R&I~Smit
By Daniel Dale, CNN
Updated 3:34 PM ET, Sun October 25, 2020
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump keeps saying that Democratic-run states are “closed” or “shut down.”
Trump has repeatedly made such accusations in the past week. At the final presidential debate on Thursday night, he singled out New York, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania and Michigan — even claiming that Michigan is so restrictive, it has been “like a prison.”
And in a Wisconsin interview last Saturday, Trump claimed that the state is “shut down” and “locked down.”
Facts First: Trump is exaggerating. Though all of these states still have some significant pandemic-related restrictions, they are all allowing people to leave their homes and allowing most businesses to operate.
There is no official definition of shutdown or closure, so there is some subjectivity to our verdict here. And as the coronavirus situation worsens around the country, it is certainly possible that these states will re-impose stricter measures to try to slow the spread.
But it’s clear that Trump’s vague words inflated the severity and breadth of Democratic governors’ restrictions at the time he spoke.
Let’s go through the list state by state.
Continued
Carl Sagan
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/25/politics/fact-check-trump-shut-down-pennsylvania-michigan-wisconsin/index.html