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Donald Trump has threatened to invoke a never-before-employed power of his office to adjourn both chambers of Congress to enable him to make recess appointments to fill vacant positions he says his nominees are being blocked from securing as part of a scam by Senate Democrats.
While the president was triggering a whole new constitutional crisis with the world embroiled in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, his supporters were staging protests across the country against ongoing stay-at-home orders, with armed demonstrators chanting Lock her up! outside the offices of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Mr Trump otherwise used Wednesdays Rose Garden press briefing to say the disease is now past its peak, opening the way for gradual reopening, an assessment cautiously agreed with by task force leader Dr Deborah Birx.
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  • Trump threatens unprecedented move to adjourn Congress over nominee ‘scam’
  • Right-wing protesters demonstrate against lockdown across US
  • Trump says coronavirus ‘past its peak’, again teasing reopening
  • President says administration investigating Wuhan conspiracy theory
  • Joseph Stiglitz: Trump has blood on his hands over Covid-19 response

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2020-04-16T09:05:00.000Z
Trump threatens unprecedented move to adjourn Congress over nominee ‘scam’Donald Trump has threatened to invoke a never-before-employed power of his office to adjourn both chambers of Congress to enable him to make recess appointments to fill vacant positions he says his nominees are being blocked from securing as part of a scam by Senate Democrats.
The president opened his daily White House press conference on Wednesday – nominally about the coronavirus crisis gripping the nation – by griping about the situation, alleging many of his would-be appointees should by now be in place and working on virus-related initiatives. He was characteristically light on specifics, however, as to how the federal response to Covid-19 might be different if he had been allowed to take their seats in the upper chamber.
While the president was busy triggering a whole new constitutional crisis, there was an unexpected guest at yesterday’s press session.Metaphor fans, take note.
John T Bennett has this latest instalment of our semi-regular feature series: “Is he allowed to do that?”.

  • Joe Sommerlad
  • 16 April 2020 10:01

2020-04-16T08:50:00.000Z
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US and the Donald Trump administration’s response to it.

  • Joe Sommerlad
  • 16 April 2020 09:50