Fox News personality Judge Andrew Napolitano is shooting down President Donald Trump’s assertion that he has “total power.”
Asked during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday morning if the “president’s power [is] absolute,” Napolitano said, “In areas of health, safety, and welfare, the 10th Amendment expressly reserves the power to regulate for those areas to the states.”
“So the federal government can help out with cash, it can help out with resources, it can help out with information and it can help out with guidelines but in terms of the actual power … it is the governors who will make the decision to open it up.”
Napolitano added that there are steps that Congress can take to encourage governors to open up their states.
He said as an example, “If Congress were to say to Governor Cuomo, ‘Here’s $100 million to supplement the loss of your state tax revenue, in return, open up Yankee Stadium and open up Broadway.’ He’d probably take the money and do that but if he rejected the money or if Congress didn’t offer the money, the decision is the governors’ and not the president’s.”
See his comments below:
Responding to Trump's claim of 'total authority' to reopen the economy, Andrew Napolitano says "the decision is the governor's, not the president's," but offers advice on how Trump and Congress could persuade governors to reopen things when DC wants them to. pic.twitter.com/1h4jrEwAUJ
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) April 14, 2020
Trump caused quite a stir on Monday morning when he announced in a tweet that he, not state governors, has the power to re-open states. He also blamed the media for perpetuating the idea that governors have control over their states.
During Monday’s coronavirus briefing, the president clashed with reporters and doubled down on his claim, saying, “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be. … It’s total. The governors know that.”
That remark received a rare rebuke from a few Republicans, including House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who said, “the federal government does not have absolute power.”