(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump had a message for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday on how to deal with the armed protesters who stormed the state capitol demanding that the governor reopen the economy.
“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal,” Trump tweeted.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, was asked about the president’s tweet and what changed since he first said he wasn’t going to pressure governors to reopen their economy.
“A lot has changed,” Conway said..” Thank God the apex, we’re getting the apex of deaths. There’s still a lot of suffering, and many people who are sick don’t know they’re sick, and we’ll continue to monitor the hospitalizations and infection rates.
“Michigan obviously was very hard hit. I think what the president is trying to do as you’ve seen here in the Oval Office for three straight days this week is invite the governors in, and if they can’t make the trip, that’s fine too. They can show us their plans. The doctors and the economic team - any of us would be happy to look at the plans,” she said.
“I’m doing that right now with some others on the major league sports. Show us your plans, and we can help, and I think the president’s saying to the governor of Michigan we’d like to help you reopen your state. I think they’ve got two or three very hard hit counties there. So it’s not the whole state, thank God,” Conway said.
“And I think that places where you’re not as hard hit, where your infection rates have been lower, where your deaths have stabilized perhaps, and I’d have to look at the charts, but I’m speaking hypothetically. Maybe you can open up pieces of the economy there,” she said.
Trump encouraging the governor to reopen the economy is “not pressure,” Conway said.
“That’s not pressure. To say to the governor, why don’t you make a deal with the protesters is encouraging her to be the governor of Michigan and do just that,” she said.
Trump is reaching out to governors to offer help with research, supplies like ventilators, and testing, Conway said.
“I think if the president was only saying brava to the protesters, you’d be asking about that, and if he were silent, you’d say, does he have a message for the protesters, so here he’s weighed in and said to the governor, hey, ‘I think it’s time. It’s May 1st. You take a look at maybe reopening pieces of the Michigan economy, and we’re here to help you do that,’” she said.
