"Chuck," Pence said, "I don't accept your premise, and I don't think most Americans do either."

Trump's comments have ratcheted up tensions between the federal government and the states about efforts to attack the virus and prepare for an economic restart, and raised concerns about the behavior of some of his supporters.

“We'll continue to work with governors to make sure that they have the guidance, that they have the counsel and they have the resources to accomplish that,” Pence said.

Trump put out the call to "liberate" as protests ramped up against safety guidelines designed to halt the spread of Covid-19.

Governors on Sunday complained the Trump administration is setting unrealistic expectations about a ramp-up in testing needed to ease restrictions.

"The only thing that I've asked our protests to do is to observe social distancing," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said later on NBC. "We're all big believers in the First Amendment. They were protesting against me yesterday, and that's just fine."

DeWine added: "They have every right to do that. We are going to do what we think is right, what I think is right. And that is try to open this economy, but do it very, very carefully so we don't get a lot of people killed."