WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Fresh out of his meeting with the Commander in Chief, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was pleased with the president’s take on how he is handling the coronavirus outbreak.
“The meeting with the president was fabulous,” Abbott said Thursday.
“The governor and I have spoken about what he’s been doing with senior citizen centers, it’s incredible,” President Donald Trump said inside the Oval Office meeting on Thursday.
The two met just as the governor gets ready to let hair salons and barbershops open for business on Friday.
Earlier Thursday, Abbott removed jail time as a possible punishment for those who defy stay at home orders. That decision came after a Dallas woman was arrested for opening her salon.
“These people who are law-abiding Texans. They should not go to jail just because they’re trying to survive,” Abbott said.
Gov. Abbott and the president talked for about an hour at the White House.
Both were on the same page with the reopening but others in the state have a warning for the governor.
“People will die if we take the steps the governor demanded,” Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) said Thursday.
Doggett said both Abbott and the president are ignoring the advice of health professionals. He said the move to reopen risks exposing more Texans to the virus.
“Follow the doctor’s advice, don’t expose Texans to unnecessary death just because its’ good politics,” he added.
Abbott is continuing forward with the opening and said his decisions are guided by data and health officials.