President Donald Trump repeated his call to open American schools Wednesday, telling “Fox & Friends” hosts that the coronavirus “will go away like things go away.”
Host Pete Hegseth brought up a litany of debates around education — some of which were related to the coronavirus crisis and questions about reopening schools and some of which were not — which prompted Trump’s response.
“One of the biggest question marks for families and parents and kids is, ‘Will my children actually be going back to school? Could the plan that exists now change later?’ Teachers out there making demands like, ‘Take the cops out of the schools,’ and, ‘We need Medicare for all’ and crazy political demands that feel like extortion,” Hegseth said before asking Trump for “the latest” on his views of re-opening.
“My view is the schools should open. This thing’s going away. It will go away like things go away and my view is schools should be open. If you look at children, children are almost — and I would almost say definitely, but almost — immune from this disease,” the president replied, adding, “I don’t know how you feel about it but they have much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this.”
The president did not offer any further proof that the virus is going away. In fact, cases in many states have risen, forcing closures of non-essential businesses and the re-implementation of shelter-in-place guidelines. The current U.S. death toll stands at 156,000 and rising.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated Tuesday, shows children under 18 make up 7.3% of coronavirus cases. The CDC’s website said on July 17 that children under 18 made up only 2% of cases at the time.
Listen to Trump’s call into “Fox & Friends” below:
https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1290983908113362945