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President Trump announced during a White House address Wednesday that he is considering adjoining Congress and using their absence to make political appointments.
“If the House will not agree to that adjournment I will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of Congress,” he said.
The president claimed his administration is understaffed and blamed congressional Democrats for holding up his confirmations and stonewalling his agenda.
Trump added that he has the constitutional authority to dismiss both chambers and accused Congress of failing the American people and shirking their responsibilities as elected leaders.
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“The current practice of leaving town while conducting phony, pro forma sessions is a dereliction of duty that the American people cannot afford during this crisis,” he said. “It is a scam, what they do.”
Trump also declared that the country has “passed the peak” in the number of cases for COVID-19, and said further announcements about new guidelines would be shared with the public on Thursday.
“The battle continues but the data indicates that we have passed the peak,” he said.
“We think some states may be able to open before May 1,” Trump added. “We want to get our country open again.”
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As of Wednesday, there were over 630,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States and just under 26,000 deaths.
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report
