Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, discouraged city residents from going out and about on Friday, the day Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has allowed some businesses in his state to reopen during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“So the governor says people can go to these institutions. What are you telling people in your city about whether they should?” CNN anchor John Berman asked Bottoms.
“Very simply: Stay home. Nothing has changed,” the mayor replied. “People are still getting infected. People are still dying.”
“We don’t have a cure to this virus,” she continued. “The only thing that’s helped us is that we have stayed apart from one another and I’m simply asking people to continue to do that.”
On Friday, salons, gyms and several other businesses in Georgia deemed non-essential by the federal government’s guidelines on social distancing will open up shop again with Kemp’s authorization.
Georgia state leaders have pushed back against the governor’s decision, saying that it was too dangerous to allow people to go back to work and that he did not tell them about the plan prior to announcing it.
Even President Donald Trump said he didn’t support Kemp on the situation.
“I’m going to let him make his decision,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “But I told him I totally disagree.”
Watch Bottoms below:
Atlanta mayor tells Georgians to stay home despite Kemp's reopening of non-essential businesses. pic.twitter.com/wnsm2BBNqm
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 24, 2020
Just a quick review of the numbers: South Korea and the US each got its first virus case on the same day (Jan 19 or 20). Since then, here are the results of how each dealt with the virus. SK has a population of about 51 million; it’s had about 240 deaths. The US population is about 320 million; it’s had about 41,000 deaths. SK’s population is about one seventh that of the US, but the US death count is 173 times that of SK. Heckuva job, Donnie.
But, but Trump is a stable genius, oh wait bankruptcies, maths be hard for Trump.
Kemp should send the National Guard into Atlanta, this is like the Mayor is rebelling against him.
Let me guess…she’s a Democrat, right? This is so wrongheaded even some Republicans are pushing back. It’s instructive that virtually every survey shows 90-95% of the public continues to support stay-at-home orders. The media should emphasize just how much of a fringe element these people are. Also time for some mainstream investigative reporting on who is coordinating the demonstrations. Josh can’t do it all!
Strange as it seems, technically she and Trump agree.