In the face of President Donald Trump's dismissal of the current health crisis and his administration's slowed response to the pandemic, governors across the country have been forced to take matters into their own hands.
Many have issued stay at home orders to slow the spread of the virus, while also working to secure medical equipment for their state.
Meanwhile, Trump has told them to depend on the federal government only as a backup and attacked them repeatedly on Twitter.
With the news of Trump's hope to scale back social distancing measures by Easter in an effort to shore up the economy, Americans are wondering if their governor will follow the President's lead or follow the recommendations of health experts who say that the virus is going to get worse before it gets better.
Now, one Republican governor has made his stance perfectly clear.
Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland—also the President of the National Governors Association—sharply criticized Trump's timeline.
Watch below.
Governor Hogan Shares COVID-19 Perspectives on CNN's New Dayyoutu.be
Hogan said:
"Some of [Trump's] messaging is pretty confusing. It's not just it doesn't match with what we're doing here in Maryland. Some of the messaging coming out of the administration doesn't match. We don't think that we're going to be in any way ready to be out of this in five or six days or so, or whenever this 15 days is up from the time that they started this imaginary clock."
Hogan's own actions indicate that he's taking public safety in the face of the pandemic far more seriously than Trump. The governor announced an executive order closing non-essential businesses and condemned those ignoring restrictions on public gatherings.
He told the public at a press conference on Tuesday:
"Let me repeat, once again, as strongly as I possibly can: If you are engaged in this kind of activity, you are breaking the law and you are literally endangering the lives of your family, your friends and your fellow citizens."
People agreed with Hogan's assessment of Trump's clock.
He was far from the only one to say that scaling back these measures by Easter would be dangerous and unrealistic.
We'll see if Trump gets his wish—and take note of which governors choose his advice over health experts.
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