An Indiana congressman is defending talk of lifting coronavirus restrictions in the U.S., saying letting more people die in order to save the economy is “the lesser of two evils.”

“It is always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of American lives, we have to always choose the latter,” says Republican Trey Hollingsworth. “Our Gross Domestic Product is supposed to be down 20 percent alone this quarter. It is policymakers’ decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say it is the lesser of these two evils.”

Acknowledging that his comments might come across as heartless, Hollingsworth says he believes an economic death would have a much more devastating effect on the U.S. than more civilian deaths would. “It is not zero evil, but it is the lesser of these two evils and we intend to move forward that direction,” he says. “That is our responsibility and to abdicate that is to insult the Americans that voted us into office.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/politics/trey-hollingsworth-coronavirus/index.html