MSNBC's Chuck Todd suggests Trump is 'surrendering' to the virus to reopen country

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MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd suggested on Wednesday that President Trump is "surrendering" to the coronavirus in order to reopen the country.

"We begin tonight with a difficult question which must be asked: Is the federal government, led by President Trump, surrendering to this virus?" Todd kicked off his show. "With more than 70,000 Americans dead, the president is telling the public that the country must reopen, even if it means more death. But he doesn't have a plan for doing that."

The "Meet The Press" moderator then showed a clip of Trump in the Oval Office responding to a question from Fox News' John Roberts about whether the country will have to simply "accept" the fact that there might be more coronavirus cases and deaths as the push to reopen the country continues. The president said that the country "can't be closed down for years" but acknowledged the hypothetical presented "could very well be the case."

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Todd then pointed to Trump's sudden reversal in "winding down" the coronavirus task force, which he and Vice President Mike Pence alluded would happen in the coming weeks but decided to keep the task force "indefinitely."

"The uncertainty surrounding the White House’s strategy, which we seem to utter about on a daily basis, comes amid numerous warning signs that we’re not anywhere near ready to safely reopen the country from a public health standpoint or a consumer confidence standpoint," Todd continued. "Those 70,000-plus deaths I mentioned have happened in just 67 days and the death toll is projected to basically double over the next 90 days based on current statewide plans to ease restrictions."

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He added, "You can basically throw a dart at a map of the U.S. and you'd likely hit a state where cases are going up, not down. Let's also remember that we still don't know exactly how deadly this virus is, but based on the limited data we do have, roughly 6 percent of all confirmed cases have been fatal. Six percent."

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