Jake Tapper Confronts Larry Kudlow: People Can’t Go Back to Work Because of Gov’t Failures to Get the Virus Under Control

After speaking to one Trump administration official on the efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus, CNN’s Jake Tapper spoke with another, Larry Kudlow, about the administration’s efforts on the economy and trying to get people back to work.

Tapper opened by saying it’s clearly “can’t reopen the economy without the virus contained’ and asked Kudlow bluntly, “Isn’t it clear that the country reopened too quickly wiping away the progress made, prolonging harm to the economy?”

Kudlow insisted the economy is actually going north, saying, “You’re in a housing boom right now. You’re in a retail sales boom right now. You’re in an auto, car boom right now. Manufacturing.”

He acknowledged that in places with “spiking hotspots” you’re going to see “moderation of this recovery,” but said, “the whole northeast is over.”

They got into a back and forth about unemployment, with Kudlow insisting, “On the whole the picture is very positive and I still think the V-shaped recovery is in place.”

Tapper confronted Kudlow about the GOP covid relief package and the cuts to additional unemployment it would propose, which he told Kudlow could have serious consequences for struggling Americans. He asked Kudlow if that would just further hurt the economy.

Kudlow said it “won’t stop the assistance” but instead “cap the assistance at a level that is consistent with people going back to work.”

He defended the other proposal being looked at before talking about the consequences of people not going back to work.

Tapper responded by again bringing up the global pandemic:

“People want to go back to work. The problem is that it’s in many cases — you talk about restaurants — it’s not safe to go back to work because the administration and states have not been able to get the virus under control. That’s the reason. That’s the problem why restaurants can’t hire workers. It’s not because waiters and servers and maître d’s and bartenders don’t want to go back to work. It’s because either they’re not allowed to open their bars or have significant seating in their restaurants or it’s not safe to go there. That’s the whole problem and that’s going to be the problem with schools in the fall. It’s the problem with people reluctant to get on airplanes. It’s because you were not able to get the virus under control that the economy continues to struggle.”

Kudlow said again “the economy is improving by leaps and bounds” while again conceding there are states with “hotspot difficulties.”

You can watch above, via CNN.