Sen. David Perdue Supports Phased-In Reopening of Georgia’s Economy

April 22nd, 2020

In an interview before Trump expressed his opinion on Kemp’s plan, U.S. Sen. David Perdue said he supports a measured approach to reopening the economy.

Susan Walsh / Associated Press

Updated Thursday at 8:31 a.m.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday evening he “strongly disagrees” with Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to begin steps to re-open certain businesses in the state, even with continued social distancing and sanitation guidelines.

In an interview with WABE before Trump expressed his opinion on Kemp’s plan, U.S. Sen. David Perdue, a notable Trump ally, said he supports a measured approach to opening the economy.

“We’ve got to begin to reopen businesses. There’s a human cost to shutting down the economy, just like there’s a human cost to the disease,” Perdue said.

“At the end of the day, we have responsibility for ourselves. We need to be responsible for how we affect people around us and how they might affect us.”

Perdue said he believes there is evidence a second surge of confirmed cases could be avoidable if proper public health guidelines are followed.

“So what we have to do as Americans is determine our own level of risk within the guidelines that the federal government, the state governments and local governments are laying out for us and find a way to graduate in a measured way get back to opening up some of our business. We cannot continue to do this for very long.”

Listen to the full interview above, which also covers the small business loan funding and the prospects for the state budget.