Monday on MSNBC, Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) said President Donald Trump needed to “recognize” the Constitution gives governors the authority to make the decision to reopen states.
Inslee said, “We need is for the president to recognize that these decisions really are going to be made by governors. The Constitution gives governors the authority to make these calls. And we hope that the president recognizes that. To make sure we can do this on a state by state basis through regions as you’re seeing develop.”
He added, “In my state, I’m constitutionally given the responsibility to care for the state of Washington. I have a constitutional ability to maintain shutdown order as long as is appropriate in the state of Washington and the president of the United States cannot countermand that. I saw some tweets suggesting he can. But he simply cannot do that.”
He added, “The states are in different places right now. Look, we’ve been managing to bend the curve perhaps earlier than other states because we acted earlier and more aggressively and our people have done a really great job staying with this, my Stay home stay healthy initiative. So were that is working, it ought to be looked at.”
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