After Trump left, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany dodged answering when reporters asked what authority the president had to force governors to open churches.
She called it a \"hypothetical question\" -- even though the president himself said that if governors do not allow churches to reopen he will intervene to \"override\" them.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/white-house-coronaviruss-03-gty-jc-200522_hpEmbed_11x8_384.jpg\")
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx speaks to the press on May 22, 2020, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.
In an exchange with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Jon Karl, coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx praised a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet that shows a heightened mortality rate among COVID patients who took hydroxychloroquine -- the antimalarial drug Trump has touted as a potential \"game changer\" treatment -- as “one of our clearest studies” out there when it comes to comorbidities.
“It clearly shows that comorbidity that puts individuals at more risk and I think it's one of our clearest studies because there was so many, tens of thousands it of individuals involved, and the doctors clearly annotated who had heart disease and who had obesity, and you can see dramatically the increase risks for that,\" she said.
Birx’s praise for the study is notable considering its critical conclusions on hydroxychloroquine. The president has dismissed a prior study looking at VA patients that reached a similar conclusion as being a “Trump enemy statement.”
--ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Elizabeth Thomas
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/coronavirus4-ap-ml-200522_hpEmbed_1x1_384.jpg\")
Evan Vucci/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House after returning from a trip to Michigan, May 21, 2020, in Washington.
From earlier today:
Trump says new reopening guidance will deem churches 'essential'
President Trump continued to tease forthcoming CDC guidance to prioritize the reopening churches, suggesting he will speak more on the topic later today and that the new guidance will deem places of worship as “essential” to make it easier to open amid the ongoing pandemic.
“I just spoke to CDC, we want our churches and our places of faith and worship, we want them to open, and CDC is going to be -- I believe today they will be issuing a very strong recommendation, and I'm going to be talking about that in a little while,” Trump said.
Though the president usually addresses the issue in speaking of \"churches,\" he made clear that the guidance will apply to all religious institutions.
“I consider them essential, and that's one of the things we are saying. We are going to make them essential. You know, they have places essential, that aren't essential, and they open and yet the churches aren't allowed to open and the synagogues. Again, places of faith. Mosques. Places of faith. So, that's going to see that and you're going to see that,\" he said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/donald-trump-rolling-thunder-04-gty-jc-200522_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Alex Wong/Getty Images
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks from the Truman Balcony during a ceremony to honor veterans at the White House May 22, 2020, in Washington.
The president made the comments during a South Lawn event with Rolling Thunder bikers to honor veterans that felt very much like a campaign event.
Rain fell as Guns n’ Roses blared from loudspeakers and the president spoke under the cover of the portico to a group of motorcyclists below.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/donald-trump-rolling-thunder-02x-ap-jc-200522_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
Alex Brandon/AP
PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a "Rolling to Remember Ceremony," to honor the nation's veterans and POW/MIA, from the Truman Balcony of the White House, May 22, 2020, in Washington.
-- ABC News' Jordyn Phelps
What to know about coronavirus:
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