Fox’s Hilton urges holdout GOP governors to ‘shut things down everywhere’

Fox News host Steve Hilton is calling on Republican governors in nine states who have not issued stay-at-home orders to do so to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in an effort to accelerate the return of the U.S. economy.

“Last week, I said, open where possible, close where necessary,” Hilton said on “The Next Revolution” in his opening monologue. “Shutdowns do slow the spread. Look at the difference between the Bay Area, which had the nation’s first stay-at-home orders and New York City.”

San Francisco has recorded just eight deaths due to COVID-19, while New York has become the epicenter of the virus with the number of deaths totaling 4,758, according to a New York Times tracker, with an overwhelming majority occurring in New York City.

“So right now, in the absence of a better antivirus policy, it is necessary to shut things down everywhere, and that includes Utah, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, South Carolina, where there are no statewide stay-at-home orders,” Hilton, a former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, continued. “Now, I’m asking those governors, including a great friend of this show, Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, to put in place a stay-at-home order at least for the duration of President Trump’s slow the spread guidelines.”

“Of course, that will take a high toll in those states and on our country and jobs, businesses, livelihoods and lives,” the host added. “Remember, this is not a choice between public health and the economy, between lives and money. The shutdown costs lives, too.”

President Trump told reporters on Saturday he is considering a second coronavirus task force focused on reopening the U.S. economy, an idea first proposed by Fox News anchor Dana Perino that the president responded to on Twitter.

I think we need a 2nd task force assembled at direction of POTUS to look ahead to reopening of the economy. Made up of a nonpartisan/bipartisan mix of experts across industry sectors, so that we have their recommendations & plan – let 1st taskforce focus on crisis at the moment.

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) April 3, 2020

“Thinking about it, getting a group of people and we have to open our country,” Trump said at a coronavirus task force briefing. “You know, I had an expression, the cure can’t be worse than the problem itself. Right? I started by saying that and I continue to say it. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself. We got to get our country open.”

U.S. jobless claims topped an unprecedented 6.6 million in the last week of March, with claims over the past two weeks approaching 10 million people as a result of the pandemic.

Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 4.4 percent in March from 3.5 percent in February, the largest one-month jump since January 1975.