Churches declared ‘essential services’
The president held a press conference on Friday, where he announced that America’s churches are now essential services. Trump went so far as to tell the governors they better open them up by this weekend, or else!
At my direction the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance for communities of faith. Today I’m identifying houses of worship, churches, synogauges, mosques, as essential places that provide essential services.
Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and houses of worship. It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow our churches and places of worship to open right now.
If there’s any question they’re going to have to call me, but they’re not going to be successful in that call. These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united. The people are demanding to go to church and synagogue, go to their mosque.
Many millions of Americans embrace worship as an essential part of life. The ministers, pastors, rabbis, imams and other faith leaders will make sure their congregations are safe as they gather and pray.
The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend. If they don’t do it I will overide the governors. In America we need more prayer, not less.
Predictably, the press corps erupted with demands to know by what authority the president dared to demand the governors open churches, but Trump walked out, leaving the angry gaggle to question Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
And handle it she did (so well that I think her official title should be Queen of Dragons). It’s really something to watch her manhandle the sanctimonious fake news that just can’t help but display their deep-seated Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s very entertaining. I suggest watching the whole thing.
LIVE: President @realDonaldTrump holds a press briefing https://t.co/CIeEOpMXmU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2020
What’s with the doubletalk by Dr. Birxenscarf?
The president’s COVID-19 team doesn’t seem to be on the same page as he is about opening churches. Dr. Birx, during her presentation of several charts showing COVID-19 deaths decreasing across America, contradicted the president’s wishes for churches to open immediately when she said that some of the places with higher cases may want to wait a week.
Predictably, the press jumped on that chance to claim that President Trump is putting Americans in danger by demanding that we be allowed to practice our First Amendment right to religion, despite the fact that we can all gather in Walmart at any time of the day or night and hang out with the whole community for hours on end there and they don’t complain.
Why does the president continue to allow people on his team to gainsay him? If I were the president and one of my team members contradicted me thirty seconds after I left the room, she’d be looking for a job before the press conference was over. I would send Secret Service in there with a large hook to drag her by the scarf off the dais and have her escorted off the premises.
Why the hell does he allow it? It is the most frustrating thing about his entire presidency. STOP KEEPING THESE PEOPLE ON STAFF after they’ve shown their loyalties are not to the Trump team. I don’t get it. How many times does he have to get burned by this before he learns?
Mr. President, we’re with you here, but could you get a team that gets on board, please? Why must we endure these people, who were wrong about everything, for one second longer? If I never see Dr. Birxenscarf again it will be too soon. Please send her off to do research somewhere interesting like Alaska or Antarctica and find a doctor who will support the American people and liberty. They’re out there!
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo,” and host of The Fringe podcast. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
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