Here’s why Trump needs a ‘humble’ message on coronavirus: GOP governor
The week’s Republican National Convention is set to be very heavy on Trump. The president will appear all four nights alongside speeches from at least five of his family members.
That means other voices will get less airtime. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson spoke in 2016 and was scheduled to travel to Charlotte as a delegate this time around, but this time he’s opted to stay home to focus on the pandemic (he recently reported a record number of coronavirus deaths in his state) and the reopening of schools in Arkansas this week.
But he still has some advice for Trump. “I don't think people need to have boosterism when it comes to the coronavirus,” Hutchinson told editor-in-chief Andy Serwer for Yahoo Finance’s Republican National Convention coverage, adding “a humble approach is the best one to take.”
Hutchinson, who recently became vice chair of the National Governor’s Association, remains a strong Trump backer who believes the president has provided strong leadership during the coronavirus crisis, though he warns that, “you can't gloat [if] you don't know what's around the corner.”
‘What he should do and what he will do might be two different things’
Trump, of course, may or may not listen to what Hutchinson and other leaders are telling him: “What he should do and what he will do might be two different things,” Hutchinson said.
Indeed, Trump gave an early signal Monday that he doesn’t plan to hold back this week. The president made a surprise appearance in Charlotte on Monday afternoon and spoke for almost an hour.
The president used his time to hit on everything from saying that Democrats are "using Covid to steal an election" to blast mail-in ballots to complaining about cable news coverage of the convention so far.
Hutchinson wants the focus to instead be on what he see’s as a strong Trump record on the economy. “As much as we want to cut taxes, we recognize that because of COVID, we're continuing to build up a pretty big national debt,” he said, adding “I think they've got to have a pro-growth policy, and define what that is in terms of the economy.”
Taxes are indeed set to be front and center this week but perhaps not in the way Hutchinson hopes. There “will be a considerable amount of focus on taxes,” Isaac Boltansky, the director of Compass Point of Policy Research, told Yahoo Finance, but that focus will likely be more about attacking Biden’s plan to raise taxes on the richest Americans and corporations.
The Trump campaign has announced a second term agenda that includes additional tax cuts.
‘It took a while to get there’ on masks
Hutchinson also weighed in on Trump and masks.
The governor has been outspoken on the issue and recently signed a mask mandate in his state. After President Trump appeared at Mt. Rushmore before a tightly packed crowd last month, Hutchinson said, “I would like to have seen more face coverings.” And just this weekend, he published an op-ed arguing that the mask is the uniform of a responsible citizen.
As an individual responsibility, the idea of wearing masks is “a pretty good conservative Republican principle,” he said, adding that it took Americans “a while to get there” to embrace wearing masks, which he says is crucial to keep the economy open and growing.
Hutchinson took a few minutes to talk about Arkansas’s economy. He ended Monday’s interview with a peek at the pitch he’s making to business operators. “I had a call with a CEO recruiting them to come to Arkansas,” he said, plugging the state’s business-friendly climate.
“We have the motto that in Arkansas, ‘Every business is essential,’ and that's what we want people to understand.”
Ben Werschkul is a producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, D.C.
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