrote in a Facebook post. “We can’t stay like this much longer, and the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who’ve lost their jobs or the thousands of small business owners can’t keep doing this either, or their lives will be irreparably destroyed.”
At the same time, President Donald Trump contends it’s up to him, not governors like DeWine, to establish a timeline to re-open the country.
>> Protesters plan in-vehicle rally against Michigan governor’s stay-at-home order
“When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total,” Trump said during his daily coronavirus briefing Monday after being asked about governors’ authority.
“And that’s the way it’s gotta be. It’s total. It’s total. And the governors know that. ... They can’t do anything without approval of the president of the United States.”
He already had tweeted Monday morning:
“For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.
“It is the decision of the President, and for many good reasons. With that being said, the Administration and I are working closely with the Governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!”
Politifact rated those tweets false.
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Trump’s claim of authority over governors sounds a very different note than statements from the past several weeks. He has contended that it should be the states, not the federal government, taking the lead in battling the pandemic. The president has cited his philosophy of local control as he has declined to pressure states to enact stay-at-home orders.
DeWine, titular head of Trump’s Ohio re-election effort, said he and other governors have been consulting extensively with the White House — they just had another in a series of calls Monday morning with Vice President Mike Pence — on a collaborative plan that will be unique to each state’s differing circumstances.
“This is not a confrontational issue between us and the White House,” DeWine said in his daily public briefing Monday. “As we put together our plan it’s going to be an Ohio plan in the sense that we are different than every other state. ... I think people will think it’s a rational plan. I think the Trump administration will like it as well.”
Earlier, the first-term Republican governor made it clear during an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that any loosening of the stay-at-home order would be contingent on coronavirus testing results and other health data.
“Whenever we open up, however we do it, if people aren’t confident, if they don’t think they’re safe, they’re not going to go to restaurants, they’re not going to go to bars, they’re not going to really get back into society,” DeWine said.
Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton issued the stay-at-home order March 22, but schools have been closed since March 12. That order expires May 1, but it’s increasingly likely that students and teachers won’t return to their classrooms this academic year.
The original forecast models used by Acton and the governor predicted a peak of 10,000 new COVID-19 cases per day by mid-April. Those projections have dropped sharply in recent days to 1,607 new cases per day though the peak has remained essentially the same.
DeWine credits Ohioans for their help in flattening the curve, but others in his party believe those first numbers were incorrect.
“Many of the earliest predictions were based on what we now know to be flawed data models,” Rep. Todd Smith, R-Germantown, wrote in a letter to the governor. “We now have actual data that has shown the effect of the virus to be much less than anticipated.”
He called on the governor to begin lifting the restrictions on businesses and public gatherings “in the first days of May and maybe all by the end of the month.”
“Here in my district and across the state, our small business owners are being crushed under the current restrictions. They do not think it necessary to destroy their businesses and the state economy for the actual effect they are seeing due to the virus,” Smith wrote.
It’s a position held by conservatives like Dave Zanotti who runs The American Policy Roundtable as well as protesters who have started showing up at the Statehouse for the governor’s briefings.
“So far Dr. Acton has used at least three different models as the foundation for her actions ‘to save lives,’” Zanotti wrote. “All three models have proven to be wrong.”
Brenner, who says Ohio’s rate of infection may have already peaked, said he’d like to start seeing businesses re-open in phases.
For example, the Delaware Republican suggested stores could limit customers, hair salons could be by appointment only and restaurants could reduce their number of tables. Masks could be recommended for those in public, and medically vulnerable people could continue to stay at home.
“Opening up the economy is not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take weeks or months,” Brenner told The Dispatch. “Starting now doesn’t mean it will all be open tomorrow.”
Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, is advocating for a county-by-county or even city-by-city approach.
“We don’t have to treat different parts of the state the same,” Huffman told The Dispatch, pointing to places like west central Ohio where the number of cases has remained low.
‘We don’t want to get caught up in the circular logic of saying ‘look, they haven’t been tested yet,‘” Huffman said. “You can get tested and you can be exposed the next day ... At some point we have to look at actual data and not ‘well, it could be this.’”
But DeWine said health officials consider the entire state to be affect by “community spread,” even though areas with less testing are showing fewer victims. Re-opening too quickly, he said, would lead to additional deaths, especially among the state’s vulnerable populations.
The decision to reduce restrictions will be “based on the best science we can see,” the governor said. “We’re not going to flip on a switch some day and get the world back to where it was. ... Our goal has to be how do we make them normal as we can within the confines of the fact that we have a monster out there that is lurking and can kill us.”
Scientists and drug manufacturers are working on a vaccine, but it might not be ready in time for cold and flu season this winter. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a briefing in late March that he expects another wave of the coronavirus later this year.
“We can’t shut the economy down constantly,” Brenner said. “If this is something that is seasonal, what are we going to do?”
Around 100 protesters gathered outside the Statehouse during Dewine’s appearance, at least one wearing a Donald Trump hat while many carried signs expressing displeasure at the stay-at-home order or waved American flags.
Kevin Farmer of Cincinnati climbed to the top of the Statehouse steps with his bullhorn to lead the protesters in a series of chants.
“Some say that we’re actually causing havoc or putting lives in danger right now -- but actually they’re putting my livelihood in danger and others because we’re laid off during this pandemic,” Farmer said to the crowd.
Farmer told The Dispatch that he has been laid off from his job at Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing, and said his employer will contact him when it is OK to return to work.
Farmer said he hoped DeWine would see the dissent caused by the demonstration, and allow Ohioans to get back to their jobs.
“Don’t Mike DeWine supposed to be a Republican (sic)? Don’t he believe in less government? Small government?” Farmer said.
“He has an obligated right to get us back to work, because if not, what do you think Americans are gonna go through?”
Farmer also led the demonstrators in a series of “When I say tyrant, you say Mike DeWine” chants, among others.
Another demonstrator, John Jenkins of Pleasantville, was bearing an upside down American flag, traditionally a distress signal.
“Ohio is currently under distress,” Jenkins said. “The United States is generally under distress.”
Jenkins said the demonstrators were organizing on a variety of different Facebook groups, but pointed to Ohio Stands United, a group with 6,800 members, as one of the chief avenues of organization for the two recent protests.
The Facebook page currently has a number of videos uploaded by members of Monday’s protest, as well as a video of a member shooting an order from the governor with a rifle.
Joe Marshall, who did not identify where he was from, said he was representing Anonymous Columbus Ohio.
Marshall said he chose to demonstrate against DeWine because he believes DeWine and Acton are being led astray by the World Health Organization, which he said is corrupt and peddling false information to local governments.
“Their numbers here are what these clowns are going by,” Marshall said. “Even if they are right, they don’t justify” enforcing a stay-at-home order.
“These are common sense things,” Marshall said. “The problem is, Mr. DeWine doesn’t want to do common sense things, he wants to listen to Amy, and Amy gets her orders from the World Health Organization.”
Dispatch Public Affairs Editor Darrel Rowland contributed to this story.