Trump Admin Reportedly Spiking CDC Reopening Guidelines Over Business and Church Concerns

CNN reported new details on the Trump administration’s decision to shelve new CDC guidelines for reopening the country that included concerns over the business impacts and objections that faith-based institutions were “unfairly targeted.”

On Thursday morning’s edition of New Day, correspondent Nick Valencia expanded on reports that the White House has blocked the release of a detailed 17-page set of guidelines for reopening public businesses and institutions.

“I just got off the phone with a senior CDC official who tells me, as of late last night, the writing was on the wall that the White House would not implement their 17-page recommendations on reopening America,” Valencia told co-anchors Erica Hill and John Berman. “Because of that the CDC, this official tells me, the decision was made last night to pivot to try to get the recommendations, which they consider very valuable, to be implemented in some way. They are trying to approach state agencies to get those recommendations implemented at some sort of level.”

He added that a White House coronavirus task force official would not comment on the report, but texted him “On April 16th, President Trump released guidelines for opening America up again. Those guidelines made clear that each state should open up in a safe and responsible way based on the data and response efforts in those individual states.”

Berman pointed out that those April guidelines were “far different than the 17 pages that you first reported on. Very specific instructions for institutions about how to reopen safely. I’m not sure I understand why they would be controversial.”

Valencia went on to tell Berman that ahead of the decision, “there was a debate between economic advisors, medical advisors, the White House task task force, and there seem to be some discrepancies or debate over business recommendations specifically.”

“These recommendations specifically address things like classrooms having students sit 6 feet apart, they also addressed faith-based institutions, things like whether or not a business should need to close if a worker gets sick. All of this apparently going into why the White House did not implement or chose to couch these recommendations,” Valencia said.

Berman, describing the proposed guidelines for churches, said “It was saying open, if you want to open, that is within your rights, but we suggest, we don’t order, we suggest you space people out 6 feet. You think about maybe not having a full choir, maybe having soloists,” and asked Valencia “what these specific recommendations were that the White House has apparently rejected.”

Valencia told Berman that the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights “felt that the CDC recommendations were singling out faith-based institutions unfairly,” and that even though language was inserted to couch those guidelines, “the HHS Office of Civil Rights felt that the faith-based institutions, churches were being unfairly targeted”

“Bottom line was, they were sensitive to these concerns with these suggestions that they made, and a lot of the things that they were suggesting to schools, churches, businesses, they just don’t seem controversial to me,” Berman said. “What they seem like is an instruction manual for how to reopen if you’re going to make that decision.”

“Sound public health advice, one would say and characterize this,” Valencia said.

“That’s another way to put it simply. Sound public health advice,” Berman agreed, and asked “What’s the harm in the hearing it?”

Watch the clip above via CNN.